Christmas is almost here!
It was a challenging year, tiring from every point of view but full of intense emotions.

With the holidays quickly approaching,  I want to wish everyone who is reading my blog a safe and enjoyable time with family and friends!
Hoping, as usual, that the upcoming year will be much much better!

See ya in 2014!

This beautiful long-eared owls (Asio otus) were spying on me while I was sitting on the balcony.

From dusk til dawn they stay there, perfectly camouflaged among high branches of the garden tree. They sit all day almost motionless and impassively and then, in the evening, begin their work and take flight in search of some food. 

It's a large family of seven-eight owls who are spending the winter on this tree, away and safe from humans.

The subjects were relatively far away, nearly obscured by tree branches but while I pointed the camera and tried to focus I was delighted to see this beautiful animals staring back at me through the viewfinder.

They watch me, too.

I've never seen them up close, through the view of a telephoto lens.

Thank you, Owls!

The Galilean thermometer on my attic desk

We are always surrounded by objects. In almost all cases are things that we have seen hundreds of times, and details that we know very well that belong to our ordinary world.

But how would apporoach these objects a person who did not know what they are and begin to study them, looking at them from every possible angle to understand their form and function? For sure he would find them strange, curious, maybe mysterious...

I try to simulate something like that with my camera, looking for unusual angles or particular locations: you can find interesting shots right inside your house!

"And all the lives we ever lived, 

and all the lives to be, 

are full of trees and changing 

leaves". 

                              Virginia Woolf

Last weekend I had some time to dedicate to photography, stolen from the rhythm of the working and family week. The weather was not so good but the desire to see the first snow of the season close to home prevailed. 

Just as I was about to start my return back home, the horizon cleared up, a thick blanket of clouds began to take shape, and one of the few last rays of sunshine of the day powerfully illuminated the Alpine foothills, filled with the recent snowfalls, before the night flattened everything once again.

For a moment, I really felt like I was...between earth and sky.

Dogs often tend to have a whole lotta shakin' goin' on. 

Ever wondered what all that shaking mean? 

Dogs shake themselves after a bath, when they wake up and even after you hug them or comb them.

Several studies have been performed about dog shaking and some fascinating facts have been revealed.  

Dogs shaking is very effective, they can shake themselves 70% dry in just a fraction of a second, they can generate centrifugal forces 10 to 70 times gravity during a shake and the shaking depend to the animal's size (smaller animals shake more quickly than larger animals).

The animal's head, body and skin all move during a shake; the body, though it shakes at the same frequency of the skin, cannot rotate as far.

The next time you see your dog shaking, pay attention and..learn how your home-washer works! :-)