Busy at the balcony

Today I have done some work at the balcony of our hotel, Villa Ottilia.

I made a few pots filled with flowers to give some colour to the balcony. And I must say, yes, I am quite happy with the results:

On a stormy day

In the end of June I drove across Estonia, from our home town Otepää to a holiday resort in North Estonia, Võsu.

The drive was quite fantastic as there was a storm coming up filling the sky with purple and magenta clouds. Every once in a while there were thunder and lightning somewhere in the distance and at times some showers of rain.

The colours of the Estonian countryside were intensified and the green hills and yellow canola fields were almost burning under the magenta sky.

The drive should have taken only 4 hours, but instead took six, as I had to make several stops to photograph the magnificent show of pre-storm colours.

Here a few shots taken that day.

DPS's Weekly Assignment: Vertical lines

DPS's Weekly Assignment: Diagonal

Darren Rowse's Digital Photography School assignment encourages one to look for diagonal lines.

Mine are from canola fields that are now blossoming. And as Otepää is hilly, there are some spectacular undulating yellow diagonal lines that - at least to my mind - are pretty fantastic and border true art.

DPS's Weekly Assignment: Framing

Here is my entry for this week's assignment: framing. No more needs to be said, right?

DPS's Weekly Assignment: Landscape

This week's assignment (May 18 - June 1) was landscape, and not just any landscape, but one with the foreground in focus.

The assignment was fun! I visited several scenic places in the neighbourhood and found interesting landscapes with neat foregrounds. Choosing the entry picture was the hard part.

In the end I chose the one below for the entry: Green fields

Green Fields

Other candidates for the entry were:

Dandelion Fields

Rapeseed Fields

Besides the fields, I also took pictures of Lake Pühajärv (The Holy Lake), which is our home lake close to Villa Ottilia.

Today it was pretty windy and it was very obvious that the summer is not yet here. Perhaps in two weeks' time, but not yet.

So I tried to capture the desolate feeling of an empty beach on a windy day with these pictures.

Empty slide waiting for children to come and play

The weather changes quickly from sunny to cloudy

The cafeteria waits for clients to enjoy the view

DPS's Weekly Assignment: sadness

The assignment 11th to 25th of May was sadness.

And here is my entry:

An old woman watching the time go by in a window. It has been taken in the small border town of Valga, Estonia.

Valga itself is quite a sad town - people are poor, the town has little to offer to its citizens. Young people are moving to bigger cities. The old remain, as they have nowhere to go.

DPS's Weekly Assignment: The workplace

Darren Rowse's Weekly Photography Assignment was this time: The workplace.

My workplace is my home. Namely, I run a small Bed and Breakfast enterprise called Villa Ottilia in Otepää, South Estonia.

Otepää is best known for its winter – actually the town proudly calls itself The Winter Capital of Estonia. Summer is nice too. And spring and autumn. So there are actually four good seasons that lure customers to us.

At the moment we are having none of those four. I guess the next three weeks are the dullest time of the year, both visually and business-wise. Nothing happens. And it is ugly outside. Snow is melting fast, making puddles of sloshy sleet.

So, there is not much work for me at the moment – at least not in the hotel sector. However, somebody forgot to tell it to the family dog, who considers himself a self-appointed guard dog. He sits on the garden wall protecting the house and waiting for the appearance of any customers.

It seems that some of us just cannot take it easy!

Latte at his workplace

Delicate

Old faithful

Darren Rowse's Photography School's weekly assignment was shoes.

Instead of choosing a glamorous pair with bling-bling that would sparkle in all colours of the rainbow I decided to take a look at an old pair of boots that have come to the end of their journey.

Old faithful boots, the things we have seen together and the places we have been together!

Thank you for the ride!

Rhino in detail

A few years ago we made an unforgettable journey to Nepal during which we visited the jungle in Chitwan.

In Chitwan we also took part in an elephant safari and by accient came across a rhinoceros lying in a mud pond. The moment was exciting and brief. Wobbling at the back of elephant I managed to take just one photo of that great animal. And even that was not so good:

So, this time, when Darren Rowse's Photography School's assignment was 'detail', I decided to make a study of rhino in detail

This is what I came up:

Here are some other pics from the same session:

Sunny winter days continue

For the past week we have had cold but sunny weather, which is actually quite wonderful from the point of photographing.  The only problem being, how well your camera tolerates temperatures that are below -25c.

Here are some photos taken a couple of days ago in and around of my home town, Otepää.

Unfortunately it is too late to submit any of the for DPS's assignment: weather. But it is never too late to post them here.

In the early hours of the day there is still fog in the valley of Otepää.

A view from the church hill.

In a few hours' time the sky has cleared.

Electricity is crucial in these temperatures.

A frosted tree.

The Otepää Natural Park is among the biggest and most beautiful in Estonia.

Natural art of wind and snow.

A spot of colour in the otherwise white and blue scenery. Note the furry fellow at the back seat.

Snow piles up into interesting formations.

Another example of Nature's art.