Boo

And then you walk along the sideway, deep in thoughts. Suddenly and without warning life jumps in your way from behind a corner.
Before you even realize what it is, life screams "Boo" in you face.

Would you be frightened or surprised or only awake again?

Good, that sometimes you get warned in advance by a Boo-sign: Hey guy, there IS a life and it's very close.

Underground Again

Today I had the chance to visit the Nuremberg underground again. Some medieval beer cellars connected to each other directly under the inner city of Nuremberg.
This time I brougth my tripod.

Unbelievable that these old cellars were the life saver for thousands of people during the bombing nights of WW2.



Can this be a strategy for surviving emotional bombing if you hide deep down? I don't think so. At least not for a long time.

Biarritz

Business trip. I'm in the south west corner of France right now, close to the border to Spain.
I just came back from a post-midnight walk along the shore. High waves, wind and old buildings beneath ugly concrete monsters - kind of cool, I have to admit. It was the right dose of real life after sitting in a dark meeting room without windows all day.

Homeland

Click on photo to enlarge

Actually I like the region where I come from a lot. I enjoy every time I've the chance to be there. It is calles "Fränkische Schweiz" (Franconian Switzerland) and the landscape is full of rocks, forests, small fields with wheat, caves, rivers and mills. Really like out of a tourism brochure.

This photo shows the small city of Pottenstein with it's nice castle. It's very close to the village were I grew up.

The picture is a HDR (high dynamic range) photo and is a overlay of 14 images of the same scene shot using a tripod.

By the way: I'm on a business trip the next days. No new posting until Sunday.

Dog Re-Charger

Which one of the two devices is for re-charging dogs?
Could an US American dog use this fuel station or would it not be able to deal with the German 220 volt?
Is the long thing connected to a dog a leash or a power cord?

Shining Goddesses

The last rays of the sun made some of the goddesses of our time shine.
It's incredible how much space we grant to that goddesses. Imagine all the asphalted areas being meadows.

Anyway, maybe I was simply in a car-hating mood at the end of a day that consisted of 12 hours in a car.

Rambo

I found the grave of Rambo.
Strange enough, it was on a pet cemetery I visited by coincidence.
Even stranger, the grave was in the section for rabbits.
Hell, I used to think that the small cosy rabbits I liked to stroke as a kid were pieceful carrot eaters.
Can it be that my long-eared fluffy friends had a hidden past in Vietnam and liked to fire grenades?

I'm a little bit puzzled at the moment.

Audit

Find out what I did at work yesterday.

Isn't it great what can be done using some French Fries, Ketchup and a German company car?

Thanks to Mr. Q for not killing me because I stole his food.

Fire Dance

Click on photo to watch in high resolution on my Flickr account

I guess it's impossible to be a hobby photographer and to not stuble upon this motif somewhere along the way.
Last weekend it was my time to shoot some long exposure photos of a dancer swirling some torches.
Not very spectacular but I liked the thought that some situations unveil their beauty not until you look long enough - a kind of long exposure living.

Cobblestone Numbers

Why the heck do people paint numbers on cobblestones?
I found several numbers spread over the whole inner city of Weimar during a single hike.






And what is the story about "Gerd"?

Red-White Ribbon

I found a note pinned on the door of a house in Nuremberg saying:

"To clear out our bike stands we will remove all abandoned bikes.
This will happen as follows:
We marked all bikes with a red-white ribbon on the handle-bar. Please remove the ribbon from your bike.
All bikes that are still with a ribbon on June 23rd, 2007 (and therefore abandoned) will be removed.
The housekeeper"


At about 15 out ouf 50 bikes still had a ribbon.

Imagine that you wake up with such a ribbon around your wrist. The next days would be very crucial for your life. If no one removes it you would be considered as abandoned person and cleared up.
Yes, you could remove it by yourself to protect you from being disposed but then you'd never know whether you are alone or not.
I didn't dare yet to look at my wrist.

Height

The high wire vibrates as soon as you step on it. You look down and the ground is 10 metres below you. You look straigt forward and the other platform seems to be kilometres away from you. OK, there's a securing line that saves you in case of falling but you don't want to use it at all.

Inhale, exhale, step ahead.

Nude Shadows

The third shadow posting. Am I addicted?

This time I shot a body painting artist and her model. After taking a few photos from the girls I noticed the shadow the green light made and found it even more interesting.

To prevent you from asking: Yes, I did ask her prior to shooting her boobs.

William's Shakesbirds

Imagine a visit at the theatre. Let's say they play "Twelfth Night or What You Will" from the good old William Shakespeare. It's fun and you like it - but something is different.
Is it the monologue of Viola about love?
No, only the usual romantic crap you can't believe a word of.
Is it the confusion of the characters on stage?
No, it's not the first time you see women dressed as men.

Then you get it: It's the chirping of the birds. You are listening to dialogs about dedication and passion and in the background there's a sunset concert by an army of birds.

Oh boy, I love those open air stages and the small city of Trebgast has one of the nicest ones. The stage is in the middle of a forest and the trees and stones that surround the stage are covered with moss.



As an addition I was able to visit some friends in the technical centre of the theatre. The guys help as volonteers for light and sound there and they even prepared my favorite cookies for me.

Multi-Safety

For most situations in life you don't need additional safety.
For some things you can prepare yourself with some real or mental gear.
But there are very few troubles you can hide from. Adding more and more safety equipment would be more then useless.
Are this the situations where life really happens?

One of my friends is facing such a situation right now. Hey, I wish you folks all the best.

Augen zu und durch!