This is my final stab at my Iran photos. I started preparing for the trip about three years ago, and I went about a year and a half ago, so it's time to wrap it up.
The food was so monotonous, more so than in Lebanon. I almost became vegetarian. The fish you see here was a welcome change.ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/320s.
This is the Il-khan Öljeitü Mausoleum, apparently of Azeri style. While very rich in decoration, it had an interesting, subdued colour scheme.ISO 200, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/320s.
After I flew my drone in Soltaniyeh, a man showed up, took my drone without saying a word, and walked away with it. Confused, I followed him to end up in a room with a large man behind a desk who simply asked me "Espionage?". That freaked me out, so I nervously said "oh no, no, I'm good, thank you". They checked my drone photos, but were more interested in drone videos for some reason, which luckily I didn't make. They scanned my papers, and tried to install something on my phone, but it failed. They searched my phone, and a funny gif of a woman with excessive make up was showing, pretty embarrassing... They said nothing about my VPN app to bypass Iran's firewall. One of them added me on Whatsapp, and asked for all the drone photos to be sent. For the rest of the trip, I was sending him random photos of our journey (ha ha). Eventually, someone more senior appeared, picked up something heavy from the floor ("oh my god, they will make me talk!"), put it somewhere else ("whew"), checked the photos, said the photos were really nice, and let me go. My friend took a photo of me in the room as he was waiting outside with a bribe.ISO 1250, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.
There was something Chinese about this mosque... It had a cool, relaxing atmosphere, and it made me think of the vast landmass beyond it to the east.ISO 100, 14mm, f/6.3, 1/250s.
Compare this to the Nilometer in Cairo. Isfahan was a popular tourist destination, and people didn't pay much attention to us.ISO 1800, 14mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.
The tower of silence in Yazd - reminding me of the landscape of Egyptian pyramids. This is where they used to bring dead bodies in Zoroastrian times.ISO 200, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/420s.
Whereas this brought back the memories of Mauritania. Sky burials would be performed here, where bodies would be eaten by vultures. This no longer happens in Iran, but it does happen in India, except we eat so unhealthy that the vultures have been dying out getting poisoned eating our flesh.ISO 500, 36mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.
Imposing Yazd structure, quite unlike anything I've ever seen anywhere else. Those tall minarets are similar to those in Qom.ISO 1800, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.
The Zoroastrian fire temple in Chak Chak. This is the flight that got me in trouble the following morning, when the police came to my hotel room while I was still asleep, asking to see my "helicopter". They searched my stuff and my photos, saying they'd been tracking me since Tehran (which later I decided was probably not true). I suspect my driver told them about the drone. Oh well. They left me alone in the end.ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/1100s.
The fire altar. Compare to this Chinese incense burner in a temple. In the fire temple, we met a man who spoke a language different to Farsi, and it was a real struggle for me to communicate with him.ISO 250, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.
We saw Elham last in Tehran at the Tabiat Bridge. We said our goodbyes. Three weeks in Iran was a long time, but we did not manage to see some of the more distant locations. Domestic flights turning out to be quite unreliable, we also underestimated the sheer size of the country. Lodged between Arabia and the Asian landmass, Iran remains a powerful player and a melting pot, if only a shadow of its once cosmopolitan self.ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.Sources
