reflections
There were two docks in Urk and when we passed the latter we had a fabulous sundown. I couldn’t resist and take this shot, as it reflects all that I learned about Urk that day.
winterstorm
Together with a bunch of friends, we spent Sylvester in the Netherlands. Although our house at Lemleveld was about an hour away from the next coast, we were all atracted to the sea and so we visited the small town Urk at the coast of Ijsselmeer. Water has something to it that makes people want more, even in winter, when like at this time the dark clouds swalloed the sun.
the raven
Our last day on the Island and together with Luca we headed for a small round on the Cumbre Viecha. It turned out that we took the wrong turn and were on the long way down, to the camping site at the bottom of the Caldera. As soon as we noticed we just went all the way back and at the parking site a friend was waiting for us or better for our Maria cookies.
just the two
Last year I thought I was lucky when I shot a dragonfly in midair, but it turned out that Karins pool is THE spot to witness more happenings in the lifeof dragonflies. There were constant fights about the territory – two male insects doing unbelievable maneuvers over the pool. Here you can see a couple on the way to the oviposition. I got more shots that are a tuck sharper, but I like the female insect touch the watersurface. And, did I mention that I have to get a macro lens? This was shot with my 500mm…..
barbed wire
One of the features that I really do like about the north of Germany is the vast space: fields everywhere, meaddows and many areas with less human beings. As a consequence of this you can see animals all day long, not worrying much about your presence. Those swallows took a rest on a nearby barbwire. I like the contrast between these little birds, soft and swift in their appearance and movement and the harsh military fence, that stands for the excact opposite.
mindnight surf
Stormy night in Karlsminde, where we spent one week. The clouds where chased along by the wind and the moon showed up every time it found a hole to peak through.
anti warbird
Down at Battery Park, right where the ferry starts off, you will find this huge statue which is the central part of the East Coast War Memorial. Black and white once more… it just fits.
freedom, or so
I was asked to help our Nike away team to join them on their mission to brush up Rucker Park, Harlem, NY for the Nike World Basketball Expo. Sure thing I went and while the show finally started on friday, me and a colleague Björn went sightseeing. We caught the ferry at Battery Park last minute and had perfect weather to visit the old lady at the harbor entrance. I don’t know why, but pictures of New York have to be black and white, don’t they?
michael
Ok, ok… calm down… it is Michael Air Jordan and thanks to my all access batch I got really close to him. He payed a visit to Nikes World Basketball Expo at Rucker Park, NY and man, this guy has a presence – almost a force field – around him. Go Micheal!
NY life
It is a common fact that the more the climate changes during the year on you homespot, the more you spent inside the house, whereas in countries where the temperatures stay on a certain high, people are mostly outside the house. New York seemed to be different…. but maybe it is due to the fact that there live so many people that you can see them in the streets, all the time.
knightrider
Oli rang me up the other day and was pretty excited: “Man! I have an idea for a shoot”. A couple of LEDs, a lonly skatepark far off, darkness, my good old SB800 – that I haven’t used for ages – et voilá…. looks easy, doesn’t it?. Actually, this was one of the later shots. Oli had to get used to the dim light and I had to trigger my flash at the right time. Not easy at all and happily no bails at all, and so sometimes the magic happens….
blindworm
I know, I know… I should have bought a macro lens instead of the big Sigma 500mm …. but hey, thats’s murphy. I bet, this little blindworm wouldn’t have shown up if I had taken the macro lens. Did you know that they belong to the family of lizards rather than snakes? And although they are called blindworlm their eyes are pretty good.
frankfurt skyline
I was tinkering with this one for quite some time. First I wanted to show the smog that and haze that was clearly to be seen on this beuatiful day and cut off all the woods in the foreground. Now that I made the 5th version of it, I think it is even clearer with the trees in sight. Damn big cities… no good for everyone.
sandy queen
Last day of our 4 day trip to Bergen ann Zee / Netherland and one day after Oranie lost the WM. Some little girl had dropped their stuff on the caffees porch and I couln’t resist. This stillife was too good to be true. I would have granted the title to the Netherlands… next time.
jack
I don’t know where you need to go in order to have a piece of cake under the plain sky and not be surrounded by sparrows. They seem to be everywhere and along with the starling family they are to be found all around our hemisphere. They are fast little birds, always there, when you drop a crumb of your meal.
shitepoke
Shitepoke? Really, that’s the name of those… see for yourself! Actually this three-colored one belongs to the herons, off which 62 different species are known. When I started photographing some years ago, I thought those were rare visitors here in Germany but they seem to be everywhere, known for having a “cosmopolitan distribution”. Lately a couple of families are nesting in Frankfurts Ostpark, so I could testdrive my Sigma 150-500mm lens and get some decent shots.
fly like an egyptian
Egyptian gooses are common place right now. A couple of years they where seldom guests in germany, but due to warm winters and the clima shift in general, they are everywhere to be seen. The bad thing about them is that they drive the old inhabitans of like the normal ducks out off their habitats…. well, where did I hear this already… ahh yes, the squirrels. Same here. World is changing constantly – mostly due to our intermission.
toadography
Living in Offenbach has many advantages. One is the “Grüne See” (green lake) is a nature reseve that is just around the corner. While attending it in summer it is hard to find a place for yourself, because everyone seems to be around, winter spring is far better. Big toad was sitting beside the main walkways an was lucky that I did not step on it. Still quite frozen and stiff it gave me the time needed to focus it with my 500er sigma. I already said it and will say it agin… I need a macro lens.
winters gift
I failed when trying to cling to my attitude towards the “bad” weather outside. I tried it, but I can’t help to say that I am really fed up with this cold, dark, rainy something out there. Winter won’t go this year and so here’s another winter shot from our trip to Oostmahorn.
ice-o-lation
Happy New Year! Sylvester was set to be in Netherland this year. Together with a couple of friends we headed north to spent four days in Landalpark Oostmahorn. Sunday was our last day and we took a walk in the nature resort Lauwersmeer. We made out a little languet on the map that we longed to reach and when the sun was about to vanish, we finnaly got there. Frozen bogland below, fog right above and a red flaming sun that shed some warm light over the cool blue blue snow.
frogger
I don’t know if i mix up somthing here, but see the crane I can imagine that those two little frogs, around the next corner, would make a good meal for him… or was it only the stork that’s after those little critters?
crane
There many inhabitants in the Caldera de Taburiente. We were lucky too meet quite a few. I tried to take pictures of cranes around my hometown but they are very shy and just looking toward their direction often is enought to make them leave, so the only ones I got where those two from the Zoo in Frankfurt, that tend to show up when it is feeding time for the sea lions. Here we go… all natural, an all wild crane from the Caldera. EDIT: I am still learning and so errors are for sure to be made… this seems to be heron, not a crane.
branco de colores
Hiking the Caldera de Taburiente is one of the greatest things one can do on La Palma. Half way back to our starting point, we found the “Cascadas de colores”, colorful waterfall with its yellow water that trails through the whole baranco.
volcano land
At times you will find some hot spots on the south side of La Palma. St. Antonio and Teneguia are the last volcanoes. The letter erupted in the 1970s and shaped the southern shoreline, adding new land and buried old parts.
crabs
They are everywhere along the rocky shores of La Plama. Shy and fast are two of their characteristics that make them somehow hard to photograph. Gotcha!
heure bleu
Every evening we were swept away by unbelievable sundowns. The blue hour was the time when La Palma showed its magic.
thr33
It is kind of funny: You can try to hide and not move in order to get close to animals and you get very far. The next time you are loud, noisy don’t care about any means of camouflage and you get even closer. I was about to shoot some pictures of a falcon on a nearby tree when a flock of goats passed. The falcon hadn’t noticed me, but those three saw me instantly. When I turned around and shot this picture the falcon went off. I didn’t mind. I had some decent picture of it already.
falcon
No, not the millenium falcon, but a real one. La Palma is the island of falcons. Around barancos around our house we hat quite a few of them, but it was this one that kept me going. Every evening it sat down on a nearby pine. I had a hard time getting close to it and even this time, it saw me first, staring right into the cameras eye. A nice shot anyway.
caught in the act
I am no big fan of dead center compositions but with this shot I had to break my rules. This little fellow was buzzing around the pool and kept constantly chasing off other dragonflies off its territory. It came back day after day and so I just hat to wait for it to appear. Shooting it with a 300mm lens was another stroy. Nailed it!
lizzards everywhere
Whenever you set foot in Karins garden you can hear rustling from different places. Its those little lizzards running away from you. This one was living on our terrace and on second day he lost his shyness and almost fell asleep during the shooting.
tekla
Okay, it is not wearing a bandana and isn’t that cute like in the old kiddie flick Biene Maja, but beautyful in a way. Found it in Karins garden, not far from our veranda.
gloom
We hit the mark with our choice to go rent the Casa Bueanavista apartment. Las Tricias/La Palma is by far the best place to stay. This is the sundown captured right from our terrace. Every evening when the sun was about to vanish, the mighty clouds dropped down the hills and came in very low, rendering jawdropping views like this. Enjoy!
lynch
Up on the Roque de los Muchachos we passed several telescopes, sometimes hidden in the clouds. Take a close look on the horizon and you will probably see one.
iris path
A full rainbow is not often to be seen – on La Palma they seem to be quite common place. It was second day and our second trip our second rainbow and if you take a close look, you can see even another rainbow shimmering above the first. Two seemed to be the number for this holiday…
burn
I know, I know, it looks like one of those cheesy posters, but hey… those posters are airbrushed and this is for real! Low clouds as typical for the Las Tricias evenings
chimp blues
Winter is almost here. Not the best time to visit the Frankfurt Zoo, but I was keen on the new “Borgori Wald” – the all new ape residence. Looks like it is a full success. Compared to the previous narrow cages this is a real winner. A littel drawback for all photographing people: dirty, scratched glaswalls instead of ironbars. You have to find your spot, take some time and better use a polarising filter to get rid of the reflections… I had none and this chimp still got the blues, although living in a great resort now.
strung out
Today Dexter arrived – our new family member. Lutzi, our old Jack Russel Lady wasn’t taking it too easy, as she had been all alone and was always in the spotlight. Dexter is young and first contact had been made. We’ll have to make sure that Lutzi won’t feel second best and than everything will work out. At the moment the old lady sulks a bit…
breakfast at squirrels inn
Little Mr. Nuts is once again out to get his belly full of tasty buds. I am really lucky that this little mischief ist still around, although I bet it is already the third generation…. all documented on this blog
pure harmony
An old saying goes: Red Sky at night, shepherds delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning. In fact the red light is the result of particles in the higher regions of our atmosphere. When the sun sets low the photons hit the particles and mostly the blue part is held back resulting in such beauty. Shot at a one week stay in Bredene/Belgium.
out of the sun
“…We’ll suspend the storms and the clouds in sight. Of an endless summer. An endless summer. An endless summer to be home. Let me go, wasting time, let me go waste my time…” (Endless Summer – Zwan)
brommobieltje
One week off… finally. My whole family went to Bredene/Beligum for a little recreation. In nearby Oostende was an oldtimer ralley/festival and I couldn’t resist to take some snapshots. This very day the motorcycles seem to be on the list. Now I wonder who’s older… the riders or the bikes. More pictures on my Flickr account.
back to the moon
They do it again! NASA announced to get people back on the moon in 2020. I still look up to that big, fat rock and wonder if they really had been there in the first place. On TV they said that Apollo 11 left a mirror up there that can be focused with a laser on a certain time a day and will reflect the light directly to earth. Let’s face it: If China keeps up the pace of their economic growth and their ambitious space prgramm, the taiconauts wil be the first to find out and I bet they will not keep this as a secret. Mr. Moon…. ta ta ta taa…
lost 2
To find deers in the field you have to look very closely. Often they see you faster than you spot them. Again I just passed it, pretending not to notice, droped my bike and sneaked back. Still I couldn’t get closer than about 40m before it jumped away. Practice, Falk! Practice….
lost 1
“Häschen in der Grube, saß und schlief…” This one wasn’t asleep at all. In fact I had a hard time getting near it. You wonder how close you actually can get if you prentend not go its way and don’t look at it.
barking at the sun
May I introduce you to Lutzi, our little Jack Russel Terrier. Shes quite an old lady by now, but non the less she kept her temperament and is still very agile. Here she’s trying to catch a fly.
wee snail
Snails are a very strange species: tentacles and eyes combined, slow gliding, building and carrying their own house made of calcium carbonate that they can lock with a “door” – well, sounds like they got all they need for living. Indeed snails can reach an age up to 15-30 years, but only held captive in more or less strerile surrounding. Into the wild they usually become 5-7 years old. This littel exemplar has a long way to go… let’s hope it’ll make it and stays out of our sink, where we found it. Did I mention that I need a macro lens – could only go high contrast with this one?
S-Bahn
Did you know that 388 million people are using the public means in berlin every year. So in order to get to know the real Berliner, you have to take the public transportation… really. Here you can witness the best stories that no Spielberg or Lucas can tell.
I really do like the lighting in this shot. The sun was bounced back from the houses on the opposite roadside and gave everything a warm and friendly touch.
chilling
This is another one from our trip to Berlin. Two ladies chilling, enjoying the first warm sun beams of the year. Lazy me totally missed the blooming season. As soon as my bike is fixed, I am out again and will post new stuff… promissed.