Harold Davis's Blog, page 70

Ponte Rodo-Ferroviária: Beginning My Camino Adventure

Today I walked across the Ponte Rodo-Ferroviária de Valença (shown in the image) across the River Minho from Tui in Galicia, Spain to Valenca in Portugal, and back again. Other than a little signage, just as you might have in the US when leaving one state and entering another, there was nothing to show that this was once an international border. The old customs house and port of entry building on the Portugal side had been converted into a small art center and a music academy. I think when all is said and done, with whatever problems there are, there is no going back to a divided Europe.

Ponte Rodo-Ferroviária de Valença © Harold Davis

Both sides of the river were heavily fortified starting in Roman times. I stood on the very top of the massive stone ramparts of the Portuguese walls and stared across the river at the fortified hilltop town of Tui, the capital of one of the seven provinces that merged to form the ancient kingdom of Galicia.

Tomorrow I start north on the famous Camino Portuguese trail. This pilgrimage trail leads to Santiago de Compostela through Galicia from the south, whereas the better known and more trafficked Camino Francais pilgrimage trail comes from the north. I should be in Santiago in a little less than two weeks, and I am looking forward to it very much, although my feet are already a little sore and a bit worried about the proposition!

Related story: My Camino adventure last year (2018) starts here.

Giverny Afternoon

Flowers at Giverny © Harold Davis

I visited Monet’s wonderful garden at Giverny with my small group of photographers. In the late afternoon, we had the garden mostly to ourselves and were able to photograph in the golden light.

Giverny Afternoon © Harold Davis

Tulip X-Rays and Fusion X-Rays

Tulips X-Ray Fusion © Harold Davis

These tulips were x-rayed to provide the internal structure of the flowers (see image below). They were then photographed in alignment on a light box for translucency, and to provide the color. The two versions were combined using Color blending mode in Photoshop for the fusion x-ray image, shown above. For more info, check out my FAQ about x-ray and fusion x-ray photography. 

Tulips X-Ray © Harold Davis

Paris Landscape

With the storm receding, from the top of the Tour Montparnasse near sunset, Paris looked like it could be any other rain-wracked landscape (of course, it is not, there is only one Paris), with La Défense clustered behind the almost-toy Eiffel Tower.

Paris Landscape © Harold Davis

Temple of Mercury

Within Schwetzingen Garden, the Temple of Mercury is an intentional ruin from the late 1700s. Built to romantically fall down, the question today is how to conserve a structure intended from the start to be a ruin.

Photographed as the sun rose with my iPhone, and processed using the Plastic Bullet, Snapseed, ImageBlender, and Photo Lab apps on my iPhone.

Temple of Mercury © Harold Davis

Mercury to the Romans was Hermes to the Greeks. Messenger of the Gods (with winged sandals), God of medicine (hence the caduceus), travelers, thieves, and other assorted magical riff-raff. On good days I regard Hermes as a patron, and hope he helps keep me safe and happy as I wander.

X-Ray Flower Medley Fusion

This image combines—hence the term “fusion”—the x-ray version of the floral medley composition with a translucent version of the same arrangement photographed in alignment on a light box.

X-Ray Floral Medley Fusion © Harold Davis

X-Ray Floral Medley

Working with Dr Julian Kopke, I laid out this x-ray composition on a sheet of plexiglass above the sensor. The results you see are actually two x-rays combined, because there is falloff at one of the x-ray, so the second exposure was flipped to create a combined even image. We also used the plexiglass backing in registration to create a light box image of the composition, and I will try later to see what combining the x-ray (interior structure) with the external appearance of the flowers looks like. Check out my FAQ for more information about this kind of imaging.

X-Ray Floral Medley © Harold Davis

Enchanted Castle Garden

My friend’s friend had a key to the side gate into the grand garden of the Schwetzingen Castle. The friend’s friend was prevailed upon to let us into the garden before sunrise with our cameras and tripods. Perhaps a “bribe” of a case of designer beer was involved.

Inside, and alone with the garden, I was reminded of the enchanted garden that was magic and came to life at night in E. Nesbit’s classic work of Edwardian children’s fantasy, The Enchanted Garden.

As the sun came up we explored the vast grounds and photographer. The Japanese Bridge is shown below.

Japanese Bridge, Schwetzingen Garden © Harold Davis

The fantasy mosque (below) is complete with minarets and inscriptions in Arabic and German. Each Arabic inscription has errors of punctuation and vocalization, apparently the fault of the stonemason who was carving the transcriptions.

The mosque was built in the late 1700s, and is the last remaining Garden Mosque of the eighteenth century in Europe, and a testimony to the western fascination with things Arabic of that era.

Schwetzingen Garden Mosque © Harold Davis

Visual Palindrome

A palindrome is a phrase that is the same read backwards and forwards. Some examples are Madam I’m Adam, A man a plan a canal Panama, and of course Napoleon’s plaintive exclamation, Able was I ere I saw Elba.

Reflections in the Untersee isn’t exactly a backwards-and-forwards palindrome (if such a concept exists in the visual world) but it does manifest a related phenomenon: an image that can be read in either vertical direction.

My blog story about Reflections in the Untersee shows the image composed “As Shot,” and as seen in real life by yours truly.

Several people pointed out with varying degrees of asperity that they thought the photo was upside down. There was some suspicion that I had flipped the image as intentional trickery. This was not the case (although I am certainly capable of doing so in the right situation). I really hadn’t seen this until it was pointed out, but the image does work as well (or better) flipped vertically.

In the “correct” version the dark shallows of the lake in the foreground looks a little weird, but when flipped these dark areas make visual sense (but are not authentic) perhaps as deeper water.

The poles, and their reflections, and the duck, and its reflections, seem to work either way.

I think that when I print this image I will do it as a palindromic diptych. The original version as it was in real life will be on the left, and I will flip it horizontally as well as vertically on the right, something like this.

Reflections in the Untersee © Harold Davis

Reflections (Flipped) © Harold Davis

 

Reflections in the Untersee

Before coming to Lake Konstanz, I didn’t have a very good sense of its geography, other than Lake Konstanz was on the border of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. My friends had invited me, they are German and know the area well, and I left everything to them.

What turns out is the Lake Konstanz is about sixty miles long, and, yes, there are three countries along its shores.

The great Rhine River flows into Lake Konstanz, and flows out at its bottom. The lower part of the lake, where we are staying, is called the Untersee, or lower sea. This photo shows sunrise reflections of posts and a duck in the Untersee shortly after sunrise today.

Today, we drove about an hour into Switzerland—not part of the Eurozone, so we had to make sure we had our passports since we’d be crossing the border. We visited the Rhine Falls, the biggest waterfall in Europe, with snowmelt from the Alps feeding Lake Konstanz. The tourist concessions around Rhine Falls are every bit as toxic and annoying as those around Niagara Falls, but it is still a magnificent spot. If my photos come out, I will post one later!

Reflections in the Untersee © Harold Davis