First Time(s)

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Event	Occurrence
Seen the light	First time
Breathed real air	First time
Heard the heart of my mother from the outside	First time
Smelled the flowers on the bedside table	First time
Drank milk	First time
Get caressed by a warm hand	First time
Lulled to sleep by uncle	First time
Held a giant thumb and felt safe	First time
Started my own thrilling, loving, enlightening, horizon widening little life	First and only time

 

Welcome on earth, Paula!

Dandelion Clock

Click on photo to enlarge

These days my world is yellow. Finally spring has arrived in Germany and the meadows are green landscapes with millions of yellow dots. I don't know why I like dandelions so much but I really enjoy watching them on my way to the office. One can use them as a kind of clock. When I'm early in the morning the blooms beside my parking lot are still asleep and I should try not to wake them by whistling or singing morning songs. When I'm late the dandelions are already awake and seem to accuse me for coming that late to the office.
The one on the photo is already tired because I shot the photo at 9pm.


Click on photo to enlarge

Backstage-Ants (Johnossi Concert)

Yesterday I attended the concert of the very cool Swedish band "Johnossi" in a club called "Der Hirsch" in Nuremberg.
The band consists only of a guitar player (John) and his pal (Ossi) on the drums. I liked the gig very much although they played only one hour.
By the way: [ Here ] you can listen to one of my favorite songs from Johnossi called "Family Values".

But writing about music isn't my primary intention for this posting but the backstage-ants.
Again I got aware that the guys on stage are only the most visible part of such a show.
I had a nice short chat with a funny looking bearded guy on the merchandising booth and after the concert I watched the other "ants" disassembling the stage 30 seconds after the band had left it.

Every band wouldn't survive without all the backstage-ants because they keep the thing "rolling" - the band is only the department for the "rocking".

Well, I started thinking whether I'm more a backstage-ant or part of the band in the gig of my life. Do I want to be famous and earn the applause? Am I afraid of people staring at me? Do I like to organize my stuff in the background? Am I a person supporting the show of others? Do I even know the lyrics for the songs on the best-of album of my life?
Hm, I guess I should figure that out before the world tour ends and definitely prior to the work on the new album.

Twentyone24 - 20:00 - 21:00

Probably the most boring hour of the whole day is now online.
[ Click ] if you want to feel sleepy.

Kosmonaut in Love?

I saw this graffiti in Regensburg a few weeks ago. It was already dark and only the shape of his helmet catched my eye. I shot one photo of the kosmonaut in the darkness using my flash.
At home after transferring the photos to my computer I got aware of the hearts. The kosmonaut must be in love.

Maybe one sees love not on first, but only on second sight - not in the darkness but only afterwards after transferring the feelings to your internal hard disk.

Not my Job

My damn job is to paint this staircase railing orange. That's my damn job. It's not my damn job to care about stupid bike locks. Dunno what I would do if a person would lean against the railing while I'm painting. Damn, I should stop thinking about that crap because it prevents me from doing my damn job of painting this staircase railing orange.

Fence Strategy

Obstacle: Fence

Problem: Your way continues on the other side.

Goal: Overcome the obstacle.

Options:

[    ]	End journey here
[    ]	Cut hole in the fence (tool needed)
[    ]	Climb and hope that you will not injure your hands
[    ]	Go back 20 meters, run and jump
[ X ]	Go back 20 meters, run, jump and just don't land after the fence but stay floating in mid-air.

Jumping but never landing is a cool thought, isn't it?

Napkin Politics

 

The name of one of my favorite restaurants in Nuremberg fits into the current discussion about the Olympics in China. I couldn't resist playing around with a box of matches and creating obvious messages while having a delicious dinner there.

Can you imagine that the big politicians use their napkins during an official banquet for exchanging political decisions.

Like this:
Merkel --> Bush: "Close down Guantanamo" / Could you please give me the Mustard?
Sarkozy --> Berlusconi: "Sell your TV stations if you want to be President" / I think my wife is prettier than yours.
Rice --> Putin: "Stop terrorizing Chechnya" / I like your muscles.

Smell the Life

Do you know the "Lush" soap shops? They sell hand made soap made of vegan ingredients.
Well, soap doesn't sound that interesting, does it? Ha - it's quite the other way round.

The brilliant thing about a Lush soap is that it doesn 't look like boring soap but like a small cake, jello, a piec of coal or like dried mud.
I stumpled into the shop because the smell floating out of the open door worked like a magnet for my nose.

It was great to see the customers standing around concentrating only on their sense of smell for a change after have seen a piece they like.
A serious looking guy holding his nose on a black something that looks like a coal is very funny, believe me.

