Pictures from the Agency (German UBA)

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Is that a poster of Russian composers? (I can only read Russian Al....)

[pieces o nine]

Looks like a very pleasant space, Swato.   

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

[Swatopluk]

Is that a poster of Russian composers? (I can only read Russian Al....)

It's the Russian Alphabet with each letter represented by a famous Russian (in the widest sense, at least one not ethnic included)
Mainly artists of all kinds (writers, painters, composers etc.) plus a few historical figures (Ivan IV, Peter I...)

[Darlica]

Very nice photos! The agency building looks amazing and your office looks like a very nice place to work.

You're like us, books piled on every surface. 

Mmm. I recognise it too, only I think Swatos place is more well organized than L's and mine.  
We're book hoarders too, and plant hoarders and I'm a pen, brush and pencil hoarder amongst other things...

[Swatopluk]

It's worse than it looks. The books stand 2-3 rows behind each other. I often have to rely on intuition, if I want to find a specific book. And it is increasingly difficult to even reach the shelves because of the stacks and other material in front.

[pieces o nine]

You mean, like this?   

[Swatopluk]

Yeah, but I am at a disadvantage since I can't stack in front of the windows and prefer not to above the bed.
No intention to die by the book one night

[Griffin NoName]

IMO it's worth it. Otherwise one always wants the book that one sold/gave away. I have stacks too. I also have a friend who has >10,000 books in a tiny house. One has to navigate the stacks.

IMO it's the fault of pricing. If TV's cost the same as books, I'd have stacks of those too.

[Swatopluk]

Let's finish the way round the building

The commuter train I use

View from the train on the agency building


In front of the entrance looking South

The main entrance seen from the canteen. Sunsails are raised (mid-afternoon)

That's us and where we also boast how energy efficient the buidling is

Now walking backwards the Western front of the buidling (the green side)









Please note how the colour gradually changes from green to red tones
Finally the Eastern (orange) side going towards the back entrance

[Sibling DavidH]

Nice workplace, Swato.  Good pictures, too.  What camera do you use?

[Swatopluk]

One of these (or at least so similar I can't spot the difference)

http://www.webzeug.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/angebot_aldi_digitalkamera_medion-life-p43010.jpg
A 12 megapixel digital camera from the discounter (ALDI). About 80€ iirc.
Any picture quality is due to automatic corrections. If this was real film, it would be all out of focus and wiggly*.
The colours of the flowers are a bit pale. The shutter is also a wee bit slow, so true snapshots are out of the question.
The 'Ent' pictures I posted some time ago were actually done with the video function because any attempt to hit the gap between the trees failed despite the train going slowly. So I took a video and copied suitable frames. Uploaded the images are 640*480 anyway.
I'll probably never even try to use all the special functions even the most cheap camera has these days.

*especially because it is so light. Pressing the release leads to a significant downward move of the camera.

[Sibling DavidH]

We have an ALDI in Hereford and in Leominster.  They have some excellent offers.
Those little compacts are excellent for average conditions, my big black Fuji is only better for tricky situations.  Yes, yours is a bit light, but at 650 gr. mine gets a bit tiring at times.  The worst thing about compacts is bright sunshine when you can't see the screen.



My Pentax SLR was not as good and I've sold it now.

[Swatopluk]

I forgot the thing about the screen. That is a major issue. It's best to do the photos from a shady place. Maybe I could a playing card or something as simple to shade the screen.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Pity nowadays very few (cheap) cameras have an optical viewfinder.

My "good" camera is a Minolta dimage Z5 (discontinued) which at least has a "manual" focus control plus manual aperture & exposition controls. It has a pitiful 320 ISO which added to the poor control over manual focus makes low light pictures very challenging.

I still have a Sony P&S which takes wonderful video and has an optical viewfinder which at this point is the only option because the screen is all white now.  Hopeful to find a compact replacement I bought an Olympus fe but I haven't found a manual focus option which ends up causing many pictures with the subject out of focus with a clear background.  Oh, and I have a POS Polaroid I keep in the car just in case, nothing to write home about.

My wish is a DSLR ideally with a four thirds mounting mechanism but I haven't had the $600+ handy or the excuse for the expense...

[Sibling DavidH]

I still have a Minolta Dimage X, a tiny compact for its day and it has a viewfinder.  It's only 2MP but I've often used photos from it in lectures projected on a big screen, and they're quite acceptable.
I've been on the beach today with a Fuji S5200, quite like your Z5, (cause I don't want sand in the twist-zoom cameras) and the results are fine.  (This is cropped and resized.)

BTW sorry for hijacking your thread, Swato!