Bearding the Lion in His Den

What El Arenal is for the Germans is Palmanova for the English. The funny thing is that these places are on the same little island (Mallorca), but if you go and check both out, you might notice that it feels like visiting two different countries, due to the straightly separated "populations". So here I am. Palmanova, Saturday June 10th, 3pm, England vs. Paraguay on a large screen and a hungry British mob in front of it. It was a good event for some freaky head shots, but at the same time the ugliest (not "the most ugly") mission of my young Photography "career". My camera drank some beer and I lost some blood*. However, we both survived.

*Finding first aid can be challenging sometimes :-)

Still Waters Run Deep

I was advised not to ask too many questions to my readers. So this one is without :-)
I'm finally visiting my hometown Limburg in Germany. Limburg is a cute town on the Lahn river almost exactly between Cologne and Frankfurt. Here I had the chance to hang out at a little freestyle session of "Stille Wasser" last night. You cannot miss these guys, if you are living in that area and you like Rap music. The MCs are very energetic and the DJs have a good hand for beats. At least I liked the choice very much. Here are my favorite photographs of that night.


A Saturday Night in London

Have you ever walked around in Central London on a Saturday night? If not, please do so and let me know what your impression was. I was pretty convinced that the whole city is drunk and Big Ben and I are the only sober guys around. Don't get me wrong, I was highly entertained by that. However, I walked around there and my mission was to catch some beauty with my little camera. Yes, it feels like it sounds, it's just like hunting. Different from all the other people around me, I didn't numb my visual perception, which apparently lowers the chance of being satisfied with your catch. But I scored. I stared at Big Ben for about ten minutes, and I think I stared so hard, that I caused the lights to turn off just by looking at it. The fact that I just did that, made me stare like a meerkat for a while without moving. It took me another ten minutes and then I was fine with the idea of having supernatural powers. I had a big question mark hovering over my head, wondering if the other tourists next to me realized that I did that and started to feel a bit uncomfortable in the role of the spoiler. You can imagine what that looks like: My head is still staring up, while my eyes are rolling carefully from one side to the other observing disappointed tourists.
Okay, let's come to the point. Here is the beauty I was talking about. I felt very attracted by the wasted look of these lanterns in front of the cloudy London sky. Of course there were plenty of wasted looking people around I could put in front of the sky instead, but the lanterns seem much more mystic to me. What happened to them? Do the people shoot at them? Or are there other supernatural beings around who are more into damaging small lanterns than turning off big lights? If yes, thank you guys, it looks just great!


This is a Good Day

Why? I'm going to Europe today. For three weeks. But before I leave this place behind me, I want to post some pictures of it. I hope you enjoy the New York shots.
I think the next series will have people on it. Buildings and bridges might become a bit boring after a while.
My next stop is England. Talk to you later :-)

Excursion to Brooklyn

Last weekend my Craigslist activities brought me all the way to Brooklyn. I met Ashley O'Neal, an artist who lives and works in the City. Because I was so curious, I took plenty of headshots of her while she answered all the questions I had regarding her life as an artist. The results are numerous images of different facial expressions. I also took pictures while she was working on a large scale painting.
Afterwards, starting from Atlantic Avenue, I walked up Smith street and found a little piece of Cologne in the heart of Brooklyn. Gosh, I sound like a cheap tourist guide. Anyway, what I found was a German-style beer garden beneath huge Gaffel Kölsch umbrellas and (as I learned later) Kölsch beer on tab...kind of unexpected.

Yoga at Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook is a national recreation area here in New Jersey. That's the place where I met up with Jon Pearson, a 52 year old Yogi who lives in that area. Jon replied to my ad on Craigslist and gave me the chance to shoot pictures of his Yoga routine. Even though my mother is a yoga teacher since many many years, my knowledge about it is quite limited. But even if you don't know anything about Yoga, you can sense what it's all about just by watching someone like Jon.
I've never been to this little island before and must say that this is a really nice place. I don't wanna know what's going on there on a summer weekend, but on a warm weekday evening, when no people are around and little thunderstorms are coming and going, this might be your place to be. I hope I'll find time soon to go through the pictures and keep you posted.