spring2life take2

Train Station, Munich

As I am on my way to Prague today – 7h by train – a train station picture is in order. Hopefully there will be WiFi in the hotel, so I can resume posting tonight.

Update: Arrived, WiFi is only in the lobby. I will post the Prague pictures tomorrow.

Trappentreustrasse, Munich

I am posting this while the speaker announces the penalty shoot-out of the champions league finals. In a few seconds some will have won millions, and the other have lost. This image was created some days earlier and shows the more typical fan physiognomy, I assume.

Kugelbachweg, Bad Reichenhall

This is the first time that even an in-depth web search couldn’t give me the appropriate translation for the title of this post. “Überhälter” is a term used here in forestry, designing old trees that are left over on purpose in clear cuts, using their protective function for the young trees, but meanwhile also their positive effect for the biodiversity of these areas.

Bayerstrasse, Munich

For the good reason of the Champions League Finals I am postponing the intended forest/landscape picture, but at least I can stick with the pertaining green tones. The banners make it pretty clear: this is a money affair, with millions shuffled by both the FC Bayern München and the FC Chelsea as well, and more millions invested and earned by sponsors and epiphytes. Me? It leaves me quite cold, like that morning drizzle.

Paul-Gruber-Haus, Bad Reichenhall

Kugelbachweg, Bad Reichenhall

Kugelbachweg, Bad Reichenhall

Nonn, Bad Reichenhall

For the name of the plant, I have to wait for my colleague U. Z. I have no doubts that she will immediately know what this is.

Update: Indeed she did: Wild Chervil (Anthriscus sylvestris).

Nonn, Bad Reichenhall

Munich, Bavaria

BMW showroom in Munich, announcing the new 3 series some weeks ago. Toys for the rich boys.

Munich, Bavaria

Westend, Munich

The political orientation of this book shop/meeting point is not really obvious, besides may be that yellow/red no-nuclear-power sticker, but when you read the (German) texts of the posters, it becomes pretty clear that this is one of the rare outlets for leftist ideas. N.B. the communist party is next to inexistent in terms of political influence, and the “Die Linke” left wing party has only limited weight in the western part of Germany, more in the East. But what I noted was the fractur headline “wo die zeit urlaub macht”, translated “where time is on holidays”, demanding to “reeducate Bad Reichenhall”, my hometown.

Now Bad Reichenhall and even more Berchtesgaden were strongholds of NSDAP in the Third Reich, and there definitely are dregs of brown, national-socialist ideas in that area (but where aren’t they), partly also held alive by tourists demanding memorabilia, books about Hitler’s army etc. Also, the barracks are named after a at least contested Reichswehr general, and one of the newer bridges was named Kreta-bridge, which is insensitive or better outright stupid.

Still, I dare to say that Bad Reichenhall is in no more need of reeducation than most other places in Germany.

For that text on the left side of the reeducate poster I found at least an introductory translation: ““No one is to be reproached for coming from the country, but no one ought to turn it into a merit and insist upon it; whoever doesn’t succeed in emancipating himself from the province is exterritorial to education”. Quoted from: Adorno, Was bedeutet: Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit, l.c., p. 43. Matching, at least in the sense that Bad Reichenhall is well influenced by the rural surroundings.

Westend, Munich

Westend, Munich

Westend, Munich

Following Martina’s request, here is the translation of the graffito: “Eric has to throw up”. Goes well together with the shop’s branch of trade, isn’t it?

Westend, Munich

Munich, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Müllnerhorn, Bad Reichenhall

For my eyes, the green of young rice plants is the most beautiful I know, but beech leaves in spring surely come next. And, least I forgot, no touch of the saturation slider. I put an oath on it.

Müllnerhorn, Bad Reichenhall

Kirchberg, Bad Reichenhall

Kirchberg, Bad Reichenhall

Thumsee, Bad Reichenhall

Since the beginning of this year, I have shrunken my photographic equipment quite a bit: from a DSLR with zooms down to a tiny m4/3 G3 with just three primes: 14mm, 20mm and 45mm. It resulted in less bulk and – a different way of seeing and framing. I like it a lot, and as image quality is at least on par even for 12″x17″ prints, there is no remorse.

Strolling through my hometown, I recently found a Pentax M 2.0/85mm manual lens for just €30,- in a shop window and decided to try that with an m4/3 adapter (chinese via eba*) on the G3. What a different feeling that lens gives: All metal/glass, a real aperture and distance ring (no fly by wire) and really heavy in comparison with the tiny Olympus 45mm. Manual focusing is ok as the G3 offers an enlargement of a selectable area in the viewfinder just by pressing down the wheel on the backside of the camera. And I do like that shallow DoF, even as the 6 aperture blades become visible in the reflections already at f2.8. A nice lens, not to carry it around every day (that lightweight, frugal equipment spoiled me), but sometimes a welcome addition.

