Tom's Pix

Ancient

2012-02-09T04:45:00.001+01:00

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

2011-11-07T23:45:00.002+01:00

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

2011-09-23T15:20:00.000+02:00

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

2011-07-24T13:16:00.000+02:00

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

2011-07-15T17:34:00.000+02:00

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

2011-06-13T07:40:00.000+02:00

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

2011-04-13T22:08:00.002+02:00

consigliere_tom photostream on Flickr.

Alhambra

2011-03-24T08:19:00.001+01:00

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

2011-03-23T16:59:00.003+01:00

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

2011-03-05T09:23:00.001+01:00

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

2011-02-10T03:27:00.000+01:00

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

2011-02-07T22:05:00.000+01:00

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

2011-01-20T02:06:00.003+01:00

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

2011-01-17T15:39:00.002+01:00

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...

2010-12-16T06:27:00.000+01:00

Winter is coming early this year.

Pimp my blog!

2010-12-12T21:32:00.001+01:00

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

Warteck

2010-12-12T11:07:00.006+01:00

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

2010-10-17T23:43:00.001+02:00

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

2010-09-10T16:59:00.000+02:00

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

2010-09-02T06:55:00.000+02:00

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

2010-09-01T06:32:00.000+02:00

Gimme Shelter

2010-08-11T22:38:00.000+02:00

Venice in rain - loving memories from another life (less than two months away). Pressure increased to a level, which took away life. Time has become the most valuable asset. No control over time. No weekends. No sleep. No fun.
Like those policemen, sometimes I wish I could hide from the storm. No shelter in sight. But who needs a shelter? Fighting the storm makes you stronger.

Subversion der Bilder

2010-07-31T18:17:00.001+02:00

Another image in one week! Actually as the previous image from the Funk Unit gig in Kaufleuten, this is another picture I took in winter with my new Leica M9. I just bought a wide angle Tri-Elmar (WATE), which I was trying out when we visited the amazing exhibition "Subversion der Bilder" for the second time. The WATE is an excellent lens, however I decided to sell it off in order to fund my recently acquired 50mm Summilux.
When I decided to buy a digital Leica, I wanted to get away from carrying around a heavy camera with lots of really heavy lenses. Now I ended up with 6 lenses for the Leica and I decided that three of them must go away.
The exhibition was one of the most impressing photographic exhibitions that I have seen for the last few years, excellently curated. For those who missed it in Paris and Winterthur, there is another chance in Madrid...

Kibera

2010-07-28T11:26:00.005+02:00

I just recognized that some time has gone since I posted some new images. And honestly, I have not taken that many images this year. Since I got my new Leica M9 in February, I have taken just a few images with my heavy Nikon. But haven't used the Leica not to the extend I was thinking, before I bought it. This is not because I am not liking it, it is just a matter of time and inspiration. When so many things are happening, which need your personal and immediate attention, creativity and inspiration are sacrificed to a certain degree. I guess that is the price you have to pay to live a dream come true and you can't have it all.
However, I have taken some images for the last six month and took my Leica with me to most places I was traveling.
Nils Landgren and Funk Unit were giving a concert in Kaufleuten, Zurich in April this year and I thought it is a good opportunity to test if the Leica is a good camera for concert. Today it is impossible to take your fat (D)SLR into a concert if you aren't a pro. The Leica is not as obvious as a DSLR and can be used very discretely during a concert (no big fat lenses, no flash necessary and a very discrete shutter). I just had a 50mm f1.1 Nokton and 90mm f2.8 Elmarit with me and it worked out quite well from my place on the gallery.
The Funk Unit were great that night, as always. If they are coming to your town, don't miss them. I don't want to miss the opportunity to promote Nils Landgren's support for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Please read the full story on www.funkforlife.com/the-story.html.

Head Station

2010-04-13T03:34:00.037+02:00

When I was on a business trip in Italy last year, I decided to travel light and not to take my Nikon 24-70 f2.8 with me (besides some other glass usually as well). I just took the body and the Nikon 50mm f1.4 - that was it. It was a kind of experiment. First of all, I wanted to experience if I would be ready for spending some significant money on a Leica and go for prime lenses, and for one (or at least two) lens only. Talking about Leica glass, you must be either very wealthy to afford more then one lens or somewhat crazy. As I am owning currently more than one Leica lens and I am not wealthy, I am obviously the latter.
Anyway, just traveling with one lens was an interesting and inspiring experience. Before I left home, I knew that, if I would find some time for photography, it would be at night. Hence I appreciated the extra speed that the f1.4 gave me. Besides some nice shots in Genoa, I took a few picture when I was waiting for my connection in Milano Stazione Centrale.
After not having used the Nikon since we are back from Laos, I am seriously considering to sell it - or at least the heavy zoom lenses. Traveling and walking around the streets with a light weight camera like a Leica is much more fun and not so intimidating than a big black camera with a lens of size of a cannon.

Crane

2010-04-07T03:11:00.003+02:00

The dock, located in St. Johann, is part of the port in Basel. Due to the building of the new Novartis campus, the entire area of St. Johann is and will be re-designed entirely, this will include the port as well. Already the port is not active anymore and the buildings, including the massive cranes for unloading the ships will be removed and replaced by a river promenade soon. Since my first arrival in Switzerland and basel in 1998, I could witness the enormous re-construction of an entire district. This included building a new bridge across the river Rhine, a new highway connecting Germany and France through the city of Basel, closing and building a new border guard, demolishing old factory buildings and replacing them with new office and research buildings. Those buildings have been designed by internationally renowned architects like Frank Gehry, Diener & Diener, Peter Maerkli, Sanaa, just to mention a few (at least the ones who I remember).

FINALLY!

2010-03-30T04:13:00.003+02:00

Today I received the verdict, I was waiting for a very very long time. The only comment I have, is a quote by actor John Cleese, who was in a similar situation:

"It's going to be very, very expensive, but it will be worth every penny."

Chatting at the Underground

2010-03-28T11:20:00.001+02:00

After a long time being a bit quiet on my blog, I will try to become a little more active again. This image was taken with my Leica M7 a few months ago when I visited the photo 09 in Zürich. I am a little bit unsatisfied with my scanner, which is in fact a very simple all-in-one model. The quality of the scans is far beyond the quality of the prints (or negatives). Anyhow, I am re-thinking my workflow for a while and I haven't still not decided if I will go for digital only. Both, analog and digital, workflows are time consuming, but just scanning a roll of 35mm film takes me half a night.
Due to my recent acquisition of a Leica M9, I am focussed more on street photography and haven't used my Nikon heavy weight champion for a while. On one of the coming weekends, in case the usual "weekend raining" sets off, I will go out for a planned documentary of an area in Zürich. I would love to accomplish at least one photographic project this year as I didn't manage to get the winter snow night in Zürich projects even not started. And I guess (and to a certain extend I hope) that the winter is finally over (after coming back with heavy snow and freezing temperatures again and again).
But for now, I am looking forward to do more daily photographing and getting some inspiration and motivation back. Weeks of heavy work are behind me (and I am afraid also ahead of me), but finally a few things, which caused some very bad vibes and loss of creativity, will be sorted out very soon. And even better, a few other things are eventually developing very positive and as I wished they would.

