1101 - expectations

January 12, 2013 in 35, art, ballet, city hall, colour, friedrichshafen, germany, gold, light, live, nex 7, night, novel, people, public viewing, scenery, sel, sony, street lamp, theatre

expectations - sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f2.0 | ISO1600 | 1/60

a large part of the ballet performance of compañía nacional de danza reminded me of one of the most beautiful videos on vimeo: murmuration.

the dancers were correlating almost as good as the thousands of starlings in the video. nevertheless every once in a while the majority of the players came to rest and only the main actors were performing their part of this modern drama.

0701 - reflection

January 07, 2013 in 35, beard, bokeh, deeper meaning, eyes, germany, home, light, mirror, mood, nex 7, night, people, portrait, reflection, sel, self portrait, sony, texture

reflection - sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f2.0 | ISO1600 | 1/13

today was a good day. fairly old, pretty good memories appeared and caused a lot of questions in my mind. self-reflection is a process that i've internalised during my trainings, but this is of course way beyond looking at oneself in the mirror - have i changed for the better or the worse since a certain point? highly likely this question has to be answered by others.

any way, today is a very good day.

0601 - glowing wire

January 06, 2013 in 35, abstract, art, bar, bokeh, furniture, germany, glass, indoor, light, light bulb, nex 7, night, nuremberg, reflection, restaurant, sel, sony, wire

glowing wire - sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f2.8 | ISO640 | 1/60

staying in a luxury hotel is usually not included in our daily business. however every now and then you have to treat yourself for a good performance.

it might well be that there are bigger and more splendid bars here in nuremberg. but i'm not sure, if there are more interesting illuminated ones, too.

0501 - open-air hockey

January 06, 2013 in 8, arena, blue, colour, del winter game 2013, fisheye, germany, ice hockey, light, light beam, nex 7, night, nuremberg, open-air, people, red, sony, sport, stadium, walimex samyang rokinon

open-air hockey - sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8mm f2.8 | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/25

the del winter game 2013 in nuremberg made history - it was the biggest league match ever in european ice hockey. at the bottom line almost everything was pretty fine in nuremberg today. besides misty weather and far too little beer stalls there was nothing to worry about, except the tight 4 to 3 loss of the ice bears from berlin against the local ice tigers. but considering the quality of the whole event today this could once be ignored as irrelevant.

50.000 spectators, nevertheless i wondered about the great atmosphere in the stadium: despite the fact that probably a lot of them hadn't been at a hockey game before in their lives and also despite the peculiarity that the distance between the playing surface and the ranks was estimated ten times bigger than in an usual hockey arena, almost all the people were clapping, singing and crying and made for a nice atmosphere.

0401 - light cage

January 04, 2013 in 8, architecture, colour, contrast, deeper meaning, fisheye, germany, indoor, light, light beam, meersburg, nex 7, night, pattern, red, shadow, sony, symmetry, walimex samyang rokinon

light cage - sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8mm f2.8 | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/25

the interior decorator of my fitness studio should be definitely dismissed. he designed a conversion pit that is enclosed by three walls. and above the table there hangs a lamp that conveys the sense of being in a prison or a bird cage. cosy, isn't it?

3112 - the big burning

January 01, 2013 in 35, alps, colour, fireworks, fog, germany, lake, lake constance, light, light track, long-time exposure, markdorf, mist, moon, nex 7, night, pattern, sel, sky, sony

ladder to the moon - sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f5.6 | ISO200 | 6s

usually i don't work according to the principle of trial and error. however if you want to take a photograph of fireworks, your preparation time is zero and your equipment isn't appropriate, you have to trust your luck and coincidence.

a toast to 2013 - sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f5.6 | ISO200 | 6s

actually i did not have a good basis to shoot a successful image of any of this wonderful money destruction rockets today. besides my nex7 with the sel 35 i had nothing with me to work with, no tripod, no remote release and so on. never mind, let's have a try. steady shot off, search for any bolster, manual settings. go!

the lake is burning - sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f5.6 | ISO200 | 30s

the location couldn't have been better. the view from the local "summit" gehrenberg over the lake is tremendous. and despite the fog and the incineration gases the shapes of the lake itself and the alps were vaguely perceptible.

