Some shots I took while relaxing on a tree at the lake. Those cool guys were totally up for a spontaneous band shoot. Ah, I wish we had more summer moments like these.

Uh-oh. Two upcoming shootings next weekend and I still don’t know where I will actually do the shoot. The curse of not having a studio (or living in beautful California). But really, I’m not complaining. I went location scouting this morning and found some beautiful spots. Actually, I was so happy with the spots that I took some spontaneous portraits. Available light only. Haven’t had the camera in “Av” for a while… I actually had to figure out the metering modes… What is the matrix again? I had my beautiful new 85 f/1.8 lens on – love the bokeh. To even enhance the bokeh on the first picture, I stitched several pictures together. I might not have a medium format camera, but I do have autostitch!

I said that before – it’s just great to have great friends. ‘Cause those great friends are cool with coming with you and have a great time doing some sunset backlit shots somewhere in the fields around Darmstadt. I’ve had this kind of look going through my head all day and it felt great to turn it into a reality (that kind of reality that ends with .CR2, that is). I wish I could do this kind of thing way more often. Trying different lighting situations, angles, techniques… this is, to my mind, what you need to do to become a good photographer.

These pictures were all natural light, I just brought my little gold reflector with me to bounce some of the sunlight back into the face.

What a great day. 100?F. 4:0. Again, Darmstadt was one big party after the game. Actually, it didn’t start well: When I came to the Luisenplatz before the game, everything was dead. No fans, no folks at the annual Heinerfest, no big crowds at the big screens. I had to run around for a while to get some pictures in the can. But as soon as the game was over, it seemed like people were coming out of their holes like mad. The familiar walk through the tunnel, the flags, the vuvuzelas…wow! I took some pics before and some after the game – can you tell which ones are which?

Hey, if you read this because you were photographed by me – especially if you are that lovely lady from the first picture – send me a message or a comment if you like the picture. If yours ain’t here, send me a message, too! I only put up a small selection to keep the blog from exploding. I’ll add a new series as soon as I find the time – There’ll be room for some mo’!

… and the best news is: Two more games – two more world cup features for me and you!

Here’s a little birthday gift that I came up with a few days ago – for understandable reasons, I couldn’t share it with the world until yesterday, but now it can go public safely. As you know, I am sort of in the process of diving into the whole “Strobist” movement. This came in quite handy when I spontaneously decided to get my girlfriend, who has just moved into her own appartment, a nice cocktail recipe book so she can mix some nice drinks for me for her friends. But a normal book from the shelf wouldn’t be nearly as cool, I thought – why not have some friends and her family pose with some nice drinks to come up with a personal recipe book? Well, one of the many merits of having great friends is that you can call them and talk them into doing all kinds of funny and weird photo projects. They were all quite excited about the idea, so I had them come to a nice bar, whose owner was kind enough to let me set up my equipment. The rest was easy: We had an amazing time enjoying yummy cocktails and snapping some pics for the album. The setup was quite basic, I had one umbrella with a CTO gel as a main light, used some of the ambient as fill, and added a snooted flash on the drinks to make ‘em pop. I was looking for a nice, warm, summerly theme. As it went a little too chilly outside, we moved inside and used the stylish bar as backdrop. Finally, I added the recipes, and with a little help from my designer friend Valentina, we created a cool layout for the whole book.

I had the whole thing printed, and it turned out really nice – and my girlfriend just loved it! Don’t you just love these little weekend projects? Oh, and before I forget: The Caipirinha shot (which is the cover shot for the book) was a little evening project from another day: I placed the drink on a glass, lit it from below and from above through a sheet of paper (cheapest softbox there is!) and threw a flash with a CTB gel against the white wall. Easy as pie, but it looks professional, doesn’t it?

I’m not big at planning photos, I normally shoot as I go. This one’s an exception from that rule. I saw that field the day before around sunset time and I was amazed by the grains’ beards which seemed to glow as the sunlight backlit them. That instantly made me think of the scene in the great movie “Gladiator”, when the hero Maximus arrives at his home in Spain and touches the grain, “Elysium” playing in the background… I later found out that “Elysium” refers to the place where heroes go, which makes a lot of sense when you think of “Freude sch?ner G?tterfunke, Tochter aus Elysium….”

So the very next day (Harvesting had already begun, it was late July) I had Ira pose for me in that field. And just as the sun hit the trees, I got the right composition. One of my all-time-favorites, because it just fills my heart with warmth when I think back of that day. If it’s one of the best shots I have ever made? I couldn’t say, because there is always room for improvement. But sometimes, atmosphere just overpowers technical flaws like that lense flare. When I ever get back to that field, I’ll make a nude version of that shot, I promise!