2307 - debut work

July 23, 2012 in 50, action, art, b+w, blur, fun, germany, markdorf, movement, nex 7, pattern, sel, sony, street, street art, symmetry, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f3.2 | ISO100 | 1/30 | lightroom 4.1

today i plunged into the world of art. for that reason i want to let my spinning graphic art speak for itself. a picture is worth a thousand words...

as you may have realised, i don't take myself too serious today. i felt like it and i think, that everybody should have such days every now and then. tomorrow i'll be serious again. for sure.

cu, trshptr

2007 - experimental views

July 21, 2012 in 50, art, blur, exhibition, face, germany, glass, markdorf, mirror, multilayer, nex 7, partial coloured, pattern, people, personal, reflection, sel, self portrait, sony, window

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO320 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

weekend time is visiting time. this weekend two fellow students are visiting me at lake constance. christian, who is the father of a two and a half year old, cute boy, hasn't been at my place since more than two years. and i've not seen karl, who is also a father since more than one year, since we ended our movement to the lake in summer 2009. a long time passed since then, but luckily we are still on the same page although we three are completely different as different can be.

after they'd arrived at my workplace, i've showed them everything in my company, the facilities and the beautiful surroundings at the lake. when we came home tina had already prepared the dinner so that we could directly have a seat for a great spaghetti bolognese and some beers. in the evening we visited the opening of the exhibition "experimentelle 17" and ended in a tiny little bar with another beer.

the vernissage gave variety in modern, experimental art: iron structures, paintings and sculptures of well- and also little-known artists are exhibited at five places at the lake constance for two months from now on. the work of peter casagrande was the most impressive one: he works with huge canvas and glaring colours, beautiful to look at. however the work of andreas lau was the most interesting one: as an example he creates plastic, three-dimensional images with dozens of multilayered dots with different diameters in front of a shadowed background. really formidable!

the image in my pic shows a blurred child, that is traversed by some parallel lines. if you view this image at a remove from some meters, the child is clearly visible. however if you see the painting from up close, everything blurs to a coloured mass. also very formidable and a top implementation by the artist!

for logical reasons i used the topic and the kind of implementation of "the child", my favourite exhibited painting, as an opportunity to implement my daily pic also of this character. my pic a multilayered, partly blurred, candid self portrait of tina and me in the environment of the exhibition.

cu, trshptr

1807 - orange patchwork

July 18, 2012 in 30, architecture, brown, colour, facility, germany, light, markdorf, nex 7, night, orange, partial coloured, pattern, shadow, sigma, sony, townscape, urban, walk, wall

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO640 | 1/50 | lightroom 4.1

today i hadn't had the time to catch a breath before half past nine. after work i had to wash all the bicycles, three in number, and do some maintenance work on tina's mountain bike. after all i have lingered after an after work coffee latte at a branch of a well-known big junk chain for the whole evening. at half past nine tina and i had finally accomplished our object, a tall latte for me and a vanilla frappe for her.

while we were stretching our legs subsequent to the drink, i spotted the illuminated, orange wall, that seems to be composed of dozens of rectangular patches. nothing spectacular, but beautiful to look at, especially because its recurring forms and the nicely produced shadows.

cu, trshptr

1607 - plump vs. lean

July 16, 2012 in 50, architecture, art, b+w, contrast, deeper meaning, facility, germany, markdorf, minimalistic, nex 7, pattern, sel, shadow, sony, street, street lamp, texture, townscape, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

during the last few weeks i've begun to be satisfied with the technical implementation of my pics. slowly but steady i have a handle on my nex 7, i do not have to think about its operation anymore. conversely i'm really impatient of a few of my daily pic ideas or/and the composition of these images. precisely because there is a lack of interesting photography opportunities in the area around lake constance - besides the often shown and captured idyllic scenes - the collocation of a well composed image has to be reconsidered again and again. as from now i want to take into account all factors: concentrate on the full details, compose a statement and affect the viewers, if possible.

let me begin in a small way: some parts of our societies discriminate against people, that are plump or lean. the most people do not have the balls to voice this, what makes them appear even more ridiculous. fortunately there is a lid for every pot, as you can see in the image above. everybody has to have the right to exist regardless whether he, she or it is thin or fat, black or white, tall or small.

my story may seem quite a stretch, sorry, but this is what i've thought when i spotted the scene today in the afternoon in markdorf. cultivated coexistence, nothing else matters! no fence between the individuals, no podium for anybody, because there is no right or wrong. so as you can see the composition of today's pic is still not perfect, but the architectural circumstances were set... ;)

cu, trshptr

1307 - outstretched tongue

July 14, 2012 in 30, b+w, decay, eyes, face, lisbon, mood, nex 7, pattern, people, poor man, portrait, portugal, sigma, sony, street, suburb, tongue, tramp, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/320 | lightroom 4.1

friday, the 13th. time for a recapitulation of my portugal trip. time to review the top 100 of images and also time to show some more of these pics. pictures of the tough reality at our beloved holiday destinations.

i have shot a similar image of a tramp in constance, germany, some weeks ago. poverty doesn't stop at borders and cares little about nationality.