The Mekong

2010-02-08T12:40:00.001+01:00

After we left Luang Prabang we traveled upwards the Mekong with a boat towards the Golden Triangle. It was a very interesting journey and due to the very nice folks we met on the boat we had a very nice and enjoying time for the entire journey. It is always a pleasure to meet people who are such a nice company and I am sure our path will cross again.

We are back in Bangkok again now, spending some days in the city of angels. Besides doing a bit of sightseeing, I started to screen the images from the days in Laos. I already made a decision that this journey was probably the last one for my Nikon. Instead of carrying 20 kg of camera gear and lenses, I am planning to sell off a few things to get funding for a Leica M9. I am excited how that will change my approach to photography as I am also planning to travel very light, just with one 35mm Summicron (instead of many lenses from 14mm to 400mm, like today). For me it means a bit to return to a photographic style like I was used to 25 or 30 years ago.

Early morning on the Mekong. The difference in temperature between early morning and afternoon was from a little above 10 Celsius to nearly 40 Celsius.

Good are transported the Mekong all day long in both directions. On the part that we traveled between Luang Prabang and Huay Xai we have not seen a single bridge.

Luang Prabang

2010-02-06T02:36:00.002+01:00

Luang Prabang's city is dominated by a patchwork of traditional Lao wooden houses, vats (Buddhist temples) and French colonial architecture. Due to the many temples you will see monks walking through the city at any time and any place.

Each morning at dawn monks are collecting alms of rice from villagers (and early tourists). On our second last day we got up at 5.30 to go into the city and participated in the local tradition, giving rice to the monks. In order not to disturb the ceremony, I decided to take just a very few images (just three) with a small size lens (my f1.4 50mm) without walking around and circling the monks and villagers during the ceremony and pointing at them with a gun-like big lens. I guess everybody needs to decide for himself if you would like the alms giving ceremony being a tourist attraction and taking as many pictures from all perspectives as possible (including using flashes or placing a tripod or yourself in a way that the monks need to walk around) or if you trying to respect the tradition and shooting some images very discretely from a distance and without distraction. It is not always the easiest decision to make on those occasions, which images you can take without being disrespectful.

Romantic Dinner at the Mekong

2010-02-02T11:57:00.002+01:00

Last night we had a sunset dinner at the banks of the Mekong with a very romantic view and excellent food after a great day at the waterfalls of Kouang Si. We were hiking up through the jungle to the summit and had cool bath in one of the many pools, which are on different levels of the waterfall that is running down in several cascades.

Night Market

2010-01-30T23:01:00.004+01:00

We arrived in Luang Prabang yesterday for our short journey through Laos. Luang Prabang is located in the northern part of Laos and was formerly the capital of the kingdom of Laos.

We are staying in a little bungalow at the banks of the Mae Kok river, a tributary of the Mekong. When we arrived yesterday we took some time to relax before walking into town and visiting the night market. Todays schedule will be visiting the some of the many wats.

For the next few days we will explore this beautiful city with all the wats (temples) and French colonial houses. I am planning to issue a book with images from Laos later this year, however I have not finalized the concept yet. Either it will be a book where the images will speak for themselves or a collaboration with my sweetheart contributing some texts. Either or, I need to do some serious haunting for good images for the next few days.

Already on Wednesday we will travel on and board a boat which will bring us further up the Mekong until the Golden Triangle.

Take a Left

2010-01-27T20:34:00.003+01:00

Another street image from Cambodia. I took the image last year in Siem Reap when we visited the temples of Angkor. We will leave Switzerland within the next few minutes for a short trip to Laos and Bangkok...

Grounded

2010-01-12T04:13:00.005+01:00

In 1992 my cousin Stefan and I did a journey around Scandinavia with our motor cycles. We started in Helsinki going all the way up through Finland towards the Northern Cape in Norway. We went southbound through Norway along the coast line afterwards driving through cold weather and rain for nearly two weeks.

I remember that one afternoon we stopped at a gas station for a hot chocolate and coffee and none of us made a move to go out into the cold rain and drive on. We recognized the weather forecast on Norwegian TV talking about sun on the other side of the mountains in Sweden. Immediately we decided to change our plans and instead of proceeding further south towards Bergen, we went eastbound towards Sweden on the next day.

Soon after we crossed the mountains driving down into Sweden the weather became warmer with each mile. At that night we built our tent next to a lake and the next morning we changed our bikes with a canoe. I have taken the picture just after we loaded our canoe with the tent, our sleeping bags, some cans of Spaghetti and a few bottles of horrible expensive Swedish beer and started our three days canoe trip. We left the nice mansion which you can see in the background and passed by a sunken wooden ship which was grounded in the lake and from which just the external structure was remaining. We had a very nice trip for three days sleeping on small Island and having a campfire at night.

I guess, it is obvious that I didn't took this image in 1992 with a digital camera. I just had a compact 35mm camera without zoom lenses and without autofocus.

Empty Church

2010-01-08T04:41:00.060+01:00

We found this church in France next to the chateau of Montreuil-Bellay. The church itself is not spectacular in any way, however I liked the way how the light was shining into the hall of the church. Just a few chairs have been illuminated giving them a warm light compared to the inside of the church.
The new year started already quite busy and I am concerned that I will spend much less time on photography than already last year. For the last few weeks I was using my new Leica M7 and my old Voigtländer Vitomatic more than my nice Nikon DSLR. In fact I have not used the Voigtländer for years and I was extremely amazed how sharp the images are when I got them back. I guess I will use the camera a bit more often in the future.

Currently I like using the Voigtländer with the 50mm and the Leica M7 with a 35mm lens a lot. After using my Nikon with those fancy and heavy zoom lenses for the last few years, I am becoming quite enthusiastic about getting back to old school photography and using just standard fix lenses. With using film you become much more careful before pressing the release button. In fact it forces you to think more about the story and composition. Using film doesn't change your photography and your artistic approach or makes you a better photographer, however it helps you to get rid of some bad habits introduced by heavy usage of digital cameras. Not knowing if your images are exposed correctly, sharp and composition is well before actually processing the entire roll, you have to be patient and careful with your camera handling.

But don't get me wrong, I love digital photography. You have nearly the entire workflow under control, which is very hard and time consuming with film. I am already looking for a compromise and thinking of buying a digital Leica. But in that case I must sell most of my current gear just to finance a new camera.

Waiting

2009-12-28T03:45:00.000+01:00

I took this image a few months ago in Genoa when I was walking through the old town during the night. It was already autumn, cold and wet. Just a few people were strolling around the small alleys of the city.

Cross #3

2009-12-23T04:32:00.036+01:00

This is actually an alternative shot of the steles at the the Berlin Holocaust Memorial. I took a similar image with my old camera already in 2007, posted as Cross #2. Since I took the first image, I wanted to return to Berlin and the memorial to take the same image with a wider lens.

I spent a few days in May this year in Berlin with my "little" son, walking around the city and, most importantly for him, attending the German soccer cup final. Unfortunately his team lost, but we had a very good time anyway. It was one of the very very rare occasions that we met this year.

