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. 

2104 - nothing but energy

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 28mm | f8.0 | ISO200 | 1/800 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4 

i'm back from my holiday trip to sardinia, italy. what a great island! sincere persons, delicious food, beautiful mountain villages and not least an impressive shore. the picture above was shot on last saturday at a beach south of bosa.

1904 - things have changed

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

... in east germany. 

after my yesterday's discrediting posting i would like to balance the representation of my homeland a little bit. as i had already addressed the boom of the last twenty years, the city hall of greiz called vogtland halle was built in the last three years as part of this era.

the hall is a venue for different kind of events for example concerts, lections and public events like youth dedication ceremonies which have survived the turnaround and the former times. like these rituals a great many old city mansions have resisted the ravages of time, in some places you can find them directly next to newly built lighthouse projects such as the vogtland halle.

i really get into a balanced mix of monumental, old architecture combined with modern glass and metal structured buildings. i like the pic above because of its clear and straight lines and the melted architectural trends, that also mirrors in the reflections.

cu, trshptr

1404 - transparency

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 27mm | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/6 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

i like things being transparent. you know you get yourself into familar surroundings. if you are able to bother yourself about the worst case in this context you will not being caught unawares by anything or anybody. for that reason it is always helpful to know all boundary conditions, so you can estimate the problem's variability. ok, maybe too abstracted.

yesternight was transparent for various reasons: we felt very comfortable in the surroundings of our friends. we know the event, the long live music night is conducted every year. the locations are also well-known. all that led on to a great evening with nice music, some beers and cheerful talks.

one of the twenty stages was proverbially transparent, too.

cu, trshptr

btw: i don't want to discuss the low light performance of my borrowed eos 400d again, but it hitted the wall concerning iso and aperture so that i had to shoot with inappropriate shutter speeds the whole evening. that's why only one of ten pics turned out well. let´s forget it, only some days to go.

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

1204 - upstairs

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 37mm | f5.0 | ISO400 | 1/25 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

there are people that always use the elevator. they use it also if they work in the 3rd floor and their toilets are located in the 2nd one. indeed there are people that use the lift to go up and down for a cigarette. it's not just that they contaminate theirselves and the environment, additionally they don't go a few steps down- and upstairs to compensate their pollution.

there are people that suffer from a cardiovascular disease. fastfood, an awful lot of coffee or / and alcohol and far too little exercise confuse the human organism. if you do not take countermeasures, you will perish. 

and there are people that are aware of these and all the other critical problem areas. their daily lives are mostly characterized by stress, pace and they are often pressed for time. but they know that every thought about provision is not about half the price of the measures to revise the problems in old age.

i think i rank among the last group. i avoid to use the elevator. i do not smoke anymore. i moderately drink coffee and alcohol. i excercise minimum twice a week. i'm aware of the problems of the modern society. at least i believe it.

for this posting today we made an exception and used the escalator. however there you can also go upstairs.

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

0204 - partial chromatic patch day

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 31mm | f4.5 | ISO100 | 1.3s | aperture priority | raw file cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

although today was not the second tuesday of the month but the first monday, for me it was patch day. my beloved galaxy nexus received an update to android 4.0.4 aka build imm76d. the patch fixes some problems with the built-in camera app, improves the performance of the operating system and resolves more than 100 minor issues.

as a result of the android update i had to perform the root process again, because the device looses the root feature while bringing an official software update into coincidence. however root access is mandatory if you want to use apps that need in-depth system control.

by way of example the application dslr controller requires this feature. with this tiny little piece of software you are allowed to control your canon eos dslr from your android device, with nothing more than an usb cable. mainly i use dslr controller to review my captured pics on my tablet pc or compile exposure latitudes by the help of my galaxy nexus when i´m on the way.

therefore i spent my evening with numb, cold hard- and software - as if i hadn´t had enough time with bits and bytes all day long. but are technics really deadhearted? i don´t think so. look over the picture. as you can see android, the little robot that lives in my smartphone, is in maintenance mode, quasi at the doctor´s. feel reassured - it was only a routine check and he is well again!

cu, trshptr

3103 - silence before the storm

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 27mm | f7.1 | ISO100 | 1/800 | aperture priority | raw file cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

contrary to expectations the weather yesterday was not only clear but rather the temperatures made a chill out at the lake possible. so we visited hagnau, a small, pretty village right beside the lake. the sun was really warming, the cappuccinos were delicious and our walk relaxing. finally tina and i had rested on the quay walls for about two hours, in the meantime i took some pictures.

i kind of like the gangplank pic, not only based on its clear and simple appeal but the fact that chilling out at the lake is currently barely possible anyway. as i said before starting in easter a great many tourists will raid the villages and towns at the lakeshore what unfortunately forces the locals to avoid these areas. but yesterday we were still able to enjoy one of the nicest places in germany in an abandoned state.

in the evening we drove to ravensburg where all stores and shops had opened until 11pm because of a special event, the long shopping night.

we returned not on the same day, so i had to discover my new installed lightroom 4 on sunday. anticipatory i can say that lightroom is a big improvement to rawtherapee. visit my flickr stream to see it for yourself.

cu, trshptr