Winter Sun

FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/7.1, 1/480 sec, ISO160)

Everybody loves the sun. And even more so when sunny days are rare: Winter sun.

Those images are taken on Christmas day or where I live on the day after Christmas. We already celebrated Christmas eve day evening before. A nice dinner and drinks, exchange of gifts, the whole Christmas experience is behind us. The 25th of December is usually a day to relax and to see the extended family and friends.

FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/8, 1/300 sec, ISO160)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/10, 1/180 sec, ISO160)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/3.6, 1/320 sec, ISO160)

I traveled a lot in my life and I still do but sometimes you don’t have to go far to find beauty. In the warmth of the sun even this small town in Germany looks like Florence. Maybe not exactly but you get the picture. The sun changes everything.

We strolled to the point where the two rivers join and back into the old town to visit the cathedral of Passau. I love those big old churches but I guess everybody does. Those cathedrals are impressive even today with all the skyscrapers. Try to imagine what people felt when they entered a cathedral many hundred years ago.

This is a rather young cathedral because the old one built in between 1280 – 1325 and 1407 – 1560 was destroyed by a fire in the year 1662.

So the cathedral of Passau is not very old and not that tall at all but it still holds something special. It is home to the biggest organ inn the church organ in a cathedral in the world. It has 229 Register and just under 18.000 pipes. The biggest pipe is 11m long and weighs over 300 kg! It produces a tone of 16Hz. That shaking church bench for sure will teach you some respect. I’m not a big fan of organ music but it is extremely impressive to hear a church organ in full blast. You can feel that amazing energy with you body. No stereo system in the world can give you that.

FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (23mm, f/5.6, 1/180 sec, ISO160)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec, ISO2500)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/3.2, 1/60 sec, ISO1000)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO400)

The new cathedral was built in the 17th century which means baroque. I much prefer the gothic style but all those ornaments and those colourful pictures filled with fat, little angels gives those cathedrals a much brighter and positive look. They are almost like a temple in India. Well, almost. I guess the strong sunlight helped.

I remember when I first visited a temple in India. All those big statues of big bellied gods or monkeys or elephants. It was colourful and uplifting. Precisely the opposite of most churches that I saw when I grew up. Cold and dark places with a wounded Jesus suffering on the cross.

If you are born catholic you get raised catholic as simple as that. I think that’s good thing for the catholic church. Just image you let a young child decide in between colourful big bellied guys with a funny moustaches or monkeys or elephants and a tin, wounded guy in pain on a cross. Hmm, I guess the catholic church would be in even more serious trouble as it already is today. But not all is bad though. There is a sweet baby in a barn surrounded by people and animals but we only take that one out once in a year.

FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, ISO2500)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/2, 1/125 sec, ISO1000)
FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (35mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO1000)

If you think that this blog post wasn’t enlightened enough relax! I saw the light when we went back to my car and I walked straight into it. The sun really changes everything. You might not recognise that if you live in sunny California but you most certainly do when you live in a place where it gets really dark and grey during winter.

Speaking of the sun. It is sunny outside. After a long grey and wet period the sky is cloudless. I have to go.

FUJIFILM X-Pro3 (14mm, f/9, 1/125 sec, ISO250)