This was a slow week, photographically speaking. No travel, a lot of work, so the pictures are mainly from my weekend cycling. But I start with three pictures from the office, which I think show off the capabilities of a fish-eye lens very well.
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This is the Jean-Claude Combaldieu room in our office. It is mostly used for formal meetings involving all 28 EU Member States, for example the twice-yearly meetings of our Administrative Board. The principals sit in the inner circle, their assistants and staff members of our office in the outer one. On the left are the translator booths (the working languages of the office are English, French, Spanish, Italian and German, and during formal meetings there is translation into the other four):
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I then decided that I needed a person in the picture for a better sense of scale, so I asked my colleague Stephanie to serve as a prop:
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The fish-eye lens is well-suited to this room, since the room is circular and so the usual fish-eye distortion is not bothersome:
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Then back to our back porch, where one of the cacti is in bloom. Cacti and the lone lemon tree are the only things that grow in our back yard:
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One of the golf course cats, looking down on me:
The remaining five images were taken while cycling during the weekend.
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A more elaborate roadside memorial than most; a young Russian man died here, just south of Benidorm:
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A closed bar along the road. Usually there is a prostitute sitting in front of this place. I have no idea where the transaction is actually consummated. In any event, on this day the place was deserted:
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I have photographed this place before. It is just a common concrete wall in a jughandle where I sometimes stop just to rest for one or two minutes. I am fascinated (visually speaking) by the old, faded posters:
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Farm gate, along a road south of Alicante:
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Urbanova beach, south of Alicante. A strong wind is blowing, hence the yellow flag, and Alicante is partly obscured by the heat haze. It was a dripping wet ride, at this point the temperature was around 35C: