The short life and low quality of 18-55 mm IS Canon objective. What now? A 17-55 mm IS?

After some 10,000 pictures, the autofocus motor of my Canon 18-55 mm IS mounted on my 450D gave up. Of course in the middle of our holidays on Azores. I had to learn manual focusing the hard way. I own a Canon 28-80 AF bought 15 years ago together with a Canon 300 still perfectly working.

I find unacceptable Canon produces such low quality material for its cameras. If I did not have additional Canon equipment (like the excellent 70-300 mm IS), I would go for Nikon.

Destination: Azores Islands, Portugal. Hints and pictures from a Lorana beautiful summer holiday

In summer 2010 we experienced 20 wonderful days on Azores islands. Below you find pictures, hints and our top places to help you getting the best out of this paradise.

Pictures: go here for our picture collection (22 subsets) on Azores, here for our panoramic pictures or just read below and click on the links of our pictures subsets you are interested in.

— In short —

Holiday length: 20 days
Period of the year: first part of August – low rain, hot temperatures, traditional fiestas.
Preferred Accommodation: camping, cottage
Preferred Transports: SATA flights between islands, Ilha Verde cars on islands, hitch-hiking
Visited Islands: Pico, Faial, San Miguel plus a short visit to Terceira
Logbook: 8 days on Pico (camping) and 2 days on Faial (pension), 9 days on San Miguel (rooms, camping, and cottage)

My experience offered free to you to organize your friend bachelor party

If I knew it earlier, I would have organized it differently. I did not want to bring all the bunch of friends, groom included, to one of these sad strip-tease pubs. I did not like the idea to share the show, I wanted to offer it.

However, it came out that the private home show was “too hot” for our lucky friend. He preferred to be forcedly fed with alcohol, to be later physically-but-friendly tortured by his best friends. If I knew it before, my masochist friend, I would have paid with pleasure for somebody else to afflict your body, like the policewoman on the post picture

Islam cannot be the religion of Europe, as Gaddafi suggests

Thanks to the quite unintelligent (except for his own money) Silvio Berlusconi, the dictator Gaddafi is free to make propaganda to Islam in Europe every time he put his feet and horses and tents in Rome.

Europe, almost after 300 years after the French revolution, is close to get rid of dangerous religious influences on its social organization (except for Italy of course, having the Vatican too close).

This is a very delicate moment. Financial crisis, growing ignorance, populism  and racism (like in this movie) do not help the process, but, for example, Scandinavian countries are very close to the goal. There will be hopefully soon NO state religion in any country. Religion will become a private question. No taxes will be forcedly devolved to any Church, like still in Germany and Switzerland.

People will finally SEPARATE private belief from religious oppression, and dictators like Gaddafi will have no power anymore. There are no reasons to deny God, as well there are no reasons to be submitted to any religion.

Evolved countries do NOT need religion to keep social textures intact and running. Islam, most possibly, is even more oppressive than Christian religion. Who promotes religions in Europe, and who promotes Islam in Europe, too, is mostly far from taking care of development, civil rights and social integrity. Religion s a perfect tool to rule masses, and Gaddafi and Berlusconi perfectly know it.

Muslims, like Christians, are obliged to make proselytism. Like the Muslim I met on the plane explained me (while trying to convert me !), one day European citizens will be left with very few choices: “atheists will be killed, believers converted, believers who do not want to convert will loose civil rights”, as in Islam holy scriptures are the laws to be followed.

Hopefully USA will be still a free land for refugees.

Who wants Islam in Europe, wants to deny Europe as we know it. Gaddafi clearly goes into this direction. Hopefully Europeans will care of their social rights more than Gaddafi cares of converting young and sexy girls.

The GREEN sun: real chromatic shift or illusion?

When in Mosteiros, San Miguel, Azores, we were delighted by wonderful sunsets on the oceans. More than once, we could notice the sun turning green when at the very horizon, as shown in the picture above (click to magnify).

Was it true? Do you have an explanation for this magic light effect?

Pino Corrias e gli antiberlusconisti di comodo: occhi aperti e tanti saluti

Alla fine tutti i nodi vengono al pettine. E cosi’ viene alla luce quello che si sapeva ma non si diceva: Berlusconi e’ sostenuto ( per lo meno economicamente) sia dai pro che dagli anti Berlusconi. Come scrive oggi Grillo: molti antiberlusconisti dovrebbero ringraziare Silvio di esistere.

Pino Corrias afferma che sarebbe assurdo lasciare la Mondadori perche’ gli introiti vanno alla famiglia del Berluska, come un professore non puo’ lasciare la scuola perche’ viene imposta la Gelmini.

Il professore SUBISCE la decisione, Pino Corrias la prende – e ci viene anche a dire che e’ giusto cosi’. Io non so chi sia riuscito a convincere il Corrias con questa pietosa bugia.Molto piu’ convincenti i dubbi morali di Mancuso che l’arroganza del Corrias.

Caro Pino, mi hai aperto gli occhi e te ne ringrazio. Finalmente posso lasciare il gruppetto di ingenui che vi seguono nella vostra incredibile “lotta” contro la “dittatura” (la cui pecunia non olet).

La vita e’ breve e ci sono tante cose piu’ interessanti da fare che seguire ipocriti ideali altrui.

Amazing panoramic pictures from the Azores Islands of Pico, Faial and San Miguel, Portugal – Summer 2010

After enjoying Madredeus videoclips Silencio and Adeus and several others, how could we escape Azores fatal attraction?

Sadly, the beauty of these landscapes (click HERE to open our flickr.com set) does not include flower fragrances, ocean sounds, food&wine taste, hot sun and the amazing good hospitality of the inhabitants of Azores.

The only way to experience the full beauty of these paradise islands is to go there for your next holidays! – soon our journey logbook online.

If our panoramic pictures are not enough to discover Azores, give a look HERE to all our “standard format” Azores pictures!

Is advertising worshipping of the Devil?

I have the privilege to go to work by tram or even by bike. Every morning the trams I use quickly cut the city, surrounded by long car cues on both sides of the road. Switzerland is quite a rich country, and traffic jams do not consist of Fiat Punto, as you can imagine. Usually brand new BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and so on shine in the morning light although being slower than a wheel chair. Their drivers, too, irradiate satisfaction and elegance, although time passed queuing is not the most exciting moment of their lives, I suppose.

The contrast between reality and cool-and-wild car advertisements strongly hit my mind, I wonder why it does not turn on any light in the brains of that luxury drivers. There is nothing cool in car driving  nowadays: in 90% of the cases, driving is a polluting, boring and expensive experience. But advertisements, once again, are stronger than reality.

How to cope with post holiday depression?

I have no idea. I just assemble the panorama pictures I took and I think one day I will be there again. At the same time I listen to Madredeus as much as I can, remembering we went to Azores because of Madredeus video-clips on youtube like Silencio or Adeus …

Do you have better ideas? Click on the post picture to see a thousandth of what we shoot on our holiday on Açores … but don’t get depressed too

Back from the Açores nothing is like before …

… and it is difficult to get asleep without the sound of the Atlantic Ocean,
without the cry of the night seagulls,
without the smell of mint and thyme and orthensia.

It is difficult to wake up surrounded by concrete walls,
after having slept under tropical trees for so long time,
after having eaten under the most starry night sky ever seen,
after having drunk Douro red wine at the light of the moon,
on the cliffs of Caloura.

It is difficult to force the body behind a desk,
after having climbed la Montanha do Pico,
after having swam in the rocky pools of Mosteiros,
after having explored the steep Caldeira of Faial,
after having capitulated to the hot springs of Caldeira Vehla.

It is difficult now to be surrounded by hundreds of distant people,
here at “home”, on buses and trains, on the streets,
after having so easily touched the lives of

Thomas,
Luis,
Nicolas,
Lina
and Miguel
and Johanna
and Joao and la Sopa do Espírito Santo
and Joao and the Fado from Cohimbra
and many others we did not even got the name …

met just because we hitch hiked out of Lajes do Pico,
or we exchanged a smile at Peter’s in Horta,
a glass of Porto at Sao Joao,
a freshly catch fish in Silveira
or a delightful cozido boiled in the hot steam of Furnas.

It is difficult now to go out for a drink,
after having visited old adegas filled up with pipas,
walked through the vineyards of Sao Roque,
drunk sangria at the traditional fiesta of Sao Caetao,
or simply Sagres at the folklore festival of Agua de Pau.

Hearths get heavy after leaving the Açores.

That’s why probably people of Açores,
wherever they go,
always come back to their homeland,

to visit their families,
to drink with their friends,
to watch the sunset behind Pico,
behind the horizon,
… behind the outer world.

“Farewell, we said
and then became nothing more than
broken wings.
I was a white bird that flew
High there, I die, I know, no possible return
Sing the bird of the mountain that went towards the sea .. .

Ai,I do not know me;
Ai,I feel nothing ..
Ai,nor,I came back.”

ADEUS… E NEM VOLTEI – Madredeus

And that’s why you will have to wait a while before we organize the 2487 pictures we shot during these unforgettable holidays on Pico, Faial and San Miguel, Açores, Portugal.