Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Happy New Year 2012

Wish you all a very happy year 2012!


VeloCITY '11

Hey folks. This year has almost passed by, so it about time to release this year's timelapse video taken in Dresden, Germany. Hope you like it. If so, feel free to share the link!


I recommend using the link above to watch it in HD directly on vimeo.com. Otherwise, just click the "Play" button below an enjoy!


This summer's time lapse project shot in Dresden, Germany.

Camera: Sony Alpha 500

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Star Trails

See what I learnt tonight...







Lightpainting

After a little break (camera was travelling to Kenia without me and a little injury that made a bit immobile) here we go again with a new post!

Last weekend I had the chance to shot some lightpaintings at the Dresden Christmas Market. A local group of fire artists performed there. Fortunately I had my tripod with me (I was shooting timelapse sequences anyway, stay tuned for a new video within the next days!), so I could take some rather nice long exposure shots which appear like lightpainting. Unfortunately I didn't have to much time to try out some more configurations of my cam, but the results are fairly well. See yourself!

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Women's Soccer World Championship 2011 - USA vs. PRK

This year, the women's soccer world championship is in Germany. Luckily, my hometown is hosting some matches and I was able to attend two of them. Today I post the photos of TeamAmerica versus Kim Jong Il's girls. As you can easily see, USA won.

Monday, May 30, 2011

And another time lapse video

While editing "The City In Motion", I found some older time lapse sequences on my hard disk drive. So I reedited them (shaking was horrible without a shutter timer...) and composed them to one of my favorite song of Phoenix. Watch, enjoy and share if you like the video!

For fullscreen video go to http://vimeo.com/fotogrphy/dresden-timelapse!


Time lapse video of the wonderful city of Dresden, Germany

Shot during 2010, the sequences were my first attempts to shot time lapse videos with my DLSR.

Camera: Sony A500

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The City In Motion

So here it is, my time lapse/tilt shift movie called "The City In Motion". Hope you like it!

Please watch it in full screen mode and HD if you internet connection is fast enough. And don't forget to give me some feedback in the box below the post. Thanks!

For full screen mode click  http://vimeo.com/fotogrphy/thecityinmotion

A smaller preview is here:


Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 9

Sadly the last day of this year's trip to the States (really feels like I'm going to be there every second year...) is approaching. My flight was scheduled for 3pm, so I still had time to chill out nearby. I grabed an egg and ham bagel as well as a Starbucks Vanilla Latte (honestly, my first Starbucks coffee during the trip: how could that happen?!) and walked over to Central Park. Temperatures were picking up, so I enjoyed my breakfast in the early morning sun. It is so interesting to see the city "getting up". Also the views in Central Park let you think you're somewhere completely else, while around the corner you see Midtown skyscrapers in the horizon.
Around noon, it was time to get the suitcase and finally leave for JFK. This time, I took the Jamaica route (not the Carribean but Queens!) instead of the usually used southern route through Brooklyn. Don't know why I always did the Brooklyn tour, but going through Queens is so much nicer. Often you could see Manhattan's skyline through the (milky) subway windows! So cool somehow.
At the check-in counter, a friendly Lufthansa staff member told me that I had three kilos baggage overweight and I had to pay another 150 bucks to get them through (lots of clothes and two Starbucks coffee pots really weigh that much...). Usually. After an inner sigh I thanked the guy for allowing me to keep my savings I made at my extensive shopping tours the days before. While editing my photos till boarding I decided to spent my last four dollars on a small coffee. Ain't that much you get on an airport anyway, I thought. Wrong. I got like half a liter of black gold, which was fine if you wanted to stay awake for a long time. But my initial strategy was another: getting asleep on the plane as soon as possible to avoid a huge jet lag. Hmm, believe I should have spent the money on something else... However, on the plane it looked like I had all four seats next to me for myself at least. Just before closing the doors an absolutely charming American man sat down there. Ummm, less space and less sleep... I still had the dream of sleeping after dinner (as bad as always), but the clever one next to me felt more like reading newspapers with his bright lights on. Thank you very much. I fought like two hours to find a reasonable sleeping position on two seats, pretty unfunny. What I got was being awake with closed eyes, so jet-lag here I come. Proving the intelligence of my seat neighbor, he decided to stop reading one hour before landing and sleeping the rest of the flight. Sympathy is different. :D Of course, to follow up my chain of luck that night, my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Dresden was cancelled, so I was in the position to enjoy the comforts of one of the most boring airports in the world for two more hours. I even missed the handing out of food vouchers...
Those unfortunes didn't harm the fun I had on this trip anyway. Being back to New York is always so exciting, everything is changing so quickly. Exploring an unknown city like Boston is one of my favorite hobbies and driving around the nice parts of the US countryside is exceptionally enjoyable too! So thank you USA for another amazing time there!

