visiting member IAZA in Yogyakarta

[kuuan]

already one or two years ago mfmember IAZA and I had talked about me visiting him in his beautiful city Yogyakarta or short Jogja on the main island of Java in Indonesia. Finally it happened and I spent an extended weekend in this great place, meeting very friendly and enthusiastic manual lens lovers

about Jogja, quote: Jogja "is renowned as a centre of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry, and puppet shows. Yogyakarta was the Indonesian capital during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to 1949. One of the districts in Yogyakarta, Kotagede, was the capital of Mataram Sultanate between 1575 and 1640"
( taken from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogyakarta )

I arrived Friday afternoon and in the evening Iaza alias Suat picked me up from my hotel. I was very surprised to see that he is much younger than I thought he would be, handsome guy too He came with a fellow manual lens user and they took me to a traditional eatery situated in a hall that once had belonged to the Sultan's palace. There even more manual lens lovers were waiting, amazing, there are so many in Jogja and most of them are really young! ( hm..or am I really that old ? )

the place:

Heliar f4.5/15mm

this is IAZA / Suat taken by a friend playing with my NEX5N with Pen-F 1.4/40

a great photographer, a pro, I think, taken by me with the Pen-F 1.4/40


Suat showed me his newest pride, a Zeiss Sonnar Opton 1.5/50 and I also played with a NEX7 and a Tomioka 1.2/50 from one of his friends, what a joyful evening. At parting Suat told me that next day there would be a "Carneval" at Malioboro street, the main shopping street in Jogja, and that we would meet there again early afternoon.

next day morning I set out walking towards and around Kraton, the center of Jogja with the Sultan's palace at it's heart.
Some views from the walk and the palace, all taken with Heliar f4.5/15mm on NEX5N

the omni present cycle rickshaw of Jogja, the 'becak'
and so are cocks, btw



there are really many around


becak drivers relax playing chess


Jogja is a relaxing place anyways




around the Palace itself:








from there I continued to Malioboro street. The "Carneval" turned out to be a cultural or tourism promotional event of Sasak people from the island of Lombok


Heliar f4.5/15mm


'Pen-F Zuiko f1.5/60mm


'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.4/40mm

a very energetic march down Malioboro

Heliar f4.5/15mm


( not sure any more which lens? )

unfortunately Suat could not make it this afternoon, but just like all people around I have a ball nevertheless

'Pen-F' Zuiko 1.5/60mm


Heliar 4.5/15mm

soon in answers I will show pics from the next days, first sunday out and around with Suat, his wife and son in Kota Gede during the Gunungan festival

cheers,
Andreas

p.s.: here are all the photos I took during my 4 days in Jogja: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuuan/sets/72157633289900014/with/8666265848/

[rbelyell]

what a beautiful travelouge! lovely photos that really convey a sense of place and people. i was in jojya about 20 yrs ago, and lombok and bali, and it was wonderful to see your pictures and jog my memory of a wonderful trip. thanks andreas.
tony

[tomasg]

Lovely series, nice meeting and people look happier, more relaxed there, than here. I mean, try to take a pic of a group of teenagers in Europe for example...all you would get would be heads looking down into smartphones.

Tomas

[kuuan]

Next day Suat picked me up with his lovely wife and son..and me brute I don't have any photo of the three

there was the annual Gunungan festival happening in Kota Gede:

getting ready for the march down the main road towards the ancient mosque

Heliar f4.5/15mm


'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.4/40mm


'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.4/40mm

el maestro IAZA

Heliar f4.5/15mm


Heliar f4.5/15mm

the mytical "Kris" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris )

'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.4/40mm


Heliar f4.5/15mm

even the police had fun and took photos

Heliar f4.5/15mm

it was a hot day, we had a rest in a local tea house

Heliar f4.5/15mm

Suat with his son

Heliar f4.5/15mm

Suat's son enjoying the gongs

'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.5/60mm

the Gamelan instruments are free accessible for anyone, other kids enjoy that too

'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.4/40mm


'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.5/60mm

the festival ended with kids playing with water the the pool adjoining the mosque


'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.5/60mm

we had a 'Soto Ayam' at our way back to the city

next to come monday, at the outskirts of the city

[Yebisu]

Nice series. Looks like a lovely place. Like the pic of the cock and cyclo best!

It's really nice to hear of forum members meeting up and having a great time.

[Attila]

Green from envy thank you for long report!

[IAZA]

very nice Andreas....
el maestro?? you must be joking hahahha
Sorry I could not joined in some photo hunting ( here we just call it hunting )
My friends and me have pleasure being with you. if all my local forum members can join, there will be really nice.

oh BTW here's our picture

[Lena]

Great pictures! Many thanks to both of you, kuuan and IAZA

[kuuan]

day three, monday. Suat had to go to work, but he hooked me up with a bunch of student who are manual lens lovers too, they picked me up from my hotel and took me to the outskirts of Jogja, first to take some pics at rice fields:


'Pen-F' Zuiko 1.5/60mm


'Pen-F' Zuiko f4/25mm ( which I had taken with me by mistake instead of the f1.4/40mm, my most used lens that I was missing badly that day )


'Pen-F' Zuiko 1.5/60mm


Heliar f4.5/15mm

nearby was a primary school, there was a festival going on, all kids wore tradition clothes


Heliar f4.5/15mm


'Pen-F' Zuiko 1.5/60mm


'Pen-F' Zuiko 1.5/60mm

next we went to a village producing pottery

Heliar f4.5/15mm

it became really hot, I was happy that we went to the house of one of the guys, having lunch and taking a rest

Heliar f4.5/15mm

loaded


Heliar f4.5/15mm

later in the afternoon we continued our motorbike ride around the countryside, a local mosque:

'Pen-F' Zuiko f4/25mm


'Pen-F' Zuiko 1.5/60mm

to go to a village known for it's handpainted batik

Heliar f4.5/15mm

there was a martial arts film being made at this village, poor man had to hang in there

'Pen-F' Zuiko 1.5/60mm

yes, it wasn't just a commercial but a full featured movie being made, still, the only camera used was a Canon 5D!

Heliar f4.5/15mm

it was quite a remote place..

Heliar f4.5/15mm

and people were extremely friendly

Heliar f4.5/15mm

it already became dark when we came back to Jogja, it had been are very memorable day

[kuuan]

came tuesday, my last day, half day..
Suat has to work, but he managed to get away from his work to pick me up doing an errand I had to do which took me back to Malioboro street and the crossing of the rail road:


'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.4/40mm

and he then took me to 'Tamansari', the 'Water Palace':

Heliar f4.5/15mm


Heliar f4.5/15mm


Heliar f4.5/15mm

unfortunately Suat had to go back to work soon, but again he had managed that a handful of other photographers showed up to guide me and to 'hunt' together

'Pen-F' Zuiko f1.5/60mm

they even took along a 'model' to pose

Heliar f4.5/15mm

thank's to Suat / IAZA I have had most enjoyable days in Yogyakarta, met many enthusiastic and very friendly photographers and was able to see Jogja from it's best side

thank you so much Suat and all your friends, sure this time it won't take as long before I come back again!
see you soon again in your great place Yogyakarta!
again the link to all the photos I took in Yogyakarta during these 4 days: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuuan/sets/72157633289900014/with/8666265848/

best greetings and regards,
Andreas

[kuuan]

[kuuan]

[rbelyell]

yes i did, thanks. you can really work those zuikos!
tony

[kuuan]

[Vovan]

Great!

[kuuan]

[kuuan]

[Himself]

Fascinating series Andrea! Always a pleasure to look at your pictures.
I see no distortion in the pics taken with that 15mm Heliar. Normal behavior or you cropped them away?

[kuuan]

[kuuan]

[kds315*]

Amazing series Andreas! Seemingly it was fun to meet

[std]

Hey that's nice that you had a chance to meet each other.
The places look like a nice opportunity to see a different cultures and take some pictures.

My best wishes to Andreas and Suat i haven't ''meet'' you since now

[fishcalibre]

halo mister andreas... do you remember me??

[nurkov]

wonderful series, amazing pictures and places

[RSalles]

Nice series, one of the best sides "hidden" in a forum like this is to make friends all around the world.
Thank you Kuuan and IAZA, thank you for sharing this wonderful experience!

[]s,

Renato