FOTOLAT

Riga Song Festival

2008-07-12T08:51:00.001+03:00

Cēsu kauju 89.gadadienas atceres pasākums... A remembrance day

2008-06-22T15:03:00.007+03:00

Today was the 89th anniversary of the battle of Cesis in 1919 where the Latvians and Estonians defeated the remaining German armies trying to occupy them after the end of WWI.

Zenu Koru Salidojums (Boys Choir Gathering) in Cesis Last Saturday

2008-06-02T21:36:00.005+03:00

Vienna

2008-05-28T20:55:00.002+03:00

Venice

2008-05-28T20:40:00.002+03:00

Rome

2008-05-28T20:08:00.005+03:00

Hi Wayne, I know you've been waiting for something here, so I'll get up off my lazy behind and finally put some photos up. Thanks for the motivation!

Walking around town

2008-03-19T14:14:00.001+02:00

Trying something different

2008-02-22T12:34:00.004+02:00

It's been so gray and gloomy here for so long that I gave up taking photos for awhile. But then it occured to me to try a black and white or desaturated approach and see what came out. Here are a few.

What is that in there?

2007-12-05T12:30:00.000+02:00

Is that really an eye-ball looking out at us? Hard to believe. What could it be? Whatever it is, it looks like its glasses have slipped down around its nose!

More fun with....

2007-11-17T20:39:00.001+02:00

What the...?

2007-11-17T20:10:00.001+02:00

A Beautiful Resting Place

2007-10-29T14:46:00.000+02:00

Recently, I took a walk through the Cesis kapi (cemetary). It's a lovely, peaceful, park-like setting for contemplation. How fragile we are...

A Piper Seeks the Ghost of Ivan the Terrible

2007-10-20T18:04:00.000+03:00

As I walked towards town at midday, I wandered through Castle Park and heard the plaintive notes of a solitary bagpiper. His tune drew my thoughts back to sadder times when these grounds suffered at the hands of Ivan and his murderous minions.

A Cloudy Day in Cesis

2007-10-16T13:19:00.000+03:00

A lovely old kindergarten.

A Russian Orthodox Church.

The old Cesis brewery, until this year the oldest continuously operating in the Baltics. Now it will be renovated to be an arts and cultural center. When it's finished, it will be a wonderful addition to our community.

Just walkin' around town

2007-10-04T16:16:00.000+03:00

A short walk out the door...floralingus

2007-09-24T17:24:00.000+03:00

Jammin' With The PMS Band...(Pete, Mike, Scott)

2007-09-23T12:56:00.000+03:00

Last summer in Seattle every Friday night was "jam" night with my brother on guitar and Pete on bass. Usually other musicians would show up for a little fun and quite a party would develop. These fotos have been given the "blasted" treatment in post processing (possibly reflecting the condition of the players by the end of the night?)

Vertical Things

2007-09-21T09:52:00.001+03:00

In the town of Matisi.

The Cesis water tower.

The Riga Freedom Monument.

The Riga train station clock tower.

The Cesis water tower from the living room window.

Autumn is on the way...

2007-09-20T08:37:00.001+03:00

Up, up and away...

2007-09-17T15:53:00.000+03:00

Fooling around with color

2007-09-15T13:43:00.000+03:00

Nature's Beauty

2007-09-14T18:42:00.001+03:00

These were taken out the kitchen window using the Fuji F30. The first one is at about 3X zoom and the second one is two fotos made into a panorama using the free program photostitch.

Rezekne At Night

2007-09-13T11:41:00.001+03:00

These were taken from an upper floor of the Hotel Latgale.

Faces of Summer

2007-09-12T14:01:00.000+03:00

Parnu, Estonia

2007-09-07T13:30:00.000+03:00

We just returned from a little side-trip to Parnu, Estonia, about 3 hours by car from Cesis. It's a little like Jurmala in Latvia. They both began as Czarist-era bathing resorts and are now just nice places to visit. Parnu has noticeably improved since our last visit two years ago. Everything just looks brighter and more cheerful. The beach is still fabulous fine sand and now there are more modern amenitities for travelers, many nice guest houses, and hotels in period architecture. If you're ever in the Baltics, it's definitely worth a vist.

What the...?

2007-09-02T16:40:00.000+03:00

An interesting look to Doma Laukums - Dome Square - by using artwork on the otherwise blank side of an adjacent building. Nice work.

Back to Riga

2007-09-01T18:26:00.000+03:00

This view is from Kipsala island in the Daugava River across from the Old Town of Riga. It's not really an island but a long, narrow peninsula that paralles the south bank of the river. It's getting some much-needed development upgrades as housing, condos, restaurants and a boat haven have all sprung up in the past five years. Now it's a nice place to walk and admire the scenery.

