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.

2808 - the white pantheresses

August 28, 2012 in 35, animal, b+w, bokeh, calm, cat, courtyard, eyes, face, fujian, fun, germany, home, mood, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, rain, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | manual focus | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

in life some things make a very good match: black and white, maybe chalk and cheese and definitely tina and kitties. my gracious lady is deep in love with cats since her early youth. an old black cat was living in the yard of her grandma and accompanied tina and her friends to the bus station every morning and waited for them there every afternoon to pick the kids up after school. since with zizou the first living ball of wool has moved in with us, tina is finally and completely contagioned with the kitty virus. although zizou had to be moved from our place to tina's grandma - i've already told you about the problems between her and nila - the number of cats in our yard has still risen. luckily our neighbours brought two more, very beautiful, white kitties with them to the joint yard.

from that perspective tina is currently very happy to live on our little farm. by pure chance paulinchen, the white pantheress, was recently bursting in on a little shooting in the yard and suddenly we had newly allocated the leading role of the planned image. now we have two white pantheresses that are like chalk and cheese...

cu, trshptr

2008 - family

August 20, 2012 in 30, b+w, eyes, face, family, germany, hair, home, nature, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, sibling, sigma, sister, sony, summer, sun, sunset

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/320 | lightroom 4.1

unfortunately we have a few issues with the topic family. it's not that we wouldn't get along with each other or wouldn't stick together - no, this all works brilliant.

the first problem is that both tina and my parents live separated. so the feelings of our youths will not arrive anymore. never again. but despite the divorced families we are now very satisfied with the situation of our parents because mercifully they are satisfied with their new life partners and lives, too. the second issue is the distance between the residences - you don't drive 550 kilometres every weekend if you want to live your own life, too. for that reason we sadly miss a lot of the growth process of our siblings.

my big sister maxi hits one growth spurt after the other. she is not far off being an adult female. take care of yourself, maxi! at least my heart goes out to you.

cu, trshptr

1408 - firefighting operations

August 14, 2012 in 50, action, bbq, contrast, courtyard, dinner, eating, food, germany, grill, hand, handicraft, home, meat, nex 7, personal, sel, sony, tripod, vegetables

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO200 | 1/800 | lightroom 4.1

during the last week a very special issue has caused topics for discussions in germany: highly probable germany's biggest poultry company wiesenhof will sponsor the bundesliga football club werder bremen. wiesenhof hit the headlines with information about antibiotics in the animal food, bunions, corroded lungs and absolutely disastrous living conditions for their animals plus killing in childhood.

as a result many club members are threatening werder bremen with their resignation if werder is really going into the contract. in my opinion the current discussion is bringing temporary awareness concerning the products we eat in our daily lives and how they are formed into the light of day again. no more, no less. probably rogue firms like wiesenhof are in the majority. everybody has to decide for himself how he manages the situation. and in a few weeks nobody will talk about this topic anymore.

i for one buy poultry and other meat only at the butcher of trust. if tina had her way we wouldn't eat meat anymore, but for me it's essential. fortunately today i didn't have to be behind the 8-ball: we had rib of beef of very good quality, and anyway the cows are reared completely species-appropriate.

cu, trshptr

1206 - garden-fresh harvest

August 12, 2012 in 30, agriculture, farmer, feet, field, food, garden, germany, green, harvest, home, nature, nex 7, personal, plantation, salad, sigma, soil, sony, vegetables

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

3107 - cute nagger

July 31, 2012 in 30, animal, b+w, cat, courtyard, eyes, face, germany, home, moment, nex 7, nila, nose, personal, portrait, reflection, sigma, sony, whiskers, window

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

sometimes our little kitty nila creates the impression that she is the most unviable creature on earth.

two minutes after she has left the flat she sits at the window again and mews for me to open it up. two minutes after i have left the yard she sits at the window and mews for me to open it up again. two minutes after she has got separated from me or tina she sits at the window and mews for anybody to open it up again... and so on and so forth.

again and again two minutes in her life, in which she always seems to remember the centre of her doing.

most times our little kitty nila creates the impression that she is the most amiable creature on earth.

cu, trshptr

2607 - out of the depths

July 27, 2012 in 50, b+w, cinema, face, fun, germany, home, light, mirror, mood, movie, nex 7, night, personal, portrait, sel, self portrait, sony, wood

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

... the dark knight is rising.

i'm just back from the cinema where the movie "the dark knight rises" has premiered. and i'm still stunned by the vigorous images that were presented in the third part of christopher nolan's film series. although i might say that the story of the second part pleased me a bit more after the first view, the outlining of the several characters is realised very, very well! just this fact justifies the visit to this movie.

maybe i'm going to dream about the movie characters tonight, about good and evil, batman and bane, integrity and betrayal. all these points are really hard to get hold of and the borders between them are partly fluent.

in the most general sense this posting renders homage to the great batman trilogy. unfortunately i don't own a batman mask so that i had to take a wooden mask from bali to cause a bit of fear. who can say how the next baddie will look like?

cu, trshptr

1007 - in the pouring rain

July 10, 2012 in 35, b+w, bokeh, calm, contrast, countryside, courtyard, eyes, face, fujian, germany, home, mood, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, rain, sony, texture

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | manual focus | ISO100 | 1/500 | lightroom 4.1

as i'd mentioned before special moods pleases me no end. when i came home from work today it had already rained for round about half an hour. a nice photography opportunity occurred: the stones in our backyard were wet, scattered light illuminated the yard and fortunately tina was willing to be my model that had to pose in the rain.

finally i'd realised that a planed photoshoot is a very difficult thing - you have to take care of so many little details that despite good expressions of my object more than the half of my images had at least one disturbing fault. however a dozen of pictures turned out well so that tina and also i are satisfied with the result and do not have to complain anymore.

the shown pic is the most natural one. maybe i'm going to show you more of the series later.

cu, trshptr

0907 - incidence

July 09, 2012 in 30, architecture, cobble, contrast, corridor, door, flag, germany, home, house, light, light beam, long-time exposure, minimalistic, nex 7, night, personal, sigma, sony, texture

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 30s | lightroom 4.1

mondays are as tough as leather. mondays subsequent to vacations are tougher than leather. today in the morning i almost didn't manage to get up. tina is on duty today so that she didn't hustle with getting out of bed. this fact made it not really easier for me starting the day. well, this is complaining on a high level...

finally the day became a medium one - usual business at work; nice weather; good ride on the mountain bike in the evening; delicious, by tina already precooked dinner and a lonely evening on the couch - not quite lonely, my kitty nila kept company with me.

once i have a plenty of time like today in the evening, i actually visualise the real beauty of our home in all its facets: old doors and massive flagstones are only two examples of the peculiarities of our home.

cu, trshptr

2706 - illuminated reception

June 27, 2012 in 30, architecture, b+w, balcony, building, countryside, door, germany, home, house, light, long-time exposure, nex 7, night, personal, sigma, sony, street lamp, texture, tripod

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 15s | tripod | lightroom 4.1

since today was a long business day with joint dinner afterwards, some sports had to been done, too, and the football match between portugal and spain seemed to have no end, i want to show you a part of our proximity with my daily posting. in the break between normal and extra time i've shot a couple of long-time exposed images of the entrance to our flat.

the entrance area is directly attached to the courtyard. we live downstairs: the illuminated window gives you an insight into our kitchen. it's truly a lovely place to live.

cu, trshptr