0306 - ladies at their best

June 03, 2012 in 35, b+w, bokeh, contrast, eyes, face, fujian, fun, hair, high key, home, light, minimalistic, moment, mood, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.7 | manual focus | ISO1600 | 1/20 | +1.7ev | high contrast monochrome jpg | cropped and optimised in lightroom 4.1

time flies, on a large and also on a small scale. it's been round about seven years that tina's best friend jeen visited us in hamburg for the first time. it's all water under the bridge.

but time flies in microcosm, too. just arrived some blinks later the weekend and their flying visit are gone again. nevertheless we four had a great and impressing time with talking, laughing, eating and drinking, sightseeing, boating and fortunately a bit sleeping. there's a reason for that: tina and jeen are a bit like chalk and cheese and jeen's boyfriend is simply a terrific choice, we and especially i really enjoyed the time with him.

even if today's picture's technical implementation can be allocated to the "fun and imperfection" - category, i really go for the moment i captured with my fujian toy lens: today i wanted to play around with the high-key effect for what i overexposed the ladies sitting in front of a window by round about two exposure values, using the high contrast monochrome mode in my nex. afterwards while post processing i raised the exposure and the different values for black and contrast once again in lightroom. it's a first high key attempt, not more, but i like it! whereas this might be down to the wonderful ladies...

cu, trshptr

0206 - tally

June 03, 2012 in 30, constance, decay, eyes, face, germany, mood, nex 7, partial chromatic, pattern, people, poor man, portrait, shadow, sigma, sony, street, suburb, tramp, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f3.2 | ISO100 | 1/200 | lightroom 4.1

there are people who have much to answer for. somehow facetiously that i've shot this pic only one day after preaching the prosperity of the region around lake constance.

you can choose different approaches to handle scenes like a confrontation with a social poor situated guy: first and common one is to ignore the fact that there are people that have to live in these circumstances. this is the path of least resistance and completely stressless. most of the people would go and go this way. second one is to take notice of and maybe to pay a minimum of attention to him. i appeal to your common sense - you don't have to talk to him or donate food or money, a inviting smile should not be too much to ask for.

unfortunately there are also people who had quit their lives in spirit already well before. i rather think that the guy in my pic comes under this ones.

cu, trshptr

2605 - bride

May 27, 2012 in 30, action, bokeh, bride, eyes, face, fashion, fun, germany, hair, mood, nex 7, night, people, pink, portrait, ravensburg, shadow, sigma, street

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/30 | lightroom 4

in europe there are a couple of regular customs that appear odd and curious to me. the rituals of stag and hen night may create funny stories in some cases but i can't see any sense in the foolery of selling useless items to pedestrians. however yesterday i was one of the pedestrians whom was being offered a bunch of clutter and ...

funnily yesterday's offers contained above all very useful articles for a party night - shorts. in fact shorts of different sorts! after a short conversation with the leader of the party gang - a hen night party - we bought a silver crown for tina and three shorts, jeagermeister, feigling and another one. in this way we got deeply into conversation with the bride who is a really very cute person. buck the trend and make the best of your upcoming marriage!

fortunately she had nothing against me snapshotting her, so i was allowed to keep this authentic pic.

cu, trshptr

2405 - faked fisheye

May 24, 2012 in 50, bathroom, blue, building, ceiling, eos, fisheye, fun, furniture, germany, hair, home, light, mirror, nex 7, personal, portrait, reflection, refreshment, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | 1/40 | lightroom 4

with today's photo i kill two birds with one stone: you get a glimpse of my lovely bathroom and also without a vivid fantasy you are able to get an idea of my simple hairstyle. i took the picture immediately after leaving the bathtub.

while you are passing judgement on the technical implementation of the shot (f.e. regarding focus) and on the seeming length of my nose, please have consideration for the crowning of the shower head... ;-)

cu, trshptr

1905 - the arab

May 19, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, beard, canon, eating, eos, food, germany, green, hair, handicraft, market, oriental, people, portrait, powder, red, spice, ueberlingen, yellow

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 18mm | f5.6 | ISO400 | 1/160 | lightroom 4

some things can't be rolled back.

today we met a very interesting and kind man at the middle ages market near ueberlingen and unfortunately i hadn't asked which country his homeland is. he looked like an arab, maybe he is from morocco or egypt. we are never going to know.

ok, no reason to be at odds, the most important questions were discussed. the seller - he offered different spices from around the world - told us a lot about his different products, spices from india, morocco, tunesia, france and so on, spices like masala, peppers, harissa, cardamom and different other oriental powders. due to his great consultation we finally bought two little bags of different salts.

really an amicable meeting with you, kind arab.

1805 - illuminated

May 18, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, animal, barbary ape, bokeh, brown, canon, eos, eyes, face, forest, germany, green, light, monkey, nature, portrait, rest, salem, whiskers

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/50 | lightroom 4

for our today's excursion we visited the monkey hill in salem. round about 200 barbary apes live in a mostly species-appropriate husbandry on an area of approximately 12 hectare in the forest in the middle of nowhere.

it was very interesting to observe the social structure of their hierarchy. the 200 monkeys are separated into three groups of 50 to 80 animals. each group has one male and one female chief. furthermore the whole population has a overall chief of each gender. at monkey hill the most important rule is to avoid any contact with the current babies. every monkey would protect these little newborns against any - in his opinion - negative influences. to sum up i can say that in many aspects barbary apes are very similar to human beings.

however evident similarities between yesterday's and today's subject are quite accidentally. ;-)

cu, trshptr

1705 - breaking the habit

May 17, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, b+w, bokeh, calm, canon, eos, eyes, face, germany, hair, lake, lake constance, people, personal, portrait, rest, ueberlingen

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/200 | lightroom 4

although today is father's day and actually all the wives, girlfriends and sisters should be ignored, i'm very happy that currently - at my birthday weekend - my father, his wife and my little sister nadja are paying a visit to tina and me at lake constance. for this reason it is really no problem for me to break the habit of strolling about with my guys on father's day.

the five of us had a wonderful day at the lake in ueberlingen in prime weather conditions. nadja was positive flustered the whole day. her brother, the beloved tina, the sweet kitty nila and the big lake - she is a water fool - the sum of these impressions was almost too huge for her capacity. at the moment i'm writing these lines she is already out for the count since two hours. don't worry, nadja: we all have had the experience of being fagged out while being unaware of this circumstance in our youths. finally the sleep of the just relativises your impressions.

cu, trshptr

1505 - rear view

May 15, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, agriculture, blossom, canon, cloud, countryside, eos, field, germany, green, hair, landscape, nature, people, personal, portrait, scenery, spring, yellow

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO200 | 1/800 | lightroom 4

the rape's blossoms were sprouting quickly during the last days. now the yellow colour mixes well with the green stems. moreover today we had perfect dramatic nature shot weather. the weather conditions were changing, strong winds came down. therefor all parameters seemed to fit for a nice landscape pic.

fortunately i was able to convince tina to model for me. she was the most important parameter. she was the most important parameter for my shooting. and indisputable she is the most important parameter for my life.

we've had enough of words - a beautiful rear can also endear.

cu, trshptr

2604 - play with us

April 29, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, action, animal, brown, canon, dog, eos, eyes, face, italy, light, movement, people, personal, portrait, sardinia, shadow, sunset

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/400 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

besides salamanders you can find dogs everywhere in sardinia. many landowners use them to protect their property against unwelcome visitors or boars. in the scene of the picture tina was being investigated by five (!) cute dogs simultaneously. only at the first appearance she seems to be a little bit peeved.

1704 - farewell

April 17, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, animal, brown, calm, canon, cat, eos, eyes, face, germany, home, portrait, rest, whiskers, zizou

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 28mm | f4.0 | ISO800 | 1/8 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

today it was a very sad day. we gave our first kitty zizou to tina's grandma. unfortunately we hadn't seen an other possibility to solve nila's suffer.

zizou, you are of a real character, gracious and unique. but you together with nila, that doesn't figure anymore. nila's doom vs. your move, these options were available. you would have chosen equally. what is exceedingly important to me: after almost six years of living together and that huge bunch of problems that we have mastered as a team you will be stored in our hearts forever. we hope that you know that we haven't betrayed you. :-(

please be always careful - after your infestation of fleas as a baby, your bad liver problems as a teeny and your accident with a car two years ago there are only four of seven lives left.

cu when i'm of good heart again, trshptr