1511 - cascade

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/400 | lightroom 4.2

if you concentrate on seeing natural patterns in your daily environment, you should surely catch sight of many of them.

they might not always make a good subject for photography if you'd image them in their overall context. but if you handle detaching them from their surrounding and highlighting the peculiarity of your composition, the results will satisfy you very probably. additionally you can try to mix overall patterns with small ones - i especially like this feature in today's photograph of the green, straightly triangle-shaped hedge in association with the wonderfully coloured, patterned leave mass.

cu, trshptr

3010 - end of these particular work days

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO640 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.2

some things will never change: coming home from work on night duty days of tina is pure heartache for me because i'm anything but a person who enjoys his own company.

so i hurl myself into rituals: coming home; cuddling nila, the cat; exercises, taking a hot shower, dinner, extensive practising. sleep. 

no matter if the year is 2005 or 2015: this was and will be the same as it ever was in our relationship.

cu, trshptr

0109 - to the last drop

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO1000 | 1/80 | silver efex pro plug-in for lightroom 4.1

today was the long-awaited festival day, we were at the rock am see festival in constance. as i told you yesterday my nex 7 had to stay at home because i didn't want to mind out my equipment the whole day and night. anyhow i've shot a few pics with my smartphone (two examples on my mobile photography tumblr blog: the tree & tired).

the festival itself was brilliant. my favourites were itchy poopzkid, flogging molly, greenday and kraftklub - in that order. it was a lot of drinking, dancing and pogo. great fun with a few wounds in the aftermath which is perhaps down to the fact that we revved up to the last drop.

cu, trshptr

btw: the photography magazin fotohits gives away pro licences of the b&w post processing plug-in application silver efex pro, the predecessor of the current version 2. their promotion will be active till end of september, get your own key here if you want. today's pic was used for a first attempt working with this lightroom plug-in. i'm very satisfied with the results.

2608 - brisk goings-on

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f3.2 | ISO100 | 1/320 | lightroom 4.1

unfortunately the weekend is already gone again. it was very interesting for me to reside at andi's brother's family with some other friends of them (and now also mine) in one huge house directly next to the swiss border: altogether four men, three women and four kids bustled about the whole house and property to prepare and support the men's cycling ride on sunday and have a great time together.

after that the ride itself was a great pleasure: we worked through the distance of 100km in a group of eight riders. all of us reached the finish line without any problems. the only criticism we had was that we had to brave the storm which massively obstructed our progression, fortunately only temporarily. however finally we've defeated him in the downhill.

in the afternoon after the race there were usual brisk goings-on in the garden again. the women had already prepared the ingredients for a delicious spanish paella so that we only had to grill them in a huge pan on the gas grill. andi handled this job very experienced so that we could brace ourselves after the challenging bicycle ride in the black forest. of course the child might not be absent: they made for a quite busy atmosphere that is needed to have a really cosy surrounding.

cu, trshptr

1206 - garden-fresh harvest

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO125 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

i know what the saying "living from hand to mouth" rather implies: you are so poor that provisioning isn't quite possible because you need simply everything you can find for your daily ration. fortunately this state isn't appropriate for us, actually most of the people of the first world don't have this problem. everything is available almost everywhere.

nevertheless also in the industrial countries some people still carry on a kind of organic farming and grow products that are obtainable in stores and shops, too. vegetables of all kinds are grown, so for many recreational farmers a hobby is associated with a useful thing - your daily bread. regardless the use of the saying of the first paragraph is also suitable for them: provisioning isn't convenient because garden-fresh, natural products are easily perishable.

the topic is present in the first place because this week tina and i care for the kitties and the great many plants and vegetables of our neighbours because they are currently on vacation. since we are assertively allowed to pick their ripe harvest, i think there are worse jobs on this planet.

cu, trshptr

0908 - reminiscing

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | manual focus | ISO100 | 1/1000 | lightroom 4.1

coming home after a temporary leave is always a great pleasure. today in the evening not only tina but also her lovely mum romy and her brother marv have received me with wide opened arms when i arrived home from my climbing course in the alps nearby mittenwald.

for that reason tina had arranged a table in a wonderful restaurant with the nicest pub garden i've ever seen nearby friedrichshafen - the krone (crown) in raderach. we four together had a cosy night with terrific food, beer and wine from the local area at the lake constance. it's too bad that marv and romy have to leave us already tomorrow morning and i've missed almost the whole span of their visit. anyhow tina shall remain still faithful with me. clearly!

cu, trshptr

2706 - pure lily

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

the one or other appears belated. sometimes it is important that anything appears anyhow. whilst the calla lilies of our neighbours are already withered, our sole calla has finally decided to begin to blossom this week.

tina is very delighted by this fact, even if the lily needs her courtesy and care every day - according to our neighbour who is a full-time gardener, this year all lilies suffer from a virus that causes visible spots on the leafs of the callas (also in my pic). let's hope for its recovery.

today i want to say goodbye till sunday evening or monday because we are going to be on a short summit tour in austria at the weekend. the weekend postings will be published a bit delayed, sorry for that. wish you pleasant days off.

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

2305 - castle of dreams

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/80 | lightroom 4

after three years of permanent, weekly travels because of my job i really don't want to be lonely anymore. for this reasons night duty days of tina sometimes put me into a slightly depressive mood. there it was a heaven-sent opportunity that my evening mountain bike tour led me into the well-lit forest where i finally was acting on my feelings. and fortunately on my way to nowhere i almost accidentally came by the castle of salem.

we live at the lake constance for three years now but during this time we have never been at the castle, even less its inner yard or garden. i did not know how great the whole grounds actually are. moreover today evening an enchanted atmosphere was dominating. the pic above expresses this hogwart like mood very well - no, i'm not a harry potter fan, i had to google the name of his school - although i applied only a little bit of post processing to the raw file, excluded the black and white conversion. i will definitely come back to this magnificent area to accurately inspect the total and its details and to tell you more about its history.

previously two more nice pics of today evening can be found on my flickr stream.

cu, trshptr