A jaunt through Geneva

This past summer we visited Geneva, Switzerland, during the Fêtes de Genève. It was a short business trip, if I recall correctly it was about a day and a half, but in-between the business meetings, we snuck in a jaunt or two through the old town. One afternoon we started down by the lake, on the Promenade du Lac, and we climbed uphill on the beautiful stone steps toward the Rue de l’Hôtel-de-Ville and the Promenade Saint-Antoine, then we came back down to the lake to see the Jet d’Eau. The following day, we visited the Promenade des Bastions, where the Université de Genève is located. And that was it. It was August, it was incredibly hot, even for Geneva, and the only area tolerable enough during the sweltering daytime heat was the lakeshore. It really says something about global warming when Geneva’s weather becomes intolerable in the summer…

Geneva is a beautiful city with a lot of history. It’s a wonderful thing when a country has a chance to develop and to build upon the successes of previous generations without the ravages of war, which to say the least, reset the clock of progress for a place. Switzerland has been in this enviable position for hundreds of years where it has been able to stay neutral and thus its people have had decent lives and have been able to see the fruits of their labor and to leave something worthwhile behind for their successors.

I hope you enjoy this gallery of photographs from a privileged place, full of beauty and value.

Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland

Places

Summer in our garden

I promised I’d put together a gallery of photos taken in our garden last summer (that’d be the summer of 2018 for those of you who’ll be reading this in future years), and here it is.

Get ready to see 347 photos of summertime, taken between June and August of last year. Grab a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy! 😀

A two-frame focus stack
A three-frame focus stack. The little speck you see in the upper left quadrant is a tiny little insect.
A two-frame focus stack
A two-frame focus stack
A two-frame focus stack at f2.8 🙂
A two-frame focus stack
I prefer them unpicked 🙂
Apparently that’s the name for this kind of blossom 🙂
A three-frame focus stack
Apparently that’s the name for this kind of blossom 🙂
Apparently that’s the name for this kind of blossom 🙂
A two-frame focus stack
An adorable little creature
A two-frame focus stack
A four-frame focus stack
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
On the evening of the summer solstice, 21st of June 2018
A four-frame focus stack
A three-frame focus stack
A two-frame focus stack
A two-frame focus stack
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
A three-frame focus stack
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
In the garden, summer of 2018
An eight-frame focus stack, taken with my Olympus PEN E-P3, the 45mm f1.8 lens and the MCON-P02 converter
One of our small cypress trees is recovering after almost drying out

Events

Photos from a recent snowstorm

I know late winter snowfalls are a hassle for most people. I know. Especially after spring seems to have arrived. Having to deal with piles of snow after dealing with it all winter long is not fun for most people.

I am not most people. I love winter. I love snow. I love the cold. And when more cold weather comes, I enjoy it. Like this recent snowstorm. I went outside and took photos in the thick of it. Came back wet, because the snow was melting as it was falling. My camera was thoroughly wet. My lens was wet. Neither of the two are waterproofed. Thank goodness they’re still working.

Remember, it’ll be warm soon enough, and before we know it, it’ll be so disgustingly warm that we’ll be sweating through our clothes and our cars’ ACs won’t be able to handle all the heat. That’s disgusting weather for me. That’s filthy weather for me. It’ll be here soon enough, unfortunately. So I’m going to relish the snowstorms while I still can.

Enjoy the photos!

This is melting snow, cradled in the curled leaf of a honeysuckle vine.
This tree is over 30 years old
During a recent snowstorm
During a recent snowstorm
Blowing in the wind of a recent snowstorm
Sitting under one of our fir trees during the snowstorm. She’d come outside to be with me as I was taking photos.

Places

Spring fog

We had some lovely fog during this week. Dreamy but driveable, as I call it: enough visibility on the road to see where you were going, with enough atmosphere to make everything seem otherworldly. As I’m wont to do, I gallivanted through the local forests with my camera, enjoying myself. I couldn’t do it too much, because duty called. In my case, my current duty is to purchase materials and supervise the ongoing restoration work at our country estate: an old Saxon fortified church and parochial house in Magarei, built during medieval times, now in sore need of loving care. So as I was driving back and forth between Mediaș (known in Saxon as Mediasch) and Pelișor (known in Saxon as Magarei), I’d park the car on the side of the road and run off into the forest, camera in hand, clock ticking on my wrist, spend 10-20 minutes hopping over the molehills (there are quite a few of them this year, just about everywhere around Magarei), take my photos, take a few seconds to listen to the sounds of the forest, which are lovely this time of year, then I’d run back to the car to see to my work. Only a few birds have begun to sing among the trees, so what I mostly heard were the sounds of water droplets (fog condensate) falling onto last autumn’s foliage on the ground. It was a lovely sound, a muted sort of “mpphhh” that punctuated the fog-muffled silence of the forest, and since I love silence and hate man-made sounds, it was quite perfect.

Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
In the countryside near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania
Forest near Magarei, Transylvania, Romania

Places

Objects and details

Something I often find myself doing during the winters is searching the house for things to photograph. Whether it’s something as simple as an object on my desk or something a little harder to spot, such as reflections in glazed porcelain, it’s always interesting to find a novel way to frame everyday things. Our cats often wake up from their slumber to find a camera pointed at them, and they’re surprisingly tolerant, far more than I’d be, were I to be in their shoes. I present you with a gallery of recent images. Enjoy!