Posted on by Michel

We are tied to the ocean…

Here’s a quote that really clicked with me while while I was browsing the Sailing Soulianis blog by Lauren & Kirk.

“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.”
— John F. Kennedy

A sailboat sailing on the ocean on a sunny day
(photo credits: https://sailingsoulianis.com)

Maybe this explains why I often feel significantly better when being at the seaside, and then much worse when I need to head back to the big city where I am spending most of my time currently, working and living.

This short blog post is just a reminder to myself that the ocean is there, waiting, and it is where I feel better… we all feel better. So maybe one day I should go go back to it, with my beloved Ani 💖… just live at the seaside, or maybe even roam the seas for a while before settling in a nice little house by the sea, who knows?

What would be life without dreams? :-)

Posted on by Michel

The Forest Beauty

This photo shows one the rare moments when my phone camera lens was able to create such a nice bokeh, a real explosion of light behind the object in focus! At macro focal lengths, I can compare the optics of the tiny Pixel 4 lens to my Pentax-M F1.7/50mm when shooting at normal portrait distances. This was an interesting experiment. :-) I love my Pentax-M lens, btw! (Here’s a sample shot with the 1.7/50, “Red and green” — in the distances between 0.4 and 2.0 meters, the large Pentax lens will truly shine!) But shooting in full manual mode is quite difficult and time consuming; so I am carrying with me much less often my Pentax K100D + 1.7/50.

When shooting macro, the Pixel 4 is as good as my old Nokia Lumia 830 with Zeiss optics (here’s a macro shot that I made with Lumia 830, “The Magical Kingdom of Mushrooms“), probably even better — which is to be expected, because it’s newer and has better optics and better imaging processor.

The Forest Beauty
A real forest beauty! Shot in the forest of Marchaevo on 30-Oct-2021. (Shot with Pixel 4; macro subject distance, minor post-processing.)

Note: I have posted this shot also at 500px.

Update (01-Nov-2021): My little moment of fame… my photo made it to the “Popular” page on the 500px website! :-)))

Posted on by Michel

Ye olde water tower

This old water tower (designed and built by the engineer Franz Salbach in 1929) is located in Lozenets, Sofia. It is now the home of the +365 art gallery.

The old water tower in Lozenets, Sofia
The old water tower. (Shot with Pixel 4; Night Sight mode, minor post-processing.)

I visited this place a few days ago, it’s autumn now and the tower looked absolutely magical at dusk… :-)

P.S. (27-Oct-2021) I’ve just remembered that a friend of mine, Nixo, posted a cool (and funny) set of pictures featuring this exact same tower! Take a look! :-)

Posted on by Michel

Jordan Peterson on sorting your life

Jordan Peterson on sorting your life:

(This is an excerpt taken from Joe Rogan Experience #1070 with Jordan Peterson as guest.)

“The world is full of darkness, let’s say. And each one of us has a little bit of light. And if we release that light…”
“The world is a lesser place, if you do not reveal, from within yourself, what you have to reveal.”

Take six minutes of your time and watch the full video. It’s worth these minutes, and more. (I tweeted about it but Twitter is too volatile, so adding a more solidly built reference to it in my blog.)

Posted on by Michel

Autumn sunrise

I love autumn. The colors in the sky, the colors on earth… they’re magical.

Autumn sunrise
Autumn sunrise over the old nut tree. (Shot with Pixel 4; minor post-processing.)

This morning, it was the sky.

What if cameras were able to show what we see with our own eyes? Hélas! Ce n’est pas possible… pas encore.

P.S. Five minutes later… and the colors were gone.

Autumn sunrise, 5 minutes later
Only five minutes later…