So this was the last part of the New York, Boston & New England photo series. As you've read before, I tried out the capacities of my camera with one more project. So be excited to see a 6:30 mins video feature viewable online next weekend. Hope you'll like it!


Saturday, May 7, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 8

Well, as I mentioned in the former post, I left Boston very early to beat the money clock and the traffic. Although I had less time to sleep, this strategy gave me enough time to visit a place I had to skip on my way towards Cape Cod: Newport. This wonderful place is really a must-see. For those who know the 17 Mile Drive in Montery, CA: Ocean Drive in Newport is the 17 Mile Drive of the East Coast (also called 10 Mile Drive)! Absolute calmness and harmony of the Atlantic ocean paired with rough rocks and hilly lawns topped by classy mansions... Oh well, what a place to live. Same thought Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a beautiful house here. The ocean route is an absolute highlight. However, it was followed by Bellevue Avenue, which is like a long pearl necklet made out of historic, splendid villas. I wished I had more time to explore them one by one!
Taking the Newport Bridge, I followed my scenic route back to New York City. In order to spend the evening in the city, I avoided any further long detours. So I reached the Alamo car rental station mid-afternoon safely. Big thanks to my GPS again, without it I would have lost the way through the suburbs of NYC and the Bronx. Again car-less, I quickly checked in into my one-night-only hotel on the Upper West Side near Central Park. Curiously, the hotel called Marakesh had five floors but no elevator. Oh, it was fun to carry my already overweight suitcase in room #506 (yes of course, fifth floor!). In comparison to my first hotel in the city, one star less means window without a view and permantent heating. Ok, it was early spring, but why can't you turn it off, so you don't have to turn on the air conditioner at night (like I had to do...)?
I used the last hour of sunshine for a visit of another Ivy League uni: Columbia University. After mostly chilling out and buying another logo t-shirt I decided to go down to Columbus Circle. I did some window shopping in the Time Warner Building, where they also had a lot of original Dali artworks on display. Last stop was Lincoln Center, before I got a Philly Cheese Steak and packed my stuff for tomorrow's flight back home to Germany while watching Let's Dance on TV ;)


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 7

Today was the time to explore Boston properly and with daylight. Fortunately, Boston is very walker-friendly, so I felt welcome. Since it was Sunday, the early morning was frighteningly quiet: Why was I the only human being on the streets?! Fortunately, the city was awakening some time later.
I walked eastwards to the city center to find the beginning of the Freedom Trail, a bright red-colored path through the city along all the important sites and buildings of Boston of the early times of this country. A lot of people followed the trail, which is a very connvient way to navigate all the tourists through Boston.
Weather was brilliant, though cold again. What would I've done without my gloves...
After finishing the long Freedom Trail I grabed another plate of disgustingly delicious Orange Chicken to avoid starving ;) It was then time to take the T (nickname of the Boston public transit system) to Cambridge, where I was about to meet a friend of mine at Harvard University. Christoph showed me all the famous places of Harvard and we really had a got time there. Personally, I think Harvard is pretty nice, but I kinda liked the campus of Yale a bit better. However, the MIT can't compete with both.
After an exhausting day I went back to the hotel to take some rest a prepare for my tomorrow's very early depature going back to New York City. Wasn't my choice, but I could save 15 bucks by getting back the car before 8am ;)

