24.12.2008 - Castles in the air

On Monday evening it was cold outside. Looking out of my window I could see the chateau sparkling in the dark distance.
He’s finally lost it I hear you say, but no I haven’t. For this festive season the castle has been lit up with an eerie light blue light. The window slits in the three towers have been illuminated and blue lights which have been places at various locations on the facades twinkle on and off at random.
I noticed this state of affairs some nights ago and meant to go out and take some photographs. So in the words of Rod Stewart, “Tonight’s the night”
I wrap up warm and add a wooly hat to my ensemble.
Exposures will be long, so I take up one of my trusty tripods, which I last used in the early ‘90’s. I do not pick up one of my SLR film cameras with all the lenses and filters. I have not lugged them about much since I went on holiday to Sidari in Corfu in 1991, when armed police surrounded me at the Greek airport as flash gun grip handled bracket in my camera bag looked like a pistol. As an aside, the camera bag squeaked when I walked and the weight of the bag hurt my shoulder.
Anyway, kitted up I left the house and headed for the bright lights.
At the first viewpoint I found a man there already. He had an enormous tripod. We exchanged a few pleasantries. I took a few shots and moved on, leaving him to his contemplation of the castle. I had not seen him taking a single photo. Can yo be a castle voyeur? Did he even have a film or memory card in his camera?
Next stop was up a hill where I had photographed the castle from recently. There in my spot, was another bloke with his camera bag and SLR camera.
I whipped out my small digital camera and attacked it to the tripod. I asked him if he was in a camera club and told him that I had just met another photographer.
No he was not in a club, he had searched for one in town, but had not been successful.

I went to other vantage points, principally photographing the castle, but also a couple of other scenes. They can be seen by clicking on this link.
A perfect evening then? Not really. Readers who have been with me from the beginning will remember me going on and on about the amount of dog shit on the pavements. This is difficult enough to avoid during daylight, and impossible to see in the gloom.
I choose to look upon the good fortune that only one shoe was royally christened.
YUCK!!!!!! Bastard lazy dog owners!!!!
Good night.