Have you ever noticed how we tend not to stray away from our habitual paths, whether it would be in life or in this case more literally from the roads we normally take to get around? How we think we know our own country / state / surroundings well, but in reality we’re only scratching the surface as we speed through the highway, occasionally glancing at nature around us and enjoying it from afar?
That’s always bugged me so I’ve decided to try and take my time with road trips as often as possible. On my way to my uncle’s recently, I took about 2.5 hours instead of the usual hour because I just stopped at all the spots that have intrigued me over the years and walked around, getting a feel for the place. It might sound cliche, but it does feel like you’re rediscovering the countryside you thought you knew so well 🙂
The tiny village of Bunovo, nestled in the Balkan range. This is the tallest railway bridge on the Balkans, apparently, and one you can bungee jump from — obviously that’s on my to do list 😉
They were doing some sort of harvesting I think, though for what I can’t be sure… but they kept on giving me looks for walking around. I don’t think they saw I had a camera because I was quite far.
I think we often forget how taxing manual labor must be, especially for someone not in their 20s or 30s… I caught this man taking a short break from working in this massive field. A second later two people came and asked why I was taking photos, obviously thinking I’m up to no good 😉
Having a tractor does help immensely. I love the layers in this shot…
My favorite shot of the day… my father’s home town is just to the left of the frame, behind the small ridge and right at the foot of the Balkan mountains. This valley has always felt like home to me and I often stop by and just look at it for a couple of minutes before descending in to visit my uncle 🙂
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve climbed these peaks when I was a kid with my parents… something tells me I’m going to do it again this summer 😉
So, what did I learn from this? That we should take our time to appreciate all that is around us instead of constantly rushing through life.
In a Search of Balance 
I love your photographs – really beautiful.
Thanks for the kind words! 🙂
It is true!
Beautiful country side! I was trying to see what they were harvesting in those fields: if it wasn’t corn, then maybe it was sorghum? Sorghum looks very similar to a corn plant when seen from afar, but the whole stalk is harvested instead of just the corn cobs (you can see on the back of the truck that they harvested the whole plant….
You are a very gifted photographer, by the way!
In this case it was corn I believe, but good eye 😉 And thanks for the compliment!
Bromo in Java Indonesia more beauty !! come …
Seems like an incredible place indeed, Alika, I would definitely love to travel there some day 😉