Sunset in purple

I had already started writing about analog film and how it has much better colour rendition than digital sensors. But then I decided that I really don't care and that you probably don't either. Why? Because photography isn't about colour rendition.
Anyhow, this was taken in the south of France, specifically at the Verdon canyon (like this photo I posted recently). The lake above is artificial and is the result of a dam at the southern edge. The village next to the lake, Les Salles-sur-Verdon, is relatively new - the old village of Sainte-Croix-de-Verdon being completely underwater (isn't knowledge fun?). Anyhow, the best known (and, of course, most invaded by tourists) village in the area is Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, which is quite lovely (if you're in the region and playing tourist, by all means, invade away). The only problem with the tourism is that it drives prices up - everything is expensive (other than the cheap camps). Also, France tends to be filled with the French, who spend most of their time being incredibly french. Trust me, that makes a hell of a lot more sense than it might seem at first glance.

Gift suggestion

This is what I wanted for Christmas, but all I got are red boxers with Santa on it. The picture of this beautiful Alfa Romeo 8c Competizione was taken last year at Bologna Motorshow. It is a true beauty, but sadly limited to 500 pieces. It is powered by Maserati V8 and produces 450 horsepower. Nice, but some tests say that sadly is not driven that good... a beauty though.

Being watched?

Have you ever had the feeling you were being watched?
Like the eyes of strange things are upon you?
~ Bugs Bunny

I'm not sure if the above quote actually makes much sense, since Bugs said it to Dracula himself. Be that as it may, I think he's probably referring to being in a cartoon, that is, being recorded by someone else (breaking the third wall, but then, he did that quite often - probably every episode). All stories are like this, after all, since there's someone doing the telling - and few real stories are told in the first person. Ergo, most characters in stories are being watched (or rather, were watched at the time the story took place).
Now that I think about it, this feeling that one is being watched is probably incredibly common. Sure, you sometimes actively think that someone is watching you (I'm trying really really hard not to mention the song - damn, just did), but since most stories we're told (and movies we watch) take place in the third person, perhaps this feeling is more normal than we give it credit for. We probably just suppress it like crazy - and so it comes forth only at certain places and times. Yes, at three in the morning in the middle of the woods. The dark, scary, creepy woods. When you think to yourself "Jinkies!" and get the hell out of there.
Anyhow, I found this photograph lurking around on an external hard drive. It's interesting how some photographs stick in one's memory - even if you just file them away somewhere, you still sort of keep them in your head, knowing you'll use them somewhere. Most of the pictures we post on this blog are like that - we take a shot and it stays with you, even if you don't see it again for quite a while. But then there are photos such as the one above. Photos which you've completely forgotten because you never noticed them in the first place. But sometimes, at silly times in the night, when you feel like maybe someone really is watching, you browse your old photos (wondering how the hell you managed to mess so many of them up) and find something like this.
If there's anything in this post that confuses you, that's cool. Feel free to ask. Preferably over coffee.

Grand canyon du Verdon

This is the end of the Verdon canyon, where the Verdon river flows into a large, artificial lake. We spent most of our time climbing, though we did rent canoes for an hour and went rowing as far as we could - which wasn't very far. The photo itself was taken on film with my old Konica, I used Fuji's Velvia film which is perfect for showing off the strong colours.

A Musician

Playing his sax into the sundown... Taken wide at 16mm.

Big Girlfriend + Big Sun = Big Umbrella

And of course, big fun! Cuba. Taken on a big marketplace where tourists don't come.

Watch tower

A lonely watchtower, trying in vain to keep the night away.

We already have a few different photos of Ljubljana's castle on this blog, but then, it is quite photogenic. Here are three examples: click click click. On this one here, I really like the bright clock face and the dark purple of the sky. I had already written the line above as part of this comment, but I liked it so much, I decided it needed space of its own.

Sunfish

This one is for Janez. He's actually seen one of these in real life (that's that thing which happens whenever you leave your computer). It's called a sunfish, I saw this one at Lisbon's aquarium. Apparently, they can be quite dumb, at least according to Wikipedia (though it could just be going with the flow).

Frozen (in time?)

