Everybody knows by now that I am not an early riser. Also, taking night shots is for me a winter activity, not a summer one. But when winter comes, I am outside shooting night scenes.
Even better, when the MFF plans an outing on a high-rise in Winnipeg, there is no way that you can keep me away. This time we went up to Prairieview 360, a newly opened restaurant in place of the Royal Crown revolving restaurant.
Winter has arrived. Well it’s been here for a few weeks now. It started with a hesitating –4C, then attacked fiercely with lows of –29C and highs of –18C (0F). Then it was time to set my mind to winter mode, even if I wasn’t really ready for it.
A few nights ago I got my first Aurora for the season. Not that I was expecting it and even less dressed for it. This shot from the parking lot was with a few others, the only one I could bear to take. Walking back to the car with my tripod in my bare hands was more than enough. The tripod burned my hands from the cold. I guess that –29C (-43C counting the wind chill) was a good reason not to prolong the experience.
The first time I came to Kiev, Ukraine, I was overwhelmed. That was ten years ago. There were so many differences between the European cities I was used to and this city, it was simply too much for words. On one occasion I was even questioned by Militia, the local police, to know if I had been taking a picture of them.
At that time I only had a throw away film camera, so I couldn’t show them what I had. They let me go. Today, ten years later, it is very normal for anyone to take pictures in the city, although it is not recommended to take any pictures of the Militia, even now.
Lately I haven’t been taking many pictures. For some reason I can’t get myself to go out in the freezing temperatures and shoot something I have shot already multiple times. The birds are mostly gone to warmer climes, the “dead stuff” is nearly all that remains.
Even the geese have left, only a few birds remain, and I think I know them all by their first names by now. Now if only they’d perform tricks so I could photograph them…
The life we are living is mostly made up out of stress and fast-paced actions. Take a drive through a city and see if your blood pressure didn’t rise above usual. Spend a day in your office and see if at the end of that day you don’t want to trash that telephone or that keyboard.
Slowing down is a modern necessity, while in the old days, life seemed slow enough not to need any change of pace. Going to the city was an outing to be noted. Today we are happy to be able to get away, be it on a camp ground, at the lake or anywhere that does not involve modern amenities.