Michael's Photo parade - Best-of 2024
Every year Michael from “Erkunde die Welt” [↗] hosts his photo parade [↗] and also this time I'm joining it again. You can find my old entries below in the "You might also be interested in this:" section.
The rules are very simple: there must be at least 6 pictures taken this year. In addition, Michael specifies a few categories, which you can expand or modify as you wish.
This time they are:
- Architecture
- City
- Mountain
- Above
- Black & white
- Surprise
In some years, he also comes up with a few additional tasks. This time he didn't.
As the themes are predefined, the pictures shown here don't really correspond to what I would show in a classic best-of. Nevertheless, every year it is exciting to see if you can find a photo that fits the given category.
I usually choose two pictures per category. However, as I've been traveling a lot in cities this year, this time I have chosen three for the respective categories. As usual, the Thumbnails can be enlarged by clicking on them.
But now to the individual tasks:
Architecture
The first picture shows the Batumi Tower in Georgia. With a height of 200 meters, it is the tallest building in Georgia. The Ferris wheel integrated into the facade, however, has never been in use.
Batumi is located on the Black Sea and opinions on the city vary widely. But if you like unusual architecture, this is the place for you. I visited it as part of a tour through the Caucasus. You can find the first part of the report here.
The second picture is from Hong Kong and shows an observation tower in the Tai Po Waterfront Park. A number of parks have been created over the last few years. Hong Kong is anyway greener than you would expect when you see the usual pictures of high-rise buildings on Hong Kong Island. Tai Po Waterfront Park is located in the New Territories.
You can find other locations I visited here and here.
With the third picture, we return to Batumi. The Georgian script consists of 33 letters and has no similarity with other alphabets. The Alphabet Tower has the shape of a DNA and is decorated with 4-meter-high letters of the Georgian alphabet. He and his surroundings are especially attractive in the evening.
City
Since we've already talked about the Hong Kong skyscraper silhouette, let's continue with it.
One of the classic views is from Kowloon across the harbor towards Hong Kong Island. Preferably from the promenade and at the time of the evening light show. Unfortunately, many others have the same idea. So it makes sense to look for an alternative location, even if you miss the music.
The second picture was taken on Hong Kong Island itself. Here, too, a lot of money has been invested in a promenade over the last few years. The Central & Western District Promenade is supposed to connect the two parts of the city but is interrupted by the ferry piers. From the Central Ferry Pier, however, you can enjoy a nice walk to the east along the waterfront.
You can find more details about both pictures in the link also mentioned above
And while we're on the subject of water, let's move on to the third picture. This shows the Murinsel in Graz. It is nicely illuminated in the evening. In the summer months, you can also go to the cafe located there in the evening.
We visited Graz on a long weekend over Whitsun. Fortunately, the city was much emptier than the highways. You can read about what we visited there here.
Mountain
I haven't been to the German Alps much this year. My pictures on this topic therefore are from the Caucasus. The corresponding days have not yet been published, but as mentioned above, you can find the start of the travel report here.
The first picture shows the Chor Virap monastery in front of Mount Ararat, which is already in Turkey. This year the weather was quite cool and changeable. The positive side effect, however, was that the view of Mount Ararat was better than usual in summer.
The second picture shows Lake Shinwali on the Georgian Military Road. We also had very changeable weather on this day. However, when it wasn't raining, there was nice light.
Above
If you look at Michael's own pictures on this subject, he probably meant “the view upwards”.
I have my own long-term project “looking straight up/down”. For this reason, I took several pictures on this topic. I've picked out three examples.
The first picture shows a staircase in Tbilisi. I found it by chance on my last evening. During the day it is rather unimpressive. But with the evening lighting, it looks completely different.
You can find more sights in Tbilisi and also a picture of the staircase from below here.
I had already photographed the Xiqu Center in Hong Kong in 2020 shortly after it opened. But since I was in the area anyway, I went there again this year and took some more pictures.
The third picture is also from Hong Kong and shows the atrium of the K11 Musea shopping mall. You can find out more about this place, including other pictures that would also have matched the theme, in the aforementioned report.
Black & white
We already had this topic last year and I had already written back then that there are motifs where I know from the beginning that I will develop the pictures in black and white.
These two pictures are also from my trip to the Caucasus this summer. The first picture shows a section of the so-called Cascade in Yerevan. This popular building in the capital of Armenia also houses a museum of modern art, which you can visit free of charge. I will show more pictures in the travel report.
The second picture shows the Heydan-Aliev Cultural Center in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. I was already there at midday but returned in the late afternoon. However, the hope for better light was not fulfilled. The last clouds had cleared and the sun was at an unfavorable angle. Still, the exceptional architecture looks good in black and white too.
My experiences in Baku have already been published. You can also find two more pictures of the cultural center there.
Surprise
My surprise comes from the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In recent years, the building and its Nazi past has been regularly the focus of the exhibits. Usually it was anything but interesting. This time, the actual motto of the Biennale was tackled at last. One of the exhibits was the installation “Light to the Nations” by Israeli artist Yael Bartana.
And what is my favorite picture from 2024?
It was particularly difficult for me to decide this year. The motifs varied too much and, in addition to the ones shown here, there are of course quite a few that didn't fit into the given categories.
In the end, I decided on this one, according to the motto “cat pictures always work”:
These two were playing in the courtyard of the Karavansaray in Sheki. The interest in the guy with the camera only lasted 10 seconds or so. Then the wrestling continued.
