Rebekka Sóley

Botanical Gardens

Winter is still very much at large, so if you want to see flowers in bloom, you either buy some or you do as we did last Saturday ... you visit the Botanical Gardens. The greenhouses that the public can visit at the Botanical Gardens in Copenhagen are very beautiful and have all kinds of flowers, even meat-eating flowers (I still have all my fingers). I have visited the gardens outside quite a few times, but never the greenhouses. The only problem was that because it was a cold day, we had wintercoats, not very comfortable when you are inside a greenhouse.
Rebekka thought it was a treat, she liked the goldfish we saw, see thought the meat-eating plants rather interesting and she climbed the stairs with me to get to the balcony that surrounds the biggest greenhouse. She is wonderful to be with - a true angel

Got Past 5

My second photograph that got past 5 on DPChallenge. The theme was 'Literary Adventure' and I called it 'Don Quixote's Nightmare'. (A similar photo further down the page).
The two pics I have submitted on DPC there right now are not doing so well but I like them, would not have made they entry otherwise.
I am really glad to get trained in having a theme to go after. The magazine I took some pictures for last year has contacted me again (big smile) and they need photographs on 3 different themes. Plus they need a front page too, now that is what I call a challenge. Last year they actually wanted to use a photograph I had taken in Stockholm a couple of years ago, but the printers couldn't scan it in the resolution needed, too bad. But maybe I will succeed this time. I'll do my best.

I got past 5 in the Icelandic challenge too. The theme was 'Industry'.

Still Cold

This has indeed been an unusually cold winter. I enjoy it and probably many others, but those with big houses to warm up, they are not happy. Or at least they'll be sad when the heating bill arrives. The cold and clear weather gives many photo-ops and we have gone for quite a few drives just to enjoy the weather, get out of the city and take pictures too. Yesterday we went to Humlebæk, where the Louisiana Museum and Gallery is. I have often looked down to the sea from Louisiana, but never gone there. There is a small harbour with a few boats, a lovely place. Some fantastic iceformations on the beach.

Apart from the cold, this is a winter that has reminded me of just how narrow minded and arrogant many politicians can be, especially those politicians that call themselves liberals. The freedom they preach is freedom for them (not everybody else) to say what they want, do what they want. When that is done, they are free to keep others from what they want to do. Their view of women is also appalling. The newest example is the Icelandic Minister of Foreign Affairs. At long last, it has now been decided to close the NATO base at Keflavík in Iceland. Guess the war in Iraq is costing a lot of dollars and now it is time to make cuts in expenditures. The minister was on TV the other day, discussing the base closing down. Some how, he managed to tell the following: When you are out dancing and take the prettiest girl home with you, you just take the next best. Doesn't really matter which one, either one gets the job done. It is wonderful to have such a man representing your country abroad. Makes me thing of H.C. Andersen and his Ugly Duckling. In his case the story ends before he turns into anything even resembling a:

. . . G O N E .. B A N A N A S . . .

This is a just a little message to the family, notifying you all that someone you know, someone that is not known for eating fruit or even vegetables, actually ate a whole banana today. She was not forced or coerced in any way ... as a matter of fact she asked if she could have one.
I have no idea where this might lead. As I know that many of you will doubt that I am telling the truth, I can tell you that I have proof, I took pictures. The aforementioned young woman has forbidden any use of the evidence, but I have taken the liberty to show you the banana, just before it.... went down.

Two Too Many

On DPC there is a challenge at the moment called Education, with a dead-line today. I had two photos ready yesterday, could not choose and decided to sleep on it. That did not help, but at long last I chose the one above and the title: 'Path to Enlightenment; Tree of Wisdom'. Then I got it ready and wanted to submit, but found out that I am only allowed to enter one Open Challenge at a time. Being so set on publishing it, I am blogging them instead :~)


'Keep on Learning - The Sky is the Limit' ... could have been the title for this one.
I have one photograph in the Icelandic challenge right now, two active on DPC and one pending. My first three challenges all ended with an average under 5,0. The three I have entered now are all above 5,0. I am not sure I would call it progress, at least I am learning a little about what kind of photographs people like on DPC, the Icelandic site is a bit different, but in a good way.
Now, the rest of this week I am going to work with Photoshop, my shortcomings there are all to obvious.

... Soft

soft
Originally uploaded by sigrun_th.

Just on my way to sign off, but thought I would see what my flickr contacts have been up to. This picture, by Sigrún from Iceland, is taken at a place where I used to play as a child, a river not so far from our house. We would wade and look for small fry in the summer and in the winter we would go skiing 500 meters from the river.

