Lacquered

I saw this at Geneva airport while we were shopping for "souvenirs" to take home.
I couldn't resist the colours and they show up well even on the iPhone.

You can see the distortion, especially in the third and fourth rows. I tried correcting these but they seem to be slightly complex and not straightforward pincushion/barrel.

This can only mean...

ICE CREAM!!

Whilst on our way back to Geneva, we struggled to find a suitable place for lunch but dessert was a no-brainer, courtesy of Amanda.
Jiang and I took a back seat in our choice of dessert venue.

One useful tip: if you like smooth, strong coffees and you find yourself in France, ask for a "cafe noisette". It's an espresso with a dash of milk/cream to make it hazelnut colour - hence the name.

Annecy Reflection

Holidays are frequently a time when I relax, enjoy and also reflect on my life.

Annecy has been a brief pause before my return from my skiing trips to Geneva airport several times now and I enjoy the atmosphere and even though touristy, finding the locals to be very nice.

Yesterday we met one such elderly couple, who advised us on where to eat, get good value and not be ripped off. They didn't have to warn us but perhaps through a sense of pride, they felt compelled to suggest two good eating establishments: Le Pichet and L'Alpin.

Anyway back to my reflection. I spend a lot of time wondering how I can take better photos and more often than not it results in me questioning the capabilities of my equipment. Right or wrong, I am a victim of photographic consumerism (although I do take efforts to limit it in other aspects of life).

I am still looking for an upgrade on my Ricoh GRDiv but in the meantime, not having any camera other than on my cell phone has made me realise how good these phone cameras are in good light.

Tutti Fruity

We decided to stay in Meribel for dinner this evening after a tough day boarding, taking advantage of the free bus back to Brides les Bains.
Before dinner we decided to check the local markets where we found these fantastic dried fruits.
My favourite (to eat) were the dried bananas though I'm sure many of the others we didn't get to taste were equally nice.
It's a shame we're not actually staying in Meribel (or Courchevel). Maybe next time!

Hot wired

It's been a while since I last posted a blog post but here I am in Brides les Bains with my snowboard and only my iPhone for a camera.
With all of the equipment demands made by the sport, carrying a dedicated camera would have been challenging for me.

Twisted

I posted this yesterday from my iPhone but the photo quality seemed to be set to minimal.


~~~~~~~
I woke up at 04:30 this morning to get to Whitechapel Mission for my charity day.
Our challenge for the morning was to serve up breakfast for up to ~250 homeless people around the Whitechapel area.
I prepared rashers of bacon, heated beans, mushrooms and tomatoes. I cooked sausages, cleaned and various other jobs around the kitchen, followed by a mass clean up afterwards.
We visited their store rooms where they kept clothes for their clients.

Empty

This is one of the snapshots, taken on Björn's Sony RX1.
It was taken "only" at ISO 1600, so may not fully show the Cybershot's capabilities but the structure/texture is very smooth, the colours are vibrant and the image simply has "depth".
It's hard to describe how rich an image from a Full Frame camera is, compared to a non-FF camera, but "rich", "vibrant" and "good structure" are words I seem to read often on other sites that I agree with.
Some day I would like to try a side-by-side comparison with my (now old) D700 to see how technology has progressed since 2008.

Empty.