private boarding

what do you do on days when you still feel sick (since already two weeks now), when you are a bit sad because of a shortened weekend and additionally full of disillusion due to the absolutely misty weather? you go out to get a pizza, afterwards you sit down on the kitchen floor, scoff your fast food dinner and get high on medicinal tea, right? 

on the side i reviewed all of the almost 340 pictures i have captured during my project till today, identified round about twenty images per category that are good enough and worth to be featured in my glimpse portfolio and began to publish two to three photographs per gallery. what do you think of the kind of presentation?

on sunday i'll have to leave germany for a business trip to unloved france, fortunately french riviera, what's not so bad after all. despite the fact that the image of today's blogpost was one of my favourite pics from our last trip to the (italian) mediterranean sea in 2012, i'd never shown it before. i wonder if i'll be able to enjoy this view from the day after tomorrow on again.

0110 - nowhere to run

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/30 | lightroom 4.1

subsequent to a long travel you always have to evaluate a great many pictures. thereby sometimes a few ones attract your attention although they hadn't struck initially. today an image of a hurrying nun that is leaving the cathedral of porto venere caught my eye. in my opinion the harsh post-processing fits the moody scenery very well.

probably tomorrow or the day after a walimex / samyang / rokinon pro 8mm f2.8 fisheye lens will arrive for an extensive test during the coming days. for that reason i'm going to work especially with this very special lens  for now and according to that the next postings will be concerned with the apparently excellent little fisheye lens. i'm curious how the fisheye will match the nex 7.

cu, trshptr

2909 - public transportation system scooter

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f10.0 | ISO100 | 1/13 | lightroom 4.1

already at 8am tina and i left the wonderful cottage in liguria. ten totally different days of holidays are now written in our small family history. hard to imagine that i have to go to work in two days again - anyhow some hours of resting are waiting for us.

when we finally arrived at home at 3pm my matriculation documents were already waiting for me in the pillar box. yes, you have this right - during the coming three years from now on i'll be a student again. my course computational engineering - that is provided by the beuth hochschule berlin - will proceed as different distance learning units. i'm very curious and will report every now and then from my study progress.

for now the last photograph from italy is about a very defining element of italian street life - simply everybody aged between 16 and 70 seems to own a scooter. funnily the scooters have the things on the streets firmly under control - they wiggle through all the blocked roads and thereby they scare one or two pedestrians and car drivers, too.

cu, trshptr

2809 - summer goodbye

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

swimming in the ocean at the end of september isn't an usual activity for us. so today's vacation farewell trip to tellaro, a village in the south of la spezia that belongs to the most beautiful villages of italy on the initiative of the associazione nazionale comuni italiani, was something very special. 25 degrees in the shade and eight hours of sunshine, wonderful beaches, a refreshing sea and a terrific view along the high shore over the golf of la spezia across to portovenere and the isola palmaria really made a great surrounding for the last day of our holidays in italy.

a funny peculiarity of the most of the beaches of liguria is the fine pebble. tina really liked the very fine stones tickling her back. and they are good-looking, too.

cu, trshptr

2709 - market bustle

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.1

one of the most interesting opportunities of italian life for us foreigners is the terrific food. as everybody should know the italian cuisine is world-famous for its pizza and pasta, but also the pesto and antipasti. the basis for these delicious fares are fresh and organic, local ingredients: vegetables, noodles, bread and oil, spices and pesto, meat and fish and of course also wine. all of that can be obtained on the market.

besides a few recipes that result in a buying list in your mind and the colourful display a great many of busy people make a still urban scenery alive.

cu, trshptr

2609 - modern porto antico di genova

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/160 | lightroom 4.1

genoa is the biggest city in the region of liguria - thereby a must-visit - and one that is exceedingly proud of its harbour. as you can see in today's pic genoa is because of its location at the bottom of the apennine mountains almost exclusively facing its historical porto antico di genova and the mediterranean sea.

besides its historical importance the harbour of genoa is one of the biggest concerning its container handling in the whole mediterranean ocean. apparently their expansion isn't completed yet - today we saw different places inside the container harbour where new spaces for probably more containers are built by reclaiming land. the harbour gained its importance especially because of the wide northern hinterland of liguria that involves the industry areas from milan and turin and even comes down to the switzerland.

