(The following photos are screenshots from the website, not photos I have taken – I wish!)

Basically, you just click on the circle to see the view from the rooftop of that building. You can use your mouse to pull the view from side to side or up and down.

It really is such a cool idea and put together so nicely! So if you would like to take a tour of this wonderful city that I live in click here!

I’m quite curious how they got access to all these rooftops. Is it just a matter of going in and asking someone?  I’d love to be able to get up in some of these locations, especially for some night time photography.  I’ll have to look into this sometime!

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We actually visited the area twice, but the first day it was too cloudy and they said we wouldn’t be able to see anything, so we moved on and visited some caves in the area.  The next day it was still partially cloudy but it was our last chance so we went up anyway.

You can see the clouds in the above photo that I took on the day that we ended up leaving.  We sort of suspected that it might be too cloudy as the entire campground was in the middle of a cloud when we woke up, but we hoped it would clear up by the time we got there.  No such luck.

The next day things were a lot more clear and I was so excited when we were driving up the mountain and could see our first glimpse of the peak!

We had to ride to the peak in one of these, it was pretty full and got really warm but what a great view along the way!

Oh, I also have to mention the guys who work these things. Don’t even try to ask them questions, don’t try to socialize and well, basically don’t try to make any use of them at all.  From what we could tell they were a very small step up from trained monkeys who are there to bring you to the top and back without dying… beyond that, they are absolutely useless.  On the first day we visited we tried to talk to them to ask about the conditions at the top and if it was worth going up, and even though my husband made the effort to speak to them in French, all we got was a few grunts in return.  Our experience of trying to be friendly with them the following day was met with the same kind of reception.

So if you are looking for information, a smile or a friendly face, don’t look there.  Visit the ticket office which is not in the same building, but down and off to the side of the lift area.  They will tell you whatever you need to know and sell you your tickets.

When I looked out and took this photo I wasn’t sure that I could believe my eyes, were those little specs along the path actually people?!

Sure enough, it was, and they were looking pretty darn tired.  The man was trekking along with his nordic walking sticks and the woman was being dragged along behind him by holding onto his backpack.  The boy looked like he was completely out of juice and was being pulled along by his mother.

I had to give them credit, I’d never have attempted that walk!  I wish I could have gotten better photos to show just how long and steep that path is.

This lake was visible just before we reached the peak.  To give you an idea of the scale of everything, there were people walking along those paths as well, they are just so small you can hardly see them!  Tiny little specs along the path!!

Then we finally reached the top, which was amazing. The sky was so blue and the weather was beautiful, although quite windy!  There was a fair few people there but it wasn’t packed to the point of being uncomfortable.  There were people eating at the restaurants, sitting out having picnics and lots and lots of photographers.  More than once I found myself suffering from varying degrees of lens envy while standing shoulder to shoulder with other photographers up there.

One piece of advice I would give anyone that was visiting the area, is to pack a lunch.  The restaurants were busy and somewhat expensive, but there was plenty of areas to sit and eat a packed lunch.  We found ourselves wishing we had done so as it was coming along lunchtime when we were there and we were both starving.  We had food in our cooler in the car but we didn’t think to bring it up with us, so we took the edge off with a chocolate bar from a vending machine and then went in search of a place to stop and eat once were back on the ground again.

The view from the top was even better than on the ride up there.  It was a bit of a hazy day so we couldn’t see as far as you can on some of the more crisp and clear winter days but I’m still so glad that we made the effort to go back.  Like with most things, the photos really don’t do it justice, it’s something you have to see for yourself.

Seriously, I can’t even imagine what kind of view you get when it’s totally clear, it must be amazing. I’d love to visit sometime in the winter but just the thought of driving up into those mountains at that time of year frightens the crap out of me.

Oh, and a funny thing about visiting that area, there are always animals just roaming free.  You’ll see a lot more of them in photos from other areas we visited but for some reason at the Pic du Midi it seemed to be donkeys!

They just hung around the parking lot and socialized with the visitors, from what I could tell they often got quite lucky as well, most of the tourists found them VERY cute and shared their lunches.  I get the feeling that these are some seriously well fed donkeys.

Another interesting thing we noticed is how early people start arriving to watch the Tour de France.  If you look in this photo, you can see all the white motor homes lined up along the road on the bottom right of the photo.  We spent the rest of the day driving through the mountains along the same path that the Tour de France was going go through three days later.  Anywhere that had enough space was covered in trailers and people waiting to get their view of the bikers, it was crazy!

