Proof of Brain photo contest - Ladoga travels .:. visual story in 15 photo

My post goes for POBPhotocontest by @friendlymoose.
'Travel' was this week's topic -- promising, isnt it?

I'd like to show you a few pics from my trips to Ladoga lake skerries -- I used to visit it on a regular basis, always trying to spend there at least a week or more each year.

In my archive I have folders for years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019... and I always was taking quite a lot of pics, so it might be a hard to task to choose!

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A typical north Ladoga landscape. Melted granites, lichens, and no soil at all.

I fall in love with this land almost immediately, from the first sight, as they say.

Why does granite look like soft ice cream that has melted in the sun? The glacier has ironed it for hundreds of thousands of years. And it is amazing place of power, one can feel it.

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I keep THE HORIZON stable. IT IS WEIGHTY!!!

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These trips were different - a few times we rented two sailboats and sailed for 10 days, exploring the beautiful environment of virgin ladoga skerries (above is picture of our second boat, the one I was on was the same). Oh, I forgot to mention, most of the photos in this post is from this first trip back in June 2006.

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...and practiced a lot in rowing ... By the time Canon 50mm 1.8 was my only (!) lens, and it served me well about 8 years, was apparently the only tool in my amateur photographer arsenal. A cool fact I still remember with passion: by the time I already had my first digital camera, Canon 'Digital rebel' 350D, so - particularly for this 1st travel to Ladoga lake (me and my wife arranged it with a group of our friends), we obtained some basic tourist gear (like tent); AND we obtained this cheap 50mm lens. So, I brought no panoramic and wide-angle captures from that trip.
Only close-ups! Hardcore ;)

You can see me with this camera in this photo. Zoom? This lens has no zoom! any zoom is carried out exclusively with your feet! therefore, if I wanted to get a larger panorama in the frame, I stepped back or climbed higher, I even climbed a tree, as you can see. Hardcore, yes.

Me onboard of our boat - name is 'Gravitzapa'

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There were evening meetings around the fire - drinking and singing and nice talks .... the most enjoyable part of the trip. Yes, fresh air and physical activity are very beneficial for your health - and appetite. Therefore, during this kind of travel, all thoughts revolve around having your meal, which become very significant milestones of each day, lol

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Obviously, we did not expect the garcons to bring us the ordered food - we had to cook it ourselves, including firewood, a fire, and washing dishes ... so I didn’t have much time to photograph this process, and accordingly there are almost no such photos.

The meals production in the process.

Calling for the dinner. -- Always Ready !!!!

By the way, you may be curious what is that strange pink rusty thingie in this frame, looking like a bomb. Nope, its not a bomb - just a buoy thrown ashore by water. Bullet marks are visible on it - hunters visiting the island apparently used it as a target. A strange, unusual, exciting object that was interesting to discover among the virgin nature. (It’s bad, there will suddenly become a lot of such objects, and you won’t see the most virgin nature behind them ...)

This three-seat tent (we obtained it, considering our planned baby to join us in the future trips) was our happy home for almost ten days. Goodbye, Ladoga! Time to part ways, but we promised to be back -- and still keep that promise.

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location:	Ladoga skerries, Karelia	2006	natural light
camera/lens:	Canon 350D	50mm	raw-conv

Thanks for walking with me, see you next time.

All images taken by me, copyright (c) @qwerrie

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