Glencoe

My professional life again took Simon and I to a far end of Scotland - we were comissioned by American clients to do a photoshoot in the Glencoe. We drove there a day before the photoshoot so that I would not have to stress to much on the day with my feeble driving skills. I was of course extremely stressed - driving on the left side in an unfamiliar, rented car, on a winding road in the mountains where other people drive fast - 70 mph at least even though the sign asks them to slow down to 40 mph. I got some tooting when being taken over on a double line by a 4x4 black Rangerover but I did not care - my task was to get us to our destination (Ballachullish village on the edge of Glencoe) not to kill us. I think my dad must have been watching my driving with my guarding angel from above because I've made it! Now I would like to continue with my Scottish driving lessons, however this time without an immediate deadline.

Some images from a blissfull evening in Glencoe, without midges. Taken on my mobile:

We were staying in a little cheap bed & breakfast owned by a charming landlady (Aurelia calls this type Mamma Africa so here we definitely had Mamma Alba) and equally charming decor. Images of the interior will definitely appear in Simon's hotel series! Every morning we were greeted with a full on fried breakfast and the freash air was getting us every day without fail - we were invariably in bed by 9.30 pm! (Our usual bedtime is more like 3 am...).

Gleoncoe is one of the most beautiful places in Scotland. It has a sinister side to it as well. 70 members of the MacDonald clan were brutally murdered by their own guests on 13th of February 1692.

Before...

Back in Britain

The parliamentary election has passed (excellent editions of a hillarious The Now Show should be still available on BBC Iplayer) and Gordon decided to give up, poor thing. The Queen is still going on strong though. I must say I like this portrait of her which I took picture of (in some public building), especially the palace interior, in subdued light, underexposed by the flash lighting the Queen, right behind her.

Lou NY

Discussing Warhol's factory and gay friends ^

Firenze - part 3

Dog days are over as Florence sings, I am graduating next week, finishing another chapter in my education/life. It will be a bit devastating not to be a part of the team anymore (again!) but I hope that not everybody will go down South in search of work and we will still meet ocassionally!
I am printing the portfolio at the moment, thinking about Florence, the one without the machine!

My cousin Maciek has his bday today! Many happy returns, my dear as they say here! An image of the panorama of Florence, viewed from the top of Brunelleshi's coupola is especially for you!

Firenze - design

The main train station area in any city is usually the most awful one around and this problem is only slightly better solved in Florence, where Santa Maria Novella train station is situated on an empty hill, next to a busy roundabout and just couple of steps from the SMN church itself. So that on arrival one does not have to stay there too long (though Simon's mum had to spend a whole night there when she visited Italy on holidays just after WW2 and she still remembers it as the most unpleasant experience) and can escape to the charming squares of the citycenter which is just a short walk away.

I actually like only one station which is surprisingly Glasgow's Queen Street station but Italian one had an advantage of a beautifully designed lettering which brought back a designer in me. I came back especially to take several photos to share these unusual 1930s fonts with Monica. The set of numbers in the first photograph is actually a clock, it is quarter to four o'clock:

Firenze - part 1

While Adam is just flying to Marocco, we have managed to escape for a couple of days to Italy! The moment Britain reopened it's airspace we flew to Florence - a volcanic ash was not able to stop us.

We arrived in Pisa (or 'Pizza' as one lady stuck in the airport there put it nicely when interviewed on Radio 4 last week) and then took the slowest train in the world to Firenze S.M.N. and to our little hotel in a 16th century palazzo.

It was really like Eddie Izzard put it: lots of Italians on their Vespas, saying 'Ciao!'

We decided not to bend ourselves backward and not to visit too much, mostly local cafes and digest our brief stay there really slowly. I was mostly playing a girl from Ruth Orkin's picture and running around all the little streets and up and down of the Duomo's coupola while Simon was wiser and decided to stay in Gilli's or Paszkowski's with a nice cup of cappucino. 80% of our luggage was consisting of the photoequipment so here are some pictures for a change NOT taken with a compact: