Revolutions without fighting, bloodshed and destruction do have their merits, even 90+ years later: When the monarchy in Bavaria was abolished in 1918, the palaces, castles, gardens etc. became public property and in the course of the years became almost completely fully accessible for the public. Some of the most beautiful gardens now serve the…
Blog
The blog has moved
Finally I did switch from Blogger to WordPress on a shared server. The reasons I will explain in a later post, for the time being I am glad that the import of the old posts and even 95% of the comments went without any problems. Most of the widgets are in a useful state now,…
Pellets Storage Room
For 1.5 days now I have changed the computer keyboard (and the camera) for a power drill, circular saw, cordless screwdriver and so on. Reason was that the pellets storage room for the central heating needed an improved floor to ensure that the material is gravitation-driven moved to the conveyor screw. The old, already angled…
Summertime
Here in Germany nobody uses the term ‘daylight saving time’. It was introduced decades back under the pretense that it would support energy saving, but there are serious doubts: in the end everybody makes best use of the longer evenings, and many activities are connected with energy consumption. We use the term ‘summertime’ here, and…
Commuters Ghost
Over at The Public Eye Martin Storz yesterday celebrated his post no. 1000. This is definitely a sign of perseverance, even more so as photoblogging in Germany (and in German) rarely leads to frequent commenting and lively discussions that can be seen in the English speaking net world. But even if you can’t read German,…
Decaying Surfboard
Living throughout the year in a small town in the alps, everything in a harbour is potentially interesting. At sunrise I found these reminders of a ‘HiFly’ windsurfer, turned into plastic trash over the years, hazardous waste if you would take it really correctly – but nobody does bother here. The small series is visibly…
Background: Bakar
With such a foreground, it is probably hard for a small town to survive. This coal loading/unloading unit claims a similar amount as the whole city of Bakar. Up to the nineties it served a coke oven plan, which is not running any more. It has had a changeful history: Up to the first world…
Traveler, when you come to Krk…
… make sure that you get some of the finest liquor made on the island. That it is presented so invitingly makes the purchase decision not easier as there are so many different flavours. And the opportunity to taste could easily lead to a purchase bigger than originally intended. In my case it was different:…
Storytelling Door Handle
Today I am on a short trip to Croatia again, helping my sister to clear up the caravan and prepare it for hibernation in a local garage. Travelling alone, I could afford to stop in Bakar, a former important harbour in the bay of Rijeka in Croatia. It once hosted one of the croatian navigation…
Hopes to Ashes
It’s easy to guess from the headline that I am not smoking. Not smoking any more, that is. But here I was more fascinated by the replicating leaning forms that manifested themselves in the viewfinder. To emphasize this a little bit I used bibble5’s layers for burning and a bit desaturating the borders. The more…
Diesel Night
The triangle of blue colors grabbed my attention, and then the self-aware laziness of the pose on the billboard. The whole image speaks ‘night’, just the billboard seems out of any time context here. It’s not an image I would try to print really large – it was too late at night and the wine…
06:06
Mornings can be hard; The unread paper in one hand, the camera in the other, eyes still tired, brain slow – the night was just too short. Only 1 minute left until the train leaves. Fumblin’ with numb fingers at the f-stop dial, knowing that some DoF is needed. 06:06 – just getting two shots.…
Long shadows
The days becomes shorter, the sun rises later, and the distinctive golden glow of the light is definitely a sign of ending summer. The good thing is that I don’t have to get up that early to stalk the first light, and the golden gleam paints everything in the most favorable colors. In that way,…
Old-style Merry-go-round
Of course the kids made me go to the fairground – in the province, loud music, sales booths in the street and a merry-go-round are rare and therefore attractive. While I regarded the whole thing as less interesting than noisy, at least the old chairoplane provided attractive food for the lens. Stopping down to f22…
Cypress Soldiers
Early morning has a quality of its own. The mind is not loaded already with all the associations and patterns of the day, and the thoughts can run freely. This new built house seemed to be guarded by the cypress soldiers, whilst an officer in yellow is in charge of the guardsmen. In maybe two…
Government Building – Beamtenstock
At those times, when Bad Reichenhall was famous and rich and through it’s salt manufactures contributing one third to the state of Bavaria’s budget… Can you imagine – a small place of only several thousand inhabitants contributing that much to a state’s budget? (Now it is a small place of just a bit more then…
The call has ended
Open for interpretations, maybe even inviting to it – I found this empty phone booth on a very late walk back home when the bus hadn’t come, rain was setting, I was tired and all that. No “saturation to the max”, I swear it. The magenta of the handset is like that (this is the…
Krk Clocktower Angel
Whilst the kids were fascinated by the wonderful missals in Krk’s church and exhibition room, my eyes were attracted by the remainders of the wooden statue of an angel, up to 1973 situated on top of the cathedral’s clocktower. This clocktower is visible in many of the small alleys of Krk, and with it’s green…
World in a Bottle
It seems as I can’t escape the heat, so this beach photo is more then adequate. Today was an office day here in Munich, and temperatures in the street are up in the high thirties again. In a southbound office room this does mean quite a bit. Fortunately enough Munich tap water is at least…
Window Tomcat
The holidays ended yesterday with a night drive back to Bavaria, and the first day working of course meant searching through a pile of emails and sorting and organising… Still the memories of Krk are vivid, and a number of raw files wait to be evaluated and developed. This self-confident tomcat was one of the…
From island to island
Different islands, similar lanterns: Just have a look at Martin Storz’ public eye blog. On Tenerifa he has found a shadow casting lantern, mounted on a skilfully crafted wrought iron arm. My Krk lantern shows splendid clear lines, but I fear this is not caused by the islanders’ love for straight forms (there ceramics at…
Hot days – lively nights
When the days are too hot, life changes to the night. After a buzzing 37°C day, the Camplin, Krk’s main plaza, was buzzing even at 11:00 in the night. I took out my venerable 1,7/50mm lens, and did I praise the Anti-Shake in the camera already? So that photographing lady’s pose got fixed in 1/8th…
Summertime
Today is the 3rd day with temperatures high in the 30th (Celsius), and sitting outside is no real joy if the breeze stops. The good thing is that the internet speed in the campground lobby now is aczeptable – in the evening it reminds more of old 2400 Baud modem times. Picturing heat is not…
Evening Sky, Krk
In the narrow alleys of Krk the shadows of the houses make shure that it does not get unbearable hot (though unbearable is relative, today we had 37°C). However it gets dark pretty soon in the evening down there, and only the windows of the upper floors still catch some daylight or reflect it when…
Red Ship Reflection
The harbour water is not such an attractive medium – oily, smelly and so on, probably the same in every harbour of the world. Amazing enough locals are fishing there, and I guess even that fish is ending on the table. But the reflective qualities of the water are still intact, and the way the…