Exploring the world only by scent could be very thrilling and enlightening. Damn, how to make a nose more sensitive for scent?

The explore-by-scent-thing comes into my mind from time to time. Sometimes I take notes after intense smelling moments.
[ Here ] are some of my eight year old notes from August 2000 from a smelled afternoon (in German language).

What smells do YOU connect with special moments or places?

 

PS: The Lush shop in Nuremberg is just opposite to the main portal of the Lorenzkirche. Try it!

Eating Only the Easy Parts

I saw this slice of bread in the city center of Nuremberg.
It seems that someone only ate the fluffy inside and threw the crust away.
Well, the mellow part of the bread is easy to eat. But whoever threw the crust away probably didn't know that the crust is the best part of a fresh slice of bread. One has to chew much more and it takes longer to eat it but it is far more aromatic and really worth it.
Hm, reminds me of life. I hope I don't tend to throw away the best parts because I'm to lazy to chew.

Little Venice

One of my favorite views in the city of Bamberg.
The strip of old fisher houses along the river is called "Little Venice".
Every summer there's a big historical boat fight called "Fischerstechen" during a very cool party called "Sandkerwa".
Unfortunately the water was not that blue because it rained a lot the last days.

This photo is a HDR and calculated out of 5 single shots.

Still Friends

Today I saw old friends again. Actually the two pals were just metal pipes.
I stumbled upon them while having a photo walk in the beautiful city of Bamberg.
One pipe is leaning against the other - like a couple in love.
The special thing about this two pipes is that I already shot them more than two years ago in February 2006. The circumstances back in 2006 were very different than today. I spend the whole day thinking about what changed in my life since that day and found no real answer yet.

Click [here] to see my first posting about the two pals from February 2006.

Big Haired Boys

Click on photo to view it in different sizes on my Flickr account

Did I miss something? Some important fashion law?

While strolling the fun fair in Nuremberg it catched my eye that all of a sudden a lot of male teenagers look like Farrah Fawcett in the early 80s.
Their hair seemed to be a fluffy something ruled by tons of hair spray.
I tried to imagine all the supercool boys in front of the bathroom mirror spending hours with the spray can of their mothers trying to pump up their hair.

The funniest thing was that it started raining really hard after this photo and the guys didn't dare to leave the Auto Scooter because they feared some kind of hair desaster.

Oh, I have to say that the girls now have the flat hairstyles. Weird world.

Multi-Part-Animals

One of the best things about kids for me is that I don't have to give a reason for doing things all the time.
Parents probably don't agree because they know about thousands of "Why?" questions.
What I mean is that if I say "How about drawing Multi-Part-Animals" most kids would simply ask "What is a Multi-Part-Animal" and afterwards we just do it.

This photos were created during a lunch break with a colleague, her husband and her two absolutely lovely little daughters.

A Multi-Part-Animal is simply a creature that doesn't fit on one back side of a business card.

The girls knew instantly what I mean after I showed them a 4-part-snake.
My tasks for the girls were a two-part-dog and a two-part-crocodile and two minutes later they were done.
Great.

The crocodile (especially the tip of its tail) is my favorite.

 

 

I'd wish that grown-ups wouldn't need a good reason for doing things but just do them if they feel like it - grown-ups including myself.

Twentyone24 - Two New Chapters (18:00 - 20-00)

Just a quick announcement: I published two more chapters of the 24 hour photo project that I did in December with a friend. Now only the last four hours of the day are left to be documented and I hope I'll finish the project soon. I've never imagined that I'd need until April to write the stuff.

The two new chapters are about the color of sausages, driving with the tram and about the folks in a big cinema.

Click here for
- the hour from 18:00 - 19:00
- the hour from 19:00 - 20:00

Infinite Retries

 

The river that crosses Nuremberg floats down a few steps. These weirs tempt to attract all kind of swimming objects, especially balls.
I know some spots in the city where one can always view some balls fighting with the current. For some reason I love to watch the balls and I visit "my" spots on a regular basis.

Actually I feel pity for the balls. They try and try and try to escape the current but they don't have a real chance. The turbulences at the step always suck them back.

On the other hand I envy the balls because they never get tired of trying again. I'm not sure whether infinite retries are always good but at least a few tries to achieve a goal seem to be desirable. Definitely a thing to get inspired from.

I walked by a Beergarden to come close to the step in the river for shooting this footage. The guy sitting on a table behind a big glass of beer watched me like an alien because he had no idea what the hell I was doing. Well, I didn't explain the infinite-retry-theory to him and just wished him a sunny Sunday.