Sunday, 30 October 2022

Workation

The word above has been underlined by the review tool as incorrect. The blend of work and vacation has emerged relatively recently, with remote working becoming increasingly popular. And until recently I had not been fond of combining travelling for pleasure without taking days off, as I believed if I venture somewhere, I should make the most of the sites I visit and not taint them with workplace-related stress and rush.

My approach changed after I hit it off, romantically, with my girlfriend who has her second flat (inherited after her grandparents) in Wisła.

The second trip to the resort was longer – we set off on Saturday, 15 October, early in the morning and returned on Sunday, 23 October in the evening. Thus we enjoyed almost 2 weekends there, plus we both took a day of on Tuesday 18 October, to make use of the spell of the Indian summer.

Weather-wise, the timing was perfect. On both weekends temperatures topped at more than +15C (though not always with sunshine) and at the beginning of the working week afternoon highs were close to +20C.

To the right – a snap from Transbeskidzki Szlak Konny, somewhere between Leśnica and Wisła Malinka. Note on higher altitudes trees had shed leaves and the path might be slippery.

On Monday afternoon we took an afternoon break from work and cycled into Dolina Białej Wisełki, close to the spot where Czarna Wisełka and Biała Wisełka converge ahead of a dam. The photo was taken around one hour before the sunset, with sunrays marvellously illuminating the landscape.

On Tuesday, in full sunshine, we wandered from Żabnica, through Hala Borawska, Hala Lipowska, Rysianka and Romanka, back to Żabnica – we covered 19 kilometres on foot and scaled the elevation gain of 878 metres. With excellent visibility, one could see summits of Tatry, including the highest peak – Gerlach.

The highest mountain we climbed was Romanka, 1,366 metres above sea level. From the top of it, one could discern the city of Żywiec in the distance. By the way – can anyone advise how to get rid of that blot from the eye of my camera?

Another before-sunset view, from the peak of Ochodzita, overlooking Koniaków, one of those villages in Beskid Śląski where more than three-fourth of residents vote for the ruling party…

On Saturday before the departure we ventured to Cieszyn. The town, called also the Polish Vienna has some impressive sights, with Cieszyńska Wenecja (the Venice of Cieszyn) being the most popular one, whose existence I discovered… during the last weekend.

Cieszyn has a proper mountain hill from which a panorama of the Czech part of the town can be observed. We crossed the border, sensed two cultures intermingling, bringing back memories the early days of the pandemic, when border between Poland and the Czech Republic was closed.

On the last day in the morning we took a bicycle ride of nearly 20 kilometres across rural areas. With the proper optical zoom I would take a pic of the wildlife approaching human dwellings, a sight rather uncommon in the capital.

Looking forward to the next trip there, probably after Christmas.

4 comments:

Adelaide Dupont said...

Probably take the lens out and replace it?

[or was it the result of a dropping at some point?]

At the end of the graphic image: use the eyedropper and fill in the relevant colours like the green of the grass.

[and in some of the images it is nearly invisible - when it comes to the ones with the blue sky it is the most evident].

Michael Dembinski said...

If you have a fixed-lens camera the only answer is a camera-repair shop. The problem is caused by dirt on the sensor, a lint-free swab and 95% spirytus will do the trick, but removing the lens is a professional-only job. You can, as Adelaide suggests, remove the blob with software (it's so easy on Photoshop that my sensors go for years without a clean, even on cameras with interchangeable lenses). You can take a 'reference photo' of a white wall or blank sky, which shows where the blob is, and software removes it automatically from all subsequent photos (if your camera is clever enough).

student SGH said...

Guys, the blob is most visible when I use optical zoom. The shot from Romanka mountain was taken with 12.5x optical zoom. If the pic is not enlarged, the blob is nearly invisible. I wonder whether a repair makes economical sense (even in the light of repair rather than replace principle) - I bought the camera in December 2012, so it has a kind of depreciated after a decade of rather infrequent use (during holidays and sightseeing trips only).

Adelaide Dupont said...

Thank you Michael and Bartosz:

A decade's camera definitely is a treasure forever.

[though it MAY come to the end of its useful life and depreciate].

The optics are the things I do worry about.

Good point about the reference picture.

Yours truly once took a "yellow screen" of a very fine uncovered wall.

[on the same basis as the blue screen and the green screens in the movies and in computer graphic imagery]

And what is this software that removes it so cleverly? It has probably not been in a Fuji Focus or something very similar [or the screen was way too small and the buttons too clunky].

[especially twisting around to day and night mode].

I wonder how the camera would have gone after a much more frequent use.

[the FF I talk about was of a 2004 vintage and it made its not-so-graceful resignation near the beginning of 2013 - batteries in this instance were a factor in its demise].

Dirt and dust are not a photographer's friends. Nor would the heat or the cold be.

Then I think too of the circular economy.

12.5x optical zoom [I almost forget how zoom works - putting the Photos app very close to the - for example - bamboo plant's fronds].

And, yes, lenses are so very delicate [even if interchangeable - reference numbers?]

Lint! And lint gets in so very easily.

I learnt the ways of the eyedropper on several painting and drawing applications [ClarisWorks and SuperPaint - perhaps even KidPix] in the early 1990s. And the bucket.

Pixel by pixel...