Salzburg * First impressions

Walking along the Salzach towards the city centre of Salzburg, getting a first impression of the town from one of the bridges, looking forward to exploring the old town and climbing up to the castle.

It's a lovely city, just the right size to walk around and see everything, with lots of shops, cafés, restaurants, museums, and, at this time of the year, Christmas markets. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to visit any of the museums, or do much shopping. But I walked around the streets in the old town, climbed up to the castle, and managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done.

2. Advent ~ Getting into Christmas mood

It's the 2. Advent today already, and therefore...

... high time for the Christmas decoration to go up. I've never been one for Christmas decorations, until last year. And now, I can't think how I did without :). (I'm far too afraid of burning down the house to actually ever light those candles, though...).

A friend of mine intoduced me to the Steiff teddybear Christmas limited editions collection a few years ago. And of course, once you start, you just have to have one every year. I'm still waiting for this year's teddy to be ready to be picked up at the shop. It's a snowflake!

It's definitely beginning to feel a lot more like Christmas time, even though there's still no snow, at least not down here.

It's all definitely helping to get into Christmas mood. Have a wonderful 2. Advent!

{Day 25} ~ This Magic Moment

After the long walk in the wintry and snowy forest with my Mum, a long hot soak in the bath, with a good book and a special Christmas bath bomb from Lush was just the perfect thing to do on a lazy Christmas day :-). So relaxing!

Texture by Pareeerica

{Day 23} ~ Life Is Sweet

Prompt for Day 23 for Picture the Holidays: "Life Is Sweet"

These are the English Christmas pralines I bought the other day for our "A Touch of British" Christmas. It wasn't easy to resist the tempation to eat them before I had the shot taken. I didn't dare touch them until I had downloaded them all, but now, that the shot is posted, there's no holidng back :-)

Not quite sure about the processing, especially how the background turned out. But I like the lacy traditional old style café feeling :-)

Texture by SkeletalMess / Shadowhouse Creations and Kim Klassen

{Day 22} ~ You Are Getting Sleepy

Prompt for Day 22 for Picture the Holidays was "You are Getting Sleepy" and it was certainly most fitting. Yesterday was the last day before my 10 day Christmas break and I was counting the days and hours because I really need that holiday now. My photography classes and projects are giving me the greatest pleasure and I learn so much but they also take up all my time and keep me awake far too long at night. I was too tired last night to the day's shot.

This is a picture of my beloved late cat and I think that cats really are the greatest sleepers in the world. We got her when she was only 3 months old and two years ago, just a few days before Christmas, we had to make the hard decision to let her go. She was so poorly at the end that keeping her alive for just another day, let alone until after Christmas, for our sakes would have been pure cruelty. It was a sad Christmas and it broke my heart. Even though she stayed with my parents when I moved out, she was always *my* cat. When I went home to visit my parents, she would place herself on a strategic point from where she could keep an eye on me and the sofa and as soon as I was approaching the sofa, she came running to claim her favourite sleeping spot - on my belly. We spent hours like this lying on the sofa together and her joy of seeing me and being with me was always such a great comfort when I was feeling low. But she had a good life, and she lived to be 18 years and died of old age. But I had had her half my life and it was so hard to let her go. I still miss her. Especially at this time of the year. Sleep tight, my Darling, you're always in my heart

I really regret that I didn't have my DSLR when she was still alive to take some good shots of her.

Textures by SkeletalMess / Shadowhouse Creations and Kim Klassen

{9 Muses Musing} ~ Snowflake

Today's prompt for 9 Muses Musing: Snowflake

 

I'm an absolute snow lover and I so hope that there will be some real snow for Christmas Eve tomorrow! 

Textures: SkeletalMess / Shadowhouse Creations and Pareeerica
Brushes: http://www.studiobaklazan.com.pl

{Day 19} ~ Make a List

Alternative title: ~ Procrastination Queen ~

Prompt for Day 19 for Picture the Holidays was "Make A List". I'm a master of the art of procrastination. Unfortunately. I make a lot of to do lists, and usually, they help me get things done which otherwise I would have left for tomorrow, or the day after that, or anytime later... I admire people who managed to do things immediately and often wish that I could bring myself to that as well and get more organised. But then - nobody's perfect. And that's okay :-)

Textures: Shadowhouse Creations

{Day 16} ~ Season of Lights

Prompt for Day 16 for Picture the Holiday was: "Season of Lights"

I was looking for colourful Christmas lights but just couldn't find anything. Most Christmas lights over here are the traditional yellow ones. So I used Photoshop to turn my town's big Christmas a bright pink. I don't think I've ever seen pink Christmas lights anywhere!

Road To Nowhere

There are a one or two things in my life which make me feel like not getting anywhere at all. And although I've been continually trying to change them, I haven't succeeded to make it happen yet. What I want for Christmas therefore is: Change. I hope that next year, I will finally reach a fork on my road to nowhere, which will allow me to leave it and follow a different, more successful path.

For The Shutter Divas, Week 5: "All I Want For Christmas Is..." and for Mortal Muses, 9 Muses Musing, Day 4: "Journey".

