Throwback Thursday: I’m back ….

Last week I was on a short family vacation at the Northsea: me, my wife, and our grandson (5 3/4).

We were gifted with fantastic weather. Nicely warm and sunny days at the beach and on the many playgrounds the town set up over the years. We visited that town not for the first time. So, we were able to see the development. Especially my wife was there quite often when our kids were smaller. She went with only one at a time, while the others stayed home with me. Now, all of them are adults and traveling with their partners.

Being at the coast means having a good portion of wind around you all the time. During low tide, the beaches grow. When low tide is in the evening, you can have much space for flying a kite. We’ve chosen that way for the kite instead of going to the kiting ground because there are more pro-kiters and a small kid does not have the room he needs for his little kite.

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: A sign of hope!?

Saturday before last, I was in our state capitol to see one of the results of the long-lasting drought, we’re suffering this year. The fourth year in a row. Many smaller rivers and creeks don’t haven’t water anymore. Lakes and ponds dry out or at least overheat and endangering the fishes that way.

That river is one of the big streams here in Europe and it’s used as a road for large barges. When I walked down the riverbank and came closer to one of the spur dikes (they are built to slow down the water) when I noticed this single sunflower, blooming on a part of the riverbed, although the image seems to show something different, because you can’t the exact location.

I’m taking this sunflower as a sign of hope. Hope for water will come back to this level. Hope, because there is still some water in the ground.

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: A day at the sea

12 years ago, my wife spent a week with our youngest at the north sea. Thanks to a very proposing weather forecast, I came up with the idea, to surprise them by making a day trip to visit them. So, I told the other two kids to prepare some breakfast suitable to be eaten on the road and get up that early to be able to be on the road at 6 a.m. What a surprise, when we arrived at noon. At that time, the motorway ended early and the remaining nearly 100 km had to be covered on regular country roads. Nowadays the highway reaches much closer to the coast and shortens the distance to only a little more than 3 hours.

After having dinner together, we headed back home and arrived at about 1:30 a.m. What a day!

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: Street Art Festival (pt. 2)

As proposed last week, I’m continuing with a few images taken in the schoolyard, which we stumbled upon accidentally.

I’m glad, we followed the sign leading us in the narrow street. Fortunately, the painting from the first image in the gallery below was visible from the place where we found the sign. So we went for having at least a brief look. At the end of the street, we found the schoolyard. Full of people (painters and their company), a DJ, lifting platforms, compressors, and a lot of ladders were here. The artists were working on their paintings or talk shopping. Some of them were already done while others even have not yet started.

 

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: Street Art Festival

Last Saturday, we finally met again: monthly photographers roundtable. After nearly one year without a common trip. The past 2,5 years were hard and now it has to become routine again. But, I won’t complain. Despite the overall situation, I was out quite often. And, to be honest, there were a few meetings without a camera, simply for having a talk or celebrating a birthday. But, I missed the regular common photography trips. They are often challenging because you have to leave your comfort zone and face unknown places as well as unknown photography topics. So, this time street photography and art photography from a nature and wildlife photographers perspective. Once started, you have to find your flow first and work on the perspective. Consider, what you want to show. Are you keen enough to photograph strangers? And don’t forget the legal regulation!

Although only 3 of us met in Geldern, a small town near the Dutch border. Each year (with interruptions – sic) on the last weekend of the state’s summer holiday they organize a Street Art festival. This year it was held for the 42nd time. I got notice last year from our newspaper but wasn’t aware of being a regular festival. Unfortunately, it was canceled on very short notice. So, I was very happy one of the other photographers had it on her list and was planning to go (even alone). So, my destination was also found and we would either have a meeting of 2 in Geldern and another one elsewhere with the others. but, it came out that only 4 of us were available that day because of vacations and one had to cancel with short notice. So, there were three of us in Geldern.

All of the painters created their pieces of art with colored chalk. In between, some street musicians presented their skills; fortunately, only very few booths offered drinks or food. I was quite surprised to see so many female artists painting. I guess, 80% of the painters were female as well as many of the solo musicians.

