0208 - around the corner

August 02, 2012 in 30, architecture, building, colour, facility, friedrichshafen, germany, glass, hospital, house, multilayer, nex 7, pattern, red, reflection, sigma, sony, townscape, urban, yellow

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/60 | lightroom 4.1

a building that attracts me already since a few months is the nurses' hostel in friedrichshafen. the corridors are visible from outside through a huge glass facade. living in this big hostel has to feel more or less like living in the big brother house:

too disclosed to feel unobserved and too impersonal to feel home.

cu, trshptr

0108 - action painting

August 01, 2012 in 50, action, art, colour, contrast, exhibition, festival, friedrichshafen, fun, germany, movement, nex 7, people, portrait, sel, sony, street, street art, urban, yellow

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

it is hard to ecstasiate on a wednesday. normally it isn't tolerated anyway in everyday life that anybody ecstasiates. our societies yearn after people that function. the majority frowns at crazy, quirky or curious people. these have to take cover from being treated as a freak in big cities and their dark suburbs. normally!

on some days the rules of (our narrow) life become soft. there are events where peculiarities are assertively desired. events like the currently happening culture festival in friedrichshafen that unifies people of different mentalities only with the central theme art. one kind of art you can play out there is action painting. it's a very colourful fun. there should more often be action paintings on wednesdays.

cu, trshptr

3007 - diversity

July 30, 2012 in 35, bokeh, brown, deeper meaning, diversity, friedrichshafen, fujian, germany, hair, movement, nex 7, people, pink, shadow, sony, street, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | manual focus | ISO100 | 1/2500 | lightroom 4.1

step by step the great diversity finds its way also into germany. those days when immigrants had felt off-colour in good old germany are mostly gone, hopefully never to return.

mercifully the bounds between different peoples will melt intensely during the coming decades, especially in europe with its schengen convention. there are already some examples of working multicultural togetherness: above all samples the big european melting pots london and berlin show how intercultural communication has to be. of course there is right-wing radicalism in these locations, too, but fortunately during the last years the mentality of the people has changed in this way that discrimination isn't tolerated anymore at all.

today we have been in friedrichshafen at the culture festival where cross-cultural art, music, theatre, cinema and sundry other things are offered in the open air. in my opinion it is delightful that i can enjoy the presence of people of every colour, language and origin without leaving my hometown.

cu, trshptr

2507 - yellow bar

July 26, 2012 in 30, art, bar, colour, germany, hotel, light, mood, munich, nex 7, night, orange, reflection, restaurant, sigma, sony, still life, urban, window, yellow

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO200 | 1/30 | lightroom 4.1

first of all i have to announce that fortunately tina's examination has turned out very well. we all are very happy about that and have to make good for a drink to this result together today in the evening.

my business trip was very pleasant, too. after arrival in munich at lunch we had some discussions and meetings in the afternoon, before a huge barbecue party that was organised by some of my work mates sounded the bell for a great night. we, my fellow martin and i, started with a few beers in the bar of the cool stay2munich hotel that you can see in my daily pic and ended in the club 089 in the inner city of munich with a few other mates.

although munich doesn't count among my favourite cities of germany this evening disabuses me regarding my prejudice.

cu, trshptr

2307 - debut work

July 23, 2012 in 50, action, art, b+w, blur, fun, germany, markdorf, movement, nex 7, pattern, sel, sony, street, street art, symmetry, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f3.2 | ISO100 | 1/30 | lightroom 4.1

today i plunged into the world of art. for that reason i want to let my spinning graphic art speak for itself. a picture is worth a thousand words...

as you may have realised, i don't take myself too serious today. i felt like it and i think, that everybody should have such days every now and then. tomorrow i'll be serious again. for sure.

cu, trshptr

1907 - nose against window

July 19, 2012 in 30, b+w, cobble, decay, fun, germany, glass, grey, markdorf, moment, nex 7, people, reading, reflection, sigma, sony, street, townscape, urban, window

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.1

today in the afternoon i met the myopic gran in markdorf while i was strolling about the streets. she is known all over in town. most of her time she sits at the bakery's and tries to read the newspaper which is displayed there. because of her malfunctioning eyes it seems to last hours till she has coped with reading the press.

it was the first time that i've seen her in the street, of course when she was reading again. unfortunately she is in a bad condition: she is myopic, a bad walker and realises almost nothing and nobody around her. maybe all of her senses go down bit by bit. but despite the physical decay she is really cuddly: funny to see how she pressed her nose against the window... and satisfying to assess how she masters her life after all.

cu, trshptr

1807 - orange patchwork

July 18, 2012 in 30, architecture, brown, colour, facility, germany, light, markdorf, nex 7, night, orange, partial coloured, pattern, shadow, sigma, sony, townscape, urban, walk, wall

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO640 | 1/50 | lightroom 4.1

today i hadn't had the time to catch a breath before half past nine. after work i had to wash all the bicycles, three in number, and do some maintenance work on tina's mountain bike. after all i have lingered after an after work coffee latte at a branch of a well-known big junk chain for the whole evening. at half past nine tina and i had finally accomplished our object, a tall latte for me and a vanilla frappe for her.

while we were stretching our legs subsequent to the drink, i spotted the illuminated, orange wall, that seems to be composed of dozens of rectangular patches. nothing spectacular, but beautiful to look at, especially because its recurring forms and the nicely produced shadows.

cu, trshptr

1607 - plump vs. lean

July 16, 2012 in 50, architecture, art, b+w, contrast, deeper meaning, facility, germany, markdorf, minimalistic, nex 7, pattern, sel, shadow, sony, street, street lamp, texture, townscape, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/640 | lightroom 4.1

during the last few weeks i've begun to be satisfied with the technical implementation of my pics. slowly but steady i have a handle on my nex 7, i do not have to think about its operation anymore. conversely i'm really impatient of a few of my daily pic ideas or/and the composition of these images. precisely because there is a lack of interesting photography opportunities in the area around lake constance - besides the often shown and captured idyllic scenes - the collocation of a well composed image has to be reconsidered again and again. as from now i want to take into account all factors: concentrate on the full details, compose a statement and affect the viewers, if possible.

let me begin in a small way: some parts of our societies discriminate against people, that are plump or lean. the most people do not have the balls to voice this, what makes them appear even more ridiculous. fortunately there is a lid for every pot, as you can see in the image above. everybody has to have the right to exist regardless whether he, she or it is thin or fat, black or white, tall or small.

my story may seem quite a stretch, sorry, but this is what i've thought when i spotted the scene today in the afternoon in markdorf. cultivated coexistence, nothing else matters! no fence between the individuals, no podium for anybody, because there is no right or wrong. so as you can see the composition of today's pic is still not perfect, but the architectural circumstances were set... ;)

cu, trshptr

1307 - outstretched tongue

July 14, 2012 in 30, b+w, decay, eyes, face, lisbon, mood, nex 7, pattern, people, poor man, portrait, portugal, sigma, sony, street, suburb, tongue, tramp, urban

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/320 | lightroom 4.1

friday, the 13th. time for a recapitulation of my portugal trip. time to review the top 100 of images and also time to show some more of these pics. pictures of the tough reality at our beloved holiday destinations.

i have shot a similar image of a tramp in constance, germany, some weeks ago. poverty doesn't stop at borders and cares little about nationality.

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.