Mickey Mouse Valentine

Posted by dkrashb on February 14, 2013

Small church in Madrid

Here it is, Valentine’s Day, and I’m still working my way through photos from Madrid that have nothing to do with the holiday. To top it off, I’m fighting a sinus infection and not feeling either romantic or like writing.

But, since when has that stopped me?

So, let’s start with Mickey in Madrid and see if we can end up at Valentine’s Day, shall we?

My last several posts have been from a meandering afternoon through the center of Madrid. Here, we found yet another square but with the rather inexplicable surprise that Mickey Mouse was standing in the middle of it.

Mickey surprised us

Clearly, this is not Disney World. I suspect it was some sort of Disney recruitment program. Perhaps for a Disney training program targeting people who might not be qualified for jobs that require them to speak or perform duties, providing them with gainful employment after receiving their Disney Character Certification. I wonder if they offer classes online?

The final photo I will share today is of tables and chairs in yet another square. You might think these tables and chairs are just being stored here, waiting for the spring before they will be used again. However, on this sunny Sunday when it was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, we witnessed many occupied tables in open squares. Granted, the ones that were occupied were mostly under tents and had outdoor heaters around the tables. But eating al fresco remains a priority in Madrid this time of year.

Outdoor eating

If I were in a more romantic mood, I would imagine a table in the corner of one of the more secluded squares. I see a big white tent, filled with flowering vines of one form or another. The heaters are on high, filling the tent with an enveloping warmth while the wind keeps the air moving through fast enough to keep it fresh.

There are candles. Many candles. And perhaps a young couple cozying up, sitting side-by-side at that corner table. Holding hands, kissing. Looking like the entire world is at their table.

Romance is for people who can forget about bills, jobs, dishes, laundry, and all the other realities of life. It requires the ability to suspend disbelief. The willingness to ignore our imperfections, our limitations, sometimes even outright lies. There was a time when I knew how to do that. But, somehow the suspension of disbelief seemed to also mean eliminating good judgment for me.

I’m sure there are people in this world who have found a way to combine romance with healthy relationships. In fact, I know there are books out there about how important romance is to healthy relationships. But, for me, I’ll take the guy who will walk the dog for me in the morning because I’m staying in bed with a sinus infection over the guy who takes me out for an expensive dinner in a romantic courtyard (even if it were in Madrid).

Entertainment in Madrid

Posted by dkrashb on February 13, 2013

Another lovely fountain in front of a horse monument (yeah, I should have bought a tourist guide book)

One of the popular sources of entertainment on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the center of Madrid seems to be street performers. We discovered a clown of sorts performing in one large square. We stopped to watch for a while, but as hard as the crowd was laughing, his humor didn’t translate for us.

Reminds me of when I was in Korea as a teenager. I went to see one of the Beverly Hills Cop movies with some Korean friends. It was in English but subtitled in Korean. I would laugh out loud about 10 seconds before the rest of the audience. That was embarrassing enough, but what was really embarrassing was when I would laugh so hard my eyes would water and the rest of the audience never started laughing even after they got caught up reading the subtitles. Not sure what was lost in translation, but I felt a little exposed laughing in the dark surrounded by people wondering what was so funny.

A relatively empty passage leading to an arch that opens onto another square

Back in Madrid, as we wandered from square to square and fountain to fountain, we discovered different forms of street performance around every corner. There was the fairly traditional “dress like something that shouldn’t move and hold really still” approach. Then, there was the “put three heads on a table and try to startle passers-by” approach that seemed like it had been borrowed from a haunted house. There were also collections of puppet-like animals that would start making a variety of noises as people walked by.

There were the requisite magicians as well. While I was tempted to take some shots of all of these clever performers, etiquette requires change if you take a picture. Since I only had American dollars on me, that wasn’t an option.

I did cheat on this rule. Two magicians were clever enough to create the illusion that one of them sitting on the ground was holding a chair over his head in one hand while the other magician sat in it. This was just so much effort on their parts that I had to take a picture.

Clever street performers

Unfortunately, so as not to breech etiquette too much, I took the shot from far away–hopefully you can tell from the image what they looked like. We figured out that the hand holding the chair was fake and that a metal support was going up the sleeve and down to the seat the guy on the bottom was sitting on, allowing him to balance the weight of the guy above him. It’s still rather ingenious.

I have to wonder what makes a person decide to invest this kind of creativity into their street art. Are these guys engineers Monday-Friday and magicians on Sunday afternoon? Were they watching some other magic trick one day of perhaps a guy spinning a chair on his hand and they suddenly looked at each other and said, “Hey! Wouldn’t it be cool if . . . “?

