Umbrellas

An all too common scene these days... actually, the whole month of April with an exception of maybe four or five days altogether. I'm weary of rain!

Movement

Not the best of shots, I know, but the the light turned green a bit too soon and the car just set off at the moment I pressed the shutter so...
(the car can be seen in the shop window)

Under...

Just musing

Let's say you have a friend, someone you see or hear from fairly regularly. But then, out of the blue, that person leaves you nothing but a message saying something like this: "I'll be away for a while. Take care."

What does 'away' mean? It says nothing at all about where or why. All you know is that a few days previously said friend mentioned a possibility of visiting some place. But then again, why wouldn't they simply say so in the message if that was the case?

And then, the even more intriguing 'a while'. How long is that? Three days? Two weeks? A month? More?? Again, no clue.

Gosh, I hate messages that give away basically no information and do nothing for me but build suspense. And if there is something I can't stand, it's suspense. It drives me insane.

Deserted?

Greengrocery

The Market is another place I have written about in this blog before but I'm inclined to say a few words again.

It is a lively place where you can supply yourself with fresh fruit and veggies, many organically produced. There is also a fish market, several stores with milk and dairy products, different kinds of meat, bread and pastry, and so on.

I quite enjoy visiting the place and have a few trusty vendors with whom I do most of the shopping, mainly on Saturdays.

What's he looking at?

This cloud formation in the western sky from a couple of days ago looks a bit like a face, doesn't it?

Green Can or Can I?

Ok, I admit it... I've totally neglected practicing my writing skills, however poor they may be. And I'm not going to make up for that in today's post. Perhaps I need a fix of hop juice to set my remaining few score brain cells in the right frame of mind.

Speaking of frame, in the pic below is a can of beer from a local brewery. And it's standing on the Dragon Bridge, one of Ljubljana's landmarks. If you look closely, one of the four dragons guarding the bridge can be seen in the background to the right of the photo. As the matter of fact, I have written about these dragons before in one of the early posts on this blog, like here.

(no dragons or cans were harmed in the making of this post)

Zoo and green house effect

or perhaps it's all just a load of rubbish...

Green light

in the morning rush

Couldn't get a better angle from the passenger's seat so this shot will have to do.

Conversation in green

Couldn't resist posting this photo of a pair of green hellebores (helleborus viridis).

Freedom

The Sunday was beautiful. Warm and sunny with just some scattered clouds here and there. People set out to enjoy the day as best they could. Some with their feet on the ground, others with their head in the clouds. Who was better off, I wonder...

Wind in the grass

If this picture looks overexposed, it is. And if the grass blades look blurred, they are. The difference is, I wanted to achieve the blurred effect but with the compact camera I had at hand, I couldn't stop down the aperture enough to expose the photo correctly with the longer shutter speed I needed for capturing movement. So, in effect, this photo is a compromise and not a very successful one. In order to achieve the desired effect, I should have come to the meadow later in the afternoon with my DSLR and adjust the settings manually. Oh well, maybe next time...

Not a scene from Hitchcock's movie

The weather here continues to be whimsical... rain is a regular visitor and the sky is filled with clouds of various shapes and forms most of the time.

Out in the field, a cloud of a different kind covered the sky every now and again. But that one didn't consist of condensed vapour but of flesh and bone and sinew and blood and feathers and a number of small brains.

Another candid shot

Rebels without a cause?

A bit more aggressive processing this time but I think it fits the occasion.

My contribution to yellow

Again, without any commitment but I liked the idea.

This collage is made strictly of flowers but as I was walking through the town, I noticed an amazing amount of things yellow. Just realised too late I could photograph those, too.

Oh well, maybe some other time.

Playing with a poor photo again...

Dusk had already started to settle when I spotted this guy darting about in front of my flat. So I grabbed the camera and tried to capture him. But the focus doesn't work fast enough for these fellas so a black dot against the grey sky was all I could get.

Grey

It was a grey and rather boring day. The grass was growing, the water was flowing and life never left its ruts. But sometimes even that feels welcome.

