0707 - lined lady

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO200 | 1/100 | lightroom 4

when you visit an european city you'd expect that free-roaming cats influence the townscape. thereby in sardinia pets aren't that high rated as the people do in germany. many cats have to run their own lives. funnily also the dogs do as they please. especially in alghero we often saw dogs walking on their own, there was no human being on view far and wide.

hopefully the lined lady of my pic will get along furthermore.

cu, trshptr

3105 - private peek

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO200 | 1/100 | lightroom 4.1

in regions with an appropriate social base money is not to be sniffed at. especially the area north of the alps and the lake constance profits clearly by its inherent natural beauty. the amount of money that is received in this way flows mainly back directly into the communes.

you can see this circumstance in any issue of daily life. one noticeable topic is the structural condition of the (most of the old) buildings in the historic townscapes. if you use f.e. the view of the cities in the east of germany as reference for comparison you will find a lot more derelict houses than here in suedbaden. so far, so good.  this comes as no surprise.

but what does that really mean? it seems to be a kind of vicious circle for the affected regions regarding different aspects: either tourists or qualified employees are attracted, therefor their money flows into other regions. so the communes have no funds to modernise their infrastructure, their townscape and so on. which means that everything remains as it is. unfortunately i know this phenomena from different regions of germany, among others my homeland.

the region of the linzgau was never affected by this vicious circle. the historic townscapes are in most cases proper, neat and tidy, even more than 300 years old houses like ours are in a good condition. way back when the municipal administration of our commune bermatingen had understood that buildings like the eichenhof have a great appeal with the tourists and therefor their money.

of course i rejoice at our home, it is individual, full of character and it's a pleasure to live here. i hope you enjoy the private peek, too.

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

1605 - ray of hope

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f3.5 | ISO800 | 1/20 | lightroom 4

actually every week should have only 3 business days. because on thursday all the fathers - and the future ones - will paint the town red most of the employers allow a day off on friday: i really love the spring with its awful lot of feast and bridge days...

after a dinner at a new turkish restaurant in friedrichshafen we headed for the bar "lichtblick" in markdorf. its name has different english translations - f.e. it could mean blink or bright spot. if you look at the pic you can confirm that this translation could be appropriate for this location.

furthermore it could be called ray of hope or silver lining in english what in my opinion fits even better than the direct translation. the bar lichtblick is one of the rare rays of hope in the forlorn nightlife of the area around lake constance.

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

0805 - the early bird gets the worm

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO400 | 1/50 | lightroom 4

while i was processing the planned image of today's posting sitting on a deck chair in the yard my remaining kitty nila spotted an eurasian blackbird. whereas i hadn't been completely satisfied with the light conditions of this shot, i came naturally to desist from the pic - you will see a better version in the near future.

so nila and i observed the in my view cute, in her view delicious little bird that had caught a fat worm for his infants. by the way i shot some pictures of the blackbird, only the maximum focal distance of my kit lens hampered a better result. the blackbird was remaining calmly while i approximated because he was constantly assessing the situation.

moreover he was in a favourable position and he had already caught his worm.

cu, trshptr

btw: the picture above is far away from being a masterpiece, but it is not so bad after all and above all today it was important for me to share nila's and my experience with you. and: yesterday the third lens for my nex arrived - the sigma 30 f2.8. tiny little black piece of japanese engineering.

2604 - play with us

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/400 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

besides salamanders you can find dogs everywhere in sardinia. many landowners use them to protect their property against unwelcome visitors or boars. in the scene of the picture tina was being investigated by five  (!) cute dogs simultaneously. only at the first appearance she seems to be a little bit peeved.

2404 - state of shock

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO1600 | 1/80 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

salamanders are everywhere in sardinia. unfortunately they are very agile so that you will have a hard time trying to take a photograph of them. in a climbing cave in the centre of the island i caught an exemplar on the hop. to its cost it had missed the correct moment to leave the shadow. because of the too low blood heat it wasn't able to move a finger. 

2204 - taking small steps

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 28mm | f5.0 | ISO100 | 1/400 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4 

during the last week's road trip we rested as often as possible at interesting locations on our 1000km route. the town oristano was one of it. we have had a walk after lunch in the historical district when i discovered the greek-like scenery shown in the photography above.