Taking Pictures that Nobody Wants to See

During a recent visit from sister Laura Jane, we discovered an alarming trend: neither of us was willing to pose for photos. Call us shy, call us humble, call us self-absorbed and self-conscious. Or just call us women-of-a-certain-age. When you don't like what you see 95 times out of 100, you become a little gun-shy.

Should you find yourself in this predicament while on holiday, there are many tactics worth exploring. Below are just a few Lolly and I used.

(St Stephen's basilica, Budapest)

Lala's tip: It's all in the framing....

(The Hofburg, Vienna)

...reserving just a tiny corner of a shot for the faraway face of your subject is one form of damage control. Genius!!

The photo-awkwardness escalated when you consider I only had HER as my subject and she only had ME. So for any trip-documenting to take place one of us HAD TO POSE or we'd just be taking pictures that nobody wants to see.

"Wanna see my vacation photos? Here's a picture of a beautiful building. Here's another beautiful building. Oh look, another photo of a beautiful building!"

Riveting.

(atop St Stephen's Basilica, Budapest)

We did manage to get one or two nice ones of us together when some unsuspecting slob asked us to take a photo of him and his girlfriend (wife, mistress, dominatrix.)
"Quid pro quo, mein freund. I scratch your back, you scratch ours. But at a distance please."

Which brings us to the next arrow in my quiver...

(Courtyard at Salzburg Castle)

Afraid of the lens? Distance is your friend! The further away the camera is, the less likely it will pick up distinguishing features and flaws. The astute reader might also note that the classic head tilt and half turn poses are being put to good use here.

Along with the pointed toe and a well placed hand covering those pesky extra chins, these helpful hints all serve to confuse and confound. Distract the eye from the size of your pores, the little paunch in your middle area, the fact that your roots are four weeks overdue...

(Our favorite accidentally-stumbled-across Austrian restaurant with the sweet lederhosen-wearing waiter)

Blurry pictures, while usually not desirable, can sometimes act as an anti-aging device for the vacationing photographer. The above photo also demonstrates the maxim - if we don't know him, we don't care if he looks bad in the picture. When reviewing vacation photos, stay focused, it's always all about you.

(At Gary und Inge's Gasthaus in Vienna.)

Fuzzy photos, much like low lighting, can be a lady's friend.

(Beggar markings / hobo code carved into a medieval door on the oldest street in Salzburg.)

The above photo illustrates several techniques. (Care should be taken when attempting something this complex, Lola is an experienced hand at these methods.) Note that Laura is only partially in the frame, she is interacting with the historical thingamabob and, this is key, HER BACK IS TO THE CAMERA. A good picture every time!

(Salzburg Castle)

A different and somewhat controversial approach: deliberately acting silly (again, "while at a distance" makes a perfect compliment to almost any of these schemes.)

Kissing cousin to the "deliberately acting silly" gambit is the "making a funny face" move. In this maneuver, you are being funny looking ON PURPOSE. Thereby eliminating anyone's right to nitpick their way through your appearance.

(dinner at sidewalk cafe in Prague)

Fair warning to those of you out there wishing to try this ploy: you are walking a fine line between being funny and being so hideous people will turn in fear and revulsion. There is the VERY RARE occasion when you are trying this method and actually end up with a photo of you looking pretty (and funny) as Lolly exemplifies above.

These rare occurrences should be shared with the world at large whenever possible. Make it your facebook, gmail and skype profile pic. Show the world you are neither old nor painfully self conscious. You might even fool them.

One last modus operandi I'd like to pass on, though we weren't able to actually make use of: color settings on your camera.

We couldn't for the life of us figure out how to change Lala's camera to the often more flattering sepia or black-and-white settings. We tried for FIVE WHOLE MINUTES then gave up and stuck to blurry shots, corners of frames and photos of stuff nobody wants to see. Watch future posts for pictures of beautiful buildings in Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, Budapest & Venice.

