2606 - dead wood

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

tina is one of the old school - reading becomes accepted only on paper. printed matter is highly regarded by her, kindles are admired but fundamentally not used (yet).

"there are enough reasons against these items. what would for example be that they don't smell. or that i can't open a kindle up."
"yes, you can. use a cover and you will be able to open it up."
"but the smell..."

ok, a compelling evidence is nonexistent, but life isn't always logic and coherent. reading a novel has to do with dreaming and the medium has to transfer this atmosphere. so i can absolutely take her point.

for our upcoming surf vacation in portugal we bought a novel for each of us: tina is going to take jonas jonasson's "the hundred-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared" along and i'm going to read mcgrath's "white heat". maybe i'll tell you more about these two pieces of poetry after the vacation.

since we ignore electronic reading material we put a direct strain on the nature - for the most part paper is made of wood. i don't exactly know what is worse for the environment: the complete life cycle of a handheld reader or the consumption of the at least renewable resource wood. my gut says that i'm currently on the correct side of the green conscience, even if only just.

cu, trshptr

2406 - chimichurri

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

today we had dinner outside in the yard. nothing of note, but all parts of our meal could be prepared on the charcoal grill. for that reason with today's posting i'd like to bring the recipe of our dinner home to you.

asado beefsteak with chimichurri for 2 persons

meat
- 2 entrecóte steaks (250g)
- pepper from the mill
- sea salt

chimichurri
- 1 scallion
- 1/2 bundle parsley
- 2 fresh branches thyme
- 1 handful oregano
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 to 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tea spoon of sea salt
- 1/2 tea spoon of black pepper
- 1/4 red paprika or tomato
- 1/2 tea spoon of paprika powder, sweet
- 100ml olive oil
- 50ml red wine vinegar
- 50ml water

if you like the taste of beer pickle your meat in beer for 24 hours. at the start of the preparation take the meat out of the fridge minimum half an hour before the preparation, wash it with cold water and dab it dry. cut into the layer of fat at an interval of 2cm. necessarily use a charcoal grill, otherwise the meat wouldn't been flavoured as intended. grill the steaks medium, 3 minutes per side. afterwards wrap it in aluminium foil and let it rest at the edge of the grill for 8 minutes.

for the garnish use mortar and pestle to shred to dry ingredients. afterwards mix it with the liquids and let it rest in the fridge. brush the grilled and flavoured meat with the chimichurri.

enjoy your asado beefsteak for example with a grilled corncob with soy sauce.

cu, trshptr

0306 - ladies at their best

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.7 | manual focus | ISO1600 | 1/20 | +1.7ev | high contrast monochrome jpg | cropped and optimised in lightroom 4.1

time flies, on a large and also on a small scale. it's been round about seven years that tina's best friend jeen visited us in hamburg for the first time. it's all water under the bridge.

but time flies in microcosm, too. just arrived some blinks later the weekend and their flying visit are gone again. nevertheless we four had a great and impressing time with talking, laughing, eating and drinking, sightseeing, boating and fortunately a bit sleeping. there's a reason for that: tina and jeen are a bit like chalk and cheese and jeen's boyfriend is simply a terrific choice, we and especially i really enjoyed the time with him.

even if today's picture's technical implementation can be allocated to the "fun and imperfection" - category, i really go for the moment i captured with my fujian toy lens: today i wanted to play around with the high-key effect for what i overexposed the ladies sitting in front of a window by round about two exposure values, using the high contrast monochrome mode in my nex. afterwards while post processing i raised the exposure and the different values for black and contrast once again in lightroom. it's a first high key attempt, not more, but i like it! whereas this might be down to the wonderful ladies...

cu, trshptr

3105 - private peek

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO200 | 1/100 | lightroom 4.1

in regions with an appropriate social base money is not to be sniffed at. especially the area north of the alps and the lake constance profits clearly by its inherent natural beauty. the amount of money that is received in this way flows mainly back directly into the communes.

you can see this circumstance in any issue of daily life. one noticeable topic is the structural condition of the (most of the old) buildings in the historic townscapes. if you use f.e. the view of the cities in the east of germany as reference for comparison you will find a lot more derelict houses than here in suedbaden. so far, so good.  this comes as no surprise.

but what does that really mean? it seems to be a kind of vicious circle for the affected regions regarding different aspects: either tourists or qualified employees are attracted, therefor their money flows into other regions. so the communes have no funds to modernise their infrastructure, their townscape and so on. which means that everything remains as it is. unfortunately i know this phenomena from different regions of germany, among others my homeland.

the region of the linzgau was never affected by this vicious circle. the historic townscapes are in most cases proper, neat and tidy, even more than 300 years old houses like ours are in a good condition. way back when the municipal administration of our commune bermatingen had understood that buildings like the eichenhof have a great appeal with the tourists and therefor their money.

of course i rejoice at our home, it is individual, full of character and it's a pleasure to live here. i hope you enjoy the private peek, too.

cu, trshptr

2405 - faked fisheye

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | 1/40 | lightroom 4

with today's photo i kill two birds with one stone: you get a glimpse of my lovely bathroom and also without a vivid fantasy you are able to get an idea of my simple hairstyle. i took the picture immediately after leaving the bathtub.

while you are passing judgement on the technical implementation of the shot (f.e. regarding focus) and on the seeming length of my nose, please have consideration for the crowning of the shower head... ;-)

cu, trshptr

2005 - delicious small fruit

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 28mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/25 | lightroom 4

as i wrote in a former posting at the weekend breakfast amounts to a huge ritual in our household. since two weeks domestic strawberries are available again at last. we had missed these delicious small fruits coming fresh off the regional production!

our thanks have to be conveyed also to the polish temporary workers who are appointed in questionable wage conditions only for the high season. to be honest: i would accept the circumstance that a lug costs twice as much if either the employers would raise the wage of the polish harvest hands or more local workers would be hired.

cu, trshptr

1305 - quality and passion

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 49mm | f5.6 | ISO200 | 1.6s | lightroom 4

today afternoon i was up for an extensive music listening pleasure. i would like to describe two different perspectives on the topic.

the head:
technics assures quality. since my uncle had given me an understanding of loudspeakers, amplifiers and sound sources i am very interested in acoustical engineering. for that reason i have studied mechanical engineering with the area of specialisation mechatronics and acoustics and in autumn i will begin a further education study - designed as distance learning - with the topic computational engineering in berlin - i'm looking forward. i want to be forearmed when my time at lake constance has passed and i'm going to return back to acoustics - maybe in 2014.

to assure appealing sound quality i own a good and proper equipment, maybe further details will be the topic of future postings. beforehand i would like to recommend the company nubert: the value-for-money ratio of their loudspeakers is outstanding.

the soul:
music is passion. enthusiasm catches everybody up that opens up to its energy. music is a permanent feature of my daily life. my favourite radio station fm4 from vienna is on constantly and if it isn't i permanently look for new music at spotify. additionally tina and i as often as possible visit concerts and festivals, this year probably the southside festival and the rock am see festival.

above all i have the liability to depressive music. music can't be too sad for me. even though it may sound unusual - many a time i'm overwhelmed by a special transient mood so that i just can't help it and indeed the music makes me cry. for me this is a cathartic process.

music is passion. among others it is my passion.

cu, trshptr

1105 - community

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 35mm | f4.5 | ISO400 | 1/40 | lightroom 4

contrary to f.e. the uk in germany it is common practise to rent the dwelling. of course we don't buck the trend. as i said before we live in a very beautiful rented accommodation with a huge courtyard in its middle. next to us a handful other parties reside. today we - (almost) all together - had a very nice time at a wine tasting directly next to our house at the vineyard "markgraf von baden".

we have learned a lot about wine, its production, the vineyard (140 hectare) itself and the earl. after five hours of talks and fun i summed the evening up in a small piece of poetry for the host's guestbook. in german:

freitag abend,

6 sorten wein,

erquickend und erlabend,

da sagt der eichenhof nicht nein,

dazu ein opulentes vesper,

nette gedichte,

definitv keine rester,

nur mehr lachen im gesichte.

analogous in english, of course without rhyme:

friday evening,

6 sorts of wine,

invigorating and refreshing,

the "eichenhof" doesn't say no,

additionally an opulent evening meal,

nice pieces of poetry,

definitely no remains,

just more laughter in our faces.

the community is strong.

in the pic above you can see some bottles of homemade pear schnapps of the vineyard.

cu, trshptr

0905 - vertical

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 52mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/250 | lightroom 4

may i introduce mr. vertical, the brown little spider, to you? we met today in the morning while i was brushing my teeth. together we had a nice shoot before he escaped through our terrace window.

i wish you all the best, take care of your gracile legs, they are wonderful.

cu, trshptr

0805 - the early bird gets the worm

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO400 | 1/50 | lightroom 4

while i was processing the planned image of today's posting sitting on a deck chair in the yard my remaining kitty nila spotted an eurasian blackbird. whereas i hadn't been completely satisfied with the light conditions of this shot, i came naturally to desist from the pic - you will see a better version in the near future.

so nila and i observed the in my view cute, in her view delicious little bird that had caught a fat worm for his infants. by the way i shot some pictures of the blackbird, only the maximum focal distance of my kit lens hampered a better result. the blackbird was remaining calmly while i approximated because he was constantly assessing the situation.

moreover he was in a favourable position and he had already caught his worm.

cu, trshptr

btw: the picture above is far away from being a masterpiece, but it is not so bad after all and above all today it was important for me to share nila's and my experience with you. and: yesterday the third lens for my nex arrived - the sigma 30 f2.8. tiny little black piece of japanese engineering.