Whatever their story is, I appreciate the trick.

Another look at the cobblestone street bordered by buildings

Wandering Madrid

Posted by dkrashb on February 12, 2013

Looking down a main street in Madrid

After indulging in delicious Spanish dishes (not to mention Sangria), we wandered around Madrid at a slow pace perfect for how I was feeling. One of the questions I always ask myself is how do you describe the difference between a European city and a city in the US?

I’ve spent time in about a dozen major European cities over the years. While each of them has their own characteristics that make them unique, they also have something in common that I find difficult to articulate.

Perhaps it’s a factor of age. Or density of the architecture. The buildings are literally on top of each other. Entire city blocks have no gaps between buildings. Yet, there are blocks just as crowded in NYC. They still don’t look European.

Perhaps it’s the pavers they use for sidewalks and streets? Sometimes more like cobblestones than pavers. Rarely is the sidewalk simple concrete and the road plain asphalt. In fact, I often find myself walking in the street thinking I’m on a sidewalk because they are sometimes indistinguishable. The roads are often so narrow they seem like they must be for pedestrians only.

As I ponder exactly what it is that European cities have in common that make them distinguishable from US cities, we wander through a square. Rows of market stalls full of goods cover the majority of the square–it’s the Sunday market.

Entering the Sunday Market

Thankfully, my colleagues are not inclined to wander through the market for hours. I have little patience for shopping; particularly when I’m jet lagged and in a foreign country. Although, foreign markets are usually more interesting than the markets at home since you can learn something about a culture from what’s at the Sunday market. I need to be well rested for an anthropology expedition to the market, however. All I could think about at this point was how long could I stay awake. My belly was full and the sun was shining. Finding a spot to lay down was sounding appealing.

The first fountain

From the market, we found a fountain. This is not hard to do. There are many fountains in downtown Madrid. It would probably be harder to not see a fountain than to see one. As we made our way around the fountain, we looked up and saw a group of modern looking skyscrapers ahead of us.

I would have loved my full-frame camera with my 16-35mm lens–I could have captured the older buildings in the foreground against the modern buildings in the background. That’s definitely one of the characteristics of European cities–buildings that pre-date Columbus’s arrival in the new world juxtaposed against modern buildings like some sort of anachronism.

Rome is particularly surprising in how tightly integrated the ancient and modern can be. I suppose this is the natural outcome of having had a massive, ancient civilization and then having had the crap bombed out of it during the wars, leaving gaps that had to be filled.

Modern sky scrapers with just a smidgen of older architecture in the foreground

Sunday Afternoon

Posted by dkrashb on February 11, 2013

The front of the restaurant

Traveling to Europe is something I really do not enjoy. Don’t get me wrong. I love Europe. It truly is a different world from the US and everyone should experience at least some part of Europe first hand. I just don’t like getting there.

I left my home at 11AM on Saturday morning in the first “snow storm” we’ve had since moving here. It took nearly an hour to get to the airport (normally a 15 minute drive) because there was about an inch of snow on the ground. With no snow clearing equipment and lots of steep climbs, traffic was a mess.

It’s not a biker hang out–this is just typical in Europe where gas is so expensive

When I arrived in Madrid, it was about 9:00AM Madrid time Sunday morning. AKA 3AM Eastern time. Therein lies the problem. The vast majority of the time I would have spent sleeping evaporated into thin air. Fortunately, my hotel room was available for an early check in and I managed to lie down for a nap by 11AM.

One of my well-traveled colleagues called my room at 1PM and informed me we were going into town and we were leaving immediately. I had apparently missed a few text messages while I was napping. I jumped out of bed, splashed water on my face, threw on some clothes, and was in the lobby 10 minutes later.

Couldn’t help but drool a little over the Ducati

Getting outside is quite important to time shifting. The sun helps your body reset its clock. So, although still somewhat incoherent, I forced myself to join my colleagues on this little adventure.

Since the conference we were there to support was at an airport hotel, it was about a 20 minute cab ride to the center of town. Fortunately, one of my colleagues is fluent in Spanish and managed to convince the driver to go through town rather than taking the freeway so we got a bit of a tour on the way.

Closer view of the restaurant – not a big place

Armed only with an iPhone for a camera, I attempted to get some shots of the city. Wow is it hard to get decent landscape photos with an iPhone! I have admired other bloggers’ iPhone photos in the past–I am now in awe of their abilities. The dynamic range of the iPhone is not good and I found it impossible to hold it stable or straight. The dynamic range issue was exacerbated by the fact that it was early afternoon with strong shadows and bright sunlight. But, I wasn’t about to lug my 5D Mark III along on a business trip–the iPhone was better than nothing.

