Saturday 27th February 2010

Because I have been receiving an increasing number of requests from friends and acquaintances to take portrait photographs of them (or their children or pets), I decided to book myself onto a one-day intensive training course for studio portrait photography in Bonn today.
This was only the second photo shoot for Natalia, the Russian model above - we were both working on a tfcd basis (she didn't charge for her time, since she needs a copy of the photographs taken on a CD for her portfolio; we didn't charge her, because we need the pictures for our portfolios too !!), so not only was it a challenge to light her, we also had to figure out the best poses and guide her - it was a very interesting, informative and enjoyable day, but showed me how much more I still have to learn !!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f13 : 1/125" : 46mm : ISO 200: 27.02.2010 14:46:53)


Natalia brought her friend, Kristina (another Russian lady), who also wanted portrait photographs for her portfolio.

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f16 : 1/125" : 52mm : ISO 200: 27.02.2010 16:02:55)


Our next challenge was to light Kristina and Natalia together.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f16 : 1/125" : 32mm : ISO 200: 27.02.2010 17:06:58)

Friday 26th February 2010

This is the last of the four painted houses in the row, and this is obviously the Winter season.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f4 : 1/60" : 18mm : ISO 400: 26.02.2010 14:24:36)


(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f4 : 1/60" : 18mm : ISO 400: 26.02.2010 14:24:56)

Thursday 25th February 2010

The third house in this row represents Autumn.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 1/125" : 18mm : ISO 400: 25.02.2010 15:43:59)

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 1/125" : 18mm : ISO 400: 25.02.2010 15:44:27)

Wednesday 24th February 2010

If my theory about the four seasons is correct, the second painted house here represents Summer.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 1/125" : 18mm : ISO 400: 24.02.2010 15:12:42)

Tuesday 23rd February 2010

This next four houses are all painted in a similar style (and at least three were painted by the same artist, J. Hawle in 1995). I think they represent the four seasons, this first one being Spring.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f4.8 : 1/90" : 18mm : ISO 400: 23.02.2010 14:35:17)


This is a closer view of the area around the downstairs window on the left side above.
It seems that we had Spring yesterday and the weather is heading back towards Winter again (5°C and rain today).

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f4.8 : 1/90" : 18mm : ISO 400: 23.02.2010 14:36:11)

Monday 22nd February 2010

I found an area of Troisdorf where there is a large selection of painted houses, so I will continue this as a theme for the next few days !!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f8 : 1/250" : 18mm : ISO 400: 22.02.2010 14:41:43)


With temperatures up into double figures (11°C) for the first time this year, plus bright blue skies (until the rain came in the evening), it finally seemed like an early spring day today !!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f9.5 : 1/350" : 42mm : ISO 400: 22.02.2010 14:42:44)

Sunday 21st February 2010

On my way home from church this morning I stopped in the pretty village of Linz (about 15 minutes from my house). It is a photographers and artists paradise, so I will undoubtably include many more pictures here later. For now, this is the remains of the tower on the south-east side of the fortified city wall.

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f8 : 1/250" : 29mm : ISO 400: 21.02.2010 12:26:27)


I also saw this beautiful cat sitting patiently outside a front door, hoping to be let inside ....

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f5.6 : 1/90" : 116mm : ISO 400: 21.02.2010 12:15:32)


.... and when his faint squeeks went unnoticed by all except me, he jumped up and hung onto the door, trying to look inside and catch his owners attention !! He obviously does this regularly, if you click on this picture to open it up in full resolution and look at the claw-sized holes in the woodwork !!

