Month: April 2021

animals, bird, history, landscape, nature, photo-of-the-day, wildlife, world

Throwback Thursday: Icelandic bird of the year 2021

solaner

You might remember, a couple of weeks ago, I posted an image of the German bird of the year 2021. Today, I have the one, the Icelanders have chosen: European golden plover

European golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria) / Goldregenpfeifer

The Heiðlóan (pluvialis apricaria), or the European golden plover (Goldregenpfeifer in German) won the election. Once, this bird was common in middle Europe. Nowadays, you can only find it in Northern Europe: Iceland, Faroe Islands, Scandinavia, and Siberia. It has certain requirements for its habitat. (sidenote: I just noticed, the German word Lebensraum was also taken as a loanword into English with exactly the same meaning – wow).

I met these little guys last summer in Iceland a couple of times. This image was taken in the Westfjords.

Take care!

art, culture, photo-of-the-day, photography

Lens-Artists Photo Challange 145: “Getting to Know You“

solaner

Or better, to get to know me 😊 (at least a little bit)

There are always two people in an image: the creator and the viewer.

Each image, I’m showing, is a part of me and you can experience a bit about me when watching my images (and, of course, reading the texts).

To find out more about me, you can switch to the About-me page.

I love being in nature and photographing nature, although, photographing the beauty of nature sometimes hurts. I love traveling and coming in touch with the ordinary people in the countries, I’m traveling. I love to learn about their culture. If you want to talk, drop me a note. Modern technology makes it possible 😊.

As I said, sometimes photographing the beauty of nature hurts. So, I picked a couple of images, where it hurt.

getting soaking wet for nearly two full weeks in Iceland
It’s usually freezing cold when we’re on the north sea island Helgoland in mid January

 

Aurora Borealis in Northern Norway – it’s very cold outside, especially at night
getting up very early – hours before sunrise to be in your spot at the right time
also before sunrise

 

in the heat of the day hiking without any shadow
or waiting for your game
climbing up mountains while >30°C

 

staying up all night for capturing a full circle of the bloodmoon, a comet or some stars

 

getting up at 4:25 a.m. to be there at the right moment

Photography hurts sometimes and I’m willing to suffer when the possible results are promising. The last image is from today. Getting up soo early and driving to your destination is exhausting. But, being there enjoying the silence and the light is sooo rewarding.

Take care!

history, landscape, night, photo-of-the-day, photography, urbex, work, world

Throwback Thursday: revived for the night

solaner

You can consider this as a follow up to my post from Monday. An old railbus parked in a former steel plant, now a museum. That night, they illuminated the remains. It was a great opportunity for a photographer to expore a known area under way differernt conditions.

Take care!

landscape, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, spring, travel, world

Travel Tuesday: at visit at the shore

solaner

What a huge bay. Nearly no people (find the tiny black dots at the edge of the bright sand in the distance). Following the only path for about 20 minutes from the parking lot and you’re alone with the wind, the sea, and the shore.

A few minutes later, I turned back and saw a very dark sky and rain falling from the dark clouds. Very fast, the rain reached us and we got wet. Very wet. I guess, I never was that soaking wet before (except when went swimming or taking a shower).

Only about 20 minutes later, the rain moved further and the sky was perfectly blue again. But, my tracking clothes were drenched and each step in my tracking shoes felt like treading water (but, inside my shoes). The rain went through the fabric of my trousers and ran down my legs to wet my feet, socks, and shoes. 😫 In general, the fabric of my tracking pants is quite water-resistant. But, that rain was much too heavy. In my backpack, I had a rain cover to hide completely under it, but the rain came too fast and too heavy. No option to open the backpack without flooding it. To be honest, I already was in heavy rain a couple of times before and never got that wet _inside_ my clothes or shoes. So, I didn’t expect to get soaked. Iceland 2014 was heavy when talking about becoming wet from rain. Whole days of heavy rain. But, this quite short rain was heavier. 😳😲

While my tracking pants dried in about 10 minutes and the jacket didn’t need too much longer, drying the socks and the shoes was a bigger problem. Fortunately, we were heading to our vacation home. So, I was able to change the socks. But, I had to get the shoes dry. There was a plan, to go out again that evening near sunset.

But putting paper towels and tissues in the shoes while not wearing them and helping a bit with a hairdryer, I got them dry enough for another use that evening just in time.

Lesson learned: never again take only one pair of hiking shoes on a trip!

Take care!

 

photo-of-the-day, photography, travel, world

Monochrome Monday 7-50

solaner

Last week, I was searching for some images taken in my town to complete a coffee-table book. While searching for a certain image, I stumbled upon a folder on an external disk, I’m using for storing undeveloped images that needed to get removed from my computer to reclaim some space. Over time, I have a couple of GB on that disk 😳

Among the oldest folders on that disk, I found 3 folders with images taken at the same location at three different points in time: mid-April, end of July, and end of October 2009 😳 (how young my kids were in those images).

The above image is from the October trip. In my opinion, a perfect fit for monochrome: an old railbus.

 

 

Take care!

 

art, culture, photo-of-the-day, photography

Lens-Artists Photo Challange 144: “Taking flight”

solaner

A dream as old as mankind: flying! Spread your wings and fly. The oldest story of flying men in the story Daedalus and his son Ikaros. Daedalus was famous for his artistry. To keep him, the king of Krete sent both to jail. As escaping from an island is nearly impossible. Daedalus made wings from him and his son from feathers and bee-wax. He advised his son to follow him in the sky and warned him to say away from the sun as the warmth might melt the wax. He also warned his son to not fly too low as the water might wet the feathers and becoming too heavy to fly. The story tells us, Ikaros flew too high and then he saw the wax starting to melt, he went down. Unfortunately, he went too far down and the feathers became wet and heavy. Now, he started upwards again to let the sun dry the feathers. In the end, you might have expected this, Ikaros felt in the ocean and went under. His father noticed the problem and started searching for Ikaros. But, he didn’t find him.

A couple of years ago I got the chance to fly. Not with a plane, but with a hot-air balloon. Although a balloon flight is not risk-free, it’s not as dangerous as the wings of Daedalus and Ikaros were.

I want to take you with me on a few balloon flights. Enjoy!

 

Thank you, Tina, for this wonderful topic for The Lens-Artists Photo challenge.

Take care!

flowers, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants, seasons, spring, world

Throwback Thursday: what a surprise

solaner

You know, it’s spring. The week before Easter we had very nice and warm weather: around 20°C. But Holy Saturday, the weather changed much and the temperature dropped. Tuesday after Easter we even got snow. 10-15 cm over night and heavy snowfall all day. Although most of the snow melted in the evening, the next morning looked the same as the morning before: again 10-15 cm of snow.

Here we have our pink tulip tree covered with snow. Most of the small spring flowers were completely covered with snow. Only a few of the bigger ones were able to look out of the snow as you can see in my image of yesterday. Here in Germany, we have a saying: April, April, der macht, was er will (The April does what he wants to). So, the intermezzo is already over again, and no snow anymore.

Take care!

landscape, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, spring, travel, world

Travel Tuesday: along the wall

solaner

I really wondered why they have so many old stone walls in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea and can’t imagine, why the walls are there. Sheep are running freely, so they can’t be there for keeping the sheep together. Every now and then they have big holes. So, I don’t know. Maybe one of my readers is able to give me a reasonable hint.

Take care!

 

culture, travel, work, world

Suffering form a virus? – Room travel trip #4

solaner

In German below the images / In Deutsch unter den Bildern

This post is part of the room travel challenge of Puzzleblume. After skipping two opportunities to participate, I’m in this time again for the letters “H” and “I” for hobby and Iceland! Here, you can find my first room travel where I also noted the rules for this challenge. Have a look and participate! I also have certain tags for this challenge: “roomtravel” and “Zimmerreisen“.

You know, last year I was in Iceland again. On my flight back, I watched a documentary on my mobile “Leben anderswo – Island – Von strickenden Männern und Pullovern (Living Elsewhere – Iceland – Of knitting men and sweaters)”. The documentary was about a knitting man in his mid-30s from Reykjavik who started investigating the source of Icelandic wool and the tradition of knitting sweaters. We were also introduced to his (nearly) all-men knitting club and the general information, how popular knitting in Iceland still is. We were also introduced to wool production and dying and a company giving work to women who make their living from knitting. These women get the wool from the company and making sweaters from them. In the end, they get pain per sweater minus the wool costs. It was said, you can get these hand-made sweaters in many places in Iceland.

In the documentary they also showed, all kids in Iceland are learning knitting: boys and girls! When I was in school, I also had to learn some basic knitting, sewing, and crocheting. I wasn’t talented for this kind of craftsmanship (crocheting was the worst of them). Despite this, I feel sorry for these topics aren’t taught anymore at school. Also, many of the now-parents don’t know how to do it and usually, the grant-parents are not nearby to take over (usually the women). Much of the culture and abilities are about to get lost. Because people have to move to keep their work, family structures are destroyed and no one steps in (to be honest, most of the kids don’t have any interest in learning this, when being forced to – nevertheless, they should at least have tried this before becoming a teenager as well as painting or acquiring abilities in mechanics or wood-working). So, either you’re eager to learn it from books, magazines, an already experienced friend, or from videos on youtube.

I liked the documentary very much and was eventually able to persuade my wife to watch it, too. (she hates documentaries in general, regardless of the subject).

After these 45 minutes, she was eager to start knitting an Icelandic sweater herself. After a couple of minutes of googling the internet, she found an online shop dealing not only with dyed Icelandic wool but also knitting packages containing all necessary wool and the pattern for about 40-50 different sweaters and jackets. One of those packages was ordered quickly. Because of the summer holiday of the shop and the pandemic, the delivery lasted quite long. But by mid-August, the package was delivered.

About 6 weeks after the delivery she finalized the jacket. Wow! During the final phases of the first jacket, another package was ordered to make a jacket for herself. Next, our youngest son got one (he’s 21). Seeing this, our grandson (he’s 4 1/2) also asked for a jacket. But, this one should get buttons instead of a zipper as the others have. While waiting for the delivery of the wooden buttons, (2-3 weeks of delivery), my wife started a fifth jacket (a second one for herself). Until the end of February, she knitted 5 Iceland jackets in 6 1/2 months. Wow! She only knitted in the evenings while watching TV to have something to do for her hands and she even knitted and crocheted a few other things like sponges for washing dishes or egg-warmer (Amigurumi) as well as a woolen VW Bulli for a friend as a birthday gift. And there are already plans for two further jackets to start after finishing the current project: a crocheted shopping bag.

Tell me, is she suffering from a virus? Maybe an Iceland-fever-virus despite she never was there?

Dieser Post ist Teil der Zimmerreisen von Puzzelblume. Nachdem ich zwei mal pausieren musste, bin ich diesmal wieder dabei. In meinem ersten Post findest Du die Regeln, um auch selbst mitmachen zu können. Meine Posts hier im blog kannst du mit den Tags “roomtravel” und “Zimmerreisen” finden. Diesmal sind “H” und “I” die Buchstaben. Für mich heißt das “Hobby” und “Island“.

Letztes Jahr war ich ich wieder in Island. Auf dem Rückflug habe ich an meinem Smartphone ein paar Dokus gesehen. Eine davon hieß “Leben anderswo – Island – Von strickenden Männern und Pullovern”. Wie der Name schon sagt, handelte sich von strickenden Männern in Island. Der Haupt-Charakter, ein Mann mitte 30, aus Reykjavik und Mitglied eines Strick-Clubs starte eine Reise zu den Ursprüngen der Isländischen Wolle, dem Färben, und was sonst so damit zusammen hängt. Er stellt uns auch seinen Strick-Club vor, der sich regelmäßig zum gemeinsamen Stricken in Reykjavik trifft. Fast ausschließlich Männer! Aber auch eine Firma, für die Frauen im ganzen land die Handgestickten Pullover aus gestellter Wolle erstellen. Man soll diese Pullover wohl an vielen Orten auf und In Island kaufen können.

In der Doku wurden auch Isländische Kinder gezeigt, die in der Schule stricken lernen: Jungen und Mädchen. Als ich in der Schule war, musste ich auch stricken, häkeln und nähen lernen. Allerdings war ich dafür nicht sonderlich talentiert (Häkeln war das schlimmste davon). Meine Kinder hatten das nie in der Schule. Und auch in meiner Altersgruppe war das eher die Ausnahme. Auch wenn ich es nicht mochte, finde ich es gut, dass das Kindern nahegebracht wird. Wie Sport und Malen sollte auch Handarbeiten und Werken erlernt werden bevor sie zu Teenagern werden. Wenn sie es mögen, können sie später darauf aufbauen. Wenn sie es nicht mögen, haben sie es zumindest probiert. Eltern und Großeltern können so etwas heute nicht mehr leisten. Beide Elternteile müssen arbeiten (wenn überhaupt beide Elternteile da sind), und haben es in der Regel selbst nicht mehr gelernt. Großeltern müssen ebenfalls noch arbeiten oder sind weiter weg. Die heutige Notwenigkeit der Arbeit hinterher zu ziehen zerstört leider solche Familien-Strukturen. Und Schulen fehlt die Zeit, das Lehrpersonal und die Fähigkeiten bei den Lehrkräften, Handarbeiten anzubieten. So bleiben für wirklich interessierte Personen das lernen ahand von Büchern, Magazinen, erfahrenen Freunden oder Youtube-Videos. Schade!

