0911 - options

November 10, 2012 in 50, b+w, crimmitschau, family, germany, grain, high iso, home, indoor, light, mirror, nex 7, personal, portrait, reading, reflection, sel, sepia, sister, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO3200 | 1/13 | silver efex pro for lightroom

usually you have many options to watching tv in the evening: reading a book, surfing the web, talking to each other or playing games are only a few of them. unfortunately german television programmes are mainly of poor quality by this time. in fact most of the broadcasters have to be avoided completely, otherwise you risk your solid sense.

plainspoken with increased regularity watching tv isn't an option for me and us anymore. while my girls are resting on the couch and reading their stuffs i'm going to head off to meet my best friend here in homeland, the only thing that makes sense for me now.

as a technical note the pic above was processed without any noise reduction or additional grain again - not so bad after all.

cu, trshptr

0811 - sweep of the horizon

November 08, 2012 in 8, blue, cinema, colour, fisheye, germany, house, jena, landscape, light, nex 7, night, planetarium, sky, snow, sony, technics, tree, walimex samyang rokinon, winter

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/15 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.2

next birhday, next journey - today we drove to the carl-zeiss city jena to visit the planetarium with tina's father, who turned 47 this week. it was only the second or third time overall that i went to a planetarium. the appertaining facilities in jena and also the whole technical audio and video equipment was modernised during the last months and the outside of the astrodome is currently rebuilt to the historical, original condition by being painted in the same colours and decorated with the same pictures.

unfortunately today's image had to be underexposed by almost two stops because there was simply not more light emitted by the projector and i did not want to raise the iso value over 1600 to keep as much details as possible in the raw file and the shutter speed was with 1/15 already at the upper limit, too. consequently exposing any longer was also no option because the whole sky was spinning. so i had to push the highlights and whites during post processing, but by now i really don't know if the results wouldn't have been a bit better if i'd used 6400 and as a result exposed almost correctly.

whatever, despite my bleating the overall result is still pleasing. and of course the visit and the whole day were nice, too.

cu, trshptr

0711 - eye of the tiger

November 07, 2012 in 30, abstract, car, contrast, eyes, germany, light, minimalistic, nex 7, night, pattern, portrait, sigma, sony, symmetry, technics, werdau

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.2

in recent months i'd to learn that lighting design has become an ordinary field of study by now. especially concerning the led headlights of the new volkswagen, audi and porsche i've to admit that these guys have done a really good job.

the expression of the new vw passat of my father frightens simply everybody who gets sight of him in the rear-vision mirror.

cu, trshptr

0511 - guitar hero

November 05, 2012 in 50, b+w, bokeh, face, germany, greiz, guitar, hand, high iso, light, mood, music, musician, nex 7, night, personal, portrait, sel, shadow, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | 1/8 | lightroom 4.2

there are different possibilities to produce well exposed low light shots. one of them is to hold the camera steady and use the capabilities of the built-in stabiliser. if your skills are well developed, the subject isn't moving and you are fortunate you can get decent results. this method shouldn't be used when you desperately have to get a good result in a temporary and short candid scenery but it is the first choice if you need best quality, rejects are not a problem and time isn't limited. for the picture above i applied only a bit of noise reduction during post-processing. the sample is one of round about 30 attempts to shoot marv while he was playing a slow, relaxed song on his guitar.

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO12800 | 1/160 | silver efex pro for lightroom

contrary to the first one the black and white sample was shot with very, very high iso settings. i'd never touched such high iso ranges before, but now i've to say that it is really an option for me if the subject is suitable. the image above was post-processed in silver efex pro completely without any noise reduction and additional grain. due to the iso of 12800 i was able to shoot marv while he was rocking the guitar in the almost complete darkness. i think that it looks really great.

cu, trshptr

0311 - (full) tilt

November 04, 2012 in 30, action, colour, concert, diversity, felsenkeller, festival, germany, indoor, leipzig, light, live, movement, music, nex 7, night, pattern, people, sigma, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO800 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.2

what a day! got up at 4am, drove to berlin, visited the opening ceremony of my second study at the beuth university, drove back towards homeland, but stopped in leipzig for the dynamite ska music festival and my brother-in-law's 18th birthday.

arrived at home at 2am, almost 24 hours and more than 800 kilometres lay behind me when I finally collapsed into bed.

