Basque Country

[ourkind]

Just returned from my trip to Euskadi, the Basque country. bad weather and moonlight put an end to my dark skys search but nevertheless I had a great trip.

1. Hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe built around the 9th-10th century on top of an island connected by a solid stone viaduct, approx 237 step leading up to the top of the island.

2. Low tide.

[Antu]

Very clean shots !

[iceman]

Great scenery!

[multiweb]

Beautiful Carlos. My mum said they had an unusual warm winter. Lots of water. Stark contrast with last year when then still had snow above 1500m in late May / early June. On the other side in the US they had some extremely cold weather.

[gregbradley]

Nice Carlos.
Are these with the Zeiss 15mm?

Greg.

[Larryp]

Nice shots, Carlos

[strongmanmike]

Beautiful scenes Carlos, love that aquaduct :thumbsup:

So you are Basque hey?...some of you guys love your stone lifting over there, I always wanted to give that particular discipline a go when I was competing in Strongman, some of the weights lifted are pretty impressive, I used to do some Harrijasotzaileak (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/154124793/original) myself and at just over 12 arroba I think this would be a larger biribila (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/61611907/original) :thumbsup:

ever do any stone lifting yourself..?

Mike

[colinmlegg]

Love the first one Carlos. Sorry you didn't get better conditions. Some great potential there. :)

[Astro_Bot]

Nice shots, especially the first one. :thumbsup:

[ourkind]

Thanks Antu!



Thanks Mike!



That's right Marc, we spent some time on the coast and the temps were well above average, had to leave most of our jumpers and jackets behind. Even when I was out nightscaping 5 minutes into the walk and I was beginning to sweat!

Not sure if you've heard but the entire north coast up to Biarritz is being pounded by tidal waves, causing a lot of destruction.



Thanks Greg, sure is! It's solid and works beautifully. Infinity is infinity, no more playing around with the focus and liveview or sticky taping the focus wheel so I don't bump it when I move around. Simply twist the focus to infinity and it's sharp!

Although it's only manual focus I like how if you're focusing on a near subject the focus lights on the view finder will beep when you've got that subject in focus, that was a surprise for me.

It's quite heavy but that's not a problem for me.

I've also attached a Zeiss UV filter to protect the from element.



Thanks Laurie!



Oh Mike you are the man! What a surprise, my eyes welled just reading that, can't help it, I'm very proud of my heritage and I love all our Herri Kirolak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_rural_sports) (rural sports).

We brought out a champion stonelifter from the Basque Country years ago to do an exhibition in Darling Harbour, our friend made a rectangular concrete block weighing just over 200kg and the ball at 100kg similar to the photo you linked. The giant picked up the ball with one hand i.e. rolled it up his body to his shoulder and then started rotating it around his kneck! I tried picking it up with two hands but it must of got caught on something because I couldn't even lift it by a mm, admittedly I was 12 and not at my prime of 11 arroba.

Great photos! Once a Harrijasotzaile always a Harrijasotzaile :thumbsup:

If you haven't been to the Basque country then you should visit some day, you'll love the food and no doubt will run into a Harrijasotzaile who'll let you do some lifting.



Thanks Colin!



Thanks Astro!

[multiweb]

Yes I was talking to my cousins on Skype the other day. They're between Anglet and Bordeaux. Lots of water going over in the coastal villages. Damaged houses, sand brought from the beaches inland and in the streets. Scary stuff.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for the feedback about the 15mm Zeiss. Sounds awesome.
There are so few wide angle full frame lenses that are actually superb.
I only know of 2 - the Nikon 14-24 and the Zeiss 14mm. The rest just always seem to disappoint. Nightscapes is a tough gig for lenses. It shows all the faults.

Greg.

[ourkind]

Zeiss 14mm on Ebay $10,000 :eyepop: