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Burgh Island

Cliffs west of Challaborough

For the first time ever my camera bag had gathered dust. My car hardly started last time I tried to move it. It was quite clearly time to head out for a little look round. So my trusty little runabout stuttered into action and I headed down to the Devon coast and followed the friendly SatNav voice to Bigbury on Sea.

It’s been years since I had set foot on this lovely stretch of coast in South-West England. Last time I came with the dive club to stay at the caravan park at Challaborough, the sleepy little holiday village in the next cove. Bigbury on Sea itself much more than just a caravan park. I guess the island on its doorstep made it more attractive to beach goers and holidaymakers.

Rock pools

Burgh island coast

Last time I came for the wrecks, this time I just wanted to soak up the scenery in the late afternoon sun. The tide was out and it was easy to walk across the sandy causeway to Burgh Island, which is probably the main scenic attraction in the area. The Hotel on the island once tried to close the area to visitors, but the Right of Way prevailed and there are now public footpaths all over the little island. I love to poke around the rock pools at ebb tide and see what nature left behind a few hours earlier when the tide went out. But it was really the rugged cliffs that made my day on the island. Despite the obligatory “dangerous” signs, the precariously high and steep cliffs invite for a look over the edge to catch a glimpse of roosting sea gulls and crashing waves below.

I hope the photos do justice to the beauty of this pretty little place, and I promise to get out more and not let my camera bag gather dust again.

See the whole album “Burgh Island, Devon, England” below:

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Just a quick note to tell everyone that I’m still around, but haven’t really had time to post new pictures or write more blog posts. I’ve started a new life and that’s keeping me very busy.

In the mean time check out some older photos in my gallery or in my underwater portfolio.

See you around!

Curious cows

Taken on a climbing trip to the “Hohe Wand” in Lower Austria, this pictures of curious cows is one of favourite cow photos ever!

On any trip to the Austrian countryside one is bound to bump into cows, so it’s not surprising that I’ve taken quite a few photos of them over the years.

Bled castle

While this album has already been online a little while I forgot to post a notice here. The photos were taken on a short trip to the small town of Bled in Slovenia. I followed the wedding invitation of a friend and used the spare time between all the festivities to head out into the country which sports an achingly beautiful landscape.

Vintgar gorge

Bled is dominated by the mountain lake, which apparently offers great conditions for rowing and at all times of day I could see various keen sportsmen training in their thin long boats. I got the best views over the lake from the fairytale castle - and the best view of the castle and the lake is from the Straza hills on the opposite lake shore.

Not far from Bled is Vintgar gorge. The icy water, the cool crisp air and the mossy smell create a sensory overload full of great photo opportunities. That’s where the latter part of album was taken. Most were taken on a tripod to get the silky flowing water effect and some images were enhanced using HDR techniques (taking multiple frames at varying exposures to increase dynamic range in the resulting composite image).

See the whole album “Slovenia 2008” below:

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In a very rare turn of events I shall share my thoughts on politics with the digital ether.  Last night Obama delivered a land-mark speech to 200.000 spectators in Berlin and he wowed the European crowds as much as the American TV-viewers. What do I (as a European)  think of it?

Recently I came across a statement in a political analysis by an american commentator and the general gist of it was “Just don’t tell the average American that the Europeans love Obama - He’ll be doomed!”. While there is probably a grain of truth in it - after all americans love themselves in the role of the sole ruler of the free world without interference from us soppy Europeans - I think that Obama was very brave with his speech to underscore the need for more trans-atlantic cooperation.

And indeed most commentators and news reports picked up on the “Americans and Europeans must work together in the future” theme, but I think there was subtly different theme hidden in his words.
More importantly Obama’s speech aimed to re-claim America’s leadership in all that lies ahead. That undertone went along the lines “difficult times lie ahead and while we (EU and US) must work together, we (the US) will take charge of what is being done and how”.

In the past (after WWII and during the cold war) America took exactly that position and nobody minded that (Vietnam being the notable exception), but as we all know that sentiment has faded significantly in the last decade.

I hope that the average American, who dislikes us Europeans (is that really so?) and would rather go it alone all for the american interest alone, realised last night that Obama appealed to them as much as he appealed to those more worldy-minded Americans who realise that global problems have to be tackled globally in a shared initiative.

The impression I got from Obama’s trip so far has been this - Europe has worked against America in the last decade on a number of counts, but only because it had to - America was doing things wrong and Europe had to take charge. But we, the Europeans, wouldn’t mind playing second fiddle again, if ONLY someone like Obama would take charge. From the commentaries and interviews with politicians who talked to Obama I got the feeling that Europe wants Obama to be the president of the world, not just of the US.
Now I hope America that America wants their own president not just to themselves, but also of the world - If they do he stands a good chance in November.