One last piece of advice… if you want information on what you are seeing or what is inside the Pic Du Midi, I’d suggest picking up a little booklet somewhere or printing off info online. I was somewhat disappointed to go through the place and find that there were no translations available.  All of the boards, videos and information are in French and apparently everyone else is out of luck.

Some things don’t really require you having to read anything though, like this miniature version of the Pic du Midi, which I found pretty cool!

If you are every lucky enough to be able to visit the Pyrenees, I’d definitely make the Pic du Midi one of your main destinations, especially if you have a really nice clear day.  I know if I ever return I’ll be going up again, without a doubt!

For more info you can visit their website, again… only available in French, but Google translate is your friend!

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While we were at the lake, we stopped to get an ice cream and I saw this postcard…

They look pretty nice, right?  I really wanted to find out where the waterfalls were so I could get some photos.  I asked the guy who worked in the shop where we could find them and he said, AND I QUOTE:

You drive to the end of the road and it’s just a short walk from there.  It’s not far at all.

Ok, that sounded like something that might be fun!  We hopped in the car and headed towards the end of the valley.

When we got out of the car I was looking up at the hill, you can’t see it in this photo but there were people walking along a path way up the hill. They were so small they looked like ants!  I thought to myself that they must be going somewhere else, somewhere past the waterfall.  I hoped to myself that they were going somewhere else because we weren’t at all prepared for a hike, with only sandals on and one small bottle of water.

You can already see where this is going, can’t you?

It was clear from the start how this was going to go, with Xander being a lot more fit than I was it turned out to be a series of him walking ahead and then stopping to wait for me to catch up.  I huffed and climbed, trying not to worry too much about it as I was convinced that the waterfall was right around the corner.

Nope, all that was around the corner was a nice view back towards the lake.  Oh, and this really nice little mountain shack. I wondered if anyone lived there but we didn’t see anyone around.

We could see a little stream, so where there’s water there must be  a waterfall!  It must be up around the next corner then.

Yeah, not so much… all that was around the corner was a wider path that kept climbing steadily upwards, that is also not as visible on the photo but it was a definite incline.  By this time I was starting to wonder if we were about to become some of those tiny little ants I saw from down at the road.

Before long the little mountain shack was long behind and the waterfall was still nowhere in sight.  Maybe I was just tired but the distances seemed much greater than what it appears to be in the photo.  It was far though, we had been walking for quite a long time at this point.  Surely we had to be close, but there was no end in sight!

Before long neither the shack nor the lake could be seen when I looked back.  WHERE IN THE HELL IS THAT WATERFALL?!!

The entire time this little stream was trickling along beside us.  I wondered, if this is coming from these roaring waterfalls, why does it not seem a little more… rapid?  There was still a long stretch of path ahead of us though and I didn’t think we were ever going to find it.  It was a myth, I was convinced.

The problem was that we’d already gone that far, I couldn’t turn back!  Even though I was fed up with walking on that rocky path with totally inappropriate footwear, I was red as a beet, sweating and getting slightly sunburned… I had to know. I HAD TO SEE where that damn waterfall was!

Thank goodness there was some beautiful scenery along the way!

Then… this happened.

This is starting to look like what should be at the base of the waterfall, look at the sticks and debris… there was some serious water flowing along there.  Notice I said WAS??  Yeah, because there wasn’t anymore!

After hours walking and climbing in our stupid sandals, having long run out of water, THIS is what was waiting for us.  A water trickle.

MOTHER FUCKER!!!!! *echo* Mother fucker…mother fucker…mother fucker *echo*
Yeah, I screamed.  I’m pretty sure hikers all over the Pyrenees heard my cries.

Well, I screamed as well as I was able to while I gasped for breath.

You know those soccer player dudes who crashed in the mountains and had to eat the muscles out of the asses of their dead friends?  That’s pretty much what I imagined my evening to be like, because by this time I was done.  I was just completely and utterly finished. I was going to be stranded in this mountain forever…   After all that, we then had to turn around and walk all the way back down.

We had spent the entire day on this and other than burning a few calories, the photos and chatting along the way, we had nothing to show for it.

I was never so happy as when I turned that corner and saw our car.  Seriously, I was about two steps from having someone call a helicopter to rescue me.

