0306 - ladies at their best

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.7 | manual focus | ISO1600 | 1/20 | +1.7ev | high contrast monochrome jpg | cropped and optimised in lightroom 4.1

time flies, on a large and also on a small scale. it's been round about seven years that tina's best friend jeen visited us in hamburg for the first time. it's all water under the bridge.

but time flies in microcosm, too. just arrived some blinks later the weekend and their flying visit are gone again. nevertheless we four had a great and impressing time with talking, laughing, eating and drinking, sightseeing, boating and fortunately a bit sleeping. there's a reason for that: tina and jeen are a bit like chalk and cheese and jeen's boyfriend is simply a terrific choice, we and especially i really enjoyed the time with him.

even if today's picture's technical implementation can be allocated to the "fun and imperfection" - category, i really go for the moment i captured with my fujian toy lens: today i wanted to play around with the high-key effect for what i overexposed the ladies sitting in front of a window by round about two exposure values, using the high contrast monochrome mode in my nex. afterwards while post processing i raised the exposure and the different values for black and contrast once again in lightroom. it's a first high key attempt, not more, but i like it! whereas this might be down to the wonderful ladies...

cu, trshptr

2905 - morning bloom

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/1600 | lightroom 4

although i'm a huge fan of the dark side of life - autumn, fog and mist, darkness, rain, all things that i go for - currently i'm unable to struggle against the ongoing summer. in the morning everything is still a bit wet of the dew but in the end of may the sun has already risen and the temperature has reached almost 20 degrees when i'm on my way to work by bike.

a wonderful enchanted mansion is located along the way to immenstaad. even if flowers and blossoms are not my favourite scene, i was fooled into interrupting my drive because of the great mix of the corn poppies in the middle of the dreamy cottage garden in front of purple foxgloves and the rising sun in the background.

when i reached work i had donned a protective cloak against stress, mischief and hustle and bustle. days should always start like that.

cu, trshptr

2605 - bride

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/30 | lightroom 4

in europe there are a couple of regular customs that appear odd and curious to me. the rituals of stag and hen night may create funny stories in some cases but i can't see any sense in the foolery of selling useless items to pedestrians. however yesterday i was one of the pedestrians whom was being offered a bunch of clutter and ...

funnily yesterday's offers contained above all very useful articles for a party night - shorts. in fact shorts of different sorts! after a short conversation with the leader of the party gang - a hen night party - we bought a silver crown for tina and three shorts, jeagermeister, feigling and another one. in this way we got deeply into conversation with the bride who is a really very cute person. buck the trend and make the best of your upcoming marriage!

fortunately she had nothing against me snapshotting her, so i was allowed to keep this authentic pic.

cu, trshptr

2505 - confusion

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO200 | 1/4000 | lightroom 4

in terms of any issue yesterday was a very beautiful day. although i had to work until the late afternoon what in my case is unusual for a friday the tide turned at the latest after having a picnic together with tina on the stairs in the middle of friedrichshafen. couscous salad, baguette, burgers, herbal curd and a few beers - this made my day. along with it we had prime weather, at 8pm the thermometer showed still 22 degrees.

yesterday even the crowd of tourists kept within reasonable limits. exceptionally the locals were in control of the situation at the boardwalk. this state maybe concerns with the forthcoming long weekend, it was so to say the silence before the storm. as i said before i simply love the spring with its awful lot of feast days.

one or two tourists showed up yet again. one of them was especially confused, he stood next to us and gazed into space. instead of helping him i took my nex and captured the scene. evil local!

cu, trshptr

2105 - hot potato

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/20 | lightroom 4

the time has come, the borrowed eos 400d makes way for my new nex 7. don't be afraid - otherwise everything will remain unchanged.

i'm geared up to start respectively to resume my work. as a start my new sony nex 7 will be matched with the sigma 30 f2.8, the manual (toy lens) fujian 35 f1.7 - i'm aware of the peculiarities of this cheap cctv lens - or the sony 50 f1.8. additionally in the near future i'll be on the look-out for a wide-angel lens. i read some rumours about a native e-mount 10-18 f4.0 wide-angel zoom which would fit in with my kit very well. and last but not least i think about the purchase of the sony sel 55-210 f4.5-6.3 but before i get myself a telephoto lens i'll wait for the occurrence where i absolutely need such a thing.

what more need to be said? among other things i'm going to use two 16gb sdhc memory cards, a crumpler camera bag, a second battery and a gorillapod. in some cases - if i'm satisfied with the camera's results - i'll also publish "out of camera" (ooc) jpegs because i want to show the entire capabilities of the nex 7. for that reason i'm going to use the special modes like dynamic range optimisation (dro) and high dynamic range (hdr), too. tips and criticism or simple statements are very welcome!

