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Festive Rain

On Thursday evening the Christmas lights were switched on in Zurich. Apparently ‘thousands’ gathered to witness the spectacle, visit the various Christmas markets and of course sample the first mugs of mulled wine. I’ll probably wait a while before plunging into the spirit of Christmas, but I was delighted to take advantage of Friday evening’s wet weather on the way home. Lights reflecting in wet roads never cease to fascinate me!

The Aperitif Tram or perhaps the Fondue Tram?

Old Tram – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
Old Tram – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp

Snow would certainly be more seasonal, but we’re happy with rain.

Christmas Lights – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
Christmas Lights – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp

Hurrying past with the shopping.

Christmas Shopping – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
Christmas Shopping – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp

The wet weather even seems to make that clumsy roof look light and festive…. see also The Railway Station  and Taj Mahal

That Roof Again – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
That Roof Again – Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp

 

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Eating Out

Having a barbecue on a mid November evening is, to say the least, a bit unusual around these parts. But with the long hot summer continuing on to a beautiful Autumn we decided to fire up the grill once more before the cold weather arrives at the weekend. While waiting for the burgers to brown I just had to fiddle with a camera. The subject matter was somewhat limited but I enjoyed playing. One huge advantage compared with summer barbecues….   no wasps, no moths and no creepy crawly things trying to share my meal.

November-BBQ2 – Panasonic DMC-LX2; Developed with GIMP
November-BBQ2 – Panasonic DMC-LX2; Developed with GIMP
November-BBQ1l – Panasonic DMC-LX2; Developed with GIMP
November-BBQ1l – Panasonic DMC-LX2; Developed with GIMP
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Old Lens

I’ve been having a bit of trouble with the K30 recently. The first photo or two have been drastically under exposed, after a couple of shots it’s then ok. Wait a few minutes and the problem is back. Strangely the problem doesn’t occur when usng the  camera’s ‘live view’, or when using manual lens. It’s not often that one can venture out in short sleeves at this time of the year, but the last few days have been very summery – staying at home this afternoon was no option. So with rucksack packed and sun hat firmly in place of we went for a long walk. I decided to use my very old 50mm manual lens. (I believe 50mm is equivalent to about 75mm on the DSLR) and despite the manual focus and manual exposure settings, it was quite relaxing not to have to zoom all over the place before pressing the shutter release.

River Thur – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
River Thur – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
River Thur – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
River Thur – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Long Shadows – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Long Shadows – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Ready for Winter – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Ready for Winter – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Around the bend – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Around the bend – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Sun under the bridge – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Sun under the bridge – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
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ND Filter

Sometime during the summer months I bought myself a variable ND filter, but until yesterday hadn’t got round to using it. In hindsight I’m not sure whether it may have been better to buy a fixed filter instead of the variable variety, time will tell. The weather was pleasantly autumnal but a bit on the grey side and the sky was featureless.  I was lucky to be with someone who has considerable expierience in the mysteries of Neutral Density Filters and was pleased to get few tips and try one or two of his filters too. Thanks Dominik. For a first attempt I’m quite happy with the results and hope to capture a waterfall or something in the near future 🙂

Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Lake – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
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New colours

I usually associate Autumn with gold and brown and all the shades in between, but this year a new colour has caught my attention. In previous years I’ve never really noticed the field of violet coloured, weed looking plants. I’m not sure what the plant is, but assume it’s  a green manure or cover crop. I’ve been wanting to capture an image or two of such a field for quite some time now, but as fate would have it the only opportunity I had was on a rather overcast day with my mobile phone.  Still under way with the mobile phone I snapped a couple of traditional autumn scenes when the sun was shining.

