Reflecting on the past few days

Things improved slightly this afternoon, though...

55 on Friday

4pm rush. A bus, uncomfortably full. Human smells wafting about in the overheated air: sweat, spicy food, booze, cigarette smoke, cheap deodorant...
Trapped inside, a wasp, tapping incessantly on the windowpane, trying in vain to escape. People milling around in discomfort.

A man sitting by the window pulls out his cellphone and squashes the wasp.

Abstract

... in the colours of this dreary Thursday
(although not directly related to today in any way)

haiku my way

top of the hill

the horizons

i never saw before

...

did i betray you?
was i betrayed by you?
whose truth is just?
without a judge
without a jury
you sentenced me to life
without you

Here I come

Between apples and pears seems a strange place for a sunflower to grow. But this one seems to do just fine and the bumblebee about to visit it appears to be quite happy with the way things are.

55 on a Friday

The apple standing alone at the edge of a parking lot was not a happy tree. Last spring it had been trimmed within an inch of its life. This cold and wet spring bees failed to visit its blossoms. Now the scorching summer heat has sapped all its juices and the remaining fruit has shrivelled.

As hot as it looks...

Still, it's summer and I like it hot ...

haiku my way

she dyes
her hair...
summer's end

In focus (more or less)

Playing with depth of field on moss rose (Portulaca) blossoms...

Blur intended

I will reveal tomorrow what these colourful spots are...

Reflecting on an overcast Sunday

...a grey heron

Heat and stuff

I went on a trip today and for the first time in I don't know how long came home without a single photo taken.

Right now it is close to 11pm and I'm sitting as still as possible, feeling I would be better off with gills to breathe, so humid is the air. There was a thunderstorm earlier in the evening which did nothing in terms of refreshing the atmosphere, if anything it made things worse. It's been hot here (30C plus hot, 35 plus in the last couple of days) for over a week with the temperatures and humidity rising by the day, the whole thing reaching climax today.

No way was I staying in the city in such conditions so we sat in the (air-conditioned) car and drove to higher grounds, an elevated plateau with a specfic microclimate. Most of the year the place is cold as hell but in these conditions it was a welcome respite from the unbearable muggy heat of the lowlands. Alas, many other people came to the same conclusion so there were crowds everywhere with queues for drink, queues for food, queues for the bathroom...

I still managed a relatively peaceful walk through a dense spruce forest with so many anthills as I don't remember seeing anywhere else. Some were like real mountains, others - mainly smaller - were teaming with frenzied ants. Their paths crossed ours and stepping on a few was almost unavoidable. I got ant-bitten in return. The clearings were teaming with butterflies and a few dragonflies hoverd in the vicinity of water sources.

So why did I not take any photos? I'm not too fond of shooting humans and usually realise too late there were photo ops at all. The light was relentless: sharp and blistering int he sun, muted half-dusk in the shade. The visibility was poor because of the heat haze. None of the wildlife (insects in particular) was ready to stay still for more than a few miliseconds. So I chose to rather enjoy the day as it was than chase the impossible and feel frustrated when things don't work the way they should.

55 on a Friday

The muffled sound of a fan stirring the overheated air filled the room. Apart from that, all was quiet. The man sitting in his armchair tried hard not to move a muscle as each movement caused his pores to release copious amounts of sweat. Until... a distinctive buzz made him swat frantically at a mosquito.

Who do you write like?

This fun test seems to be making rounds through the blogosphere so I thought why not give it a try. I scrolled down to the first post with more than a couple of sentences of text (this one) and got this:

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Fine. But I wanted a second opinion so I chose this for the next analysis...

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Hmmm... ok, so let's try some fiction (which made me realise just how long I haven't written any longer than 55 words), et voila...

I write like
Stephenie Meyer

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Now what? The first post in this blog?

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

There may be a pattern after all...

haiku my way

memories of him...
the lingering aftertaste
of dark chocolate

Same butterfly, same flower - a few moments earlier

Muffed target

This is what happens when you get ready to shoot a butterfly on a flower but the moment you press the shutter, the insect changes its mind and takes off in a blur.
I admit I cheated a bit with this one. There is the whole flower in the original but I wanted to make the failure more effective and cropped part of it away. Other than that, the photo is as taken.

Bird growing up

This plump ball of feathers perched among green apples is a fledgling blackbird. It sat on the ground as I passed it to fetch the camera but fluttered clumsily with its still underdeveloped wings when I approached . It managed to clamber up an apple tree, part flying, part crawling and once perched, sat there watching my antics while I was attempting to take its photo.

Swanning around

Ambling about a river is an opportunity to see (and possibly capture) many reflections...

Wordless in monochrome

haiku my way

i wonder
what he's thinking...
moonlight in the dog's eyes

Otočec

I wasn't at work today. In fact, I took a couple of days off (the weather being sure sign of which: overcast and sultry with heavy rain forecast later in the day) But I didn't want to stay at home either so we set off toward a nice little place called Otočec - which, appropriately, means something in terms of 'small island'. There is indeed a small island in the middle of the river called Krka, connected to the mainland by a wooden bridge on both ends, with a small castle which is now converted into a high end restaurant. I didn't go in there but took quite a lot of time ambling about with my camera. There was a swan family paddling about, a grey heron fished at the far end, a few dragonflies and numerous damselflies hovered around, some mating, some laying eggs, others just resting on the lush vegetation.

The castle:



Swanning around:


The fishing guy:


Fitting in:


Swingers:

Just for fun (or embarrassment)

I just said somewhere else that I instantly delete my flawed photos but, lo and behold, there are a few in my folders that could qualify for the Muffed Target challenge (which I am not entering).
This was supposed to be a photo of a pigeon who landed on the ledge of one of the office windows, and it was a quickfire shot. Before I could adjust the settings and fire away again, the bird was gone. The photo was preserved because it was still on my memory card after my old laptop had died and I downloaded it again.

(yet another) weather report

This time with a photo (especially for you, Thom)



The day began so humid I started to sweat as soon as I moved my eyelids and turned around in bed. It continued in the same fashion with the sun beating down as well (notice: I am not complaining, merely observing. I don't suppose anyone will ever hear me complain about the sunshine or the heat; the humidity may be a slightly different matter, though)

Then, around 3pm, all of a sudden (and it literally only took a few minutes) the sky darkened, the wind started to blow with remarkable force, the sky looked magnificently dramatic but changed almost by the second and I only managed to take 2 or 3 photos before the rain came lashing down in buckets with small grains of hail mixed in for good measure. The show only lasted about 20 minutes before tamer clouds took over and the temperature dropped for about 6-7 degrees (Celsius, that is) so we were finally able to breathe.

Odonate reflection

The sun reflecting off the wings of a dragonfly perched on a blade of grass above a slow flowing stream

Min dof

Nothing much to add... the blossom is tiny, perhaps about 6mm wide

Just a sunset pic

This is today's sunset as seen from my balcony. It was a hot and humid day but as the night sets in it gets colder rather quickly.

Last night the sunset sky was overcast, edges of clouds taking on shades of pink and salmon. Then a thunderstorm rushed in very quickly and it turned dark in a few minutes. There was a lot of lightning and thunder but not much rain.

I've been trying to capture a lightning flash on camera for a while but with no success. They come too erratically and unpredictabely to be able to point the camera in a certain direction and wait for the discharge. I have also tried tripod and longer exposures from the safety of my balcony but again, no luck. I'll get it one day, though...