0909 - there's no shortcut

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/1000 | lightroom 4.1

being relaxed doesn't particularly mean not to be active. especially on fair weather days i have to set out into the world, whatever this is supposed to mean.

today this meant to go climbing in the danube valley with my mate martin and tina. the so called parking area rock near the village hausen im tal makes a good first step into the outdoor climb. you can burn yourself out without any problems at the 20 meters high rocks by spooling uphill after uphill. of course we have done the utmost to reach this condition at the latest today in the afternoon. next time we will probably have a try at one of the other 26 rocks in the danube valley.

whereas swimming in our wonderful lake constance is our common cool down program on those days and the very refreshing danube river was only at a stone's throw from the climbing place, we decided to go swimming in a river today what turned out to be a very cold but great experience.

at the end of the day i am finally reclining on the couch in a very relaxed condition despite being completely exhausted after a very active weekend.

cu, trshptr

0809 - summer relapse

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f3.2 | ISO100 | 1/4000 | lightroom 4.1

earlier than expected the summer is back for a late summer interlude. yes, this weekend was supposed to be an active outdoor weekend but we couldn't calculate on such prime weather conditions. even better that we've had almost 30 degrees and bright sky today again.

whereas tomorrow the upper sections of our bodies will be strained by an outdoor climbing session in the danube valley today extensive hiking was due. we visited the marienschlucht, a ravine on the steep bank of the western end of lake constance. we walked almost 20 kilometres, half of it along the waterfront and the other half through the fabulous woods of constance.

of course our feet were glowing when we finally arrived bodman after our hike again. so why shouldn't we use the late afternoon for no resting and cooling down in the fresh water?

cu, trshptr

0509 - backlit beauty

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | spot metering | 1/30 | silver efex pro plug-in for lightroom 4.1

i really don't know if i fulfil my ultramodern camera's capabilities when i process images with results like today's. why do i sometimes want the results to look like photographs from the 70's? is it pure retro fashion or hipster culture? i don't think so.

first of all without the low light capabilities of my nex 7 i'd have never captured this moment on camera. the room in that tina was bustling around was almost completely dark, only the backlight of the terrace window in her back made for an illumination. furthermore the integrated spot metering mode of the camera made a perfect illumination easily available to me. so far, so good. finally the negative was quickly captured.

whilst post processing it should be the aim of the photographer to give the finished image the expression the scene had originally conveyed. if i look at my lady and see a soft, satin-gloss sepia face with an intimate expression, an analogue-like processing is simply appropriate. in my opinion it absolutely is, because the above-noted image shows exactly what i'd seen.

cu, trshptr

0209 - looking up

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

today was a very social day. after we had slept till almost noon and eaten an opulent breakfast, we went to the local wine festival with our neighbours and met some other friends. subsequently we continued the appointment at out place with coffee, cakes and parlour games.

today in the afternoon the particular was to get to know how (very) young children interact with such a big group of persons. my mate marcel's boy mika is currently at the age of one year - he is exploring his surrounding the entire time. his hunting instinct after our kitty nila was most amusing for us, he forgot simply everything around him when he spotted her.

additionally it was real fun to see how his mood was changing within seconds. anger and fun, disregard and admiration, all these lay close together.

cu, trshptr

2908 - silent reading

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | +3.0ev | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

it's quite possible that we've had the last day of midsummer today. probably for the last time of this year the air was pleasant warm and the lake's water invigorating cool. at the moment heavy clouds and thunderstorms are gathering over lake constance and south germany.

i'll definitely miss the daily short getaway on the lake when i'll leave the area around lake constance one day. tina was already on the lake when i ended today's work and enjoyed the silence by the water. she had soaked up the sun the whole afternoon and unfortunately her skin was already coloured in a kind of brown-red. for that reason she dressed with her white bike longsleeve and turned her back on the sun while she was reading her current (german) book "die unglaubliche geschichte des henry n. brown". she sitting in front of the glowing, silent lake was the perfect subject for today's candid picture.

