Hikey Mountey

All saturdays are equal but some are earlier than others, so why not to climb a mountain at dawn? Well, you got it.

But just before that, there’s something I’d like to share with you.

Ordinary life may get boring, and more than ordinary it becomes repetitive, rhythmic with a slow and heavy pace. Finding the beauty in this mess of situation is a matter of training, but mostly of stubborness. I found in photography a way to look at things in a different way, learning to appreciate both highlights and shadows; with the recent addition of the portable camera it was easier to practice this even more.
So a quick meal becomes a palette of colors, and the sunlight shining between the windows enhances the simple things composing the scene.
A slice of potholders in the corner, for cooking;
Fork and placemat, as the tenderness of caring about simple things;
An empty glass, because it still has to begin;
Food containers, for side dishes;
A blurred mandarin, to conclude the meal
And just more blur, because light shines through

But it’s not all about loving the simple things, sometimes the breeze of dawn calls for some company, as peaks are used to wake up alone but enjoy some company.

We woke up a bit before 6.00 a.m., and departured from the city around 6.30, reaching for the start of the journey around 7-dot-something a.m. We started hiking when the sun was still behind the lowest mountains, but as we emerged from the forest our beloved star started to show clear signs of its presence.

The sky was crystal clear and there was no wind at all, it meant we were kinda warm (still some Celsius below 0) but the morning haze was going to show up sooner or later.

The light was enchantingly warm and soft, but as the sun was rising the light began to burn on us. For some minutes while we were missing the right trail, making our personal one beneath the underwood, we have been lighted up by the most intese colors of dawn.

Once we realized the original trail was lost we were already out of the forest and facing the ridge; the top was in sight, but hell how we had to sweat for it.
Taking a quick rest before diving into the last rush we had a glimpse of what we had already accomplished, seeing the city waking up as the morning haze was rising.

From the top we could look at this controversial landscape. The price of fast internet and digital television at the palm of our hands is that tiny little pillar of concrete standing above the valleys.

Just the time for a quick break and mighty mistey started to push her way into the scene

Having such amazing radent light with the foretold environmental conditions and a background of lakes it was mandatory to try working on some silhouettes.

Going home we joined the real trail which goes along the ridge following the disappearing moon and caressed by the growing breeze.

We were on our way back home and we ran into a frozen lake, with ducks and gooses walking on the hardened surface crawling for some breadlings from locals, we stopped there of course.

I only had with me the telephoto lens and the compact camera, so I couldn’t work with low wide angles as I wanted, but having the telephoto with animals in such friendly behavior it was possible to get really close to shoot some wild portraits.

Our first friend was this curious-looking feathered fatty, we gogled her name later and it appears to be a “muscovy duck”, or “mute duck”. He/she literally fitted the name since no sound came out of the beak because he/she got outnumbered by a flock of rude and noisy gooses, the feathered mob.

Pretending to have some dumplings was the key to get close with them, but the posing time was short since these geezies got our strat and after some couple of glimpses headed back to the bread throwing locals. Indeed it was a pleasure working with such beautiful (yet dumb) chickens.

It was such a shot to have such day, but many great news are coming, first of all the wedding photography project is going straight ahead. We already have a name (not giving it out yet since our site is under construction), but hopefully we’ll be ready and online around mid/end february!