Return From Seattle

2007-08-30T16:31:00.000+03:00

Seattle is a beautiful city with many hills which provide great views. Also, it has an extensive ferry system giving you even more views. The last two photos are of the Experience Music Project designed by Frank Gehry with the Monorail running through it, and the University of Washington Library where my wife worked last summer.

Welcome...

2007-06-29T12:50:00.000+03:00

If you've come from the DPReview Panasonic talk forum, here are some fotos from the TZ3 I got to replace my lost FZ5. It needs some PP tweaking, but I really like it so far. The first one is just outside our door looking at the sky between two apartment buildings. Next is the view from the living room window. I really enjoy the 16:9 aspect.

Today and Yesterday...Still

2007-04-03T18:21:00.000+03:00

Hmm.... More than two months since.... At any rate, a trio of fotos from Riga last week. I like them because they remind me of how "Sovietized" parts of the city still are while the modern state develops in its midst. The top one is the Lido restaurant upstairs in the Spice (spee-tsa) mall near the Imanta neighborhood, with its endless rows of gray flats across the street from their residents' former workplace, the now derilict Radioteknika, shown below. It's easy to pretend that time has stood still, except all around outside of the fotos life briskly continues in the new Latvia.

View From The Living Room Window At 4:00

2007-01-30T17:05:00.000+02:00

A Sunday Stroll

2007-01-28T16:14:00.000+02:00

Now that Winter has finally arrived and the gray, drizzle has gone back Seattle where it belongs (sorry Mike and Pete), we now have a proper January day. It's nice, -5 (23F), calm and clear. The pine forest begins about a 10-minute walk from home and it's soothing to the soul in any season. This monument, about 6 meters tall, is in the WWII cemetary here in Cesis. There are more than 300 names engraved in granite. This from a town of less than 10,000 people at that time. It is a place to ruminate and remember.

The Tagger Needs A Spell Checkeker...

2007-01-24T15:53:00.000+02:00

I saw this today walking down an alley in the center of town. The guy on the right is Einars Repse, former Prime Minister and now a guy who ran over and killed a drunk on the highway. Oh, he also used to be the head of the Latvian Central Bank.

Smokey Sunrise

2007-01-14T17:34:00.000+02:00

The price of natural gas went up 30% last week (the Russians have us by the...), so now even more wood is being burned to keep warm, even though it was only 33F this morning. That's almost warm.

Nope, Not Yet...

2007-01-09T15:36:00.000+02:00

Today we walked home from town through the park as
we often do, and you can see it looks more like early April
than almost mid January. We stopped and spoke with our
neighbor, Nina, or actually Inga spoke with her. I don't
speak Russian. She has lived in Latvia since the War when
she was sent here by the Soviets as a teenager. She's seen
plenty.

Still Not Winter

2007-01-06T12:09:00.000+02:00

Amazing as it seems to everyone here, we're still not
experiencing anything like a normal winter. To me it
feels like the Pacific Northwest where I grew up in
Washington State.

Then And Now

2006-12-17T16:27:00.000+02:00

The top foto is what Winter usually looks like around here. Then there is today. Hard to believe, but it feels like Spring.

What Can You See In A Raindrop?

2006-12-17T16:03:00.000+02:00

The weather here has been unseasonably mild. Today seemed more like April. It was the first time we'd had any sustained sunshine in weeks. Lots of people were out walking with bemused looks on their faces. Pretty nice for 57 latitude in December.

Clouds On A Summer Day

2006-12-13T16:34:00.000+02:00

Time for some more sunshine views to cheer us up here in the December gloom. Someday the sun will return and I can show you what a white winter looks like around here. It can be quite beautiful.

Time For Some Sun

2006-12-10T11:55:00.000+02:00

It's been pretty much endless gray days here in Latvia as northern Europe continues its mildest weather in years. The bears are confused about hibernating, the birds are confused about flying, and the bushes are confused about budding. This is Seattle weather for December. We're usually blanketed in snow for the duration by now. I much prefer the white, sunny world to this damp, gray one. With less than eight hours of daylight right now we need all the help we can get keeping our spirits up. So, it's pleasing to look at pictures from last summer to remember what sunshine and flowers look like.

2006-12-01T19:01:00.000+02:00

President Bush was in Riga earlier this week for the NATO summit. It was a holiday here and all the Old Town core streets were restricted. I think the President likes Latvia. It's one of the few countries that still welcomes him. The Cold War didn't end that long ago here. Now with the poisoning of Litvenenko in London, the world is getting a taste of the Russian approach to perceived international threats that the Latvians know only too well.

