An occasional Photo Blog
In the last posting I mentioned that it was a bit cool. It seems that cold air from Siberia is wafting its way over Europe causing our daytime temperatures to hover around -10°C, and considerably colder by moonlight. I’m pleased to say that my heating, despite its age, is still doing its best, and our water is still runny…. unlike this fountain near the station in Zurich.
As promised yesterday, here is an evening photo of the current weather situation. I’m quite weather neutral really, rain or shine I enjoy snapping away and have nothing against a stroll across fields during a downpour. Having said that though, wet weather, although fascinating to capture, does pose problems. Who wants to get a nice new camera soaking wet? Apparently the average digital goody doesn’t like water at all.
I’m not seriously considering a new camera at the moment.. well not really, but if I was, which models would make it to the final choice? The image below was captured with my mobile phone, kept dry by a bus shelter (well actually t’was a tram shelter but that just didn’t sound right). How many times during a photographic year do I really stand under a rain cloud and shoot pictures? My choice seems to be between the robust, rainproof Pentax or, if the photo magazines are to be believed, the superior image quality of a Nikon. Ah, decisions decisions.
The Festive Season, time to have a beer after work, to saunter around the old part of town and admire the Christmas decorations, perhaps even do some Christmas shopping, but I don’t want to rush into things, there’s another whole week yet!
Trying to avoid images of Christmas trees, reindeer and Santas with sacks of goodies (plenty of time for that next week) I opted for a couple of wet street scenes.
As usual I achieved the almost impossible this morning and arrived on the dot at the local railway station. Imagine then my delight to find the train was running late, giving me a full 27 seconds* to pull out my mobile phone and snap this sunrise. – *may have perhaps been half a minute 😉
During the journey the day looked bright and friendly on the left hand side of the train, and as black as night on the right. Not wanting to disturb my fellow travelers, and in fear of losing my seat, I decided against clumsily wading through the jungle of legs, newspapers and laptops to snap the absolutely fantastic rainbow through the opposite window.
It’s been quite a while since I last posted anything on this blog, and the reasons are many fold.
First of all I’ve been spending far too many enjoyable hours playing about with new laptop and PC 🙂
see the Hardware page on http://www.harding.ch/computer/compi-index.html
Then of course there was……
Work: I’ve either been leaving early in the morning or getting home late in the evening. Both seem to form a natural barrier against taking any sort of reasonable pictures.
The time of the year: During the summer months I tend to browse through Photo magazines on the way to work, and soak up motivation by the pagefull. But during the darker time of the year I’m seen standing on platforms and sitting in trains with my head buried deeply in a paperback – In case anyone’s interested, I’m about halfway through Ken Follett’s ‘Fall of Giants’ as always, a jolly good read!
Social ‘duties’: and last but not least, various Christmas markets, decorated shops and cosy bars all seem to compete for a slice of my time.
Perhaps I need a nice new camera to get me back on track? 😉
This evening I attended a so called ‘do’ at work, you know the sort of thing: ‘get to know thy colleague’. To cut a long story short; the food was splendid, the barbecue was magnificent and nobody went thirsty 😉
To lend this evening’s post a hint of autumn, I’ve included a couple of “still life” sort of pictures of our traditionally decorated straw bale which greets visitors at our front door.
Yesterday evening saw me strolling along the field paths around the village with the dog. A leisurely stretch of the old legs on a balmy summer evening.
Of course I hadn’t got my ‘proper’ camera with me, but stumbling across this old Bucher D4000 tractor I reached quickly for my trusty mobile phone. Probably built in the 50s or early 60’s it just stood there, freshly polished and all alone, on the edge of a field.
While our visitors braved the weather for a trip out, I stayed in the village to expose the dog and myself to the elements and a brisk walk along the village paths.
The weather forecast told tales of rain, rain and even more rain so I expected the very worst and didn’t take my camera with me.
As it turned out the dog got soaked whilst bathing in a very large puddle and again during a hose down upon arriving home, but despite the somewhat threatening clouds, I stayed dry.
One of the highlights of staying at home for the summer holidays must surely be the open air cinema. This year was no exception, the programme plopped through our letter box and many minutes were spent browsing. The first week was out of the question because I was on ‘call out’, and as it turned out I didn’t miss anything because the weather was somewhat inclement.
So that was settled, it had to be this week because next week is fairly booked up..
Not speaking either of the languages, it’s interesting that we are often tempted to watch either French or Italian films. Somehow they seem to fit in to the general holiday feeling. We therefore decided to watch a French film last night, sort of a comedy.
Despite the summer months, we’re usually pleased to have a blanket around the old knees, but our biggest enemy is, of course, rain. We stood pondering quite a while last night, because some very large clouds were menacing overhead. Thinking they would amount to nothing we ventured forth, paid the man and in we went. I’ve never seen so many vacant seats, the place was not just half empty, it was almost completely void of human life whatsoever! At half past nine! Usually the place is full at eight o’clock!
Being completely spoilt for choice we considered at great length where to sit, but our minds were made up for us. Large drops of refreshing rain fell suddenly earthward and wife and I scuttled quickly for cover. Luckily there were even seats to spare in the covered bits at the very back, so we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed the film in the dry. After about fifteen minutes the rain stopped and the small group of film goers were treated to a very entertaining night out.
Every year the question crops up as to where to spend the summer holiday.
Whether to stay at home and enjoy the balmy summer evenings with a cool glass of something, or whether to join the traffic jams southwards and endure the daily battle for a vacant deckchair on some remote, overpopulated beach.
Well, perhaps those who have migrated south for the summer may just have got it right this year.
Having endured almost drought like conditions until the the summer holidays began we are now catching up on all that missing water and are getting a taste of the rainy season.
For those at work, like me, it’s not too bad. The office is at least warm and dry and there’s room to stretch my legs on the commuter train without assaulting the person opposite.
