In full bloom

The poppy you have seen before was budding, now here is its buddy ( ;-) ) in full bloom:

ECBunnies

On my way from one of my workplaces to the bus stop, I pass by the European Central Bank building. And when it is morning, I always see dozens of bunnies in most different sizes, happily grazing away on the lawn right next to the bank.

Premiere

The World Cup 2010 is the first one ever to take place in Africa! And the host South Africa had the special honour to make the very first goal in an African World Cup! Even though the final score was 1:1 which is not bad at all, playing Mexico.

So today's photo is dedicated to all South African players, fans and friends of mine :-)

Banking Break

Obviously even bankers are just people and occasionally need a break...

Röslein auf der Heiden

Roses don't have to be red to be beautiful, on the contrary - I think red roses are so clichée and importunate.

I sit therefore I am

A statue, seen and shot in Cologne, converted to b/w - not that it was particularly colourful before ...

Sea of poppies

When I was a village child, we had poppies in our garden, small ones and not the kind that you'd make opium from of course. And now in the big city, I came across these huge poppies!

PS: Sea of poppies is a book I'm reading, by Amitav Ghosh.

Ducking out

In the park near my place, there is a dirty old river, it looks grey, it has a weird chemical smell and there is no way I would ever go in there. But still, there are ducks swimming about...

Hunted I

The other day - the first real summer day after a long row of rainy days - I went insect hunting in the park. But the damn beasties won't hold still even for a second. Bumblebees - active as can be, flies - downright nervous and bees - busy, busy. So the picture of this wasp was more a lucky accident than anything else.
And oh, did I mention that I love my macro lens ;-)

Conspiracy

Have you ever had the feeling that two plants were talking about you? Or about another plant behind its back?
Here is the proof that they really do:

Bad Moon Rising

After a long while here another time lapse video that I made several months ago in Apolda. I had taken hundreds of pictures for two previous videos and so in the making of the last one, the moon, my camera's battery let me down - hence a very short little film.

Fresh Talent

This is one of the up and coming stars of Frankfurt's football club SG Rotweiss Frankfurt, caught hanging with his buddy, the ball ;-)

Purple Rain

Definitely the best thing about rain... I love my macro lens :-)


PS: Happy children's day everybody!

Sweet Deal

The (un)original chocolate girl, handing out chocolated wafers...

Fluffy

That's what I'd call this little thing that landed on my wheel...

Mehendi laga ke rakhna...

The mehendi season is opened again for this year. How do I know? It just has to be warm enough to sit around with the henna drying on the skin as it has a cooling effect.
And now with the job I'm doing, I can't paint my own hands anymore so I paint on whoever volunteers, here my friend's shoulder.

Yellow at last

I was going through my recent photos just now and found a little yellow flower that I had shot on a rainy meadow the other day.
It is for you - you know who you are ;-)

Another sunset

One of these days, I'm going to make a collage of all the sunsets I have shot. Meanwhile this one:

Lost and found

Long time ago, a friend gave me a golden brown cabochon that had fallen out of a belt-buckle of hers. She thought I might be able to use it somehow, I liked it and so I kept it.. for two years. And finally this weekend, I made something out of it. This:

Asparagus Season

May/June is the high season for asparagus here. And while people go crazy over white asparagus (something I can't understand, this stuff being at the same time slimy and woody), all (the little) green sold here is imported. Sigh.

Mirror, mirror...

On my desk, there "live" a lot of things: my laptop, graphic tablet and printer always, my camera as a regular visitor and at the moment, there is a Wong Kar-wai DVD box sitting on the left.

Underneath (where a keyboard would slide in and out) is room for the current jewellery hype (many many little colourful beads right now) and the (half) finished products along with some make up items.

So what you can see in today's picture is a beaded glass cabochon, reflected in the package of an ayurvedic kohl kajal.

iChocolate

The latest Apple products..?

Freedom for Iran

A demonstration in Cologne last Saturday - the photos speak for themselves...