Train Station, Munich

Munich

This plant, German Felsenbirne, amelanchier ovalis, could be what is called serviceberry in English. However I’ve never seen fruits on one of these bushes, so it might be an urban hybrid, bred for early and rich blossoming but not carrying fruits to avoid delivery of food to birds and rats.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Munich

Stephen Shore in the Pinakothek der Moderne.

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

In the last decades, Munich has built a well renowned museums quarter, which also houses a collection of American photographs well worth visiting – this Baldessari among them. And what I do appreciate: photographing is *not* forbidden there. I mean, we tax payers have already financed museum and collection, so I’d see it as only fair not to put up too many additional restrictions besides the substantial entrance fee.

Glyptothek, Munich

In the middle of the 19th century, Munich had a philhellenic king, Ludwig I, who caused a whole quarter of the city to be ornated with buildings remembering the zenith of Greece and their merits in arts and politics. Despite the abuse of this place in the third reich and the following damages by the bombings, most of these buildings have been restored. The image above shows just a sidewing of the Glyptothek, while this image shows the entrance of the Antikensammlung, a museum dedicate to greek sculptures and pottery.

Thumsee, Bad Reichenhall

The wallpaper for May is here for download. Enjoy!

Bonn, North Rhine-Westfalia

Bonn, North Rhine-Westfalia

After the German reunification it was decided that Berlin becomes the capital again. To mitigate the consequences for the former capital, Bonn, several ministeries and federal administration headquarters had to stay in Bonn. This is one of them.

Bonn, North Rhine-Westfalia

Bad Godesberg, Bonn

Kaiserplatz, Bonn

For sure it was not my intention to tilt the camera that much, but looking at the image I learned to enjoy it, especially as the fervent red box balances it so nicely. That it became a subconscious hommage to Winogrand is not unlikely, as I had recently seen an original print of his famous image ‘World’s Fair, New York, 1964′ in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich as part of the exhibition ‘True Stories’, featuring many American photographers of the last decades.

Siegburg/Bonn

The relative darkness of the half-underground railway station spares you the most ugly magenta I’ve ever seen a tramway painted in – completely (at least only the outside). This is part of the sponsoring the local public transport company has with one of it’s sponsors, the Deutsche Telekom. Whilst I understand that emptied public budgets need relief in every possible way, I still would hope that it could be done in a not so obtrusive manner.

Donnersbergerbrücke, Munich

Car advertisements still play on the more spinal cord level, it seems. As they are so successful – most Germans are tremendously car-conscious – they do indeed hit the right spot.

Myself, I was heading for the train to a meeting in Bonn at 06:19 in the morning. City administration’s rules are strict: No national flights if there is any possibility of a train connection, except in rare, unavoidable cases. Yes, we do have a CO₂ reduction programme, and we take it serious.

Ludwigsvorstadt, Munich

“Lebensmittel” means groceries, but the letters are just leftovers now, as gentrification took place in this quarter along with the centralisation of food stores. But people obviously like the reminiscences to the past so much that the keep the now irrelevant lettering.

Ludwigsvorstadt, Munich

All the (partially acta-induced) discussion about intellectual property and payments to artists have brought the copy center solution back into public awareness: In these copy centers without doubts a lot of intellectual property gets multiplied without proper licensing. Because it seemed inappropriate to criminalize this business (similarly to the introduction of the music cassette decades earlier), it was decided to introduce a fee on the copiers, depending on size and capacity. A similar mechanism is now favorized by some politicians to solve the problem of filesharing. Without doubt it would interfere less with privacy rights than the comprehensive spying on all internet connections, as it is done currently at least in France.

Ludwigsvorstadt, Munich

Ludwigsvorstadt, Munich

The German word “Freud” means joy. I don’t know if the advertisement was here first (and what purpose it should serve) or the graffiti writing, but at least the go together nicely.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Lindenplatz, Bad Reichenhall

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Heilingbrunnerschule, Bad Reichenhall

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Matching Carl Weese’s Photographed Trees. Usually Martin Storz comes up with the inevitable, too. Let’s see…

Oberstadt, Bad Reichenhall

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Schwanthalerhöhe, Munich

With all this xenophobic hysteria around, I was reminded of Sting’s “Russians”. At least outside of Germany you should be able to see it on youtube.

Ludwigsvorstadt, Munich

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

And a riddle for Martina: What does that mean?

Oberstadt, Bad Reichenhall

Oberstadt, Bad Reichenhall

Frescos of saints are quite popular in traditional areas of Bavaria, but this interpretation on a newly rebuilt house in the oldest quarter of Bad Reichenhall was really astonishing for me.

Oberstadt, Bad Reichenhall

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

The Easter Fire is lighted at 04:30, before the holy mass, and churchgoers assemble here before entering the fully dark church. When service was over, the fire was still burning, nicely contrasting with the snowflakes.

Update: Tyler Monson of More Original Refrigerator Art fame gave me a hint about the color balance beeing slightly off in the first version of the image (now in the thumbnail to the right). Of course he was correct, and when revising the image I marginally adjusted tint and saturation (the latter only outside the fire), and I have to admit that the missing cyan offset now makes the image a lot more attractive. When you click on one of the images to see it large, you can easily switch forward and back again. Thanks, Tyler!

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Maxvorstadt, Munich

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Maxvorstadt, Munich

Maxvorstadt, Munich

Altstadt-Lehel, Munich

When this building of the “Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank” was constructed in 1895, ‘sex sells’ was probably not the leading paradigm of business, instead statues of naked men and women where used as pointers to the famous greek past – Munich has a clearly philhellenic tradition, which might just have subsided a bit nowadays. We usually prefer to sell luxury cars to the Greek to paying for their debths.

Munich, Bavaria

Promenadenplatz, Munich

More about Montgelas here. The statue was created by Karin Sander in 2005.

Ludwigstrasse, Munich

The place where empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known under her pet name “Sissy” (note to self: try to find out if an empress really can have a ‘pet name’) was born 175 years ago, seems to still attract people.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Not as terse as today’s image, the wallpapers for April are here. Enjoy.

Maxvorstadt, Munich

“Palais Ludwig Ferdinand” is the name of the building as indicated by the signboard. It was built 1825 by one of the master architects at that time, Leo von Klenze. Most probably he would have objected to the surveillance camera.

Maxvorstadt, Munich

Munich, Bavaria

Normally I have no big complaints about wordpress’ scaling functionality, but in this image it clearly introduces asome moiree that will vanish when you click on the image to see it in the size AfterShotPro has rendered it to. Oh yes, and least I forget, enlarging the images by click should work on all images in this blog.

Donnersbergerbrücke, Munich

Munich, Bavaria

Ludwigsvorstadt, Munich

When I saw that peace tag, I immediately was reminded of Bill Evans’ “Peace Piece” (here on youtube).

And today my thoughts are with the parents of Trayvon Martin, 17 years old, whose violent death is a tragic memento that peace in our societies is still not guaranteed, that instead racism rises its ugly head in oh too many places – and finds its support in the silence of the masses.

Update: I exchanged the image for a different version without those burned out taillights – it seems I was a bit unconcentrated when posting. The original is under the thumbnail.

Ludwigsvorstadt, Munich

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

Hochschwarzeck, Bavaria

“And yet it moves – Eppur si muove” seems to be wrongly attributed to Galilei, at least according to wikiquote. But for a Citroen 2CV, the duck, it certainly is appropriate.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

The setting of an alpine cabin is a synonym for snugness in Bavaria, and of course it gets purported for all the (expected) tourists even more. Strange, in which places it materialises…

Munich, Bavaria

Vorderbrand, Berchtesgaden

To avoid getting declared a troglodyte, I decided to stop posting night pictures. And here is a landscape that I like even more, now that Spring means warm air contaminated with pollen. Cool, moist, quiet – such a forest (photographed two weeks back) would me my delight now. Add to it the wonderful out-of-focus blur of the Olympus 1,8/45, and you can imagine how happy I was.

Haidhausen, Munich

Haidhausen, Munich

Haidhausen, Munich

Haidhausen, Munich

Haidhausen, Munich

Sendling, Munich

Haidhausen, Munich

Trappentreustrasse, Munich

Bayerisch Gmain, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Wherever the ice is melting on the surface, puddles or even small ponds spring into existence, as the soil most often is still frozen and the water can’t trickle down.

Munich, Bavaria

The snowfall that decorated the booth in this picture happened already last week. Together with the following frost it substantially slowed down street life in the center of Munich, to the extent that the street vendors closed some of their outlets because only smallest numbers of visitors wanted to stop and buy some food in that excessive cold.

Munich, Bavaria

Shameless plug: The Public Eye Blog features my image “Peace At School” today. Have a look!

Munich, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Many shops are closed here, probably due to a certain imbalance between rent prices and profit, especially in the colder half of the year, when there are no tourists. This small cafe was open for 5 years, but couldn’t go on longer.

Munich, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

The red “A” in that old lettering is the symbol for a pharmacy here in Germany. Inside the letter there is also visible an „Äskulapnatter“, a particular snake which is part of the symbol of medical healing.

Munich, Bavaria

Thanks to the winter and the so-called daylight saving time – more honestly to be called expenditure enticing time – it is still night when I arrive in the office, and sometimes the moon shows up over the vis-à-vis blocks. Nota bene: The sky was that incredibly blue in spite of my lowering the saturation value.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

Bayerisch Gmain, Bavaria

Martina asked for it – the hydrant, not the nsfw – but Carl admittedly is the source of “bad influence”. This is no Munich hydrant here, following up with one tomorrow. I just had to make a tasteless joke on the U.S. primaries, sorry.

Munich, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

The city of Munich has all reasons to be proud of their drinking water. Tested thoroughly by highly renowned institutes, it is proven that the quality of the pipe-born water exceeds that of quite a number of bottled mineral water brands. Consequently this water is offered in many places, being it from machinery like this one or from taps in staff canteens.

Sometimes the way of distribution even shines with aesthetic qualities.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Not without reason, Bavarians are seen as the German variety of the common redneck. But living here, I can testify that their renommee by far exceeds reality. It’s only for the visitors from inside Germany – especially the northern part – and from abroad, that some try to live up to the clichée. And that’s why undergarments like the depicted ones are sold, almost exclusively however in cities, and to non-Bavarians (Update: I hope).

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Needless to say that I don’t know the perpetrator…

Update: I replaced the image with a not-tinted version. It was late yesterday and I uploaded the wrong version. Sorry.

Bayerisch Gmain, Bavaria

Hopefully not too late as February Wallpapers, you find here a pastoral scene from Bayerisch Gmain, the neighbouring village of my hometown.

Piding, Bavaria

Piding, Bavaria

Piding, Bavaria

Rural squareness can be really consequent.

Piding, Bavaria

Among the 5000+ inhabitants of the village of Piding there must be at least one avid smoker. Maybe not the worst way to gain equilibrium in grey, cold winter hours.

Once again I was taking advantage of my daughter’s musical education: Acting as a driver for her rehearsal purposes, I walked my camera and used the blue evening light to train vision and lens.

Munich, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

“Tageskarte” is written on that paper fixed to the mannequin, this is the German word for menu of the day.

Munich, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

Bayerisch Gmain

This sky, especially when dotted with white clouds like in the mirrored section, is what was made emblematic – and then abused by tourist agencies and politicians – for Bavaria.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

The red “S” for “Sparkasse” is the trademark of all the Municipal Savings Banks here in Germany. As they don’t participate in high risk stock adventures, they usually are in held in high esteem. Only their architecture is not allways adapted to their surroundings, but viewed in an isolated and a bit abstracted way like here it certainly can be attractive.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Moving a bit away from the window theme I was pursuing in my posts lately, this image was a gift of today’s snowfall. Later in the afternoon we had rain again, providing us with abundant grey slush. Not my kind of weather now, but I was prudent enough to sample some snow images when occasion was there.

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria

Munich, Bavaria

Adlgaß, Bavaria

Adlgaß, Bavaria

Adlgaß, Bavaria

Frillensee is Germany’s coldest lake, and we are lucky that it did not fell prey to a ice rink planning already decades ago.

On another topic: This was not the only image I had set hopes in, but the only one where the lens was fully shaded by some trees. As I had neglected to clean the front glass from dust, three well composed images are just pixel trash due to dust and sunlight forming large bright spots. Note to self: take more care of the gear…

Karlstein, Bavaria

The first cold autumn day with temperatures not much over 6° C makes looking at summer pictures a somewhat melancholic activity. But this one I like for its supernatural impression.

Piding, Bavaria

This time of the year is the tradition-enriched return of livestock from high alpine summer pastures, where it had spent the summer. As traditions tend to get transferred (and modified in that process), outside of the Berchtesgaden valley, this probably newly acquired tractor truck was decorated like the lead cow on occasion of the livestock return mentioned above.

This image, too, was made with a prime, albeit some weeks earlier. The old Minolta 1.4/50mm, borrowed from a friend, is optically very nice. The narrow angle of field presented not a problem here, as I stood far enough back to be able to include that biker in the frame. But this was probably more luck (or gut feeling) than mindful preparation.

Freilassing, Bavaria

Freilassing, Bavaria

I made my camera sweeten the annoyance of a one-hour delay. Not that I am inflexible, but after almost 10h of working, a train delay is among the least welcome events.

Hammerau, Bavaria

Update: Following a conversation with Carl Weese, I created a new version of the first image, removing partially the color cast in the first image. To the right is the version posted originally, for comparison.

Only one day later, commuting home, the scenery had changed completely, when rain had washed away all romantic assets.

Spa Garden, Bad Reichenhall

This special kind of traditional socks is called “Stutzen” in Bavarian dialect. Seen at the Traditional Music Festival in my hometown.

Not from Sri Lanka, rather from a wintery and dark Bavaria, are the new Wallpapers for January available for download from here

I love the overwhelming impression that the interior of this church imposes on the visitor through its narrowness and height.