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f8 : 1/200" : 52mm : ISO 400: 21.02.2010 12:16:37)

Saturday 20th February 2010

I have decided that I need to lose the beer gut that I have been developing over that last couple of years (despite having stopped drinking beer !!), but I don't want to go on a diet, so the only other option is to exercise .... hence I bid on and won an auction on eBay for a brand new aluminium 21-speed touring bicycle (OK, I don't want to overdo the exercise thing, it is VERY hilly around here !!) yesterday evening, and drove to Dorsten to collect and pay for it this morning.
I wanted to get a photograph in Dorsten of a large barge travelling down the canal as it passed underneath a colourful pedestrian bridge over the canal .... but after standing for almost half an hour in the cold damp weather, I gave up and walked back to the car park. As I left the town via the road bridge, I saw a barge travelling underneath the pedestrain bridge - exactly the photograph that I wanted, but I couldn't abandon the car in the middle of the main road, so missed it !!
Instead of which, here is a picture of the most interesting thing that I could find whilst walking around Dorsten .... outside the Zollern gear manufacturing factory is this drop stamp press (type B2), built in 1904 and weighing in at 12 tons. It could produce 1350 bricks per hour and was in service until 1965; there were 1512 such presses sold worldwide.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 1/125" : 44mm : ISO 200: 20.02.2010 12:42:37)

Friday 19th February 2010

This is one third of a bus shelter in Troisdorf.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f4 : 1/60" : 22mm : ISO 200: 19.02.2010 14:46:31)

Thursday 18th February 2010

I have seen at least two other painted buildings in Troisdorf, but simply cannot remember where they are, so instead I went for a walk around the (mostly) disused railway yards in Troisdorf today in search of a photograph. This took me back over 30 years to when I was walking around car scrapyards in south-west London looking for the part that I desperately needed to fix my car, mainly because the ground was soaked in oil and moved as you stepped on it, also leaving oily imprints of your shoes behind you (plus that horrible smell of old engine and gearbox oil that seeps out with every step) .... anyway, the sun was finally shining in a blue sky and the temperature soared to a scorching +5°C, so much of the snow and ice started to melt !!

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f5.3 : 1/500" : 80mm : ISO 200: 18.02.2010 15:23:52)

Wednesday 17th February 2010

Another painted building in Troisdorf .... but I don't know what the significance of the large G-clamp framing the people is (and yes, the white specks visible on the full-size image are snowflakes still falling from the sky !!)

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f6.7 : 1/180" : 18mm : ISO 200: 17.02.2010 14:21:15)

Tuesday 16th February 2010

On my way home, I stopped off in the little village of Aegidienberg to photograph the floodlit church, in front of which was a stand with two witches selling their brews !!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 2" : 18mm : ISO 200: 16.02.2010 19:30:15)


(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 2" : 26mm : ISO 200: 16.02.2010 19:28:11)

Monday 15th February 2010

In this area of Germany, RosenMontag (Shrove Monday) is a public holiday, and the day on which many of the carnival parades take place.
I went into the nearby village of Horhausen this evening, and whilst I was setting up the camera and tripod to take the above photograph of the fountain and church tower ....

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 2" : 48mm : ISO 200: 15.02.2010 19:48:17)

.... this couple asked me to take their picture; so not only could I not refuse, I had to post it here for them too !!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.3 : 1/60" : 40mm : ISO 200: 15.02.2010 19:40:33)


However, I do not intend to start making a habit of posting more than one photograph per day !!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5 : 1/60" : 35mm : ISO 200: 15.02.2010 19:41:03)

Sunday 14th February 2010

After another night with temperatures below -12°C and further snowfall, the roads this morning were treacherous. After the church service, I stopped off in the centre of Bad Godesburg to photograph some of the carneval processions, but then decided against waiting over 2 hours in the cold until everything started at 2:00 pm, so drove home after taking a few photographs of the preparations.
Despite the snow falling, these two guys seemed to be enjoying themselves .... although one of them had started drinking early !!

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f16 : 1/60" : 36mm : ISO 200: 14.02.2010 11:21:39)


I had to include two other photographs here .... firstly ....

.... marching on their way into battle, but did they have mobile phones back then ?

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f6.7 : 1/200" : 52mm : ISO 200: 14.02.2010 11:29:53)


.... or Porsche diesel tractors to tow the canons ?

