1504 - the wheel

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f8.0 | ISO800 | 8s | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4 

the day after. slightly headache, thirst and haven't slept very well. what's the point - you must finish what you start. therefor we had a huge breakfast with toasted ciabatta, cold cuts and what else belongs to it. in addition to that strengthening i had to get a breath of fresh air. 

after my weekly football match on sunday noon i carried out some tiny little tasks like to put some things away into the cellar. there i hit on the idea to make the basement of our marvellous house the subject of today's posting. like i said before our house is more than 300 years old. also its basement is a feast for the eyes. it was used as a wine cellar for many a long year. today every now and then we hold a cellar party for our friends. the illumination with candles is stunning. during the residual time the basement lies almost empty.

today i caught sight of a very moody scene of wheels. the sparsely light was inciding through an old wooden wheel. our new neighbors must have parked an ancient blue bicycle in the middle of the place where the light beam was impinging on the floor today. and the profile of the room is a semicircle itself. 

great atmosphere in an almost complete circular surrounding.

cu, trshptr

1304 - upright

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 22mm | f4.5 | ISO400 | 25s | manual mode | manual focus | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

while i was cruising around by bike this evening i saw different places and objects that were worthy of detailed examination. in so doing my short ride was extended to a two hour trip. as a result i have really struggled with choosing a candidate for today's posting. finally i decided to apply the upright photography that you can review above to animate my blog today. some other samples are listed at my tumblr webpage dated today.

the pic of the building site was shot in markdorf again. the light conditions were really very, very bad, the usage of the automatic focus wasn't possible. so i had my first attempts with complete manual shooting: both focus and exposure were manually controlled by me. to accomplish a suitable exposure i had to raise iso speed to 400 and aperture to the almost fastest configuration at this focal length - although i exposed for a long time... i think you can reconstruct how dark it was there.

why this composition? for a variety of reasons... the pillars seemed to have an infinite depth, the lights were playfully reflected by them. the streamers that were hanging from the ceiling breezed in the wind. the silence was impressive. only every now and then a car went past. fortunately i caught one by shooting the pic above.

btw: i have raised the local contrast of the pic while postprocessing to create a hdr-like effect. accenting the size of the builing site i renounced to remove distortion caused by wide-angel.

all being well my project will finally start next week. officially.

cu, trshptr

1104 - moonless night

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 25mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 15s | aperture priority | multiple triggered with android application dslrcontroller | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

urban abandoned places at night have a great appeal with me. see that i had to cater anything for dinner this evening, an urban self-shot was obvious.

while i was driving around the town i was on the look-out for a moody place where i could capture a frozen long-time exposed, depressed shot of a small being in the middle of impressive architecture. really no easy statement of task in the middle of nowhere but i'm not going to lower my sights until i hit the wall. satisfaction implies stagnation.

in my opinion except a little light scattering in the lower middle the picture turned out very well. it shows the educational center of markdorf that was built in 1972. i love the architecture of the 70s with its straight lines, strict symmetry, the plain facades and the primary structures made of metal. it is simple and timeless. and if you put an outlined, shadowed person in the center of attention and illumination, your composition becomes clearer and more consistent. a picture turns into a story.

cu, trshptr

1004 - open air auditorium

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 53mm | f5.6 | ISO400 | 1/250 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

an auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres [source]. once i had arrived at the hospital today in the afternoon to pick up tina, before my very eyes such an theatre-like auditorium appeared.

a grizzled old, wheelchair-bound woman was giving a lecture on something. towards her four partial grizzled women that were resting on a wooden bench listened more or less carefully to the contributor. while i observed this scene i proposed myself a couple of questions:
is the woman on the left really listening to the contributor's pleading or is she watching the fountains dreamfully? what is the discussion about? do they realize my observation? is the dog owner feeling bored? or is he sitting too far away to hear the conversations of the grandmothers? at least the dog seems to be hungry. questions upon questions and no answers. create your own story.

cu, trshptr

0604 - not left out in the rain

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 22mm | f7.1 | ISO200 | 1/80 | aperture priority | raw file cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

easter. holiday. time off work. time to receive a visit. family time.

what in return means that i´m running low on time for my posting. never forget - disregard the text before the photo.

that´s how it should be. be a sport and construct the story by reading the tags and studying the picture. thx.

cu tomorrow, spending more time with you, trshptr

0404 - resistance

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 21mm | f8.0 | ISO200 | 1/125 | aperture priority | raw file cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

almost every morning of the last three years i pass a moody derelict barn that decays nearby a main road between salem and markdorf. shacks like that inspire me and draw my interest. again at last i feel like a baby boy when i´m exploring the area and the hut itself.

