Chinatown Intersection

Another picture from last year. This one was shot from Manhattan Bridge. Next weekend I'll be back in NYC for two days. A good friend asked me the other day if I'm missing my weekend trips to New York. The answer is no. I have lots of good memories of this dirty, noisy and overpriced concrete jungle. But fact is, I'm perfectly happy in California, which is by far the nicest place I have ever lived in. Except my real home in Germany I don't miss anything here, and I'm convinced that from now on my locations can only get worse. Anybody who knows me and does not come to visit me must either be broke or a big fool. Sorry guys, it's the truth. Take it as an invitation.

Anyway, after two days in New York, I'll take off to Iceland. My plan is to do a one week road trip exploring the incredible landscapes over there. There will be lots of hiking going on and most likely it is going to rain most of the time. I have to visit an outdoor store and get proper shoes etc. I'm still a bit challenged when being on my own outside of cities. Looking forward.

Man with Umbrella

Philadelphia, 2009.

The larger my photo archive gets, the more fun it is to dig in it. I'm looking forward to the times when I'll be able to post images randomly from different decades. Matt Weber is doing this. From what I know, his work - all shot in NYC - is the most impressive and interesting street photography collection out there.

La Jolla

A little treat on the way home from work yesterday.

Desktop wallpaper in 1400x900.

Venice Beach Freakshow

Fluck Tuesdays #5

Sometimes he literally believed that he could exhale her into life. Right there. In front of him. And everything would carry on as they had always wanted.

"Never understood why you always bring me by the water when you are afraid of it."

Feel like reading on? Click here.

Deep in thoughts...

...while standing in traffic.

Impressionism?

Trying to come up with a good excuse for what I did here. A desaturated Lensbaby HDR from a single RAW file. I spent too much time on it, so that I cannot just not post it..

Fluck Tuesdays #4

The latest writing in Annie Q Syed's series: Love: Making Music

Toycamarama

I wanted to share this with you since a while: people on twitter that do photography with toy cameras.

Drop me a line if you are missing on the list.


@shoepner just had some interesting Holga accidents: link

@deedeephotog has a colorful selection of plastic camera shots: link

And so does @fallenposters: link

@markolwick takes beautiful black and white images: link

@jaredadunn shows pictures of a blonde lady: link

@JonCart does toy camera street photography: link

You have to click on galleries to find @jimslobodian's toy cam section: link

@dj_ir0ngruve uses a holga lens on a nikon :-) link


If you haven't seen enough yet, here is another one from Venice Beach:

Old Dodge

I can't help it, I have a thing for old American cars. Not that I'm a car guy - not at all actually. It's more that they look nothing but cinematic to me. That's simply because I know them from cool movies only. When I once talked to friend who grew up in the US, he told me how such cars are reminding him of days when he was too young to drive, and his parents had to bring him to places on Saturday evenings. This is probably associated with a bit of embarrassment in front of the girls you are trying to impress. In my case that would be a Mercedes 190, a Ford Escord, or a Renault 9. Would I photograph those? I don't think so.

Towel Inside

Making Music

A Venice Beach portrait.

I got lots of good Holga shots back from the store, basically one roll of black and white, and one roll of color film. This is one is the first color picture. There are also more Lensbaby results on my hard disk from last Sunday. I'm not sure what it is, the imperfect optics of these toys that make photographing so easy going, or simply the fun of using something new..I might keep posting daily now for a while.

Boys in the Sand

Fluck Tuesdays #3

As the new Wednesday tradition, here is a link to Annie Syed's Fluck Tuesdays.

Beach Baby!

A lensbaby shot from San Diego.

Lensbaby

Today I put my hands on Steffi's Lensbaby 3G. First time I tried it, for sure not the last time. I remember reading about it years ago. Back then it was about $100 and I was hesitating to invest that money. When I visited the manufacture's website today I got a bit shocked about the current prices. Anyway, the optics are really unique. There is more to come.

Kobe

Seen in Hollywood.

Website beautification is almost done. Now all I need is new pictures that I actually like. This is pretty much the only one from yesterday's LA trip that's worth mentioning. In Venice Beach I also took some toy-camera photos with a color film, but I need to wait for the photo store to open, then hand in the film, then get the results, and then I will see if they are worth another mention at all..

Under Construction

Hey there, I decided to update the template of this page in order to get more features working. My previous template was a bit restrictive and as I try to minimize code wrangling after my workday, I simply decided to shop around for another template that I can use as is. Of course it is not exactly how I want it and will change a few things - for example I really dislike the headline fonts, what do you think? Don't hold back if you have suggestions for design and features.

Remaining things to do:

- Get rid of flash headlines
- Reformat text area
- Fix 'Recent Comments' field
- Start to label old posts
- Set links

Fluck Tuesdays - Prisoners of Life

It just turned Wednesday and I don't want to forget mentioning Annie's "Fluck Tuesday" post from yesterday: "Prisoners of Life".

Cuyamaca

A picture from my latest and what I believe first real camping experience. A beautiful weekend with beautiful people. The only time I really remember some sort of camping is when I was maybe 11 or 12. It was in the garden behind my parents' house together with my friend Victor. Victor lived a few houses down the street. When I woke up next morning I realized he went home while I was sleeping. What a disappointment. Couldn't he at least pretend we are far away in the wilderness? Well, he was probably cold, and so was I last night up in the Cuyamaca State Park. This picture is dedicated to my childhood friend. R.I.P Victor.