Sincerest form of flattery

Running a blog like this has its rewards. Last January, I received an e-mail from Isaac, a young Canadian artist, who'd been trawling the internet's vast photo resources for a photograph of a dragonfly that he could use as the basis for a watercolour. He'd come across my pic (below, from this post) and asked my permission to do so.

I agreed, and several months later, I received a scan of his painting (below). Click to enlarge to see the fine detail. One of the advantages of watercolour over lenses and pixels is that the artist has infinite control over depth of field - compare the wingtips in the photo (out of focus) with the painting!


Isaac e-mailed me soon afterwards for permission to use one of my peacock photos as the basis for another watercolour. My photo, taken in Łazienki park in April 2008, is shown below. (Click here for the original post.) And two and half months later, I'm delighted to receive a scan of a second watercolour based on one of my photos!

Below: here is Isaac's watercolour based on my photo. I am deeply impressed by both paintings and honoured that my photographs have inspired them. The comparison between the hours of work that a painting involves and the millisecond it took to photograph it (after a few moments of composing the shot) bears thinking about. Once again, click on the painting to enlarge to see the detail.

More watercolours by Isaac on his blog.

This time last year:
Silver birches and blue skies

This time three years ago:
Jeziorki's wetlands in late winter (2009)

This time four years ago:
Jeziorki's wetlands in late winter (2008)

Socialist Realism in strong late-winter sun

Just one pic from today's movements around town - the building on the corner of ul. Marszałkowska and Al. Armii Ludowej, part of Phase III of MDM, the socialist-realist housing project just south of the city centre. Just one pic but it impressed me enough to feel it worthwhile uploading it for your pleasure. Worth clicking on the photo to enlarge.

The sun, much higher now in the afternoon sky, plays upon the façade of these flats facing out on two busy thoroughfares, the sky is clouding over from the north.

This time last year:
The Cripple and the Storyteller - part II

This time two years ago:
The station with no name
[update: W-wa Dawidy station got its sign last autumn]

This time three years ago:
Lenten thoughts on motoring

This time four years ago:
Flowers, spring - already

Communist Poland's secret rail disasters

Friday night's tragedy at Szczekociny will no doubt be in the headlines for some time to come - until the causes have been identified (this is no place to speculate on those). While reading about Polish railways' safety record, I came across mention of two undocumented rail disasters that seem to be rumour circulating around the internet, but with enough truth in them to suggest that something did happen.

The first reputedly occurred on 22 October 1949 at Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki (not far from what will soon be Warsaw's second airport, Modlin) and claimed the lives of 200 people. It is listed as the world's 26th deadliest railway accident on this Wikipedia page. News of the disaster was allegedly suppressed by the Stalinist authorities, it was picked up by two local newspapers in the US two days later - one in Reno, Nevada and one in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The second is said to have happened some time in 1952 in the town of Rzepin, close to the East German border, and killed 150 people, mostly Soviet soldiers. It is said to have been sabotage, a bomb placed under a small bridge. This is the main Berlin-Warsaw line. Another version claims 160 killed, Polish civilians, on a train going too quickly around a tight curve.

Seeking information about both of these disasters leads to the same sources cited repeatedly on dozens of different websites, with no new or original information.

I would be grateful for any information about either of these two disasters - were these exaggerations of hearsay? Chinese whispers? Total fabrications? Or did they really happen?

James Oberg's 1988 book, Uncovering Soviet Disasters, published after Gorbachev announced glasnost, tells of such rumoured accidents on a massive scale. The book is full of train crashes and aircrashes involving hundreds of people that never officially happened - right up to the mid-1980s. Next-of-kin were not even informed; loved ones set off never to return - leaving their families to find out what happened. News of epidemics, accidents in mines, nuclear installations, military testing grounds was censored; the Stalinist period of course being the most restrictive in this scope.

Silencing such stories led to people's natural propensity for rumour-mongering to spread out of control; numbers of casualties would become exaggerated for sake of story-telling effect, so the truth is hard to establish.

