car triptych

click image to enlarge

who invented the white-balance automatic? and who told me to leave it switched on? egad, sometimes i feel sympathy for mike johnston's 'the leica as a teacher idea. at least no whitebalance-automatic that, as every automatic, does as good as it can, but doesn't help me thinking. and getting the balance manually, just by optical impression, was impossible for me, at least at first take.

note to self: one more automatic to switch off on certain occasions. oh yes, and i do this when shooting panos, but here i simply forgot.

this photo on flickr

Some rights reserved.

Schönram bog, deeply frozen

i love this picture, but as the author i am allowed to be biased. i was told it does not contain a center of interest, and in the classic sense, this is true.

what i love in this picture is the shere abundance of colors, forms and structures. mute, like holding it's breath, but there and so manifold that it's almost unbelievable. creation provides, gives, cares...

to make it very clear: i am no evangelical or jehova's witness denying evolution. it's just that i can see both sides now and then.

this photo on flickr.

Some rights reserved.

Merry Christmas to you and peace to all mankind

my best wishes for this our world and all people living here with us.

this photo on flickr.

Some rights reserved.

clearing storm over St. Pankraz

St. Pankraz church is built on one of the oldest inhabitated places in the valley of Bad Reichenhall. Accessible through only a narrow footpath, this location was safe from attacks from below and must have been an old ritual place, too. One of my best christmas experiences is connected with this church: walking 1 hour through the snow, with a pitch-torch in the hand, and then attending midnight mass.

this photo on flickr.

Some rights reserved.

fishermen at batticaloa beach

these fisherman lived in a village swept away by the tsunami. their resettlement area is 3km far away (plus crossing the lagoon by boat), but they still come to their old place to fish in the sea. knowing that their families are now safe from further waves is a great pacification for them.

the city of Munich's help tsunami help project built a stretch of road for them, so they can sell their catch now to remote markets (say: Colombo) for a sometimes better price.

This time i was accompanied by a co-worker who is a trained psychiatrist. she openened my eyes in explaining the fishermen's behaviour still so strongly influenced by the tsunami and their feeling of helplessness and ongoing feeling of guilt. the trauma still lives on in them and expresses itself in their eyes, their words, their gestures...

this photo on flickr.

Some rights reserved.

entrance door detail, maria gern

the sun was in the perfect direction and angle to highlight the iron nails and the lock as well as to shed some light on the the cast iron trellis with its golden coating

I had to change my raw converter as lightcrafts decided to drop the linux version of their lightzone raw converter. The really upsetting facet is that they use (legally, of course) a lot of free software in their product but resist to return something to the community. Pretty much the behavior of a leech, isn't it?

this photo on flickr.

Some rights reserved.