And another one from Edinburgh...... this time the wee cluster of buildings below the castle that gives the view from Princes street much of it's character - but in a kind of cutesy, unauthentic, Portmeirion sort of way. Better to explore the back closes of the Royal Mile
Another photo from my brief trip to Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. A young looking Queen Victoria. Where is this statue? Answers on a postcard please.....
I was in Edinburgh for a couple of days recently, so expect a few more un-Zurich photos.
Interesting to compare modern architecture in cities like The Hague, indeed most european cities that I know, with Switzerland. The style in Switzerland is restrained but impressive in it's own way, and, I think, when examined at the human level has more to offer us who have to live in the built environment. Eye-catching although it is, and a godsend for photographers I suppose, I get tired of this relentless ostentation - a seemingly endless competition between architects to produce building whose main aim appears to be to say "look at me".
If it's Holland, it must be bicycles - or is it vice-versa...? On reflection this is not really a characteristic photo. Quite difficult to get a view in a Dutch city with only two bicycles in the shot
Apart from crumbling architecture, it is also possible in Italy to photograph entire conversations
London infuriates me, but I love the parks and many other things about the town.
I've also decided to make my blog bigger, well, wider....
It is small, welcoming, has a world class collection - and they allow photography!
http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/index.shtml
Solothurn was one of the stops on my recent trip.
It's a nice town on the Aare, a mixture of medieval and Baroque architecture. When I arrived it was market day, and this gave it an even more medieval feel with people and stalls clustered at the feet of the older buildings. So I did this photo in a kind of medieval postcard style......
Seems like an appropriate place for a church.
Taken on my recent cycle trip round Switzerland. I didn't pay much attention to photography surprisingly, but I find landscape photography tends to leave me a bit cold these days. I suppose it never captures the experience no matter how good the photo.
Now I'm refreshed it's time to get back blogging on a more regular basis. Just have to think of something to blog about........
I'm having a couple of days break during my cycle ride, so I'm back in Zürich to attend to some bits and pieces. Time for a blog post.
And an accompanying piece of music that has a few resonances with both the photo and my itinerary.
I left my bike in Lausanne, and will be going onwards via Geneva into La France! So this piece of music has a decidedly French feel. The music is a setting of Gauthier by Berlioz from Les Nuits d'été - Le Spectre de la Rose. The poetry is a little sentimental, but the music and the performance are ravishing.
Recorded by French soprano Regine Crespin, with l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, based in Geneva and conducted by the longstanding founder Ernest Ansermet in 1963. This has probably never been bettered with the powerful but creamy and controlled voice at it's best. Listen to the end of the second verse.
I've been having a rest from blogging recently. Apologies for not doing the rounds.
Yesterday, Sunday, I set out on a bike ride which may last anything from 2 days to 2 weeks depending on how my legs and bottom hold out. I don't have a real plan although originally I was going to head for France and mingle with "Le Grand Boucle". We'll see. I'll update this blog with progress
Yesterday I left home and covered 80km or so to westwards to Olten.
I also have a new toy - an iPhone 3GS. One of the fun/useful/distracting things about this is it's GPS capabilities. The other is the amount of slick applications you can install. I've installed something called Airme which uses the phone's camera to take photos and upload them to, for example, Picasa.
http://picasaweb.google.com/glarner.sprinter/AirMe#
It automatically Geo-tags them so they are magically added to the Picasa map view option. Of course, the photos are crap, but it's an interesting, and blindingly simple way of recording what you've been doing.
Here then is a photo of my fellow bloggers from our recent trip. A bit like the last photo, but with the dramatis personae. (and me)
From left to right. Nathalie (Avignon), Peter (Paris), Chuckeroon (Richmond upon Thames) and our host Jilly (Menton).
Thanks to everyone again - a superb few days, and an example of one of the beneficial side effects of blogging. How else would the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful and the rich find themselves all on the same stone bench in the South of France. In no particular order, of course ;-)
I spent a few days at a meeting of fellow bloggers in the South of France - and all you get is this black and white photo.
Facilitated with great hospitality by Jilly, we also had for company Nathalie (Avignon), Peter (Paris) and Chuckeroon (Richmond upon Thames).
