Posts from the category General
Posts in this category are (in the main) not assigned to one of the more specific categories in this website.
Everybody likes a pretty castle
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Visiting the ridiculously picturesque castle and vineyards at Aigle, in the Rhone valley.
Unexpected locations
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Brooke Shaden is a wonderfully creative photographer, whose images make me wish that I had the opportunity to spend more time on creating and editing more theatrical images. But I can’t complain; my time is, after all, spent on pursuing other passions and fascinating goals. One of the problems I came across when shooting for
Gasterntal, Kandersteg
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After so many years of driving up random little tracks and small roads in the Bernese Oberland, it’s rare to come across somewhere I’ve not been before. So when we decided to take a spontaneous trip out on Sunday, and found a little yellow line on the map leading south into the mountains from Kandersteg,
“Aareböötle”
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I took part in our company day out yesterday, when we went down the river Aare from Schwellenmätteli in Bern, beneath the towering heights of Bern’s old city, to Eymatt, on the north western edge of the city suburbs. Although it sounds like a city-centre trip, the area around the river in and near Bern
Using your shoulder as a camera rest
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A tip I passed on to a participant at a photo workshop last weekend was one I learned from Joe McNally: not on how to light your subject or how to interact with them, but how to manage your heavy camera. By holding the camera in one hand and the flash in another, with the
Glacier 3000
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Glacier 3000 is the name of a tourist destination in the French Swiss region of Les Diablerets; the number in question being the (approximate) height in metres above sea level of the upper part of a sizeable glacier, easily reachable by cable car and snowed-over the whole year round. As well as the usual outdoor
Mint choc chip at last!
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After more than twelve years in Switzerland, there are few foods or drinks which I miss from the UK. Kenco (instant) coffee is a regular buy when we’re in the UK and we also stock up on pain killer tablets when we can, as prices in Switzerland are astronomical in comparison. The biggest pleasure which
Never-ending story
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The view across the river and weir at Schwellenmätteli in Bern is wonderful on a late summer evening, and will be vastly improved from a photographic perfectionist’s point of view once the restoration work on the minster is complete. If I understand this article on Swiss newspaper website Der Bund correctly, there has been scaffolding
Twalender 2014
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Here in Switzerland, a few active photographic members of social media website Twitter have decided to pool their resources and initiate a calendar of Swiss photos for 2014, featuring photos from a Flickr group entitled “Twalender 2014”. (Kalender being the German translation of calendar.) Flickr members can add up to five of their photos to the
Swimming with the fish
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Swimming in the river Aare is a hobby I’ve taken up this year with gusto, having been initiated by colleagues at work last summer. Once past Bern, the river slows down as it meanders through the countryside and the greenness of the pastures below the ridge of the Jura mountains extends into the river itself, reminding
Remember when…?
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Sometimes I remember to take a photo just so that I can look at it one day in the future and say, “do you remember when we used to do this?” One day, this photo will be twenty years ago.
A picture in ten thousand
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Before I was any good at taking photos, I’d flick through the pages of National Geographic and daydream of trips to new places, where I’d capture wonderfully lit scenes to my heart’s content. Michael Palin’s first travel TV series “Around The World In Eighty Days” was the first series which piqued my interest in travel
The news story in this video highlights technical points which seem obvious to most mobile phone users, but which less tech-savvy people may easily overlook. If you take photos when location services are active on your phone, the photos contain details of where and when the photo was taken. Share the photo on Facebook, Twitter
Aareinseli
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The “Aareinseli” is a small, privately-owned island in the middle of the river Aare, just upstream of the Swiss town of Solothurn. The owners, who run a smallholding on the island, open the island to paying guests between May and September and offer an idyllic setting for social events: from a basic drinks reception to
In Memoriam – Kodachrome
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When digital photography went mainstream, it was the death knell to Kodachrome, even devout Kodachrome enthusiasts migrated from the venerable film to their DSLRs, providing the photographer a level of control that would have been unimaginable with good old Kodachrome. Kodachrome was a victim of advancement, and as the years pass I expect to see
Technical case study: Bike To Work
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Back in 2011, the organizers of Bike To Work Switzerland approached my employer !frappant Webfactory to re-develop their website and the participants’ admin system. I worked with a third-party usability consultant to re-think and re-design the project, before I carried out the design work in Photoshop and the team and I subsequently produced the website on the base
“Keep it simple” meetup date selected
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Thanks to all of those who have completed the Doodle poll mentioned in a previous post, the date for our next meetup has been chosen as Sunday, 25th August at the Blatterwiese park in Zurich. Members of Facebook can sign up for the event and discuss it on my Facebook page; alternatively, please feel free to leave
The Descent of Christ Into Limbo
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What is it they say? “I don’t know what art I like; but I know it when I see it.” I was captivated by this golden, glowing painting in the Santa Croce church of Florence when we visited in 2011. I don’t know whether it was the depth of detail in the painting, the tremendously