despite the very industrial character of the harbour (and the whole city, too) a bit of chic and vain has found its way into the old capital of liguria. the modern influence in the yacht harbour really fits to the antico porto di genova and the beautiful townscape of this costal city.

cu, trshptr

2509 - shutter island

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

sometimes in life you determine similarities between real life and stories that only exist in your mind. these can be stories from books, movies or also your own, personal dreams. today we've acted in a movie, of course a very great one.

besides the central, main cinque terre there are also villages and places in the region of liguria that are worth the journey and visit. today we had a look at porto venere, a very beautiful little town directly next to la spezia. additionally we had a long walk on the offshore isola palmaria, one of three islands next to porto venere, that seem to be reincarnations of the shutter island, a prison island (and identically named terrific film with leo do caprio) from hollywood.

there were different hints why shutter island is a suitable comparison to the isola palmaria: we heard some very loud gunshots today, walked along a few old massive bunker, saw many very old power lines, that have their origin in different fenced off areas, the abandoned island is characterised by high coast and of course there is a lighthouse. in the night it could have been really frightening staying on this island, but fortunately we visited the wonderful island at daytime.

funnily we were heaving a sigh of relief when we finally spotted the church san pietro of porto venere on the opposite mainland where the taxi boat dropped us off another hour later.

cu, trshptr

2409 - surreality

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.1

so this is the cinque terre, the world famous cinque terre? in advance tina and i had thought about visiting the well known villages monterosso, vernazza, corniglia, manarola and riomaggiore for a very long time. should we do it or should we steer clear of this overcrowded world cultural heritage?

summarising i can tell you that the view on these villages, especially from the upper paths, are simply stunning. surely anywhere in italy or the rest of the europe there are villages, paths and landscapes like the one you can find in the region of cinque terre, too. probably you don't have to search for a long time, in the north in the so called little cinque terre from moneglia to levanto or in the south in portofino you might find (maybe a bit more authentic) wonderful places and postcard sceneries, too.

the most important fact when you visit the cinque terre is to know what you are letting yourself in for. in off-season many, in season times a great many people will want to walk the same way with you. all prices (accommodation; food; parking; local traffic; the path itself, that is partly charged) are overpriced, the journey there is complicated, the paths besides the mainstream ones are not really good signposted.

however the other side of the coin is definitely existing. the locals are pleasant, the architecture is great and the paths are simply terrific, especially the difficult ones. maybe all the negative and typically touristic points are something that you simply have to take in if you want to see a world famous monument like the cinque terre (or the empire state building, the great wall of china or the pyramids).

maybe cinque terre isn't reality, but anyway a really funny peculiarity is located in manarola, my favourite of cinque terre: there is definitely the most beautiful roof terrace of the world.

cu, trshptr

2309 - zigzag

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/100 | lightroom 4.1

yesterday i told you that we're already feeling at home in the region of liguria and also in our cottage. today in the morning we saw people that have to be at home on the go. stark contraries.

la spezia is supposed to be the ugly duckling of the region of liguria. wrongheaded architecture and dirty suburbs are supposedly defining. despite the fact that la spezia is the second biggest city in liguria with 90k inhabitants, the visitors should steer clear of la spezia. so much for tourist theory. today i've got to know liguria as an interesting and authentic town with a great harbour. because of napoleon who realised la spezia's strategic location, still today the italian military and the local economy use the harbour for their purposes.

one of them are the fishermen who are very special people. in their cases a hard life and working conditions on the sea are paired with being constantly on the go and a minimum of comfort in the duty. although i'm very interested in their work and despite the fact that i'd willingly like to participate in their doings for some days or weeks i wouldn't be prepared for the very challenging peculiarities of the attending circumstances.

in the afternoon we were swimming in the sea at the beach of bonassola, one of the few big wave surf spots in italy. so today was really no up and down like the zigzag of the changing cubicle design but a straight and steady increase.

cu, trshptr

2209 - feeling at home

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

after a five hour car drive straight to the south tina and i finally arrived at our cottage at half past four. we'd already got a bunch of italian food ingredients in a local grocery store: vegetables, wine and beer, meat, pasta and of course a lot more, also for our breakfast as from tomorrow.

the cottage that we'll live in during the coming seven days is very small, but all the more comfortable. it's furnished in typical italian style, very cosy. we are feeling at home.

cu, trshptr