Eight Minutes Old

This is one of my favorite photos in my series on vacant tourist spots and towns. I did most black and white pictures of this series last year, at the end of summer. They are all shot on my preferred black and white film, the Fuji Neopan Acros 100, to be precise.  I was in northern Brittany (France) and was fascinated by the sight of these empty streets, closed shops and left-alone vacation-homes.

I like it because the house is not shown as prominent as in the two shots before, but it is still clearly visible that there are no people living there in this time of the year. This impression of emptiness is supported by the wide, empty curved street in the foreground. In addition to this, the straight, also empty street in the middle attracts and guides the viewers eyes into the human-less distance. The cloudy sky luckily had a brighter spot which lies behind an over the house, emphasizing it and breaking the gloomy atmosphere. this light spot is contrasted by the darker trees on the left.

All in all I like the picture because it expresses the feelings I had at this place and also allows the viewer to stroll around with his/her eyes in this deserted town, just as I did with my feet.

Dir gefallen die Bilder?

Vote for me:

Tag my blog:

This picture on Seen.by

Very similar to the photo-post before, I must admit. But that is the nature of a series.

Dir gefallen die Bilder?

Vote for me:

Tag my blog:

Let’s go on with the series of abandoned houses in Brittany, France, after the tourists left at the end of the season. This black and white photo shows a closed restaurant, which is for sale (the signs in the windows say ‘a vendre’). It looks like a typical tourist-eatery: Grill, Pizzeria, Moulerie; with a fake timber-framed construction in a town that is deserted once the summer is over and the sky becomes grey. I wonder what is the story behind this house. What where the happy and the bad days, what dreams where dreamed and abandoned? My feeling tells me that barred houses live in the past. They are a sign for bygone days and, until they are open again, have no future.

Speaking of the past: Two days ago I met my old kindergarten teacher, by chance as I had to organize some things at my hometown. I would not have recognized her (neither would she remember me), but my father introduced us. It is strange to go back with your thoughts over so many years, but somehow it is kind of appropriate now that I finished my degree. It shows me from where I came to arrive where I now am. Interesting how many thought this short conversation kicked off in me. It was difficult to explain what I am going to do now as my PhD. I have to come up with some simple description. You learn how to explain your work in precise scientific words, but when you talk to people who are not in your field you feel like a idiot and can’t get to the point.

Dir gefallen die Bilder?

Vote for me:

Tag my blog:

Just a quick update, so I can participate in the August Monthly Special at Take Out Photo: Triptych.

The wedding was wonderful, everything is fine and we are exhausted from organizing and having party. More about this in some days or weeks. Oh, and we are waiting for the photos. As expected we did not have the time to take some on our own.

Dir gefallen die Bilder?

Vote for me:

Tag my blog:

Another one from the same playground in Brittany. Time to get through this series and to the photos of deserted houses after the tourist season. Which has already started again. I think we will visit southern France this year in September, but I don’t know yet where exactly to go.

Dir gefallen die Bilder?

Vote for me:

Tag my blog:

I was remembered that this is a photography blog besides astronomy . At the moment my whole life centeres on the latter, the conference might be over but we still have half a dozen guests at the institute. Talking, discussing and spending time with these wonderful people dosn’t allow me to blog. But you will hear more, soon.

In the meantime I present another picture of my series of deserted tourist towns in Brittany, France. Above you see, as usual in black and white, a little sand and sticks “installation” by some children that were playing at this small house in the summer. The family has long gone back home, but this sculpture remained.

By the way, this photo was not approved by Seen.by, I don’t know why because I like it a lot.

Dir gefallen die Bilder?

Vote for me:

Tag my blog:

I’ve just realized what a death cult the church is. When you loose a loved one, they jump at you. Undoubtly it is important to have help in such a situation. But to me it appears as if charity is not the only reason. Talking not only of the deceased, but mainly of Jesus or God or this three-in-one pack of them, reminds me of advertising. And then their label is put on the grave, look at all the crosses in above picture of the cemetry in Montmartre. I don’t want to criticize what people believe happens after dead, even if I might have another opinion. Actually, there are many believes and opinions out there and we should accept them, what ever helps someone in such a situation is fine. What I can not accept is when only one opinion is accepted to be the true one and the weakness of the bereaved is used to promote the belief in a god and religious dogma. It’s time that the churches accept other opinions and stop acting as if they had a monopoly on the afterlife.

The photo was taken in Paris, Montmartre.

Dir gefallen die Bilder?

Vote for me:

Tag my blog:

Just to remember some people that this word and the concept it stands for still exists. There is too much tolerance for violence in this world. It makes me sick. Whoever fires a rocket or drops a bomb is guilty. No single side can ever be said to have the sole responsibility. Responsible is every single person that gives the order or pushes the button leading to, injury, harm and loss of life.

Targeting specific persons and accepting killing his family and neighbours, dropping bombs on schools, hitting homes of people like you and me, is murder. Don’t tell me these are unwanted civilian losses, don’t talk about collateral damage. We all know that in a battle there are victims. But we must not accept the false logic behind it, like “There are always victims in a battle, so accept it and shut up”. When we know that from A follows B, and we dislike B, then there is an easy way to avoid it: Don’t do A. Don’t drop bombs, fire rockets, shoot people. Whatever side you are on.
There will always be people that prefer violence over politics, hostility over talking, aggression over tolerance. A modern society should have one word for them: criminals.

The photo is from The Wall for Peace (“Mur da la Paix”) on the Champ de Mars, opposing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

You like my photos?

Vote for me:





Tag my blog:



Digg this image:

I’m not that much at the computer recently. There are so many analogue things to do, like reading (much more fun without a screen) or enjoying the clear, blue sky that finally returned after weeks of grey.

The photo is from Normandy in France (to be correct: from the northern part, called Haute Normandie). The cliff there is fascinating, with lots of pebbles in front. From a photographer’s perspective it isn’t as interesting, but I tried to give the shot some impact with an unusual perspective, shooting close to the ground. Still, without a measure of size the frog’s perspective can not really emphasize the height of the cliff. But I like the shades of grey in this black and white photo.

There will be some minor changes in the blog, mainly behind the scenes, in the next days. I am going to make the photoblog part more efficient. This post is some kind of a first step. The links to several photoblog communities are now directly included in the photo-post, making it more easy to vote for this blog / bookmark it. Let’s see if this works out.

You like my photos?

Vote for me:





Tag my blog:



Digg this image: