1407 - spanish folklore

July 15, 2012 in 50, action, blue, bokeh, brown, colour, face, germany, green, guitar, hair, live, music, musician, nex 7, people, portrait, sel, sony, summer

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO400 | 1/120 | -0.3ev | lightroom 4.1

open air music, some beers and the setting sun - that's how an evening at the weekend should be. and if the music is spanish folklore and the beer tastes fresh and delicious, it would not have taken much for completing the vacation feeling.

unfortunately i don't know who the two guys are that made music yesterday afternoon near our home, but what i know is, that they are really good at playing their instruments and conveying the local mood of the iberian peninsula. thank you for the pleasant evening!

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

1107 - humanoid camera

July 11, 2012 in 50, beard, blue, contrast, eyes, face, hair, light, mirror, mood, nex 7, night, people, personal, portrait, sel, self portrait, shadow, sony, texture

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO100 | 1/13 | lightroom 4.1

when you are an ambitious photographer that is willing to learn constantly, at some point you will realise that you have begun to see your life only in frames. this is basically not so bad, you learn to handle this circumstance.

whereas the point to feel pressured by the obligation of capturing a suitable pic per day is a real problem. i ran into this issue some weeks ago and believe me, especially for an absolute beginner of serious photography this burden is definitely not conducive to obtain the best possible results and to learn the hobby in a relaxed way. you try to figure out if any, really any object would make a good scene - this is an exhausting process!

learning is known as a process whereby you improve your skills with every fault or problem you did. you have to be fully aware of this case, otherwise your expectations on yourself will always be unaccomplished. my personal aim of this photography project is the self-discovery which kind of photography i like and what kind of photographer i am, too.

in the course of this i sometimes feel like a humanoid camera.

cu, trshptr

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

0207 - parallel running

July 03, 2012 in 50, art, b+w, bruno guerreiro, contrast, eyes, face, glass, lagos, light, nex 7, night, pattern, people, portrait, portugal, sel, shadow, sony, street

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO1250 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

many things in life run parallel. love and hate, black and white and also things that aren't that contrasting like occupation and vocation. not everybody is able to unify occupation and vocation. a great many people only work to earn the necessary amount of money to ensure the life standard and actually fulfil their selves in spare time with any hobbies.

by pure chance i met bruno guerreiro, a portuguese photographer, in the historic town of lagos today in the evening. he approached me because of my camera equipment and in so doing we got into conversation about photography and anything else. he's going to exhibit some stuff in the cultural centre of lagos starting in the middle of july. i entrust a visit of his exhibition to everybody who lives or is currently for holidays in portugal: http://brunoguerreirophotography.pt.vu

like the great many people i spoke about in the first paragraph he is also not able to earn his bread and butter with his photography but it is his passion and his heart is really in it. it was really nice meeting you, bruno!

cu, trshptr

3006 - scepticism

July 01, 2012 in 30, air safety, blue, chaos, cloud, eyes, face, flight, hair, light, mirror, moment, nex 7, people, portrait, reflection, sigma, sky, sony, trip

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

today in the evening we fortunately landed safely in portugal after we had to stomach a very turbulent flight from memmingen to faro. i've never seen clouds like that, 6 to 8 kilometers high cumulus clouds were piercing through two to three layers of cirrus clouds. we really had an unbelievable view through the windows. sadly the employees of the airline had forgotten to clean them, so no picture of this spectacle turned out really well.

anyhow the little lady in front of mine marveled at the view, so please think your way into her mind by interpreting her facial expression.

cu, trshptr

2806 - that's it

June 29, 2012 in 50, action, b+w, bokeh, contrast, eyes, face, germany, hair, immenstaad, moment, nex 7, people, personal, portrait, public viewing, sel, smoker, smokers´ corner, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.0 | ISO800 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.1

halftime. short break. time to catch a breath. time to have a cigarette, even for non-smokers. disillusion already at halftime.

yesterday italy operated simply more intelligent than our team. tactical clever, mersiless effectiv, simply great: for long periods they have played masterfully. despite a huge bunch of opportunities our attackers didn't bring about to net. and if you don't score you won't win.

now i wish the italian team the best of luck to beat the spanish. contrary to all other teams the italians have managed to improve their performance with each match. on sunday they will have to perform once again.

cu, trshptr

2306 - torture ship

June 24, 2012 in 50, action, art, b+w, bodyart, contrast, exhibition, eyes, face, fashion, fetish, friedrichshafen, fun, germany, nex 7, people, portrait, sel, sony, torture ship

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

tolerance is a quality you have to work hard for. it seems to me that not everybody achieves this goal. today at the boarding to the fetish party on the so called torture ship where i sensed some interesting photo objects i again became aware of the parochialism of the people in germany. i had to hear dialogues like "yuck! despicable! but we watch them every year." and "kinkier!".

i don't want to live in a country where the people are insincere and mindless like that. the basic question that arises is who is perverse? the people before or the people behind the barrier?

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

1506 - 9645km remembrance

June 16, 2012 in 30, art, b+w, city hall, contrast, exhibition, eyes, face, germany, light, markdorf, memorial, minimalistic, mood, nex 7, people, portrait, sigma, sony, war

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