nocturnal activity

March 22, 2013 in 35, architecture, art, atmosphere, b+w, backlight, berlin, blur, bokeh, bridge, building, contrast, corridor, darkness, facility, germany, grain, light, monument, mood, nex 7, night, pattern, river, sel, shadow, sky, snow, sony, street, townscape, trip, urban, window, winter

betham city - sony nex 7 | sel35 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/30 — **betham city** - sony nex 7 | sel35 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/30

between nightfall and daybreak, the time when i'm able to spend some hours with all the things that haven't anything to do with any kind of duties, i use the chance to wander about the winterly town and capture these particular moments on sd card.

i can't even begin to tell you how much i love the prospect of the towers at potsdam square in the west of berlin. once again i was reminded of the tremendous gotham city from the batman series.

the museum island of berlin is divided from the rest of the city by the river spree. in the gallery below i like to show you two different views along the river from one of the thirteen bridges across the island. the first one was captured with standard, the second sample with very high iso settings: i tried to obtain a shutter speed that was suitable for freezing the fluttering flakes of white grain.

scratching the (white) surface

March 20, 2013 in 35, architecture, b+w, building, car, contrast, facility, germany, grain, mirror, monument, movement, action, nex 7, pattern, people, reflection, sel, shadow, snow, sony, street, townscape, trip, truck, urban, wall, water, window, winter, stairs, bridge, river, crane, sky, berlin, bundestag

as threatened yesterday i have to torment you mercilessly with images of this white, consolidated mass of water this week again - the forecasts predict nothing but winter. thereby i try to allot not more than a minor role to the still not escaped, meanwhile less strongly loved season and hope to cope with using its peculiarities as a stylistic device.

the german bundestag is the place of our government here in berlin. the shown, very cool and artistic building with a huge glass facade is one of the great many facilities that are occupied by parts of the governing parties and belongs to a vast complex of modern architecture in the middle of historic monuments besides the river spree.

there are a great number of things why i take to this photograph: the multifacetedness, the snow blower or the lonely soul in the middle of the frame, but i especially like the three-dimensionality of the picture - from the front with the blown snow flakes via the building with its diagonal stairs to the bridges and the crane in the reflection that had been located behind my point of view there are a lot of layers superimposed by each other.

0910 - u3

October 09, 2012 in 50, bokeh, brown, crane, elbe, elevated, germany, hamburg, harbour, metro, nex 7, public transport, rail, railstation, river, sel, sight, sony, townscape, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/4000 | lightroom 4.2

the metro line u3 is the jewel among hamburg's public transportation system. it is designed as an orbital line that is operating in the centre of hamburg and goes around both the inner and outer alster lake. the main peculiarity of the u3 line is that it runs mainly on the surface on dams so that you are able to enjoy the wonderful routing alongside the elbe river.

today's picture shows the beginning of the part of the route that runs directly parallel to the elbe and leads exactly towards the impressive container port that is the second biggest in europe after rotterdam. you can divine the huge harbour installations on the horizon. every tourist should visit the harbour and usually they also do so.

the interesting circular building in front of the bend hosts the portuguese restaurant galego. besides horrible service bad value for money wait for you. please avoid this place although its location would be worth the visit and stop by at another place.

cu, trshptr

2508 - under observation

August 25, 2012 in 30, b+w, bird, bokeh, bridge, germany, hills, laufenburg, memorial, monument, nex 7, rhine, river, scenery, sight, sigma, sony, switzerland, texture, townscape

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/800 | lightroom 4.1

this weekend i reside in laufenburg, a small city that is part of the district waldshut in the very southwest of germany, at the family of a work and cycling mate. laufenburg is located directly at the border to switzerland, opposite to the equally named swiss city and separated from the switzerland by the big river rhine.

on the german side of the border a huge monument, a stone eagle with widespread wings and a golden cross in his clutches observes all machinations on the (german and the) swiss terrain. the memorial was built in remembrance of the many soldiers that were killed in action in the first and second world war.

the relations between the germans and the swiss and germany and switzerland are matter for a separate story: huge wage differentials, tax haven switzerland, conversion rates, non-EU country and voluntary nation are only some keywords that describe the country switzerland and its relations to its neighbour germany. many things are handled completely different to germany, but the people of both countries have to live together on both sides of the border compliant with the rules and laws of the respective countries.

tomorrow i'll visit the swiss side for a long public cycling ride again. however today i haven't seen anything to complain about for the stone eagle.

cu, trshptr