Poitiers, Futuroscope- France - Photo 2004

And now for something completely different. A view from the future, well, at least from the Futuroscope. This is an extraordinary Park located in France and aimed at enabling a contact with Nature, Science and Culture through astonishing visual experiences (giant 2D and 3D cineramas).
The architecture is also futuristic, as you can see by the attached picture which I took in 2004 (with the Sony P31)

www. futuroscope.com

Lisboa - Portugal - Photo 2005

Our old and faithful Sony DSC-P31 broke up ! Having decided in first place to have it fixed, I changed my mind when I saw the prices of the present "low-end" cameras ( for everyday usage, we prefer to carry a low-end camera, "inexpensive" to replace in case of theft, damage, etc). Almost all our photos are point and shoot type. For more elaborate works we have a Sony DSC-s85, with all kind of manual settings but heavy to carry.
Looking for something not expensive, I decided to get a Kodak CX7530 on sale for about 169 € (this is a 5MP camera! The old one had 2 Mp - despite excellent quality- and costed about 300 €, 3 years ago! Signs of the times). The decision was taken after reading the good review it has on Steve's Digicams - www.steves-digicams.com. I bought it today and started immediately to test. At first glance the gizmo seems to be relatively solid and features a "no-brainer" set of menus, so easy to use that will certainly allow all the family to enjoy it easily. It is using the old Ni-Mh rechargeable batteries from the P-31 and after about 40 pictures taken, still seems to have charge for many more.
The picture quality seems to be good at first sight, with strong colors (Kodak style?). Still no definitive opinion with so few pics. See a posting of one of my first experiences, converted from 5 MP for a more "portable" size. More pictures to come in brief. The exposure was 1:30 at f/2.7. Focal length, 5.6 mm. No tripod used.

Portugal - Photo cc. 1995

Not posting for long time I'm back with other Portuguese photo (well, indeed a slide scan). This one is not exactly on rocks or stone constructions but about tiles. The art of hand-painting tiles is a tradition here and even some quite recent houses still use them as a decor. In fact, some of the tiles used nowadays are more industrial than traditional and the patterns are quite awful creating what we call a "toillet like effect". They are not properly a demonstration of good taste...

However, the traditional tiled sceneries can be very pleasant, as you can see by this example.

Posting this, I decided to start introducing other photo themes in the blog. Not abandoning the idea of presenting more "stone" photos I will introduce new themes gradually. Maybe a concession to my ego, since all the photos presented are mine and this is my unique way to show them (despite nobody else is seeing, except my family...)

Portugal - Photo cc. 1995

Stone houses under a Summer sunshine. Old slide scanned, quite scratched, but I like it for the explosive burst of light which brings me memories of old summer countryside vacations .

Piódão - Portugal - Photo Cc. 1993

Dark stone houses from a village in the centre of Portugal - Piódão. All the village houses are dark like these ones, made from raw local stone. However, the local church is painted bright white. A must see!

On the first house you can see typical Portuguese wood spoons.

http://www.cm-arganil.pt/concelho/piodao.htm

Kleine Scheidegg - Switzerland - Photo 2003

A massive stone elegance. This is a view of the Jungfraujoch peak in Switzerland. The strong summer sunlight on the snow covered hills and the strong contrast with the dark green fields below are intensively Swiss. Believe me, the typical chocolate box pictures are nothing compared with the real thing !

If one day you can visit Switzerland, d0 not miss the opportunity of taking your own picture. However, be prepared: hordes of Japanese tourists will dispute you the best spots. Better move away a little far from the crowd, as I did. Do not worry, there is plenty of space. See the link below for more details on this magnificent region:

http://switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/berner_oberland/railway.html