0105 - cheeky easiness

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

1st of may, national holiday, may day or labour day in many countries. in the most states of germany the rite of walking and cycling has a great vogue. you have the sense that everybody is on the streets in these days.

of course we were on the roads today, too. during our bicycle tour with friends we stopped at the lake for an ice and a cappuccino. i spotted the scene shown in the picture in hagnau sitting next to the gangplank. the family on the right side was enjoying their sundae while the cheeky little girl on the left showed her butt for a funky shooting. please always keep your easiness, little lady!

cu, trshptr

2904 - green lungs

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f9.0 | ISO800 | 1/125 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

again at last the first night in my own bed after the return of two weeks of travel. once i had ended the first session of post-processing of the accrued pictures at 0130am and my subsequent sleep at 0900am i considered the next big bunch of pics that i had shot in sardinia. unfortunately i'm still not half-done. cheer up, the way is the goal. learning by doing, that's what it is all about.

at 0300pm tina took me out to an excursion to a keep-fit-trail in the middle of the forest of the hill gehrenberg. we really had a lot of fun while we were running through the course. 13 sporty stages had to be done.

the 14th one was called breath. always keep breathing.

cu, trshptr

2004 - enchanted forest

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 27mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/200 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4 

only nearly a month till my birthday. on the last day of our home visit i had a long walk in the dreamful forest  of goettendorf with tina's grandpa and his dog lea. we had already ranked big rape fields until we reached the entrance into the woods. a black mood was dominating, only very few light beams pierced through the tree crowns and the evaporating rain caused dense fog inside the forest.

how shall i put it? i love the pic above, it turned out very well. in my opinion the low local contrast post processing is well-suited for this kind of scenery. the forest and its trees signifies infinity, clarity, purity and naturalness. for me it's a kind of ablution to have a walk in such a genuine surrounding.

cu, trshptr

btw: my publications will be continued a week from now. i will sojourn at a place in the middle of nowhere, only with tina and - unfortunately still - my 400d. postings will handed in later. take care!

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

1704 - farewell

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 28mm | f4.0 | ISO800 | 1/8 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4 

today it was a very sad day. we gave our first kitty zizou to tina's grandma. unfortunately we hadn't seen an other possibility to solve nila's suffer.

zizou, you are of a real character, gracious and unique. but you together with nila, that doesn't figure anymore. nila's doom vs. your move, these options were available. you would have chosen equally. what is exceedingly important to me: after almost six years of living together and that huge bunch of problems that we have mastered as a team you will be stored in our hearts forever. we hope that you know that we haven't betrayed you. :-(

please be always careful - after your infestation of fleas as a baby, your bad liver problems as a teeny and your accident with a car two years ago there are only four of seven lives left.

cu when i'm of good heart again, trshptr

1604 - master painter

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 34mm | f4.5 | ISO800 | 1/30 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4 

today i have brought - as the word is in germany - colour into play. this is a saying for making the things more interesting. besides this saw directly matches with the words you would say if a soccer player is straightly red-carded.

in my case today colour was brought proverbially under the skin - although today it was all about black, i exceptionally count this manifestation among the colours. in the early evening i had an appointment with konrad k., the tattooer of my confidence and owner of the studio xxxl-tattoo. as always we were in an animated conversation while konrad was smartening me up. today's subject was the tree of life, a symbol that signifies infinity, at least for me.

being at the tattooer is maybe comparable with a woman's appointment at the hairdresser. the customer has to trust the service provider blindly. at this moment you are at the contractor's mercy. a relationship of trust comes into existence only when the provider reveals its innermost thoughts. this state konrad and i had already achieved some sessions ago - most of the women vibe with their hairdressers directly after the first prosecco, too. konrad is a thoroughly honest, straightforward and positive guy from warsaw (pl) that by the way is a great tattooer. he is my master painter.

the pic was shot by me, hand-held, the left arm outstretched. it was one of round about twenty attempts. the focus is on konrad's hands.

cu, trshptr

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

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