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From the archives - Croatia 2023

If you have an Android/Google TV you might have seen the above boat picture with my name on it.

Yes, I took it. It's on your TV (for now) because Google has an internal contest every year to submit your photos to show up as backdrops while your TV is idling. I submitted about 10 hiking bangers and this one boat pic from this Croatia trip and it was the only one that got accepted. I found out the committee had picked my photo before it was formally announced because my cousin saw it on his TV.

Thanks Zack!

Funnily enough it's also from my first month of taking photos with a proper camera and not my phone.

Some background, feel free to skip. I got into photography in early 2023 because:

  • I had broken my leg quite significantly in Jan 2023, and was walking/hiking a lot for physical therapy.
  • A friend of ours had a bunch of really cool landscape shots on his insta.
  • I was bored and needed a new hobby, and I live in Switzerland which is a ridiculously photogenic place. You can do anything and get a pretty picture.

I figured I could also take cool landscape shots, picked up a Sony camera, and immediately did not vibe. It was big, heavy, and it took a lot of work to make the raw files look good. I wanted something small and wide so I sold the Sony and picked up a used Leica Q2 literally a day or two before leaving on this Croatia trip.

Over the trip, we would be sailing from Punat down to a national park and back over two weeks. We were eight people total with the WG crew (German PhD students except for Dan) and some auxillary friends (more PhD students).

Captain / Reverend Mother Michi

Unfortunately our boat got HIT BY LIGHTING and DIED on day 4. All of the electrical wiring was completely cooked. Every time you flipped a switch, you would hear a sizzling sound and smoke would come out of a random corner. 

Getting towed back to Punat
Trying to jump the boat (as instructed by the boat technician that boarded us)
Marooned

Anyways we eventually got a second boat and had a great trip, but didn't make it out to the national park like we wanted. Here's a dump of some photos from various devices.

We're attempting the same trip in Summer 2025! Statistically we can't get hit by lightning again so it should be safe this time.