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.2

10 bands entertained the diverse crowd of punks, hools, skins, rastas and ordinaries for more than 7 hours. at the latest at half past ten the most of them all were dancing at full tilt.

with today's pics i like to show you differently tilted views of the wonderful felsenkeller from last night.

cu, trshptr

3010 - end of these particular work days

October 30, 2012 in 50, animal, blur, cat, cobble, door, floor, garden, germany, grain, home, light, nex 7, nila, old photo, personal, sel, shoes, sony, vintage

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO640 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.2

some things will never change: coming home from work on night duty days of tina is pure heartache for me because i'm anything but a person who enjoys his own company.

so i hurl myself into rituals: coming home; cuddling nila, the cat; exercises, taking a hot shower, dinner, extensive practising. sleep.

no matter if the year is 2005 or 2015: this was and will be the same as it ever was in our relationship.

cu, trshptr

2510 - in black and white

October 25, 2012 in 30, abstract, art, b+w, contrast, deeper meaning, germany, home, light, minimalistic, mirror, multilayer, nex 7, pattern, reflection, shadow, sigma, sony, texture, tripod

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f11.0 | ISO100 | 1s | lightroom 4.2

there is no more time for me to waste - i have to blacken a lot of paper during the next years again. my study is finally on-going. dozens of lecture notes have to be read and dozens of scripts have to be implemented. i wonder how i'll manage all the stuff.

i want to apologise in advance for shorter texts with the daily posting - i've to shift my focus to the really important things. besides the most important points like the family the study will occupy the most of my time (besides work, of course). and instead of text i'll understandably concentrate on the photograph.

in today's pic you can see three sheets of paper on the reflecting cover of my laptop, illuminated by my desk lamp. they still gleam completely white but be sure - the blackening is not far off!

cu, trshptr

2410 - thankyou

October 24, 2012 in 8, barcelona, blur, bokeh, colour, flare, gold, light, macro, medal, nex 7, purple, retrofocus, sony, spain, still life, texture, vintage, walimex samyang rokinon, walk

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | handheld retrofocus | 8mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.2

the journey is over, i'm home from spain again. the caminada internacional de barcelona 2012 - the international walk of barcelona - was definitely worth the flights, nights' stay and days off.

the iml walking association did a great job in organising the whole event. everything, simply everything worked very well, there was nothing to worry about. for that reason at this place i want to bring my tribute of praise and a short thank-you note in behalf of all walkers to the whole iml team. thank you all!

you may not believe that the charge of 8 euros included not only the catering, the whole organisation with cordon, signposts, final party, all the documents for the finishers and much more but also a gold medal if you walked and finished on both days. due to this piece of metal i'll always keep this trip in my mind... of course i think highly of all the volunteers and sponsors, too. without their efforts these events couldn't take place again and again.

today's image was shot with the walimex ultra-wide-angle fisheye lens in handheld retrofocus position. the shown image section covers a crop of only 6 millimetres. it's interesting what you can do with a fisheye lens, isn't it?

the purple flare results from the lateral, incidental light that produces a non-post-processing vintage look. in this case this effect is desired but you can easily avoid this magenta shift by preventing lateral incidence of light with a tube or the like, too.

cu, trshptr

2110 - way of seeing

October 21, 2012 in 50, abstract, architecture, art, barcelona, contrast, deeper meaning, electricity, light, minimalistic, nex 7, night, sel, sony, spain, street, street lamp, townscape, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/200 | lightroom 4.2

things in life appear in different ways. depending on the way of thinking and especially the relation to an absolute reference good and bad can differ a lot. you by yourselves have to set your own levels.

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO200 | 1/80 | silver efex pro for lightroom

nobody is able to speak for you. and nobody else than you knows what is good for you.

btw: both images were shot from the same position with exactly the same angle of view in quick succession. only the exposure settings and the post processing were adjusted in different ways.

can you see the analogy between this and real life?

cu, trshptr

1910 - top view

October 20, 2012 in 30, architecture, bar, barcelona, light, memorial, monument, nex 7, night, restaurant, sigma, sony, spain, square, street, street lamp, townscape, trip, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/25 | lightroom 4.2

urban development is definitely a topic that i could have studied, too. for me it's very interesting to see and investigate the history and structure of cities and towns i visit.

i don't want to go into detail too much, the (german) wikipedia article about the placa reial is very detailed and profound. but one fact is worth to be called: antoni gaudi, one of the most famous architects of spain ever, (who had designed the sagrada familia, the most prominent building of barcelona, you might know it) has also projected the "sheltered lanterns" on this placa reial.

the square that is located next to the world-famous street ramblas, the square where our hotel is directly attached to and the square where we look down from our roof terrace. time to catch a breath and relax.

cu, trshptr