Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: elite 200

I shot this while out Christmas shopping with my Dad. This repulsively ugly strip mall is only a few years old, but already it's so scarred the landscape in Central New York that it is one of the many things that make the place useless for most pretty photography. This sunset, however, was an exception. The darkness below helps to hide the ugliness.

As you can see, I caught up to the Pendolino, again at Holesovice, although I still didn't get a chance to ride it. It was going in the wrong direction for me. :-( Still, I like this photo, and I hope that you do too.

After I arrived in Berlin, there wasn't much to do for a few hours, so I walked around taking photos before getting the next train #NZ242 for Bruxelles-Midi, at 2146. Berlin Hbf was recently restored and rebuilt massively, and bears little resemblence at this point to the steam-era station. It's as much mall as station, like Washington Union, Cleveland Union Terminal (but with more trains), London Liverpool Street, or London Waterloo in this respect. The food isn't too bad, and the shopping is so-so. I didn't find anything worth buying.

Built by Siemens, the 402 Class ICE high speed trains were the second production variant of the ICE, introduced in the mid-1990s. They were smaller and slower than the original 401 Class (250 Km/h instead of 280), but they offered better safety, and their shorter length allowed them to handle more minor routes. In this case, though, it doesn't look to have worked, as two sets had to be coupled together.

Jumping way ahead in my trip, since I took few photographs during the night, this is after I arrived in London Paddington, after having arrived in Brussels, changed to the Eurostar, arrived at London Waterloo, and taken the Underground to Paddington. At this point, I finally had enough light, in other words, to shoot handheld. I've always loved the way the trains at Paddington, which are nearly always high performance in looks as well as reality, look so great when lined up and read to go! :-)

Before, I forget, I also saw this in Berlin. :-) Yeah, it's tasteless, but most Christmas decorations are, aren't they? No word on whether they wanted this to be St. Nicholas (Santa Claus), or Christmas Mann, their ripoff on the materialistic, secular American mutilation of St. Nicholas. :-)

When I finally arrived in Cardiff, I obviously took a lot of pictures, but for the moment I'm only posting a few. Cardiff does indeed have a castle, like many major European cities, so here it is. :-) It's history, like many castles, is a bit mysterious, as its foundations are Roman. The oldest parts of the current castle were constructed in 1091 by the Normans, although the castle was rebuilt again in 1869, part of which involved the very elaborate clock tower that you can see here. As you can also see, there's a crane in the background, and that's because it's being rebuilt again, although this time solely for preservation.

I did a shot shoot when I was in Parc Bute, or Bute Park, Cardiff's main park, and part of this involved shooting some mediocre landscapes. :-) This one is perhaps my favorite, and I still may post-process it a little bit. I just don't have the time right now.

The Praha-Uhrineves rail passenger station is currently undergoing a renovation as part of a larger corridor enhancement programme for the Prague-Ceske Budejovice/Wein route, and it's one of the few stations which hasn't been trashed by vandals yet. One would have to hope that adequate security is provided so that it stays looking like this for as long as possible, so that ticket and tax money isn't wasted.

This is...yet another Battersea Park shot!! :-) This time, though, instead of viewing it from the LB&SCR mainline, we're seeing it from the old GWR. I think that this shot may in some ways be much better than the other one, though, in spite of the better detail on the other one. I like the color and contrast on this one better.

I've taken photos of car headlight streaks many times, but this is my first attempt with a train. This is one of several shots that I tried, being the best of the batch.

This, like the "View From Rip" shot, was taken with both my Ikoflex and my MZ-10, the Ikoflex having Fomapan in it, and the MZ-10 having Ektachrome Elite 200.

Okor is a ruined castle near Rip that is at least moderately well known. Hrad Okor was built by Frantisek Rokycansky, a wealthy burgher from Prague, and was later expanded in 1494 and 1590 by subsequent families, before coming under the control of the Jesuits in the 17th Century. They only maintained the castle until the late 18th Century, however, and the castle has since fallen into ruins. This doesn't stop tourists from visiting, however, and the castle is listed on a number of tourist websites.

This was a color shot that I took with my MZ-10, loaded with Ektachrome Elite 200, right before I shot my black and white of this same scene.

The Romanske Rotunda sv. Jiri, or the Romanesque Rotunda Of St. George, is the oldest Romanesque church in Bohemia, and one of the oldest in Europe, dating to the 10th Century. The location is significant, also, as legend has it that this was where Praotec Cech, the original Czech, decided to found Bohemia while surveying the land around him, as indeed this is the summit of Rip at 455 meters.