Amphibian in the sun

It's been a long time. I know. Well, the new job, a broken MacBook, moving to a new city and testing different cameras (Nikon D90 lost the duel to the Canon EOS 600D ;-) took its toll. However I'm now back to my art (full of ideas, so you better beware), even though it has to share time and space with my full-time job (I love being an engineer).

One month later

It's amazing how time can fly. This last month has been an amazing new start for me. I enjoyed it quite a lot even though I didn't do much artwork (photography more than drawing).

Anyway, Karlsruhe is a lovely city and I feel at home there. It was weird to come back to my old flat in Leipzig and realizing that I never felt at home in it. The flat was never meant to be mine for long, sooo I guess I never got emotionally attached to it.

See you soon.

An abundance of possibilities

A field of possibilities, each flower is another possibility, another idea, another way.

This is what I see metaphorically, when I look at my future in Karlsruhe.

Its only 2 1/2 days or 68,5 hours till I start in my new job in Karlsruhe and I'm really excited about it and the possibilities. From what I know now it is my dream job.

We'll see how I'll feel about it after the first week. ;-)

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Urban Art Leipzig - Plagwitz

The writing on the wall isn't there any more since May or so. The house is being redeveloped.

Deutsche Werkstätten in Hellerau

I've been there for a conference on June 7th. It was an amazing day at the Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau.

You'll find my digital event pictures here and the attendees lomo-pictures here.

Water lilies at Karlsruhe Botanical Garden

Urban Art in Karlsruhe (Post 750)

I'm currently flat-hunting in Karlsruhe and after viewing one of the possible flats I saw this wonderful mural. Isn't it absolutely fantastic?!

Tree in the park of the Sleeping Beauty

I don't really have a clue where I took that picture. So what? It looks nice, that's all that matters to me.

Today I go on a short trip to Karlsruhe to check out some flats. Wish me luck that I find mine. 

Wine Line

By the sea

I would love to be.

Have a great day.

Wedding hairdo

So this Saturday my best friend A married S. I was there as a friend and their event photographer. The formal wedding pictures were taken by the lady photographer, who also did my portrait shooting, she's great.

Anyway, a June wedding called for a dress with a hat or a fascinator. Since I couldn't find a nice sunhat which left me abled to shoot at the same time while wearing it (I need to see and don't want the rim of my hat on every picture, now do I?), I looked for a fascinator and luckily I found the perfect Alice band. It looks fabulous, but isn't exactly comfy, I had to take it off halfway through the evening.

The wedding party was fabulous and the shooting went quite well. I've had tons of fun using the Canon Rebel 450D. While before I only wanted it because of it's name, now I know for certain that it is the right camera for me. It has the right weight, it is beautifully balanced and just all around fun to shoot with. All in all I took about 600 pictures in 9 hours of celebrating the wedding of A+S. So, the next two weeks I will plough through the pictures, throw out the trash, cut the rest and then create one or more slideshows for my friends.

Another thing I learned was that it is a BAD idea to wear heels when one has to shoot a whole wedding party. My feet hurt so much on Sunday that I drove my bike 7 km to my coffee shop to eat breakfast there, instead of making an omelette at home! Yeah, such are the sacrifices of a photographer friend. (I know now, why a good wedding photographer costs so much. It's darn hard work.)

Oh and the helium voice is truly hilarious. Yes we had balloons so I had to try it. ;-)

Wintersun

No Trespassing?

Wolkenburg castle

Two days ago I had an epiphany. I realized that for the last weeks I had been falling back into my old behavior of being an observer instead of an doer. Since I've decided at the beginning of the year that I want to live an active life, I wasn't exactly amused by this observation (pun intended).

So when I got an e-mail by my club yesterday morning, asking for last minute help with todays big scale event in Dresden, I jumped at the chance. During this event I will not only be the event photographer but also teach the attendees (from some CCIs and business promoting organizations) about Lomography and creativity (hence todays picture).

Lomography was my restart in photography, without my Lomo Fisheye camera there wouldn't be this blog or San's Visual Art. Lomography to me means sheer creativity.

What means creativity to you?

The BIG NEWS revealed:

Entrance to the Karlsruhe Zoo (No, this is not my new work place!)

As you might have realized this blog has been relatively quiet. However I have a very, very, very good reason for it:

I will move to Karlsruhe at the end of June, because on July 2nd I will start in my new job, which is THE job at THE organization. Naturally I'm really excited about this opportunity, this change.

So right now I'm quite busy with wrapping up projects here in Leipzig and preparing for the move. I still have to find a room for the first three months, but I don't consider it a challenge since the summer holidays come up and a lot of the students will sublet their rooms.

Karlsruhe is a beautiful city in my opinion and has a good size. Throughout the last three years I've visited a lot of german cities and most of them I found pretty ugly and I wouldn't want to work or live there, like the Ruhrpott (Yes, it's more than one city, I know that.) or Berlin.

My personal Top 5 of german cities worth living in:

1. Stralsund
2. Leipzig
3. Dresden
4. Potsdam
5. Karlsruhe

Anyway, I've got a busy afternoon ahead of me.

Have a great new week everyone.


PS: I'll put up some postcard sets on my DaWanda-Shop. Since I'm drowning in postcards due to the non-sales-market, ahh, I mean market research market. ;-) Somehow I always knew that markets aren't the right place to sell my art. But one has to try out different things, doesn't one?

Market Research

Camping table and chair were lent to me by a good friend

Yesterday I attended my first market / street festival and I've learned a lot:

- Little kids love stones (the stones were only on the table because of the windy conditions)
- People like my ornaments/tribals
- I need to present my cards differently, make the access and the foraging easier for the customers (a turnable postcard stand would probably be best)
- Art fairs are preferable sales points for my stuff not normal street festivals and certainly not the Kö street festival. However the Westpaket on the Karl-Heine-Street might be a possible street festival, since it is kind of an art fair.

So, essentially yesterday afternoon was an afternoon in market research. I learned a lot and I'm sure I will put my new knowledge to use.

Now I'll enjoy a piece of strawberry cake, tonight I'll enjoy a concert and tomorrow I'll enjoy another Offline - Sunday at my coffee shop with an amazing mango milkshake and Caffé Latte.

Have a great weekend.

Filling it with sunshine

Well sunshine is something that Leipzig's inhabitants could use today, instead it is pouring down. Not the best weather for the International Children's Day and the little street festival planned for this afternoon on Leipzig's Kö(nneritzstreet). 

A street festival for which I have created postcards and planned a market stall. It is supposed to be my first market, the way it currently looks I can forget about it, since I don't have a gazebo. 20 € down metaphorically down the drain. On the other hand, the weather could still change a lot in the next 5 hours. (And my Tarot said so. ;-) Whatever. 

Enjoy your Friday and then the weekend and June. 

This is what I like about Leipzig

Views like this right in the city. As a matter of fact this is just a 12 minute walk from my doorstep.

What's brewing on the horizon?

Still nothing is fixed on paper so I can't tell yer, but it's only a matter of days now...

Urban Art - Walking Up

Is this art or a joke? Personally I found it hilarious.

Enjoy your Sunday and have a great new week.

Food Bliss

Good morning, a totally unplanned post but when I tasted my latest concoction I had to share this blissful experience. But first a picture of Saturdays picnic which was the start of an evening with the theme "Once upon a time", which I had organized for one of my very best friends, a female Stag Night aka Doe Night. The evening was a raging success.

And now todays blissful breakfast:

the Pear-Potato-Omelette.

I came up with it because I had a few cooked potatoes leftover from yesterdays rotisserie-chicken potato salad (which was fantastic too) and a pear.

At first I wasn't quit sure about the potato pear combination, but the taste totally surprised me positively. Yummy.

Ingredients for 1 person: 3 free range eggs, 1 pear, a few pieces of leftover precooked potatoes, fresh basil, salt and pepper, olive oil or butter or coconut oil for the pan.

Enjoy your day.

Moritzburg Bliss

Great news ahead, but again until I have everything in black and white I won't talk.

Cinderella's Castle - Schloss Moritzburg

My favourite Cinderella-movie is "Three Wishes for Cinderella" and part of it was shot at Schloss Moritzburg in Saxony. I have to admit that I'm becoming more and more fond of the baroque style.

Foggy Sun

Karlsruhe Zoo

Urban Art in Villingen

From my trip to the Black Forest last week.

Urban vs. Classic Art

Good Morning. I'm back from my little trip to the southwest and I'm quite relaxed from it. It was a brilliant week, with lots of great conversations, good food, sunshine and strolls along rivers. The new week is packed with art related stuff. For the next three days I'm at the Medientreffpunkt Mitteldeutschland representing my club Kreatives Leipzig and taking pictures.

I took the picture above at Leipzigs Spinnerei during the last April weekend. I thought it was a good juxtaposition of Classic and Urban Art.

Sugar and caffeine lead to the same thing:

Insomnia.

Tille Tubby Land 2.0 at Leipzigs Distillery

Thursdays in the garden of the Distillery: music, creative discussions, playing boardgames and just hanging out together. With fabulous lighting. I totally enjoyed being there this Thursday evening.

Pictures of the Präsentierteller I'll publish soon, just have to decide which. And then write the post. But for now the weather is awesome in LE and there is an open weekend at the Spinnerei and Tapetenwerk, which I don't want to miss.

I hope you all can enjoy a beautiful weekend too.

Nature and Man

Hohe Düne Prerow

Kreatives Leipzig - LE FOKUS - Gentrification

On Monday I've attended another event of Kreatives Leipzig, this time at Leipzigs Distillery. The Distillery is a club specializing on House and Techno music and is not only hosting the PRÄSENTIERTELLER event series of Kreatives Leipzig, but is also hosting a poetry slam on the first Friday of every month.

Stage(L tR): David Voss (standing), Prof. Dr. Dieter Rink, Paula Kanefendt

Monday evening however it was the LE FOKUS Series (normally hosted by the LOFFT). The topic was Gentrification and drew quite some audience.

The ultra cool ceiling at the Distillery.

It took me some time to get the right camera setting. But I guess for the first time photographing there the pics are alright. Tomorrow I'll be there earlier to get a better place to photograph.

Discussion group at the stage (LtR): David Voss, Roman Grabolle, Prof. Dr. Dieter Rink, Jens Bengelstorf, Paula Kanefendt

What is brilliant about the Kreatives Leipzig events, is that I'm always in a great mood when I leave them.

Anyway. The next event is the Präsentierteller tomorrow evening (26.04.2012, 7 PM) at the Distillery. With fresh house music, due to the presentation of a local music label. Should be fun. If you live in or near Leipzig why don't you attend?!