Colour My World

For the last month, I have been trying to learn a bit more about my camera, about taking pictures and about the photosoftware I have in my computer. Always the same story in any learning process - you realize how much it is you have yet to learn, how much knowledge there is yet to aquire.
I have submitted a few pictures on dpchallenge.com and on ljosmyndakeppni.is and have learned a whole lot from that. The dotcom site is bigger and more points of view from users, but I actually like the Icelandic site more. Probably because the users there are more polite, never condescending or uptight. Really helpful people, quite a few excellent photographers and last but not least - a nice tone.
Yesterday, DPC had a 24 hour challenge, and I made an entry with some feathers and a pair of black shoes. I took this one too, but decided to enter the other one. It is doing ok, the first time I have scored over 5, but there are many voting days left, anything can happen. My aim is to do a little bit better every time I participate.
It is a challenge to take a picture and keep to the theme. Alas, many participants there do not seem to think that is important. We all vote on the pictures (not your own picture though) and that is a challenge in itself. I have worked up my own routine now, and when a picture is far from the theme of the challenge, I pass or only give 4 or 5. It is not that hard to take a good picture, if you can take a picture of just about anything, it is much harder if you have to stick to a theme.

It was freezing cold yesterday, a real brrrrrrrrr-day, especially at the seaside. A beautiful day and the windmills must have produced a lot of energy - strong winds blowing. I have never been within 2 meters of one, not until yesterday. They are huge, real monsters and that swiiiisshhh sound is actually quite loud when you are standing under those monstrous blades. I do like the thought of all the energy they accumulate, so to speak. Not much pollution there, no fallout. By the way, standing there, you can see the power plant Barsebäck in Sweden, now closed. It was arrogant of the Swedes to build a nuclear power plant so close to Copenhagen. The Danes didn't get a say in the matter back then and not sorry when it closed down not so long ago.

Freedom of Choice

At a conference here in Copenhagen, initiated by the Danish PM, Muslim participants said, in no uncertain terms, that the Danish government really must apologize for what has happened these past months. That the Danish PM did not acquiesce to the 20 ambassadors wish to meet him last autumn, has not gone down well, understandable to say the least. But this does not surprise anyone who has followed him and his actions these past few years. He is a thoroughly arrogant man, unbearably pleased with himself. Maybe, just maybe, he will realize that he has become a bit too big for his boots. It was repeated today - that if the Danes publish cartoons of Mohammed and mention freedom of speech, surely they must be the first to understand and respect, that there are those who choose not to buy Danish products are exercising their freedom of choice.

Remember Steve Biko ...

...the South African nationalist? I was reminded of him yesterday, and what he once said: "Not only are the whites kicking us, they are telling us how to react to being kicked."
Isn't that precisely the attitude of the Danish PM and many others towards muslims and their reaction to the cartoons?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1701986,00.html

A photo from Hellerup this afternoon.

Here You Have Him ... Denmark's Prime Minister

The boy behind the black-board is Denmark’s Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. All right, it was the Dutch painter Anton Pieck who made it, several decades ago, but right now, this is the Danish PM, in the corner, cornered. I have never been sent to the corner, not even detention, but those who have done something bad, and are punished this way … they do not always show regret, they do not see the seriousness of what they have done. That goes for the Danish PM right now. This past week he has kept himself busy accusing writers, politicians, journalists and others of not supporting him in the Mohammed cartoon matter. Far be it from him to look in the mirror. It seems that the consensus is that he has handled the situation wrongly, from day one.

The fact that he did not involve the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stands out like a sore thumb. The Foreign Minister was allowed to step in when the shit already had hit the fan, when it was irrevocably and absolutely too late to do any serious damage control. If that is because he seems to have no respect for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, why make him Minister at all…..? In politics, compromise is the key-word. When two parties (or more) form a government, you have to compromise in ways you don't care much for, but if you don't, the power will be in the hands of others. Fogh Rasmusen doesn't really handle power very well, at least not when the going gets tough. Right now, he is like a whining little boy.

Jyllands-posten is the name of the newspaper that first published the cartoons. You might like to know that the editors did actually refuse to talk to reporters from 60 minutes when they came over to do some investigating of their own. Freedom of speech or what? I would say there was serious gagging involved. We do after all live in a democracy. That means, among other things, that you are free to choose to take or not to take any consequences of your actions.

Back to the picture. It is a picture I have known since I was a child. My mother had this one and one more by Anton Pieck, had them framed and I am very glad they never got thrown out. She gave them to me when I moved away from home. Anton Pieck was born in Den Helder in The Netherlands in 1895. In 1987, I went to the Netherlands for a holiday, and among other places, we visited the fairy-tale park De Efteling in Kaatsheuvel. I had no idea it was Pieck who designed the park, and it turns out that he died later that same year. It is a wonderful place. www.efteling.com (Firefox no, Explorer ok.)