The Central Hotel - by the Central tram junction

Another slightly surreal encounter in old town Zurich. A survivor of the original cow parade in Zurich 1998

A touch of surrealism perhaps, but also how does he get it on the tram when he wants to go home?

I showed a photo of this old style shoe shop last year, also at night. Recently the clear cold weather has been replaced by a short intermezzo of mild rainy stuff

Hasselblad 500C/M 80mm Planar FP4

Change of mood, although it seems a bit grim for a declaration of love..

A night shot of the pretty street that's featured here before. It's not a brilliant photo, but it's here because it's from the first film shot with my new camera - a Rolleiflex 2.8c dating from 1954, ahem, the same vintage as myself. I don't use these old cameras to make any point about modern equipment, but I like the connections with the history of photography, and I like anything that was made in 1954 and still works perfectly!

The twin lens reflex is a format that is possibly more different and yet combines some of the best features of other types. The lens is good (exceptionally good), you see what you get (albeit back to front), it gives you medium format negatives (6 x 6) and it has a silent focal plane shutter. Because you look down onto the top of the camera to compose, it has some possibilities for street photography - no-one thinks you are taking their photo. This however was on the tripod, with grainy Tri-x film. Seems to work ok after all these years

Tuesday (and Friday) mornings see the flower and vegetable market in Burkliplatz open at around 6am - whatever the weather. Here are some people critical appraising their choice of blooms for the day

Another night shot of the street I'm staying in, the apartment is on the left bank. This was shot with the Leica M8, and 24mm Elmarit, handheld at 3 seconds. (Only kidding, I leant it on a bridge parapet). I like the way the highlights of the lamps came out - serendipitious, or was it the lens....

The southern stretch of Canareggio is bounded by the Grand Canal, and the tourist thouroughfare that marks the route from the railway station to the Rialto. Here it is after the crowds have gone home. This image has been subject to some violent exposure post processing, and makes a contrasting treatment with the previous "Noir" photo, taken in the same area at around the same time.

Just a night time shot in a bookshop window. Something about it struck me

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri-x

Although this is the new Leica, it looks like the old one to me. Now I'm happy.

Leica M8 35mm Summicron

In the last post, Bouncing Light wondered about the lack of my reflection. So here there's no mistake. You might recognise the little fountain at the left from a previous shot in the station.

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Fomapan 400

This is a view taken from the bridge that you saw in yesterdays photo, looking right, Fraumunster behind. NB the three long windows in the church are the famous stained glass ones by Chagall (There are also couple of smaller ones). Some day I'll get round to showing them - maybe even in colour..

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri-x

Olympus OM1 28mm F2 HP5

It had been a harsh, glaring, fuzzy, disorienting and grainy evening - time to get home, but here's a photo as a memento.

Wandering around after lights out this evening I took several shots of window displays in the Niederdorf part of town. I'm always surpised at the amount of effort that goes into arranging and lighting these, just so I can photograph them. This one has me wondering - what is for sale - the glass or the painting? I like the irony as well - image of fruit in a fruit bowl.

Canon EOS20D Olympus Zuiko 100mm F2 - handheld

The Grossmünster at night again, from a different angle than the previous one, and with a different camera. It's a pity I couldn't have shown the big tree that disappears into shadow at bottom left, but there was no light on it at all. I could have dragged something out of the shadows, but quality would have suffered.

Someone asked me why they couldn't click on my pictures and see large versions, like in blogger. Well you could if I could be bothered uploading full-size versions. I compromise by having reasonably large main images. Sometimes it's worth seeing the original if there is a lot of interesting detail, so here is this one in all it's glory - be aware it's 4121 x 2814 pixels and a 2mb file if you click this link

Canon EOS5D Olympus Zuiko 100mm F2

This is where I get my shoes - when I can pluck up the courage

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri-x

Taken a few months ago, as you can see by the time on the clock. I've been going back over my night time shots of Zurich. I find them particularly evocative of the city, they are quite timeless really, could've been taken 40 years ago. The old world charm suits my humour at the moment, and appropriately this is taken with a 40 year old camera

Hasselblad 500 c/m 80mm f2.8 Planar. Tri-x

Some people tuck their cameras away when it rains, but I think it offers whole new perspectives on familiar views - especially if you wait until the lights come on. What would be a normally boring shot of a corner of Bahnhofstrasse gets a bit more interesting

It would have been better with some strategically placed figure and without the parked car, but then the rain brings other disadvantages. People don't hang around in photogenic poses quite so much.

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri-x

The Amperesteg bridge over the LImmat is a nice asymmetrical construction, and shows up nicely at night or early morning because of the lighting

At left you can see the Bluewin building featured in yesterdays photo. This was shot handheld with Leica M4 and 35mm summicron wide open at F2 and 1/15 sec, so not much depth of field. I focused on foreground. Might have been better fousing on background - middle of bridge would have been in focus still. (I know - I should have done both and everything in between!)

Rain again. Daily high temperatures bring evening thunderstorms, and this weekend some general cooling and more rain

Leica M3 50mm Summicron Tri X

No, not a wildlife study. I heard somewhere that 90% of the world's tower cranes were in Dubai at the moment. Well there are a few left in Switzerland - here they are, busy at sunrise building all the new stuff that will go to make up Glattpark in Zuri Nord

Still milking the Grossmünster for all it's worth. here's a night shot from across the River Limmat.

Bronica Etrs 75mm PE FP4