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Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
my photos of the week 71 - Lake Lugano
Thinking of you all whilst enjoying a short break at an apartment on Lake Lugano. Part of the deal is that I take some nice photos for the owner's magazine, which will be the first time I have been published. Here is a random sample of work in progress. I hope you (and the client) like them. Last one is a little quirkier but I couldn't pass it by.
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Escribano)
Good pictures, and well exposed!
Actually I like the last one best, for its colors and the ambience.
Used to spend holidays at Lago Maggiore. Very fond memories! And the typical mountain roads are so perfect for waving one´s bike through. (Until there comes a truck towards you on your line, which I had once, making me rattle along a house wall and shredder the mirror into pieces. But we got away unharmed, dressed in just shorts and T-shirts that we were.)
Anyway, staying there is as if the world was doing alright. Air, lake and food so fine. (Though the water of the Maggiore used to be quite contaminated, because of rain unloading pollution from the valleys. Hope it to have changed these days.) We had tropical plants and fruits in the garden. Fishing was prohibited. Had I been cought fine would have been 5000 SF.
And a thunderstorm up there is something special. Tried making a video of it, but it did hardly convey the power of it.
Posts: 3497
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Escribano)
Beautiful photographs, Simon. Congratulations on being published.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Posts: 3487
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Escribano)
Beautiful photos, Simon. Congratulations on getting published.
Photos taken on Lake Como this past July showed a fair amount more haze with distance. Sometimes it could be put to good use, other times not so much. Did you do something to the first one to mitigate haze, or is it just the cooler weather?
This one's by Larisa: (seriously compressed to upload)
Posts: 3497
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
quote:
.but I mustn't go off topic. Wait...we're in the off topic sub-forum. Does that mean I'm supposed to go off topic? ...this is all so confusing.
All is forgiven, Richard. The gentleman who took umbrage at your (our) verbal peregrinations in the "What is Flamenco Today" thread has accepted your apology. To quote him: "Apology accepted Richard." I know this lifts a huge burden from your conscience and is akin to walking from a dark, mist-enshrouded forest out into a bright, sunlit meadow.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
Lake Lugano, it looks like the location for one of the Star Wars films...was an episode in that franchise ever made in Lake Lugano?
Lake Como - just over the hill.
quote:
How is the grub?
We're self-catering, but the ingredients are superb around here. Decent wine on offer for 2 Euros, very fresh tomatoes, onions, great steak and fresh pasta. Italy has it all for me (except any work). When I am self-sufficient in my trade, I will move here.
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
quote:
Photos taken on Lake Como this past July showed a fair amount more haze with distance. Sometimes it could be put to good use, other times not so much. Did you do something to the first one to mitigate haze, or is it just the cooler weather?
Probably the weather, but you might invest in a UV filter to cut through some of it if the camera has a filter thread.
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Ruphus)
quote:
Anyway, staying there is as if the world was doing alright. Air, lake and food so fine. (Though the water of the Maggiore used to be quite contaminated, because of rain unloading pollution from the valleys. Hope it to have changed these days.) We had tropical plants and fruits in the garden. Fishing was prohibited. Had I been cought fine would have been 5000 SF.
Lake Lugano is polluted from high phosphate levels, I believe, but it is full of fish and fishing is legal and free. Not a good idea to go swimming though.
Posts: 3497
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Escribano)
quote:
but it is full of fish and fishing is legal and free.
What kind of fish, Simon? Trout? Trout is my favorite freshwater fish, and I would love to catch a few each day to grill for dinner each evening, bathed in lemon juice.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Posts: 1770
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Escribano)
Hi Simon,
First of al congratulation of publishing your foto's! It is always very nice and importand to be recognised. You worked hard for it. Very nice and professional pictures! Ready for a glossy magazine.
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Escribano)
And pike, if it is like in the Lago Maggiore. Man, did I try to catch one. Nothing but some whitefish. All while I was able to fish from right at the water. And just when I had given up, friends told me of a guy in the know who had come and thrown his bait from the distance of a public sight point. Within half an hour he pulled out a big pike, took it and left. -
Got to say though that I need compagnion to kill the fish. Already mean to take out the hook and put them in a bucket of water. -
Bill, lemon? Why not ketchup? Should be just as good to suppress fish flavour. brrrr -
Thursday, my guitar student told me of a music theorist who said to him how rock music compared like simple trash to classical music. Me then said something to the extend that there can be beauty in both complexity and simplicity. For an example pointing to the two cuisines most known for their delicious dishes; the French and Italian one.
The first one shining with its refiness and knowledge of how to produce, combine and prepare, the second one for its talent to bring forward great taste in simple ways.
And when I would return from the Lago Maggiore (all fruits and vegetables harvested ripe from own garden) or even from Como (commercial supply, yet so rich in taste) the eating in Germany (mass products, largely from Holland´s green houses) would appear so pale for a while.
