Eventful weekend (contd.)

Back again.

Friday night to early Saturday morning saw Bern enthralled to thousands of people in peregrination from one museum to another, with the odd insurance company and church thrown in for good measure. It was Museum Night again, a wonderfully festive, peaceful event for night owls and children who love staying out late. Here are some impressions.
The Bundeshaus (federal parliament building) wrapped because it's being renovated. The wrap provided a perfect canvas for the light show. The outlines of moths are the Museumsnacht's emblem.No, it wasn't raining or snowing -- at least not when I took these photos at about 8:30 PM. A few years ago, the central square of Bern, Bundesplatz, received a new covering of green-hued gneiss from the quarry at Vals in the Grisons. It's beautiful in and of itself but vastly benefits from twenty-six water spouts set into the ground. From the first day of spring until the last day of autumn each year, an orchestrated, variegated game of water jets entertains the crowds. Kids love to run in and out of the columns of water. Sadly, my camera isn't sophisticated enough for night-time shots of water jets.

I think I'll have to declare some of these photos as experimental pix). A night-time view from the "Münsterplattform" across the Aare river shows the Museum of History glowing red; way below the bridge, a blue gleam betrays one of our more popular riverside watering holes.

Another experimental picture, the inside of Bern cathedral, the Münster. This was the first Museumsnacht that the Münster opened its doors to the crowds, starting with a long bell-ringing session at six and closing at two AM, with a moment of true magic at midnight.

I was unaware of what this might look like -- am reminded just a bit of those laparoscopic photos of the insides of our bodies. The golden gleam lower left is the newly restored organ at the western end of the nave.

Normally the sandstone structure is a dull grey-green. The red lighting actually brought out the magic of the place. The crowds loved the special atmosphere inside the church: the benches had been removed from the centre and arranged along the sides, creating a wide esplanade. I was reminded of Milan's Duomo, which also has no seats inside, or of any Mediterranean town square: the crowds were happy to sit and watch and listen, or walk up and down, enjoying the freedom to explore the familiar gothic structure without the impediment of benches.
What attracted me in the first place was the promise of the restored organ fitted with groundbreaking equipment that permits the organist to coax unheard sounds from the venerable pipes. He was joined by various musicians -- the great double bass player Joëlle Léandre among them, and Martin Roos on Alphorn, Buechel and Waldhorn. Fantastic!

What the kids and not a few adults loved most was a shower of silver stars -- scintillating, gleaming confetti -- raining down from the ceiling above the choir: This kid wasn't the only one enraptured by the unusual sight:
Yes, of course there were critical voices saying one shouldn't open the church to such events. But why ever not? I found the atmosphere peaceful, magical, wonderful. The night held one more surprise. Which I'll present in the next post. TTNF!

Experimental pix, sky pix, electric storm pix

(Oct. 04)

Hi there

You've found your way to a series of experimental photographs. I have pocket-size cameras -- manual, hybrid, digital (details at the end, and maybe later) -- but no tripod, which makes for some interesting effects, especially at night.

Let's start at dawn:

(Oct. 13, 04)

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The full moon causes sleeplessness -- I'm an inveterate insomniac and enjoy those nights full of light.
Here are some pix taken in 2003/2004/2006:

(It was a very cold December night in 2003. My camera lens clouded over when
I took the above two pix through an open window.)

(Dec. 03)

(Mar. 04)

One July night in 2004, I gladly went without sleep as the sky was just too spectacular:
(all of the above: July 04)
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On another night in July 04 (it may have been the same night as the above) an electric storm in clouds high above the ground in the northern sky held me spellbound. The storm must have been quite a long way off because I could hear no thunder, just see the lightning tumbling about inside the cloud, occasionally shooting a bolt downwards or sideways. Never seen anything like it. Of course, my poor little manual camera was woefully inadequate for the occasion, but some images may still catch your fancy (I took about thirty over a fifteen-minute period or even longer):

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(no comment, except July 04)

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See how the full moon rose one night in December 05:
At about 4AM on June 22, 06, there was just the thinnest sliver of moon in the black south-eastern sky (going out on a limb here -- click on the image for an enlarged view and you might, just might see the moon):
Moments later, I took this photo of the nearby teaching hospital and a construction crane -- lit up like a squashed Xmas tree for visibility -- sending out their rays of light to the south-west:

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Cameras/film:
• Digital fist-size camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC50, Leica DC vario lens, 35mm equiv., 9x Digital Zoom, 35-105, 3x optical, 3.2 Mega Pixels
• Autofocus/autolight pocket-size camera: Canon IXUS II; Canon zoom lens f=23-46 mm 1:4.2–5.6; APS colour film, 200 ASA
• Manual pocket-size camera: Olympus XA with back light function, no flash; Olympus F•Zuiko lens f=35mm 1:2.8; traditional colour film, usually 400 ASA