In Mai/June 2007, we spent two weeks visiting the Seychelles (Indian Ocean). That vacation was the last time I used my old Minolta 9xi (Minolta Dynax 9xi in Europe, in the US it was called Minolta Maxxum 9xi). I bought that camera 17 years ago, and for the longest time I was reluctant to switch to any other systems, never mind digital…

Though introduced 1992, even today the Minolta 9xi remains an impressive camera when it comes to its technical features: A shutter speed of 1/12000th of a second, a 14-zone light metering system and a remarkably fast 4-sensor autofocus system capable of continuously tracking objects horizontally, vertically and diagonally — even objects approaching the camera — correctly focusing every single frame of 5 frames/second.

But, thousands of photos now have to be scanned — if I ever find the time to do that. Some photos I have digitized already, though… That trip to the Seychelles was one of the occasions where I had taken the effort. I took some of those photos and added a new collection to my online gallery — if you are interested, click here (or on the photo below). Note that one photo in that gallery was shot not with my 9xi, but with some simple digital snapshot camera... try to find that one!


La Digue Island, Seychelles

Tags: Minolta, Dynax 9xi, Maxxum 9xi, Seychelles

We started our trip to Altmühl Valley at the ‘Altmühlsee’, north of the border of the nature park. Lake Altmühl is a great destination for birding, and while my wife focused on the birds, I took some nice landscape photos… I really have to get a better lens for bird photography!

Lake Altmühl was created in the 1980s as part of the larger Franconian Lake District project to reduce flooding in the Altmühl Valley as well as redirecting water from the Danube basin to the north. The 450-ha/1,112-acre Altmühl lake is at most 2.5-m/8-ft deep.

Located within the northern part of Lake Altmühl, the 120-ha/300-acre “Bird Island” is hosting well over 200 species of birds. A circular, 1.5-km/one-mile long hiking route with observation tower is open to the general public.







The Google-view on Bird Island, the pins designate the location of the photos above:

Tags: Landscapes, Birding, Altmühl Valley, Lake Altmühl, Bird Island, Franconian Lake District

Located right in the middle of the bavarian Altmühl Valley nature park, Eichstätt — a small town with a baroque old city center — has its own, slightly sleepy charm. In fact, Eichstätt hosts its own University — supposedly it is Europe’s smallest University Town.

This summer, Eichstätt hosts a culture festival exhibiting art from about 30 mostly regional artists. We visited Altmühl Valley and Eichstätt yesterday, and one particular piece captivated me.

This May, Marc Köschinger started exhibiting his installation ‘Schmetterlingsschwarm’ (butterfly swarm). Since then, his butterflies have been found in more and more places all over the world… I have taken the time to get a few photographies illustrating the origins.







Citing Marc Köschinger: “The butterfly is a baroque symbol for death and change, a memento mori implying hope for resurrection or an afterlife.”

In addition, this installation is supposedly inspired by early childhood experiences of Mr. Köschinger in South America, where huge swarms of similarly colored butterflies can be observed feeding on carcasses. Once satiated, they move on — soon looking out for the next dead animal to get nutrients and minerals.


There is a short movie on youtube introducing Mr. Köschingers butterflies project:

Tags: Art Installation, Eichstätt, Altmühl Valley, Bavaria, butterfliesworldwide

We just came back from a 10 days trip to the North Sea. More specifically, we traveled to Sylt — the northernmost island of Germany, one of the North Frisian Islands. While I just got started digging through the massive pile of photos taken during that trip, I wanted to post the landscape below right now. The image shows the lighthouse in Hörnum, a small village in the southern part of Sylt. The landscape there is beautiful, large stretches of dunes and beaches are the home for a variety of birds. Seals live close to the shores, and with a bit of luck you can see a Harbour Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) on the western side of the island.



This picture is a HDR image, using a series of five hand held, exposure auto-bracketed images (-1.33 ev to +1.33 ev). I quickly threw together this image with the help of the Photomatix Pro tone mapping plugin for Aperture 3. The second and last step was lens correction using the PTLens Aperture plugin — my primary lens for traveling needs a bit of help.

More images are coming soon…

Tags: Sylt, Hörnum, Aperture, HDR, Photomatix, Lens Correction, PTLens

We have been visiting Siena, Tuscany, for a few days. I have been there before, many years ago. Though that was a great vacation, last time it was August and all of Tuscany was brown and dry — it was exciting to now experience a lush springtime landscape. I have posted a couple of photos here…

Tags: Siena, Tuscany