The way it works is that each member of the team is supposed to write a short summary of their work in the past week. Since we already have internal weekly presentations at the terrestrial base this isn’t much of a stretch or bother (might be more so for the marine team) and will hopefuly do a better job of informing the general public of the work being done than the old website. From what I’ve discussed and learned in the past months it became clear that most locals are aware of the organisation but in general have no idea what’s going on up here.

I wish I had more time to take this project further towards something similar we did with the goats but since I’m leaving the island in a few days it’s unlikely I’ll take more than a few portraits.

Some background might be in order… Ewa is doing a project researching possible presence of Colony Collapse Dissorder (or something like that) and we had our first interview some days ago with Yorgos, a beekeeper from Christos. Yannis was our translator for the evening and Yorgos likes to talk. A lot. At least it was over dinner. The interview ended at about 2am I believe… There are going to be some very late nights if the trend continues with other beekeepers ;)

Yorgos & Ewa, copyright Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

Otter poo is more than likely a myth (not one for the mythbusters I’m affraid) but that is hardly an issue for Archipelagos. Decision was made that otters are to be found on the island so we go out there and look for them tirelessly. The problem is that we don’t find any otter poo or prints in the sand (actually seeing an otter is highly unlikely) but large numbers of other poo varieties. Examining it closely is, of course, half the fun.

The french team was dealing with poo on an entirely different scale though. With goats far outnumbering human residents on the island (think somewhere along the lines of 30.000-35.000 animals vs. about 5.000 humans) it’s hard not to find any evidence of their existence. Their research was focused on effects of goat breeding on the forest of Radi (one of last remaining mediterranean forests of Quercus Ilex or so I’ve been told), so poo collecting was one of the things needed to be done in order to determine something or other of significance.
Coming from a country with more than 50% of it covered with trees I wasn’t all that impressed walking around Radi, as perhaps I should have been, but apparently it really is a big deal. It definitely is a nice forest (if somewhat small in scale) with some rather old trees and that’s why they want to protect it. Goats are just one of the problems in this story…

shepherd in Petropouli, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

On site examination of the forest was one aspect of their research so while half the team got to do some measurements and stuff, others were driving around the island interviewing people from every background imaginable. We had interviews with shepherds, farmers, agropolice, forest rangers, mayors & other politicians… damn near half the population.

Postmaster from Evdilos, photo copyright: Archipelagos/Jernej Burkeljca

Definitely a very memorable experience getting to meet such a diverse group of people, hearing their opinions on the forest and more importanly – enjoying their hospitality and eating a lot of great food. I’d certainly like to do more in the future. But I have to edit the movie first…

Photos from the interview are in their own album.

I’ll also point out APhotoEditor. An anonimous insider with some interesting things to say on the business of photography. A slightly more philosophic and academic twist to photography comes from Conscientious. One could say the familiar words of Mike Johnston et al of The Online Photographer fall somewhere between these two so you’re nicely covered from all angles. That is if your interest in photography extends beyond gear talk and pixel peeping.

That’s it for now. No, you don’t get to find out how many feeds I subscribe to ;)

Yes there was a hint (or slightly more) ;) of prejudice on my part and, to tell you the truth, it all still looks a bit silly to me. But that said, I have nothing but respect and admiration for everyone involved.

It ain’t easy.

as Dimi used to say ;)

I accepted this project simply because I thougth it might be fun to try something completely different. The kind of unique experience that no matter how bad or unbearable it turns out to be, I’d still learn something useful. A challenge. And I love challenges.

It turned out suprisingly good though. I won’t judge dancing performances as I have no real refference to judge them against. Plus I was looking at a tiny monitor during a large part of the show anyway ;) What really left an impression was the behind the scenes action. Glimpses, moments… hopefuly I caught some of them. That’s something the audience will never see but it can be much more enjoyable that the actual show. ;)

It’s been fun. Thanks.

teaser:

More photos are in the gallery as usual

First up, age group winter championship in Kranj.

Just two photos this time (only took a few), both of Nejc Jurjevčič (Plavalni Klub Ljubljana) during 100m fly finals. He won of course.

Picked the north face of Begunjščica since it doesn’t take that long to get up (right couloir). Once on the quite windy ridge I decided I’ll ski down the left route which, in hindsight, wasn’t the optimal choice. Sure, there’s a lot more space if anything goes wrong but there were too many exposed rocks and stones for my liking.

The conditions were actually quite ideal. Snow wasn’t too soft going up and not too compact going down. It was hard work though, I’m desperately out of shape. Took me 1h15min to get up, 5min to get down. I could do it a lot faster if my legs could take it though.

ROI? It was worth it. ;)

I took some photos but as luck would have it, batteries died almost immediately. I revived them with some warmth so I could take a few more on the top but they died fairly quickly. The best sections are missing unfortunately. Serves me right, I should charge them every once in a while. ;)

Going up the right route that continues into a couloir

Another skier on the ridge going down

 Anyway, this is just to test if everything works as it should…