Post-Pub Picture

2006-11-20T15:57:00.000+02:00

Here's St. John's Church on the walk home from visiting a Brit friend at the "Uguntina" pub last Saturday night. I balanced the camera on my wife's head and pushed the 2-second timer. We were a bit buzzed. A combination of the sacred and the profane?

An Unlucky Number?

2006-11-11T08:00:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Stephen Brown, who has the same name as my best friend when I was a kid.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
13
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Sunrise

2006-11-07T18:04:00.000+02:00

I know this is probably hard to believe, I could hardly believe it myself when I looked out the window this morning, but these were the actual colors, not enhanced in post-processing, only resized and sharpened a bit. The top one got a little treatment in NoiseNinja. I really like the little Fuji F30.

The Things You Can Buy These Days...

2006-11-05T14:16:00.000+02:00

One of life's necessities - and a little something more...

I Think Winter Started Today

2006-11-03T15:47:00.000+02:00

Still, I like this better than a gloomy gray raining-sideways day.

"Things Are Getting Better All The Time..."

2006-10-31T10:42:00.000+02:00

The food in the local restaurants is getting
more interesting with each passing year.

It's a Dog's Life...

2006-10-30T18:33:00.000+02:00

Wind, Now and Then...

2006-10-27T14:35:00.000+03:00

Mushrooms!

2006-10-26T16:08:00.000+03:00

These look like pancakes.

Are these edible?

On the left side there's a smiling, jumping little man. Can you see him?

Closed For The Season

2006-10-25T16:56:00.000+03:00

The end of October means our rustic little cottage at the edge of town is down for the winter. See you next spring...

What's this?

2006-10-23T12:19:00.000+03:00

Finally, our new place in Riga is almost finished. As usual, it's overdue. Most new construction is behind schedule because of a shortage of skilled workers. An estimated 50,000 Latvians are now working in the U.K. or Ireland.

Rainbows!

2006-10-18T17:09:00.000+03:00

A Royal Visit

2006-10-17T15:01:00.000+03:00

The Latvian President bites her lip.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands...and her hat.

Since we are kind of on the subject of visits by famous former heads-of-state, we might as well include a current royal one who visited us last spring. It's certainly much easier to get up close to these folks in Latvia compared to the States. I guess Queen Beatrix isn't seen as much of a threat. Tomorrow, Queen Elizabeth is scheduled to visit. I'll bet that one will be a little tougher to approach so closely, but we'll try. She'll be in the same spot as the foto above, laying flowers on the Freedom Monument in Riga.

Yeltsin Comes To Visit

2006-10-16T14:02:00.000+03:00

I think we need a break from fall fotos, so I'll put up some of Boris Yeltsin who visited us in Cesis a few weeks ago. Apparently he worked on a collective farm near here as a young man and wanted to see it one last time. Here he gingerly descends the stairs with his wife. The man over his left shoulder is the Prime Minister of Latvia, sometimes known as “Shrek”.

Latvia has a complex relationship with Russia and Russians. Almost 40% of the population are native Russian speakers, (though not here in Cesis), the result of 50 years of being the same color on the map as the old Soviet Union. Still, the folks were pretty warm to old Boris. They realize he contributed to Latvia's independence by not trying to prevent it. There were a few humorous comments in the crowd about his heavy-drinking days, but overall, they enjoyed seeing him.

With his wife.

Lecturing the Cesis Mayor.

I wish I could have that much hair at 75.

More Fall Fotos...

2006-10-15T17:14:00.000+03:00

Here's a couple of fotos of Jana Baznica - St. John's Chruch - taken while walking around and again from the living room window.

A Sunday Stroll

2006-10-15T12:12:00.000+03:00

Today was another beautiful fall day just calling for a Sunday stroll. Here is the Cesis Castle built by the knights of the Hanseatic League in the 13th century and later sacked by Ivan the Terrible in 1588.

Market Day

2006-10-15T06:46:00.000+03:00

My wife Inga and I walk almost every day, but Saturday is market day so it's always fun to see all the folks who come in from the country villages to buy and sell at the outdoor market.

I especially like to capture the faces of the older people who have seen and suffered so much. They are a fading generation, the likes of which we won't see much again after they've passed.

It says, "only homemade".

Sometimes, they look so frustrated and tired. I know their lives haven't been easy, living through war and the Soviet times. I hope they believe the future will be better. In most ways, it already is. Still, pensions are small. It's amazing to me to see their enterprise and energy. They're tough people.

Shadows of Autumn

2006-10-15T06:12:00.000+03:00

I was sitting at the computer reading Althouse when I looked out the window and saw this amazing light. I just love autumn in Latvia.