cu, trshptr

2808 - the white pantheresses

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | manual focus | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

in life some things make a very good match: black and white, maybe chalk and cheese and definitely tina and kitties. my gracious lady is deep in love with cats since her early youth. an old black cat was living in the yard of her grandma and accompanied tina and her friends to the bus station every morning and waited for them there every afternoon to pick the kids up after school. since with zizou the first living ball of wool has moved in with us, tina is finally and completely contagioned with the kitty virus. although zizou had to be moved from our place to tina's grandma - i've already told you about the problems between her and nila - the number of cats in our yard has still risen. luckily our neighbours brought two more, very beautiful, white kitties with them to the joint yard.

from that perspective tina is currently very happy to live on our little farm. by pure chance paulinchen, the white pantheress, was recently bursting in on a little shooting in the yard and suddenly we had newly allocated the leading role of the planned image. now we have two white pantheresses that are like chalk and cheese... 

cu, trshptr

2008 - family

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

unfortunately we have a few issues with the topic family. it's not that we wouldn't get along with each other or wouldn't stick together - no, this all works brilliant.

the first problem is that both tina and my parents live separated. so the feelings of our youths will not arrive anymore. never again. but despite the divorced families we are now very satisfied with the situation of our parents because mercifully they are satisfied with their new life partners and lives, too. the second issue is the distance between the residences - you don't drive 550 kilometres every weekend if you want to live your own life, too. for that reason we sadly miss a lot of the growth process of our siblings.

my big sister maxi hits one growth spurt after the other. she is not far off being an adult female. take care of yourself, maxi! at least my heart goes out to you.

cu, trshptr

1408 - firefighting operations

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO200 | 1/800 | lightroom 4.1

during the last week a very special issue has caused topics for discussions in germany: highly probable germany's biggest poultry company wiesenhof will sponsor the bundesliga football club werder bremen. wiesenhof hit the headlines with information about antibiotics in the animal food, bunions, corroded lungs and absolutely disastrous living conditions for their animals plus killing in childhood.

as a result many club members are threatening werder bremen with their resignation if werder is really going into the contract. in my opinion the current discussion is bringing temporary awareness concerning the products we eat in our daily lives and how they are formed into the light of day again. no more, no less. probably rogue firms like wiesenhof are in the majority. everybody has to decide for himself how he manages the situation. and in a few weeks nobody will talk about this topic anymore.

i for one buy poultry and other meat only at the butcher of trust. if tina had her way we wouldn't eat meat anymore, but for me it's essential. fortunately today i didn't have to be behind the 8-ball: we had rib of beef of very good quality, and anyway the cows are reared completely species-appropriate.

cu, trshptr

1206 - garden-fresh harvest

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO125 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

i know what the saying "living from hand to mouth" rather implies: you are so poor that provisioning isn't quite possible because you need simply everything you can find for your daily ration. fortunately this state isn't appropriate for us, actually most of the people of the first world don't have this problem. everything is available almost everywhere.

nevertheless also in the industrial countries some people still carry on a kind of organic farming and grow products that are obtainable in stores and shops, too. vegetables of all kinds are grown, so for many recreational farmers a hobby is associated with a useful thing - your daily bread. regardless the use of the saying of the first paragraph is also suitable for them: provisioning isn't convenient because garden-fresh, natural products are easily perishable.

the topic is present in the first place because this week tina and i care for the kitties and the great many plants and vegetables of our neighbours because they are currently on vacation. since we are assertively allowed to pick their ripe harvest, i think there are worse jobs on this planet.

cu, trshptr

0908 - reminiscing

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | manual focus | ISO100 | 1/1000 | lightroom 4.1

coming home after a temporary leave is always a great pleasure. today in the evening not only tina but also her lovely mum romy and her brother marv have received me with wide opened arms when i arrived home from my climbing course in the alps nearby mittenwald.

for that reason tina had arranged a table in a wonderful restaurant with the nicest pub garden i've ever seen nearby friedrichshafen - the krone (crown) in raderach. we four together had a cosy night with terrific food, beer and wine from the local area at the lake constance. it's too bad that marv and romy have to leave us already tomorrow morning and i've missed almost the whole span of their visit. anyhow tina shall remain still faithful with me. clearly!

cu, trshptr