We wandered our way through the streets to a tiny restaurant known to my Spanish-speaking colleague. The couple who owns the restaurant greeted us and welcomed us in a way that made us feel like we were visiting their home. They patiently explained the menu to us, sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish. They served us pitchers of Sangria freshly made and filled our bellies with traditional Spanish dishes.

Attempted to get a shot of the inside–not so good with iPhone, but gives an idea

I was really glad I’d gotten out of bed.

Boarding a Plane

Posted by dkrashb on February 10, 2013

Sunrise from plane window as we approach Madrid (iPhone)

I’ve just gotten on a plane for the second leg of a 3-leg journey from Chattanooga to Madrid. We’re about 5 minutes from our departure time. There are about a dozen people standing in the aisle trying to find places for their baggage. The flight attendant is announcing for the third time to bring your bags that won’t fit under the seat to the front so they can be checked.

Two men are desperately trying to keep their bags from being checked. One of them walks down the aisle asking if anyone has a small bag they can put under their seat to make room or if someone else will check a bag to make room for theirs. “Does anyone want to help!? We’ve got a long way to go!” He calls out as he moves through the aisle.

I kept thinking the clouds were snow-covered mountains.

I am offended more by his lack of logic than his imposition. I cannot put together the pieces in his mind that tell him he is somehow more entitled to overhead space or that he will somehow be more inconvenienced than anyone else on the plane would be by having to check his bag. What about the distance you have to fly makes whether you check your bag or not more or less convenient? Does he believe he’s the only one on the plane who has a connection?

There is a ruckus at the front of the plane and I hear a flight attendant declare in a voice just below a shout, “Back off, sir!” I momentarily wish I had an aisle seat so I could see what is happening. At this point, I find myself worried that these guys are terrorists with some horrible plot dependent on them having their carry-ons on the plane. I am relieved that they are forced to check their bags. I would feel better if they were removed from the plane all together. After all, perhaps it would be a good lesson for them to understand that the odds of making a connection on time are greatest when you cooperate with the flight crew.

Close-up of clouds catching sunrise

Perhaps they just don’t understand that the airline will check their bags all the way through to their destination and they don’t have to go pick them up between flights. Or maybe they’ve done this trip a dozen times and every time they checked their bags, their luggage was forever lost? I don’t know.

I’ve had to check my bag when I didn’t want to more than once. It’s annoying, but less annoying than delaying take off by acting like a brat. I’ve had luggage lost on many occasions. The worst was when my bag went to Ecuador, Panama, New Jersey, and Houston while I was in Austin. It took 3 days to catch up with me. I had to go shopping and then ship a portion of the contents of my bag home to make room for my purchases. I lived.

Last of the cloud bank before I am forced to put my iPhone away

Something Old, Something New

Posted by dkrashb on February 9, 2013

Sunrise behind the Tennessee Aquarium

I decided to try shooting sunrise over the riverfront with a longer lens. I was originally thinking the 100-400mm lens to really zoom in tight and pick up details that I normally don’t get shooting landscape. But, as I selected the lens to put on my camera, I backed off on focal length, afraid I wouldn’t be able to get any of the sky in the frame.

The sky is among my favorite subjects and the thought of not being able to capture it if it did something really cool was unfathomable.

Had I been more awake, I might have put my long lens on my old 40D or on my husband’s Rebel–then I could have had both wide and tight views to choose from. But, I was not that awake and not that ambitious. Plus, sometimes I feel like it’s just a good exercise to see what you can get with what you’ve got instead of trying to have the perfect equipment on hand for every possible scenario. Every once in a while, I get inspired and do something really creative.

However, instead of sticking with my original plan, I hedged my bet and put my 70-200mm lens on my camera instead. I figured this would give me enough range to get some sky and still get details. And, it is a better lens than the 100-400mm.

This was probably not wise. I ended up shooting around 85mm and getting shots that look remarkably like the shots I get from the riverfront walkway in the park below with a wider lens. Except these look flatter.

If you’re not into photography, perhaps I should explain that wide angle lenses distort a scene in such a way that it make things look further apart. Conversely, long lenses make things look closer together. So, the buildings, for example, look like they’re all on the same street even though I only shot at 85mm. Had I been shooting at 16mm, the buildings would look further apart (and they would curve upwards at the outside of the frame due to the distortion created by shooting that wide).

In any case, my lens choice didn’t force me to do anything really interesting or creative. I just ended up with less than exciting landscape shots.

Of course, there is a lesson in this. I think it goes something like this: when you want to try something new, sometimes you have to leave yourself no option but to do something new. Otherwise, you might find that while you told yourself you were doing something new, you really just did the same thing you always do.