Žiga with his best 'deer caught in the headlights' look. Also, this is our 201st post on this blog. We somehow forgot to mention our 200th post. We promise never to do this again ;-)

The woman in red dress

Taken this summer in Spain on the streets of Granada. She was going to some wedding nearby, but the people loved her as you see. The dress is modified to a little graphical look (and not done very nicely) that some of you I know will find it terrible. It has to be like this :)

LCD monitor pixels

This is a photo of a few pixels from Apple LED Cinemadisplay. A very good example of a macro LCD panel photo from the real world. Taken at 250mm telefoto with Canon 55-250 kit lens and Raynox 50€ macro conversion lens. Size of one pixel is about 0,25mm. Pretty cool, ha :)

Spending some time together

Cuban army is starting the guns these days I hear, to get in shape in case of Raul's command. And that reminded me of the photo I took when I was traveling there. A soldier, spending some free time with his boy, probably his stepson, or maybe just a friend. They were sitting on a concrete fence near the sea in Havana, resting and checking people around. Those days could be over now.

Hawaii dog

Taken this summer in France, though just why this dog was wearing a Hawaii necklace is beyond me.

Umbrella

Some of you have already seen this one, but still, I like it. This is an umbrella I bought from some gypsy in Neapels and It was protecting me from the rain very well it's times :)

Cake delivery

This is how a cake delivery looks like on Cuba. Tasty, ha? And later sold to some tourists for a million :)

Holy Pigeon

...walking forward to the st.Peter's Basilica in Vatican. Taken wide at 16mm.

Boulder time!

Taken this summer in the Trenta valley, in an area with quite a few boulders. Climbing boulders is much different than climbing regular walls - but no less fun.

Penguin

Penguins are cool - figuratively and literally :)

Pretty lights

I'm not sure exactly what Nejc is staring at here - to me it looks as if he's mesmerised by the lights. That's completely silly, of course, since they are only there because of the lens I used... or are they?

Taken this summer in a camp at Verdon, France.

Badass

The photo speaks for itself :)

Straight?

Is the tower leaning or the church, that is the question. Taken in Pisa in a weather even worse than today's.

Just to kick the rainy day's ass!

Our friend Nika enjoying a sunny day in Izola. Full of colours to fight the gray clouds outside!

To meat people

This is how they "meat" people in Portugal. I can't actually remember where this one was taken, so geo-tagging maybe isn't such a useless thing at all :) Portugal really is a country of great food, especially if you love meat. And sorry for making you hungry (you lucky vegetarians).

Elevador de Santa Justa

A photo of Lisbon's Santa Justa elevator. It connects the downtown of Lisbon (the Santa Justa street) with the Carmo square. Lisbon itself is said to be built on seven hills (as is Rome, but according to Wikipedia, so are quite a few other cities), and has a couple of steep funiculars that climb the slopes. This elevator is over one hundred years old, and started out being powered by steam.

University of Ljubljana

The university building in Ljubljana, taken very late in the evening - that's why the sky is such a strong, dark blue. The building was renovated a few years back, and it's one of the more beautiful buildings in Ljubljana.

Wow dude, what a banana!

This one was taken at Gibraltar, almost at the top of the rock, which is full of macaque monkeys. They are quite aggressive and will steal your food or anything that shines or is interesting for them. This one saw a huge tasty banana, or a nice macaque lady maybe :)

Chocolate? What chocolate?

"I know not this 'chocolate' of which you speak."

Sea anemone

I was going to title this post simply 'anemone', but according to Wikipedia, that is actually the name of a genius of flowers. Sea anemones get their name from these flowers.

As for the photo, I love those deep blue and purple hues. Because of the low light (taken in the Lisbon aquarium), this was harder to take than it seems at first glance.

Mountain biking

We already have quite a few photos from climbing on this blog, though we've only been climbing for a year or so. But I've been mountain biking for much, much longer. The biggest reason that there are practically no photos here from mountin biking is that I never take a camera. They are usually too big and heavy, and while riding, there's rarely any time to take photos. With sports climbing, there's usually more free time to hop around and do some photography.

This shot is after we've returned to the car, we went on a nice, 5 hour ride to the tri-border between Slovenia, Austria and Italy. I like the ray of light that's shinning on red part of the frame of the first bike (which is, along with that helmet, mine :)).

Show-off butterfly

Not much to say except that nature is a very good artist indeed.

The Mozzarella Sandwich

Very tasty sandwich with fresh mozzarella made by a passionate Italian girl working in a small shop in Napels and as you can see, later eaten by some strange person :)

Time is the master

A Clock shop in Rome, taken at night while passing the streets. Taken at f2.0, that's why the sharpness is not the prime quality of the picture and vignetting is also visible. Actually it looks cool at this dark clock photo.

