Photos from Bogota by Rob Verger

RAW aficionado Rob Verger of Boxborough sent along some photos of a recent trip to Bogotá along with these thoughts:

"I spent a week in Bogotá visiting my girlfriend (she lives in São Paulo, Brazil, but was in Colombia for work). It was my first time in Bogotá, and I was excited to take photos; I kept my Canon G10 close at hand the entire time.

"I love shooting street scenes with that camera - it's discreet and takes luminous, sharp photos when the light is good. I felt excited at the variety of images that the city presented: I loved taking photographs of umbrellas on gray, rainy days, serendipitously encountering dance performances in a public square, or trying to capture the militaristic drama of the changing of the presidential guard on a Friday afternoon. Other moments, too, caught my eye: the dark silhouettes of two girls in the famous Gold Museum (Museo del Oro), or a boy blowing bubbles from atop the Monserrate overlook, with the city and its green mountains expansive in the background.

"Traveling to a new place can be provocative, artistically and photographically, not just because you might feel compelled to document it for your own memories, but more importantly, I think, because being in a foreign place heightens your senses. I find that it sharpens my eye for details, lines, and colors. It provokes me to start thinking more photographically, and once I'm in that mindset, I start taking more sensitive photos. The result can be images that capture some sense of the place, but also convey the subjective mood the place gave you."

Here's a full-screen gallery of Rob's images.