Saturday

It was a wet day. I was awoken in the morning by the sound of thunder and torrential rain. By the time I was ready to go shopping the rain had stopped and patches of sky were beginning to show. This wasn't to last long, though. Another shower came and left. Still, I felt an urge to go out, to go for a walk. So I did. And I got to see cloud formations changing shape and colour, patches of blue sky being replaced by dark grey clouds. I saw buzzards hanging below the clouds, scared off a heron which then flew in circles for a while before disappearing behind trees. And, of course, I found myself smack in the middle of a shower. The rain hasn't stopped since, and the day is nearly over.

High in the sky

I understand there is a trend in blogosphere of posting photos of the sky on Fridays. I'm not really a herd animal so I don't intend to join the club officially but I suppose that doesn't mean I can't post a sky photo now and again. Today I choose blue sky - something that is much in demand here at present - defiled by a bird of a mechanic kind.

Budding under grey sky

The sky looks like this most of the time these recent days. Nonetheless, it is time for growth and everything in the nature knows it.

Abstract

What happens when the camera goes off by accident? And you don't delete the misfired shot right away but rather play with it a little?

Well, this (and don't ask me what it's supposed to represent - I have as little idea as anybody else):

Daffodils by the railroad on a rainy day

Actually, more than just a rainy day. It was thoroughly depressing. The kind of day when the clouds can't quite decide whether they will drag themselves across the sky while releasing their wet cargo or lay low and stroke the ground with wisps of soaking mist. Eventually, they do a little bit of both and, just for the fun of it, drop a shower of sleet and mix a few snowflakes with the rain while impregnating the sky with impenetrable greyness.

However, the daffs, true to their nature, held their bright yellow heads up high, defying the sleet and the rain. Snowflakes were too few and far between to have any chance of reaching them anyway. They have to look pretty for the bees that may visit them as soon as the rain stops and the air warms up a bit.

A miss

This could have been a great shot had the bird waited another second .
Come to think of it, the captured moment is perfect but the bird, launching itself from the twig, also launched itself out of focus. Oh well...

Under the weather

A vague sensation of feeling sick woke her up. She kept her eyes closed in vain hope she would fall back asleep. No luck. She moaned and turned on the other side, her eyes still shut. The feeling remained. Finally she realised the sickness wouldn't go away and she opened her eyes. The figures on a digital watch showed 02.20.

"Aw shit," she thought, "and quite literally so."

She scrambled out of bed and headed for the toilet.

About ten minutes later she was back in bed. Not for long, though. Before she knew it, she felt a bitter taste in her mouth and back it was, this time ejecting the contents of her disturbed stomach through the other end.

Exhausted, she fell into her bed again but this time she knew it wasn't over yet. She had to get out of bed twice more before finally managing to get some rest.

When she dragged herself out of bed in the morning, feeling weak and considering snuggling back as soon as possible, she heard the voice of her significant other:

"What takes you so long? You said you'd help me fix these blinds. Come here and give me a hand!"

They are back!

Tolkien fan

I found this scribbled on a wall in an underpass (click for a larger view).

April Fools

A group of 38 Belgian scouts, age 15 to 22, got lost in the mountains between Slovenia and Italy on the eve of April 1st. They headed on a mountain trek without a guide, insufficiently equipped and unacquainted with the conditions they were going to meet. Many left the camp in shorts and even mini skirts unaware that in the altitudes above 1500 metres above sea level the conditions were still wintry. A rescue operation was launched from both Slovenian and Italian side after they did not return to camp. Fortunately, the scouts were found and given blankets and other equipment to warm up while waiting for the helicopter to take them back to the valley and nobody got hurt.

Phew, I wouldn't even go to the beach in the peak of summer with nothing but shorts! Human stupidity has indeed no limits.

Expensive hobby?

So, these last two photos I posted were taken with my new telephoto (70-300 mm) lens. I am quite impressed by its capabilities although I haven't figured it out completely yet.

Photography proves to be an expensive hobby unless you are able to make money off it. And I've actually spent more than I can afford. Well, I had the money at the moment but it was actually meant for other things. And I feel the lens was a good investment although some in my vicinity would disagree and would call me reckless and selfish. And they would probably be right but the fact is, I don't care!

I love my new lens!

New toy

just fooling around...