Colours -– Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
Colours -– Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
Fence -– Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
Fence -– Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
Trees -– Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
Trees -– Sony Xperia Z3 compact smartphone. Developed with Gimp
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A few days holiday

Despite all those little jobs in the garden that tend to need doing at this time of the year, I decided not to overdo things…. so taking a couple of days off from wielding a spade we set off on a couple of train journeys. One day we travelled to Neuchâtel (Neuenburg) on the shores of the lake with the same name, and another day saw us in Brig, at the foot of the Simplon Pass. Photographically it’s always motivating to visit somewhere new but I usually have trouble deciding which images to publish. A traditional postcard view of a town or something more on the lines of ‘could have been taken anywhere’ ? For today’s posting I chose mainly the the latter.

Neuchâtel – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Neuchâtel – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Neuchâtel – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Neuchâtel – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Neuchâtel – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Neuchâtel – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Boudry – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Boudry – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Brig – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Brig – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Brig – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Brig – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Brig – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Brig – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
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Enjoying the rain

Peering out of this window this afternoon I was pleased to see that it was still raining. Time to take the K30 for a walk. There’s nothing quite like an autumn stroll in the rain, enjoying the autumnal sounds of wet wellies plodding through damp leaves. However, I feel these images haven’t really captured the atmosphere of just how wet everything really was, so I think I will have to take the camera to town at dusk sometime in the near future to capture lights reflecting on roads… hopefully it will rain again soon!

Wet leaves – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMPs
Wet leaves – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMPs
Wet picnic tables – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Wet picnic tables – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Mais – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Mais – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Harvested Mais – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Harvested Mais – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Wet road – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Wet road – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Trailers – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Trailers – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
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Golden Autumn

Thanks to the sensational summer this year’s wine promises to be one of the best for a long time. Even the autumn has been very kind to us so far, and the sight of beautiful golden leaves against cloudless blue skies has not been uncommon…. except for today.

The sun broke through the high cloud a little bit this morning, but this afternoon when I was out and about it remained hidden and the bright autumnal colours remained somewhat dull.

Autumn colours – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Autumn colours – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Autumn colours – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Autumn colours – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Autumn colours – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Autumn colours – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Autumn colours – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Autumn colours – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
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Talking of holidays

At the very beginning of yesterday’s blog posting I mentioned that I’d just had a couple of weeks holiday. The phrase “two week holiday” tends to make me think of fourteen days sun, sea and sand and a warm breeze gently rustling palm trees. My holiday wasn’t quite like that, considerable amounts of time were spent tending the barbecue, pottering about in the garden and generally having a lazy time. But as relaxing as it was at home, we decided to take advantage of the good weather and made a short excursion over the alps.

Engadin village – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Engadin village – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Engadin scenery – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Engadin scenery – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Engadin scenery – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
Engadin scenery – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
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The Moon

Today was my first day back at work after a couple of weeks holiday, so I had to carefully consider whether to interrupt by beauty sleep to stand outside in the cold and look at the moon or not.  I didn’t want to look worse after the holiday than I did before it, but at the end of the day I couldn’t resist the temptation. So, with the help of all my alarm clocks, we sprang spritely out of bed at 3.30 am and peered out of the window. The moon wasn’t completely eclipsed at that time, but there was not a cloud to be seen so returning to bed was not an option.

It wasn’t until I stood in the garden staring skywards, with a cup of tea in one hand and the cable release in the other, that I was confronted with the various shortcomings of my photo kit;  My old 80 – 200mm zoom is basically fine, but not automatic and a bit small for this type of work so there were various things to consider… perhaps a new one one day? My reasonably priced tripod is OK but not very ‘precise’ and it wobbled quite alarmingly when the heavy zoom was mounted on the K30. Then there was the question of experience, these sort of things don’t happen on a daily basis and I had to grope around in the dark for the important buttons and a lot of guesswork was needed for the exposures. More practice would have certainly been beneficial. But despite all the things that could be improved I was fairly happy with one or two of the images.

28 September 2015 04:17:20 - Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP
28 September 2015 04:17:20 – Pentax K-30; Developed with GIMP