Szluring my words?

Suzanne Vega

2010-06-27T12:20:00.001+02:00

Suzanne Vega
Originally uploaded by Szczur

I was lucky enough to catch a free concert whilst on a week long visit to Kolobrzeg on the Polish coast. The headline performer was Suzanne Vega and the concert was great. The only problem was a power cut that affected much of the town and, sadly, shut down the show during "Tom's Diner". Luckily this was the last planned song (at least according to the technicians) so there wasn't much lost.

2010-04-13T23:29:00.002+02:00

I thought it was about time I posted another of Frodo's travel pictures. As you will recall, Frodo is not a Hobbit in this instance but my Mother-in-Law's dog. He has a knack for turning up in odd places and a still odder manner of finding someone around to document it.

This time, ol' Frodo has been to the Antarctic, to Weddell Sea to be exact. The penguins are, he says, all very friendly though they all seem to be called Horace which only serves to compound his confusion at their unvarying appearance.

A couple of days ago, a Polish plane crashed in Russia killing the Polish President, his wife, 86 other functionaries including all the military chiefs (Chief of Staff and Commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force) various politicians and clergymen and aides of all kinds, besides all that, 8 crew members. 96 folks in all, a real tragedy. According to the local newspapers, folks on the internet are cashing in - selling black t-shirts with tasteless slogans, or odd internet domain names. OK, I know that's all in poor taste but wait.... what about the journalists who spent time looking for such things in order to complain about them loudly in the pages of their respective publications? Who stands to make more money? The guy selling shirts or the guy selling papers about guys selling shirts? Hmm? Who is the lowest slime? The guy cashing in on other folks' misfortune or the guy drawing everyone's attention to him when normally nobody would even notice him? Hmm? Come on journo's.... get in touch with the warm and sensitive human being lurking somewhere deep inside your tattered and bloodied souls and give everyone a break. At times like this, the least the victims' families are going to want is you, dragging their hardships around the market square and yelling "Read all about it" through your tabloid megaphones.

I bet none of you are called Horace.

2010-03-03T16:30:00.002+01:00

So, as promised, here is another of Frodo's travel
photos. Frodo tells me that this was taken
in the Bahamas. Apparently its a place called Taino Beach. It isn't always so quiet he says, but as a rule dogs are not allowed to run around without a leash.

2010-02-16T21:36:00.002+01:00

Frodo is my mother-in-law's dog. He's a small brown creature known as a Bavarian Hound. You can see him in the foreground of this photo of the Taj Mahal. Frodo, you see, has become a traveller. Being 9 years old, Frodo has decided to retire and travel the world. He has promised me photos from all his exploits. His aim is to run around the entire world and to post as many photos to me as he can. I have agreed to re-post some of these pictures here, along with the junk I occassionally include here.
Returning to this photo: Frodo tells me that his visit to India introduced him to various interesting things and a great many beautiful places. He also tells me that Hindu shrines are of great interest, and some confusion. Frodo tells me that dogs recognise no gods and that he'd only just got used to the idea of a single god, as recognized by religions such as Christianity and Islam. Hinduism, it seems, threw him completely as he'd not imagined there could be a whole pantheon of gods. From a purely doggy point of view, Frodo tells me that all the gods and goddesses he encountered had completely unique smells (very important to a dog) but, I think I'll leave that particular point open to interpretation.

Portrait

2009-07-24T20:24:00.001+02:00

Portrait
Originally uploaded by Szczur

A May Bug... The Melolontha species are beetles of the scarab family. From May until early to mid July these beasties take to the air every evening at dusk - sometimes in dozens, hundreds or even thousands - searching for mates. The buzzing of their wings is like the hum of high voltage power lines. Having mated, many times, the beetles die off, but not until they have laid eggs in the ground. The eggs hatch into larvae which spend years in development, usually between 20 cm and 1 m below the surface and feeding on plant roots. When they mature, the beetles surface and feed on leafy trees such as birch. When the beetles get tired, nearby amateur photographers set up their tripods and set nice long exposure times (1.8 seconds in this case) in order to catch as much detail as they can before the critter crawls off to die.