There are a few more images from the weekend in Berlin, but being so busy especially this year, I still have a backlog of lots of images that need to be screened. I also want to post some reviews of the photobooks that I read this year, but I am not sure if I should do it as a separate blog.

I will do a short break for a few days, reloading my batteries, reading a few travel books to get inspiration for our next trip, cooking with and for my sweetheart, and just have a good time with some friends.

Wintertime!

2009-12-21T04:44:00.016+01:00

Yes, it is winter again. Temperatures dropped significantly last week, down to -14 Celsius on the weekend. We spent the day in Zuerich on Saturday, shopping and going to a concert at night. It was so cold, that I didn't take out my camera for a single shot. On Sunday it was getting a bit warmer and lots of snow was falling out of the sky. So much, that several airports in Europe needed to be closed, but no slack in operation on Swiss airports.

Actually I took this image already a year ago, when we also had a winter with lot of snow. We were hiking near Basel with some friends, enjoying the snow and sunshine. This was already on our way back and the sun was already starting it's descent.

Better Times

2009-12-07T05:31:00.010+01:00

I actually recognized that I never posted this image and I don't have any idea why, as it is one of my personal favorites - maybe the one personal favorite.

I shot the image a few years ago in a small village called Seiano, which is south of Napoli in Campania, Italy. We spent a few days there beginning of October celebrating the farewell of my old friend Leonardo, who retired to enjoy his life as grandfather, and my sweetheart's birthday.

It was the end of a nice day and the sun was already setting down and giving a nice warm light when I shot the image. I saw this mansion, which was in a terrible condition and obviously abandoned some time ago. Irrespectively of the fading light conditions I tried a few shots from the building, unfortunately without my tripod. When I first reviewed the images I shot on that day, this image did not get my immediate attention. Later when I decided which of the images I will process further, I took this one, cropped the image to remove the ground floor and the roof and kept only the balconies with their destructed doors and structure. In further processing I corrected the perspective and desaturated the entire image, but trying to keep a warm tone.

Personally this image reminds me on the wonderful time I spent on the assignment in Campania for a good year. But it also reminds me on the bad economical situation in the south of Italy. Many companies (and jobs) moved to the north leaving behind a country and people who are struggling with high rates of unemployment and problems to afford the cost of living. When I was traveling around in Campania I experienced a wonderful country and people, but I also saw many abandoned factory buildings. Even there might be other reasons, why this particular mansion was abandoned, however it perfectly represents the actual situation in Campania, and especially in the wider area of Napoli - showing signs of abandonment and destruction, but no surrender - beauty and pride instead.

You can find the image in the Onexposure photobook 2009 and on seen.by.

San Francisco, Marina District

2009-12-01T04:31:00.004+01:00

I was in San Francisco twice last year and had some time to walk around with my camera. Unfortunately I didn't had my tripod with me, but I tried to get some images that I could use to create a panorama image later. In case you decide to buy a tripod, spent a few extra Swiss Francs, Euro, Dollars or whatever currency for a lighter model. A tripod that you don't take with you because it is too heavy, doesn't help you at all. Unfortunately I made that mistake and now I have a nice Manfrotto tripod in perfectly new condition sitting at home most of the time. San Francisco is a great place to take some panorama shots as you also could see on another post with an image that I took from the Berkeley shore towards San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset (click here for the link).

I really enjoyed the few days in San Francisco and I knew that I will come back (but then I won't go alone next time). When I tried to tidy up my bookshelf a few weeks ago to make some room for my growing collection of photobooks (currently I am thinking of posting some reviews of my favorite photobooks, maybe end of the year), I discovered that my first travel book I ever bought was about San Francisco. It is about 30 years old and completely outdated, but still some fun to read. And there are still so many other travel books on that shelf of places, I always wanted to visit. Maybe I should start to make a plan...

San Francisco is a great city to experience by walking. I spent two full days on my feet, exploring the city, visiting dozens of bookstores and a few camera shops. I discovered the place from where I took this panorama image accidentally. I was visiting the San Francisco Art Institute without knowing too much about it. I had my first surprise when I was looking into a hall where people were obviously filming an impressive mural, which could be easily identified by the style as of Diego Rivera. Rivera is a one of the artists, I admire most since I saw his murals in the city hall of Mexico City a few years ago. I didn't had any idea of the mural (The Making of a Fresco, Showing the Building of a City) when I entered the institute. The painting is breathtaking and a must-see when you visit San Francisco and if you are interested in arts.

The second surprise was the fantastic view from the roof of the institute from where I took the images that I stitched together for this panorama. I spent a few hours at the institute before I continued my city walk.

Black Sunday for Switzerland

2009-11-30T07:00:00.006+01:00

Black Sunday for Switzerland

Voters in Switzerland decided yesterday to ban the building of minarets. The referendum showed a level of resentment against Muslims, which I would have never expected. Switzerland was known as a country for discretion and tolerance.

fotografien 1992 - 2009

2009-11-23T08:38:00.003+01:00

fotografien

1992 - 2009

By consigliere tom

Book Preview

I spent the last few weeks and lots of hours to create a book of my portfolio so far. When I started the project, I didn't had any clue how time consuming such an enterprise is. I started beginning of November and wanted it finished before end of the month. As I still have to run a company for my living, I could just spent the nights on creation of the book. I took a lot of inspiration from my quite large collection of photobooks. And with each book I read, new ideas were coming up... Last Friday I read an interview with Robert Frank, who's books are currently re-published by Steidl. Robert Frank's view on books gave me a new perspective, resulting in final editing of my book over the weekend. Last night at 3am I decided to publish the book as it is.

The book is intended as an overview with lot of pictures from the last 25 years. For next year I am planning two projects, which will be more focussed on single topics. In the next few months I would like to do a coverage about winter nights in Zurich. There is a special light in the cities when they are covered with snow (I hope we will have some snow next year...). Most likely this will be a project which I will do completely on 35mm black & white film with my Leica. The second photobook shall be on a charity project. I have not finally decided when I will (can) do that. This depends on my consultancy projects to get the funding for my photographic activities.

Crossing Tonle Sap

2009-11-16T08:01:00.003+01:00

Crossing Tonle Sap

Cambodia is a country, which still needs a lot of support to recover from a war that was brought to the country by foreign empires, first the French and then the Americans, who were bombing large areas of Cambodia ("Cambodian Campaign"). And after that devastating war, the Khmer Rouge committed an unbelievable genocide of their own people.

The people of Cambodia are still suffering in many ways from those times, which are less than twenty years ago. Millions of Cambodians lost their lives during the war and the years of the Khmer Rouge's terror regime. But it didn't end with the war and the defeat of the Khmer Rouge. All over the country land mines and UXOs (unexploded ordnance device) kept on killing or mutilating people, many of them children. Today Cambodia is starting to recover, as a society and as an economy. Trials against the surviving Khmer Rouge just began this year and the United Nations are conducting several programs to help the country and the people of Cambodia (http://www.un.org.kh/).

When we crossed the Tonle Sap with ferry next to a construction place for a new bridge. The bridge is built with support and investment from China, who have strong political and economical interests in Cambodia. When you are traveling through Cambodia today, you will see a lot of construction projects, however I wish more countries would be willing to help. It is essential for the uprising of Cambodia that the infrastructure will be re-established quickly.

Hummingbird?

2009-11-03T02:57:00.001+01:00

Hummingbird?

We had quite some debate if global warming has chased hummingbirds already all the way up from South America to Europe. But it isn't that bad yet.

I captured that little friend in September in France. It is a hummingbird moth which you can see quite often in Southern Europe and thanks to global warming for a few years also in some Mid European regions.

It wasn't easy to get a proper and sharp close-up of the little friend. He is moving absolutely unpredictable into all directions. As I just had some short lenses with me I needed to get really close to the moth, which it didn't enjoy too much either. However, after a few attempts I got my lucky shot...

The "rainy season" started in Switzerland. It is getting colder and days are really short now. I will try some low light condition images in the next few weeks and experiment a bit with my new Lensbaby Composer. It is much easier to handle than my 3G (Control Freak), but doesn't allow that much control to adjust the sweet spot.

Impressive!

2009-10-26T05:12:00.000+01:00

Impressive!

The "Tapisserie de l'Apocalypse" is displayed in the Château d'Angers. I was very impressed by the size (more than 140 meters, 100 meters are actually exhibited) and artistry of the carpet. It tells the apocalypse of John on many individual very fine crafted carpets. It is a very interesting and impressive piece of medieval art.

When we visited the chateau and the museum a few weeks ago, I observed the visitors standing in front of this huge tapestry. By their body language and the distance, they kept from the carpets, you could tell how impressed they have been. All of them spent minutes in front of the individual sections trying to read the stories that are told on the carpets. Instead of just shooting the tapestry, I tried to capture this impressive piece of art by that single visitor, standing awestruck in front of one section of the huge tapestry for minutes.

Last Survivor

2009-10-17T17:32:00.004+02:00

Last Survivor

Another (final) shot of the "summer's gone" series. I don't know if we had a good summer this year, but definitely I had quite a good year. This month we are celebrating the first year of our new company, and so far we are doing well. Not necessarily what a lot of people expected in those rough times. I never regret a single moment having made that decision a year ago.

Months and weeks of hard work are behind me and I can already say that some more hard months are coming as we are approaching quickly the end of the year - a lot of traveling and some more difficult decision to be made. Another painful process is still ongoing and sometimes it seems that it will never end.

The sunflower was the last flower that still had its blossom in the middle of a field of dead flowers. The scenery was a bit surreal and I tried to emphasize that by taking the picture in low light conditions. I like the contrast of the dark green and bright yellow.

I hope the winter will not be as cold and freezing as autumn started to be this week. Anyhow for next weeks I will sipping after-works drinks somewhere in Genoa enjoying the sunset over the Mediterranean Sea.

Summer's gone...

2009-09-28T07:55:00.003+02:00

Summer's gone...

Those are possibly the last summer days. I shot that already a few weeks ago with my Lensbaby 3G. The boats were resting and it didn't look like that they have been used for a long time.

I just received my new Lensbaby Composer today and I am quite excited to learn how it differentiates from the 3G, resp. Control Freak. I am quite excited trying it next weekend. But between me and having fun with my Lensbay is a week filled wizh heavy work.

Last Days of Summer

2009-09-15T11:05:00.010+02:00

Last Days of Summer

We spent a fantastic week in France in the Loire Valley (Vallée de la Loire). Besides visiting some châteaux, we spent a wonderful day at the atlantic. After walking on the beach for a couple of hours we enjoyed fresh oysters and a great Muscadet. It was a great time and we will be back next year, but then for two weeks (at least).

Untitled 2

2009-08-20T06:54:00.001+02:00

Untitled 2

When I was back in New York City in 2007, I decided to stay a few days in downtown Manhattan. My hotel room was at the Hilton Millennium, just above Ground Zero.

For a while I was quite hesitant to publish this image, showing the construction site of the new World Trade Center (PATH) station. The new station is built exactly at the location, where the to World Trade Center towers have been. One of my previous posts shows Manhattan in 1994 with the two towers: Untitled.

The new station was designed by the Sppanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It resembles a bird being released from a child's hand. Calatrava also designed the station Zuerich Stadelhofen, which you can see in an earlier post: Another Station.

Blossom

2009-08-17T08:34:00.002+02:00

Blossom

I was thinking of uploading a motif which is a bit more summer related and positive. The last weeks have been full with work and if I am looking at my schedule for the next two months, I am afraid that summer will pass by quickly again. We had a fantastic weekend and I have not been working too much. The aftermath of the houseparty on Saturday night with our very nice neighbors didn't allow too much working on Sunday ...

I took this shot a few weeks ago for my sweetheart. In order to try something different I blurred the rose blossom by shaking the camera and used a flash to get a sharp image of the blossom in the center.

Summer

2009-08-06T04:31:00.000+02:00

Summer

Summer isn't as good as expected this year. I don't know if it's just me, not having enough time to enjoy the summer - or if it is really not that good.

Anyhow, as there are currently more important things going on in my life than fun and relaxation, I need to postpone leisure activities to a later stage. But I am not complaining. I t was my conscious decision to go for my own enterprise last year and I absolutely don't regret that decision a single moment.

I shot the sun chairs a few weeks ago in Berlin, somewhere in Mitte next to river Spree. I put them into distance and blur as they seem quite far away for me in the moment.

Fernverkehr

2009-07-21T21:53:00.002+02:00

Fernverkehr

Zurich, main station. Another shot with my beloved Lensbaby...

I missed my commuter train to Basel and had a few minutes to walk around and take a couple of images. I just had my Lensbaby mounted, but forgot my set of aperture rings at home. I had only the f2.8 ring still on the lens, resulting in a very narrow sweat spot. Next time, I'll miss the train, I'll bring the full set and try with a smaller aperture...

I haven't used my Lensbaby for quite a while, but I really enjoy it and will take it with me more often.

Falling Lines

2009-07-15T17:36:00.004+02:00

Falling Lines

Another shot of the Gehry buildings in Duesseldorf (The Neue Zollhof), which I took last Sunday when I was visiting my parents.

Those buildings are always great to photograph, each time you see them, you encounter new perspectives. Falling lines seem to be no problem as the buildings themselves are not following conventional rules in architecture.

You find the previous blog posts of the Gehry photographs here and here.

Leftovers

2009-07-10T18:31:00.005+02:00

Leftovers

What a week! Thank God, it's Friday! I feel a bit like those antique furniture, which I saw last year in a small town in Tuscany - old and done.

I met some very unpleasant people this week, who didn't stick to their own words. And on top of that, they hadn't enough courage to stand in for their rude and brutal behavior and hided themselves behind other people's decision or "orders". Disgusting!

The antiques were displayed on the street in front of a little shop. It was a nice afternoon after a hot day, when we were strolling through the medieval centre of the small town. Besides the antiques the shop sold all kinds of wood boards. It weren't the antiques themselves, who caught my attention, it was the way how the shop owner has arranged them in front of his door.

I Know You Got Soul

2009-06-26T03:20:00.005+02:00

I Know You Got Soul

This is the man, who discovered and accompanied James Brown for decades. He dragged him out of prison and got his career started. Without Bobby Byrd the world wouldn't have those great super funky songs like Soul Power, Sex Machine and many, many more. His funky style was of indisputable influence to all generations of soul, funk and disco music.

Today the world lost one of those, who were influenced by James Brown and Bobby Byrd: the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Now James Brown, Bobby Byrd, Isaac Hayes, Johnny Guitar Watson, and all the other funkateers, who preceded Michael Jackson will have a heavenly Funky Good Party together.

Make it funky! We will miss You!

Untitled

2009-06-23T21:16:00.004+02:00

Untitled

I took this photograph in 1994 when I visited New York City for the first time. Unfortunately the dia positive film lost a bit of quality over the years.

I actually scanned the dia positive in order to assess if it is still usable. As the color faded quite a lot and therefore it lost the original contrast, I converted the scan into grayscale. However black & white adds to the scene as everybody knows that the image might be taken before the era of digital photography. Maybe I will make a print from the dia positive and scan the print to achieve a better result...

Anyhow, I guess I don't need to mention that images showing Manhattan with the World Trade Center before September 2001 is something special for each photographer's portfolio.

With all that happened on September 11, 2001 and in the aftermath of that terribly sad day, I hope it will never happen again.

Weltenbaum

2009-06-16T05:13:00.001+02:00

Weltenbaum

Savignyplatz is a popular square in Berlin Wilmersdorf. The wall north of the platform is used as a gallery called "Weltenbaum II". The gallery project was initiated by Ben Wagin as a reminder of environmental destruction and shows artworks of 18 different artist, like Joesph Beuys.

Whenever I am in the area, I visit this "open gallery" and quite often I miss a train looking at those pieces of art. And sometimes, when I am just passing by Savigny Platz station in a train, I just get a glimpse of those artworks. I like the gallery and I always find new details to discover in those artworks.

I took the shot already in 2007, when I received my Lensbaby, on the same occasion as Leaving and Last Order.

Smiling Faces of Bayon

2009-06-08T05:04:00.006+02:00

Smiling Faces of Bayon

Just another image from our recent trip to Cambodia. The temples of Angkor are absolutely stunning and worth the trip.

Bayon is the main temple of Angkor Thom with more than 200 gigantic smiling faces carved into the towers of the temple. Each face has it's own individual look, representing either King Jayavarman VII or Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.

Reichstag

2009-06-03T05:55:00.000+02:00

Reichstag

I spent a fantastic weekend in Berlin with my son, visiting all the landmarks of the city. We have been walking around the city for three days and taking a lot of pictures.

When we passed by the Reichstag, we took advantage of the queue being just 45 minutes long to get up onto the platform and the dome. The sun was just going down behind the new Hauptbahnhof, when we were walking up the dome, from where you have a nice view over the center of Berlin.

THF

2009-05-27T06:38:00.005+02:00

THF

I actually finished my Berlin Tempelhof project. When I visited Berlin in 2007, plans of the Berlin government became reality that the airport Berlin Tempelhof will be closed by 2008.

It was my last opportunity to get some shots from inside. When I was living in Berlin, I used the airport quite frequently. Each time I was traveling from or to Tempelhof, I got that feeling of going back in time. There is no other airport in the world that transports this atmosphere of the time when traveling with airplanes or airships became standard for long distance traveling.

You can see the entire THF series here: THF

I wrote about Tempelhof already in an earlier post: Zentralflughafen

Into the Light

2009-05-18T05:10:00.000+02:00

Into The Light

It was early morning in Angkor Wat. We have been already there for a few hours to wait for the sun coming up behind Angkor Wat with a crowd of photo maniacs, who got out of bed at 4am as well to shoot picture of the sunrise.

After all the waiting and shooting was over, the crowd, who was a some-kind of a close community for an hour, disbanded and everybody was going his own way.

I was walking around, looking for some nice motifs before actually visiting the temple - and all of that before breakfast. When I saw the sun behind the highest tower of Angkor Wat, I gave it a try and shot just two images. Because of shooting directly into light, I didn't give it a high chance of a successful shot or nice picture. Unfortunately I didn't make the effort and carried my tripod with me to Cambodia and my local photoshop couldn't deliver the ND filter before I left, which was my fault as I ordered it far too late.

Anyway that's what I got and actually I am quite pleased with the result in the end. Maybe I will do a bit of post-processing and lighten up the foreground. But that might destroy the wonderful sunlight on the path to Angkor Wat.

Death

2009-05-10T19:29:00.010+02:00

Death

"The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal --the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.
....

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."

The masque of the red death, Edgar Allan Poe (1842)

I shot the image in the cloister of the Münster in Basel. The death mask and drum is part of a sculpture created by Bettina Eichin. It was designed after the fire at the Sandoz factory in Schweizerhalle, which resulted in poisoning the river Rhine.

Como Duomo

2009-05-07T23:02:00.003+02:00

Como Duomo

Actually I shot the picture already a few years ago. I was coming from a conference in Switzerland and traveling south to Tuscany. The picture was taken from Brunate, which you can reach by cable car from Como. From there you have a nice view onto the city with the dome just in front of you.

Asylum or Custody?

2009-05-05T03:14:00.000+02:00

Asylum or Custody?

Do the bars provide protection? And from whom? From the dangerous world outside? Or from the evil within me? Am I in front of the bars? Or am I behind bars? Can I change the perspective without changing sides?

Shot at Fort Baker, San Francisco, 2008.

Watercolor

2009-04-26T23:26:00.004+02:00

Watercolor

Yesterday we were strolling through the small town of Bremgarten in Switzerland. The street view was mirroring beautifully in a fountain, with sun already going down and giving a warm light onto the church tower.

The image reminds a bit on a painting painted with watercolors....

We will be back...

2009-04-15T11:33:00.002+02:00

We will be back...

Holidays are over! At the end of our journey through Cambodia we returned to Bangkok, where we spent a couple of days before we actually returned to Switzerland on Monday.

We had a very fantastic holiday and a really great time together. I don't want to miss a single second of it!

It is nearly impossible what the most outstanding experience during our time in Bangkok and Cambodia was. All what we had in mind to do and to see before we left, we actually did and we saw, but still maintaining the freedom to travel without a fixed schedule and decide more or less on a daily basis where to go next. The time in Bangkok where we started and ended our journey was great, seeing a lot and being really creative (my sweetheart definitely and successfully was!). But also the leisure time on Koh Rong Saloem (Lazy Beach) and the boat cruise on the Tonle Sap were great and added a whole lot to our well being. But Angkor was really an outstanding experience that I don't want to miss. So, whenever you are visiting Cambodia or one of the neighboring countries, go and visit Angkor!

Also we will go there for a second time. Either as part of another trip to the region (we are planning for Laos, Northern Cambodia and Northern Vietnam) or / and as part of our one year round-the-world-trip.

A huge THANK YOU to my sweetheart for giving me such a great time! And we WILL do our one year round-the-world trip - promised! Planning has already started...

Robinson Island

2009-04-08T14:10:00.009+02:00

Robinson Island

... and that's the reason that I didn't post any new picture for a few days. After we arrived in Phnom Penh, we stayed at the FCC (Foreigners Correspondent Club of Cambodia, www.fcccambodia.com). If you once have the pleasure to visit Cambodia, make sure that you at least will enjoy the Happy Hour on the roof terrace of the FCC.