today i took time to discover this piece of history shaped by nature and the ravages of time. tina dropped me off close by the shack. i only had to plough through a non-vegetated, lumpy field to reach my today´s object of photography.

after i had walked around for half an hour to take some photos i got a feeling for the history of this scarred building: today it is used as a compound site for wood and a carport for a probably equaly aged tractor. but rust, moss, fungi and dust occupy the surface of the shack for a long time.

i wish to elapse the whole story of the shack in fast motion to marvel at its decay. however more admirable than its decline is its resistibility. since a bunch of decades light, rainfall, snow, cold and heat, storm and seasons fall on its roof like warriors on their enemies without receiving any maintenance besides patchwork.

but it resists. and it will resist the next twenty plus years.

cu, trshptr

2503 - opium of the people

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 34mm | f5.0 | ISO100 | 1/320 | aperture priority | jpg out of camera

the people of manchester are simply wonderful. communication and helpfulness especially characterize them. furthermore the whole circumstances are really enjoyable because contrary to london you find a healthy proportion between locals and tourists.

if i ought to describe the mindset of manchester´s citizens with a few strong words i would choose confident, freaky and consuming. the first two aspects speak for itself and consumption is omnipresent all over the city [information, warmth, presence, products, fashion, party! ...].

so we also consumed a lot of different - legal - stuff during the last three days, in terms of [non air safety relevant] fluids i focused on coffee that is my special highlight in holiday times apart from some alcoholic drinks.

the portrait above outlines my wife tina while consuming a ... tea. pfff, healthmaniac.

cu in regular interval, trshptr

2403 - industrial gene

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f5.0 | ISO400 | 1/100 | aperture priority | jpg out of camera

summarizing i can fortunately say that all my expectations about manchester were not only fulfilled but rather exceeded. manchester is truthful, vivid, rocking, hearty, old but innovative and a lot more.

its industrial characteristic was very impressive. i thought about bricks and fire escapes but i didn´t expect it in this great measure. the picture above is ooc, i love its poster like high contrast look.

2303 - food from all over the world

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 46mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/25 | aperture priority | raw file cropped, aligned and processed in rawtherapee

a huge deficit of rural living is the lack of good foreign restaurants - except italian - and snack stands. compensation of this intolerable state was one of our most important aims during the last three days. inter alia we ate at an arab and at two indians.

even if the appearances do not imply that the quality of the sold products is passable - suitable the english say: don´t judge a book by its cover.

the snack stand in the pic above was terrific! on friday night this cool picture occured in the heart of manchester.

2003 - courtyard with bakehouse

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 27mm | f9.0 | ISO100 | 1/100 | aperture priority | jpg file cropped, aligned and processed in gimp 2.6

After a great long night - had slept from 11pm to 7am - the shiny morning sun bid me welcome back to life. it is always a better start of the day if outside is at least a tiny little more brightness than in your unlighted sleeping room. so understandably todays breakfast especially hit the spot.

completely satisfied i entered our courtyard, as usual the camera stored in my bag waiting for daily surprises. tina and i live in a more than 300 years old timber-framed house which was the home for many nuns in the 18th and 19th century. the building is an absolute eye candy - the former workmen used beams that are anything but straight, unique bricks and natural tiles. we were lucky that the sanitation was completely modernized before our moving in, the building itself had already been restored in the 1990´s.

it´s a kind of magic to spend time in that wonderful piece of history. you´ll participate in my experiences during the following year(s) - i´ve got many ideas how photographies of details or whole parts of this house can revive this blog. hopefully living beeings will play their role, too.

by reason of the dwarfs only suitable ceiling height photos of our flat won´t come up before my equipment supports high iso capturing. but that doesn´t mean that our environment couldn´t be a part of my day by day blog shooting yet: right on your doorstep there follows a huge courtyard with an enormous lime in its middle. at the northern end you can find a small single family living house that in former times had been used by the nuns as a bakehouse and in front of it a tiny small pigsty that acts as a storage shed today. our groudskeeper seems to like the colour orange - me too.

regardless i decided to develop this photography in a cold and hard style without much colour because the summer is still far away and the temperatures don´t yet allow to put the winter coat away. furthermore in my opinion this kind of image processing perfectly shows the compromise between the sensitivity and the resistivity of buildings like that - they really don´t have a new look but come back in 10 years and they will appear like today.

don´t be afraid again: it will not be my focus to process my images, their natural characters are most important for me. so welcome to our nearest neighbourhood. have a peep, but be discreet.

cu, trshptr