0109 - to the last drop

September 02, 2012 in 50, b+w, drop, garden, germany, grain, grey, home, leaf, minimalistic, nature, nex 7, old photo, pattern, plant, reflection, sel, sony, texture, water

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO1000 | 1/80 | silver efex pro plug-in for lightroom 4.1

today was the long-awaited festival day, we were at the rock am see festival in constance. as i told you yesterday my nex 7 had to stay at home because i didn't want to mind out my equipment the whole day and night. anyhow i've shot a few pics with my smartphone (two examples on my mobile photography tumblr blog: the tree & tired).

the festival itself was brilliant. my favourites were itchy poopzkid, flogging molly, greenday and kraftklub - in that order. it was a lot of drinking, dancing and pogo. great fun with a few wounds in the aftermath which is perhaps down to the fact that we revved up to the last drop.

cu, trshptr

btw: the photography magazin fotohits gives away pro licences of the b&w post processing plug-in application silver efex pro, the predecessor of the current version 2. their promotion will be active till end of september, get your own key here if you want. today's pic was used for a first attempt working with this lightroom plug-in. i'm very satisfied with the results.

3108 - home time

August 31, 2012 in 50, abandoned, architecture, blue, building, colour, facility, factory, germany, glass, light, long-time exposure, markdorf, nex 7, night, pattern, red, sel, sony, window

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f13.0 | ISO100 | 5s | tripod | lightroom 4.1

finally it's home time. tomorrow we'll visit the local rock music festival in constance which will take up our whole day and night. the weather forecasts are very bad, it'll probably rain the whole time. so what? we'll be prepared. unfortunately the camera has to stay at home for that reason.

also the last employees had already left the offices when i took the night shot of an interesting facility in markdorf. maybe tomorrow there will be some of them among the 25.000 visitors.

cu, trshptr

3008 - behind bars

August 30, 2012 in 50, animal, bokeh, brown, colour, contrast, countryside, eyes, fisheye, germany, hair, horse, langenbernsdorf, nex 7, orange, portrait, reflection, sel, sony, texture

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO800 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

keeping of animals is a sensitive topic. who gives the mankind the authorisation and permission to cage up animals of any kind? is it the evolution, our superiority? or is it outright ignorance?

every human being on this planet has to answer this question for itself. basically there are different reasons for keeping and caging animals and i don't want to kick off a huge discussion about the reasonableness of caged pets. only one question: dear lovers of nature and animal protection advocates, why is it okay for (the most of) you to cage up these wonderful horses?

cu, trshptr

2908 - silent reading

August 29, 2012 in 50, bokeh, brown, candid, germany, hagnau, hair, high key, lake, lake constance, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, reading, rest, sel, sony, summer, sun

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

August 28, 2012 in 35, animal, b+w, bokeh, calm, cat, courtyard, eyes, face, fujian, fun, germany, home, mood, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, rain, sony

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

2708 - summery enjoyment

August 27, 2012 in 50, blue, boat, friedrichshafen, germany, green, lake, lake constance, landscape, leaf, mountains, nex 7, people, pink, portrait, sel, sony, street, summer, tree

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/500 | lightroom 4.1

at odd times the actual state of our living conditions passes through tina's and my mind: fortunately we are able to enjoy the four seasons in a region where the most of the germans (and also a lot italians, dutch people, polish and other europeans) want to go for holidays.

the lake, the mountains, all the boats and (sometimes even) the foreign people mix to a great pleasure. being only half an hour on the lake in the evening compensates almost a whole exhausting work day.

today we've played the joker again and faded out the time at work with a relaxing cruise in a pedal boat.

cu, trshptr

2608 - brisk goings-on

August 26, 2012 in 50, action, bbq, bokeh, dinner, eating, face, garden, germany, grill, laufenburg, moment, nex 7, paella, people, portrait, sel, sony, summer, yellow

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f3.2 | ISO100 | 1/320 | lightroom 4.1

unfortunately the weekend is already gone again. it was very interesting for me to reside at andi's brother's family with some other friends of them (and now also mine) in one huge house directly next to the swiss border: altogether four men, three women and four kids bustled about the whole house and property to prepare and support the men's cycling ride on sunday and have a great time together.

after that the ride itself was a great pleasure: we worked through the distance of 100km in a group of eight riders. all of us reached the finish line without any problems. the only criticism we had was that we had to brave the storm which massively obstructed our progression, fortunately only temporarily. however finally we've defeated him in the downhill.

in the afternoon after the race there were usual brisk goings-on in the garden again. the women had already prepared the ingredients for a delicious spanish paella so that we only had to grill them in a huge pan on the gas grill. andi handled this job very experienced so that we could brace ourselves after the challenging bicycle ride in the black forest. of course the child might not be absent: they made for a quite busy atmosphere that is needed to have a really cosy surrounding.

cu, trshptr

2508 - under observation

August 25, 2012 in 30, b+w, bird, bokeh, bridge, germany, hills, laufenburg, memorial, monument, nex 7, rhine, river, scenery, sight, sigma, sony, switzerland, texture, townscape

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/800 | lightroom 4.1

this weekend i reside in laufenburg, a small city that is part of the district waldshut in the very southwest of germany, at the family of a work and cycling mate. laufenburg is located directly at the border to switzerland, opposite to the equally named swiss city and separated from the switzerland by the big river rhine.

on the german side of the border a huge monument, a stone eagle with widespread wings and a golden cross in his clutches observes all machinations on the (german and the) swiss terrain. the memorial was built in remembrance of the many soldiers that were killed in action in the first and second world war.

the relations between the germans and the swiss and germany and switzerland are matter for a separate story: huge wage differentials, tax haven switzerland, conversion rates, non-EU country and voluntary nation are only some keywords that describe the country switzerland and its relations to its neighbour germany. many things are handled completely different to germany, but the people of both countries have to live together on both sides of the border compliant with the rules and laws of the respective countries.

tomorrow i'll visit the swiss side for a long public cycling ride again. however today i haven't seen anything to complain about for the stone eagle.

cu, trshptr

2408 - edge transition

August 24, 2012 in 50, architecture, blue, building, colour, edge, facility, frame, friedrichshafen, germany, glass, green, minimalistic, nex 7, orange, red, reflection, sel, sony, window

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f5.6 | ISO320 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

sometimes the assessment of the current situation depends on the perspective you are looking on the issue.

going to school was almost always boring and annoying at school days. now, 10 years after the graduation, school (and study) days seem to be prime of life. i think you might know many of these constellations.

today's transition was a whole lot simpler: with an angular view on straight objects like the colour-framed windows of the quiescent-looking school of friedrichshafen - there are still holidays in south germany - square shapes shift to parallelograms.

cu, trshptr

2308 - ripening

August 23, 2012 in 50, agriculture, bokeh, colour, countryside, fruit, germany, green, leaf, nature, nex 7, plantation, red, sel, sony, summer, sun, vineyard, wine, yellow

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/400 | lightroom 4.1

weekend after next the wine festival of our village is due. today in the evening we went for a blow in the vineyards with kingston, the dog of our neighbours. the light came in in a shallow angle and pierced the leafs of the vines. funnily there was exactly one yellow-red leaf that shined out the bulk of green ones.

the stroll generated a thrill of anticipation to the festival where the different wines of the last vintages will be served. a year from now at the latest we'll see if this year's vintage will be as good as the last ones.

cu, trshptr