From Phnom Penh we traveled to the island Koh Rong Saloem. On the island you will find just a few huts (www.lazybeachcambodia.com), excellent food and NO telephone and NO internet.

A perfect place to reload your batteries. Besides a handful other people, you will be completely alone on the island.

We had a great time and enjoyed the beach, the food and having the luxury of just doing nothing, except reading and being lazy...

Tonle Sap

2009-04-08T13:57:00.005+02:00

Tonle Sap

After we spent a few very exiting and interesting days in Angkor, we traveled down to Phnom Penh. We booked a three-days cruise on the Tonle Sap and saw during some excursions a lot of the remote country side of Cambodia.

The boat was a river cruise ship which was a reminiscence of French Indochine times.

Femme Fatale

2009-04-02T03:55:00.004+02:00

Femme Fatale

After a long day of exploring the temples of Angkor, we took some relaxing time at the Elephant Bar.

In order to avoid any misunderstanding, Femme Fatale is the red cocktail ...

From Angkor...

2009-03-29T17:08:00.006+02:00

From Angkor...

We traveled onwards to Camobia and visited Angkor for the last two days. Absolutely outstanding! In the morning we saw the sun rising behind Angkor Wat. And today we start a cruise for the next three days across the Tonle Sap to Phnom Penh and the Mekong...

We have fun and enjoy the time together!

From Bangkok...

2009-03-26T07:03:00.004+01:00

Greetings from Bangkok! We are spending some nice and relaxing days in Bangkok before we are heading to Cambodia tomorrow. This is a great city with so many new and interesting things to see and experience.

We had fantastic dinner above the city (on a terrace on 52 floor) with a great view across the river. I have posted just two shots of the terrace, with the stairs leading down to the bar and the pool high above the city attached to another bar...

We are having a great time and enjoy our vacation and having the luxury of spending lot of time together.

Pastis

2009-03-16T14:27:00.004+01:00

Pastis

This is actually a shot from last weekend. We have been strolling around the city and went for a tea (and a beer) to the Cabaret Voltaire. We sat at the window overlooking the crowd passing through Niederdorf. Or watching a poor guy hopefully waiting for hours and hours for his wife to come out of the soap shop opposite of Cabaret Voltaire.

It was already afternoon and I tested my new 50mm f1.4 lens. It is a fantastic lens, if you can get close enough, giving you amazing depth of field. I shot this with the aperture completely open and it gives you no blur or aberration at all. I added the dark and blur vignette later to give the image a look of imperfection - I kinda like that in the moment and do that with lot of my portrait images. Maybe it is a bit weird to spend a whole lot of money for the perfect lens and make it look imperfect by digital post-processing.

On Sunday I attended a course on creative people photography with the Viewfinder Center for Photography in Winterthur. It was the second time I attended a course with them and it was a great experience again. If you are living in Switzerland or in Germany or Austria not far away from Winterthur, I can highly recommend their classes. Bryon is a great teacher with lot of experience and it is always fun.

So this was shot actually before I attended the class. But it is the first shot I did with my new lens and my all time favourite model. Hard times are coming sweetheart, I need to practice now...

Dinner with a View

2009-03-08T06:51:00.000+01:00

Dinner with a View

Actually I had dinner at the Chart House restaurant one day before I took this picture, but at that time I was there with a few colleagues and didn't have my camera with me. So I decided to come back to shoot a few night pictures of the Manhattan skyline.

Friends of mine have recently moved to New Jersey and asked me for a nice restaurant. This for sure has a stunning view (and the food is good as well). You are dining in front of a huge window with that spectacular look onto Manhattan at night. Just great.

Shee and Claude, that's for you! Hope everything is going well for you and you enjoy your new life.

Another Station

2009-03-03T18:23:00.004+01:00

Another Station

This is the train station Zürich Stadelhofen, which was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

We have been walking around on a nice Saturday afternoon, but nothing inspired me really to take some nice picture until we entered the train station to by some food. I was waiting for my friends when I recognized that nearly nobody was actually in the underground passage of the train station. So I took advantage of that and shot quickly some pictures before the next train arrived and it got crowded again.

I wasn't to sure on the development of the picture. If I should leave it as a colored image, black & white or tinted in blue. I also experimented with high and low contrast versions. At the end, I was quite satisfied with the black & white's. You are more in the scene than on the color version, which might be because of the higher contrast.

What you see here is the black & white developed version with a high contrast, but I intend to develop another one with a little less contrast.

I have some problems in the moment to upload images as my service provider, cablecom, has cut off my phone line and internet connection. They told me that they did some maintenance on my access point which failed. According to their call center (they have the guts to call it a "customer service centre"), it will take them 15 days to get me back on service again! Well, my business depends to a certain degree on having internet access and having a phone. Unfortunately nobody at cablecom does understand that. Business in their language means: sell something to a customer, then forget totally about him as long as he pays the monthly fees. And if there is a problem, keep him in a phone line with stupid music waiting and if he keeps trying hard enough, just lie to him. But for christ sake, the last thing a good cablecom call center agent should do, is being honest with a customer and taking ownership of his problem.

Cablecom is for sure the most barefaced, untrustworthy and fraudulent company I have ever came across. Those guys really suck.

Main Station

2009-02-25T04:01:00.000+01:00

Main Station

This is Zuerich main station on a Sunday afternoon. I tried to shoot a picture of Zuerich main station more or less without any people walking around (tripod with long exposure time). But as you need a permission to shoot images with a tripod on the premises of SBB - and I didn't had any - I was very politely asked to stop shooting using a tripod.

So this is the only picture I could manage to shoot on that day as I wanted to. The rest of the images have been just standard shots. As I was able to shoot just one picture, I didn't had the time to experiment and find out how long the exposure time must be to let all people disappear.

I was pretty busy for the last few weeks, business is running well and growing. But it is quite some effort these days to keep your business running. Everybody is talking about crisis and people in some big corporations seem to be paralyzed and lost their ability to make a decision. What are they scared about? This is the time where people can proof that they deserve the manager in their job title.

Anyway, I will try to catch up and post some more photos within the next weeks. I joined a photography meetup group in Switzerland for the first time last Sunday. We met in Luzern, to walk around town, shoot some picture and chat a bit about photography. It was a good time and I have met a lot of very interesting and nice people.

White Summer

2009-02-11T04:23:00.000+01:00

White Summer

... in San Francisco. It wasn't actually snowing when I was in San Francisco in summer last year, however it was much colder and misty than I expected. Maybe I should have read the travel book more carefully...

I stayed half way between San Francisco and Sacramento and my genuine plan was to go to Yosemite, but unfortunately I slept a bit too long. So I decided to go to the Pacific coast and San Francisco instead. Leaving Vacaville before noon with approximately 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), I arrived at the coast 2 hours later in deep fog with 20 Celsius. I drove down the coast line (shoreline highway, route 1), hiking a bit and taking some picture.

I took this picture just an hour north of San Francisco in the Tomales Bay State Park. At the beginning I was a bit disappointed because of the weather, but it gave some great views onto the coast and later on San Francisco and the bay area when the fog suddenly cleared up for a moment and the city, the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge suddenly appeared. It was the same day when I shot the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.