Lednogora

2009-06-27T12:02:00.001+02:00

Lednogora
Originally uploaded by Szczur

The HDR thing can get a little crazy. It's addictive I think. This started off as a simple view across a lake with a few hazy reflections on the water but.... as you see, they're not hazy any more and the sky is terrifying! Still, I think it worked out quite well. :) My missus disagrees and says the sky is too dark. How am I to help it if it started raining seconds after the photos were taken??? Weather wise, in fact, we're having a miserable summer so far.

Galleon

2009-06-23T21:12:00.001+02:00

Galleon
Originally uploaded by Szczur

Well, I've had another long break from this but I'm back. :)

I couldn't get my head round the whole HDR thing in photography. In case there's anyone reading this who still hasn't heard about it, HDR is High Dynamic Range imaging. The idea is that monitors and printers aren't able to reproduce a scene as it really appears - they work with a very low dynamic range. To capture more of a scene, it is necessary to shoot at least 3 images with different exposure settings and then merge them to make an HDR file. The problem is that your HDR looks rubbish on-screen and you can't print it. This is where I came unstuck. I got some program to sort it for me, but, unless you know what to do with it, it really doesn't help much.

Earlier this year my father bought me a book on the subject, for my birthday, he'd seen it on Amazon and decided I might like it. He didn't know how I'd been tearing my hair out with this. Anyhoo, the book explained the process of tone mapping, which is what you have to do with your HDR file so that you can view a representation of it on your monitor, or print a copy. It explains how to make an extremely realistic looking scene or how to make more surreal views. What you see here is one of my attempts at putting theory into practice.

The galleon pictured sails from Gdansk in Poland to .... Gdansk in Poland, for the amusement of tourists. Sometimes though, like the day I shot the source images for this picture, the sky looks suitably pirate-y.

Good deeds

2008-11-20T11:17:00.001+01:00

Good deeds
Originally uploaded by Szczur

"How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world."
(Portia in "The Merchant of Venice" - William Shakespeare 1596)

The nights are really drawing in and its time to light the fire and the candles. I so much love the dark. I also love fire (like Arthur Brown) but I don't think I'm the god of hell fire and I'm hoping I'm not a pyromaniac.

Towers

2008-09-19T22:21:00.002+02:00

Towers
Originally uploaded by Szczur

There is a little group of folks that meet up for walks, with cameras, around Poznan, from time to time. The idea is to collect a load of photos of the Poznan area and use these to put dots all over Google Maps data for this area. It's going well. The group is called Poznańskie Spacery (Poznan Walks) and it's challenge this time was to take night time photos of Poznan, and then to let fellow members of the group guess where they were taken from. Nobody guessed the location from which this was taken.

Can you?

Heron

2008-09-11T21:56:00.001+02:00

Heron
Originally uploaded by Szczur

A heron in flight in Poland. My father in law, a hunting type, explains that you can always tell herons in flight because of the way they fold their necks such that their heads rest close to their bodies. Other large birds such as cranes and storks don't do this.

Burning bright?

2007-10-16T14:07:00.001+02:00

Originally uploaded by Szczur

Yes, burning bright, but I'm not talking about the tiger. I'm stuck at home with a mean ol' virus so I can't work. I have a temperature high enough to roast a hog (whole) and I'm on anti-viral drugs that make me smell funny.... anyhoo... all this means I might actually post a few pictures this week.

There are tigers in the zoo in Poznan. They're big. They breed too. Last year a couple of babies were born and now, as you see, they're growing. What I find most worrying about these guys is the fact that they only appear to be contained by a rather ordinary looking garden fence, as you see here. Their enclosure is very large, however, and maybe has some secondary fence that visitors can't really see.

To get a half decent shot of the kitties you need a long lens and some time. Worth the wait though huh?

Sieraków

2007-10-02T23:45:00.001+02:00

Originally uploaded by Szczur

I'm getting a bit behind on this whole blog thing again. Sorry.
Anyway....

There is a smallish town, not far from Poznan in Poland, called Sieraków. Odd place. It has a seaside sort of atmosphere. There are hotels and guest houses, ice-cream shops and arcades. All the usual seaside crap in fact. Funnily enough though, it's a good 300 km from the nearest coastline. The water you see here is a lake.

