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Räi
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Natuurgebied De Vliegers, bij MIddelharnis met een winter zonsopkomst
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Thanks for your visit and comments, I appreciate that very much!
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Regards, Bram (BraCom)
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IMPORTANT: for non-pro users who read the info on a computer, just enlarge your screen to 120% (or more), then the full text will appear below the photo with a white background - which makes reading so much easier.
The color version of the photo above is here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO:
So far there's only been one photo in my gallery that hasn't been taken in my garden ('The Flame Rider', captured in the Maggia Valley: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/53563448847/in/datepo... ) - which makes the image above the second time I've "strayed from the path" (although not very far, since the photo was taken only approximately 500 meters from my house).
Overall, I'll stick to my "only-garden rule", but every once in a while I'll show you a little bit of the landscape around my village, because I think it will give you a better sense of just how fascinating this region is, and also of its history.
The title I chose for the photo may seem cheesy, and it's certainly not very original, but I couldn't think of another one, because it's an honest reflection of what I felt when I took it: a profound sense of peace - although if you make it to the end of this text you'll realize my relationship with that word is a bit more complicated.
I got up early that day; it was a beautiful spring morning, and there was still a bit of mist in the valley below my village which I hoped would make for a few nice mood shots, so I quickly grabbed my camera and went down there before the rising sun could dissolve the magical layer on the scenery.
Most human activity hadn't started yet, and I was engulfed in the sounds of the forest as I was walking the narrow trail along the horse pasture; it seemed every little creature around me wanted to make its presence known to potential mates (or rivals) in a myriad of sounds and voices and noises (in case you're interested, here's a taste of what I usually wake up to in spring, but you best use headphones: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfoCTqdAVCE )
Strolling through such an idyllic landscape next to grazing horses and surrounded by birdsong and beautiful trees, I guess it's kind of obvious one would feel the way I described above and choose the title I did, but as I looked at the old stone buildings - the cattle shelter you can see in the foreground and the stable further up ahead on the right - I also realized how fortunate I was.
It's hard to imagine now, because Switzerland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world today, but the men and women who had carried these stones and constructed the walls of these buildings were among the poorest in Europe. The hardships the people in some of the remote and little developed valleys in Ticino endured only a few generations ago are unimaginable to most folks living in my country today.
It wasn't uncommon that people had to sell their own kids as child slaves - the girls had to work in factories or in rice fields, the boys as "living chimney brushes" in northern Italy - just because there wasn't enough food to support the whole family through the harsh Ticino winters.
If you wonder why contemporary Swiss historians speak of "slaves" as opposed to child laborers, it's because that's what many of them actually were: auctioned off for a negotiable prize at the local market, once sold, these kids were not payed and in many cases not even fed by their masters (they had to beg for food in the streets or steal it).
Translated from German Wikipedia: ...The Piazza grande in Locarno, where the Locarno Film Festival is held today, was one of the places where orphans, foundlings and children from poor families were auctioned off. The boys were sold as chimney sweeps, the girls ended up in the textile industry, in tobacco processing in Brissago or in the rice fields of Novara, which was also extremely hard work: the girls had to stand bent over in the water for twelve to fourteen hours in all weathers. The last verse of the Italian folk song 'Amore mio non piangere' reads: “Mamma, papà, non piangere, se sono consumata, è stata la risaia che mi ha rovinata” (Mom, dad, don't cry when I'm used up, it was the rice field that destroyed me.)... de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaminfegerkinder
The conditions for the chimney sweeps - usually boys between the age of 8 and 12 (or younger, because they had to be small enough to be able to crawl into the chimneys) - were so catastrophic that many of them didn't survive; they died of starvation, cold or soot in their lungs - as well as of work-related accidents like breaking their necks when they fell, or suffocatig if they got stuck in inside a chimney. This practice of "child slavery" went on as late as the 1950s (there's a very short article in English on the topic here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spazzacamini and a more in depth account for German speakers in this brief clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gda8vZp_zsc ).
Now I don't know if the people who built the old stone houses along my path had to sell any of their kids, but looking at the remnants of their (not so distant) era I felt an immense sense of gratitude that I was born at a time of prosperity - and peace - in my region, my country and my home. Because none of it was my doing: it was simple luck that decided when and where I came into this world.
It also made me think of my own family. Both of my grandparents on my father's side grew up in Ticino (they were both born in 1900), but while they eventually left Switzerland's poorest region to live in its richest, the Kanton of Zurich, my grandfather's parents relocated to northern Italy in the 1920s and unfortunately were still there when WWII broke out.
They lost everything during the war, and it was their youngest daughter - whom I only knew as "Zia" which means "aunt" in Italian - who earned a little money to support herself and my great-grandparents by giving piano lessons to high-ranking Nazi officers and their kids (this was towards the end of the war when German forces had occupied Italy).
I never knew that about her; Zia only very rarely spoke of the war, but one time when I visited her when she was already over a 100 years old (she died at close to 104), I asked her how they had managed to survive, and she told me that she went to the local prefecture nearly every day to teach piano. "And on the way there would be the dangling ones" she said, with a shudder.
I didn't get what she meant, so she explained. Visiting the city center where the high ranking military resided meant she had to walk underneath the executed men and women who were hanging from the lantern posts along the road (these executions - often of civilians - were the Germans' retaliations for attacks by the Italian partisans).
I never forgot her words - nor could I shake the look on her face as she re-lived this memory. And I still can't grasp it; my house in Ticino is only 60 meters from the Italian border, and the idea that there was a brutal war going on three houses down the road from where I live now in Zia's lifetime strikes me as completely surreal.
