An occasional Photo Blog
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 đ
To lend this evening’s post a hint of autumn, I’ve included a couple of âstill lifeâ sort of pictures of our traditionally decorated straw bale which greets visitors at our front door.
Quite some time ago I read on the â365 projectâ a remark that got me thinking about the phenomena Black and White.
Rob Wells took a really interesting photograph of a tree that had obviously seen better days. (http://365project.org/robewells/365/2011-08-13)
It’s clearly a monochrome image and it seems that he was somewhat uneasy about taking a Black&White shot in the summer. I Quote: â…..although I’m not very happy doing b&w in the summer.â
To be honest I usually take colour photos, I actually like colour: The youthful greens of spring, the warm summer hues and the beautiful autumn golds, to say nothing of the somewhat reserved colours of winter. But once in a blue moon I load a B&W film in an old camera to produce something a bit different, just for the fun of it.
Thumbing through various photo magazines I’m often quite surprised at how many photographers still use Black and White to achieve something a bit special.
Could this be akin to the desire to travel in an old railway carriage being pulled by a steam engine, or the primeval urge to light a wood fire in winter instead of just turning on the central heating?
An inexplicable yearning for all things old perhaps? Is there really a truly ‘superior’ artistic quality to B&W pictures that my somewhat limited artistic talent hasn’t quite grasped (yet)?
Anyway, let me return to the start of all this. The â…not very happy doing b&w in the summerâ line certainly caught my attention and seemed to challenge me to do just that; take monochrome pictures in the summer.
I had to show myself that B&W pics can be taken without appearing errr, colourless. It’s very doubtful whether I achieved anything other than a few greyish looking photos, but it was great fun experimenting and I don’t think I’ve finished with B&W just yet.
Incidentally, It was very interesting to note that although the fruits of my labours may tell a different story, I was very motivated during the summer months and I actually had my camera with me quite often, thus proving how important it is to photograph with some sort of purpose, however trivial!
Feel free to take a look at all my ‘summery’ monochrome pics at:
http://www.harding.ch/Gallery21/main.php?g2_itemId=873
For the technically interested, the photos in the gallery were almost all original B&W pics, but a few were desaturated with Gimp. A mixture of Panasonic DMC-LX2, Sony-Ericsson W995 mobile phone and Samsung ES30 was used.
You may remember that early June saw us spending a Saturday afternoon in a car park trying to coax a white 1961 Cadillac Eldorado Biaritz into starting again, after a short photo shooting with the birthday girl. http://harding.ch/WordPress1/?p=198
Well, the rental company said we could take the Cadilac out for another spin for an hour or so sometime when the weather was good. Last Saturday the weather was ideal, the car was free and off we went. It was fantastic, we spent a good hour or so cruising through the warm, sunny countryside waving and being waved at. I must confess it’s not the sort of car I’d want to own, but a quick cruise now and again really is splendid. We decided not to stop for a photo session this time, but I did snap a picture or two in the rental company’s car park before handing over the keys again. Thanks!
Road works everywhere, and with temperatures well above 30°C, rather them than me!
In connection with the building of an underpass to replace the current level crossing, there was an open day at Wilchingen-Hallau railway station on Saturday
Although the station is very much on Swiss soil, it is usually served only by the DB (German Railways). Yesterday, as part of the open day, a special Swiss steam service chuffed its way between Schaffhausen and Wilchingen-Hallau.
Because afternoon temperatures have been hovering around 30°C recently, and to avoid the crowds, we took the very first train of the day and were treated to a beautiful, quiet and leisurely journey in an almost empty carriage.
Black and White pictures in summer? Well, here’s a taste. More on that in a later posting.
I suppose no trip to Switzerland would be complete without a quick peek at one or two mountains. Indeed a quick peek it was.
We chose last Thursday to visit the Jungfrau region, and the day started warm and sunny. Having packed a few previously prepared sandwiches and plenty to drink into various rucksacks, of we went.
Upon arriving at Grindelwald the sun was burning fiercely down upon us, and with much excitement about the spectacular view of the Eiger, we eagerly rubbed sun cream into our parched, leathery skins (actually they were neither parched nor leathery, but I thought it sounded more adventurous somehow).
Gliding silently up the mountain side in the gondola towards MÀnnlichen, clouds formed and carefully blocked the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau from our searching gaze.
Nevertheless, everything went well, the picnic was most welcome and thanks to a few breaks in the cloud we did manage to get a picture or two of a distant summit.
I decided to document today’s posting with B&W pictures because somehow they just seemed right.
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.
Not that it really bothered me, because I’m taking my summer holidays a bit later. But it would have been nice to have spent Sunday afternoon soaking up the sun, and perhaps feeling the refreshing effects of a cool beer flowing over my parched lips like a waterfall on some distant tropical island.
But alas,
it rained.
This evening was one of those ‘different’ Friday evenings. The gleeful sounds of âhave a nice holidayâ resounded throughout the office as various colleagues left the building in a particularly happy mood. The schools have broken up for the summer holidays today, and many will be squeezing their treasured belongings into cars, planes and trains and setting of for foreign parts.
Not me I’m afraid.
But I did enjoy an after work beer and, instead of my usual way home, decided to board the train at the main station, thus managing to inhale at least a little holiday atmosphere.
The photos were taken somewhat spontaneously with my mobile phone.