The festival starts on Saturday morning and lasts until Sunday noon. So, the species of art are not supposed to be ready on Saturday evening and you can view them creating their paintings. It’s really fascinating.

The only downside was, that some musicians were too close to each other while playing, although there was plenty of room. So, their music overlapped and it was not nice listening to that noise carpet.

On our way back to the cars, we discovered another interesting site by following a sign in the streets: a schoolyard was decorated by talented graffiti artists. But, I leave that for next week.

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: I’m back … and LAPC #188 “A Special Place”

… from another trip. Thanks to the relaxations from the COVID restrictions it was a quite comfortable trip. Sanitizing hands and wearing a mask during transportation, in closed rooms, and wherever a proper distance can’t be kept is quite easy to follow and a level of restriction easily can be kept. Either way, we were able to enjoy the Mediterranean sun for a couple of days. This year’s destination for our carnival escape was the beautiful Balearen island of Mallorca.
We used Port d‘Alcúdia as our base for exploring some parts of the island. Nearly all of us were in the past already on Mallorca, but partly already decades ago. From Germany, this island is reachable in approximately 2 1/2 hours. Thus, it‘s also one of the most attractive destinations for party people. When talking about Mallorca as a vacation destination, you’re most probably faced with one of the bad images of this island. To name two of them, we have an island of the cleaning ladies (because traveling to Mallorca is quite cheap and requires in many parts of the island no knowledge of Spanish, so anybody can go there). I already named the other group, party people. Because it is so easy to reach Mallorca, and so many flights start each day from every German airport, even young people can travel to Mallorca and have a vacation with nearly guaranteed sunshine.
It’s a shame, people travel to Mallorca only to go to parties and get drunk. The island has so much more to offer. Wonderful landscapes from the sandy beaches with low water and only little tides, nice old town, restaurants with very good and tasty food, a mountain range, that parts the island in the northern part from east to west. These mountains are quite steep and craggy and up to 1.445 meters high. The island, located 170 kilometers off the Spanish mainland,  is about 98 kilometers in an east-west direction and 78 kilometers in a north-south direction. The mountains are approximately 90 kilometers broad with the 15 kilometers broad Tramuntana mountain range as the most important part.  The airport is located near the west coast in Palma, the capital of Mallorca as well as of the Spanish region of the Baleares, a group of islands where also Ibiza, Menorca, Formentera are part. Heading east with our rental cars, we needed approximately 45 minutes to reach Port d‘Alcúdia.
You can find a couple of towns twice on the map, because some towns are located at a safe distance from the sea, have founded a second town centuries ago at the sea to make it easier during the fishing season. The names of these towns start with the word „Port“. Nowadays, most of the hotels are located in these towns located at the coast, while the similarly named town located away from the sea has the Old town. So, when coming to Mallorca, never forget to visit the towns inland.
Unfortunately, the people have committed construction sins starting from the 1970s. So, we find many huge hotels along certain beaches. These concrete mountains mutilate the beautiful landscape. This is also the reason for becoming the most preferred vacation destination for generations of people, especially in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries. Over the last 2 decades, people from the former Eastern bloc countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, or Ukraine also learned to love that Island.
It‘s very sad, that this island has such a bad reputation. Besides the beautiful landscapes, beaches, and towns, you can find a lot of tasty products like wine, olive oil, cheese, or gin. Also, the cuisine is very tasty. Besides seafood, you can also get rabbit, lamb, goat, and beef. When paying attention to the restaurant, you can be sure, all the products are local.
When we started last Friday, alone from our starting airport there were 6 flights to Mallorca, 4 of them run by the same airline. And, that’s end of February. You could say, it‘s off-season, and you’re partly right. It’s too cold to go swimming. During the days, the temperature went up to 26 degrees centigrade, but the air is certainly much colder, only 15-17 degrees centigrade and around 4-7 degrees at night. That’s enough to see the island less crowded and enjoy the landscape while going hiking or cycling. Many hotels are prepared for giving cyclists and their bike room for the night. The people are generally very friendly and helpful. In the big hotels, you can find always someone speaking some German or at least some English. But, as always when traveling to a foreign country, it’s much better to know some words and sentences in the local language.
For this trip, we had a small list of planned visits:
– rough Northern cost around Soller / Port de Soller
– neighboring town Pollença (the market at Sunday morning) / Port de Pollença
– Cape of Formentor (the lighthouse at sunset)
– the center of the milky way
– Palma, the capitol, with Old town, cathedral, and a bit of shopping for the ladies
– hiking along a small part of the southern coast
– an old fisherman’s town
As well as a few optional destinations. But, our main motivation to go to Mallorca at this time of the year was seeing the blooming almond trees. And we did. Huge fields of white blooming trees. It was amazing.

