Riding The Waves

Riding The Waves, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"In riding a horse, we borrow freedom"
— Helen Thompson

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Lazy Day Cruising

Lazy Day Cruising, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"I suppose it is out of laziness that the world is the same day after day. Today it seemed to want to change. And then anything, anything could happen."
— Jean-Paul Sartre

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Senegal Safari

Senegal Safari, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has no personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."
— John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley: In Search of America)

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

African Wildlife Series #9 -Giant Eland

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

A Forest of Necks

A Forest of Necks, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things."
— Pablo Picasso

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

African Wildlife Series #8 - Giraffe

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Zebra Stripes

Zebra Stripes, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"There's no limit to how much you'll know, depending how far beyond zebra you go."
— Dr. Seuss

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

African Wildlife Series #7 - Zebra

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Red On Green

Red On Green, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?"
— Shel Silverstein (A Light in the Attic)

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

African Wildlife Series #6 - Red-Billed Hornbill

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Monkey Wondering

Monkey Wondering, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

“Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.”
― Haruki Murakami

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

African Wildlife Series #5 - Green Monkey

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Another World

Another World, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

“Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Lying under this shade all day, reading Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, listening to the pounding surf... priceless!!!

* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - 3 Shot HDR

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Golden Beach

Golden Beach, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow."
— Bob Dylan

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

Beach Silhouettes Series #3 - The Gambia 2011

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Hitching A Ride

Hitching A Ride, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."
— Barack Obama

"Hitch your wagon to a star."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

African Wildlife Series #3 - Giant Eland

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Inquisitive Egret

Inquisitive Egret, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Curiosity, especially intellectual inquisitiveness, is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions."
— Tom Robbins

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

African Wildlife Series #2 - Egret

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

West African Sunset

West African Sunset, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."
— Desmond Tutu

* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

African Family

African Family, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Westerners arriving in Africa for the first time are always struck by its beauty and size--even the sky seems higher. And they often find themselves suddenly cracked open. They lose inhibitions, feel more alive, more themselves, and they begin to understand why, until then, they have only half lived. In Africa the essentials of existence--light, earth, water, food, birth, family, love, sickness, death--are more immediate, more intense. Visitors suddenly realize what life is for. To risk a huge generalization: [In the West], amid our wasteful wealth and time-pressed lives we have lost human values that still abound in Africa."
— Richard Dowden

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

Beach Silhouettes Series #2 - The Gambia 2011

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Monkey See Monkey Do

Monkey See Monkey Do, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"We are all just monkeys with money and guns."
— Tom Waits

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot

African Wildlife Series #1 - Red Colobus Monkey

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Review: 1Q84 Book 1 and Book 2

1Q84 Book 1 and Book 2 by Haruki Murakami

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Murakami, the master weaver of worlds, at his epic best! This is a stunning and complex story expertly woven by alternating the two main characters, Tengo and Aomame. This book defies categorisation. at once drama, thriller, epic and love story it is a literary masterpiece that enthralls the reader from beginning to end. Absolutely the best Murakami, in fact best book I have read for a long long time. Clearly the first two of three books, the end leaves everything hanging and demands you immediately read Book 3. Thank god for the Kindle! ...even though I was on a beach in sub-Saharan Africa I just went online and downloaded Book 3 there and then with Whispernet.

A Brilliant literary masterpiece from a modern literary master!



View all my reviews

At The Beach

At The Beach, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"This is how the entire course of a life can be changed: by doing nothing."
— Ian McEwan (On Chesil Beach)

* Pentax K20D + Samsung 50-200mm Lens - Single Shot SOOC

Beach Silhouettes Series #1 - The Gambia 2011

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble

Roofline Reflection

Roofline Reflection, a photo by TomRaven on Flickr.

"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
— Charles Dickens

I'm heading off for an adventure in the Winter Sun of sub-Saharan Africa and will be away for three weeks... see you all when I get back, hopefully with a stock of new photos :-)

* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot

Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble