1007 - in the pouring rain

July 10, 2012 in 35, b+w, bokeh, calm, contrast, countryside, courtyard, eyes, face, fujian, germany, home, mood, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, rain, sony, texture

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | manual focus | ISO100 | 1/500 | lightroom 4.1

as i'd mentioned before special moods pleases me no end. when i came home from work today it had already rained for round about half an hour. a nice photography opportunity occurred: the stones in our backyard were wet, scattered light illuminated the yard and fortunately tina was willing to be my model that had to pose in the rain.

finally i'd realised that a planed photoshoot is a very difficult thing - you have to take care of so many little details that despite good expressions of my object more than the half of my images had at least one disturbing fault. however a dozen of pictures turned out well so that tina and also i are satisfied with the result and do not have to complain anymore.

the shown pic is the most natural one. maybe i'm going to show you more of the series later.

cu, trshptr

0907 - incidence

July 09, 2012 in 30, architecture, cobble, contrast, corridor, door, flag, germany, home, house, light, light beam, long-time exposure, minimalistic, nex 7, night, personal, sigma, sony, texture

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

mondays are as tough as leather. mondays subsequent to vacations are tougher than leather. today in the morning i almost didn't manage to get up. tina is on duty today so that she didn't hustle with getting out of bed. this fact made it not really easier for me starting the day. well, this is complaining on a high level...

finally the day became a medium one - usual business at work; nice weather; good ride on the mountain bike in the evening; delicious, by tina already precooked dinner and a lonely evening on the couch - not quite lonely, my kitty nila kept company with me.

once i have a plenty of time like today in the evening, i actually visualise the real beauty of our home in all its facets: old doors and massive flagstones are only two examples of the peculiarities of our home.

cu, trshptr

0707 - depth

July 08, 2012 in 50, architecture, b+w, bokeh, bollards, cobble, grain, grey, lisbon, nex 7, pattern, portugal, sel, shadow, sony, street, suburb, texture, townscape, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO100 | 1/4000 | lightroom 4.1

unfortunately vacations seem to end always in the high of the personal emotions. just when we felt comfortable with the whole surroundings in lisbon, we sadly had to depart to faro to catch our flight to memmingen.

summarising can be said that the south of portugal is also definitely worth a journey or a even longer trip in vacations. thereby both the southern region around the algarve and the north around porto have their special issues and pros and cons: as i had supposed the southern landscape is more rocky and touristic than the rest of portugal, on the other hand the north-south shore of the north is more suited for surfing.

the duel between the cities porto and lisbon ends up in a tie: both cities are located at the atlantic coast and at the mouth of a big river. both profit from the maritime influence of the seafaring, the fishing and a dozens of thousands of seagulls. porto convinces with its naturalness and unobtrusiveness, whereas lisbon scores with its variety and a great nightlife. i think i'm going to see over both of them during the next years surf trips again.

a special detail of lisbon's townscape are its streets: cobbled streets and steep descent make your life a living hell if you are old and it teems down so that the cobblestones become slippery. what appears for the visitors as an eye candy, discommodes the lives of the local citizens. good if you can move hand over hand along a dozens of bollards.

0107 - flagged

July 03, 2012 in 50, architecture, art, colour, flag, lagos, light, nex 7, night, pattern, portugal, red, reflection, sel, sony, stairs, street, texture, townscape, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO400 | 1/20 | lightroom 4.1

till wednesday everything revolves about surfing. so at present there is hardly time for other activities because after three hours of surfing you are simply dead.

after a restful sleep of minimum six to seven hours you have to breakfast extensively to accumulate an adequate amount of energy for the first lesson. after the transfer to the surf sport monte clérigo near aljezur at the west coast you complete your equipment and before the action restarts in earnest. three hours of surfing that are divided by a break of round about one hour for lunch.

in the evening we are completely starved and exhausted so much that after another extensive meal in the historic town of lagos in the most cases the next way leads us directly into bed. anyhow one or another photo opportunity falls to me. probably i'm going to zero in on photography in lisbon again.

cu, trshptr

2706 - illuminated reception

June 27, 2012 in 30, architecture, b+w, balcony, building, countryside, door, germany, home, house, light, long-time exposure, nex 7, night, personal, sigma, sony, street lamp, texture, tripod

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 15s | tripod | lightroom 4.1

since today was a long business day with joint dinner afterwards, some sports had to been done, too, and the football match between portugal and spain seemed to have no end, i want to show you a part of our proximity with my daily posting. in the break between normal and extra time i've shot a couple of long-time exposed images of the entrance to our flat.

the entrance area is directly attached to the courtyard. we live downstairs: the illuminated window gives you an insight into our kitchen. it's truly a lovely place to live.

cu, trshptr

2606 - dead wood

June 26, 2012 in 50, agriculture, b+w, bokeh, book, contrast, germany, home, nature, nex 7, novel, pattern, reading, rest, sel, sony, still life, texture, tree, wood

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

tina is one of the old school - reading becomes accepted only on paper. printed matter is highly regarded by her, kindles are admired but fundamentally not used (yet).

"there are enough reasons against these items. what would for example be that they don't smell. or that i can't open a kindle up."
"yes, you can. use a cover and you will be able to open it up."
"but the smell..."

ok, a compelling evidence is nonexistent, but life isn't always logic and coherent. reading a novel has to do with dreaming and the medium has to transfer this atmosphere. so i can absolutely take her point.

for our upcoming surf vacation in portugal we bought a novel for each of us: tina is going to take jonas jonasson's "the hundred-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared" along and i'm going to read mcgrath's "white heat". maybe i'll tell you more about these two pieces of poetry after the vacation.

since we ignore electronic reading material we put a direct strain on the nature - for the most part paper is made of wood. i don't exactly know what is worse for the environment: the complete life cycle of a handheld reader or the consumption of the at least renewable resource wood. my gut says that i'm currently on the correct side of the green conscience, even if only just.

cu, trshptr

2206 - dead of night

June 23, 2012 in 50, architecture, building, countryside, germany, light, monument, mood, nex 7, night, pattern, sel, shadow, sony, street, street lamp, texture, timber-frame, village, wood

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO800 | 1/40 | lightroom 4.1

after the easy win of germany over greece what we had watched at a huge public viewing event in ravensburg and a few drinks in a rather chilly bar we came home late in the night. despite a few suitable shots from the evening event that were already resting on my sd card i was still searching for one special opportunity for the daily pic - the in my opinion most beautiful house in my home village.

actually i have this night shot in my mind already since dozens of days but until today a boring-as-sin-housewife-volvo was parked in front of the more than 300 years old timber-framed house every night what would have distracted from the core of my image.

cu, trshptr

1806 - closing time

June 19, 2012 in 30, agriculture, austria, b+w, balcony, bench, contrast, countryside, derelict barn, landscape, nature, nex 7, people, portrait, sigma, sony, texture, wood

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

June 18, 2012 in 30, architecture, art, balcony, ceiling, fun, germany, light, markdorf, monument, nex 7, night, people, public viewing, shadow, sigma, sony, sport, texture

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

June 17, 2012 in 50, action, brown, constance, face, germany, light, market, mood, music, nex 7, night, people, portrait, sel, sony, street, summer, texture, urban

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