When I saw the clouds blowing over the 27 bridge, I immediately went into landscape mode. I zoomed out to 70mm and tried to capture as much of the sky as I could. Next time, I’m taking the 100-400mm. I’m going to try to shoot at 300mm or higher and see what I get.

Clouds over the 27 bridge

Catching the Moon

Posted by dkrashb on February 8, 2013

The moon. What a subject it is. I cannot help but shoot it. Perhaps I take the phrase “shooting the moon” a bit too literally. At least I’m not trying to shoot it with a gun.

I got up this morning and decided to see if the sunrise was interesting. I headed down the hall, back to the common area and onto the balcony.

The wind was not any calmer than it had been two nights ago when I was waiting for the almost-full-moonrise that never showed. The temperature, however, was probably 20 degrees colder.

I’d decided to do a little experiment. Instead of shooting with a wide-angle lens as I usually would, I decided to use my 70-200mm lens to see if I could get something a little different from the tried and true views of the riverfront.

As the sun came up from behind the bluff, I waited to see if the light would get interesting in the sky. I was pretty focused (no pun intended) on the sun rising. Sometimes, I have to stop myself from staring because it gets hard to tell when the light has changed if you watch it too intensely. I guess it’s like living with someone who loses weight really gradually compared to running into someone you haven’t seen in ages who’s dropped 20 pounds since the last time you saw them.

So, when I realized I was staring for too long, I decided it was time to look around and see what the rest of the view looked like. When I turned, there it was. The lost moon, found again, centered in a clearing in the clouds. I swung my camera around on the tripod, zoomed in, and found focus just in time for the clouds to blow back over the *$%^ moon. Argh!

But, with a few adjustments, I kind of liked the shot anyway. It was the only chance I got–the cloud coverage just kept getting thicker until there was just one small, bright spot in the clouds barely bright enough to be noticeable if I didn’t already know where the moon was.

I turned back to the sunrise, but I kept looking over my shoulder just in case the moon decided to change its course and head back to the clearing. The moon made no such decision. Instead, it followed its predictable trajectory. At least, that’s what I assume it did–it’s not as if I could actually watch its progress. For all I know, it jumped out of the sky and will never be seen again.

Just for kicks, I google the moonrise time for tonight. I don’t know if I have it in me to stand on the cold balcony waiting for the late rise of a waning gibbous moon–it’s just not as exciting as a full (or almost full) moon. I’m relieved to discover the moon won’t rise until after my bedtime. Maybe I should start shooting moonset?

One for the Road

Posted by dkrashb on February 7, 2013

Bald Eagle over Hiwassee Refuge

At the Sandhill Crane Festival, some of the volunteers spotted a bald eagle and what I believe they said was a Northern Harrier. I didn’t get a good look at the Northern Harrier and, unfortunately, the birds were circling far enough away that my 400mm lens wasn’t sufficient to get a good shot.

Circling Eagle and Hawk

Smaller birds circled outside the frame, periodically diving at the much larger birds of prey, trying to convince them to move along and feed elsewhere. The eagle and the hawk seemed to run into each other almost by accident.

They soared around in a big, oblong loop like they were discussing their winter vacation plans and trying to arrange a carpool. Eventually, they must have realized they were headed different directions. They split off and flew out of sight in opposite directions.

I am puzzled by how birds navigate on their long migration journeys–especially those that don’t travel in flocks or who are migrating for the first time.

Migrating ducks stopping over to recover before continuing South

Apparently I am not the only one puzzled by this feat. Scientists seem to think birds are able to identify the direction they’re going, perhaps using the sun, moon, and stars for orientation. However, it’s unknown how birds find an actual place when they do things like fly across an ocean and return to their nest from the year before. In some experiments, birds were captured and moved via aircraft to a distant location. They still managed to find their way back without wandering.

I used to think I had a great sense of direction. I remember being lost in Dallas back when I was in my late 20’s. I was with my boss, but I was driving since the rental car was in my name. We had gone to see the West End in Dallas–a place everyone kept telling us we had to see. Then, it was time to return to the airport for our flight home. The airport is a good 30 minute drive from the West End of downtown if you don’t run into any traffic.. This is almost an impossibility in Dallas. I ended up doing a 6-month temporary assignment down there and during that time, I experienced getting stuck in traffic at 11PM on a weeknight on more than one occasion.

Sandhill Cranes on the bank

I managed to determine what direction we needed to go without a map and got us to the airport on time. My boss was impressed.

