0909 - there's no shortcut

September 09, 2012 in 50, action, climbing, danube, germany, hausen im tal, nature, nex 7, partial coloured, people, personal, portrait, sel, sepia, sony, sport, summer, tattoo, valley

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/1000 | lightroom 4.1

being relaxed doesn't particularly mean not to be active. especially on fair weather days i have to set out into the world, whatever this is supposed to mean.

today this meant to go climbing in the danube valley with my mate martin and tina. the so called parking area rock near the village hausen im tal makes a good first step into the outdoor climb. you can burn yourself out without any problems at the 20 meters high rocks by spooling uphill after uphill. of course we have done the utmost to reach this condition at the latest today in the afternoon. next time we will probably have a try at one of the other 26 rocks in the danube valley.

whereas swimming in our wonderful lake constance is our common cool down program on those days and the very refreshing danube river was only at a stone's throw from the climbing place, we decided to go swimming in a river today what turned out to be a very cold but great experience.

at the end of the day i am finally reclining on the couch in a very relaxed condition despite being completely exhausted after a very active weekend.

cu, trshptr

0809 - summer relapse

September 08, 2012 in 30, blue, boat, bodman, colour, gangplank, germany, lake, lake constance, landscape, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, sigma, sky, sony, summer, water, wood

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f3.2 | ISO100 | 1/4000 | lightroom 4.1

earlier than expected the summer is back for a late summer interlude. yes, this weekend was supposed to be an active outdoor weekend but we couldn't calculate on such prime weather conditions. even better that we've had almost 30 degrees and bright sky today again.

whereas tomorrow the upper sections of our bodies will be strained by an outdoor climbing session in the danube valley today extensive hiking was due. we visited the marienschlucht, a ravine on the steep bank of the western end of lake constance. we walked almost 20 kilometres, half of it along the waterfront and the other half through the fabulous woods of constance.

of course our feet were glowing when we finally arrived bodman after our hike again. so why shouldn't we use the late afternoon for no resting and cooling down in the fresh water?

cu, trshptr

0609 - rural parking

September 06, 2012 in 50, architecture, building, car, countryside, facility, germany, house, ittendorf, light, light beam, nex 7, night, oldtimer, sel, sky, sony, timber-frame, tractor, village

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | +0.7ev | 1/20 | lightroom 4.1

of course you might believe that you know everything about your local environment. and then one day you break the usual habit and suddenly you find your way into a completely new world.

after a great dinner in a nearby restaurant that is operated from a couple from the alsace we had an absolutely necessary after-dinner walk through the villages. thereby a neat timber-framed building that i'd never noticed at daytime attracted our unrestricted attention. not only the great illumination but also the in front of the house parked tractor cut a great figure. in my opinion this was a really suitable scene for a rural village portrait.

marginal note: today in the afternoon very creative thoughts appeared in my brain, funnily while i was hoovering - tina would say that i should do this more often. some interesting photographic ideas were shaped to concepts. there's more to come.

cu, trshptr

0509 - backlit beauty

September 05, 2012 in 50, b+w, eyes, face, germany, grain, hair, high key, home, light, moment, nex 7, old photo, people, personal, portrait, sel, sepia, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | spot metering | 1/30 | silver efex pro plug-in for lightroom 4.1

i really don't know if i fulfil my ultramodern camera's capabilities when i process images with results like today's. why do i sometimes want the results to look like photographs from the 70's? is it pure retro fashion or hipster culture? i don't think so.

first of all without the low light capabilities of my nex 7 i'd have never captured this moment on camera. the room in that tina was bustling around was almost completely dark, only the backlight of the terrace window in her back made for an illumination. furthermore the integrated spot metering mode of the camera made a perfect illumination easily available to me. so far, so good. finally the negative was quickly captured.

