rocqua

in my previous journal, a few months ago, I promised a journal/news article retelling my adventrures in the alps. sadly, I have been terribly busy, starting school again, finishing my application for Cambridge, and just general busyness and so, now that I finally do have a holiday (and STILL there are things to do). as such, I decided to simply start uploading my photos from Switzerland. at least I have managed to process them.

I intend to upload only one piece every day, to give me ample time for each description, and to prevent them from becoming 'spam'

I will give a short recap of my experience in Switzerland.
I must say that it was quite invigoration an experience. I had never seen mountains before, so you can imagine the impact the Alps had on me. in total we went on (if I remember right) 4 hikes, and 2 car trips. sadly hiking is only posible in the middle of the day as you have to take some form of transport up to the mountain. That is, unless you want to hike for 4 hours, and then descend another kilometer to get back to the car.

We did get lucky once. There was a night train going back from Shynige Platte at 11 o'clock. and from this I got some amazing shots. on the way back, the train suddenly stopped, and then the lights went out..... It turned out that it was a national holliday, with huge fireworks over the city. the train had stopped to give us a good view, and that it was! Adding to the atmosphere was singing. we were in the same cart as some proffesional singers, and they just started out of nowhere. it was a most enthralling experience.

the only other times I got to shoot with good light were the two car trips. the first was to the Saxetental, a valley with a magnificent view of a mountain face at it's end. the second trip was to the sulstal. We went there, not only to shoot, but also to barbeque. However, when we arrived at the barbeque spot there were no good grills. In a flash of genius, I realized, that whilst there was no grill, there were stones. Not just any stones, but flat ones. We took the best one we could find, put it above the fire, and grilled on the stone!! It was great, because it was so primal, back to basics. Having to do everything yourself from scratch. I totally loved it. (and totally hit my own hand with a camping axe )

Our (me and my father) biggest hike was from first, to the balschapsee, past the foulhorn, to a place which’s name I forgot. I did have my photo gear with me, but past the balscapsee I never even thought of it. I was so immersed, first in my own exhaustion as we climed a rather steep part and later in the immense joy of a beautiful and fun descend. We completed the hike in 4 and a half hours, including a long break for photo’s. The predicted time was 5 hours.

All in all the trip was great. and it instilled in me a yearning for the wild. Not too long after we got home, i watched the movie 'into the wild' (if you haven't seen it do it NOW no seriously stop reading and see it, it isn't just a movie, it's a whole experience in and of itself). The movie only enforced the yearning, and I intend to go backpacking into the alps as soon as I can.

this is just a heads up, i am currently writing a journal about my holiday to Switzerland. after having finally cleared out my message centre. you can expect the first submissions to come rolling out right after the journal. i really feel like they are of a much higher standard.

Now that i think about it, i might even make it a news article, considering the size it already is, and how much i have left to do (i'd guess it'll be roughly 2-3 pages in word)

i picked up my new lens today
it's a tokina 12-24, i had been looking for a wide-angle for a while now (all i had was a 24-85, and a lensbaby) and i often found it lacking when taking landscapes. and after some searching on the web i decided to go for the tokina (rather than the tamron or sigma). i didn't actually pay for all of it, it's an early birthday present, because we are going to the apls on our holiday
(i am SO looking forward to it, finaly some real landscapes. (the typical dutch landscape is..... totally flat fields of grass).

i also got another lens, though i got it a while ago. however, that lens has a few issues. it's a 75-205 vivitar, firstly, it was advertised as a nikon mount, whilst it was a contax mount (still i got a total refund, includding shipping so it isn't to bad). however there is more, because it seems that the aperture oils have dried, so now the aperture blades are stuck, and the only way to fix it is to open it up (which i intend to, as it's worthless anyway). and lastly, after recieving my contax to canon adapter, it turns out that the lens doesn't fit because there are some protruding parts that actually hit the body inside the mount (!). so i will have to saw those off....