trip

0612 - fleck

sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/20

cern is a world-famous, huge laboratory located in geneva, switzerland. more than 10000 guest scientists work on high-energy physics research, their main function is to provide the different particle accelerators. the most famous experiment plant is the lhc, the large hadron collider. unfortunately the testing plants are continuously running till middle of 2013, so that you may not go down to the experiments itself. after the shutdown in summer of 2013 a two-years maintenance period will follow and then visitors might be allowed to have a look at the large tunnel system (lhc is 27 kilometres long) with the detectors.

besides the accelerators cern is the birthplace of internet, cloud computing and different other very useful and meanwhile prevalent things, although all these things were basically used as necessary tools to manage the scientific problems. it is a honour for every scientist to work at one of the great many institutes on the french border. today we had a very detailed behind-the-scenes tour with our department, executed by a retired, former cern researcher from germany.

fundamental research of a topic is as complex and simultaneously as simple as trying to understand each issue in life. many things surface not until later and completely different than expectable and incarnate intangible phenomena. you have to be able to handle this.

2311 - privileged point of view


setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/25 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.2

you may agree with me that there are a few events in everyone's life that remain unforgettable. since i haven't the possibility to get treated in a vip box every weekend, a stadium attendance like today's will be surely held in my head for my whole life.

it was the second time that i watched a hockey match from this privileged point of view. what is sure is that the possibility to obtain only a standard ticket for the top match between cologne (2nd) and mannheim (1st) was vanishingly low, but the chance to get a vip ticket was definitely non-existent for relatively ordinary people like us. for that reason i'm all the more thankful for this event to our best friend jeen, who had invited us to mannheim.

cu, trshptr

0411 - handwork



setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO500 | 1/60 | silver efex pro for lightroom

as a present for tina's grandpa who had his 73rd birthday this thursday almost the whole family drove to crottendorf in the erzgebirge and visited the museum for the world-famous incense cones from this little village directly next to the border to the czechoslovakia. funnily all the visitors there get the opportunity to built their own, handmade old-style incense cones with odours of any kind. 

our grandpa who has been a boxer and a welder in former times - in other words he has hands like a bear - had less problems with forming this little cones than i'd thought.



setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/30 | lightroom 4.2

100 tons of these little cones are produced and shipped all over the world by the company each year. so round about 100 millions of cones leave the factory each twelve months. one behind the other the army of odour cones circuits the earth two and a half times at the equator. impressive, although these cones aren't handmade anymore, of course!

cu, trshptr

2310 - behind the curtain



setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/500 | lightroom 4.2

for any reason i didn't take to barcelona like i'd thought in advance. too many areas were overcrowded from tourists - ok, i'd expected that. too many restaurants, bars and discos offer medium quality for a lot of money - i'd expected that, too. and too many pushy locals have bothered us in simply any situation - also that was to be expected.

the biggest problem was that under the influence of the these facts the wonderful city itself was often invisible or at least behind an ugly curtain. only in the early morning the pure and beautiful barcelona had the possibility to show up.

cu, trshptr

2210 - gothalona



setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.2

the architecture of the new barcelona remind me of the clear, contrasty and straight environment of gotham city. a lot of new towers were built during the last years mainly directly next to the sea.





setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/1600 | lightroom 4.2

the structures and shapes are really stunning whereas i don't like the basic implementation of the townscape design here in barcelona: contrary to for example manchester where all architecture styles are mixed throughout the whole city and this mix of old and new buildings is well-balanced, too, here in barcelona the styles are mainly separated per quarter. that's why as far as i can see the city and especially the new parts appear a bit sterile and misplanned.

nevertheless gothalona is worth the visit if you are a fan of modern shapes and patterns.

cu, trshptr

2010 - mist man


setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/320 | silver efex pro for lightroom

the main reason for my current trip to spain is the participation in the international march of the iml here in barcelona. 

on two days, saturday and sunday, the walkers have to manage routes of different lengths and difficulties. my mate martin and i decided to choose the longest one (30 km) for today and 20 kilometres for tomorrow. today's walk should lead us to the great forests in the north of barcelona, whereas the route on sunday will guide us through the whole city with all its splendid sights. so the necessary variety during the walks of four to six hours is definitely given. 