Unfortunately, some of the plans were unable to realize:
– Cape Formentor was unable to reach because of a closed road. The only road going to the lighthouse was closed for road construction works about 5 kilometers away from the lighthouse. Too far to walk because we would have walked back in the dark and not knowing if we would have passed the closing by foot.
– photographing the Milky Way had to be skipped because we were unable to find the proper place. Mountains were hindering us from looking in the right direction. Ok, the island is quite big, but also has a problem with light pollution as soo many other parts in Europe too, and we only had a small time frame between rising of the Milky Way at about 4 a.m. and sunrise at 7:30 (twilight starts much earlier). How annoying!
– visiting Palma was also a disaster. That day the Day of the Baleares was celebrated. Ten thousands of people were in the streets, but shops and the
cathedral were closed. Instead, many tents were set up to offer street food, wine, olive oil, and so on while in other places music groups, dance ensembles, sports clubs, and other artists were entertaining the masses. So, the streets were extremely crowded and we left early.
– the planned hike along the coast also raised a problem. One of us was wearing sports shoes instead of tracking or hiking boots. He also is a little bit over-weighted and the path was a natural path and not a paved one. After about 1 kilometer (which lasted approximately 45 minutes) we turned back. The whole round track would have been 8 kilometers long. Nearly impossible under these conditions. Very sad.
– another lighthouse was fenced so that we were unable to get to the right spot.

Our trip even had a bad start. As I told you, there are at least 4 regular flights from our departure point scheduled to Mallorca: 6:00, 8:30, 11:00, and 16:50. While the majority of our group booked for 8:30, two had to take the flight at 16:50 because of their working hours. The day before our take-off, we got a short notification about our flight at 8:30 was postponed to 12:10. After a little investigation, we got aware, this was due to a warning strike of the security personnel. When getting to the airport, we noticed only the 8:30 (postponed to 12:10) and the 16:50 flights were supposed to be operated, while the others were canceled. Phew! Blessing in disguise. Our airline was able to get everything managed as well as possible and was very organized to make the best out of that situation. So we finally arrived at Mallorca with a couple of hours delay, but we did!

Nevertheless, I don’t want to complain. It was a very nice trip and it was so great to see the sun again, not to mention the joy of being outside wearing only a T-Shirt. I was writing this while sitting in my plane back home. This morning, I was getting up while it was still dark and -4 degrees to start working. Each vacation comes to an end and almost always it feels like days were shorter when on vacation.

 

All of my images are still in the camera, so I only have a photo of blooming almond trees taken with my smartphone for you. It’s edited by using the AI module from Luminar Neo for removing the power lines between the palm trees and some of the almond tree twigs automatically with only one click. The other click was to automatically correct the verticals. Great job! <ad> you can try this with your own images, head over to Skylum, and get your own copy. As always, you get a 30-days money-back guarantee. </ad>

This post is also part of the LAPC hosted this time by guest host Karina from Murtagh’s meadow. Thanks for this challenge!

Take care!

Travel Tuesday: strange encounter

After a short time, we were used to seeing sheep often on the streets in rural Scotland or laying beside the street. But, this encounter was really strange: a few cows were walking slowly along the street without any human being.

Take care!

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #72 – Waiting

Another week of Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. This week’s topic is “waiting” and Tina wrote a few paragraphs to explain her idea.