Saturday, April 30, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 6

After recovering from the awesomeness of day 5, I grabed my complimentary paper plate and danish cheese breakfast. So I was prepared to follow the trails of the Pilgrims today. Before that, I visited the port of Hyannis in the freezing morning. Hell, was the wind chilly!
I crossed some of the towns on the Cape till I reached the highway to Provincetown, located at the very end of the peninsula. On the way, I stopped at a National Park hiking spot to walk along the First Spring trail. Here, the first pilgrims made their first explorations (and drunk the first fresh water on North American soil) after their landing in Provincetown with their famous Mayflower.
Provincetown was absolutely amazing. Usually a packed tourist town in the summer time, today almost no tourist crossed my way. The town, famous for its hippy and gay communities, was like in hybernation: closed shops, calmness, relaxed dogs walkers and pure sun. Brilliant to see how a town like this looks off-season!
Next stop was Plymouth, site of the first settlement of the Pilgrims. However, it was a bit disapponting there. Except the old graveyard on top of a hill next to the first church on American soil, there was nothing really special. Maybe I should have visited the Pilgrim Museum...
Final destination for today was Boston. Using my GPS again, it was absolutely no problem to find the hotel, but didn't help me finding cheap parking. I cruised around for about half an hour before I gave up and paid the 30 bucks. It check in at the Sheraton at Prudential Center and enjoy the sunset walking around the MIT campus, Massachusetts Avenue and Prudential Center. As this morning, it was freezing cold again after the sun was down. So I brought me a burger and spend the tiny rest of the day in the hotel, which offered a beautiful view over the Charles River and MIT campus, especially at night!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 5

I spent four awesome days in The City, but now it was time to get out of it. I packed my stuff (suitcase still half empty, didn't hit the outlets stores yet), walked over to Alamo and picked up my Chevy Aveo (small but more than sufficient). With the grateful help of my cell phone navigation I steered the silver bolt up north, avoiding all the toll roads and reaching Connecticut quickly. It was absolutely enjoyable to see the landscape transforming so quickly: First midtown with its skyscapers, taxi-packed avenues and traffic signs, then the Bronx with its apartment complexes and the storage facilities. After a few more minutes there it was: nature. The state of Connecticut gave my a wonderful reception. Highways were empty, the hilly forests gave view to so many little lakes and the sun was gleaming. Perfect...
After about two hours I reached the first stop on my trip to Cape Cod: New Haven. This city on the Atlantic shore is home of Yale University, one of the famous Ivy League members. After finding parking I enjoyed the sun while walking around the campus yard. The university area was rather small which I really liked. Everything looked a bit like a Best Of Oxford & Cambridge (but much younger). Ivy league really comes from a lot of ivy! My walk brought me also to the city center with its civic and religious buildings. As most of the New England churches, a bright white-towered little something marked the center of town. Although New Haven is not much of a deal off-center, I loved what I saw. The obligatory visit of the university book store to buy a uni t-shirt marked the end of my short visit.
I headed out of town a bit inland. Although the Interstate would have been faster, my scenic route showed me some of the beauty of New England. I felt like in a movie, everything looked so calm, harmonic and emm... kitschy. However, it was original. Memorable.
My suitcase got filled a little bit more in the outlet mall of Clinton. Because I was kinda running out of time, I skipped the city of Exeter (is supposed to have a very original habor) to drive to Mystic quickly, which has another cute harbor. Time was still running, and so I decided to change my planned route. Initially I planned to take the southern route to visit Newport, but I temporally skipped that route point (went there on my trip back to NYC anyway) and took the Interstate to Providence, Rhode Island. From there, it wasn't far to Cape Cod anymore. This vacation retreat was my today's final destination. Of course I had no more time to do some extensive explorations. Nevertheless, after checking in the Days Inn in Hyannis, I drove down to the Atlantic shore to catch the last sun beams of the day. I found a wonderful spot with an old lighthouse in between all the mansions along the shoreline. Perfect ending of the day, I thought.
Because Cape Cod Mall was literally next to the hotel, I stopped by to see if the A&F and Hollister stores had something decent to offer. Well, what can I say: when you see the stores of your favorite clothing brands having almost everything on sale, you easily spend 200 dollar in an hour. 200 bucks for more than then pieces! On top of that, the food court offered my the food I was waiting for for a long time: asian-american fusion food. Now it was a really perfect day!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 4

On day four I tripped down to where I stopped last night: Washington Square. From there Greenwich Village and some alternative spirit was just across the street. Later I found my way to Union Square and the famous Strand book shop. Passing the iconic Flat Iron Building I reached the High Line Park, a transformed former elevated railway line. From there you really have beautiful views of the city, the Hudson and Downtown! My urban hiking trip lead me to Midtown in the following. During the night, my tripod helped me to take some further video sequences... Still working on it!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 3

