Time Machine

I must apologize since in the last weeks I have abandoned a bit the forum. In fact, I have been really busy working on my first Time Machine. I underestimated the complexity of the thing, and so it got me more time than expected…, but oh boy, it was really worth!

During the first weeks, I was messing around with the controls and fine tuning some features. I then met the Romans, traveled to the Viking era and even had the chance to see a few T-Rex fighting against a herd of Tryceratops. Too bad I realized the batteries of my Nikon D3x died every time during the trip (i think due to some gamma rays radiation), and unfortunately I could not take a single image of my first excursions. The other day however, I picked up my film panoramic camera (with no batteries at all) and decided to push a little bit more the levers of my Time Machine. A few more turns to the years wheel and there I went back to the origins of the Earth, some billions of years ago…

After a few minutes of spinning and buzzing, my balcony in front of the swiss Alps turned into the edge of a cliff, facing one of the most spectacular places I could imagine. A young land of lava, water and still forming atmosphere appeared in front of my eyes. Primeval wilderness of a young Planet, with humans still 4 billion years away. Luckily enough, I arrived just as dawn was breaking, and I had time to step down the Time Machine and set the tripod (i have included a drawer thing in the Time Machine specially for my Gitzo). After a few minutes, the Sun (amazing to think it was the same we see today) set ablaze the clouds with fiery colours, creating some striking reflections on the river down the valley and inundating with magic light an untouched and wild land. For me, it was the sheer visual metaphor of the Genesis of our planet. A dramatic and memorable moment of raw natural beauty.

After I exposed a few rolls of film, I decided to go back home. Dinner would be served in some 4 billion years and I did not want to miss that!

A day later, I run to the laboratory to get my film developed, and after having to lie a bit (I said I had taken the images in Iceland!! :)), I got my images. Luckily, the X-rays (normally used in Time Machines for security reasons) had not affected the emulsion, and there I had a nicely exposed image of the Genesis of our Planet.

I intend to repeat some other trips into the origins of the Earth these next weeks, and in fact unveil a major update of some of the best images in my website in a week or two. Meanwhile, thanks for reading and I will highly appreciate your comments and critics!

By the way, where you see that lava stack in the foreground of the image there is now a bus stop of the line 7, linking Pully to Lausanne. I think I will miss dinner from now on quite often…

PD: As the panos suffer A LOT from thumbnails size, click on the image to see it bigger!!