The secrecy of the communist era creates an fascinating field of research for historians. Fortunately, there are still people alive from those days who might be able to confirm or deny such events.

Incidentally, the UK's record in recent years in terms of rail safety is comparable to Poland's. Below: 10-second CCTV footage of the Southall rail disaster of 1997 that killed seven people.



Since 1990, Poland has had 15 fatal train crashes that left a total of 75 people dead. The UK has had 16 fatal train crashes claiming 83 lives. Interestingly, the deadliest period was while the track infrastructure was in private hands, since Railtrack was re-nationalised, there have been no major disasters like the one above.

The above scale of death pales into total insignificance when set beside the number of fatalities from road traffic accidents, which in the case of Poland is in the order of 65,000 - 70,000.

This time last year:
The Cripple and the Storyteller: a short story

This time two years ago:
Dogs begin to bark, hounds begin to howl

This time four years ago:
Another light dusting

S2 to Puławska ready this time next year?

It was meant to be so good. Michel Platini announced on 18 April 2007 that Poland and Ukraine will co-host the Euro 2012 football championships, filling me with optimism that this will spur Poland's sluggish transport infrastructure development. With less than 100 days to go before the games kick off, I'm disappointed that things have turned out as usual. While the stadiums are built and working satisfactorily, the road and rail links will not be ready. Deadlines for the opening of Okęcie airport's rail link have come and gone (the last one being 29 February). It's possible that it will be ready in time for the football (indeed rozklad-pkp.pl gives timetables from 1 June onwards).

Certainly the S2 (Południowa Obwodnica Warszawy - Warsaw Southern Bypass) will not be ready. Just look at its state today. The whopping great depression by ul. Oberka, some 200m long, 60m wide and 2-3m deep, needs filling. Below: The roadway is at 108m above sea level. That distant mound of earth is at 104m, the continuation of the roadway is at 106m.

Below: zooming into the gap between two stretches of asphalt. In the distance - the viaduct carrying ul. Poloneza. Still incomplete. On the horizon, the tower blocks of Ursynów - and no plan how to get the S2 under them and onto the Vistula, Minsk Mazowiecki and Moscow beyond.

The expressway needs to be taken under the main Warsaw-Radom railway line (below). Can be done without major disruption to rail services? It's certainly more than three months' work. Pre-fabricated steel bridge structures stand ready, but there's a tunnel that needs to be dun under the tracks. Carry on this way to Berlin.

The viaduct (below) taking ul. Hołubcowa over the expressway needs to be built and completed. If the dismal lack of progress on the parallel viaduct on ul. Poloneza, is anything to go by, it could remain unfinished two years from now.

And the flyover, roundabout and tunnel on Puławska - I can't see that being finished this year. What is certain is that football fans trying to get to Warsaw by road will have a tough time. If the airport station is complete - and if Modlin airport is finished and some kind of a road/rail link established - fine. Railway connections (airports excepted) should be OK with Dworzec Centralny facelifted and W-wa Stadion soon to be opened. Generally, however, count on chaos. So sad.

The first Warsaw match is on 8 June (Poland-Greece); Russia and Czech Republic are also playing in Warsaw.

This time last year:
In praise of blue skies

This time three years ago:
WAM PLUNK BISH BASH ZUNK
(Incidentally, Molesworth fans - Ronald Searle's obituary in the Economist a few weeks ago is a must-read)

This time four years ago:
Four weeks into Lent

The X100 philosophy

So then - here it is. The Fujifilm Finepix X100, probably the most raved-about camera of last year. What makes it so special? Its design philosophy, its inspiration, reaches back over half a century to what was one of the very greatest (if not the greatest) camera ever made, the Leica M3 (in production between 1954 and 1966).

In terms of visual comparison, here's the X100 (below)...

...and below, my well-loved Leica M3 from 1959, unused since I made the switch to digital photography five years ago. Both cameras in the same scale (see checked cloth background as reference).

