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Hey, it’s March! M-A-R-C-H! I know it’s not yet official time for spring to come, but this time last year there were flowers in the park already in full blossom!!! And now?

On Friday I arrive in Reutlingen, it rains. So far so good, rain is ok in spring, but seeing 25cm of snow the very next morning the hell isn’t!

Well, i know, it’s still winter, at least according to the calendar.
but then, how come the spring managed to come round this time last year? hmpfff.
anyway it snows again…
grrrrrrr….

ah, well, if you look for the Hippo, he’s one post below…

It’s time for a big RANT. In Karlsruhe, at the Marktplatz, PHotoPorst offers general photo service, including negative film development.
NEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT IT
Twice I gave them a chance, twice was I failed.

• Once, long ago, they promised to get me my negative film scanned at 6MPixel total per frame (it was their way of stating resolution, but I’m not as dumb as not to figue 6MP means ca. 2000DPI scan resulting in 2000×3000 pixel per frame). They promised TIFFs. I paid, and to my surprise I got a SINGLE CD. It was JPEGs at q=70 and at barely 1000DPI. It’s what I get from my flatbed at home. Complained, sent it back in, again got a CD, but I saw already n the lab, that it has very little data on it (you can actually guess it just looking at the CD, the recorded area looks different from a blank cd-r). Suspecting the worst I put the CD in the drive: yes, these are just repackaged JPEGs. Exactly what I got before, just contained in TIFF container witha ll the JPEG compression. Complained again, heard: `you expected 6MPIX at that price? How stupid of you, 6MPIX costs much more than that.’ EXCUSE ME?
• Well, I gave up on them and warned people, yesterday I was put in a hopeless situation though: I needed a roll developed and I needed it badly, and it was 7pm, so only 1-hour lab could do it. I didn’t need prints, I didn’t need scans, I just needed a bath of developer. I risked. They DID develop the film. They also managed to get a gret bunch of scratches, dust, water stains and… HAIR? Whatever, looks like beard shaves anyway. I scanned the film rightaway, but after an hour of dustpicking I just bathed the whole roll in distilled water with conditioner and let it dry, it was hopeless.

But if you like such treatment, go on, use PHOTO PORST KARLSRUHE.

Whatever.
Anyway, here are few shots from this roll, mainly winter photos:

and one snapshot portrait of Xinyi:

Foggy evening, frosty night – the results is a beautiful view! Pity there’s no sun today…

What chance can it stand against snow?