After I spent a few hours in San Francisco I returned to Vacaville at 7pm having 35 Celsius again. And then I remembered Mark Twain's words: "The coldest winter I have ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"

I am watching you

2009-02-04T04:21:00.001+01:00

I am watching you

Hey there, are you watching me? I have to admit that I have not taken this image from an elephant who is living in the wilderness. Actually this is an elephant living in the Basel zoo.

I shot the picture on a late afternoon when the elephants were already in their inside enclosure. A crowd was watching them through the bars and the elephants were just standing there and waiting to be showered and fed. What was this guy thinking about us? Us standing in front of his bedroom and just watching him taking a bath! Or was he the one, who was watching us behind bars, staring and pointing at him with fingers and clicking cameras?

But I don't think so. He was focused on his dinner and not even take notice from the spectacle in his enclosure. Why should he? Those guys with their cameras are behind bars!

Hey there, I am watching YOU!

Zentralflughafen

2009-01-28T02:07:00.000+01:00

Zentralflughafen

It is quite a while ago that I was in Berlin. Last time I spent a couple of days there was end of summer 2007. I remember that we had some discussions what is supposed to happen with the old city airport Berlin Tempelhof. The senate of Berlin has decided to close the airport as a newairport is currently built south of Berlin.

The airport Berlin Tempelhof was built in 1923 and it is considered to be one of the largest buildings in the world (but with the smallest duty free shop). I had the pleasure to depart and arrive at Tempelhof airport several times when I used to live in Berlin and there was always this indefinite sense of being in a time trap beamed 60 years back. In fact Tempelhof was not the most modern airport, however it was the most convenient airport for flights to destination in Germany or Europe. You can access the airport with public transportation from Berlin city center within less than 20 minutes, checking in and boarding was quick and you never had to consider a huge crowd in front of the security checks. In a few words: flying out of Tempelhof was a convenient experience.

Knowing that the airport will be closed forever (assuming the incapability of politician to find a reasonable solution), I spend a few minutes to take some picture from the airport. Today I regret that I haven't taken a bit more time to shoot some more picture, but I planned to fly into Tempelhof before the final closure in October 2008 together with a friend who was just obtaining his pilot license at that time. Unfortunately we couldn't manage to find the time to do that.

I have not been in Berlin since the final closure of the airport, but even if you can enter the building it won't be the same anymore.

Swimming Pool

2009-01-26T03:34:00.001+01:00

Swimming Pool

We spend a few very relaxing days with a few friends in Tuscany last year. They had a very beautiful mansion with lot of olive trees somewhere between the soft hills of Tuscany. We have been there just for a couple of days, but it definitely was worth the long drive. We spent most of the time relaxing at the pool, chatting, reading, and having a lot of fun. I played a bit with my Nikon and took a few shots from the relaxed atmosphere at late afternoon. I post-processed the image a little, trying to give it a bit of an 50's-style color and washy effect.

That's something we should do more often, just taking a few days off and spend some quality time with our friends.

Forum 3

2009-01-23T04:07:00.002+01:00

Forum 3

This is the multi-colored glass front of the first building, which was finished as part of the new Novartis campus in Basel. Leading architects from all over the world have been invited to contribute to the Campus Project.

The building named Forum 3 was designed by the architects Diener & Diener in collaboration with Helmut Federle and Gerold Wiedrin. The multi-colored glass front is the outer shell of the building. Behind the glass front is a balcony, which can be used in summer for working outside of the building.

I used to work just opposite the building in a tiny, very old and awfully ugly office building jealously looking at those new beautiful buildings and the spacious offices. One night when I had my old Minolta with me, I took a couple of shots from the building. I regret that I never made an effort to take a descent camera (don't get me wrong, my Minolta XD-7 is great and I love it) with me, as I used a 800 ASA color print film, which didn't produce such good results. I am not working in that building anymore, from which I had this direct view from the fourth floor. Also in the meantime a small forrest was established in front of the building, which avoids taking pictures with lots of disturbing and distracting objects.

However I like the colors of the building, especially at night when it is illuminated by the lights coming from the offices inside the building.

Cappuccino

2009-01-21T05:47:00.000+01:00

Cappuccino

I shot this picture more or less accidentally back in 2002 when I was working in Italy. We spend a weekend together driving around the peninsula of Sorento visiting all the beautiful places, where I have spent my weekends so often at that time, like Amalfi, Positano or Ravello. We stop at a beach restaurant in Marina del Cantone for lunch. I was playing with my tiny Konica when we had the coffee.

The quality of the image is awful and usually I delete those images right away, however for what ever reason I didn't do it. Each time I browse through my image collection, this grainy and blurry picture of an half empty cup of cappuccino catches my attention. And after all those years, I assume it is more a sentimental memory of those days that we spent together in Campania than actually the great image of a cup of cappuccino ;-).

Anyway, I don't want to miss the great time I had in Italy. This goes out to all the friends I met there in Pompeii, Castellamare de Stabiae and Torre Annunziata. Hope to meet you again soon...

Der Neue Zollhof

2009-01-20T04:42:00.000+01:00

Der Neue Zollhof

Der Neue Zollhof is an ensemble of three buildings designed by Frank Gehry. Today these buildings are a landmark in the city of Düsseldorf, Germany and form the image of the city. They are located in the area of the Rhein harbor, which was reconstructed in the previous years from a sole industrial area into a posh area of media and fashion business with lots of restaurants, pubs and bars.

The story is told that Frank Gehry draw his vision of the future of the harbor area onto a napkin and that this original vision was realized with the three buildings. I wanted to shoot a picture where you can see all three buildings on one image, but giving the impression that you are standing in front of them. You can take a picture from the opposite side of the harbor or the bridge across the Rhein, but it does not create this kind of being next to the buildings as I wanted it. So I took a number of pictures from the promenade with a wide angle lens and stitched them together.

Unfortunately it started to rain just after I finished the pictures I needed to compose this view and I hided for shelter next to the white building from where I made a few shots of that shiny building in the middle. I uploaded one of them earlier onto this blog: Rainy Gehry

You can see the image also on Onexposure

The Great Wall

2009-01-19T05:46:00.000+01:00

The Great Wall

The Great Wall is really great! We have been in Beijing in February 2007 for a week and took advantage of being there and made a day trip to go hiking on the Great Wall.

We went from Jinshangling toSimatei and barely didn't see anybody on the entire trip. It was a great experience and I would like to do much more of it.

Table Mountain

2009-01-11T20:42:00.004+01:00

Table Mountain

At the end of 2007 we spontaneously decided to spend New Years in the summer and went to Cape Town. Cape Town is such a great city.

We did a hiking tour from the city up to Lion's Head. It is a small path, sometimes quite steep and on the you up you go around Lion's Head once completely, so that you have a view onto the city of Cape Town, the Table Mountain and the beaches before you actually reach the summit.

I took this shot approximately half way up with a beautiful view onto Table Mountain.

Rickshaw Parade

2009-01-05T22:54:00.002+01:00

Rickshaw Parade

Rickshaw drivers approaching the bell and drum towers in Beijing.