the weather forecasts predicted very cloudy and misty conditions what is basically not bad for a march. unfortunately there should be also a lot of rain. a spain walker told us that the current conditions with visibility ranges below 30 metres are very unusual for the region around barcelona. also because of that the humidity is currently far above the normal level i know from the iberian countries. 

luckily there was no noticeable rain today. well, the heavy fog was omnipresent but even conducive for a great atmosphere while walking through the catalan woods. the predicted heavy rain showers will allegedly occur tomorrow, the related thunderstorms will already start in a few hours. a red weather warning was issued. hopefully it will be not that bad.

cu, trshptr

1910 - top view



setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/25 | lightroom 4.2

urban development is definitely a topic that i could have studied, too. for me it's very interesting to see and investigate the history and structure of cities and towns i visit.

i don't want to go into detail too much, the (german) wikipedia article about the placa reial is very detailed and profound. but one fact is worth to be called: antoni gaudi, one of the most famous architects of spain ever, (who had designed the sagrada familia, the most prominent building of barcelona, you might know it) has also projected the "sheltered lanterns" on this placa reial.

the square that is located next to the world-famous street ramblas, the square where our hotel is directly attached to and the square where we look down from our roof terrace. time to catch a breath and relax.

cu, trshptr

2809 - summer goodbye

2809 - summer goodbye

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

swimming in the ocean at the end of september isn't an usual activity for us. so today's vacation farewell trip to tellaro, a village in the south of la spezia that belongs to the most beautiful villages of italy on the initiative of the associazione nazionale comuni italiani, was something very special. 25 degrees in the shade and eight hours of sunshine, wonderful beaches, a refreshing sea and a terrific view along the high shore over the golf of la spezia across to portovenere and the isola palmaria really made a great surrounding for the last day of our holidays in italy.

a funny peculiarity of the most of the beaches of liguria is the fine pebble. tina really liked the very fine stones tickling her back. and they are good-looking, too.

cu, trshptr

2609 - modern porto antico di genova

2609 - modern porto antico di genova

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/160 | lightroom 4.1

genoa is the biggest city in the region of liguria - thereby a must-visit - and one that is exceedingly proud of its harbour. as you can see in today's pic genoa is because of its location at the bottom of the apennine mountains almost exclusively facing its historical porto antico di genova and the mediterranean sea.

besides its historical importance the harbour of genoa is one of the biggest concerning its container handling in the whole mediterranean ocean. apparently their expansion isn't completed yet - today we saw different places inside the container harbour where new spaces for probably more containers are built by reclaiming land. the harbour gained its importance especially because of the wide northern hinterland of liguria that involves the industry areas from milan and turin and even comes down to the switzerland.

despite the very industrial character of the harbour (and the whole city, too) a bit of chic and vain has found its way into the old capital of liguria. the modern influence in the yacht harbour really fits to the antico porto di genova and the beautiful townscape of this costal city.

cu, trshptr

2509 - shutter island

2509 - shutter island

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

sometimes in life you determine similarities between real life and stories that only exist in your mind. these can be stories from books, movies or also your own, personal dreams. today we've acted in a movie, of course a very great one.

besides the central, main cinque terre there are also villages and places in the region of liguria that are worth the journey and visit. today we had a look at porto venere, a very beautiful little town directly next to la spezia. additionally we had a long walk on the offshore isola palmaria, one of three islands next to porto venere, that seem to be reincarnations of the shutter island, a prison island (and identically named terrific film with leo do caprio) from hollywood.

there were different hints why shutter island is a suitable comparison to the isola palmaria: we heard some very loud gunshots today, walked along a few old massive bunker, saw many very old power lines, that have their origin in different fenced off areas, the abandoned island is characterised by high coast and of course there is a lighthouse. in the night it could have been really frightening staying on this island, but fortunately we visited the wonderful island at daytime.

funnily we were heaving a sigh of relief when we finally spotted the church san pietro of porto venere on the opposite mainland where the taxi boat dropped us off another hour later.

cu, trshptr