More recently, having moved to Chattanooga, I’ve had the realization that my sense of direction isn’t a sense of direction at all. Rather, it’s a way of orienting myself to direction by noticing what direction I’m going relative to where I started from. I can only do this when I’m in a place whose streets form mostly straight lines. In Chattanooga, even after a year and a half, I remain hopelessly disoriented and often lost. Imagine if I were a bird flying over the ocean–I would drown.

No Moon

Posted by dkrashb on February 6, 2013

I really wanted the white house to be the moon, but no matter how many times I shot it, it was still a house

Once again, the moon has disappointed me. I suppose it’s my own fault. I lost track of when the full moon would occur this month. I discovered this when we were walking home from dinner and I looked up and there it was, high in the sky shining brightly the way only a full moon can.

I thought, “No worries, it will still look full tomorrow night.” I googled the moonrise time for the following evening. I put it on my calendar. I got out my camera, put on the 1.4x extender and my 100-400mm lens. In plenty of time to get setup, I walked to the common room and setup my tripod and camera on the balcony. Then, I waited.

Now, I was mentally prepared for the moon to be late. I have enough experience with this now to know I can’t expect the moon to appear over the high ridge in front of me at the same time it crosses the horizon at sea level. What I couldn’t remember was just how late it usually is. I thought about the last time I was parked in the cold wind waiting on the moon. Was it 20 minutes after official moonrise time? Or was it 30? Maybe it was even 45?

Had I been thinking, I might have looked up my last moonrise post to see how late it was. According to that post, it was over 30 minutes late. I can’t think of any reason why it would be more or less late at various times of the year if it’s rising behind the same ridge, shouldn’t it rise with the same lateness?

In any case, since I wasn’t thinking, I stood on that cold balcony in a blustery wind waiting. And while I was waiting, I kept imagining I saw the moon. In particular, the house in the image above reflected light in such a way that every time I scanned the ridge, I thought, “there it is!” I ended up with about 10 pictures of this house during the hour I waited on the moon.

By the time it was an hour past moonrise, I figured it was time to call it quits. I was tired of jogging in place to keep the blood flowing to my toes. My nose was also running–like it was training for a marathon. I took one last look at all the visible sky and saw no sign that the moon was anywhere to be found. Not even a bright spot in the clouds.

I guess this is a case where even the best-laid plans go awry. On the other hand, the best-laid plan might have been to check the weather forecast before the full moon and to decide to shoot a night earlier when the moon was truly full and the sky was clear. But, I would have had to miss dinner with good friends to do that.

As my best friend reminded me, there will be plenty of moonrises in the future.

Jumping In

Posted by dkrashb on February 5, 2013

Momentum is a funny thing. The tendency of an object at rest to stay rest often feels overwhelming when that object is me. Conversely, once I start moving, momentum carries me away, often making it hard for me to return.

On Sunday afternoon, curled on the couch and disappointed that I hadn’t been able to actually nap, the thought of putting on my coat and boots, packing up my gear and heading outside to shoot seemed just silly.

But, between the motion of my husband (is motion contagious?) and my need to have photos to post for the next week and a half, I managed to get up and get myself and Tisen ready for the park.

I liken the feeling of steeling myself to unwrap from a blanket and step into the cold to the feeling of preparing to jump into a pool.

I love to swim. Moving through the water feels like being home. The feeling of being buoyed up makes me feel weightless. I’m not fast, but I re-learned how to swim when I undertook triathlons about a dozen years ago. In the process, I found a relaxed, meditative way of moving through the water that I could sustain well beyond the time I had to swim. In fact, I often ran late getting out of the pool because I was enjoying being in the water so much.

None-the-less, even now, just sitting here thinking about how much I like to swim, the thought of going out into the night and taking that initial step into the cold water makes me recoil. There’s something shocking about going from being warm and dry to being suddenly immersed in water that feels like an ice bath (even when it’s actually a little too warm for swimming laps). It takes a little extra push to move momentum from rest to motion when I feel like I’m about to jump in the pool.

But having made the leap and gotten myself and Tisen out the door, I was soon kneeling on a garbage bag in the mud finding interesting things I’d never seen before. Once I got started I didn’t want to stop. The image above is the last image I shot that day. It was shot after I got the call from my husband that he was making dinner. I had already collapsed my tripod and put the lens cap back on, determined to head straight home when I saw this plant.

I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if the image was worth being late to dinner for, but I was perplexed by the arrangement of the dried stems (or were they shriveled petals?) laced with the silk of milkweed. At least it looks like milkweed. There are apparently many, many varieties of milkweed, so it seems reasonable this might be one.

The tones of reddish brown intermittent with the silk against the green grasses in the background just caught my eye.

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nomadicmainstream

Combining living on the road with a mainstream lifestyle

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