A walk by the river with a fixed lens

Leaving the subject of film for a moment, I thought I’d post a few pictures I made whilst walking along the banks of the River Thur this afternoon.

Normally I would have probably taken my gadget bag with me and mainly used the 18 – 55mm zoom, which offers a certain amount of flexibility. Today however, I simply used the Pentax K-70 with the DA 35mm F2.4 AL lens. The reason? – Well, for a start it’s lighter, which does make a difference when walking for a couple of hours. But I also enjoy the idea of having to walk about a bit to get the picture I want.

Railway bridge, Ossingen – Pentax K-70; Developed with GIMP

Left to nature – Pentax K-70; Developed with GIMP

31/01/201709/02/2017

The Rhine Falls

Having spent the most part of January under a layer of cloud, it was very nice to see a bit of sunshine last Sunday. Assuming most would be heading for the mountains, we decided to visit the Rhine Falls. We were by no means alone, but the crowds didn’t bother us too much. Due to the exceptionally dry spell over the last couple of months, the waterfall didn’t have a lot of water and due to very icy conditions it wasn’t possible to reach the lowest viewing platform – but the views were nevertheless quite spectacular.

All shots were taken on my Pentax K-70 with the HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mmF4.5-6.3ED PLM WR RE .

Rhine Falls – Pentax K-70; Developed with GIMP

06/11/2016

Woodland Walk

Last weekend we decided to go on a Sunday afternoon walk through the woods. The weather was ideal and the camera was just itching to get out into the fresh air.

10/05/2016

Seealpsee

Despite only being about an hour away by car, Seealpsee is one of those places that I don’t usually consider visiting. But the weather was ideal, and so we decided to grab a bit of mountain air.
It took us about an hour to walk the steep path up to the lake, but once up there we were rewarded with great views of the Säntis peak. The walk around the lake was very pleasant and of course fairly flat. Taking a different path back down to Wasserauen took us about half an hour longer than the ascent and consisted of many natural steps hewn out of the hillside…. very many steps!

14/03/2016

An historical stroll

A few days ago I posted a picture on my 365 Project concerning Winterthur’s historical past. On that project it’s usual to post only one image, so I thought I’d pictorially expand the subject here.

An historical stroll.

Back in 1834, the Sulzer brothers built a foundry in Winterthur, which formed the beginning of a worldwide heavy industrial concern. Adjacent to the Sulzer factory was the Swiss Locomotive and Machine factory (Schweizerische Lokomotiv- und Maschinenfabrik – SLM) which can trace it’s history back to 1871. I believe the two fused together in the early 1960s.
Now the quite fascinating area is home to trendy apartments, offices and restaurants and of course a shopping centre or two, comprising a mixture of both renovated brick built industrial buildings and tastefully integrated new builds.
Taking advantage of the good weather, Pentax and I took a stroll through history this morning and stumbled across this rather interesting wall painting.

This large factory hall has now become a car park

Old factory – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Railway lines everywhere

Several of the old buildings have been enhanced

Art work – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

At work – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Some old buildings are now home to small new companies

Old buildings – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Others combine old and new architecture to create trendy apartments

Old and new – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Once a locomotive factory, now a shopping centre

Shopping centre – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

15/02/201609/02/2017

Rainy Nights

I’ve been quite lucky with the weather recently (OK, some may disagree). The heavens have opened on several occasions and it’s provided me with what I consider to be beautiful wet roads. The images below were all made with my smartphone which, I’m pleased to say, is water resistant. Nothing more invigorating than standing in a rain shower taking photos. – It takes all sorts 🙂

Rainy station – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Snapseed

Rainy tram – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Snapseed

Rainy crossroads – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Snapseed

17/01/2016

So much for dark days

Today seemed particularly bright, no
doubt due to the sprinkling of snow.

Snowy Woodland – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Down by the river – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

On the edge of the woods – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

03/01/2016

A breath of fresh air

A Sunday afternoon stroll and a breath of fresh air, and I was undecided whether or not to take the camera with me or not.
But venturing out without a camera is always a bit risky, you never know if that once in a lifetime picture is just waiting to be taken. Well, this afternoon’s images are by no means once in a lifetime quality, but I was still pleased I took the camera.

Horses – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Woodland – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

01/01/201601/01/2016

…and a Happy New Year

During the traditional New Year celebrations with friends the conversation inevitably covered a wide range of fascinating topics. For some inexplicable reason the subject of model railways came up more than once – what a coincidence 😉 Today it was clear to me that somehow a railway would have to feature in the first blog posting of 2016.

Strolling around a neighbouring village I stumbled across a vacant bench and a somewhat dilapidated poster, then off to a local railway station for a bit of motivation; Will 2016 actually see the start of my model railway project?

NewYear – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP — NewYear Bench – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

20/12/201503/01/2016

A new lens and a little repair job

It must be about a month since I last posted anything on the blog, and I must say I’m delighted to be back! This time of the year normally motivates me to visit Christmas markets, capture all those festive lights and perhaps even photograph a snowflake or two.

Well, this year is different. Oh, don’t worry, I’ve been sampling mulled wine and getting into the spirit of Christmas along with the best of them, but the K30 developed a very nerving problem! It seemed the shutter motor.. or whatever it’s called, was not doing as it should do. This resulted in the first few images being very under exposed, almost black in fact. Switching to continuous shooting would produce a good image after about ten to twenty shots, but that proved very tedious so I decided to get it fixed.

I took a day off work towards the end of November to take the K30 to the Pentax service centre, about an hours drive from home. I was very positively surprised to receive a mail from them after just a couple of days to say the camera had been repaired, but as I didn’t want them to return it by post, so I decided to wait a couple of weeks and pick it up during my holiday.

The long awaited Monday morning arrived and off I went to collect my camera. I was quite excited because I had been given a nice new 35mm lens for my birthday (while the camera was being repaired) and was just itching to put it through its paces. Unfortunately both the Monday and Tuesday were very foggy, Wednesday rained (at long last!) and Thursday, Friday and Saturday seemed to go by in a flash. Today though, the fourth Sunday in Advent, I was determined to try the new lens out, even if it meant travelling to high ground to get above the fog. (the last three images were taken using the new lens – smc Pentax 35mm F2.4 AL) I’ll be back to work tomorrow, but I hope to be out and about over the festive season.

Above the fog – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Quite misty - Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP — Quite misty – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Misty village – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP

Old trailer – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP