0307 - sea level from above

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/800 | lightroom 4.1

before we leave the algarve towards lisbon besides surfing a bit of landscape exploration had to be done, too. after we visited the north of portugal with the regions around porto, aveiro, figueira da foz and peniche whilst the second of our last year's surf trips with their long and flat beaches for this year we expected a rocky and mountainous shore and more clayey soil.

and we weren't disappointed by the south of portugal: along the seaside we were walking for round about three hours from porto de mos to dona ana. it was a constant up and down with the view of beautiful postcard pictures.

despite everything i was especially taken with the special angle of the view on the things on the sea level. it was a bit like flying over the shore and observing the activities from this special position.

cu, trshptr

2906 - among the others

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO100 | 1/800 | -0.7ev | lightroom 4.1

tomorrow we will depart germany towards portugal. a few days of surfing will be combined with a roadtrip along the southern west coast to lisbon. for that reason today we were enjoying our spare time after work before we will have to leave our home: besides some hours of chilling in our yard under the sun umbrella in the afternoon tina and i had a long walk through the fields around our village where we played hackysack and badminton and watched the sunset till the mosquitos began to eat us alive.

when you observe the edges of the fields attentively you can sometimes spot special sceneries of the vegetation: at odd times a complete different breed is arrayed among the others. similarities to real life can't be denied.

cu, trshptr

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

2106 - oasis of carelessness

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO320 | 1/80 | +0,7ev | lightroom 4.1



setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO1600 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

the 100th post. wow, amazing, how the time goes by. as intended i learn day by day and have a lot of fun while using the sony. my current three lenses have established in the usage with the nex: most of the time the sigma 30f2.8 is mounted, for special uses i have the sel 50f1.8 and if technical picture quality doesn't matter the fujian 35f1.7 is my first choice, especially for dreamy portraits.

today was the date of departure, what means that we had to leave our oasis of carelessness and relaxation in the alps and return to real life. if you had a view from the terrace of your cottage as shown in the two photos of this posting, you would possibly think twice about your impending departure.

but of course you don't want to leave your lovely waiting.

cu, trshptr

2006 - royal lake

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/125 | lightroom 4.1

as you would expect our nature oriented training day became an idyllic one. the koenigssee, what proverbially would be royal lake or lake of the kings in english, is a very pretty place in germany and recommendable for everybody who has a thing for the landscape of for example norway or canada.

apparently there was no way round this fact for the authors of travel guides of germany. already in the early morning when we arrived at koenigssee dozens of japanese have jumped on the first boat to salet, the southeastern end of the lake. they all must have read of the speciality of the most southeastern corner of bavaria and germany in any guide, otherwise they still would have been sleeping in their hotels.

almost every asian man and woman was armed with a huge dslr (except two girls who have used the nex 5 - well chosen, ladies), most of them with nikons, and not really provided with any composition strategy - trial and error seems to be the shooting method of the most of the southeast asian tourists. why not...

nevertheless the journey was definitely worth the early getting up. due to our fast step we have been the first people who entered the valley today. unfortunately the air has been very foggy so that a lot of pics didn't turn out very well. but a few of them even profited of the special air conditions - while we were sailing over the lake suddenly the sun came into the lakeside and illuminated an abandoned gangplank. the complete rest of the hillside was residing in the foggy and misty dark. a mysterious mood came over me. nice place to be there for a while, also if you know of and live at the lake constance.

cu, trshptr

1806 - closing time

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO800 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

new week, new business trip. this time austria, this time more comfortable than last week. instead of subject-specific training the central topic of the further training of this week is team building.

besides the arrival in steinplatte a short mountain climbing was planned for the schedule today. nevertheless some participants of the training decided to rest at the cottage where we will live for the next three days and a few people set off to the summit of the duernbachhorn (1776m).

after a sporty way up in today's summer heat we were sweating that much that we necessarily had to undress our shirts. never mind, thereof you won't see any pics, censored! fortunately I spotted an even better scene at our stop at an alp inn while decline.

a lumberjack was resting on a bench after his hard daily work and reading the daily press. he was a very representative sample of the common mountain men - wiry, fit and above all very kind!

cu, trshptr

0806 - fluent passage

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 28mm | f8.0 | ISO200 | 1/400 | lightroom 4

especially in the first days of our sardinia trip we had spotted many of these very elemental landscape scenes where of course several photographs were shot by me. the route between alghero and bosa is simply beautiful.

the impressive landscape in spring in combination with misty and foggy weather created a mysterious mood that had to be captured in an image. if someone had been sitting on this bench i'd probably have to remove this person from my scene.

cu, trshptr

0606 - bastion of calm

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/80 | lightroom 4

during the last night (almost without sleep) i have decided to use the nex free time for publishing a multi-day sardinia series on the basis of my pics from april 2012 to keep the blog alive. the wonderful island really deserves this honor, i'd definitely entrust a sardinia trip especially in spring to everybody who is interested in elemental nature.

the first pic of the series shows the famous capo caccia at the west coast of sardinia. the building in the upper right corner of my image lies 110m above the sea level at the edge of the cliffs. when the waters are calm you can visit the neptune's grotto at the foot of the cliffs.

the cliffs seem to be solid as a rock. but in a margin of several ten thousand years even the rock isn't more than a blink of the eye.

cu, trshptr

btw: the photographs of this series will not be published at flickr because i'll have to pre-plan the postings because of a business trip next week.

2905 - morning bloom

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/1600 | lightroom 4

although i'm a huge fan of the dark side of life - autumn, fog and mist, darkness, rain, all things that i go for - currently i'm unable to struggle against the ongoing summer. in the morning everything is still a bit wet of the dew but in the end of may the sun has already risen and the temperature has reached almost 20 degrees when i'm on my way to work by bike.

a wonderful enchanted mansion is located along the way to immenstaad. even if flowers and blossoms are not my favourite scene, i was fooled into interrupting my drive because of the great mix of the corn poppies in the middle of the dreamy cottage garden in front of purple foxgloves and the rising sun in the background.

when i reached work i had donned a protective cloak against stress, mischief and hustle and bustle. days should always start like that.

cu, trshptr

2705 - one, two, three, whee!

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | manual focus | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/2500 | lightroom 4

a long party night is followed by the hangover. although this morning tina was committed to drive she had slightly headache and fatigue after getting out of bed whereas i didn't have any problems despite the six beers of yesterday evening.

except our meeting with friends in ravensburg on saturday evening the whitsun weekend was characterised by the greyhound racing event that took place near our home on saturday and sunday. yesterday a breed contest was conducted by the greyhound racing club bermatingen and today national and solo races have attracted the spectators.

i have never visited such an event before. accordingly i was deeply impressed by the speed and the power of the greyhounds and the atmosphere on the ground. two notably interesting facts: firstly there were almost no brawls between the animals although at least 50 to 100 top motivated dogs were on hand and ready to start. second off the fastest runners need only a little bit more than 30s for 430m which means an average speed of 50km/h. wow!

two more interesting pics of these athletes can be found on my flickr stream!

cu, trshptr