shots v Lengnau, Pieterlen, and Buren a/Aare Switzerland

have been dealing with jet lag [going to bed at 4 or 6AM- waking at 3 or 4PM] plus due to summer heat [which is like spring compared to louisiana] have been inside during the day- with all windows, doors and shutters shut, to keep the house cool- only venturing out in the evening. so i haven't been out much and haven't made many fotos.

day before yesterday there was a huge hailstorm... seemed like it lasted forever... and the hail was literally the size of mothballs! some bigger.

below:a shot out the front door where the hail landed.
yesterday, due to cabin fever... we finally went out around 5pm [it stays light until maybe 9.30 PM!] for a little drive and foto safari. i took about 4 cameras [2 film, 1 polaroid film, and my little digital] -all these were done w/ the small casio exilim...

below: a man in lengnau makes these windmills and puts them all around his house.
below: a field of flowers [and i saw some yellow squash] in Pieterlen where you can cut your own flowers and pay the farmer.
below: a shot of Buren on the Aare
below: another shot of Buren on the Aare
below: a field between lengnau and buren... rather dark but almost like a painting.
today we are headed to bern. i want to shoot some things there i haven't before. i've been coming to switzerland, and this region, for 15 years or so, and still haven't shot a lot of things is this area. there again, i have thousands of negatives, almost never make prints, so am not even sure what i have or haven't shot since 1992 or so. so many fotos, so little time...

i got some great shots with the old polaroid 210 land camera that uses b&w 'peel apart film' but havent scanned them yet. they'll go in the foto-mondo blog.

[c] 2007 doug duffey

"smoke free" torture travel... for 1500$ a ticket!

going through "security" in the monroe airport, some weasel faced, reba mcintire looking, TSA cow took my zippo lighter [which i could carry on before!] - which was the beginning of my travel rage, before i ever set foot on the plane! travel into and out of america has become so paranoid and ridiculous; nowhere else in the world do people have to go through all the crap that they have to to enter/leave there. i expect everyone will have to be strip/cavity searched, or fly nude, in the near future.

mercifully, i had 2 seats to myself, got a seatbelt extension so i could strecth out, and slept all the way from atlanta until about an hour and 1/2 from zurich. i woke and had some of what passed for breakfast.
arriving in zurich... the 1st thing i saw when i got off the plane [before having to walk 1000 miles or go through customs and baggage claim- as we have to do in the USA] was a nice clean smoking lounge [unlike the nasty one they keep hidden in the bowels of the atlanta airport]. i thought to myself, "how civilized" -but then i always think that whenever i arrive in Switzerland. all the people inside were talking about how ridiculous the over all non-smoking and security scenario was/is in america. here, you de-plane, go through passport control, show your passport, get your luggage, and go out... with NO crapola. again... "how civilized" ...

after smoking, i went through passport control, got my luggage and went [as i always do] to this little cafe [above] for immediate good coffee. another smoking booth is to the right... it used to all be totally open- but ever since america started the non-smoking bullshit, europe has followed suit. whatever america does, the rest of the world eventually does... unfortunately.

[above: jackie and i in the smoking booth- shot by an anonymous smoker]

jacqueline met me and we loaded my luggage into the Jaguar and drove to Zug, where i had my 1st gig. the shot below is outside from the city


driving back we got stuck in a huge traffic jam close to the gotthard tunnel... traffic was backed up for miles. everyone is on holiday here and many were headed south or to italy. mercifully the Jag has a/c. we went through solothurn [below] - unfortunately there was a bridge hiding most of the shot... so i cropped it.


i brought my small digital camera with me this trip, after finding out it can use either 110 or 220 electricity. so, this makes the whole foto- blog thing much easier. there again, i also brought 3 plastic 35mm cameras, my old 210 polaroid, and had several russian and german cameras here. i also bought several more at the 'brockenstube'/brocante saturday: yet another agfa 120 film camera, and a polaorid for 5 chf [maybe 3$]= cool.

[c] 2007 doug duffey

louisiana highway 80, highway 145, highway 4 etc

i've been running the roads lately; going to gigs here in louisiana. even though it hasn't really been travel, it's been good to get out and see local things. i've made a point of not taking the interstate [freeway/autobahn] just so i DO get to see things. i totally love the back roads.

when i went to do my gig in Tallulah [the 23rd], i drove highway 80; stopping to make fotos all the way there. after the gig, the next morning, i drove over to Vicksburg to get a few shots, and then drove back home on highway 80- stopping to shoot when i saw something that caught my eye. i got a lot of great shots in Rayville, Delhi, and Tallulah... and along the route. highway 80 used to be the ONE big road that ran from Savannah to San Diego across America; all the towns along it were booming; but, it has unfortunately gone the way of route 66- [without the magic attached to that name]- the interstate has made it obsolete; businesses and people that once thrived along it are now gone. the towns are like driving through ghost towns. i passed ruins of old stores and things that were/are, as i say, 'tragically beautiful' -in their decay- but, that can be said of the whole state... i think too much emphasis is placed on new orleans and south louisiana and not enough on north louisiana. it has it's own unique history and culture... and beauty.... and, after all, natchitoches [northwest louisiana] is the oldest city in louisiana.

defunct power station- delhi, louisiana- highway 80

coming home after a visit to my dad recently, i drove highway 145 which i'd never been on. again, i saw the ghosts of old barns, houses, past lives and ways... it's really rather sad. our old historical buildings and culture are almost gone. as usual, i had several cameras with me and stopped and shot what i could. there was almost no place to pull off the road, and trucks and cars were flying by. i wonder if anyone else sees and appreciates the beauty of these disappearing old things?

old house- around sibley, louisiana- highway 145

i spent the last 4 days in franklin and tensas parish; up and down and around highway 4. again...i shot everything i could. i had a good SLR camera, some crap plastic cameras, even a little funky digital key-chain camera [which actually made some cool but blurry [therefore:arty] shots... so i went for the rusted cotton gins, grain storage buildings, old farm equipment, old stores, barns and houses, cemeteries, etc ... and went a few places and saw a few things i'd never seen.

hwy 4 -shot w/a vision quest mini key-chain digital camera, while driving!

i shot most of the highway 80 & 145 trips using an old Polaroid 210 Land Camera- polaroid 664 b&w film- and got great results; the fotos are darker and richer; but, i only made 2 shots with it on the highway 4 trip. having to wait and peel apart the film and try to find some place to let it sit and dry in the car... is a rather slow process. you have to be careful. plus, getting in and out of the car in 100F heat got to be too much... all these shots [made at the same time as the Polaroids] were done using a Nikon AF slr - Ilford xp2 [400 ASA] film- [EXCEPT for the one pic above, which was shot with a tiny toy digital camera] i didn't edit these, which i normally do. it was really too bright for 400 film

i usually take about 4 cameras w/me on shoots. sometimes i test out ones i find in junk stores, and 2nd hand shops, and get some good results [and sometimes NOT!]... but this is something i really enjoy.

old store- tensas parish, louisiana- hwy 4

it's amazing what is just outside the door, or down the road, that we never see, or else we see so often that we take it for granted. i've felt for some time that it is my duty to try and preserve what is left of these disappearing things before they are all gone. it's now a quest...

[c] 2007 doug duffey