Ich fand diese Doku so interessant, dass ich meine Frau überzeugen konnte, sie sich ebenfalls anzusehen. Normalerweise schaut sie überhaupt keine Dokus. Aber nach 45 Minuten war sie nicht nur begeistert, sondern angesteckt, selbst einen Island-Pullover zu stricken. Nach weinigen Minuten suchens im Internet fand sie einen Online-Shop, der nicht nur original Island-Wolle anbot, sondern ganze Pakete mit Wollzusammenstellungen für komplette Pullover und Jacken. Etwa 40-50 verschiedene Modelle waren im Angebot. So wurde ein Paket bestellt. Aufgrund von Sommerferien und Pandemie dauerte die lieferung zwar etwas, aber Mitte August war das Paket da.

Etwa 6 Wochen später war die Jacke fertig. Wow! Während der letzen Phase wurde schon das nächste Paket geordert. Dann ein weiteres für unseren jüngsten Sohn. Dann wollte unser Enkel auch eine Jacke haben. Diesmal sollte die Jacke aber Knöpfe statt eines Reißverschlusses bekommen. Wie haben tolle Holzknöpfe gefunden. Leider aber wieder eine längere Lieferzeit. In der Zeit wurde die fünfte Jacke begonnen, ebenfalls mit Holzknöpfen. Fünf Island-Jacken in 6 1/2 Monaten. Wow. Und sie hat nur in den Abendstunden beim Fernsehen gestrickt, um eine Beschäftigung für die Hände zu haben. In der gleichen Zeit wurden auch noch andere Dinge gestrickt und gehäkelt: Eierwärmer, Spülschwämme (Amigurumi), ein VW Bulli für einen Freund als Geburtstagsgeschenk. Und es gibt schon Pläne für zwei weitere Jacken wenn das aktuelle Projekt fertig ist: eine gehäkelte Einkaufstasche.

Hat sie sich ein Virus eingefangen? Vielleicht ein Island-Fiber-Virus obwohl sie nie dort war?

Take care!

 

art, culture, photo-of-the-day, photography

Lens-Artists Photo Challange 143: “Colorful April”

solaner

Wow, what a theme for this week. Amy is our host and she enjoys the colors of spring.

April started very cold this year. We even have had two days with a lot of snow. All the colors of spring were covered by 10-15 cm of snow.

So, I’m presenting a bit of contrast: color vs. white. All the images are taken this week: Tuesday and Wednesday

     

Take care!

nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, seasons, spring, travel, world

Monochrome Monday 7-48

solaner

 

This image is a quite typical example of an image where the exact conditions did not meet the plan.

It’s Sunday morning 7 a.m. Easter-Sunday! My plan was an image similar to the one I took last year. But, the weather conditions were against me. The whole week before we had very nice weather. But, that changed Saturday night. Today we even have a mixture of rain and snow at around 2°C.

Yesterday, I got up very early as planned and drove to this location. Unfortunately, I only got this grey cloudy sky and there was no possibility to see the sun. So, I had to think differently to capture a suitable image despite the conditions.

Take care!

art, culture, photo-of-the-day, photography

Lens-Artists Photo Challange 142: “You pick it”

solaner

Another week passed by. So, it’s time for Ann-Christine to challenge us for LAPC. This week she opened the theme very wide: “You pick it”.

While I was thinking of simply picking a topic that’s important for me, I decided differently when starting writing this post. I decided to take the theme literally.

You can pick a fruit from a tree or a bush when it is ripe. You can pick a certain product at a store from the plethora of offers. You can pick a dish from a menu at a restaurant or a cookshop. You can pick a painting at a painter’s shop or choose an artist for creating your portrait. And you can pick the next color of your hair. Choose what you like, but choose well! With your choice, you’re deciding about the impact on the environment. Your choice can make a difference.

Take care!