1207 - roosting

July 12, 2012 in 50, action, animal, art, b+w, bird, blackbird, cloud, contrast, countryside, germany, grain, grey, immenstaad, mood, nex 7, old photo, sel, sky, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/1000 | lightroom 4.1

behavioural pattern of creatures aren't always easy to see through. today i've observed a bulk of birds hopping between powerlines. really funny how they've acted - once a bird had departed, suddenly an indefinite number of his buddies was following him. in this kind the play has perpetuated and i'd watched them some minutes more, until i got my camera and captured the scene in a picture.

cu, trshptr

0707 - lined lady

June 07, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, animal, brown, canon, cat, decay, eos, eyes, face, green, italy, portrait, sardinia, townscape, trip, urban, wall, whiskers, window

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO200 | 1/100 | lightroom 4

when you visit an european city you'd expect that free-roaming cats influence the townscape. thereby in sardinia pets aren't that high rated as the people do in germany. many cats have to run their own lives. funnily also the dogs do as they please. especially in alghero we often saw dogs walking on their own, there was no human being on view far and wide.

hopefully the lined lady of my pic will get along furthermore.

cu, trshptr

2705 - one, two, three, whee!

May 27, 2012 in 50, action, animal, b+w, contrast, dog, field, forest, germany, greyhound, nature, nex 7, race, race track, sel, sony, sport

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | manual focus | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/2500 | lightroom 4

a long party night is followed by the hangover. although this morning tina was committed to drive she had slightly headache and fatigue after getting out of bed whereas i didn't have any problems despite the six beers of yesterday evening.

except our meeting with friends in ravensburg on saturday evening the whitsun weekend was characterised by the greyhound racing event that took place near our home on saturday and sunday. yesterday a breed contest was conducted by the greyhound racing club bermatingen and today national and solo races have attracted the spectators.

i have never visited such an event before. accordingly i was deeply impressed by the speed and the power of the greyhounds and the atmosphere on the ground. two notably interesting facts: firstly there were almost no brawls between the animals although at least 50 to 100 top motivated dogs were on hand and ready to start. second off the fastest runners need only a little bit more than 30s for 430m which means an average speed of 50km/h. wow!

two more interesting pics of these athletes can be found on my flickr stream!

cu, trshptr

1805 - illuminated

May 18, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, animal, barbary ape, bokeh, brown, canon, eos, eyes, face, forest, germany, green, light, monkey, nature, portrait, rest, salem, whiskers

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/50 | lightroom 4

for our today's excursion we visited the monkey hill in salem. round about 200 barbary apes live in a mostly species-appropriate husbandry on an area of approximately 12 hectare in the forest in the middle of nowhere.

it was very interesting to observe the social structure of their hierarchy. the 200 monkeys are separated into three groups of 50 to 80 animals. each group has one male and one female chief. furthermore the whole population has a overall chief of each gender. at monkey hill the most important rule is to avoid any contact with the current babies. every monkey would protect these little newborns against any - in his opinion - negative influences. to sum up i can say that in many aspects barbary apes are very similar to human beings.

however evident similarities between yesterday's and today's subject are quite accidentally. ;-)

cu, trshptr

0905 - vertical

May 09, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, animal, bathroom, bokeh, branch, brown, canon, eos, germany, hair, home, light, macro, minimalistic, reflection, shadow, spider, wall

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 52mm | f5.6 | ISO800 | 1/250 | lightroom 4

may i introduce mr. vertical, the brown little spider, to you? we met today in the morning while i was brushing my teeth. together we had a nice shoot before he escaped through our terrace window.

i wish you all the best, take care of your gracile legs, they are wonderful.

cu, trshptr

0805 - the early bird gets the worm

May 08, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, animal, bird, blackbird, bokeh, branch, brown, canon, courtyard, eos, germany, green, home, leaf, light, merl, nature, spring, tree