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f8 : 1/200" : 65mm : ISO 200: 14.02.2010 11:29:39)

Saturday 13th February 2010

With light snowfalls and temperatures around -4°C all day today, I didn't fancy walking around the centre of Bonn or Cologne to take photographs of people celebrating carnival, so I went for a short walk through the woods near Breitscheid instead (about 4 km from my house), and photographed this lookout tower.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor AF 28-100mm f3.5-5.6 G : f3.8 : 1/60" : 35mm : ISO 200: 13.02.2010 16:48:17)

Friday 12th February 2010

This is another view of that painted house in Troisdorf.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor AF 28-100mm f3.5-5.6 G : f6.7 : 1/180" : 44mm : ISO 200: 12.02.2010 14:41:04)

Thursday 11th February 2010

Today is the first day of Karneval, where the local town halls are stormed by the women at 11:11 am. If a woman cuts off a man's tie today, he belongs to her and she can do whatever she likes with him - hence there are very few men brave enough to wear a tie (and if you saw most of the women dressed as witches and out on the prowl, you would understand why !! ).
I asked a very attractive lady in a superb witches costume at the supermarket cash desk if I could take her photograph for this blog, but she refused to let me :-(
Hence this is a photograph of a painted building in Troisdorf instead !!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor AF 28-100mm f3.5-5.6 G : f6.7 : 1/180" : 35mm : ISO 200: 11.02.2010 15:53:02)

Wednesday 10th February 2010

On my drive home after visiting a customer site in Duesseldorf today, I took this photograph of the St. Antonious Kapelle (Chapel) in Schlicherum (between Duesseldorf and Cologne).

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5 : 1/125" : 32mm : ISO 200: 10.02.2010 17:01:55)

Tuesday 9th February 2010

After completing a customer site visit in Cologne today, I found this piano player in a side street near the city centre that had turned to brass, it was soooo cold outside !!!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f8 : 8" : 26mm : ISO 200: 09.02.2010 18:47:07)

Monday 8th February 2010

This was the last Vietnamese refugee boat that was found in April 1982 in the South China Sea by the rescue ship Cap Anamur. 52 completely exhausted and dehydrated refugees were taken on board and nursed back to health. The mystery is how and why this boat now finds itself in Troisdorf ?!

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 1/90" : 18mm : ISO 200: 08.02.2010 14:46:20)

Sunday 7th February 2010

I have been suffering from an upset stomach and fever for the last few days, which developed into the world falling out of my bottom yesterday, so I had to stay just a few minutes away from a toilet this weekend !! This is the ICE (InterCity Express) train at Siebenmorgen .... the track runs for many kilometres alongside the Autobahn 3, so that when the cars and lorries are stuck in a traffic jam, they can see the train rushing past (at over 250 km/h !!)

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 1/45" : 55mm : ISO 200: 07.02.2010 17:06:08)

Saturday 6th February 2010

This is the Laubachsmühle at Datzenbach .... one of many old water mills that have been converted into restaurants.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 2" : 18mm : ISO 200: 06.02.2010 21:30:49)

Friday 5th February 2010

Now that the temperature has finally crept above freezing, the snowfalls have turned to rain .... and at least this wierd spidery blossom was visible in Troisdorf !!!

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f6.3 : 1/45" : 200mm : ISO 200: 05.02.2010 14:55:37)

Thursday 4th February 2010

How cool is it to have an old wooden water wheel and a stream in your garden alongide your balcony (even if the water wheel doesn't turn any more) ? This is near the centre of Siegburg, round the back of the Rathaus (Town Hall).

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f5.3 : 1/15" : 80mm : ISO 200: 04.02.2010 16:14:58)

Wednesday 3rd February 2010

This is the Michaelsberg Abtei (Michael's Mountain Abbey) in Siegburg.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f8 : 1/250" : 18mm : ISO 200: 03.02.2010 15:17:17)

Tuesday 2nd February 2010

This is the "zum Hohlstein-Grill" restaurant in Troisdorf-Spich.

(Nikon D5000 : Nikkor VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 : f5.6 : 1/125" : 26mm : ISO 200: 02.02.2010 15:13:38)

Monday 1st February 2010

After work, we met up in Cologne for our Christmas Dinner .... although it was meant to be for Christmas 2009, it might turn out to be for Christmas 2010, if this is not a successful year for the company !! On the way to the restaurant, I walked across the Deutzer Bridge to take this photograph of Cologne Cathedral.

(Nikon D5000 : Sigma VR 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 : f11 : 12" : 44mm : ISO 200: 01.02.2010 18:40:47)