swiss traveller

March 10, 2013 in 35, atmosphere, b+w, candid, contrast, darkness, germany, grain, nex 7, night, old photo, people, portrait, sel, sepia, shadow, sony, street, townscape, trip, urban, railstation, friedrichshafen

sometimes travelling people show unusual modes of behaviours. the man in the centre of my today's image carried a very heavy case, which, to his sorrow, had to be hefted upstairs on the platform to reach the trains.

after tina had drawn my attention to his troublesome ascent, i asked him if i can help... he answered with a swiss accent and without even looking at me that it's no problem for him to carry his case by himself. ok, whatever. although i won't go as far as tina, who presumed with a bit of black humour, that he probably carried any parts of dead bodies in his case - hopefully not! - i think, that his autarky has to do with either his attitude towards germany / germans or lived independence in old age.

however that be, i took to him.

fun ride

March 09, 2013 in 50, action, car, facility, fun, germany, nature, nex 7, old photo, people, sel, sepia, sony, street, urban, vintage, water, brown, colour, mtb, bicycle, mud, markdorf, wash

although today's story isn't about a separate business - like the title may suggest - we had to make use of one at the end of two hours of unresisted bathing in deep mud. at this season it is a common procedure that all the local (mountain) bikers wash their bicycles in the car wash in markdorf. this being the case, we didn't attract any attention yesterday, even though our heavily speckled appearance should have been extraordinary enough...

frizzled

March 07, 2013 in 35, architecture, art, b+w, building, facility, germany, grain, monument, nature, nex 7, old photo, pattern, sel, sepia, shadow, sony, tree, window, salem, branch, wall

the castle garden of salem is a jewel in southern baden's cultural landscape. ancient architecture comes upon aged nature. in the scene above i especially liked the repetitive frizzles of the branches and the decoratively painted window frames.

goodbye laughter

February 17, 2013 in 35, b+w, germany, light, nex 7, night, people, portrait, sony, sel, hair, close up, smile, personal, face, sepia

when it comes to taking farewell of your beloved a nice dinner in intimate togetherness seems to be a suitable approach. for us this is a common ritual: there are a lot of laughters but also a few tears which are mostly smiled away, fortunately.

0402 - oversized

February 04, 2013 in 8, b+w, branch, brown, fisheye, forest, germany, landscape, markdorf, nature, nex 7, old photo, sepia, sony, symmetry, tree, walimex samyang rokinon, wood

oversized - sony nex 7 | walimex pro 8mm f2.8 | f5.6 | ISO200 | 1/125

on some days everything seems to be too large. although i really don't know if the reason for that is my littleness or the tremendous size of my surroundings, the impact is always the same - regardless of where i'd been before, these days bring me back down to earth.

2101 - cat's eye

January 21, 2013 in 50, b+w, bokeh, cat, eyes, face, germany, hair, home, kitchen, mirror, nex 7, nose, portrait, reflection, rest, sel, sepia, sony, whiskers

cat's eye - sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | f1.8 | ISO200 | 1/6

it's a good thing to share the flat with a kitty. whenever you are sick, the cat will befriend and care about you, if only by taking a nap on your stomach. although nila isn't resting on my body in the pic above, she basically acts as a great supporter in bringing me back to health.

2711 - paulinchen, the miner

November 27, 2012 in 30, animal, b+w, candid, cat, courtyard, eyes, fun, germany, hair, home, light, nex 7, nose, portrait, sepia, sigma, sony, whiskers, wood

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO800 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.2

usually animals aren't able to talk. they use body language and noises for expression. you'd almost think that they master facial expressions, too.

the wonderful, sweet and cute kitty of our neighbours, paulinchen, seemed to get the needle when we were dressing her as a miner, apposite to the dark season of year. fun doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

cu, trshptr

0911 - options

November 10, 2012 in 50, b+w, crimmitschau, family, germany, grain, high iso, home, indoor, light, mirror, nex 7, personal, portrait, reading, reflection, sel, sepia, sister, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO3200 | 1/13 | silver efex pro for lightroom

usually you have many options to watching tv in the evening: reading a book, surfing the web, talking to each other or playing games are only a few of them. unfortunately german television programmes are mainly of poor quality by this time. in fact most of the broadcasters have to be avoided completely, otherwise you risk your solid sense.

plainspoken with increased regularity watching tv isn't an option for me and us anymore. while my girls are resting on the couch and reading their stuffs i'm going to head off to meet my best friend here in homeland, the only thing that makes sense for me now.

as a technical note the pic above was processed without any noise reduction or additional grain again - not so bad after all.

cu, trshptr

0909 - there's no shortcut

September 09, 2012 in 50, action, climbing, danube, germany, hausen im tal, nature, nex 7, partial coloured, people, personal, portrait, sel, sepia, sony, sport, summer, tattoo, valley

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

0509 - backlit beauty

September 05, 2012 in 50, b+w, eyes, face, germany, grain, hair, high key, home, light, moment, nex 7, old photo, people, personal, portrait, sel, sepia, sony

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