So, back to my title for the photo above. "Peace". It's such a simple, short word, isn't it? And we use it - or its cousin "peaceful" - quite often when we mean nice and quiet or stress-free. But if I'm honest I don't think I know what it means. My grandaunt Zia did, but I can't know. And I honestly hope I never will.
I'm sorry I led you down such a dark road; I usually intend to make people smile with the anecdotes that go with my photos, but this one demanded a different approach (I guess with this latest image I've strayed from the path in more than one sense, and I hope you'll forgive me).
Ticino today is the region with the second highest average life expectancy in Europe (85.2 years), and "The Human Development Index" of 0.961 in 2021 was one of the highest found anywhere in the world, and northern Italy isn't far behind. But my neighbors, many of whom are now in their 90s, remember well it wasn't always so.
That a region so poor it must have felt like purgatory to many of its inhabitants could turn into something as close to paradise on Earth as I can imagine in a person's lifetime should make us all very hopeful. But, and this is the sad part, it also works the other way 'round. And I believe we'd do well to remember that, too.
To all of you - with my usual tardiness but from the bottom of my heart - a happy, healthy, hopeful 2025 and beyond.
People who complain that software engineers build unwieldy, unfriendly and outright mindboggling user interfaces need to look back in history to realize that hardware engineers have not always been much better in that respect. A good place to do that is the Railway Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Fête d'Hanami au Parc de Sceaux
Hanami au Domaine de Sceaux :
www.hauts-de-seine.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Espace_presse...
original photo by user name, opensim - flickr.com/photos/149590820@N02/
background image Spiral Silverstar - flickr.com/photos/spiral_silverstar/with/53077249317/
2J74 Southport to Manchester Oxford Road, formed of 150138 trailing 156428, has deposited a solitary passenger at Hoscar station. In the 2016/17 period the station was the least used station in Lancashire with just 1024 recorded passengers although this was up from 900 in the previous year. There are just 8 services, 4 in each direction, that call at this lonely outpost Monday to Saturday.
Luego de estar en el acceso sur del patio de Buenuraqui y observar la maniobra de la puesta de "cuña" a las agujas del desvío, entra raudo el AES-8 con destino a Talcahuano, este fué un día muy entretenido donde pude recorrer el ramal en el A-324 desde Hualqui hasta Laja.
La toma inmediatamente anterior, 3 segundos antes de ésta: www.flickr.com/photos/deutzhumslet/4293437266/
Y cómo llegue hasta aquel lugar: www.youtube.com/user/DeutzHumslet#p/a/u/0/mqVClxGlS94
Telle était la devise d'un jeune homme de cent ans que j'ai connu il y a quelques années, à qui je demandais son secret de jeunesse et de vitalité...
IC1795 Fish Head Nebula
Vespera Pro: 2567x10s Dual Filter= 7,1h of integration time. Processed with PixInsight.
Taken at sunset during Fall down in San Diego.
This is a regular 4x3 aspect ratio photo that I squashed down into a pano in photoshop. :) Man, I really need a 12mm fisheye, Hehe. ;-)
Thanks for taking the time to take a look at my photos, If you like them please share them with your friends or add it to your gallery, and as always your views, comments, faves, and support are greatly appreciated!!
Have a great day ahead everyone. :)
If you have any questions about this photo or about photography in general, I will do my best to help, just post a comment or send me a Flickr mail and I will respond as quickly as possible.
For those of you new to photography, I would like to provide you with some very helpful videos, they should help you get more from your photography. They where very useful to me while I was learning and I hope that they will help you out as well. Just click the link below and there are pre-made playlists on everything you could ever want to know about photography. I hope you enjoy them and as always my friends "Happy Shooting"
www.youtube.com/user/EricGaildot21Studios/playlists?sort=...
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Copyright 2018©Eric Gail
June 25, 2025 - South of Cairo Nebraska US
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Visit my Photostream Archive of Severe Weather
A vast landscape is dominated by swirling, ominous clouds hinting at an approaching storm. The darkened sky contrasts with the subtle light of the horizon, casting a moody atmosphere over the open fields. Sparse vegetation on the gentle hills adds to the stark beauty of the scene.
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Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography
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July 6, 2024 - West of Minden Nebraska
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Dark, dramatic supercell clouds loom over a rural landscape, suggesting an impending storm. The contrast between the green fields and the turbulent sky creates a sense of intensity and anticipation.
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Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography
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“The Eye Moment photos by Nolan H. Rhodes”
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This Photo Goes to MyCuzn Maramesh i Upload's l3youn'ha *(L)
Umm what i have to say umm i don't have word's to say about you but i will say one word's for you Maryoom" you are the beest :D " i hope soon you have a true LOVE :P< i know you will kill me bcuz i say that :P but what ever :P umm adrey anch ma t3rfeen english 3dell :P but i don't have arabic latter's :P sow it's oky ^^
تدري لوطلبت حياتي عطيتڪ ~
i hope i say all about you true !
i LOVE u MyCuzn''s (L)(L)!!
all canon users say HOOORRAAAAAAAAAAAY =P
and yea Nikon - sony - Fuji users =P
too bad u can't say hoooray
out of picture
out of ideas =P
and btw. that colorful thing is eatable =P LOOOL i jst did it to take this shot =P
More playing with Fractalius again, hope you like it!
One of my favorite songs: Knocking on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan right click and open in new window/tab
INVITES ARE GREAT, BUT PLEASE IN MODERATION
All my public photos are free for personal use
July 16, 2024 - South of Odessa Nebraska
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Dark, swirling storm clouds dominate the sky, casting dramatic shadows over a vast, open field with hay bales scattered across it. A lonely road cuts through the landscape, leading the eye toward the horizon and the approaching tempest.
*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***
Copyright 2024
Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography
All Rights Reserved
This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.
#ForeverChasing
#NebraskaSC