If I had more energy left I would have gone back to that shop and punched that guy in the throat.  Instead we went back to our campground, ordered some dinner from the canteen and booked ourselves an hour in the whirlpool hot tub to rest our aching muscles, it was wonderful!

One day I’m going to go back there and see those waterfalls when they are actually falling.   I have to, it’s like we went to war and the mountain won, I must get my revenge.

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I so wanted to go on a trail ride as it’s been years since I’ve been on horseback, which used to be pretty much my entire life when I was in Canada.  Xander didn’t want to though, and I didn’t want to go by myself, so it didn’t happen.

The area around the lake was just lovely.  The road that our campground was on pretty much ends at the lake and the scenery was great.  We were going to take a walk around the lake but when we stopped to get an ice cream at the restaurant I noticed a postcard with a really beautiful waterfall on it.  I asked the guy who was working there where the waterfall was and his answer was “If you just go to the very end of the road, it’s a short walk from there”, so we decided to do that instead.

What an adventure that turned out to be… but that’s a story for another time!

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It’s no secret that I love taking photos of animals, and also that one of my favorite parts of visiting my in-laws is their dogs.  I have such a soft spot for these animals… not just because they are beautiful but because they are so incredibly well trained.  It makes me want to ship Bailey and Pixel off to the south of France for boot camp with my father-in-law!

You may remember last year when I posted about their dog Timo.  Well, sadly a few months after our visit he became very ill again and had to be put to sleep. I wept like a baby when I heard it so I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for my in-laws.  We weren’t sure that they would get another dog, but after they gave themselves some time to grieve they decided they did want to get another dog after all.  Their other dog was quite lonely without Timo and they felt that they were up to bringing a puppy into the house again.

Enter Finley!

Not as much of a puppy by the time we got there, at least not physically, but definitely still a puppy by nature!  He was so playful, he loves to play fetch and play with is toys and my goodness does he love to cuddle!  He loves attention, and you just can’t help but give it to him because he’s mastered the puppy dog eyes, big time.

There is no resisting that face. It’s just not in our genetic makeup to have that kind of strength.  I challenge even the most hardcore dog-haters to spend a day with Finley and not give into that stare.

I also love him because he’s willing to model for me.  I took so many photos of him, which I will post later when I get to them, but I had to share the ones I have done so far.  If you think these are cute, wait until you see the rest.  I’m going to do it in small doses because it would be cruel of me to overload you on the cuteness all at once.  I’m not sure you could take it.

I have only one complaint about these dogs… and it’s about Lally.  I love her, she’s so docile and gentle. Ok she may not look it in the above photo but that’s Finley’s fault, he’s always tormenting her.  Honestly, she has this way about her that makes you just love her.  Every time she looked at me I imagined her as one of those dogs in a Disney film, the ones with the soft and warm voice of a mother or grandmother, ya know?  The one that takes care of all the other Disney dogs.

Notice I have no photos of that look?  That is where my problem is with her, she’s so camera shy!  Every time I try to get near her with the camera she gets up and walks away.  I’ve tried getting my in-laws to command her to stay, and even that doesn’t work. She’s all like “No paparazzi please!”.  It’s very frustrating!!

I still love her, but it’s my life’s mission to get a beautiful portrait of that dog.

I think this is enough cuteness for you all for today, but stay tuned because there’s more where this came from!

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It was terribly organized. We waited at Dam Square and even though we saw about 4-5 police officers none of them had any idea what was going on.  The traffic wasn’t stopped so when the zombies came there was a gridlock between the vehicles that were along with the zombies and the public transit.

When the zombies arrived I sort of got pushed with the crowd into this one spot, and I thought it was going to be great because I was right in front.  Unfortunately I was right at the entrance to Dam Square in an intersection and the zombies were packed quite tightly together.  It was hard to get photos because when they’d come up to me they were TOO close and I had trouble focusing.  I did manage to salvage a few photos though.

McZombies?

You can see more photos here on the Flickr set.

My favorite part of the evening wasn’t even the zombies, it was this little boy in his skeleton costume.  He had a great time trying to scare all the people waiting around in the square.  It was hilarious to watch.

What bothered me most was that it wasn’t just people being zombies for fun, like a proper zombie attack kind of walk. There were party trucks blaring music, with zombies drinking and smoking and dancing on top.  Cars with zombie people driving along and the greater majority of the zombies were walking along smoking, drinking or taking photos themselves, rather than really acting the part.