{9 Muses Musing} ~ Day 3: Bells

The sweetest Christmas bells are those attached to a deliciously yummy chocolate St. Nicholas :-).

The focus isn't very great here, made worse by the fact that I had to crop the image as my blue fleece blanket in the background turned into a great ugly dark spot and it was far too late for starting all over again... But I like the light on the bell. And I'm so looking forward to eating this chocolate Santa tonight! :-)

Texture by Pareeerica

{9 Muses Musing} ~ Day 2: Lights

What a great surprise awaited me yesterday morning, when I opened Mortal Muses to get the prompt for Day 2 of 9 Muses Musing and saw a very familiar picture appearing before my eyes! The prompt was "Light" and Kat had chosen one of my pictures to feature on the blog. The photo was taken a week ago and I was trying out my new lens, a Canon 50mm f1.8, which I had very spontaneously decided to buy the day before. This is one of my favourite spot in Zürich. Looking up the Limmatquai with its Christmas lights, the typical blue trams of Zürich, the old guild buildings, the river. To the left is my favourite bridge, Münsterbrücke, a old, small cobblestone bridge connecting the two big minsters Grossmünster and Fraumünster. There seem to be new kind of benches in town and they provided great spidery shadows and the people walking by just helped to add the whole scene into one that reminded me of the dark, gloomy mood of Carlos Ruiz Zafóns novels, which I loved reading, exactly because of their mysterious mood.

I was also trying out my new bokeh kit with various shapes, which fits this lens perfectly. I chose the star shape as I thought that fitted the Christmas season best. Zürich's got a new Christmas lighting in Bahnhofstrasse, replacing a cold and much hated one. The new is sparkly and colorful and I get the feeling that each time I get to tone, it sparkles even more! The new lens and star bokeh turned it into a sky full of bright cheerful stars :-). I have posted this photo earlier already, for Picture the Holiday's prompt for Day 10, "Twinkle, Twinkle". But decided to use it again for 9 Muses Musing because I really quite like it :-).

I love my new lens!! :-)

{9 Muses Musing} ~ Day 1: Giving

Yesterday, the Mortal Muses' project  "9 MUSES MUSING - 18 Days of Holiday Prompts and Daily Giveaways, December 15th - January 1st" started. I had been looking forward to it and marked the day in my diary but still managed to miss it completely. So I'm already behind, but I still intend to try to keep up now. So yesterday's prompt for the first day was "Giving". I had taken a few pics of presents earlier this week, which suit this prompt perfectly. And although I'm too late to post my picture on the Muses' blot, at least here on my blog I can start with Day 1 :-).

The Joy of Giving: Wrapping them up is at least as much fun as unwrapping them :-)

Textures by Kim Klassen and AlicePopkorn

{Day 14} ~ Sincerely Yours

Prompt for Day 14 for "Picture the Holidays" is "Sincerely Yours": Appreciating handwritten cards and letters, and trying to represent this while creating a vintage look.

 A few years ago, a dear friend of mine and I have started to write good old old-fashioned letters (those in the pictures are from her) to each other occasionally, complete with ink bottle, dip pen, seal and wax and trying to produce a neat and pretty script. We love going shopping for new coloured inks, pen holders, nibs and sealing wax. We also write text messages and e-mails, but it is so nice to find a real letter in your letter box, to know that your friend has taken the time (and it takes a lot of time) to sit down, get out all the writing stuff and write the letter, and to curl up on the sofa with a lovely cup of tea and read it.

I keep all my letters and cards (I have another friend who frequently sends postcards with short messages instead of electronic messages) in my "letter box".

When I was taking and processing this picture, I realised that it was quite a while since I wrote a letter, so many things have come in between. But it has inspired me to take time and start writing again :-).

The texture used here is by Kim Klassen.

{Day 12} ~ A Whole Lot of Happy

I'm a bit behind with some of the pictures for Picture the Holiday, but yesterday, I finally had the inspiration for my shot for Day 12 - "A Whole Lot of Happy". Most of the baubles you find around here are the conservative ball, either plain/single-coloured or whith a bit of glitter or other decorations. But there are not a lot of those funny shapes and stuff around. Or at least I haven't come across too many. But yesterday, I found these three smiling snowmen ornaments, and I just loved them. They looked so cheerful and friendly and happy, I just had to take them home. They also were perfect for my Day 12 shot. I had also much fun with the processing, and got quite carried away in the process. But I think these three chaps can take it, and I'm sure they appreciate all the chill and snow I've added :-)

{Day 13} ~ Simply Divine

Todays prompt for Picture the Holidays was "Simply Divine".

When I was walking to the train station after work, the sky was a wonderful pale pastel pink. I love the light at this time of year, the very light, soft blue skies, the intense and short blue hour (my favourite time of the day in winter) and those rare, pale sunsets. They are much rarer and often so subtle that they almost go unnotived if you don't bother to stand still for a moment and look. They are a gift from nature - simply divine :-)

{Day 10} ~ Twinkle, Twinkle

Prompt for Day 10 of Picture the Holidays was "Twinkle, Twinkle". I took my new 50mm lens and my equally new Bokeh Kit from Photojojo to town after work and got completely carried away with twinkly bokeh blurr. I decided on the star bokeh for my Christmas city lights bokeh and just set my lens on manual focus and never focused on anything. All I wanted was bokeh, and lots and lots of it and nothing really had to be in focus at all. Just a happy blurry twinkly starry Christmas lights in the city bokeh effect.