Day three of my trip, unluckily, was on the rainier side. Nevertheless, my city exploring continued, I just took the opportunities to stay inside and dry.
First stop was right across my hotel: St. Patrick's Cathedral. I continued through East Midtown, where I spent some time in the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel and Grand Central Terminal. There I continued shooting some video sequences. So stay tuned for a hopefully nice time lapse/tilt shift video of typical NYC scenes! Right now I'm working on it ;)
Not far away the New York Public Library waited for me to come in. Nice place to be and study!
Later in the evening I met my former boss on Ellis Island for dinner in Chelsea. I was excited seeing her, since it already has been a while. It was an exceptionally pleasant night with great conversations and Italian food ;)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 2

I started the second day of my trip in Downtown, visiting Ground Zero (the first pics show the new Freedom Tower which is almost halfway done) and the Battery Park. At the South Ferry Terminal I ran into a movie set. The people there were actually at work, so I made my 200mm lens ready to see who to catch. Well, it paid out... I could catch Robert de Niro working!
I countinued on Wall Street and the Pier 17 to take some shots of Brooklyn Bridge and shop at A&F (like the rest of people in the shop, who were 50 percent German ;) ). Then I made my way to Chinatown, where I could enjoy delicious fusion thai food for lunch! I spent some more time in SoHo, the East Village and the neighborhood of Washington Square. The latter is just great for people watching: students, alternative people (well, what is actually alternative in such a culturally diverse city...?!), street artists, dating couples and dog walkers.
The highlight of the day was the hockey game New York Rangers versus Florida Panthers. It was my first hockey game in the city, couldn't make it during my time in NYC some years ago... However, the game itself was a bit disappointing. I believe the statistics of only 2min penalty time tells alot! Fortunately I could make friends with some Long Island people next to me. Their state of drunkenness let them talk like a waterfall ;)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 1

The first day of my fourth trip to the US started early. I needed to be at Dresden International Airport at 7am to catch my flight to Frankfurt. There, a really handsome aircraft waited for me (and the other people): Lufthansa's second Airbus A380 headed to JFK!
I've already seen the big bird during the Berlin Air Show last year, but actually travelling with it is something different. I was pretty excited, even more as I could see that it will be flying half empty... So I had a pleasant 8h flight with the three seats next to me completely empty ;) Sleeping in Business Class though will still be more comfy.
After going through Immigration and Baggage Claim I took the subway to Midtown to get rid of my suitcase. Fortunately, the weather calmed down after some rain showers during the day. I used the evening to explore the sights of Rockefeller Center, Times Square and 5th Avenue. See yourself!

As always: Click on the first pic and use arrow keys to browse through the photos!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Industrial Romance Part II

A few days ago I finally managed to take some shots in Dresden's river port. Amazing, how freely you can walk around all the cranes, trains and trash... It really is a great place, have to return there soon!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Winter Views

Although right now winter is backing up, I still have some pics showing the beauty of this year's winter!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Once upon a time...

in a fairy little town near the big blue stream the rulers of the town decided to build a bridge. After some years, the bridgebuilder guild, a club of very eager and canonic technicians, offered a modestly expensive, technocratic structure. Despite the lack of aesthetic ambitions, the humble majority of the people of the town decided to build it, because they hoped their economy will prosper and they will be able to cross the big blue stream quicker than before. However, the slight minority of the people of the town argued to use to money needed to build the great structure could be used for more useful purposes and said, that they actually do not want to cross the bridge there, because their ancestors tought them that this place was a magic one, which will mesmerize all people who are able to feel the real beauty of the place. So they tried to convince the other people. Some of them changed their humble minds, because they do not have a business across the river. Nevertheless, they did not want to obstruct the merchants to offered to dig a long tunnel to harmonize the wants of both parties. But the rulers of the town were ignorant people and admired the paper they got signed by the people of the town. By the time, the unions minister of sustainability, beauty and sanity heard about the big plans and became furious, because he never was asked for his opinion about the great grey structure. His angryness lead to huge discussions among the people of the whole country, even the queen involved herself. But the rulers of the city only though about their own growing wealth. In order to please the authorities, they changed the appearance of the structure of the great grey structure to another great grey structure. However, the authorities are sophisticated people and recognized the illusion and took away the seal of beauty of the fairy little town near the big blue stream. Without regret the rulers of the town started building the other great grey structure, and more and more people wanted the seal of beauty back. They now even recognized the magic spirit of the place now dominated by the other great grey structure. But it was too late...