Here is my story:

Back in the 1980s when I had my first car I persuaded my younger brother to go with me to France for a photo trip along the river Loire and visiting all the famous chateaus. For the end of that trip, a visit to medieval town Mt. St. Michel was planned. Mt. St. Michel is built on an island near the coast between Brittany and Normandy. At that time I had my first job and a car. My younger brother was still at school but he was able to speak french. So, without him, I wouldn’t be able to travel to France. At that time, the French were considered to only speak French and nothing else. I don’t know the reason anymore, why we canceled that trip. But, later I was sure of never seeing Mt St. Michel.

In January 2009 I joined a group of photographers. Each first Saturday of a month we’re meeting for photography trips in our area. Although we’re living distributed over nearly half of our state, we’re able to meet. The organization and planning are done via the internet.

Over time some friendships grew among some of us. We even organized some trips to locations a bit further away and for quite longer durations than one afternoon a month. In 2011 we used a public holiday (a Thursday) for a trip to Brittany. While planning the week, I came up with my long-time dream of visiting Mt. St. Michel. I even was able to persuade the others, despite the quite long distance from our vacation home at the Côte d’Emeraude. We were traveling with 2 private cars. Unfortunately, two of us were unable to start with the other on the same day and stay the full week. Instead, they started on Wednesday after work and arrived late that evening, while we others already had 4 days of driving around and seeing some parts of that area, including Rennes.

When they arrived, they told us about the fantastic sky at sunset and that they were near Mt. St. Michel when the sky turned red for sunset. So, they decided to take a photo stop at Mt. St. Michel 😢 I felt terrible when they told us about this. Mt. St. Michel was so near to me and the chance for canceling the planned visit was increasing rapidly. But, the previews on their camera displays made the other eager to want to go to Mt. St. Michel, too. Tides are turning 😀

Finally, the next day we headed to Saint-Malo first and later that day to Mt. St. Michel. Walking up the hill was a fantastic experience. I felt like thrown back in the medieval age. Unfortunately, the town was very, very crowded.

In the end, I was able to get this image (and a few more – but I love this one most). I have printed it and it’s hanging in our living room. At the same time, the others were in a pop-up theatre attending the opera Madame Butterfly right at the foot of the hill. When we arrived they were persuaded by a sales agent to use that night for a once-in-a-lifetime experience watching the Puccini opera in an open-air opera near that centuries-old town. I refused to accomplish them. My plan was very different and you know, why. 😀

It was kind of hard, to find a spot where the pop-up theater won’t ruin my image.

But, I found one 😀

You see, I had to wait about 25 years to see this iconic town.

Take care!

Photo & Adventure 2019

Yesterday, I was in Duisburg for visiting the fair “Photo & Adventure 2019”. For two days you were able to talk with people organizing photo travel trips. Several big dealers of photo equipment and a few brand stands were also set up to answer questions or give hands-on experience for cameras, lenses, tripods, filters, printers, photo paper, and much more stuff you need as a photographer. All the booths summed up to more than 150 exhibitors. One was also invented to attend some presentations on technology, image processing and / or travel destinations. There were also sold tickets to attend some workshops on different topics.

For me, this was a first time experience. In the past, I was in fear of the chaos because I know the venue. And it was, just like expected. Although I was their right for the opening, the parking ground was already overly filled. Fortunately, I got a free spot and headed to the entrance. At the info desk, I first had to clarify if I’d get permission to enter simply by showing the PDF of the online ticket, as I left the printed version accidentally at home – too far away to drive back for fetching it. But, fortunately, the scanner at the entrance was able to read the barcode right from the screen of my smartphone and I got in!

I wasn’t there for any particular reason. Just looking around, to get used to this kind of fair and compare it to photokina. It’s way smaller. The man focus is different. It’s similarly crowded, but worde to reach – at least for me.

I liked the images shown in the photo exhibitions. I also liked the supporting program: a few cosplayers acting as Jedi Knights, stormtroopers, Darth Vader and some further characters from the Star Wars saga, a troop of cheerleaders and a burlesque dancer. They all were there for entertaining the photographers and pose for some images.