Aint it funny how often things are not what they appear?

Next!

2007-09-03T21:56:00.001+02:00

Next!
Originally uploaded by Szczur

I felt the swans were a little too non-seaside-ish so I'm making up for it today with more gulls.

Swans

2007-09-02T22:33:00.001+02:00

Swans
Originally uploaded by Szczur

So, I went off to the seaside in June promising pictures... and disappeared. Lots has happened in the time between, which I won't go into, but I'm back now.

Have some swans.

They happened by as I was eating bubble-gum flavoured ice-cream at Kolobrzeg on Poland's Baltic coastline.

A little later, one of this group decided to pose for a portrait.

Maybe

2007-06-23T22:14:00.001+02:00

Maybe
Originally uploaded by Szczur

There's a storm coming in.

Maybe.

I kinda hope not cos I'm off to the seaside for a week.
Hopefully I'll have a few summery themed pics to show off afterwards - though very likely they'll be just wet sand.

Ho hum.

Glow
Originally uploaded by Szczur

It's amazing how much easier it is to see things when they're not as you're used to seeing them.

Blue.

Blue isn't around much. Most natural things are odd shades of brown or green. Change that for electric blue and this poor likkle creature has vessels of pure energy coursing through it's wings. Uhh... I guess it would be nice to see other things differently.

Politics for example.

Visitor

2007-06-21T16:54:00.001+02:00

Visitor
Originally uploaded by Szczur

My lodger had a visitor last night. I was a bit worried but the fact that he looks so scary but when he looked at me that pleading look in so many of the facets of his eyes, I just had to let him in.

As it turned out, he was the perfect house guest and politely sat on a piece of white paper for me while I got a few snaps of him.

Some time after the photo session was over, our chum here got a bit restless and started buzzing in an angry kind of a way so I scarpered. When I came back a bit later, he'd made lots of little red dots on the bit of paper he was (still) sitting on. One of the dots was still wet and, when I plucked up the nerve to get close enough to examine the dot, it turned out to be a blob of some red liquid. Is this wasp/bee/hornet blood? Is it venom? Either way, it wasn't pretty and I ejected my guest forthwith.

The lodger didn't seem too concerned.

I threw him out too.

Face to face with a monster

2007-06-19T19:41:00.001+02:00

Face to face with a monster
Originally uploaded by Szczur

Well, my lodger turned out to be a moth, not a butterfly. I'd originally assumed it was a butterfly because of the amazing blue colour of its wings, but, apparently moths are pretty too - it's the shape of their wings that counts.
Anyway, here he is smiling for the camera.

Pity he's not a butterfly really cos his yellowish eyes made me think butter-full-eyes.

Sorry. Poor joke, I know.

Lodger

2007-06-18T22:44:00.001+02:00

Lodger
Originally uploaded by Szczur

This little guy is lodging with me. I nearly stepped on him when I came out of work today. I cursed cos I didn't have a camera with me, then remembered my cellphone has one. The phone camera is sooo poor that I had to get very very close to get anything resembling clarity - which was when I realised this chap wasn't going anywhere. I picked him up on a piece of paper and took him home. He agreed to pose for a few photos in exchange for a lettuce leaf. Odd really, seeing that butterflies don't eat. I can only imagine that he was too tired to haggle. Anyhoo... anyone know what species he is?

Skansen

2007-05-19T18:02:00.001+02:00

Skansen
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

One of the carefully restored wooden houses on display at the skansen (folk museum) in Wdzydze (trying saying that when you've had a few), a village in the Bory Tucholskie national park in Poland. The museum is the oldest of it's kind in the country and well worth a visit if you're in the area.

I suggest a stiff drink if you need to ask for directions. :D

Three photos in a week? I have to admit I've been fairly happy with May's photos.

Bugged!

2007-05-17T18:07:00.001+02:00

Bugged!
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

Specially for Jane, folks'll think I've gone mad..... posting twice in a month. No flies on me!!

Swan

2007-04-24T23:36:00.001+02:00

Swan
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

Swan swam over the sea
Swim swan swim!
Swan swam back again
Well swum swan.

