outdoors – Page 12 – Decaseconds

Double feature: Frozen Stream

2012-Nov-29 emceehammrLeave a comment

On the same European adventure to the alpine village of Obergurgl in Tyrol, Austria, I was out for a walk when I captured this shot of a creek running near the village in the process of freezing over. The ice is interesting to look at but the semi-abandoned outbuilding on the bank. It doesn’t appear to be in active service, as evidenced by the partially ajar door, nor is there an obvious way to get down to the entrance, though perhaps without the snow and ice there’s path down the cliff face or maybe even some sort of connection to a cave in the cliff. One can only guess at what function this building does or once did serve.

St. Bernard

2012-Nov-292013-Aug-16 emceehammrLeave a comment

During a recent European adventure I came across this painting of St. Bernard of Menthon (the one for whom the dogs are named) painted on a lodge near a ski lift in the Austrian village of Obergurgl. This makes perfect sense, St. Bernard being the patron saint of mountaineering and skiing, among other things. The writing at the top translates to something like “Protect us the mountaineers” and I was told the picture has something to do with fending off alpine thunderstorms. These types of paintings and altars were all over the village, just about everything had a patron saint, it seemed. I thought this one stood out, however, being 10″ to 15″ tall.

No Dark on the Beach

2012-Nov-02 adohertyhLeave a comment

The beach at Costão do Santinho is as bright as day, 24/7. In the winter, it was eerily empty (save for a few roaming packs of wild dogs, later on…) I’d like to imagine that the warmer weather brings all-night volleyball tournaments.

Either way, the mist-capped waves, black rocks, and bright bits of algae make the lonely beach even more alien.

Waterfront Construction

2012-Oct-16 emceehammr1 Comment

You can’t tell by looking at the photo but the property being worked on is actually accessible by road. But I can see the appeal of getting things delivered by boat when you live on the water at the end of a rather steep ravine.

Up from down below

2012-Oct-112013-Aug-16 emceehammrLeave a comment

I took this shot the first day I had my Sigma 10-20mm lens to get a feeling for what it could do. To this day I am still floored at the width of the field of view. It is absurd how close I could get to Berkeley’s Campanile and still capture the whole tower.

Windsurfing

2012-Oct-102012-Oct-10 emceehammrLeave a comment

It’s a little cold for my taste but the folks around the Bay really like to get out on the water. Right around the Berkeley marina the water is absolutely jam packed with windsurfers, kitesurfers, and just small sail craft of all types. This surfer’s colorful sail really caught my eye here against the sort of drab backdrop of the waterfront condos.

Americana Double Feature

2012-Aug-012012-Aug-01 adohertyh3 Comments

I had my own staging of Two-Lane Blacktop in central Oregon this weekend, with the company of this particularly lovely 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet. This is grass seed country, and this particular weekend fell in the middle of the harvest. Long, perfectly maintained roads are intercut with forested hillsides and busy fields. By this point in the evening, however, nightfall brought calm with it.

For every sunny hilltop like the one above, there was a tree-lined valley. The setting sun really picks out the details of every treetop, but it’s a shame that Oregon has such a clean, healthy atmosphere. Without other molecules in the air to scatter the light, the sunsets lack the exciting colors of other parts of the country. This photograph captures the feeling of blasting down the road, wind in my hair, with only an occasional truck for company.