The moon soon hides from the sun behind those mountains on the right
My mother and wife arrived half past ten last night after an uneventful flight from Amsterdam to Geneva, a fine train ride from Geneva to Aigle and a scary taxi ride up the mountain. Apparently, the taxi driver was a kamikaze pilot in world war two, who missed his target and was now trying to compensate for it. With shaky knees, they greeted us. I showed my wife the chalet, we all had drink and then went straight to bed.
The following morning I fell out of bed. At 6:15, I was up about and running. Dear lord, I hope this doesn't become a habit. The up side of course was being treated to yet another beautiful morning. The sun came up from the left, peeking with its pink rays over the top of a mountain.
Pink and golden vapor trail
Later in the week, we discovered the sky above the chalet is a highway for planes. This first morning I just thought I was lucky to see planes flying over, leaving a nice pink and golden vapor trail. What a great photo opportunity! Later (after our discovery of the fly-by highway) I felt blessed I could see the planes warping overhead but not hearing them.
It being his first time here, Eelco wanted to know where what was in the village. Therefore, I took him on a tour by foot, to show him the village, where to find the bakery and so forth. Knowing Eelco, he would go out on his own to trek as well. I thought it was best to show him the scenery, surroundings and what routes to take. It turned out to be an extensive hike.
Is that a camera that is holding a friend?
We walked and walked and stopped quite often to take photographs. Eelco is as keen on photography as I am, though he has a much more professional camera. Not that I'm complaining, oh no, on the contrary. He has a camera that weighs half a ton and needs several lenses for different types of shots. The lenses each weigh another half a ton and the extra batteries a ton and a half. The whole shebang cost him the price of a small car AND he has to carry the stuff around. Now, Eelco is a big fellow, but that's to much to carry all around, even for him. By the way, did I mention it comes in a hard shell case that weighs another quarter of a ton? Oh, how I love my camera. I have a compact camera that allows me to shoot anything and everything, morning, midday and night. It weighs a little less than four mosquitoes and fits in my pocket, as long as I remember to take the sun cap off.
evening light behind the mountain
It costs as little as ten weeks worth of smoking and taking pics is a much healthier thing to do. Besides, it comes with a built in flash so I can't forget to bring mine. More importantly, I am not disappointed with the photos it takes :)
We enjoyed our walk very much. We saw breathtaking panoramas, walked past streams, chuckled at some people's creativity and fell in love with the local architecture. When we got back to the chalet, the setting sun had just sank behind the mountains. This meant even more views that are stunning and gave us a great photo-op. Have a look for yourself.