LAFKAS

This is another picture of "Laddoo Formerly Known As Sina", this time outside. I managed to get a few relatively good pictures but as opposed to for example my parents' dog, this one is never looking directly into the camera. But she is so cute and so furry.

Speaking of furry - yesterday, I saw a man with a small very short-haired dog and I was wondering why people get those. I mean, why get a dog in the first place when you can't cuddle it and tousle its fur? What's the point then? Might as well get a snake...


PS: I did some post-processing on this one like blurring the background to bring out the main motive better and cloning out the leash. Plus the usual sharpening for the net and adding a little more contrast.

You and I...

... together forever - hopefully.

Jump!

The square in front of the Cologne Cathedral is like made for skaters of all age and skill levels. This one managed to lift a few centimetres off the ground...

4711

This is the famous 4711 Eau de Cologne, the mother of all colognes and in their shop window a probably very good smelling lady ;-)

Chocoholic's Paradise

There is a place where chocolate flows like water, in small currents


as well as big rivers


and then solidifies

Cologne for beginners

The first image, the biggest clichée and the most famous monument of the city:

Road Trip

The three of us are going to take a trip today, first to the Cologne Chocolate Museum (yummy!) and then finally again to M.'s place (yay!!).

Sore Throat

And that's how that feels:

Ascension

Today is ascension, or men's day, not that it has anything to do with today's picture.. but I was always wondering if I should be allowed to have religious holidays off, not being religious.

Work in progress

Every time I go to a craft store, I see a new interesting technique or when I visit my parents, my mum's got some new jewellery book and I'm immediately interested. The downside to all this is that I want to try something, I have to purchase the material and that adds up with time.
The latest thing is beaded cabochons as pendants (this will be one when it's finished), earrings, brooches ... anyone interested...?

Männer

They walk the talk and talk the walk .. men.

Evergreen

They say that cone trees are always the same green and never lose their needles but in spring, even they have fresh twigs sprouting.

Money drives the world

... or so.

Four dogs and an old lady

These five can be seen every day, rain or shine, winter or summer. Two years ago, there used to be five little dogs but now it's those four who walk in the park and the streets of my area.

The magic is in the details

Muddy, wet shoes, pants that got wet and muddy up to the knees and rain-smudged mascara are a small price to pay for the raindrop pictures I took yesterday. I didn't wait until the rain had stopped - good that I didn't because it lasted for hours and hours - but went out, armed with umbrella and camera+macro lens. This lens is amazing, really worth the (admittedly enormous) price.

Here a few examples:

Bird Watch

Normally bird watch means that people go for a walk, armed with binoculars, to stalk birds. Here however, I have a feeling that the little blackbird is watching me from the little roof outside my kitchen window...

Smile! Now!

These two girls, believe it or not, are aunt and niece. The elder one was trying everything to make the little one smile again after having scared her before. Not very successfully as you can see here ;-)

World Cup 2014

These are - I think - the new aspirants for Belgium's football team in 2014, scouted in a park in Brussels ;-)


PS: I know the picture has some motion blur but I just like the moment I caught here.

I can't draw*

I can't draw, I can't paint,
Only thing about me is the way I shoot ;-)

So to make up for this deficiency, I'm using my PP skills, adding a slight painting effect. The original picture of this narcissus with the interesting colours (those are real) is slightly out of focus but I found it too nice to just discard.

Birthday Girl

This is yesterday's beautiful birthday girl, my (now not soo) little godchild. I met and became friends with her parents before she was born and saw her in real for the first time when she was almost a year and a half. Since then, we have never been out of touch. Yesterday, she turned 12 and I'm very happy that they have moved closer again with just a four-hour-drive away.

С днем рождения, Алиса!

PS: Who needs birthday cake when there is tiramisu ;-)

Ward off evil

One of my students got this little Nazar for me in Turkey, to ward off the evil eye. As if she had known that I have always wanted a talisman! Now it is hanging in my car :-)

On the run

Aren't we all most of the time, running some place or another?