Although Leica continues to manufacture M-series camera in film and digital versions (the M7 and M9 respectively), they are so mind-blowingly expensive as to put them out of reach of all but the wealthiest photographer, with the price of an M9 body (lenses have to be bought separately) costing over 24,000 złotys here, £5,000 in the UK, €6,000 in Germany, $8,000 in the US.

For those who know what Leica photography can offer, the X100 is a capable substitute at one-sixth of the price. It has a 12.2 megapixel sensor and a fixed 23mm f2 lens (the equivalent of 32mm on a full-frame camera).

Above all, the rangefinder camera is discreet, unobtrusive and quiet. It does not bring attention to the photographer the way a fully-featured single lens reflex does. So for street photography, the inconspicuous rangefinder is king. Rangefinder cameras are good for people, architecture and landscapes, no good for wildlife, aviation or anything calling for long lenses.

The X100 brings autofocus to the game (the M9 is still manually focused). Now, maybe my digital Nikons have made me lazy, but I've got used to letting the camera do the focusing for me. The X100 is also much lighter (and slightly smaller) than the Leica Ms. It weighs 440g, compared to 570g for my M3 with 35mm f2 lens, while the digital M9 body with that same (manual focus) lens would weigh over three-quarters of a kilo - which gets a bit much after a day around the neck.

However, the Leicas feel more robust. My M3 is now 53 years old and as sturdy as it was the day it left the factory. I wonder whether how many X100s will still be around in 2065...

My main gripe with the X100 is the lack of lens filter. Without a UV or Skylight filter, the lens is naked and vulnerable. On a camera with a fixed lens, it means that if you scratch the lens, the whole camera is useless. Now, Fuji make a filter mount adapter, but it is expensive (159 złotys/£30), non-standard and near-impossible to come by in Warsaw shops. You cannot simply screw in a standard 49mm filter into a threaded mount around the outside of the lens. There are hacks, involving removing the lens front trim ring, screwing in a 49mm filter backwards with the glass removed, then a second 49mm filter on top of that one, then replace the trim ring. There's the risk that if the filter rings are too narrow, the lens will jam against the filter glass when focused out. (Read about it here.)

Next gripe - the shutter button (which, incidentally, features a screw thread for a release cable - nice touch!). It is not positive enough. On my first outings with the camera, I found myself thinking I'd taken a picture (camera discretely round neck, not at eye-level) and discovering I hadn't. Not possible on a Leica.

Cameras commonly known as 'point-and-shoot' should be called 'point-and-wait-and-shoot'. DSLRs' greatest advantage over compact cameras is that they respond instantaneously. Now, the X100 is not quite there when it comes to that instant and direct feel of a single-lens reflex. There are electronic sounds that can come to your aid, confirming that a shot has been taken - but they rather give the game away. Because the X100 has a leaf shutter (rather than the Leica's focal plane horizontal shutter), you have to listen hard for any sound - a whir-whir of the autofocus and a near-silent 'sst' as the exposure is made. This is exactly what's wanted in street photography - if only the shutter offered more positive confirmation that a photo has being taken via your fingertip.

To give you an idea of lens sharpness - here's a wide shot of one of my bookshelves, taken on the X100...

...and a four-times magnification from it from the centre of the above photo (below). Hand-held, 1/20th sec, f2 (lens wide open), 800 ISO. Click to enlarge.

So - do I buy the X100 at a good price - or wait until Nikon's D3200 comes out? More tomorrow... The X100's outstanding hybrid viewfinder, its poor battery, complicated menu, lovely controls...

This time last year:
Reason vs. Emotion

This time two years ago:
The civilisational effects of frequent flying

This time three years ago:
A week into Lent

Weekend with the X100

Marta's husband Kamil has lent me his Fujifilm Finepix X100 for the weekend, with a view to sell, I borrowed it with a view to buy - should it pass the test. So - some first photos, colours, saturation, contrast, brightness etc. untweaked in Photoshop or Lightroom. Straight out of the camera.

Above: Central Warsaw skyline at dusk. Fixed lens means no dust will get onto the sensor, so no 'spotting' or retouching in Photoshop to remove blemishes.

