1505 - rear view

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO200 | 1/800 | lightroom 4

the rape's blossoms were sprouting quickly during the last days. now the yellow colour mixes well with the green stems. moreover today we had perfect dramatic nature shot weather. the weather conditions were changing, strong winds came down. therefor all parameters seemed to fit for a nice landscape pic.

fortunately i was able to convince tina to model for me. she was the most important parameter. she was the most important parameter for my shooting. and indisputable she is the most important parameter for my life.

we've had enough of words - a beautiful rear can also endear.

cu, trshptr

1205 - sufficient distance

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/20 | lightroom 4

today forenoon tina and i attended the opening of an art exhibition of two local painters in the little cloister weppach some minutes by car away from our home. above all we really fall for the artist hendrik tuttlies. his oeuvre relates to the topic transition of the nature.

the colourful graphics and drawings were drawn by him with drawing ink or paint on canvas, glass, aluminium or paper. very interesting, very impressive. the man in the pic above must have thought that, too, he lingered over studying the drawing for a few minutes.

cu, trshptr

1005 - curved lines

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4

currently we have foehn at the lake constance. today the temperature increased about eight to ten degrees, the humidity decreased and now the sky is full of cirrus clouds. i'm going to tell you more about the microclimate at the lake in the near future, i have the wish to combine this information with a great panorama of the alps with the lake in the foreground. unfortunately here at the lake constance we need very special conditions to have good visibility and one of the essential parameters is the foehn, of which more later.

nevertheless at prime weather i was seeking for a nice scenery for today's posting. the fruit farmers have already prepared their plantations for the protection against birds that perhaps consume the yield and possibly eventuating heavy thunderstorms that are also conditioned by the microclimate at the lake. for this reason they fixed meshes above their fruit trees to protect them against birds and hail. the meshes are not yet stretched but when the fruits finally grow or the forecast switches completely the farmers will be well-prepared.

cu, trshptr

0705 - downhill force

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f4.0 | ISO800 | 1/800 | lightroom 4

actually i'm a big fan of the uphill climb. that's why i own a hard tail mountain bike and a racing cycle. although i'm usually not frightened to go downhill, there are enough reasons for me to live without a full suspension bike.

besides the huge maintenance expenditure of the additional hinges, the irreversibility of the drive train, the higher injury risk while going downhill and higher acquisition costs the main purpose of my in the summer almost daily used bike was the clincher: i use it especially to get to work, to go on excursions with tina and to exercise my endurance. therefor you don't need no soft tail. that's enough of factual explanations.

after a usual working monday i had to supply my need for a little uphill tour. while i was sneaking uphill i thought about the loneliness and solitude that you can find in forests only on monday afternoons. everybody seems to have more important things to do than a walk through the trees. fortunately i had resisted the rationality and suddenly my life was enormously slowing down, if only for this brief moment.

only the downhill force awaked me from my daydream.

cu, trshptr

btw: no, the pic above was not shot with a go pro hero. 8) sadly the exposure time was set up a little bit too short to show the real speed of me and my bike of round about 30km/h. at least the fork is sharp.

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

2504 - insights

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f11 | ISO100 | 1/100 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

okay, it's an idyllic shot. but you would have been impressed, too. please enjoy the view over baunei, a beautiful mountain village to santa maria navarrese and the tyrrhenian sea. the altitude difference between the site of capturing and the sea amounts round about a half kilometre. really stunning.

2104 - nothing but energy

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 28mm | f8.0 | ISO200 | 1/800 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4 

i'm back from my holiday trip to sardinia, italy. what a great island! sincere persons, delicious food, beautiful mountain villages and not least an impressive shore. the picture above was shot on last saturday at a beach south of bosa.

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!

3103 - silence before the storm

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 27mm | f7.1 | ISO100 | 1/800 | aperture priority | raw file cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

contrary to expectations the weather yesterday was not only clear but rather the temperatures made a chill out at the lake possible. so we visited hagnau, a small, pretty village right beside the lake. the sun was really warming, the cappuccinos were delicious and our walk relaxing. finally tina and i had rested on the quay walls for about two hours, in the meantime i took some pictures.

i kind of like the gangplank pic, not only based on its clear and simple appeal but the fact that chilling out at the lake is currently barely possible anyway. as i said before starting in easter a great many tourists will raid the villages and towns at the lakeshore what unfortunately forces the locals to avoid these areas. but yesterday we were still able to enjoy one of the nicest places in germany in an abandoned state.

in the evening we drove to ravensburg where all stores and shops had opened until 11pm because of a special event, the long shopping night.

we returned not on the same day, so i had to discover my new installed lightroom 4 on sunday. anticipatory i can say that lightroom is a big improvement to rawtherapee. visit my flickr stream to see it for yourself.

cu, trshptr

2803 - grainy idyll

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 49mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/250 | aperture priority | jpg file ooc, only cropped in gimp 2.6

remember where you come from. this saying that was preached by dani, my last year´s surf teacher from bilbao, is always on my mind. times are changing, circumstances and surroundings, too.

what is and will remain is your origin. although i like to be an urban city boy who enjoys all kinds of the provided possibilities, who goes out and explores the streets every day, i currently have to accept that at lake constance rural life dominates.

for different reasons this fact isn´t a deal breaker for me: first of all we are situated in a stage of life of temporary nature. fortunately we exactly know when we will leave the south of germany again to move to ... . dot, dot, dot, because we already have an option for the next period of our lives but here and now we want to focus on actuality. otherwise you spend too much time with planing your further life while missing out on currentness. the second matter has to do with our beginnings. tina and i had grown up at a highly rural region in the east of germany before we got together in may of 2004 and moved to hamburg a year after. the liaison with the nature has always played a huge role in our lives and wasn´t disregarded during urban phases. last but not least the area around lake constance has the distinction of being one of the most beautiful regions in central europe. a great many tourists visit meersburg, hagnau and lindau or the southern coast of the lake in switzerland during the summer period between easter and september. why, this being the case, should we wish to be somewhere else?

the incluence of this issue on my photography project can´t be denied. so i take it as it comes - periodically pictures of our wonderful nature will be interspersed in my blog stream. but don´t worry - as often as possible i will give relief to them with involving anything that makes them less monotonous.

hope you enjoy the great sunset in the pic above, tina and i did. cu, trshptr