cu, trshptr

1805 - illuminated

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/50 | lightroom 4

for our today's excursion we visited the monkey hill in salem. round about 200 barbary apes live in a mostly species-appropriate husbandry on an area of approximately 12 hectare in the forest in the middle of nowhere.

it was very interesting to observe the social structure of their hierarchy. the 200 monkeys are separated into three groups of 50 to 80 animals. each group has one male and one female chief. furthermore the whole population has a overall chief of each gender. at monkey hill the most important rule is to avoid any contact with the current babies. every monkey would protect these little newborns against any - in his opinion - negative influences. to sum up i can say that in many aspects barbary apes are very similar to human beings.

however evident similarities between yesterday's and today's subject are quite accidentally. ;-)

cu, trshptr

1705 - breaking the habit

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/200 | lightroom 4

although today is father's day and actually all the wives, girlfriends and sisters should be ignored, i'm very happy that currently - at my birthday weekend - my father, his wife and my little sister nadja are paying a visit to tina and me at lake constance. for this reason it is really no problem for me to break the habit of strolling about with my guys on father's day.

the five of us had a wonderful day at the lake in ueberlingen in prime weather conditions. nadja was positive flustered the whole day. her brother, the beloved tina, the sweet kitty nila and the big lake - she is a water fool - the sum of these impressions was almost too huge for her capacity. at the moment i'm writing these lines she is already out for the count since two hours. don't worry, nadja: we all have had the experience of being fagged out while being unaware of this circumstance in our youths. finally the sleep of the just relativises your impressions.

cu, trshptr

1305 - quality and passion

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 49mm | f5.6 | ISO200 | 1.6s | lightroom 4

today afternoon i was up for an extensive music listening pleasure. i would like to describe two different perspectives on the topic.

the head:
technics assures quality. since my uncle had given me an understanding of loudspeakers, amplifiers and sound sources i am very interested in acoustical engineering. for that reason i have studied mechanical engineering with the area of specialisation mechatronics and acoustics and in autumn i will begin a further education study - designed as distance learning - with the topic computational engineering in berlin - i'm looking forward. i want to be forearmed when my time at lake constance has passed and i'm going to return back to acoustics - maybe in 2014.

to assure appealing sound quality i own a good and proper equipment, maybe further details will be the topic of future postings. beforehand i would like to recommend the company nubert: the value-for-money ratio of their loudspeakers is outstanding.

the soul:
music is passion. enthusiasm catches everybody up that opens up to its energy. music is a permanent feature of my daily life. my favourite radio station fm4 from vienna is on constantly and if it isn't i permanently look for new music at spotify. additionally tina and i as often as possible visit concerts and festivals, this year probably the southside festival and the rock am see festival.

above all i have the liability to depressive music. music can't be too sad for me. even though it may sound unusual - many a time i'm overwhelmed by a special transient mood so that i just can't help it and indeed the music makes me cry. for me this is a cathartic process.

music is passion. among others it is my passion.

cu, trshptr

1105 - community

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 35mm | f4.5 | ISO400 | 1/40 | lightroom 4

contrary to f.e. the uk in germany it is common practise to rent the dwelling. of course we don't buck the trend. as i said before we live in a very beautiful rented accommodation with a huge courtyard in its middle. next to us a handful other parties reside. today we - (almost) all together - had a very nice time at a wine tasting directly next to our house at the vineyard "markgraf von baden".

we have learned a lot about wine, its production, the vineyard (140 hectare) itself and the earl. after five hours of talks and fun i summed the evening up in a small piece of poetry for the host's guestbook. in german:

freitag abend,

6 sorten wein,

erquickend und erlabend,

da sagt der eichenhof nicht nein,

dazu ein opulentes vesper,

nette gedichte,

definitv keine rester,

nur mehr lachen im gesichte.

analogous in english, of course without rhyme:

friday evening,

6 sorts of wine,

invigorating and refreshing,

the "eichenhof" doesn't say no,

additionally an opulent evening meal,

nice pieces of poetry,

definitely no remains,

just more laughter in our faces.

the community is strong.

in the pic above you can see some bottles of homemade pear schnapps of the vineyard.

cu, trshptr

0905 - vertical

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 52mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/250 | lightroom 4

may i introduce mr. vertical, the brown little spider, to you? we met today in the morning while i was brushing my teeth. together we had a nice shoot before he escaped through our terrace window.

i wish you all the best, take care of your gracile legs, they are wonderful.

cu, trshptr