Blue Hour In Valencia

New Journal 16 – The border crossing 

In the wake of an announcement on Saturday that the Chilean border would finally be re-opened after weathering the worst storm in 10 years, we dashed to the bus station to buy tickets. In a whirlwind of rejections from bus companies who’d sold out, we found ourselves haggling with a stranger who owned a minivan and would take us across the border.

The van was built for 4 passengers. There were 5 of us. ‘Hide from the police if they drive past,’ he told us. We weren’t convinced but he was our only option at this point.

The border was due to open on Sunday. By some strange sequence of events, we discovered on Sunday morning, with the news that the border had indeed opened, that a bus company still had seats available. There was a mad dash to secure some, which we managed to do.

I paid the minivan fella a small sum as a ‘lost deposit’ when we got to the station. I felt guilty for cancelling our deal.

The journey towards the border, more than 3000 metres up, was filled with stunning mountainous landscapes. The border itself, was chaotic, with huge queues. We waited for hours to get through. There’s always a nervous feeling when a sniffer dog approaches you. You feel instantly guilty despite having nothing incriminating in your possession. You try to adopt a posture that says ‘Hey, I’m a trust worthy fella’.

The dogs ignored us. We finally got through. The descent was a different story. 26 hair pin turns make up the road downwards. Vehicles move at a painfully slow pace. The lack of any barriers means that if a bus were to over shoot a corner, you could reasonably assume that there’s be some serious causalities.

My coping mechanism in such circumstances, which we’ve experienced far more frequently than we’d have liked to, is to act like it doesn’t exist. I’ll focus on any other thing happening in the world. Rachel, on the other hand, stairs out the window, pale-faced, gripping the chair with the absolute certainty that this is the day we’ll die.

As it turned out, this wasn’t our final day on earth. We arrived safely in Santiago. Jumped in a taxi, got to our hotel and eventually fell into a much needed abyss of sleep.

Now we can finally begin to plan our final leg in South America.

Today’s Photo – Valencia This is the third image I’ve published of this amazing place in Valencia. It’s architecture is incredible and it was a pleasure testing out various compositions during the day to then finally settle on few during golden and blue hour. I processed this image twice. Once using Photomatix and once using Luminance masks. I then combined the two to bring out the best of both images. The sky is a 50% mixture of the two images. The buildings are entirely the Luminance masks shot in order to retain as much sharpness as possible. Finally the foreground wall, lights and ground to the left are from the Photomatix output which offered significantly more texture.

 

Before the Joys of Post-Processing