Pleasure

2009-01-04T19:18:00.002+01:00

Pleasure

My personal leisure time is over, I need to return to work tomorrow morning. Although I am looking forward to it, I also enjoyed very much the time last week.

Originally we planned to go to Berlin for week, but as both of us had a stressful year and especially a stressful time at the end of the year, we decided to stay at home and relax a bit. And we didn't regret it at all, we had a great week.

I took that picture two years ago in a park in Beijing. The people loved to play cards and did it with a lot of passion. It was end of February and the sun was giving just enough warm energy to allow to sit outside without freezing.

42

2009-01-03T11:25:00.002+01:00

The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

The number "42" was imprinted on a changing booth at the beach in Sausalito and reminded me instantly on Douglas Adams' novel.

Kölner Dom

2009-01-01T11:44:00.004+01:00

Kölner Dom

I took the picture with a wide angle lens standing just in front of the cathedral. It is quite hard to take a picture of the cathedral without falling lines if you are not using some special lenses.

However in this perspective the dome loks as impressive as it really is when you are standing in front of it. I always feel my heart beating faster when I approach Cologne and see the cathedral from the distance.

Happy Birthday

2008-12-31T12:34:00.002+01:00

Happy Birthday

Lonesome Cowboy. Long time ago that we spend some quality time together. And it seems a life time ago that I took that picture of you standing at the beach looking sceptically at that salty water.

You are 15 years old now and I have missed most of those years. I hope everything is going well for you and I wish we will spend a bit more time together in the future. I feel a bit sad, that I do not know what your hopes and dreams are - not your fault, I was the one who left and went for my own way.

I always loved this picture. A small boy standing at the beach looking into an unknown and uncertain future. The wide landscape makes the little boy looking so vulnerable and lonesome.

Browsing

2008-12-30T18:00:00.002+01:00

Browsing

We saw these wildebeests in a game park north east of jo'burg in 2005. I shot them with my analogue Minolta X700 and scanned the image.

Golden Gate #2

2008-12-28T21:54:00.002+01:00

Golden Gate #2

I took that from the marina in Berkeley, the same place as the other Golden Gate image. It is stitched together from 6 individual images, shot with a wide angle lens. Just where the clouds touch the sea, you can figure the Golden Gate Bridge.

Merry Christmas | Buon Natale | Feliz Navidad | Frohe Weihnachten | Joyeux Noël

2008-12-24T06:55:00.003+01:00

Winter

2008-12-23T07:29:00.002+01:00

Winter

Yes, it is winter time. We had already some snow last week, which melted away just before the weekend. But there is still lots of snow on the mountains.

I shot this early morning just before sunrise from my balcony with the morning haze still sitting in the valley.

AVIA

2008-12-22T03:06:00.006+01:00

AVIA

I am not getting sentimental because I am posting some motifs here that are reflecting 2008, but it is the end of the year and so many things are coming into my mind of what had happened this year.

Do you remember? In the first half of the year we have been facing the biggest oil price shock since the mid 70's. The whole planet was in crisis, not knowing if the price will increase like that for the next years. The positive side effect was that most people started to get more reasonable, thinking of how they can contribute to reduce oil consumption and CO2. Really reasonable people have been driving hybrid cars already for years, even if they look ugly (brave guys like Lollo ;-) ). I hope that this spirit will carry on, also the oil price has decreased a bit.

Two years ago, I took a series of pictures of an AVIA self-service pump station at 1am. I wanted to document, what is happening in the middle of the night at this pump station. It is a bit remote pump station and during the one our I took the shots from across the street, a few cars and trams passed by, but only one guy was filling up gas. I think the series is a bit boring and never really published it, however reflecting the oil crisis this year, the deserted gas station seems to be a good statement of what will happen.

You can see the entire series here:

www.pixhibition.net/architektur/Seiten/avia.html

Are we green?

2008-12-21T14:26:00.004+01:00

Are we green?

Are we really green? At least, are we on the right way to become a green society that honors the values of Earth and the heritage that we will leave for the next generation(s).

There were so many discussions this year that we must change our attitude and behaviour regarding decrease of energy consumption, CO2 reduction, and so on. But it seams to me that all of that was over-shadowed by the recent global financial and economic crisis. Saving the planet is still on the agenda of politics, however the focus has changed much more to rescue the economy than the ecology. With smart thinking, right strategy and tactics both is possible. But if we keep on looking after money more than after the future of our planet, humanity will fail.

Don't be disturbed by my photographic statement, as an always optimistic person I believe that intelligence will succeed finally. Important is that all of us are doing something and not just talking about it. As this great philosopher from Memphis (you know, whom I am talking about?) once said: "A little less conversation, a little more action please!"

Art Basel

2008-12-18T07:03:00.005+01:00

Art Basel

Once a year in summer one of the most important and largest trade fairs for art takes place in Basel. The two weeks in summer during the exhibition is always a great time in the city.

The whole town is infected with the art spirit. You see art all over the place, lots of exhibitions and lectures in all parts of town and many, many, many parties. And with all the people, artists, art dealers and collectors coming to Basel, you feel a very special vibration for this time. When the exhibition closes, I always look forward to the next one in a year.

Rodin

2008-12-17T06:14:00.003+01:00

Rodin

One of Rodin's most famous sculptures is the Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais), which was designed in 1884 / 1885 and proposed by the mayor of Calais. The sculpture displays six wealthy leaders of the town of Calais, who are facing their imminent death in exchange to spear the lives of the inhabitants of Calais.

I took some shots of details of the sculpture which is displayed in the atrium of the Kunstmuseum in Basel. The atrium is very wide and allows the sculpture to be presented very openly and in natural light. The surrounding walls are made of sandstone giving a warm touch to the light.

The atrium is accessible for the public with a nice cafe at one side, where you can enjoy your cappuccino.

Megapolis

2008-12-16T23:09:00.005+01:00

Megapolis

I shot this picture with my little 8 years old Konica compact digicam 6am from my hotel room in Sao Paulo. It was amazing to see the sun each morning fighting it's rays through the clouds and the smog of this mega city. In all fairness this is more morning haze than smog!

The sheer size of Sao Paulo is just unbelievable. I was in Mexico City a few years ago, which is a huge city as well (and according to official numbers of inhabitants it is even bigger), but Sao Paolo is completely different. It seems that the city never ends when you are driving through it.

London Eye

2008-12-15T08:09:00.003+01:00

London Eye

My son and I spend a few days in London early January this year. As it was his first visit to London, we tried to explore as much as we can in two days. But it wasn't just a hectic running from one monument and view point to the next, we just took our time walking around the city and deciding on the go where we are going next. There was no crowd at all waiting infront of London Eye, so we decided that we go for a ride. The sun was just going down and we had nice view over the city with the rest of the daylight and the city lights already starting to illuminate.

We both enjoyed the time together very much and I guess we will do it again. Either we will go back to London or another city.

Fishing

2008-12-14T21:55:00.004+01:00

Fishing

It was a nice Sunday afternoon in February this year. People were walking at the beach underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and some of them were waiting for the catch of the day. Their patience waiting for a fish to bite was amazing, but they have been compensated with a nice view on Alcatraz and San Francisco.