Westbahnstrasse

I have been off line for some weeks while cooling off in Europe so I will begin a lot of back Blips over the next day or so. I have been in Vienna the past couple of weeks and will be back to beautiful warn (40C ) heat wave in Western Australia next week. It is my first experience of longer term ongoing European winter and I expect quite a severe experience for locals too especially in Eastern Europe.

Photographically I have exchanged my D300 Nikons for an old-for-digital, TZ15 Lumix which really has been a fantastic travel camera especially shooting streets in black and white. I do wish though I had the excellent Nikkor lenses and Nikon D300 with me, but I don't miss the weight of all that stuff.

I have however brought with me a 1978 Nikon FE that is magic to use still -shooting film - except that the full metal body gets so cold so quick it chills my fingers very painfully. Yet it works flawlessy where the Lumix gets a bit lazy in the cold. Amazing too how much you can do with one manual fixed focus 28mm lens.

Since I have been shooting here I have found even on dull overcast days the light is a lot stronger than it appears - or s aI perceive it, the sky acting as a giant soft-box it seems. I have dialled down the exposure on the Lumix but I am losing the shadows - which might even be a good thing to grab that winter feel. (It is great at night shots though)

The Europeans reading this will well know it. It is a great difference for me really to my normal west coast Australian bright clear light with strong colours that have so much dynamic range to play with. It is not a compaint though, just a challenge that I enjoy....as I do my time here.