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO400 | 1/50 | lightroom 4

while i was processing the planned image of today's posting sitting on a deck chair in the yard my remaining kitty nila spotted an eurasian blackbird. whereas i hadn't been completely satisfied with the light conditions of this shot, i came naturally to desist from the pic - you will see a better version in the near future.

so nila and i observed the in my view cute, in her view delicious little bird that had caught a fat worm for his infants. by the way i shot some pictures of the blackbird, only the maximum focal distance of my kit lens hampered a better result. the blackbird was remaining calmly while i approximated because he was constantly assessing the situation.

moreover he was in a favourable position and he had already caught his worm.

cu, trshptr

btw: the picture above is far away from being a masterpiece, but it is not so bad after all and above all today it was important for me to share nila's and my experience with you. and: yesterday the third lens for my nex arrived - the sigma 30 f2.8. tiny little black piece of japanese engineering.

2604 - play with us

April 29, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, action, animal, brown, canon, dog, eos, eyes, face, italy, light, movement, people, personal, portrait, sardinia, shadow, sunset

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/400 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

besides salamanders you can find dogs everywhere in sardinia. many landowners use them to protect their property against unwelcome visitors or boars. in the scene of the picture tina was being investigated by five (!) cute dogs simultaneously. only at the first appearance she seems to be a little bit peeved.

2404 - state of shock

April 29, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, animal, bokeh, brown, canon, colour, contrast, eos, eyes, face, italy, nature, salamander, sardinia, yellow

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 55mm | f5.6 | ISO1600 | 1/80 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

salamanders are everywhere in sardinia. unfortunately they are very agile so that you will have a hard time trying to take a photograph of them. in a climbing cave in the centre of the island i caught an exemplar on the hop. to its cost it had missed the correct moment to leave the shadow. because of the too low blood heat it wasn't able to move a finger.

1704 - farewell

April 17, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, animal, brown, calm, canon, cat, eos, eyes, face, germany, home, portrait, rest, whiskers, zizou

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 28mm | f4.0 | ISO800 | 1/8 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

today it was a very sad day. we gave our first kitty zizou to tina's grandma. unfortunately we hadn't seen an other possibility to solve nila's suffer.

zizou, you are of a real character, gracious and unique. but you together with nila, that doesn't figure anymore. nila's doom vs. your move, these options were available. you would have chosen equally. what is exceedingly important to me: after almost six years of living together and that huge bunch of problems that we have mastered as a team you will be stored in our hearts forever. we hope that you know that we haven't betrayed you. :-(

please be always careful - after your infestation of fleas as a baby, your bad liver problems as a teeny and your accident with a car two years ago there are only four of seven lives left.

cu when i'm of good heart again, trshptr

0904 - tickets, please

April 09, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, abandoned, animal, b+w, bird, bokeh, calm, canon, dove, eos, eyes, germany, portrait, railstation, rest, ueberlingen

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 53mm | f6.3 | ISO800 | 1/100 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

yesterday i waxed lyrical about this long weekend, today in the morning it came to an abrupt interruption: at 7am marv had to be taken to the railstation in ueberlingen where he got his lift to berlin. unfortunately i was not in a really good temper, probably i had slept lightly. no skiving, ok. but sometimes it has to be ok to rest easy.

while tina and marv were waiting for the arrival of the lift i took the eos and walked around at the place. ueberlingen´s rail station which was in a complete calm and abandoned state at this holiday´s morning is a deeply interesting example of infrastructure-architecture. into a subjacent platform with old brickwork and historical bridges bordering the terrain - i stood at one of this while capturing the picture above - new glazed and metallic elements like stairs, elevators and escalators were integrated.

the structural conditions combined with a fairly large quantity of doves, a very small quantity of human beings and the cold, clear air led on to the impression of a special mood. that made my day already at its early beginning.

dove, you tiny little train guard - have fun. hope you have a handle on the goings-on.

cu, trshptr