whilst post processing it should be the aim of the photographer to give the finished image the expression the scene had originally conveyed. if i look at my lady and see a soft, satin-gloss sepia face with an intimate expression, an analogue-like processing is simply appropriate. in my opinion it absolutely is, because the above-noted image shows exactly what i'd seen.

cu, trshptr

0409 - leant at dusk

September 04, 2012 in 30, bermatingen, branch, creek, forest, germany, green, landscape, leaf, nature, partial coloured, plant, sel, sigma, sony, tree, trunk, water, wood

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO640 | -0.7ev | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

german woods are terrific. if you go into them at dusk, the mystic mood is easily sensible. thousands of leafs let incide only a few light beams onto the ground. the soil smells fruity and wet and the trunks appear vivid. small creeks find their ways through the fallen over trees and feed in that way the whole environment.

really a suitable place to spend the dusk.

cu, trshptr

0309 - orange

September 03, 2012 in 50, bathroom, bokeh, bottle, brown, colour, contrast, flag, floor, germany, glass, home, light, nex 7, orange, reflection, sel, shadow, sony, still life

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO250 | -1.0ev | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

while i was cleaning up my workroom today in the afternoon an empty flacon attracted my attention. every now and then tina beautifies not only our social areas but also "my private" room with useless but decorating stuff, as probably every wife in the world does. i've always liked the odour of the citron fluid in that flacon but today it unfortunately appeared empty and scentless.

till i'll have got anything appropriate to refill this nice, little bottle, a mix of rum and aperol had to satisfy for the daily pic. although this cocktail doesn't smell as good as an orange tree, it definitely looks as orange as the original fill had looked.

cu, trshptr

0209 - looking up

September 02, 2012 in 50, b+w, baby, boy, car, child, eyes, face, germany, grey, hand, home, light, moment, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, sel, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO320 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

today was a very social day. after we had slept till almost noon and eaten an opulent breakfast, we went to the local wine festival with our neighbours and met some other friends. subsequently we continued the appointment at out place with coffee, cakes and parlour games.

today in the afternoon the particular was to get to know how (very) young children interact with such a big group of persons. my mate marcel's boy mika is currently at the age of one year - he is exploring his surrounding the entire time. his hunting instinct after our kitty nila was most amusing for us, he forgot simply everything around him when he spotted her.

additionally it was real fun to see how his mood was changing within seconds. anger and fun, disregard and admiration, all these lay close together.

cu, trshptr

0109 - to the last drop

September 02, 2012 in 50, b+w, drop, garden, germany, grain, grey, home, leaf, minimalistic, nature, nex 7, old photo, pattern, plant, reflection, sel, sony, texture, water

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.

3108 - home time

August 31, 2012 in 50, abandoned, architecture, blue, building, colour, facility, factory, germany, glass, light, long-time exposure, markdorf, nex 7, night, pattern, red, sel, sony, window

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f13.0 | ISO100 | 5s | tripod | lightroom 4.1

finally it's home time. tomorrow we'll visit the local rock music festival in constance which will take up our whole day and night. the weather forecasts are very bad, it'll probably rain the whole time. so what? we'll be prepared. unfortunately the camera has to stay at home for that reason.

also the last employees had already left the offices when i took the night shot of an interesting facility in markdorf. maybe tomorrow there will be some of them among the 25.000 visitors.

cu, trshptr

3008 - behind bars

August 30, 2012 in 50, animal, bokeh, brown, colour, contrast, countryside, eyes, fisheye, germany, hair, horse, langenbernsdorf, nex 7, orange, portrait, reflection, sel, sony, texture

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO800 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

keeping of animals is a sensitive topic. who gives the mankind the authorisation and permission to cage up animals of any kind? is it the evolution, our superiority? or is it outright ignorance?

every human being on this planet has to answer this question for itself. basically there are different reasons for keeping and caging animals and i don't want to kick off a huge discussion about the reasonableness of caged pets. only one question: dear lovers of nature and animal protection advocates, why is it okay for (the most of) you to cage up these wonderful horses?

cu, trshptr