Ancient

I am currently in Cairo for a couple of weeks to do some work. Fortunately during the first weekend I could afford to take one day off to see a bit of Cairo other than my hotel room and the factory. 


Seeing those pyramids, which are more than 4'500 years old is amazing. They are built on a plateau  overlooking the river Nile and the city of Cairo. When I was at the pyramid, I could not see the city at all due to much smog over Cairo. 

Richter Fenster

I took this image the day when I went to Cologne to pick up my Summilux 50. I met the very nice guy who sold his Summilux to me just in front of the cathedral and took immediately some images inside the cathedral. 

There is a new window, which has been designed by German visual artist Gerhard Richter. The window was unveiled in 2007 in absence of Cologne's Cardinal Meisner who said that Richter's window would fit better in a mosque or prayer house. The people in Cologne are so nice and friendly and having a tradition of many centuries to be open and tolerant with others. How came that they deserved a Cardinal like him?

However, even if the own Cardinal does not like the window, it has become very popular and is may the most photographed object inside the cathedral... 

Summer Thunderstorm Approaching

One of my favorite images - first of all because of the pretty model, but also I took it with my beloved Noctilux. We have been strolling around a bit during a family reunion weekend this summer, when the sky became a bit darker and obviously some heavy rain clouds where approaching. It was late afternoon and the light was perfect for a nice, warm-toned portrait. 


The field of wheat gave the scene this warm, brownish tone, which matches the skin and hair color almost perfectly. I didn't shoot it entirely wide open and stepped down the aperture a bit to f2.8. This gives just enough depth of field to get the body sharp with a perfect bokeh and creamy colors in the background as only a Noctilux can do. I just took a couple of shots and was most satisfied with this one. 


I just  bought the Noctilux a few weeks before I took those images and despite the enormous price of that lens, it is definitely the best lens I ever had. When I returned from Berlin last weekend, I recognized that the focus ring is blocked, most probably due to somebody jamming his luggage into my Leica in the overhead compartment. I returned the lens to Leica this week, anxiously awaiting how much I have to pay for the repair cost. I guess, it is quite likely that the costs for repairing a Noctilux are more than the price for a new Nikon lens...  

this way

I shot this in Singapore earlier this month, in the Botanical Garden as the previous image. The Botanical GArden is a great escape from the hectic shopping districts near by and allows to spend some quite hours in the middle of the city. 

red on green

I was walking around the botanical garden in Singapore last week, enjoying the beautifully laid out garden landscape and richness of plants, trees, and flowers. A lot of things caught my eye, providing sources for great images. 
These palm trees draw my attention because of the interesting color contrast with the soft greenish background. I shot the image with long focal length (90 mm) and open aperture (f3.4) to get sharpness on the palm leaves and a creamy green background. 

Stairs

This image was taken at the Zeche Zollverein in Essen when we were invited by some very good friends for a weekend. It is an amazing place and more than worthwhile to visit. The look down into the staircase is a little bit like an Escher drawing, especially due to the curved stairs which have attached for the visiting tour. Other than that it is very hard to find any round shapes on the entire architecture.
Today the entire Coal Mine Industrial Complex Zeche Zollverein is UNESCO World Heritage Site, open for visitors. 

My fotostream on flickr

consigliere_tom photostream on Flickr.

Alhambra

Granada, and especially the Alhambra, is quite a source for taking pictures. It is not just about great architecture with lot of interesting details, where ever you are going, you are having the great scenery of the snowy summits of the Sierra Nevada in the background. 

With this image, I am a bit uncertain if the black & white conversation or the color version transport the beauty of the subject better. Reduce to the max or colorful richness?

Cathedral

We are just coming back from a nice trip to the south of Spain, visiting the spectacular city of Granada and spent some enjoying and wonderful days with friends in Alpujarras at the foot of Sierra Nevada. 

Granada is a very inspirational city in many domains. Just visiting the Alhambra overlooking the city and its Morish roots is already worth the trip. But there are many other places in the city which are worth to explore, like the cathedral. The design of the cathedral started quite early giving the cathedral Gothic roots. By the time when the cathedral was built and finished, Spanish Renaissance design was replacing Gothic design in Spanish architecture. Whilst you are visiting the cathedral, you will still see the Gothic roots, however the details in the facade and the inner design of the cathedral tells you that this is a masterpiece of Spanish renaissance architecture. 

I was traveling just with my Leica and used for most of the images a wide angle lens (Tri-Elmar 16-18-21). So far I did not use the Tri-Elmar very often, not really using why. On one hand I was not very pleased with the speed (f4.0) and on the other hand, my impression was that a Leica M is not particularly a camera for ultra wide angle photography. As I am considering to sell it off in order to fund a Summilux 75 or Noctilux, I wanted to give it a last chance. With most of the images I am quite pleased, however I am still considering to let it go and replace it probably with a faster ultra wide angle lens. 

Back in Berlin

I am back in Berlin again. Just a short weekend trip to meet some friends, going to a party, enjoying the big city and shopping for some new gear. It's great to have a weekend off and just doing what I wanna do...


I have taken the image already in 2008 in the "Neue Wache". It is a similar image as posted earlier already, that time taken in 2007 (Ray of Hope).

Piazza San Marco

Just another picture from our trip to Venice last year. We came back to Piazza San Marco the next day when the sun was shining. It was a completely different atmosphere, the water was gone and all the footbridge were removed over night. And the square was full of people, having a coffee, photographing the impressing Venetian architecture or queueing for Basilica St. Marcus and Campanile. We regret a bit that we didn't visit the Basilica the day before when just a few people where strolling around in the rain, however this is a good reason to return soon. 

Venice in Rain

It is just half a year ago that we spend a happy weekend in Venice, where I made my proposal - and now we are married already for more than a month...


Venice was a great time, even if the weather wasn't very summer-like and the city was under water (not just the canals). 


Time to get back to Italy...

Namibian Roundtrip

Our honeymoon trip across Namibia is nearly completed. We just returned the camper to Kea (highly recommended rental car company in Southern Africa with excellent 4x4 campers and extremely friendly and supporting staff) and checked in at Hotel Heinitzburg in Windhoek (many Thanx to Katrin & Michael and Margret & Georg for an awesome dinner) before we will return to Europe tomorrow. 

Very exciting and inspiring weeks are behind us and we both enjoyed the time in the desert and in the bush very much. I guess this won't be neither the last time in Namibia nor the last time that we have done a camping trip. We are already making plans for our big world trip and another trip to Namibia, including Botswana the next time. 

As usual I have carried too much camera equipment with me. This time not just nearly the whole Nikon gear, but also my Leica M9 with all the lenses I have. I just wanted to know for the next time if the Leica M9 does a good job on traveling. I appreciate the advantages of a camera that doesn't weigh half a ton when hiking in the mountains. However I am still a bit disappointed with the noise of the Leica (Kodak) sensor. I guess an image like the one of the giraffe would not have been possible with the Leica M9 without further processing (the one above is straight out of the Nikon D700, shot with ISO 1600). 

Our roundtrip started in Windhoek, where we picked up our 4x4 camper and went straight to Swakopmund. From there we made our way southward through the Namib desert. We used either camping sites with all the facilities you need or sites in the wilderness that just offered some plain sandy ground for the camper and a tree for some shadow. After spending a few nights in desert, bathing in a nearly dried river and collecting tons of sand in our camper, we had a night in a lodge in the middle of the Namib Naukluft Park (many thanx to Uli and Hannes, this was the perfect timing). From there we went hiking into the Naukluft mountains before proceeding to the mighty dunes of Sossousvlei:

On our way to and from Sossousvlei we passed by Solitaire, just to fill up Diesel and to enjoy Moose McGregor's awesome apple pie. If you are in going to Sossousvlei, you must go to Solitaire (not the most attractive place on earth as it just has a pump, a tire repair, a curio shop and general store, some camels to rent AND Moose McGregor's bakery!). His pies and bread are worth any detour if you are in the area. 

The ballooning was a very special and personal highlight on the trip, which gave a complete different perspective onto the desert: 

We decided that an Africa trip wouldn't be complete without having been in a game park, so we made our way up northbound to Etosha

where we needed to fix a few broken welds (tribute to thousands of km's gravel road)  in an open roof garage with the helping hands of some local mechanics:

Finally, after two weeks in the desert with tons of sand and lot of heat, we made our way back to Windhoek. We spent our last night in the camper with heavy rain all night, flooding the interior...

Balloni

A long time project entered into its next phase on December 31st, 2010! I am a happily married man!


We celebrated our wedding at a very nice venue in Cologne, called "Balloni". It was a great party into New Year 2011 and into a new exciting and happy life. Many of our friends from all over made the effort to join us in Cologne and celebrated this wonderful event together with us. We both appreciate the time with our families and friends very much and are very grateful for having such a nice wedding party.


Just on the next day we left for our honeymoon to Namibia. We picked up our 4x4 camper in Windhoek and went straight into the dry Namibian desert, spending the first night of our honeymoon in our camper at a fire, where we barbecued some veggies and lots of meat. For the next two and half weeks we drove thousands of kilometers through the desert, slept somewhere in the wilderness and had neither Internet nor cell phone access (the latter at least occasionally). Just in the middle of our honeymoon desert trip, my new married wife Annette surprised me with a wedding gift: a ballooning across the mighty red dunes of Soussosvlei at sunrise. The balloon took off just 20 minutes before the sun came up behind the mountains and illuminated the giant dunes with a deep red light. What a view! And what a wonderful experience! We went across the desert during sunrise, having an awesome view on the mountains, the desert and the dunes. We even spotted a lot of game from above, spreading long shadows on the ground, which made them look like rock paintings. After landing the pilot served a very well prepared breakfast including champagne in the middle of the desert.


We will definitely return to Namibia (latest on our planned world trip) and we will visit all the places that we needed to leave out this time. However there will be also places where we will return to. You can imagine that I have taken a few images during our trip and I guess, I will post some of them either here and / or on my flickr site.

Winter's coming...

Winter is coming early this year.

Pimp my blog!

Today I updated my blog design to make it looking a bit funkier... 

Warteck

Just another image of the staircases series. This time it isn't New York City, it's Basel. This are the stairs on the areal of the old Warteck brewery, leading to one of my favorite cantinas in Basel. 

27

Bangkok, late afternoon. Busses are passing by one after the other, windows wide open, and loaded with tired commuters on their way home to suburbia.

Venice

This year I was in Venice for the second time in my life. The first time must be around 40 years ago and the only memory I have from that visit is, how my brother any I are standing in the middle of Marcus Square waiting for my father to take a picture. 


When we visited Venice in July this year for a short weekend trip, the weather was rather ugly, however Venice is just a nice city that the weather is more than secondary. Besides the interesting buildings and waterways, Venice has many nice squares and some great museums like the Palazzo Grassi with one of the most exciting and interesting collections of modern art (The Francois Pinault Collection). If you are going to Venice, try to find the time to visit the exhibition - you won't regret it!

Over the Counter

Over the Counter - The Phenomena of Post-socialist Economy in Contemporary Art is a current exhibition at the Museum Műcsarnok (Kunsthalle) in Budapest. If you are around, I really recommend to visit the exhibition.

MM UM U M