today i did a short excursion to the botanical garden in zürich. the sun was shining and i got some nice pictures. there also was a cat to pet, though after some time it walked away… anyway, it was a nice trip, and here are some of the results. the cat never was in the right position to take a nice photo, so unfortunately there is no photo of the cat…
the trip to the morteratsch glacier was my first hike where i took all my lenses. i also played around with the macro lens, though it is not that easy if there is a bit of wind which makes the plants you want to photograph move slightly (wrecking focus), and if you don’t have a tripod and have to hold the camera yourself, and of course your body is always moving very slightly. since for macro photography every millimeter counts (especially without high f-stops, which increase the focus area, but which really require a tripod and a calm subject), this is not a good combination. i still think i got some nice shots. here are a few impressions:
today, i finally did a hike i already wanted to do for a long time: i visited the morteratsch glacier in the engadine. there is a train station nearby, called morteratsch. from there, a trail leads to the ice front. it used to be that the train station was at the ice front, but that was more than 100 years ago, and since then the glacier retreated quite a distance – almost two kilometers. here are a few impressions from the hike to the ice front:
shortly before i reached the ice front, and just a few moments before i could see anything, i heard a loud noice. some ice collapsing, something breaking off, i don’t know. happens all the time, and it is always a good idea to know what you are doing when going on a glacier. for example, never go too near to places where ice seems to break off :-) anyway, even though i only was at the very bottom of the glacier – i’ve seen much more of some glaciers in canada –, there were many interesting views of ice formations, of mixtures of ice, dirt, rocks and water. glaciers are so beautiful!
while looking through the photos, i found a polar bear hiding in one of the photos. can you find it?
this friday, our math institute did an excursion to the üetliberg. we took up the cable car at felsenegg, had a drink or ice cream in the restaurant there, and then walked over to the uto kulm, where we had a nice dinner. from there, we took the train back down. the weather was very nice in the beginning, even though rain was predicted and there was a lot of rain in the morning and the night before. while sitting at the restaurant near felsenegg, clouds came up, giving a nice shade for the walk. inbetween, it also rained a few drops, but that was almost welcome as a refreshment. after being at the uto kulm for a bit of time, having a nice apero outside, we were able to enjoy a nice rainbow over zürich. as we went inside, it started to really rain outside. in the night, when we left, it was dry again. i’d say, perfect weather for an excursion! only for the photos, there could have been more sun :-)
this night, i decided to walk around a bit and take photos. i first walked through the irchelpark to the irchel campus, then continued up to the edge of the forest on the zürichberg, and after that i walked back towards the campus, where i met a black cat, and finally continued into the irchelpark. i started somewhen past 2 am and returned back home after 6:30.
yesterday, a total lunar eclipse (also known as a blood moon in german) occured. the next total one will be visible here in 2015, the previous one was in 2008. the one in 2008 was clouds only for me, as the one yesterday turned out to be as well. anyway, i spent the evening on the üetliberg, and took some nice photos, even though not of the moon.
the first photos are from the sunset. in that direction, there weren’t too many clouds. only in the other direction, where the moon was supposed to rise, there were a lot of clouds.
at least, i got some nice zoom shots of zürich. the second photo in the second row shows the eth and university main buildings.
finally, here are two fisheye shots. the first shows a bit of the cloud cover, and the second one shows the uto kulm. i took the sunset photos from the look-out tower, and the latter ones from around the position that photo was taken. there was a lot of wind upstairs, and for the zürich photos i needed longer exposure times, which resulted in totally wiggled photos when i tried it from up there.
this long weekend i was staying at my parent’s place. here are some impressions, both from my parent’s garden, as well as from a bike tour to olfen.
in these pictures, you can see, among other things, konik horses and heck cattle. i wish i would have had my longer telephoto lens with me…
this weekend, i attended revision, a demoparty. revision is the successor of breakpoint, which in turn is the successor of mekka & symphosium. these events were held over easter from 1997 on, and i attended a few of them (between 2001 and 2005).
after the end of the breakpoint era last year, the revision was moved from bingen to saarbrücken, germany. a city i haven’t been in for quite some time. the party was held in the e-werk, an old power plant.
the weather was really good, it was sunny most of the time except a thunderstorm one evening and a few rain drops. this time, i stayed in a hotel and didn’t sleep under the tables, which resulted in much more sleep for me, except that breakfast at the hotel was pretty early compared to the times i usually ended up in bed asleep. but at least i got decent sleep and didn’t look like a zombie after two days.
it was really nice to meet some friends again, most of them after a long time, in particular trigger, kojote, t$, dynamite, and some more.
the following photos show a bit of what was happening. the first and third photo shows people watching a compo (unfortunatley you cannot see anything on the bigscreen, otherwise everything else would have not been really visible), and the fourth shows the underground hallway to the restrooms.
one afternoon i went on a walk with kojote, looking at some interesting buildings in the neighborhood. here are some impressions:
overall, i have to say that it was partially exhausting, but nonetheless another nice experience. the next time i’ll just stay some of the days, i guess. maybe i’ll drop by at the buenzli this year, since it is not very far from here.
here’s my project 52 shot for the sixteenth week. the topic was
while visiting basel a few days ago, we ended up in a confectionery. chocolate of the month was banana chocolate, which i had to sample. and since it tastes really great, i have to share it with you. please click the photo to get a larger version:
technical details: 3s, f/32, 105mm, iso 200.
here’s my project 52 shot for the fifteenth week. the topic was
i grew up in two different worlds. first, i was outside mostly, playing in the woods. then, later, i started growing up with computers, and after some years with the internet, which was brand new back then. computers had fascinated me, long before we got our first one. later, when networks became fashionable, first in terms of network games and later in terms of sharing data, connecting computers, etc., we got more and more cables. my favorite cable color was blue. nowadays, it’s more and more wireless, though i still like the idea of having a cable. (not just for security.) i still have a lot of network cables flying around, including a hub and a switch which i haven’t used for years. this all isn’t visible in this week’s photos. instead, i chose a different topic, the cable tangle which can be found at my university. of course, not easily visible. the cables are well hidden, mostly. sometimes, if you know where to look, and if you have certain keys or know people with these keys, you can see not just one or two, but many of them. please click the photo to get a larger version:
technical details: 1/20s, f/4, 50mm, iso 200.
in case you wonder where all these cables go – they all “end” here, not far away from the first shot:
technical details: 10s, f/32, 105mm, iso 200.