-k.

p.s. For the record - of course I think Laura is beautiful and she finds me adorable. But this matters not.

Stověžatá Praha - Prague City of 100 Spires

These posts about Mom's trip will be a little out of order...well, a lot out of order as I am starting with the end of the trip.

Mom was flying out of Prague on Monday, so on Sunday morning Kelly, Mom and I took the train to Prague. Its a 4 hour train ride through some lovely countryside. We had breakfast in the dining car....coffee and what not. If you look closely at this picture you'll see a deer out in the field. A nice train trip indeed.

We got in at lunch time so had the whole day to explore. We checked into our hotel and headed straight to the Old Town Square. It was mobbed, but we got a good spot to watch the Astronomical Clock do its business at Noon.

We then sat in a cafe' on the sqaure and had some good stick-to-your-ribs food. Mom had some Chicken Schnitzel and I had the Czech variation of Goulash & bread Knodel...with a Dark Budwar beer...mmmmmm. I don't remember what Kelly had but it was awfully nice of her to lift the napkin so we could see the bread in this picture. She's very thoughtful.

We sat and enjoyed the afternoon...but we still had a lot to see !


Ahhh Prague. What a rich history. Once the capitol of the Holy Roman Empire and the political, economic and cultural center of Bohemia for over 1100 years. It is impressive.


Its one of those cities that just walking around can keep you entertained for hours on end. Just look at the tops of the buildings !



Around every corner is another "oooohhhh wowwwwww look at that" moment.

I have seen a lot of churches , but I think the towers of the Gothic style Tyn Church are some of the most impressive in all of Europe.


Like every other tourist to Prague, we walked across the Charles bridge, which has been under construction since my first trip to Prague 2 years ago. It doesnt "ruin" the experience, but it stinks having half the bridge covered in scaffolding and guys going at it with jackhammers.

We also explored the grounds of Wallenstein palace, home of the Czech Senate. The gardens are beautiful and there are all kinds of birds about including ducks and peacocks. There is also an owl house with a bunch of giant scary owls in it.

There is also a huge articifical drip stone stalactite formation....pretty cool!

We had a lot of fun just walking around....see, look how much fun Kelly is having.


After some late afternoon downtime in the room, we went to the Seven Angels restaurant for our dinner reservation. The reason Kelly chose this place ? Gypsy Music !


It was a nice dinner, but they sat us right next to the band....normally this would be ok but one of the guys was playing a giant hammer dulcimer ! It was a little loud at times, but it was fun. I couldve gone for a little more Gypsy Folk music rather than a lot of classical favorites played Gypsy style, but they were very good.

I had a Deer Sirloin Steak, Kelly had some undercooked Pork Medallions in a mushroom sauce and Mom, big surpise here, had the Schnitzel...again ! This time it was Veal at least. She apparently loves schnitzel ! It was a fun night.

The next morning we got up super early to take Mom to the airport. Daylight savings time apparently confused the crap out of the girl at the hotel desk because she woke us up at 4:15am instead of 5:15am, but it all worked out in the end. We got Mom to the airport with plenty of time to spare, got her all checked in and through security, then Kelly and I made our way back to Vienna by train.

Prague was a great way to end a spectacular trip. Kelly & I enjoyed having Mom visit and were sad to see her go....I have a hunch that she'll be back though !

Thanks Mom !

Press play on the video below to hear crazy gypsy music.

More pics from Prague

by Chris

Ahh Prague...what a great trip.

Here is Mike aka Bingo at the opening ceremonies...drinking beer just before I pantsed him in front of several hundred people.

You can tell by the picture below that the Dublin Team means business ! Kinda..

Did I mention they had acts/groups performing in between games and at halftime ?

Its like every dance group in the Czech Republic was there !

Our Team captain and Trip Coordinator Sean Gibson (click his name to check out his blog) had a great tournament. Setting the tone early with two jumping-from-behind-the-cage goals in our first game.