I've been away.
Now I'm back.
Moved house.....
Completed doctorate.....
Took photos.....
Here's one, just some bird I noticed. :)

In praise of Krakow.

2006-06-26T15:42:00.000+02:00

Krakow Cathedral - Wawel Hill
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

I recently finished writing a very serious work and, as a treat for myself, took myself off to Krakow for a few days. If you ever have the chance to go there, DO. Krakow must surely be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, yeah, right up there with the big names like Rome and Paris. Around every street corner there is something new (very old really) to make you go "Ahhhhh" and "oooooh" and to reach for your camera. On top of that, the city is so bursting full of history, that just to be there is an education. Not to be missed.

Resting

2006-06-16T16:06:00.000+02:00

Resting
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

Summer is with us at last.

Everyone is hot and bothered and everyone, without exception, seems to need to take a break. I was taking a break... I'd been sitting on the edge of a field, watching the bees and wasps and other busy little creatures collecting precious supplies from the thousands of flowers before me when I noticed this ladybird. She was hurriedly climbing the stem of one of the flowers. The stem in question was probably many hundreds of times her own length, so the little beetle decided to stop for a rest, turned aside from the stem and walked the underside of the leaves in the picture until she came to the end. With a last burst of effort, she hauled her heavy carapace onto the upper surface of the leaves and stopped. She smiled at me, in that way that only ladybirds can, so I took her photo. Here it is.

Weed

2006-05-12T21:10:00.000+02:00

Weed
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

The most rubbishy things are someone's treasures, and the most treasured things are frequently rubbish.
These flowers are tiny weeds, no more than half a centimetre across. They were growing at the edge of an enormous lawn, some 200 or 300 metres long. While I'm sure the gardeners wouldn't have been too pleased to find their grass wasn't all grass, I, for one, was delighted with the change in colour.
Spring is full of this sort of thing.

Sunlight and Shade - Spring in Strzeszyn

2006-04-16T23:40:00.000+02:00

Sunlight and Shade - Spring in Strzeszyn
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

April showers and spring sunshine do wonders for the sky.

The Easter Egg Hunt.

2006-04-16T23:35:00.000+02:00

The Easter Egg Hunt.
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

The Easter Bunny has been. The kids are excited and run around the garden screaming with joy.

Spring Sunset in Strzeszyn

2006-04-14T21:53:00.000+02:00

Spring Sunset
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

It's spring. Sunsets are back in style.
The light still fades early at this time of year but the colours are warmer.
Disappointingly, a much warmer sunset appeared just the next night. It looked like a colour cut-out... you know, black and white with very well defined coloured highlights. I must add one of those to this little trail of photos at some point.

Easter is on Sunday... I'll try to think of something topical to photo. Meanwhile, very best wishes to anyone who happens to see this. Happy Easter.

No names

2006-03-26T22:00:00.000+02:00

Originally uploaded by Szczur.

The title of this post is a rough translation of the original Polish title of this piece of sculpture by the famous sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz. The artist now lives in the USA most of the time, but she doesn't forget her roots. This work stands on display (permanent loan I believe) in the Citadel Park in Poznan, Poland.

En garde!!!!!

2006-01-28T10:34:00.000+01:00

Originally uploaded by Szczur.

Kinder Surprise eggs are a source of endless amusement for both my son and myself. Sometimes I'm not sure which of us gets most use out of the little toys you find inside.

Bang

2006-01-06T17:52:00.000+01:00

Bang
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

Happy New Year

Low Light

2005-12-03T22:39:00.000+01:00

Low Light
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

As promised, a colour photograph.

I was working in Sweden this week. I didn't get time for much in the way of photography and the photos I got, like this one, were taken on breaks.

As you can see, the sun was pretty low in the sky and casting a rather nice light on the bushes, I thought. At this time of year the sun is never high in the sky in Sweden. This photo was taken at 14:24. An hour later, it was dark.

