Autumn is at the door

Leaves are becoming colorful. The temperature is going down and it’s raining more and more. OK, the rain is not a sign for the fall. This year we didn’t have a hot summer. We only had a wet and cold summer. Certain area were faced with over flooding. Not only in Pakistan, also in Germany, Poland and Czech Republic – even not so worse as in Pakistan, but also serious.

This morning I heart at the radio: While the damaged areas are becoming restored, the next flood is on the way to destroy more houses, streets and cars.

Will we get monsoon times instead of real summer in the future?

At Photokina

Today I visited Photokina. It’s the worlds biggest trade fair for photography. I started early in the morning and visited several booths. Nikon, Tamron, Sigma, Nikonans and many other.

At dpunkt booth I coincidently met Andrea Meyer again (look at my other post). I talked to her for more than half an hour about several photographic topics. It was quit interesting.

One topic was, what she already visited while being in Germany: Duesseldorf old town, Cologne Cathedral – but she wasn’t in Wuppertal to see the Schwebebahn. I’ll write another post on Schwebebahn and put some pictures online.

Düsseldorf old town

This morning I was at the river Rhine in the morning before work to take some photos at twilight. Because the old town is located east of the river, this has to be done in the morning instead of the evening.

I was there at the right moment to see the sun rising behind the skyline:

Earlier I took some other photos. The first is looking north while the second one is looking south.

Attending a portrait workshop held by Tim Meyer

You’d probably ask me, who’s Tim Meyer. OK – he’s the Chair of the Portrait Division at Brooks Institute in California.

He was in Germany for Photokina, the worlds biggest trade fair in photography stuff.  He’s publishing house invited him to Cologne to be at the booth for some time.

Another author from the same publishing house arranged this workshop at the day before Photokina starts and I was lucky enough to get a seat.

The workshop was held at technical college in Duesseldorf. 12 regular university students of media design and 9 people from outside the university took part in the workshop.

Tim came with his wife, also a photographer and his assistant and model in some cases.

First he showed some slides to explain and demonstrate different lightning techniques and how they take effect. After that he demonstrated some techniques live.

In my opinion he’s a very talented teacher. He didn’t hold a speech. He held a dialog with the auditory. He constantly asked questions to force us to use our brains for finding answers on our own before he showed and explained the solution.

There was also a very interesting discussion between some of the students and some of the experienced outsiders about basic knowledge i.e. Anselm Adams Zone model and other basics techniques students formerly needed to learn but nowadays, because of the digital photography, don’t learn anymore. As a result we – Tim Meyer, his wife, the professor and many of the outsiders – found, that the today students are missing  important basic knowledge, when not learning it on their own.

I’d like to say thank you to Tim and Andrea for holding the workshop.

Make up your mind

Six young guys are on the stage. Well dressed and cultivated. But after taking their instruments, they are celebrating a party. Ongoing interaction with the fans in front of the stage.

Nicky – vocals, Peter – guitar, Andreas – drums, Willem – Bass, Gerbrand – trombone and Frans – saxophone.

Bass guitar, guitar, drums and vocals seems to be common for a music band. But what about the saxophone and the trombone they are also using?

“Make up your mind” comes from the Netherlands and they are playing ska, ska punk. It’s loud, but it’s good. The show is very energetic. I loved watching and listening.

If they come to your area, give them a try. It’s worth trying to listen to them.

Here’s a slideshow of 14 photos taken during the concert.

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Not a “Happy” day

This night our cat named “Happy” didn’t have had a happy day. She died because of a car accident. A neighbor found her laying death on the street while being outside with her dog and rang me out of the bed at 8 a.m. The cold morning (only 5°C) became even colder regarding to that news. I woke up the kids and we buried her in the yard. Rest in peace, Happy.

She stayed with us for about 10 month and became only about 1 year old. She was such a lovable cat and a good mother.
Fortunately their kittens are old enough to live alone. (ref)