Maybe gone a bit too far, maybe a bit ove the top - but actually, I quite like it :-) It's all about experimenting, especially if you're a beginner :-).

Above Zürich's new Christmas lights "Lucy" in Bahnhofstrasse, getting more and more twinkly. Below right one of the many huge Christmas trees in Zürich, this one is at the tram stop at Paradeplatz.

{Day 9} ~ It's A Sign

I didn't spend the evening of my "day off" the day before yesterday on the sofa, instead I got lost and walked in the wrong direction several times in the dark among several construction sites in a part of Zürich where I haven't been for ages and which I almost didn't recognise, until I finally found the shop I was looking for - and bought myself an early Christmas present, a 50mm lens. Yay!

So last night, I went to the city again to try it out and to take the pictures for the last two days. Thursday's prompt for Picture the Holidays was "It's a Sign". I found this cup in the city's English Bookshop and it just made me laugh. And it will make a perfect present for a dear friend of mine :-).

Christmas time is most certainly not the time for dieting! :-)

{Day 8} ~ Reflecting On The Season

The prompt for Day 8 for Picture the Holidays was to look at things in a mirror to see things differently. I found this really hard to capture as at the end, the result was no unexpected effect or anything but just my Christmas hanging basket decoration in the mirror. The poinsettia on the right at least looks much better here than in real life. I have my doubts that it'll make it till Christmas.

I love the class and the challenge it offers to try out different things but it is also a lot of work to keep up. For the last few days, I've spent my entire evenings with my camera and computer, not getting to bed before 11.30, which is not a great idea if your alarm clock goes off at 5.30 again. So I've been thinking about taking a break today and spend the evening on the sofa in front of the telly. I've just received the prompt for today, which is "It's a Sign". I take that as a sign then for an evnening off :-).

{Day 7} ~ Express Yourself

"Express Yourself" was  was the prompt for Day 7 for Picture the Holidays. How am I? How do I feel? How I was yesterday? I'm not so sure, it wasn't really such a good day. And I'm also not quite sure what exactly it is I wanted to express here. This is just what came out of trying to do a shot for the prompt. I took about 50 shots and wasn't happy with any one of them, when I finally had the idea to change the angle and shot from the left hand side, which gave a result I could live and work with. Sometimes, things are so simple... I'm a bit tired at the moment, and in need of a Christmas break. Some peace and quiet and sleep. Two more weeks to go...

I found this "änglaspel" (angel chimes) at a supermarket and couldn't resist it. They're quite popular here and most, like this one, come from Sweden. It looked so wonderfully simple and nostalgic, and the pictures on the box lookes as if they hadn't changed at all since the 1970s. I haven't found the box yet, but looking a the picture today, I have a strange feeling that it isn't all too different from the one on the box. Which would explain where the inspiration came from :-). Funny also to think that the girl with the pigtails on the box is now probably about my age :-).

{Day 6} ~ Every Little Thing

The prompt for Day 6 for Picture the Holidays was "Every Little Thing", to find a small delight on an ordinary day. I was spending the weekend in the mountains, so it wasn't really "ordinary days" and there were many small delights. This little Samichlaus was one of them and as the 6th of December is the feast of Saint Nicholas, I thought this would be very approbriate.

There was a small Christmas market in Davos and my friend and me went to have a look. At one of the stalls run by an organisation for integrating the unemployed, we found those sweet chaps. We just couldn't resist their charm and we both bought one. That dark thing on the right side is a wooden candle, made of a thick wooden branch or small trunk. The flame is also made of wood and painted. They're handmade by the husband of the lady at the stall, who gave them to us for a third of the price because it was closing time soon and she was happy to get back to a warm house after having been at the market all day (it was a good -10 degrees C that day). Me and my friend, we were so happy with our buys, because they are special and hand made rather than mass produced and because we had spent a great day together.

The Samichlaus (as he's called in my dialect of Swiss German) or Sankt/Heiliger Nikolaus in German, looks very similar like Santa Claus (Weihnachtsmann in German) but is actually not the same. He's based on Nicolaos of Myra (on which Santa Claus is modelled). He also brings presents to good children but not on Christmas but on the 6th of December, or the evening before. He doens't climb down the chimney during the night but knocks on the door and comes into the house to ask the children if they're been good. He brings nuts and oranges and children learn poems by heart to recite to him to earn them. Thankfully, my parents never booked a Samichlaus to come and visit me but I was frightend every year that he might come... The presents on Christmas Eve in Switzerland, and other (German speaking) countries are brought by the Christkind (christ-child). Sankt Nikolaus is usually accompanied  by his helper Schmutzli or Knecht Ruprecht. He's clad in brown and carries a rod to punish the bad children with. Often, they also have a donkey with them.