2810 - first flakes

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO125 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.2

besides reading lecture notes and solving different messy problems i haven't done much more this weekend. so the sunday afternoon walk was my solely aim for today.

funnily the first proper snow fell last night and didn't thaw, so the walk was supposed to be a specific pleasure for kingston, the dog. he really likes mud and water, but he definitely loves snow.

although my today's photograph doesn't picture an animal-human-couple of strangers but my wonderful girl and kingston, the great dog of our neighbours, i want to dedicate the daily posting to a project to which this image would actually match quite good.

a special category of pablo heimplatz' blog that is called at eye level covers the topic of the special relationship between dog and owner. i'm really into his project and absolutely recommend following him.

cu, trshptr

2710 - plumed visit

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO200 | 1/160 | lightroom 4.2

tina and i take care of animals in the same way like we respect humans.

this fact finds expression for example in our direct environment: besides our own cat we sometimes look after the kitties and dogs that live in our yard, too. additionally to that tina donates a little sum to an animal welfare organisation.

i for one try to help all the beings in my direct surrounding. for that reason i started to feed the birds in our yard since a few days again. corresponding the first spit of snow fell today and the first soil frost is said to appear in the coming night. i'm pretty sure that the eurasian nuthatch of my today's pic is very pleased with the delicious seeds that we usually serve.

on bad weather days like today the observation of approach and departure of the beautiful european birds is more amusing than watching a movie in the home cinema and a welcome variation to my learning periods.

cu, trshptr

2610 - urban food chain

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f2.8 | ISO320 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.2

the predator.

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f2.8 | ISO250 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.2

the home of the hunted.

cu, trshptr

0210 - stacked & bread rain

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f2.8 | ISO400 | 1/25 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.1

fortunately the announced walimex pro fisheye lens has arrived already today in the afternoon. for the evening i'd planned to shoot a special scenery in bodman-ludwigshafen at the western end of lake constance. a friend of mine had told me of the presence of an example of a very special kind of "lake art" - every now and then a stone artist places stone towers at the lakeside that seen as a stress engineer could really never bear.

for the viewer they exude calm and balance, really adorable.

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/100 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.1

heading for the place where the work is located we met a nice guy who was feeding the ducks and seagulls. although he seemed to be a bit strange he's surely a very nice and sensitive guy who cares about the nature and its animals.

i'll write more about the walimex pro fisheye lens during the next days. in advance only a very short information: it touches simply wonderfully and seems to be built of very high quality.

furthermore my two today's samples show how differently a fisheye lens can be used. both the emphasis of the distorted fisheye character as well as the use as an almost normal ultra wide angle lens are imaginable.

cu, trshptr

3009 - green(stuff) swan

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/320 | lightroom 4.1

autumn has definitely arrived. there are a variety of indications that the late summer atmosphere is also gone now. the temperatures fall from day to day and wetness makes the already not very comfortable temperatures feel like a half onset of winter. the people head out to collect mushrooms in the marshy forests and today we were following the current trend, too. our yield was satisfying although we are still checking at the moment if each of them is edible - i really don't want to spend the night in the hospital.

furthermore the season of pumpkins and stews is ongoing. the healthy food points, as a reader of this blog had named the self service food stalls that you can find on the street in the region of lake constance, have adjusted their choice of products to autumnal vegetables - different kind of pumpkins are dominating the display.

anyhow a few of the pumpkins will survive as inviting and observing marginal figures.

cu, trshptr

1909 - making a dive

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

sometimes it occurs to me that living at the edge of germany may be a privilege, too. only three and a half hours of relaxed car drive to reach a vacation destination in the middle of south tirol almost 2000 metres above sea level is pure luxury. that's why we already arrived at half past two o'clock in sulden at the bottom of the huge ortler.

the weather was perfect - for a travel day in the car. rain, rain, rain, mist and fog. but - as you might know if you are a permanent follower of the blog - i really like moody weather conditions like that. so we took our backpacks and rain covers and strolled through the wet and dripping high valley. after a short walk we got to a wonderful coloured pond with also wonderful coloured and drawn ducks inside that made a dive for the rests of our pretzels.

a few hours and sauna visits later tina and i made a dive for a delicious dinner at our guesthouse. quite interesting how similar all the beings still are...

cu, trshptr

1809 - huh?

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f3.2 | ISO100 | 1/1250 | silver efex pro for lightroom

today was packing day. tomorrow morning we'll sally towards italy. first we are going to spend a few days of hiking in the ortler alps and afterwards we'll regenerate while relaxing by the mediterranean sea in liguria. we both are thrilled to bits. we simply can't get enough of travelling.

at the beginning of the week we took temporary farewell of kingston, the dog of our neighbours. during a long walk in the sunset we got over the the first vacation stress. haha, of course there was no stress yet, but prevention is better than clemency. dog walking with kingston is a real pleasure - he is attentive, mostly on orders and a big funster. he's a great companion although only a temporary one for us.

if there is any internet connection almost two kilometres above sea level i'll report with the daily pic from south tirol tomorrow.

cu, trshptr

3008 - behind bars

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO800 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

keeping of animals is a sensitive topic. who gives the mankind the authorisation and permission to cage up animals of any kind? is it the evolution, our superiority? or is it outright ignorance?

every human being on this planet has to answer this question for itself. basically there are different reasons for keeping and caging animals and i don't want to kick off a huge discussion about the reasonableness of caged pets. only one question: dear lovers of nature and animal protection advocates, why is it okay for (the most of) you to cage up these wonderful horses?

cu, trshptr

2808 - the white pantheresses

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | manual focus | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

in life some things make a very good match: black and white, maybe chalk and cheese and definitely tina and kitties. my gracious lady is deep in love with cats since her early youth. an old black cat was living in the yard of her grandma and accompanied tina and her friends to the bus station every morning and waited for them there every afternoon to pick the kids up after school. since with zizou the first living ball of wool has moved in with us, tina is finally and completely contagioned with the kitty virus. although zizou had to be moved from our place to tina's grandma - i've already told you about the problems between her and nila - the number of cats in our yard has still risen. luckily our neighbours brought two more, very beautiful, white kitties with them to the joint yard.

from that perspective tina is currently very happy to live on our little farm. by pure chance paulinchen, the white pantheress, was recently bursting in on a little shooting in the yard and suddenly we had newly allocated the leading role of the planned image. now we have two white pantheresses that are like chalk and cheese... 

cu, trshptr

3107 - cute nagger

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO640 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

sometimes our little kitty nila creates the impression that she is the most unviable creature on earth.

two minutes after she has left the flat she sits at the window again and mews for me to open it up. two minutes after i have left the yard she sits at the window and mews for me to open it up again. two minutes after she has got separated from me or tina she sits at the window and mews for anybody to open it up again... and so on and so forth.

again and again two minutes in her life, in which she always seems to remember the centre of her doing.

most times our little kitty nila creates the impression that she is the most amiable creature on earth.

cu, trshptr