Overall, it was an interesting event. But, right now, I unable to say if I’d go again.

Now, enjoy some impressions in the attached slideshow.

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I‘m back ….

from a beautiful week on the Isle of Skye.

While writing this, I’m having a layover of about 3 hours in Amsterdam and hacking this in my mobile phone. All the other group members are on their ways to get home again and I’m the last one sitting in the airport terminal alone for the last hour and waiting for my connection flight. I was on a trip with some friends for seeing the beauty of the Isle if Skye. The island is part of The Inner Hebrides islands and is located at the west coast of Scotland in the Irish Sea.

As I was told before, many parts of that island look very similar to Iceland: fjords, steep hills and small mountains, few trees, green mountainsides, lots of sheep. Spring starts a bit later here, so far in the North.

We visited many famous and also less famous locations. As expected, the weather was quite mixed: warm, sunny moments were interrupted quite often by rain, which was sometimes heavy and equipped with very strong winds.

Over time, some images will pop up here. For today I attached an image of Eilean Donan Castle, located between the Scottish main-land and the Isle of Skye. It’s considered as a doorkeeper and one of the famous locations here.

Our base for exploring the island was somewhere in the middle of the island, not far away from Portree, the biggest town of the island. We had two cars for our group of seven: a Skoda Octavia and a Mercedes C220. The later wasn’t appropriate for the streets, because of the lowered down body and the low section tires. (We ordered a different car, but the rental car station did not have the ordered car).. The roads are quite small and often in bad shape. Some roads even have only one track and passing points every now and then. Usually, the sides of the roads are the worst parts: many potholes and unpaved sides. To avoid hitting a pothole you have the leave the regular track sometimes. But, when you’re encountering an other car or even s lorry, you can’t leave your track without risking an accident. So, over time we got a flat front tire 😕. Unfortunately, that happened at night and there was neither a spare tire nor a bootle of repair foam in the Mercedes. 😭

While two of us tried to get the tire repaired in the next morning, the others were trying to see another famous spot. But, after a few miles an encountering lorry occupying more room of the road (he crossed the middle line of the road and drove also in our half) and thus forcing us to yield to the unpaved side, where we hit a huge pothole and thus got a flat tire on the second car, too 😕. Thanks to a spare tire in the Skoda we were back on track after a short break. Pugh. Day saved. At the early afternoon we met with the second car and used the rest of the day as good as possible.

A few times, we noticed the midges, a kind of large mosquitos which bite very aggressively. Fortunately, we had too heavy wind for them to fly most of the time. So, no-one was harmed. Usually, they come not before end of April or early May, but probably they were earlier this year because of a few very warm days. In this context, warm is a quite relative term. As our landlord said, they have about 15-19 degrees centigrade during summer! So, the 14-16 degrees we had during several days, were quite ‘hot’ for spring time. During the rainy days the temperatures went down to below 10°C, not counting the nights.

So, I recommend dressing with several layers of clothing, starting with a t-shirt. I wore a t-shirt, a hiking pullover, a thin hiking jacket without hood, a thicker hiking jacket with hood and on top of this a windbreaker with hood. The windbreaker was not always necessary. Sometime even the t-shirt was enough. Because of the cold and heavy wind I also used sometimes a pair of Norwegian gloves and my wooden hat. Hiking trousers don’t fight the wind very good, but in my opinion that was warm enough. The advantage of such material is, it dries up extremely quick after a rain. It only lasts 10-15 minutes to dry completely even after a hard rain. During on trip we got very wet. Some of us looked like they were drowned in a barrel of water. My trousers dried up as expected, but because of the heavy wind, the rain was forced through the fabric and ran down the legs. In the end, the water ran inside the shoes. In such situations, the material makes a huge difference. When having leather shoes, drying lasts days, especially when fur-lined. I have shoes made of Goretex. Although, my shoes were completely wet from inside, they were dried up in only 3,5 hours. OK, I got some help by toilet paper and a hair drier.