Happy mountain gnome

Taken during a recent hike (which I mentioned here), this is my sister, Vida. The title of the post was inspired by Blaž, who says Vida's happy (and anything but quiet) nature reminds him of a happy little gnome. It sounds better in slovene - 'Mala palčica', which translates to 'small gnome'.

I don't mention equipment all that much (except with photographs taken on film), but this was taken with a small, pocket-sized compact camera - the Panasonic Lumix LX-3. This is by far the best pocket camera I've ever used, mainly because of the very wide and very bright lens - from 24 to 60 mm with an aperture that goes from F/2.0 to F/2.8.

The brightest star and the comet

Actually the brightest star is the moon and the comet is a plane, but a nice one anyway I think.

Coming soon:)

The days are getting colder and colder and chestnuts will be available soon in the city center.

Break the lens with colors

As you can imagine, this shot was taken very close to the moving bowls and I was't able to be behind the camera, but I had to stand next to it, to control the centimeters separating my lens from the accident. It is a little difficult taking photos in that kind of conditions, because you don't really see what you are doing, but for me very enjoyable.

Let's move that shit!

Another story from the hill Osorščica, from the island Lošinj. This time about a guy who's life moto is simple: Let's move that shit! Taken with the 50mm f1.8 fixed Canon lens and cropped.

In the bushes

In the bushes stands a little house with four little green windows... This could be the beginning of a story, but is actually just a house near the village Nerezine on the island of Lošinj. The picture was taken from the highest hill above the island named Televrin, which is about 550 meters high. A friend of mine was joking all the way up how cool it is to be in the mountains at the seaside, it makes it interesting for both, mountain lovers and people who love the sea. Taken with a tele lens at 400 millimeters and fully frontal the house in the middle of the bushes looks really nice. The only thing which disturbs me are the electrical wires at the top, but there wasn't much I could do to cut them from up there :)

Viva Portugal

Shot in - you guessed it - Portugal, specifically in Lisbon this summer.

Mountaineering frog

I went on a nice hike today, which (combined with a lack of sleep) means I'm having a hard time writing this and keeping my eyes open. I snapped this shot on the way down, according to Barbara (who studies biology and knows these sorts of things), this is a Bombina variegata. Yay, knowledge!

Midnight fastfood

A hamburger stand in Ljubljana, which (as far as I know) only works during the summer. Taken sometime late at night. Notice how many photos here are taken early in the morning and how many late at night? Yes, Žiga and I are both night-people, not morning-people. A bit like Batman :)

Orchid

Not much to say other than I love orchids. Not enough to actually have them around (the only plants I do keep are cacti and a single Venus flytrap), but they certainly are photogenic.

Elegance

Another storefront window, late at night.

Upside down

Taken just a few days ago, though I fear autumn is on its way.

Window of blue

Taken in Lisbon's Archeological museum, the same place I took this similar shot.

Deep down

A small tribute to all the divers out there - Žiga is probably somewhere underwater as I write this. Taken in an aquarium, since I'm not one for diving. I just love the colour of this little guy.

Colorful umbrellas

I love this shot - I took it on Velvia film during a walk through Ljubljana. The only reason I even took this walk was because I had a few more shots on that roll of film to take, and I was on my way to get it developed. But being in the right place at the right time worked out well.

Fujifilm's Velvia film is probably the best for something like this. It has beautiful, strong colours, some of which are very very hard to capture with digital. Deep reds and purples are the hardest to get right on digital - overexpose by just the tiniest bit and that beautiful red Ferrari gets an orange tinge (speaking from experience).

A big thank-you to Primoz Gabrijelčič, who scanned this and a few other slides for me. Oh, and I've also written up a post at Monitor's blog (slovene only) on the topic of scanning.

Dark streets

Ljubljana is a beautiful city which we usually take for granted. The streets above are part of the old town of Ljubljana, I just love the old buildings (most of which have been renovated and look very nice indeed). I caught these two walking what I presume to be home sometime late at night - nothing more than nameless silhouettes.

Just a roof

...disappearing in the distance, or maybe darkness... Taken while resting on the balcony in the evening.

Afraid of something?

...of a dog maybe? The truth is just the orange on the orangetree that this college of mine wanted to eat :)