He also took every face off for our team and on the All-Star team.... I don't want to inflate his ego too much so lets remember that he's still a cherry picker that doesnt get back on defense or listen to his coach unless the coach says "Ignore all your teammates Superstar, do whatever you want then take a shot"

Regardless of SuperStar Gibson's shortcomings, he is an All-Star...as the trophy they gave him says.

Ok the picture below shows what a team looks like

Notice the difference on the Dublin Bench ? 2 SUBS !

This is what an English Team looks like...weird huh ?

The other Offensive weapon Dublin brought to the tournament was Matt Walsh...or as the announcer pronounced it mattValsh

Bingo and Chris...reunited and it feeeeelllsss so gooodd (sing the song in your head)

Prague

by Chris

Holy Moly, what a great trip ! The other members of the Dublin Riggers Box Lacrosse team and I went to Prague to play in a tournament, but I had no idea how cool it was going to be.

We flew into Prague and were met at the airport by a driver to take us to a small suburb of Prague called Radotin (Rad-o-teen)

It has a very small town feel. Not many shops and certainly no western style amenities. There are still many reminders of the Czech Republics cold war era past as Czechoslovakia, like this building below.


Which turned out to be our hotel !


It actually turned out to be a very convenient, clean suitable accomodation for a bunch of lacrosse players, even if the elevators seemed unsafe.

From our hotel room you could see the train station below and the hillside dotted with houses...wait a second, whats that in the center left of the picture below ?

Holy, its a brand new lacrosse field and a club house with a restaraunt & bar !


Thats right folks, somehow the North American Indian game of lacrosse got a loyal following in Eastern Europe and they take it very seriously.


The box lacrosse Aleš Hřebeský Memorial is held by Lacrosse Club Custodes Sokol Radotín to honor its former player who tragically died in the autumn of 1993 (click on either of these logos to go to their website)

.
Aleš Hřebeský was born on July 1st, 1972 and was among the most gifted LCC players. Moreover, he was a keen ice-hockey player, gymnast, and cycle-ball player. On November 30th, 1993 he died of the injuries caused by a drunk driver who hit Aleš while he waited at a bus stop.


This is the third year the Dublin guys have gone to the tournament, but my first. Unfortunately, I hurt my back/ribs at another tournament earlier this month so I decided to coach instead of play.


Their were 16 teams in the tournament this year. 8 teams from the Czech Republic and 8 teams from abroad, including Canada, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, England, 2 from the US and us from Ireland...the Dublin Riggers ! This tournament is really run well. After the first round of games during the day Thursday, there was an opening ceremony that night...pictured below.


Thats us in the middle wearing black & blue with only a 7 man roster.

The atmosphere at their little stadium is awesome. They have a lot of fans who come out to support their local teams and they really get into it.

The weather was great, except the one day it rained. There is only one field, so the games started at 8am every day and lasted until 8pm. Plenty of lacrosse to watch in between trips to the beer shack, the bbq stand for kielbasa or going into the restaurant for proper meals.


They even have acts that perform in between games and at halftime.


The last night of the tournament there was a game between the Czech Under 21 National team and an all-star team of the visiting teams from abroad.

Each player got introduced and ran out onto the field...hey wait, who is that coach of the all-star team running onto the field
!
Why its Dublin Lacrosse's own Chris Arnold !


At halftime of this game they had Czechs doing Native Indian dances...they are crazy with lacrosse fever !

After the game they had some people twirling fire and swallowing burning sticks, it was crazy.

They even had a huge fireworks display afterwards. They really know how to put on a tournament.

Another highlight of the trip was meeting professional hockey player David Koci, who until recently played for the Chicago Blackhawks. He was just traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

We know all of this, because Bingo met him on the plane to Prague ! Koci gave Bingo his phone number and insisted they get together, which one night we did over drinks (and drinks and drinks)

Here's a highlight reel of Mr. Koci's specialty...being a kick ass hockey goon.