2912 - focus on top

December 30, 2012 in 35, b+w, bermatingen, blur, bokeh, colour, flower, friedrichshafen, germany, light, mirror, nex 7, night, people, purple, reflection, sel, sony, street, sun

sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/2000

both manual focusing and autofocus work well with the sony sel 35 f1.8. for the picture above i focused on the solitary flower in the upper middle of the frame. due to the focus peaking feature of the nex system and the butter smooth focus ring manual work is rather a pleasure than a step backwards in history. i really like the atmosphere of this (definitely imperfect) photograph, it might have been captured also at the mediterranean seaside.

sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f1.8 | ISO1250 | 1/60

some hours later cold and rough friedrichshafen got us back. for this street shot i used the autofocus system, applied on the four ladies on the left-hand side of the frame. the chief difficulty in this scene was the fact that what you see in the photograph is actually a scattered reflection of the goings-on in the street, quasi an image of the ceiling of this corridor. despite that issue the autofocus didn't pump and did his work satisfactorily.

2812 - headless

December 29, 2012 in 35, alps, bokeh, friedrichshafen, germany, indoor, light, museum, nex 7, night, pattern, people, review, sel, shadow, sony, technics, zeppelin

sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/80

although i often rail against the dreariness of friedrichshafen, its museums are not less than first class. both the dornier museum at the airport as well as the zeppelin museum on the waterfront have straight, clear shapes and consequently message. besides huge bodies of knowledge that are presented in different modern and interesting ways - new media included - and are only waiting to be checked out by the visitors, also the photographer doesn't come off badly.

sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/60

today i used the visit to the zeppelin museum of friedrichshafen as a chance to attach the new sony sel 35 f1.8 to my nex7 the first time. how shall i put it? it's gorgeous!

sony nex 7 with sel 35 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/100

what's the easiest way to shortly describe the capabilities and peculiarities of a new gadget without using technical wording and rattling out specifiations?

in my opinion the sel 35 is rather a shrunken sel 50 than a hybrid of the sigma 30 f2.8 and the sel 50. although i must confess that i haven't stopped down the lens above f4.0 yet, it seems to be obvious that the sigma will remain the sharpness champion in this competition, but the sel 35 is almost on level. however in all the other categories there is a clear decision by me - the sony is the better package. stabilisation (i love it!), much better look and feel and the low light advantages definitely compensate the plus in costs. moreover the 35mm focal length gives a bit of a more interesting angle of view, at least for my photographic eye.

i'm going to use the sel 35 continuously for at least one week now. so stay tuned to my daily updates if you are interested in further details, images and opinions about the sony sel 35 f1.8.

2612 - at the centre

December 26, 2012 in 50, christmas, cloud, colour, germany, green, light, markdorf, moon, nex 7, night, pattern, sel, shadow, sky, sony, star, street lamp, winter

sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/13

in winter the ordinary street lamps receive temporary support by the incandescent christmas decoration. this makes for a cosy atmosphere, for example in the narrow alleys of historic towns like markdorf. if the moon additionally appears by back-lighting the clouds, your christmas feelings get into top gear again, despite being already on the home stretch.

2512 - yoo-hoo smile

December 26, 2012 in 35, advent, blur, bokeh, candid, christmas, colour, eyes, face, fujian, germany, hair, home, nex 7, night, people, portrait, sony, tree, winter

sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | f1.8 | ISO1600 | 1/20

although you might think that the pic of our today's (second) presents hand out looks a bit like a frame of a posed scenery, there was truly not more than a yoo-hoo by me to attract tina's attention for a short time, this one (almost) candid image. your eye for the details - colours, lights, atmosphere and so much more - is the key to success.

my enchantress tina and i wish you all the very best!