Course d’Escalade 2011
The women’s run (30 to 43y): 2600 participants..!
http://photo.genevainformation.ch/Events/Course-de-lEscalade-2011/20397962_hc8Jg7#1614427198_hKq5hMH
Long time without posts
Well, a lot of things have happened 
First, the job picked up a bit in pace and I’m spending again a lot of time on the road, between here and Switzerland..my radius has been extended to Zürich, and that’s quite far away.
But I have not been activity-less. I wrote a book, a novel this time. It’s closed, plot-wise, but I’m still listening to feedback. Currently I’m looking for a cover. I have followed Reto’s good advice and used crowdsource – and I’m impressed with the results. You can see the proposal I have received here.
It’s true that I have neglected the camera a bit in the last weeks, so I took it with me when I walked the dog this evening:
Machine!
Snow machine in Orange, Haute-Savoie. One m³ of water results in approx. 2 m³ of snow. The snow needs to be compressed to be used, though – meaning that artificial snow is bad for the water balance in the alps. One solution to this is the use of GPS and ultrasonic devices to measure snow depth. The natural snow can be scraped off where there’s too much and put down where it is needed. Some ski resorts in the french alps have adopted this technology to reduce their water consumption. A side effect is better snow – and a better skiing experience
Mines de Sel, Bex
Bex is in the swiss canton of Valais, in the Rhône valley. The salt mines have been operational for more than 400 years, evolving over time. It’s very impressive to see what men did with hammer and chisel under ground, advancing 5m per month into the depth of the mountain.
After a short walk into the mountain a little train takes us further inside. It’s nothing for claustrophobic personalities, definitely not. I felt a bit uneasy in the beginning, to be honest. If you know the London subway lines, the old ones where the walls are really close to the train: It’s just like that. Only smaller.
The salt can only be sold in the canton of Vaud. If you don’t know what a canton is: It’s like a state, only smaller, coming to county size rather than state size
What I did not know was that they get the salt out in water. They drill holes into the mountain, hundreds of meters deep.
Then water gets pressurized in, through a tube with an inner and an outer circuit. The inner circuit delivers fresh water into the rocks, the outer circuit brings it back up again. If the water has dissolved enough salt and comes to 30% of salt in water, it is delivered to the processing unit outside the mountain. If not, it takes another round down into the mountain.
Yeah, smartphones. Everywhere
Barrage de Roselend
The Barrage de Roselend turned 50 this year and this week-end they had the doors open and organized a party. The public transport sucked, all prejudices about the capability to organize things came true..well, might be they were overwhelmed by the number of people which passed by. But! The site is beautiful, the party great and we had a good day 
The barrage is used to power electricity generators in the valley (1200m below), but there’s a small generator on the barrage itself.
The inside looks as if it inspired some computer game makers:
Markets: Ajaccio
Admittedly, we want partially to this market because I wanted to take pictures
I think that the pictures of this market are among the best ones and will likely make it into the competition.
Olives are typical for the french south and I guess I need to have some “yeah, I like that lifestyle”:
That’s actually a first for me, never seen that before:
Cut on the market..in Germany that’s over for hygiene reasons:
Fish is sold in a separate Hall with climatization:
(I know, that’s not “fish”, but it’s in the fish hall..)
Markets: The medieval festival in Andilly
I was selling crêpes during daylight (if you want a treat, ask me to make crêpes for you ) and had only at night time to take some pictures. The good thing about it was that I had time and the people, too. I had a few good discussions and took this awesome picture of the flame (which is now my screen and phone background).
When I asked if I could take pictures of the chessboards I was made fun of..but not too badly, it ended up friendly
I have the baker on the first post to the series, and here is his bread
And here the baker. I just like this photo too much to not show it again:
Markets: The Minneapolis Farmers Market
That’s the only market I visited with the purpose of getting pictures for the competition. I was there when it opened up and staid for a few hours. What I found was that people on the market were very friendly, photographer-friendly but as well warm and nice – it was a good experience. And they sort of could not believe that I came there to take pictures. They assumed, too, that I was living in the US, seems that the idea of “spending vacation time in Minneapolis” is strange.
There are more pictures in the Gallery.
It’s photo contest time!
..and I need your valued opinion!The topic is “(farmers) Markets here and there”. I have put my selection of applicable images in a gallery – tell me which one you’d like to see in the competition!
..et j’ai besoin de ton avis! Descriptif du concours ici.
..und ich brauche Deine Meinung! Das Thema des Wettbewerbes sind “Wochenmärkte hier und da”. Alle passenden Bilder habe ich in einer Gallerie gesammelt – welche davon möchtest Du im Wettbewerb sehen?
I’ll try to present all pictures in a few blog posts
St. Paul
I did not know that the author came from St. Paul:
Right next to this park there’s the old Libary, a very impressive building:
Sculpture Garden (Walker Art Center)
A short trip to the sculpture garden of the Walker Art Center today..
(proof of the fact that art only becomes art by the means of human interaction)