Regarding shoes, I recommend hiking boots with a solid tread, so that your shoes have grip and save you from slipping. Don’t expect paved paths when heading to a sightseeing spot. Thus, use boots with a high shaft and no trainers. Despite having hiking boots, one of our group members had an accident. He went over on his ankle. Fortunately this happened in the early afternoon of your last day on Skye. So, he didn’t miss much. But, he will probably suffer from the for some weeks.

My advice: always care for good boots and proper clothing when going on a trip.

Take care!

in the countryside

After a week of constant and often heavy rain, Saturday was a nice warm fall day. I’ve had some spare time in the early afternoon, so I fetched my camera and headed to the countryside. Much room on the parking ground proposed few other people around.

By chance, I met these deers, right next to the path about 50m away from me at an empty field. At first one doe with her fawn was lying in the sun approximately 20m from the edge of the forest. After a while both got up (the fawn first) and started walking slowly and relaxed back to the edge of the forest where another doe with another fawn was waiting.

I was carefully hidden behind some huge silage packs. So I was able to observe them for about 20 minutes. Although, three of them are looking in my direction in the above image, there was no fear to notice. They stayed calm, but constantly looking in every direction to make sure, they are still save and no predator is around.

A wonderful experience.

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: windmills

A wonderful short trip back in fall 2012 with some friends

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: cosplayer

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: illuminated

 

2012, March 17th

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: meeting an elf

2014, April 23rd

model: Yuki

Take care!

Throwback Thursday: cars

Feb. 06, 2009

Take care!

an event market in fall

Today, we have had an event market in town: a Bauernmarkt (~framers’ market).

Twice a year we have such an event market – in spring and in fall. Although it’s called farmers’ market and definitely has products offered by farmers and rangers, it is very different. Our weekly market is twice a week: Tuesday and Friday morning you can find the booths here on this place. You can usually find the same vendor. But this market is different.

It’s on Sunday from 10 to 18h. The venders are prepared to bring some entertainment i.e. for kids like tinkering, make candles explain honey making, showing bees and other farm animals like sheep, small pigs, hens or turkeys. You can also find some artists offering handmade soap, polished semi precious stones or dried flower decoration’s or in this case decorating stuff made from slates. And certainly, you can find many food stands: bratwurst (grilled sausages), waffles, fresh bread, smoked fish, fischbrötchen (fish rolls), coffee and cake. Often they also demonstrate old (nearly forgotten) handicrafts like wool making (spinning) or modelling from bee wax.

Take care.

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WPC: nostalgia

This week’s topic for the weekly photo challenge by “The Daily Post” is “nostalgia”.

Literally, nostalgia means to love something old, old-fashioned or vintage. Jeff came up with some of his childhood memories. Others like i.e. vintage cars or old houses.

Here we haven an image, taken last year at our local fun fair on a photowalk with a model and an assistant. She came up with this idea. You can see, even a modern girl can enjoy an old-fashioned, Mary-Poppins-like carousel.

Take care have a great weekend!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

WPC: quest

This week’s topic for the weekly photo challenge by “The Daily Post” is “quest”.

When I’m on a trip, I’m on a quest for searching memories. Enjoying nature behind my camera and collecting remarkable memories.

Take care have a great weekend!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

500px Global PhotoWalk 2016

Last Saturday, the Global PhotoWalk organized by 500px.com took place. In many different locations local photowalks participated and all of these formed the GPW. Now, each photographer has many, many new pixels on his or her camera storage card. A small selection of my images is attached to this post as a gallery.

For an additional challenge I only have had 1 lens with me: a 35 mm prime lens for my full frame camera. No zooming, but carefully selecting the frame.

I was host of the locate photowalk in Duisburg. We walked up the bast furnace of a given up steel plant, now a park. Here you can legally visit a ‘lost place’. But, it’s not really lost, because many people visit the location regularly. But, nevertheless, it’s always interesting to see all the chances since your last visit. I was there at least 5 times during the last years. And, it’s never boring.

13 participants came with me. The youngest was a baby in her stroller. Unfortunately, the planned track was not suitable for a pushchair or stroller. So, she went on her own in park while we climbed up the blast furnace.

