2006 - royal lake

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/125 | lightroom 4.1

as you would expect our nature oriented training day became an idyllic one. the koenigssee, what proverbially would be royal lake or lake of the kings in english, is a very pretty place in germany and recommendable for everybody who has a thing for the landscape of for example norway or canada.

apparently there was no way round this fact for the authors of travel guides of germany. already in the early morning when we arrived at koenigssee dozens of japanese have jumped on the first boat to salet, the southeastern end of the lake. they all must have read of the speciality of the most southeastern corner of bavaria and germany in any guide, otherwise they still would have been sleeping in their hotels.

almost every asian man and woman was armed with a huge dslr (except two girls who have used the nex 5 - well chosen, ladies), most of them with nikons, and not really provided with any composition strategy - trial and error seems to be the shooting method of the most of the southeast asian tourists. why not...

nevertheless the journey was definitely worth the early getting up. due to our fast step we have been the first people who entered the valley today. unfortunately the air has been very foggy so that a lot of pics didn't turn out very well. but a few of them even profited of the special air conditions - while we were sailing over the lake suddenly the sun came into the lakeside and illuminated an abandoned gangplank. the complete rest of the hillside was residing in the foggy and misty dark. a mysterious mood came over me. nice place to be there for a while, also if you know of and live at the lake constance.

cu, trshptr

1906 - colour-minded

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/500 | lightroom 4.1

in june the weather is in common very nice in central europe. at the moment the description very nice would be obviously understated. more than 30 degrees could be measured today in innsbruck, austria, where we visited the tyrol panorama, the kaiser jaeger museum, the ski-jump facility bergisel and the historic city itself. additionally 12 hours of sun, that should be enough for everybody. maybe even too much...

innsbruck is one of the few cities in austria where it is worth to live for young people. a few educational institutions are located here, the evening activities should be safe and you can find a plenty of sport facilities in the alps surrounding.

one of these possibilities is the not very common sport of ski jumping. no idea, how girls and boys in young age get around to this extravagant sport. anyhow the ski-jumpers earn my unlimited respect for their bravery. if you don't want to show them your respect please go up on a ski-jump facility and think about the feelings you might have when you hurl yourself into the depth.

although i've shot a lot of imposing images of and in innsbruck in combination with the alps panorama, the simple and clear pic of the spectator stairs of the ski-jump facility pleases me no end.

cu, trshptr

1806 - closing time

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO800 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

new week, new business trip. this time austria, this time more comfortable than last week. instead of subject-specific training the central topic of the further training of this week is team building.

besides the arrival in steinplatte a short mountain climbing was planned for the schedule today. nevertheless some participants of the training decided to rest at the cottage where we will live for the next three days and a few people set off to the summit of the duernbachhorn (1776m).

after a sporty way up in today's summer heat we were sweating that much that we necessarily had to undress our shirts. never mind, thereof you won't see any pics, censored! fortunately I spotted an even better scene at our stop at an alp inn while decline.

a lumberjack was resting on a bench after his hard daily work and reading the daily press. he was a very representative sample of the common mountain men - wiry, fit and above all very kind!

cu, trshptr

1706 - comfortable ambience

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

if you sleep until noon you won't have a lot of time in lightness.

but on some days i don't want to worry about that. especially on sundays it should be entirely sufficient if you handle to charge up your personal batteries. if you additionally manage to set another highlight you are the master of weekend management.

well, that wasn't too difficult yesterday. a look into the fixture schedule of the european football championship gave us an evidence about our evening plan - we watched the match against denmark in the nice ambiance of the gehrenberg theatre in markdorf.

cu, trshptr

1606 - fancy bits

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1000 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

i've never been at a 24 hour flea market before. what a night!

we went to the transborder flea market constance / kreuzlingen by bicycle and ferry, only this experience was worth the journey. after some burgers and beers at the minster and the football match between poland and czechoslovakia at an italian coffee shop we started our scrabbling tour with some friends - a migration distance of 14 kilometres and round about 1.000 exhibitors were waiting for us.

i turned the bedside lights off at 4am on sunday. what a night!

some more interesting pics of the event can be seen here.

cu, trshptr

1506 - 9645km remembrance

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO320 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

yesterday i received the message that i will get my nex7 back on friday. today is the day, a compact parcel caused huge zest. the show can go on.

as a side note today i also received the response to my service request from sony, as late as today... fortunately i've cared for a repair shop by myself.

after my exhausting one-week business trip i've used the afternoon to take an extensive rest in our courtyard and furthermore for a long running. then in the evening we visited the opening of the photo exhibition "9645km remembrance" of helena schätzle, who has followed the trails of her grandfather for the war-time and postwar. the second world war is of course an often discussed topic but helena schätzle looks back on and reappraises the era and links this issue to her personal family history simply wonderfully.

besides many impressive portraits of contemporary witnesses and landscape photos of the war scenes several quotes, interviews and a few mementos are exhibited. the old combat jacket is captioned by the quote

"i'm sitting in the barrack room with some fellows in dead silence. 

everybody's sad thoughts are in the homeland at the beloved ones."

today's pic isn't really good, but i desperately wanted to tell the story of somebody whose relatives were killed in war, so you can understand that persons are deeply moved only by words or images.

cu, trshptr

0506 - encased latern

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO800 | 1/25 | lightroom 4.1

things never turn out the way you expect. because i didn't want to rely on sony's first level support i searched for an authorised repair shop in the internet and made a find. only some hours after my request to this company i got an answer and call to send in my nex asap. supposedly my repaired gadget will be back within 5 to 8 days again - i cross my fingers.

before i'll post the nex tomorrow morning, the cam had to show its capabilities in low light situations tonight. i captured the scene at the end of my night walk only at a stone's throw from my home. the little shack is used as a storeroom by the vineyard. i really go for the texture of the plaster, it's common to apply this kind of structures in the region of the south of germany.

i'm awfully sorry and feel a little bit sad: as i said before probably during the whole next week there will be no postings. unfortunately.

well, bye then, trshptr

0406 - x-shaped

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

i could just cry! today i own the nex 7 no more than for 14 days and the first big hw failure already occurred: the display detent in the tilt frame is broken. f***! more than 1000 bucks and the item is broken yet. now i have to keep struggling with the (maybe unqualified) first level support and waive several weeks without my nex. i could cry.

nevertheless the show must go on (as long as possible). as may be imagined today i didn't really fancy conceiving an innovative idea after these bad news although i had a pleasant evening with tina at the cinema watching snow white and the huntsman in the original english version. so i ended up with an architectural pattern image of a company building that is located in markdorf. tomorrow i'll be in a better mood again.

cu, trshptr

0306 - ladies at their best

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

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