If you pardon my OT excursion into the field of rich taste, I´d like to add that in fact fruits from here can be of extremely rich flavour. (Grapes alone, so honey sweet and flavoured like I havn´t seen anywhere. Maybe no coincidence that vine was "invented" / found in these realms.) But with my bad luck there is hardly a benefit from it. Almost all of its finest quality is being exported to the rich Arabs where it is ranked as top product, whilst the remains on local market are either rubbish or exclusive (kg prices between 5 and 25 bucks) or both in the same time.
If I could sit in an Italian Trattoria overlooking one of these lakes and only just nibble away that fresh bread and butter served beforehand, I would be in heaven.
Darn, Simon, I am jelous! And besides, I forgot to congratulate for the publishing. Great to have one´s shots used commercially!
Ruphus
PS: I was researching on real estate prices in Italy some years ago (for a humble budget). There seems not even any remote rural province left over where one could obtain some ruin for decent money. All totally inflated market pricings, probably even in Apulia (where food production and cuisine isn´t as developed. -Though their pottet artichoke hearts in olive oil are to die for!).
Guess the only regions where it could be affordable would be way down in the south, where poverty in conjunction with Arabic influenced mentality could make it unlikely to be left alone.
Posts: 3487
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Escribano)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Escribano
Probably the weather, but you might invest in a UV filter to cut through some of it if the camera has a filter thread.
The camera for the photo I uploaded was an Olympus TG-3, bought for its ruggedness. It doesn't have a standard filter ring.
Photos with the Nikon D800 and a UV filter showed the same symptoms. Sometimes you could get that lovely layered background, fading into the distance, that you see in Renaissance paintings. Other times, distant views in the same plane were just very dull to the camera, while the eye and brain compensated to some extent.
One way of dealing with water haze is to boost the contrast in post-processing, but in some cases the Lake Como haze resisted even this.
Your photos are beautifully clear in the distance, hence the question.
Posts: 3487
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to BarkellWH)
quote:
ORIGINAL: BarkellWH
Trout is my favorite freshwater fish, and I would love to catch a few each day to grill for dinner each evening, bathed in lemon juice.
Bill
At Easter time in the early 1970s my former college room mate, his father, son and I rented a 7-series BMW and drove from Rotterdam to Munich via the lower Rhine, Alsace, the Black Forest and Austria. At Bonn we turned right and followed the Mosel, which became the Moselle as we crossed into France.
We stopped for lunch that day on the right bank of the river. Trout came from the river, white wine from the vineyard on the hillside that sloped from behind the inn down to the river bank, salad and vegetables from the garden. The trout was served with fresh cut lemons for juice. Delicious.
While we lived in Alaska, Skilak Lake on the Kenai Peninsula was available to Air Force personnel for recreation. In those days the only way to get there was by float plane. There were big rainbow trout as well as lake trout.
When rainbows grow to over five pounds, their flesh turns pink like salmon. I still remember the aroma when my mother would bake a big rainbow with lemon and garlic butter, and the delicious taste of the fish when it was done.
In the summer we would camp for a week or two near a chain of three small lakes, not too far from the highway, 120 miles northeast of Anchorage. There were no trout per se in the lakes, but plenty of Arctic grayling, a trout-like fish.
As the youngest one in camp, I was given the task of catching enough fish for breakfast for a half dozen people. There was plenty of light at 4 AM, so I got up early enough to be sure of doing my job. I soon discovered that it only took the time to cast the fly and reel it right in six times to catch six fish. I didn't have to get up very early after all. Pan fried breaded grayling, or one roasted on a spit over a wood fire made a luxurious breakfast.
Posts: 3497
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Ruphus)
quote:
Bill, lemon? Why not ketchup? Should be just as good to suppress fish flavour.
Ruphus, there is a huge difference between lemon juice and ketchup. Ketchup has a taste and consistency that would indeed suppress the flavor of fish. Lemon Juice, on the other hand, has the slight acidity and tangy taste that complements the flavor of the fish. That is why ceviche is prepared with lemon juice. Ceviche would be OK but bland without it. With it, ceviche has a zesty taste. The same holds true for trout and other fish. They would taste good without lemon juice. But adding lemon juice complements the fish's natrually good flavor by adding a tangy zest to it. It may not be for everyone, but for some of us it adds just the right touch to a delicious seafood dinner.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Richard Jernigan)
quote:
Your photos are beautifully clear in the distance, hence the question.
Then it was because it was day after a big storm that cleared the air. Here's one of Como from July this year, where you can see the haze you mention. No filter on a compact Ricoh GR camera.
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Escribano)
This region is central to Stendhal's Charterhouse of Parma, counted by Balzac, Gide, Henry James, Tolstoy, Stephen Vizinczey, and countless others as one of the greatest novels.
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: my photos of the week 71 - Lake ... (in reply to Xavi)
quote:
This region is central to Stendhal's Charterhouse of Parma, counted by Balzac, Gide, Henry James, Tolstoy, Stephen Vizinczey, and countless others as one of the greatest novels.
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