I was photographing during some lunch breaks lately. At least something useful to do, just outside of my office they come every day, like clock work. There are several of them around and they look for the nectar of the big red and yellow flowers as well as the Bougainvilla (?, no idea how this flower is spelled) bushes we have around the compound. For sure some people wondered what I was doing there with my long lenses sitting on the side, but nobody asked. The birds are extremely quick and it was quite a challenge to photograph them as they hop from bush to bush and flower to flower. So far I am happy with the results, at least no bad for 45 minutes during lunchtime.

According to the bird guide this is a female Sunbird as the male birds are supposed to be have a blue cobalt like colour. I can confirm that they have a cobalt blue colour, just they are to fast for my humble equipment. This photo above was taken with a 600mm equivalent at f5.6 on the Pentax. The next one I took with the Fuji FinePix at max of about 700mm, also at f5.6. The Fuji is a great all-round camera to carry along, just the sensor is smaller and the glass not as good, but for every day photos, not bad.

I guess the image would not be good for a 30x40 inch enlargement, but for the web as well as for an 8x10 inch it is good. Since it was during lunch break, i.e. high noon, the sun is very strong and overhead, therefore some blown out highlights in this photo. So much for birds.

When I was walking in Hamra in West-Beirut the other weekend, something I like to do a lot, especially on a Sunday morning, I came across some old Film Projectors (Bauer) standing in the foyer of a building which seemed to have had a cinema in the older days. I thought they were some fantastic machines, so I took photos of them. Last weekend I went back in the hope to take some more photos and they were gone. I hope that they have been brought to a bar or restaurant to serve as decoration and not that they have been thrown away. How many people still remember the times when the film started to flicker, with the stripes and one could even hear the film running through these machines. All is so fast now. The other day I was speaking to a young colleague in the mid twenties about ways of communicating, via email, Black Berry, fax and telex. The reply I got was "What is a telex?" I was amazed and then realized that with her age she never probably had seen one. Wow, made me realize again how old I am.

Otherwise nothing much new. Turkey is looking for an excuse to start a war with Syria, and who knows the rest of the region will fall into the trap too. I think very soon we will know how things are going to be, one way or the other. Yesterday there were four jet-fighters in the skies over south Lebanon performing there manouvers and they were not Lebanese planes. Lebanon does not even have such planes, the best they can muster is a couple of Helicopters. Going home next week to work on my "end state vision" ....! Can't wait to reach that.

Nothing else, that is it for this time. Bye for now.

Update on 9 October, big thunderstorm last night over Sour (Tyre) the first of the season. It knocked me out of bed, but I got myself to photograph it, from the kitchen balcony, how exciting. I was able to take a few frames and then the driving rain made me to leave the balcony in a hurry. Not bad, I love thunderstorms and hope there are more to come this season. The ones here are not bad, but nothing compared to the ones in Pakistan during the Monsoon.