Second day. Still on the road, after a short and uncomfortable night I was already moving when the sun rose.

I love driving in the early morning, when the mist is rising…

This fog wouldn’t clear up though. Might have missed some nice landscapes.

Short break in Auch. Beautiful sight.

I was quite lucky with the clouds.

On the road again. Finally, the Pyrénées in sight!

Hello again. In case anybody wondered why there were no new entries during the last weeks – I was on vacation in France, without access to the net but obviously with my camera. Since I had to go about 1400 km, this first day was spent driving. So was half of the second day. Don’t worry though – there’s a lot of boring pictures in this post, but I think the sunset is worth scrolling down ;)

Good weather to leave the country.

Rain.

Rain.

More rain.

Short break, found something in the radio. Still had a good playlist on.

Better weather?

Not exactly.

Short break in Eguisheim.

Extending the short break…

Gas, baguette and cookies. The latter two are favorites of mine ^^

Would have been lost without it.

Oh, rain again!

Sun.

Rain. The benefit was that the regular rain intervals kept the windshield clean.

Dark and looming from one side.

Bright and beautiful from the other side.

Goodbye daylight.

Time to search for a parking spot to spend the night.

Still searching. In the end I stopped past midnight somewhere in no-mans-land.

Nice evening with friends on the Neckarwiese.

Again!?

Weinfest in Kirrweiler.

Saturday morning. Free day, took my time to hike a little bit.

Up to the Hambacher Schloss.

Not very stirring…

Descending through the forrest.

Anthill. Haven’t seen one of these since I was a kid.

The 24-70 F2.8 makes for a decent macro lens, at least when you don’t have a dedicated macro at hand.

Maikammer.

This would have been a good place to spend a few hours reading the literature I carried with me.

Quick peek at the map decided otherwise.

Going up again…

Wish I would have had my road bike with me.

The last few hundered meters up the Kalmit. Walked about 17 km that day.

There’s always something new to learn.

Back to Heidelberg.

And another round of shots from the weekend, back at home in Lemgo. Good to have a polarizing filter when the sky is that clear. This one is a little bit long, many sport shots at the end.

Having a break, trying Pickert, a local dish even I haven’t had in a decade.

The usual shot of Schloss Brake.

The last handball game of the season, had to try the D700.

Those referees are always in the way. Well, the shot isn’t that good anyhow. By the way – unlike 99% of all other shots in this blog, the handball shots are cropped. It’s a game way too fast and hard to predict to get really good compositions right out of the camera.

A contact sport. It’s not unusual to have a player with a ripped jersey on the field, without a resulting penalty.

Lucky shot: back pass from a simulated attack jump to throw off the defense (and in most cases the trailing photographer).

Lovely expression =)

7m penalty shot.

The goalie waiting for the game to return to his goal.

‚Ceremonies’ on the field after the game. A big lens get’s you in anywhere.

Players leaving the team at the end of the season. I always wonder who is behind these awful prints they get…

That’s it for today.

It’s time for summer tires.

Sunny spot.

Spending much time in our garden.

My old school.

Lemgo, at the market place in the centre of the town.

Politics, it’s election year here in NRW.

Schloss Brake.

Abandoned rails.

Helping my grandmother in the garden.

I took the train home to Lemgo, via Cologne where I shot the image above. Cologne has a great main station, with many different light colors and structures. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to shoot there this time. So most of the following images were shot from the train.

Leaving Mannheim through Ludwigshafen.

When I wasn’t shooting, I read.

Leaving Mainz.

Reading AND shooting.

Entering the Rhine valley.

There are so many beautiful castles in the Rhine valley.

Arriving at Koblenz main station.

Arriving in Cologne.

Waiting for my last train in Bielefeld.

More shots from the past weekend. And Live Writer still is the mot comfortable blogging client for creating this kind of photo blog. The best shots are way down at the bottom of this rather long post.

Snowy streets.

Loved the light on this old bicycle.

Going by tram.

More snowfall.

Cycling through the snow.

The castle, the old bridge and a church at night. One can’t see much of all the snow that was in the air while I shot these.

To the left…

… and to the right.

The old bridge.

Taking the shot above. Shot with my cellphone.

Part of the Christmas fair in Heidelberg.

More snowfall. Lovely!

I haven’t been outside just for taking photos for a long time, this sunday night I decided it was time to change that. But I think the way I take photos has changed quite much during this year. Anyway, I cycled up to the castle of Heidelberg and through the city to take some long exposures.

Yep, that’s the D200 in the mud ^^

The Gorillapod does a fine job so far. I rarely need to shoot from a high perspective, especially with the ultrawide lens I prefer to shoot from the ground.

Moving the camera while the exposure wasn’t finished. Accidental, but interesting.

Castle, Christmas tree and the moon.

Loved the reflection in the window, but I think one could do much more with that. Maybe some other night.

Heidelberg at night.

Last one from inside the castle.

Parking garage entrance.

Shots of the “old” bridge.

Lit trees and sculpture at the main station.

Weihnachtsmarkt in Heidelberg.

Obligatory cycling shot…

Postcard snapshot of Heidelberg, taken from a little paddleboat, holding the camera a few centimeters above the water. Not using that funny live view thing, one can actually imagine what one’s shooting without looking through the finder… OK, I have to admit that I had to rotate the image about one degree in Lightroom to level the horizon.

Converted to B&W (and a little sepia) in PS, the sky is obviously recovered a little bit.