All in all, regardless of my complaints, it was a fun evening.  I’m going to keep my eyes open in case there is a regular, daytime, just for fun zombie walk and when that happens I will get my do-over.

Oh, and did my diffuser make any difference?  I have no idea!  I use my flash so rarely that I can’t tell if the photos came out better or not because of it. I’ll test it out another time, maybe for x-mas portraits!

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I’ve always seen photos from Zombie walks in Canada and the US and I’ve so wanted to get photos of one myself, so I’m really happy that they are doing one here now.

Only problem is that unlike most of the zombie walks in other countries, this is going to take place at night, which makes the whole photo thing a bit more difficult for someone like me. I don’t have a lot of gear and taking photos of moving targets in the dark will be a challenge, to say the least.   So I asked my friend Gail for some tips… the first thing she said was maybe looking into sorting out a diffuser for my pop up flash.

One of the most popular types of DIY diffusers were like this one using an old film cannister, but I didn’t have one of those handy.  I saw other version like this one using wire and a vaccum bag, but the hot shoe on my camera is designed differently so that wasn’t going to work. Plus, we have a bag free vacuum – DOH!

So, together with hubby I sat down and tried to come up with a design of our own.  These are the products we used (I forgot to take photos before cutting stuff up so these are random ones I found online):

1. A frosty plastic file folder

2. A thin plastic shopping bag, like what this person put their cat in. The semi see-through crinkly kind (I used a HEMA bag for those of you who might be in NL).

3. One or two skinny rubber bands

4. White (or any other color if you don’t want to match) electrical tape

I didn’t take photos of the actual creative process, but here’s hubby working hard on it.

He even managed to only cut himself once, which is a miracle if you ask me, considering he was using a box cutter AND scissors!

Here is the finished product:

Will it work in softening up some of my photos this evening?  Well, that remains to be seen!  I did a few quick test shots with hubby as we worked on it.  I had him stand in the toilet where it was dark so I could see if there was any difference.  If you are wondering, his eyes are closed because I kept blinding him with the flash.

The top photo was with the pop-up flash alone, the bottom is with the diffuser.  You can see that the shadows aren’t as extreme and (well I would know this, you wouldn’t) the color of the tiles is the actual color in the bottom, but made more white on the top..  Both photos are straight out of the camera with no editing so I could show the initial difference.

Granted, this is definitely a different environment than I would be using it in tonight so I’m not sure what the results will be.  Good thing about this is that if I’m taking photos and they just don’t look right on my LCD screen on the camera, it’s easy to remove.  We’ll see!

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For the past two years I have belonged to IMAGES Photo Club, an English speaking photography club in Den Haag.  I’ve really enjoyed being a part of the club, especially the outings that I’ve been on with them, like the sailing trip and the trip to Texel.  One thing I’ve always wanted to do (but been too afraid to) was to enter a photo into the monthly POTY (Photo of the Year) competition.

Each month there is a themed competition that the members of the club can enter.  During the break the photos are hung up with a number attached and the members vote on their five favorites.  Before the end of the meeting they announce the winners for that month.  At the end of the year the winning photos face off to win the Photo of the Year title and the top five photos from each month are published in the POTY book for that club year.

The theme for this month was MOODS, which felt impossible to me until a friend from the club saw me post the photo above after Penny’s race.  He knew I have been eager to enter a photo but was a bit too shy, so when he saw this he suggested that I use it for the mood theme.  I hadn’t even though to of it until he mentioned it!  This was the first photo I had ever printed, which was a bit of a learning experience. There are a few things I’d do differently next time but I loved seeing one of my photos in print for the first time!

I was so nervous. Sure I put my photos on my blog and on Flickr but this is the first time I’ve ever put my photo out there to be judged in this kind of way.  I loved the photo, but would other people like it?  I very nearly chickened out.  I didn’t though!  The fact that it was on my 101 List was the extra motivation I needed to just bite the bullet and do it!

There were 29 entries in all and …. wait for it…. I PLACED THIRD!!! THIRD! Three out of TWENTY NINE!!  When they said my name as they were reading out the top five it too me a second to realize they were talking about me!

My friend Barbara snapped this photo quickly with her iphone.  Oh those beauty pageant chicks have nothing on my “OMG *SQUEEE* I WON!!!” face, good grief!  To most of the others in the club they are like “Oh… cool!” I was like “OMG OMG OMG OMG YAAAAAAAAAY!!!”.  Ever the drama queen, I am.

