3 posts tagged “photography”

Ouch, it's been ages since I last posted anything. It's not even that I haven't had anything to write about - it's probably more like that I have done more things that equate to "having a life", I went to Norfolk for a long weekend which was brilliant, and work has been insanely busy, so I have been too lazy to write blog postings. But now I'm back because the novelty of "having a life" has worn off (I'm not actually that sad, honest :-) and I have to have an outlet for my new hobby: my brand new camera.

Yes, I have taken the big step, raided my savings account and finally upgraded my camera to something a little more modern (although my old camera was only 4-5 years old, that would make it an antique in digital camera terms, and I've been looking with envy at what everyone else's cameras were able to do for quite a while). So I bought a brand new camera this week. Since the two things that most annoyed me about my old camera were the frustrating (lack of) zoom and (equally lack of) wideangle lens, I went all the way and bought one of those super-super-zoom hybrid cameras: the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.

It is absolutely brilliant actually. On my daily walk through Hampstead Heath (I walk 5 miles to work everyday now, very healthy - and relaxing) I tried to take pictures of the local wildlife before, but what you could see was usually *random landscape* with black dot in the middle where you tried to zoom in on some animal. This time you actually could see the animal in the picture. A novelty! I was 20 mins late for work and got mistaken for a birdwatcher, but hey.

Anyway, here are some of the photos. I actually feel quite lucky that I get to walk past all this on the way to work everyday, despite living in the Big Smoke!

Waterbird in Hampstead Heath

Coot nest

Pond in Hampstead Heath

Family of coots

Early morning view over London

Waterbird in Hampstead Heath

I'm back from my second trip to Vienna this month. A very Austrian month indeed! This time it was a scheduled trip though - my yearly trip home for Easter - and I had been planning it for months (which still didn't help the extortionate travel prices but hey). I didn't stay in Vienna this time, I stayed in my parents' home in a small village in Lower Austria, near Mistelbach. The area is called the Weinviertel (wine quarter) and is thus characterised by vineyards, wine cellars and the fact that every village has a wine press as a "special landmark". Apart from my parents' village which has an old fire engine, possibly rebelling against the rest by putting up a different landmark!

Other than that the area is very wide and mostly consisting of fields and rolling hills, as can be seen here:

Clouds

Easter was a very freezing affair. Somehow winter came back and on the day I left to go back to England it snowed! I spent most of my time sorting through my old stuff, and found gems such as my teenage song lyrics and diaries (neither of which should ever see the light of day). My parents sorted through even older things, such as letters written by my grandparents in the second world war and its aftermath. It was a bit of an eye opener in terms of the hardships people had to live through at that time, the hunger they suffered and how much they lost during the war - and the barely contained hope that life will become more prosperous again.

I also found bureaucratic correspondence (insurance policies etc) from before the second world war, all signed with "Heil Hitler" instead of "Kind regards".  Looking at it you cannot help but be amazed at the insanity of that time. Did people realise the ridiculousness of greeting each other with "Hail *insert dictator's name*"? Were they too scared to do otherwise or did they simply go with the flow because times were tough and they didn't want to question authority? Very bizarre...

On my way back to England I took an afternoon out to visit Gent in Belgium. I didn't expect much because I had never been there before, but it was amazingly beautiful. I also have to give an extra mention to the wonderfulness that is cherry beer (and it doesn't cost £5 there like it does here).

Here are some pictures of the town:

Above are some buildings in the old medieval centre, and below a huge town square called Vrijdagmarkt (which confusingly becomes a bustling market on Sundays instead of Fridays like the name suggests). The square was really impressive, and it helped that the cloud formations were beautiful combined with the huge statue in the middle of the square (I was too busy taking pictures to remember to look up who the person on the statue is)

The rest of the time I walked through the streets and along the waterways with hundreds of bridges. I don't think the pictures pay tribute to how beautiful these waterways and the old buildings and bridges next to it are. Especially because the light was pretty low (although the clouds sometimes opened to let some sunshine through) - in a way the dark clouds and blue sky patches added to the atmosphere though.

It seems to be pretty cheap to go to Gent from London, as train connections from Brussels are included in the Eurostar ticket - I'll definitely be back in the summer to drink cherry beer by the waterside - or go to Bruges which must be stunning too. Until then I have at least three litres of random cherry and fruit beer bottles that I bought in a supermarket as a souvenir (and then carried home - ouch).

Last weekend, when it was glorious spring weather (and quite warm for a change), I took my camera and walked to Highgate where I found a really nice urban park with a couple of very pretty little lakes. Here are my attempts to take photos of the park and its assorted urban wildlife.