From the uppermost platform we have had a fantastic view over the surprisingly green environment, a part of the Ruhrgebiet where once only dust, pollution, smog and dirt were dominating the air. Despite, we only climbed up to 79m, we needed about an hour. That’s because photographers always need much of time for taking photographs, searching the right angle of view, experiencing with different focal lengths and so on. And, certainly, lot of chatting 🙂 When we returned to our starting point, we have had a pause at a beer garden for eating a piece of cake or some fries and drinking something while further taking. This lasted until the rain started. What a pity.

But, tanks to all participants.

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Wordless Wednesday: rich haul

Take care!

500px Red Bull Photography Global Photo Walk

Join me for the 4th annual 500px Red Bull Photography Global Photo Walk on September 17, 2016! A German version of this invitation is also available in on my other blog.

This is your chance to get out and meet fellow photographers in your community who share your passion. You’ll share tips and tricks, make new friends, and of course – capture some inspiring images.

The theme of this year’s walk is “Action and Adventure.” Put on your walking, running, cycling (for this location probably not the best choice), or hiking shoes and capture the energy, motion, excitement, and movement of today’s fast-paced places and people.

We’re visiting a very exciting location in the north-western part of the Ruhrgebiet / Ruhr-Area: a former steel plant. Because of the location, this event is not only for Germans. The borders of the Netherlands and Belgium are not far away and even someone from northern France can make it here.

Instead of removing the buildings after closure of the factory, the area was transformed into a park and opened for the public. Now, you can watch, how nature reconquers the area. So, each visit gives you new angels of view, different subjects of interest and certainly different subjects to photograph. You can even climb up the blast furnace. On your way up, you can capture many interesting details and you have a fantastic sight from the top to the surrounding landscape.

No need to be a pro to attend! Grab whatever camera you have (DSLR, mobile phone, point-and-shoot) and join in the fun!

Note: You must register for a free ticket on Eventbrite to attend this event – click “Tickets Available” section, above, to register.

Consider joining the event page on Facebook, too, to get some more information during the next weeks.

Have fun!

WPC: Gathering

This week’s topic for the weekly photo challenge by “The Daily Post” is “Gathering”

I took this image while being one of the authorized photographers at this concert. It’s the gathering of the members of the German rock band Luxuslärm.

Take care have a great weekend!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

Þingvellir

Þingvellir or Thingvellir in latin letters, is the place of the parliament and justice of the ancient vikings. The vikings weren’t a nation. They were organized in independent tribes and these tribes organized themselves. They met on a regular schedule to debate about problems, sit in judgment and to decide about laws.

Whenever vikings conquered a land, they picked a place for their “Thing”. Don’t mix this word up with the english word thing. It has a complete different meaning. This place was donated to the gods and the governing assembly of a viking (and also Nordic and Germanic) society. these societies were made up of the free people of the community presided over by lawspeakers. Its meeting-place was called a thing stead.  Thus, you can say, these Germanic societies were an early form of democracy.

Thingvellir is the place where the Icelandic Thing held place. It’s still an important place in the Icelandic society. Here, the Republic of Iceland was founded in 1944.

In the above image you can see the round Thing stead between the church and the three small houses surrounded by a small wall of broken stones. The whole place is located in a wide valley. This is the crack, where the north American continent flees from the European continental plate. But more on this in another post.

Enjoy the gallery below showing some impressions of this historical place.

Take care!

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below the feet

Below the feet, there is an other world. Quite dark, weather independent and very different to the surface of out plant.

Saturday afternoon I met with some other photographers for our monthly photographers roundtable. And, this time we went underground 🙂

October 3rd is our national holiday and so all of shops are closed, just like on Sundays. City-centers and shopping malls are empty. Only few people are inside the cities. This gave us the opportunity, to apply for a permission to take photographs on a usually very crowded place: in the subway stations. We got permission for 3 very stylish subway stations.

Despite we were underground instead of enjoying the nature at such a beautiful, warm and sunny afternoon, we were very happy about the locations and that there were only few people.

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