0410 - vastness

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f11.0 | ISO200 | 1/20 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.2

i still have to become attuned to the vastness of the angle of view of my new fisheye lens. today in the morning on my way to work by bike i spotted a really natural scenery in the fields of markdorf that of course had to be captured. it's no hdr image, only slightly adjustments in lightroom.

at the weekend the fisheye lens will accompany me to berlin and the complete next week i'll be engaged on business in hamburg. at the latest in the middle of next week i'm going to write my detailed thoughts about the walimex pro fisheye lens and how it matches the nex 7. 

cu, trshptr

0310 - siesta

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/13 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.1

how can one optimally celebrate the german day of unity? maybe you should try to relax as much as possible remembering the few memories you still have. in this way tina has spent her afternoon, however after biking almost two hours around our local hill gehrenberg.

having a siesta is definitely one of her favourite activities on days off duty. she loves to snuggle down in the comfortable african blanket on our old, threadbare couch, that had been baddish scratched by our kitties already during our time in hamburg.

our proper contribution to today's public holiday was an east german charcoal-grill barbecue on west german soil in the evening. this is real understanding among nations.

cu, trshptr

0210 - stacked & bread rain

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f2.8 | ISO400 | 1/25 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.1

fortunately the announced walimex pro fisheye lens has arrived already today in the afternoon. for the evening i'd planned to shoot a special scenery in bodman-ludwigshafen at the western end of lake constance. a friend of mine had told me of the presence of an example of a very special kind of "lake art" - every now and then a stone artist places stone towers at the lakeside that seen as a stress engineer could really never bear.

for the viewer they exude calm and balance, really adorable.

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/100 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.1

heading for the place where the work is located we met a nice guy who was feeding the ducks and seagulls. although he seemed to be a bit strange he's surely a very nice and sensitive guy who cares about the nature and its animals.

i'll write more about the walimex pro fisheye lens during the next days. in advance only a very short information: it touches simply wonderfully and seems to be built of very high quality.

furthermore my two today's samples show how differently a fisheye lens can be used. both the emphasis of the distorted fisheye character as well as the use as an almost normal ultra wide angle lens are imaginable.

cu, trshptr

0110 - nowhere to run

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/30 | lightroom 4.1

subsequent to a long travel you always have to evaluate a great many pictures. thereby sometimes a few ones attract your attention although they hadn't struck initially. today an image of a hurrying nun that is leaving the cathedral of porto venere caught my eye. in my opinion the harsh post-processing fits the moody scenery very well.

probably tomorrow or the day after a walimex / samyang / rokinon pro 8mm f2.8 fisheye lens will arrive for an extensive test during the coming days. for that reason i'm going to work especially with this very special lens  for now and according to that the next postings will be concerned with the apparently excellent little fisheye lens. i'm curious how the fisheye will match the nex 7.

cu, trshptr

3009 - green(stuff) swan

setup: sony nex 7 with fujian 35 f1.7 | 35mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/320 | lightroom 4.1

autumn has definitely arrived. there are a variety of indications that the late summer atmosphere is also gone now. the temperatures fall from day to day and wetness makes the already not very comfortable temperatures feel like a half onset of winter. the people head out to collect mushrooms in the marshy forests and today we were following the current trend, too. our yield was satisfying although we are still checking at the moment if each of them is edible - i really don't want to spend the night in the hospital.

furthermore the season of pumpkins and stews is ongoing. the healthy food points, as a reader of this blog had named the self service food stalls that you can find on the street in the region of lake constance, have adjusted their choice of products to autumnal vegetables - different kind of pumpkins are dominating the display.

anyhow a few of the pumpkins will survive as inviting and observing marginal figures.

cu, trshptr

2909 - public transportation system scooter

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f10.0 | ISO100 | 1/13 | lightroom 4.1

already at 8am tina and i left the wonderful cottage in liguria. ten totally different days of holidays are now written in our small family history. hard to imagine that i have to go to work in two days again - anyhow some hours of resting are waiting for us.

when we finally arrived at home at 3pm my matriculation documents were already waiting for me in the pillar box. yes, you have this right - during the coming three years from now on i'll be a student again. my course computational engineering - that is provided by the beuth hochschule berlin - will proceed as different distance learning units. i'm very curious and will report every now and then from my study progress.

for now the last photograph from italy is about a very defining element of italian street life - simply everybody aged between 16 and 70 seems to own a scooter. funnily the scooters have the things on the streets firmly under control - they wiggle through all the blocked roads and thereby they scare one or two pedestrians and car drivers, too.

cu, trshptr

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

2709 - market bustle

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.1

one of the most interesting opportunities of italian life for us foreigners is the terrific food. as everybody should know the italian cuisine is world-famous for its pizza and pasta, but also the pesto and antipasti. the basis for these delicious fares are fresh and organic, local ingredients: vegetables, noodles, bread and oil, spices and pesto, meat and fish and of course also wine. all of that can be obtained on the market.

besides a few recipes that result in a buying list in your mind and the colourful display a great many of busy people make a still urban scenery alive.

cu, trshptr

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

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