cu, trshptr

0707 - depth

July 08, 2012 in 50, architecture, b+w, bokeh, bollards, cobble, grain, grey, lisbon, nex 7, pattern, portugal, sel, shadow, sony, street, suburb, texture, townscape, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO100 | 1/4000 | lightroom 4.1

unfortunately vacations seem to end always in the high of the personal emotions. just when we felt comfortable with the whole surroundings in lisbon, we sadly had to depart to faro to catch our flight to memmingen.

summarising can be said that the south of portugal is also definitely worth a journey or a even longer trip in vacations. thereby both the southern region around the algarve and the north around porto have their special issues and pros and cons: as i had supposed the southern landscape is more rocky and touristic than the rest of portugal, on the other hand the north-south shore of the north is more suited for surfing.

the duel between the cities porto and lisbon ends up in a tie: both cities are located at the atlantic coast and at the mouth of a big river. both profit from the maritime influence of the seafaring, the fishing and a dozens of thousands of seagulls. porto convinces with its naturalness and unobtrusiveness, whereas lisbon scores with its variety and a great nightlife. i think i'm going to see over both of them during the next years surf trips again.

a special detail of lisbon's townscape are its streets: cobbled streets and steep descent make your life a living hell if you are old and it teems down so that the cobblestones become slippery. what appears for the visitors as an eye candy, discommodes the lives of the local citizens. good if you can move hand over hand along a dozens of bollards.

0607 - pulling the strings

July 06, 2012 in 50, architecture, art, b+w, contrast, lisbon, nex 7, pattern, portugal, public transport, sel, sky, sony, spider, street, townscape, tram, urban, web, wire

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO100 | 1/4000 | lightroom 4.1

the tram of lisbon is world-famous. the "carros eléctricos de lisboa" are operated by electricity already since 1901. due to the partially historic transport fleet and the interesting routing across the hilly townscape of lisbon the tram is very popular with the tourists.

besides the obvious points of the tram as a wonderful infrastructural feature of lisbon it attracted my attention with its spiderweb of contact wires that is pulled across the whole city centre and in that way indirectly influences the townscape. in spots only one ring sticks a lot of wires together. amazing thing!

cu, trshptr

0407 - arco da rua augusta

July 05, 2012 in 50, architecture, art, ceiling, facility, lisbon, memorial, minimalistic, monument, nex 7, night, partial coloured, pattern, portugal, rua augusta arch, sel, sight, sony, still life, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO200 | 1/20 | lightroom 4.1

for a beginner like me it isn't that easy to develop a different view on the common and sometimes most photocopied scenes of the world. there is a repugnancy: you want to attract the viewer but you don not want to bore him with well known images. for lisbon i especially set my sights on keeping the number of pictures within a limit and additionally i want to try to avoid pictures that in this way were shot already thousand times before.

let's get started with a view of the ceiling of the arco da rua augusta. it is a triumphal arch-like, historical building and visitor attraction on commerce square, built to commemorate the city's reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake. it has six columns (some 11m high) and is adorned with statues of various historical figures. originally designed as a bell tower, the building ultimately transformed into elaborate arch within more than century-long delays (source).

cu, trshptr

0207 - parallel running

July 03, 2012 in 50, art, b+w, bruno guerreiro, contrast, eyes, face, glass, lagos, light, nex 7, night, pattern, people, portrait, portugal, sel, shadow, sony, street

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO1250 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

many things in life run parallel. love and hate, black and white and also things that aren't that contrasting like occupation and vocation. not everybody is able to unify occupation and vocation. a great many people only work to earn the necessary amount of money to ensure the life standard and actually fulfil their selves in spare time with any hobbies.

by pure chance i met bruno guerreiro, a portuguese photographer, in the historic town of lagos today in the evening. he approached me because of my camera equipment and in so doing we got into conversation about photography and anything else. he's going to exhibit some stuff in the cultural centre of lagos starting in the middle of july. i entrust a visit of his exhibition to everybody who lives or is currently for holidays in portugal: http://brunoguerreirophotography.pt.vu

like the great many people i spoke about in the first paragraph he is also not able to earn his bread and butter with his photography but it is his passion and his heart is really in it. it was really nice meeting you, bruno!

cu, trshptr

0107 - flagged

July 03, 2012 in 50, architecture, art, colour, flag, lagos, light, nex 7, night, pattern, portugal, red, reflection, sel, sony, stairs, street, texture, townscape, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO400 | 1/20 | lightroom 4.1

till wednesday everything revolves about surfing. so at present there is hardly time for other activities because after three hours of surfing you are simply dead.

after a restful sleep of minimum six to seven hours you have to breakfast extensively to accumulate an adequate amount of energy for the first lesson. after the transfer to the surf sport monte clérigo near aljezur at the west coast you complete your equipment and before the action restarts in earnest. three hours of surfing that are divided by a break of round about one hour for lunch.

in the evening we are completely starved and exhausted so much that after another extensive meal in the historic town of lagos in the most cases the next way leads us directly into bed. anyhow one or another photo opportunity falls to me. probably i'm going to zero in on photography in lisbon again.

cu, trshptr