yesterday, i again used my ga to explore a bit of switzerland (and italy). i decided to use an offer by the sbb to drive up the cimetta, a mountain next to locarno at the lago maggiore. the weather report for most of switzerland wasn’t very good yesterday, except for the ticino, whence i ended up there. at ground level it was rather foggy, but when climbing up the mountain by cable car i eventually got out of the sea of fog. around the cardada station, the final destination of said cable car, wasn’t too much snow, but still enough left to take a lot of snow photos! later i took the chair lift up to the top and had lunch there, as well as took out my laptop (which i carried with me all the time… i really need to get a netbook!) and worked a bit. that was a funny moment, sitting over 1600 meters over sea level, surrounded by snow, while programming. i guess i have to do that more often :-)

later, i took the cable car back down to locarno and explored the city a bit. here are some impressions, including the madonna del sasso and the castello visconteo:

finally, i took the train to domodossola, operated by fart (ferrovie autolinee regionali ticinesi). the train ride is really beautiful. unfortunately, i had to shoot all photos through the window, which resulted in not so great ones… anyway, there are a few i really like:

i didn’t stay in domodossola, due to being tired and its getting dark outside, so i hopped onto the next train to brig, going through the simplon tunnel (about whose construction i read a novel called simplon some years ago). eventually, 14 hours after my departure, i arrived back in zürich.

some of you might know harro heuser, a german mathematician. he is famous among students for his introductionary books on analysis, which explain very well and in great detail many aspects about the analysis which is taught to students of mathematics in the first year.

today, i was informed that he passed away.
rest in peace.

one thing is for sure: he won’t be forgotten by the next generations of mathematics students, since his textbooks are still some of the best ones available.

yesterday, as i already mentioned here, i did a boat trip on lake zürich. this time, part of the long round trip, leading me to rapperswil. there, i explored the area of the monestry and the castle a bit, and returned to zürich and took the train up the üetliberg to catch sunset. unfortunately, already during the boat trip the weather got worse, i.e. it got cloudy, and so there wasn’t much left from the sunset…

here’s my project 52 shot for the seventh week. the topic was

alles rot!

since i don’t have a red filter, i had to think of something. something i could do without investing too much time and money. (i had a great idea which violates at least one of these two points.) while doing another boat trip on lake zürich today, i noticed that some walls inside the boat were red and reflecting: the perfect setting for a photo in red! the result shows me, a bit of lake zürich’s water and parts of the zürich gold coast. please click the photo to get a larger version:

technical details: 1/20s, f/10, 50mm, iso 200.

the trip also resulted in another “reddish” photo collection, which i like but which fits less well than the above photo. here it is:

here’s my project 52 shot for the sixth week. the topic was

teeparty.

for this topic, i needed a bit of help. mostly because i don’t want to eat and drink all the depicted things myself at once :-) but that’s what you have friends for, so i took my camera with me to university today and took this photo during coffee after lunch. well, the term “coffee” is used for all kinds of liquids and treats. this photo features hot chocolate (caotina, of course), tea, water and coffee, with vermicelles desserts and a cookie(?). caotina and vermicelles, two things i really missed while being in canada. if you ever visit me here, you have to try this combination as well…
please click the photo to get a larger version:

technical details: 1/40s, f/16, 50mm, iso 200.

here are a few more impressions from the irchelpark at dawn.

my favorite photo is the following one:

i just heard about a new ep by amplifier, called fractal, which can be freely downloaded here. a purely improvised record, consisting of four songs with a playtime of 22 minutes.
(and apparently they released a new album last year, called the octupus, which seems to be very good. i think i need to start another music shopping spree soon ;-) )

last weekend, i did a hike through the roseg valley with anmut and nik. the weather was stunning, it was warm (t-shirt time!), sunny, not many clouds. and, of course, snow. not as much as there’s supposed to be that time of the year, but still enough to be happy :-)

here are some impressions from the hike and the rest at the roseg glacier restaurant:

(and yes, most of these photos would have been perfect for project 52 a month ago…)

here’s my project 52 shot for the fifth week. the topic was

in & out.

obviously, this topic is aimed at fashion. and, well, as you might know, i don’t care much about fashion. in particular not about what the majority thinks is in & out. so i decided to interpret the topic differently. i quickly got the idea to photograph cars going in and out of a tunnel. there are two tunnel ends near to my place, so i started checking them out. one of them is not good for this, since there’s pretty dense vegetation where i should stand to take the photo. the other one is better, with only little vegetation, but a safety net which is always blocking the view a bit. well. tonight i got around to take some photos. it was not very easy to get cars enter and leave the tunnel at the same time (i guess during rush hour this is easier), so i decided to combine four shots into a nice arrangement. so here’s my in & out photo! please click the photo to get a larger version:

this time, i also have an alternative version. focussed not on the road, but some vegetation. i really love the bokeh of my wide open 50mm lens. please click the photo to get a larger version:

technical details: 1/100s, f/1.4, 50mm, iso 1600. arranged using gimp.

today i took my camera with me to university. here are some impressions.

and yes, ducks walking on ice can slip and fall down: