Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Peloponnese

For some reason the lighting on the bridge in this shot is really weird, although you can see some of it on Picture 7 as well.

Here's one of my color shots of the Rio-Antirro Bridge. I like the sky detail on this one.

Given the long history of Greece, and the long history (contrary to public perception) of red brick construction, this fragment of brick could be 1 week old or 2800 years old (or whenever the Greek alphabet came into use). I'm assuming this brick isn't too old, since the lettering isn't really worn off of it too badly, but on the other hand, if it's so new how did it get onto the beach? It's an interesting mystery anyway.

While I was editing this shot in Gimp, I felt that while I had done a lot of high-saturation edits in the past two years, one more wouldn't hurt.

I also took a number of photos of the sunset itself, both with my cameraphone and with the Yashica. This was one of the best ones, taken with the Yashica. I've darkened this shot and raised the contrast, as well as raising the saturation by a factor (if I'm remembering correctly) of 25 by Gimp's measurements.

While looking for a coffeehouse someone had told us about (which we never found) my friend and I found this lighthouse. The sun was going down, so it gave me the chance to get a few shots of the lighthouse in the setting sun. The exposure on these shots was iffy since I didn't have a working light meter, but when I took this one, which was the darkest, and played with the saturation and contrast in Gimp, I was able to get this.

This is actually an Orthodox church, the first that I've ever visited. St. Andreas is the patron saint of Patras, hence the name. Photography isn't allowed inside, but from the outside nobody bothered me. The inside is worth a visit, though, as it's colourful, and quite ornate. Nothing like any church I've been to before, other than, of course, the high vaulted ceilings and great attention to detail. According to... www.infocenterpatras.gr/mnimeia/mnimeia_eng.htm This is the largest Orthodox church in the Balkans (although many people object to the notion that Greece is a Balkan country), and can accomodate 5,500 worshippers and guests. Supposedly among the relics are is St. Andreas's skull and finger, stored in a large silver case. In addition, the site is a pre-Christian religious site, as prior to the construction of the church, a pagan temple to Demeter stood here, although a number of churches have stood here in the interim. The current church only dates to 1908.

I didn't see a train the whole time I was in Patras this time, although I saw a few the last time. I couldn't tell if the railway was abandoned this time, shut down for maintenance (the mainline from Athens was indeed being rebuilt and electrified), or what. I'm assuming that traffic had been cut back to allow the upgrade to go ahead, although that seems like a bad decision to me, even if the upgrade is much needed. Does anybody know? This crossing is actually at the entrance to the ferry port.

You can see palm trees everywhere in Patras, although the climate is considered Meditteranean rather than tropical, and the last time I was there they had snow. This is a square that I visited last time, too...in snow, or rather sleet. I just don't remember the name of it, and I've skimmed Google Earth to no avail.

This shot had the same problem as Picture 2, although I haven't bothered to clean it up since it's a cameraphone shot and the bleaching isn't on the ruins themselves. I've only posted this since it might give more of a clue as to what these ruins were. Does anybody know? I not what looks like a semi-gothic arch of sorts on the ruins, unless that's too rounded to be gothic.

This shot originally had a bleached area towards to the top of it, either from a light leak, a reflection, overexposure, or some such thing. The camera was old, of course, but it's just as likely I just wasn't using it right. With a lot of editing in Gimp, though, it came out okay, I think. I don't know too much about these ruins, and neither did the friend I was with, who was from Patras.

This is the Rio-Antirro bridge, completed in 2004, and so therefore new to me on this trip. Since Rio and Patras are on the Peloponnese, which is not considered to be mainland Greece, this bridge supplements the ferries, although there have been other bridges in the past, including the one that I took when I visited the last time. It's also called the Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge, after the 19th-Century prime minister who originally proposed it.

We also had a quick coffee at this coffeehouse, which is one of several in Rio. I don't recall the name, though.

There are also a lot of details, both natural and otherwise, on the Rio beach, so sometimes just pointing your camera at the ground can give you something. I decided to compose this shot around that shellfish in the middle.

Looking in the other direction from the bridge, the scene is nicer, of course, with mountains that are far enough away so that you can't see the development on them.