They have this little rule that you have to go up and stand in front of the group and tell a little bit about your photo.  This isn’t something I had thought about as I never thought I’d even place, so I had no idea what to say.  I ended up sort of rambling on and I don’t even remember what I said, but it was all said with a very shaky voice.  So while I realized that I shouldn’t be so afraid to put my photos out there, I also learned that public speaking will never be my thing. I think I can live with that.

Well, that’s one more thing off my list and I’m totally going to do it again!

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With all the photos I took of the race this is my favorite of the day.  The children that were with us were getting restless while we waited for the girls to finish the race, and a bag of crisps managed to keep them occupied for a while.

I think next to Faela, Xiem (the boy in the middle) is one of the most interesting kids I’ve ever photographed.  The blond curls together with his interesting facial expressions makes him any photographers dream I think.  Although, as you can tell by the look in this photo he doesn’t enjoy the process quite as much as I do!

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So that Saturday afternoon we hopped on the tram and went to meet the group.  I’d be lying  if I said I wasn’t nervous, but once we arrived I felt much better as they were very friendly and welcoming.

I had been under the impression that we were going to do a photo walk around some of the bridges in the city, but when we arrived we were told by the organizer that he had a surprise for us (I love surprises! ), he had gotten us into the Old Luxor Theater to look around!  I was really excited to hear this because I had been there twice before and remember wondering what it would be like to be able to take some proper photos, as it is never allowed during a performance.  The first time I was there was my frightening visit to see the acrobats and the second time was for this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival.

I thought we would be able to go in and they’d let us in the theater, but it was so much better than that.  They basically opened the doors and let us crawl through the place like cockroaches.  We were allowed to roam free, go down into the dressing rooms, climb up in around the scaffolding backstage and anywhere else that struck our fancy.  It was very cool.

The theater itself is gorgeous.  The multicolored seating with the loveseats thrown in here and there gives it such an interesting look.  It was hard to not just take a thousand photos of the lights and seating alone.

I probably could have stopped after a hundred photos of the seats, but the lighting, ohhh the lighting. I loved it!  Especially the shape as it crawls along the wall and across the ceiling. It really made every photo different depending on the angle you capture it.

Being able to go down into the dressing rooms was an experience I wasn’t expecting.  I’m not sure what I thought was going to be waiting for me but it was something along the lines of what you see on TV.  You know, the superstars in their super lush dressing room.  That really wasn’t the case at all, they were pretty modest and sort of like Dutch doctors offices… just the bare minimum.  I guess it cuts down on costs and makes cleaning up easy.

They were also in the basement, with walls covered in posters for shows that have played in the theater over the years.

I didn’t take any photos in the regular dressing rooms as nothing really interested me, so I walked around opening doors and peeking to see what was inside.  That’s when I found this little gem…

What in the…?

The other dressing rooms had plain white walls, a plain white countertop and some plastic chairs.  The walls were covered in mirrors surrounded by white lights and each room had its own sink. That’s pretty much it.  I’m not sure who the special person was that got this dressing room, but they certainly put their own touch on it!  Wow.  Just, wow!

After that disturbing display, I found a rather cool lounge area.

The neon Luxor sign was my favorite bit.   I had these images in my head of those little acrobats hanging out in this room between their sets, having a few beers.  No wonder my friend and I were so frightened for our lives.  This room should be strictly off limits for any show that requires throwing things.

After visiting the other areas I decided to take the plunge and climb up around the scaffolding backstage.  I went halfway up the stairs when I first got there, but then quickly turned around and went back down.  Yes, I chickened out, but I made a triumphant return.

I purposely made those two small because they are kind of blurry. I blame the lack of light and not the fact that I was shaking, because I wasn’t.

After all that climbing around and peeking into places I shouldn’t, I sat down to have a drink of water and just take in the scenery.  Then I noticed this…

I wonder who Arie & Silvester are, and I wonder how they managed to get their own loveseat.  Did they donate to renovations of the theater?  Are they people who work there?  More importantly, what do I have to do to get a Tammy & Xander loveseat?!

I really love this group, because they are all about getting out there and taking photos. They don’t judge, they don’t care what level you are and they just want to get together and enjoy their common hobby. Thankfully they welcome anyone along to enjoy it with them.  So if you’d like to do something like this, why not see if they are in a city near you?!

I am already looking forward to meeting up with them again.  If you are in the Rotterdam area, maybe I’ll see you there!

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