Funny place, Sweden. I experienced the shortest plane journey of my life, from Copenhagen to Jonkoping (about 30 minutes). The steward only had time to hand out drinks before the captain announced we were descending. By the time the empty cups had been collected, we were on final approach. At the airport, nobody checked my passport... in fact, there were no visible officials of any kind. My bag was first on the conveyor belt, which has never happened before, and I was sitting in a taxi on my way to my temporary home before I'd even worked out how to pronounce Jonkoping (try Yencherping??).
My return journey was equally effortless and the stay, in between times, was both enjoyable and interesting. Perhaps I should consider emigrating? On second thoughts, seeing that I've already done that, I'll stay where I am.

Loss

2005-11-16T21:17:00.000+01:00

Originally uploaded by Szczur.

This seems to be becoming a collection of my black and white photos and that really wasn't intended. I'll try to find something colourful that's worth posting soon.
This angel struck me as a very moving image. Standing alone among a plethora of rather ordinary grave stones, she drove home the point for me, at the time, that each of these memorials represents absolutely tragic loss for the family left behind. So much so, that even the angels cry.

All Saints' Day

2005-11-06T00:18:00.000+01:00

All Saints' Day
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

On All Saints'Day (November 1st) there is a tradition, in Poland, which I find quite beautiful. Many of the local people dislike it, some even hate it, as it reminds them of the loss of a loved one. Simply put, the people of Poland visit the graves of their deceased friends and family. By tradition, while visiting, they will leave flowers and candles at the grave. The effect is very moving. To see hundreds of thousands of people around you, all sharing in the same moment and in similar feelings is something that can't be adequately described in words. It has to be experienced to be understood.

As I have no family of my own in Poland, I go with my wife to visit the graves of her family members and then I make a regular trip to the Old Garrison Cemetary in Poznan. There I visit the British Commonwealth section to pay my respects to my fallen countrymen, and then I move on to the Polish section, to pay my respects there as well.

Time for...

2005-10-31T18:59:00.000+01:00

Time for...
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

Time. There's never enough of it. Why the hell do we insist on measuring it? Is this some form of self-torture? Do we need to know that the deadlines our bosses set us are going to arrive far sooner than we would have imagined possible?

Yes!

Why? Well, because devices for measuring time, such as clocks, watches, chronographs and what-not, are intrinsically beautiful. I'm time-piece obsessed, or challenged as the case may be. The pictured example, a brushed-steel, Swiss-made Roamer was a present from my wife a few years ago and keeps near perfect time (for a gadget with gears in it) and gains less than a second during the course of a year. Astonishing.

Dragonfly

2005-10-21T14:50:00.000+02:00

Dragonfly
Originally uploaded by Szczur.

So... here I was, walking through the zoo in Poznan, minding my own business, when I spotted this little beasty having a (probably) well earned rest. I've always been jealous of those nice pics people post of such critters, and, as a result, I whipped out my camera and snapped as quickly as I could. As it turned out, the shot was rubbish. I tried again, and again, and again.

As it turned out I didn't have to rush cos this particular specimen was much too tired to be going anywhere.

My wife suggested trying to get a film of it in flight... only it didn't want to fly and showed no signs of going anywhere. Prodding it with a stick only made it hop into the air for a second or two before landing exactly where it had been. Doing this several times produced the same effect. What we produced, therefore, was not a nature documentary type film, as we'd hoped, but rather more like "Learn to torture insects" by Sz!

Anyhoo..... The title of this image was originally "Damselfly". It seems there's some confusion regarding these beasts. My original choice of title was based on information I read at Blackbrook Farm Zoological Park (which is in Stafforshire, England). The sign there said that what most folks believe to be dragonflies are, in fact, damselflies. Furthermore, they're so difficult to tell apart that mostly only entomologists know how to do it. Well, ok I thought, I've been wrong all these years and I'll start calling them damselflies. Fine. I posted the image along with many of my others at flickr and, straight away, two folks told me it's a dragonfly. I can live with that. Futher research shows that damselflies are skinny little things - based on the photos I've found they're ugly, thin, black bodied thingies - that sit with their wings held together above the body. Dragonflies, by contrast, are the pretty colourful chappies who lounge around the place with their wings laid out flat ... as was the case with this individual. Soooo... now we know.

Hi!

2005-10-19T22:45:00.000+02:00

Coming soon... random rubbish and photography. :)