3010 - end of these particular work days

October 30, 2012 in 50, animal, blur, cat, cobble, door, floor, garden, germany, grain, home, light, nex 7, nila, old photo, personal, sel, shoes, sony, vintage

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO640 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.2

some things will never change: coming home from work on night duty days of tina is pure heartache for me because i'm anything but a person who enjoys his own company.

so i hurl myself into rituals: coming home; cuddling nila, the cat; exercises, taking a hot shower, dinner, extensive practising. sleep.

no matter if the year is 2005 or 2015: this was and will be the same as it ever was in our relationship.

cu, trshptr

2010 - mist man

October 20, 2012 in 30, b+w, barcelona, corridor, countryside, fog, forest, grain, grey, mist, mood, nex 7, people, portrait, sigma, sony, spain, tree, trip, walk

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

1410 - home again

October 14, 2012 in 50, b+w, bathroom, blur, bokeh, eyes, germany, grain, grey, hair, home, light, mirror, nex 7, night, personal, portrait, sel, self portrait, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | 1/40 | silver efex for lightroom

being separated from tina for more than a week let me feel sick.

coming home after ten days feels a bit like getting to know her and the whole surrounding completely new. a sense of delight mixes with a feeling of relief. hopefully this will stay forever.

cu, trshptr

0509 - backlit beauty

September 05, 2012 in 50, b+w, eyes, face, germany, grain, hair, high key, home, light, moment, nex 7, old photo, people, personal, portrait, sel, sepia, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO1600 | spot metering | 1/30 | silver efex pro plug-in for lightroom 4.1

i really don't know if i fulfil my ultramodern camera's capabilities when i process images with results like today's. why do i sometimes want the results to look like photographs from the 70's? is it pure retro fashion or hipster culture? i don't think so.

first of all without the low light capabilities of my nex 7 i'd have never captured this moment on camera. the room in that tina was bustling around was almost completely dark, only the backlight of the terrace window in her back made for an illumination. furthermore the integrated spot metering mode of the camera made a perfect illumination easily available to me. so far, so good. finally the negative was quickly captured.

whilst post processing it should be the aim of the photographer to give the finished image the expression the scene had originally conveyed. if i look at my lady and see a soft, satin-gloss sepia face with an intimate expression, an analogue-like processing is simply appropriate. in my opinion it absolutely is, because the above-noted image shows exactly what i'd seen.

cu, trshptr

0109 - to the last drop

September 02, 2012 in 50, b+w, drop, garden, germany, grain, grey, home, leaf, minimalistic, nature, nex 7, old photo, pattern, plant, reflection, sel, sony, texture, water

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO1000 | 1/80 | silver efex pro plug-in for lightroom 4.1

today was the long-awaited festival day, we were at the rock am see festival in constance. as i told you yesterday my nex 7 had to stay at home because i didn't want to mind out my equipment the whole day and night. anyhow i've shot a few pics with my smartphone (two examples on my mobile photography tumblr blog: the tree & tired).

the festival itself was brilliant. my favourites were itchy poopzkid, flogging molly, greenday and kraftklub - in that order. it was a lot of drinking, dancing and pogo. great fun with a few wounds in the aftermath which is perhaps down to the fact that we revved up to the last drop.

cu, trshptr

btw: the photography magazin fotohits gives away pro licences of the b&w post processing plug-in application silver efex pro, the predecessor of the current version 2. their promotion will be active till end of september, get your own key here if you want. today's pic was used for a first attempt working with this lightroom plug-in. i'm very satisfied with the results.

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 - 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.

2006 - royal lake

June 21, 2012 in 50, countryside, fog, forest, gangplank, germany, grain, green, grey, hills, koenigssee, lake, landscape, light beam, mood, nature, nex 7, reflection, sel, sony

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f8.0 | ISO100 | 1/125 | lightroom 4.1

as you would expect our nature oriented training day became an idyllic one. the koenigssee, what proverbially would be royal lake or lake of the kings in english, is a very pretty place in germany and recommendable for everybody who has a thing for the landscape of for example norway or canada.

apparently there was no way round this fact for the authors of travel guides of germany. already in the early morning when we arrived at koenigssee dozens of japanese have jumped on the first boat to salet, the southeastern end of the lake. they all must have read of the speciality of the most southeastern corner of bavaria and germany in any guide, otherwise they still would have been sleeping in their hotels.

almost every asian man and woman was armed with a huge dslr (except two girls who have used the nex 5 - well chosen, ladies), most of them with nikons, and not really provided with any composition strategy - trial and error seems to be the shooting method of the most of the southeast asian tourists. why not...

nevertheless the journey was definitely worth the early getting up. due to our fast step we have been the first people who entered the valley today. unfortunately the air has been very foggy so that a lot of pics didn't turn out very well. but a few of them even profited of the special air conditions - while we were sailing over the lake suddenly the sun came into the lakeside and illuminated an abandoned gangplank. the complete rest of the hillside was residing in the foggy and misty dark. a mysterious mood came over me. nice place to be there for a while, also if you know of and live at the lake constance.

cu, trshptr

2105 - hot potato

May 21, 2012 in 18-55, 30, 400d, b+w, bokeh, canon, contrast, eos, equipment, germany, grain, nex 7, reflection, shadow, sigma, sony, still life, technics, tripod, update

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/20 | lightroom 4

the time has come, the borrowed eos 400d makes way for my new nex 7. don't be afraid - otherwise everything will remain unchanged.

i'm geared up to start respectively to resume my work. as a start my new sony nex 7 will be matched with the sigma 30 f2.8, the manual (toy lens) fujian 35 f1.7 - i'm aware of the peculiarities of this cheap cctv lens - or the sony 50 f1.8. additionally in the near future i'll be on the look-out for a wide-angel lens. i read some rumours about a native e-mount 10-18 f4.0 wide-angel zoom which would fit in with my kit very well. and last but not least i think about the purchase of the sony sel 55-210 f4.5-6.3 but before i get myself a telephoto lens i'll wait for the occurrence where i absolutely need such a thing.

what more need to be said? among other things i'm going to use two 16gb sdhc memory cards, a crumpler camera bag, a second battery and a gorillapod. in some cases - if i'm satisfied with the camera's results - i'll also publish "out of camera" (ooc) jpegs because i want to show the entire capabilities of the nex 7. for that reason i'm going to use the special modes like dynamic range optimisation (dro) and high dynamic range (hdr), too. tips and criticism or simple statements are very welcome!

cu, trshptr

1404 - transparency

April 15, 2012 in 18-55, 400d, b+w, canon, concert, contrast, eos, eyes, face, germany, grain, light, live, mood, music, night, people, ravensburg, reflection, street

setup: canon eos 400d with efs 18-55mm | 27mm | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/6 | aperture priority | raw files cropped, aligned and processed in lightroom 4

i like things being transparent. you know you get yourself into familar surroundings. if you are able to bother yourself about the worst case in this context you will not being caught unawares by anything or anybody. for that reason it is always helpful to know all boundary conditions, so you can estimate the problem's variability. ok, maybe too abstracted.

yesternight was transparent for various reasons: we felt very comfortable in the surroundings of our friends. we know the event, the long live music night is conducted every year. the locations are also well-known. all that led on to a great evening with nice music, some beers and cheerful talks.

one of the twenty stages was proverbially transparent, too.

cu, trshptr

btw: i don't want to discuss the low light performance of my borrowed eos 400d again, but it hitted the wall concerning iso and aperture so that i had to shoot with inappropriate shutter speeds the whole evening. that's why only one of ten pics turned out well. let´s forget it, only some days to go.