Left: ul. Poznańska, looking north towards Al. Jerozolimskie. These are only demonstrations of the the camera's optics. Its real magic is how it works around people - but for that, you will have to wait. A full test and comparison with DSLR and film rangefinder cameras to follow. In the meanwhile, thanks to Kamil for the loan of this camera.

First impressions broadly favourable, but I need to spend time with it to really know how it performs.

This time three years ago:
Sublime sunset, Jeziorki

This time four years ago:
Dramatic sunset, Jeziorki

Remembering the Accursed Soldiers

Plac Piłsudskiego, midday. President Bronisław Komorowski pays tribute to the so-called 'Accursed Soldiers' (żółnierze wyklęci), those resistance fighters who did not put down their guns when the Red Army chased the Nazis out of Poland, but fought on against communism.

This is a new public holiday (though not a day off work), instituted last year to mark the 60th anniversary in 1951 of the execution of seven anti-communist leaders. This is why the national flags were out today - although hardly anyone I spoke to knew the significance of 1 March.

The story of the accursed soldiers is not straightforward. As well as patriotic Poles who felt their duty was to fight on against the Soviets and their Polish communist henchmen, there were also hiding out in the forest bandits and criminals on the run. Killing Nazi occupiers was morally acceptable, but killing Poles who'd joined the communist party - some for ideological reasons - was more questionable. The scene in Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds in which a young man is mistakenly killed by two former Home Army men makes that point.

Knowing what repression was being meted out against former Home Army soldiers by the communist security apparatus, many of them hid out in the forests out of self-preservation.

I wrote a short story (Part I here) last year to encapsulate the dilemma that many of the accursed soldiers faced while hiding out in the forests. Rather simplistic, the aim was to bring this episode of Polish history to the non-Polish reader to highlight the strange situation these soldiers were in. The war was over - the war was lost. Many's the time I've wondered to myself what I'd have done in 1945 had I been a Home Army soldier. There were really only three choices for those who'd spent the past five years fighting the Nazi occupant - keep your head down and hope for the best in a society that was being forced into the straightjacket of communism, hold out in the forest and fight, or break for the West. The majority took the first option.

The issue of anti-Semitism among the accursed soldiers is a thorny one. There were many Jews in the communist security apparatus. This was, across the whole of Soviet-occupied central and eastern Europe, part of Stalin's strategy to divide and rule; many Jews who had felt discriminated against in pre-war Poland initially saw communism as a chance for a new beginning. This tended to exacerbate anti-Semitic sentiment that may have already existed among the officers and men hiding out in the forests.

Having said that, the moral issues facing the accursed soldiers were complex and hard to appreciate through the prism of today's society and values. We must remember them and what they stood for; their story is all the more poignant by the fact that very few of them lived to see a free Poland.

The kindness of strangers

I received an e-mail at work the other day from a young lady who picked up a pen drive that had fallen out of my bag as I was getting off the train at Jeziorki. She'd tracked down my e-mail address from a PowerPoint presentation on the pen drive, and this afternoon, she popped it over to my office in person.

Such acts of kindness are like little miracles that raise one's estimation of the people among whom I live. But this was not an isolated incident.

The very same day, the taxi driver than drove me home from Wilanowska remembered that several weeks ago he didn't have enough loose change from the notes I proffered him. He reduced my fare by three zlotys to make it up.

This reminded me of the time, seven or eight years ago when I left a pair of gloves in a taxi; a couple of hours later the driver called round to my office to drop them off, saying he remembered picking me up from this address.

Each act of kindness such as this, unbidden, selfless and generous, adds to social trust, to the the nation's social capital, and makes the country a better place to live.

So a heartfelt 'thank you' to Pani Judyta and the taxi driver with the navy-blue Volvo S80 for contributing in their way to making me feel good about my fellow Poles.

This time last year:
Picks of the pics that passed Feb's posts

This time three years ago:
The Economist was wrong about Poland

This time four years ago:
Siekierki - the end of the line