Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Patras

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.