Lights

It's been quite a long time since I last posted something in here, but finally here I am in 2012. I hope you all enjoyed all the festivals and partys you might have been to, or maybe just had a calm and relaxing day with your family or sweetheart.
Happy New Year, everyone!



So what I come up with now is this...

Those who have been to New Zealand might know, but I will tell you anyways. This is the skyline of Auckland, capital of New Zealand.
I took this photo in Devonport, which i reached with a ferry. There is a great café there to enjoy the second best hot chocolate I have ever tried so far. The best was made by my host family there, they had some special chocolate from Mexico. Just brilliant but rare...
The day was pretty good, I was there with some friends I made at the language school. But this place needs more than just a few hours to be explord, especially if you spend most of the time in a café. But Auckland's skyline at night was worth everything.
Well, I took the photo with my old camera, which means that it originally was of a bad quality. But those who think it was a great act of editing are wrong, it took me about two minutes. Klick to enlarge, and you will see how detailed it became.

Comments and critique is highly appreciated, there are even some buttons at the bottom of this post to rate it.
Enjoy the beginning of the new year, I hope you all liked the story as well as the photo.

Crying

This photo is quite old. I took it in 2009 in New Zealand. If you are in Auckland, go to visit the Rose Gardens at Parnell Road! It's worth it!

So why is the photo called "Crying"?
The day I was there at the Rose Gardens, it had been raining. To be precise, it rained cats and dogs. Luckily I had an umbrella with me...
If you know the weather of New Zealand, you know that it can stop raining immediately. That was exactly when I arrived at the Rose Gardens.
It was not the time for roses though, they had not many leaves and even less flowerings. The paths are made of grass, which was wet, but I did not really care. The atmosphere was quite sad then, a dark and rainy day in a dark and dull environment.
Many thoughts came across my mind this day and as i finished thinking - and yes, this is possible! - the sun finally came out.
For you to see is a memorial of this day. One of the few flowerings, crying out a tear for its lost brothers. Or is this tear made of hope? We will never know, i guess...

Rising

This photo shall be the first one of this blog...
To introduce you and to welcome you, every photo has its own story. You can read them underneath each of the photos I publish here.

So, this photo has been taken in Glendalough. Some of you might know this place, for the others, I will explain it. Glendalough is a small valley in Ireland, about an hour by car from Dublin. There has once been a monastery, even an important one in ancient times. They built a cathedral there, of course a smaller one than we now know, but in those days you might describe it as huge.
As the vikings arrived in Ireland, they plundered this monastery, as it has been quite rich. But time went on, the church lost its importance and other monasteries became more popular and "famous". The valley has been left, we now can find the ruins of those days there.

Glendalough means "Valley of the two lakes". You can visit both, a great place for walking and relaxing. I took this photo on the upper lake, the bigger one.

So why is this photo so important for me?
The Irish have a myth of death. They believe the souls to be swans, rising to heaven after death. The swan shows the freedom the Irish did not have for a long time, it is a symbol for every Irishmen. And this actually is what this photo shows - the rising of history, of life, to heaven. It became a symbol to me.