Germany Visit

   Back in January of this year I was sent on a business trip to Germany to spend a few days there to meet with one of our largest clients. It certainly was a long trip from Minneapolis to Chicago, then to Amsterdam, and finally landing in Hamburg. 

   While it was a chance to go to Europe for my first time ever, I was unfortunately very sick at the same time with a sinus and lung infection. This made flying very painful with the cabin pressure changes. I hope to never experience that again. 

So I will share some photos below from the trip staring with a few from the Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Likely one of the largest and nicest airports I have ever been to.

Holland Boulevard Lights in Amsterdam Airport.

Closeup of the inside of the Holland Boulevard lights.

Our connecting KLM flight from Amsterdam to Hamburg with the sun just breaking the horizon in the morning.

After the short flight from Amsterdam, we landed in Hamburg, very tired from the flight. We stayed at the Hotel Hafen in Hamburg with rooms in the tower over looking the harbor.

View from my hotel window.

View from my hotel window, ship in dry dock for maintenance in the port of Hamburg.

Interesting space saving bathrooms.

They even had a rubber ducky in the bathroom, but no bathtub. Not sure if was to be used playing in the sink. 

View of the hotel room from the bathroom looking over the desk and out the window.

View out the window with the fire escape, which was nice to catch some fresh air and some unobstructed photos from.

Clean room with cable set on the 

Small deer mount?

Every room has one of these, yes it is a real apple. As tempting as it was to have when I was sick, the apple was not in the best of condition.

Nice view of landungsbrücken and the port of Hamburg. I did not get to check it out, but there is a tunnel from here to the other side of the port.

Skyline view to the north east.

Across the port you there is a theater putting on the production of The Lion King.

After dinner Jay and I headed back down the walkway to our hotel.

Crepes of course!

Really great looking ship in the port.

Where we stayed, Hotel Hafen Hamburg. Apparently had burned down in the past. They had a beautiful interior and items we would consider delicate and antiques just part of the usable decor.

Another view of landungsbrücken.

Cargo ship moving through the port at night, I like seeing all of those cranes on the horizon.

Back to the Mainland

I know I posted a few images earlier of my return back from Vancouver Island, but there were a few more I wanted to share. I was up early in the morning while in Nanaimo and decided to go down to the harbor and walk around. It was kind of cool to get to watch the seaplanes fly in and land. It looks like a fun way to travel and very popular around here.

Seaplane landing in Nanaimo harbor, (No I did not go on a Seaplane)

Tswassen Harbor at night

BC Ferries Tswassen Docking station

Back near Maple Ridge, Tom took me out to Cliff Falls in Kanaka Creek Regional Park where we walked around a bit and took in the sights. We also ventured over to a salmon fishery where Tom has done some work teaching along the stream and knows the man who runs the fishery. We will be interviewing him Friday because that is where a majority of the salmon used to populate Stoney Creek come from.

Kanaka Creek Falls

Perfectly round hole in a volcanic rock made by circular scouring from the water.

Kanaka Creek

We also stopped off to hike up a path into the woods on a trail that was once railroad tracks to go check out the Cedar and Hemlock trees.

Tom explains to me what the notch is in the side of the tree, a place for the spring board to go in where a lumberjack will stand on and and cut the tree from there.

A Cedar tree now becomes the nurse tree.

Canopy of Cedar and Hemlocks

Maple Leaves

Cedar Forest

Tom took me out to a clear cut area that hard to tell from this but it is actually replanted with trees, but blackberry bushes and other understory foliage is out competing them for now.

Cedar Forest

Cleary Lake Regional Park

    Our journey to Lakeville to obtain Erika's license plates for her car from the dealership lead us to take Aspen to a dog park we never been to before. In Prior Lake Minnesota there is a beautiful dog park part of the Three Rivers Park District named Cleary Lake Regional Park, 28 acres of fenced off leash dog utopia. If you plan to go the park it does cost $5 if you do not have a $35 annual pass. The dog park is in a prairie setting with a few young trees and many mowed trails to walk along. It features a bathroom, potable water and a small swimming pond that is thankfully gated off. I say this because there are times when going to a dog park with water when you want to keep your dog out for reasons of algal blooms or you just don't want to handle a wet dog. 

   Aspen is no stranger to water, just not water deep enough where he actually had to swim. A tall Bernese  Mountain Dog is entertaining to watch to say the least. While labs with their webbed feet gracefully doggy paddle under the water, Aspen paddles like an old steamboat paddle slapping the water surface. I assume he is trying to stand on his hind legs and keep his head above the water surface. When he does reach a shallow enough area he tries jumping through the water to get out. Thankfully he is not afraid to swim and enjoyed going in and out of the water.

  Eventually we plan to visit more dog parks on our ventures and with the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of the greater Twin Cities, Play Pals events.

Aspen paddle boats through the water. 

Aspen paddles through the water.

Aspen thrashes through the water.

Dogs run around the pond area.

Aspen chases other dogs around the pond at Cleary Lake Regional Park.

Shooting With Film

     Over a month ago my great friend Mike asked if I would want his 35mm Nikon SLR. I was excited he was willing to give me his Nikon N50 with two lenses and some film. I promised to use it and was excited at how much fun it is to use. Not only is the camera body light and responsive the lenses are great. One is a Nikon 35-80mm and the other is the Nikon 80-240mm, both really good lenses that are easy to carry around.

    There is something about taking a photograph and not being able to "chimp" and check out the photographs right after to see how it turned out or decided to try something different and shoot again. Shooting with film will train you to make each photograph count. This can force you better execute your photograph by taking the time to think everything through that you are doing before you press that shutter button.

    I grew up shooting film and the only camera I ever had where I could instantly see the results of my work was by using a Polaroid camera. Sure I could see each picture after I took it, but Polaroid film packs are not cheap. I still had to be careful with each picture I took, otherwise I'd be begging my parents for more film.

    So if you get the urge to shoot an older camera I encourage you to do so now. I am not sure how much longer we will be able to ever take film to the store to get developed, or how many mail in photo labs will be around in the next 10 years to develop your film. But use this time to get out and shoot your film cameras and take your time to think about each photo before you take it. Make it count. I guarantee it will help cut down on the bad photos you later take with a digital camera, and you will come home after being out photographing with some extra space on a memory card.

    Then when you get your film developed you will actually purchase some prints, even if they are 4x6. How many of you take thousands of digital photos and have a fraction of what you shoot not printed because you can just look at the photos on your computer?

    Here are just some examples of some of the film I had developed recently testing the camera's capabilities out. I had them developed and scanned to a CD at the store.

Car windshield after rainfall.  Kodak Max 400, Nikon N50, 80-240mm Copyright Raymond Starin 2012

                              Aspen.  Kodak Max 400, Nikon N50, 35-80mm  Copyright Raymond Starin 2012

Picasso exploring the yard. Kodak Max 400, Nikon N50, 35-80mm Copyright Raymond Starin 2012

Spring flowers. Kodak Max 400, Nikon N50, 35-80mm Copyright Raymond Starin 2012

Thank you Mike, I can't thank you enough. You are one amazing friend!