I thought of the age-old joke when I saw this – A horse walks into a bar lookng sad. The barman asks “Why the long face?”. This is one of several horses used to cart tourists around the Old Town. A photo of them can be found in every guide book and they have been doing the same job for years gone by, as they will probably do so for years to come. The horses seem to be well cared for and remarkably calm considering the noise and crowds of screaming kids they are forced to endure everyday!
This is the amazing view of Castle Square from the top of St. Anne’s Church. Well worth the climb I’d say!
This is a scene which could be anywhere in Italy – the newspaper, the pipe, the glass of red wine and the colourful cafe on the side of a busy street. Blocking out the bustle of the city for 10 minutes and enjoying a glass of wine in the evening sounds (and looks) bliss.
I do enjoy the chance to play with my macro lens and here is one of my better results. A dragonfly warming up in the early morning before it starts its busy day flitting about, preying on smaller insects. You have to be very quick taking a shot like this because once they take off, they’re very hard to track down again!
I attended a wedding a couple of days ago in the Old Town and afterwards we stopped for a coffee in the Market Square whilst the bride and groom had their official photos taken. I spotted this board from our table inviting guests for breakfast. Firstly it was 1pm in the afternoon and secondly, they assume their only guests are going to be English. I’m not adverse to a late breakfast now and then, but 1pm is pushing it! (oh and scrambled eggs cost 47 PLN here which is extremely expensive – even by Warsaw standards).
Yesterday I posted a photo of the Amfiteatr Café – here is the actual Amfiteatr itself. Live theatre and shows are still performed here in the summer months and there is multi-level seating to the left of the photo. The amphitheatre was built between 1790 – 1793 by Jan Chrystian Kamesetzer and the upper rim is adorned with the statues of sixteen figures representing famous poets of the antiquities. The audience is seperated from the stage by water which is often frequented by ducks and swans – as well as the peacocks which clamber around the stone pillars. As you can guess, it can get quite crowded here!
Click on the photo for a larger view.
The Orange Music Festival is beng held in Warsaw this weekend, and last night Razorlight were headlining at around 2330. The concert is held over two nights and some international bands are flying in for the concert. A large stage and several marquees have been erected around the Palace of Culture in the city centre which makes for an interesting venue. As with most outdoor concerts in Poland, alcohol was banned from the concert area, but I still saw a few bottles of vodka hidden in brown bags buried under jackets!
This is a butterfly called a ‘Painted Lady’ collecting nectar in a garden not far from us. The mandible is curled up into a tight ball when the insect is flying and uncurled and used as a long straw to feed. It’s remarkable to watch the dexterity and skill from this close – nature at its best. Some people joke that I must spend a lot of my time lying on the grass with my camera to get these shots. In this case, I was!
As part of the City Daily Photo theme day ‘Big’, I spotted this giant mobile phone in the city centre. Advertising the new Nokia N97, it dwarfs the cars passing by and has advertisements continually running on its screen. At the time of taking the photo, the screen happened to have written ‘Świetna pogoda!” on it which translates as ‘Great weather!’ I even shot a lady walking in front of it reading a text message on a much smaller one.
A thought for all those fellow bloggers out there – also written on the advert is ‘Życie toczy się online‘ which translates as ‘Life happens online‘!!
Please click here to view thumbnails for all participants
On a lighter note, the Red Arrows were the first display team on yesterday at Radom and this shot was taken as five of them descended to the right hand side of the crowd to make a pass with smoke gushing behind them. I always feel a swell of pride whenever I watch them at an airshow – not only because they are the best display team in the world, but because their base is at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. I’ve grown up watching them practice above the skies of Lincoln to enthrall crowds worldwide. The 2005 team also kindly signed this photograph for me on the day my son was born. More photos here.
