Time to go home again, unfortunately :( But my trip home wasn’t straightforward – I made a detour for sentimental reasons, to refresh memories from my childhood by visiting the Île d’Oléron.

I don’t think it’s made for this, but it fits perfectly =)

The only piece of highway I drove on the 1500 km of route back home.

Closing in on the atlantic coast.

This is what happens when you give decisive power to navigation software and forget to exclude ferries…

I was lucky though, 5 minutes after I arrived at the ferry it started it’s way across the Garonne.

Finally crossing the Viaduc d’Oléron.

La Brée-les-Bains.

For years we played volleyball tournaments there in the summer. It’s a difficult memory, but somehow it feels sad that this tradition apparently has deteriorated gravely. Though, I even met someone there whom I knew from back then.

Same place, about a decade ago…

Saint-Denis-d’Oléron.

Once upon a time, this place was like a second home to me. Now I felt strangely out of place.

Same place, viewed from opposite directions and a time difference of 15 to 20 years. The lower one is actually a scan from an old film negative.

There used to be a camping site where this marina is located now.

Enjoying the beach for a little while.

Unfortunate vignetting by the polarization filter, even though it’s an extra slim one.

Tourism…

Remains of german occupation, slowly dropping into the sea as the coastline erodes.

Phare de Chassiron.

The initial plan was to stay the night there, enjoy the perseid meteor shower in it’s strongest night. Unfortunately the wind from the sea was so strong that it rocked the tripod, making star shots quite impossible and it also carried with it dense clouds just shortly after the sun vanished.

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Taking cover from the strong (and cool) winds.

Nightfall at the beach.

I missed the ocean, and already I miss it again!

But I left there with the fall of night and drove until I found a small town near Cognac to spend the night.

Next morning, starting early when everything was still blue. Last day.

Still a thousand kilometers ahead.

Sunrise.

And there I was: 12 hours later, back in Germany, back in the rain. That’s it. But it seems there might be more travel on the horizon this year, though not as a vacation.

A rather long and high altitude route… (90 km there and back again, about 1700 m ascension).

So far for the way up, now for the good part:

Simply a spectacular view.

I think she didn’t like me, started to advance on me with pointed ears and lowered head, so I bailed and didn’t get a better postcard shot than this.

Descending. Don’t worry, quite slowly. The upper part of the route doesn’t exactly qualify as a racing strip.

These serpentines are a lot steeper than they look on this shot.

End of the day, cleaning my lenses.

Good morning, sunshine!

And good night. But wait, first what was in between…

Breakfast. In France, even I have breakfast.

Just for curiosity, the same view at a similar lighting – 11 years ago, summer of 1999:

I took this one with my family’s very first digital camera, a Philips ESP80. Has about the quality of a 3 year old cellphone camera, but back then it introduced me to photography.

Side of the road…

Somewhere along the way I lost my bike computer. Without touching it, it simply fell out of it’s socket. The search was unsuccessful, since I noticed it some kilometers later. But, the company was nice enough to replace it a few days ago. Nice gesture!

For the following shot I climbed up on the side of the stream…

Going up Hautacam again, this time in the car…

…to get there just in time for sunset, with loads of lenses and the tripod.

So much for sunset, now it’s time for nightfall.

Setting up the camera.

Stars coming out…

…lights going on…

…cars driving by.

The milky way. Well, parts of it. These were shot with the 35 F2.0 wide open, at ISO 6400 and a shutter speed of 15 to 30 seconds.

By the way, some of these streaks are planes, some might be satellites. But the one or other might already be a member of the Perseids, only a few days before their maximum.

This one is from the D200 with the Sigma 12-24. Even at the small size you can see the rather low image quality.

Actually my plan had been to do some really long star trails this time, with the valley lights below. But weather prevented that – fog crept over the mountain tops from that direction.

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.

Dark clouds looming over Heidelberg again…

…and unloading their water.

A little much for some university buildings.

That’s what my D700’s sensor looked like (heavy level adjustments for increasing the visibility of the dirt specs) when I got it. I didn’t spot this in the first few days since I hardly shot at apertures above F2.8… Had to clean it with swabs, the integrated cleaning function of the D700 didn’t have any effect on this kind of dirt. Works well though with small lint.

Play with me! Sorry, no time :(

Flower action shot.

MacBook grabbing action shot.

Rain. Again.

Getting used to CS5 by doing some work for a local election campaign at the university. Learning a lot.

Rainy days. I’m not doing much other than learning at the moment anyhow.

Unibib im Feld.

Rain.

More rain.

A little catflower.

These images are quite dull. But so was the weather and all the learning.

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Download…

…in 2560×1600 pixels resolution, ready for your widescreen monitor (it also fits a 1920×1200 screen and can be easily resized for smaller resolutions and aspect ratios)!

Copyright Notice

This wallpaper is copyrighted material. Redistributing it in any way (commercial AND private) without my explicit written permission is forbidden. If you like to share it with other people, please link to this page. Contact me for further information.

Download…

…in 2560×1600 pixels resolution, ready for your widescreen monitor (it also fits a 1920×1200 screen and can be easily resized for smaller resolutions and aspect ratios)!

Copyright Notice

This wallpaper is copyrighted material. Redistributing it in any way (commercial AND private) without my explicit written permission is forbidden. If you like to share it with other people, please link to this page. Contact me for further information.

Download…

…in 2560×1600 pixels resolution, ready for your widescreen monitor (it also fits a 1920×1200 screen and can be easily resized for smaller resolutions and aspect ratios)!

Copyright Notice

This wallpaper is copyrighted material. Redistributing it in any way (commercial AND private) without my explicit written permission is forbidden. If you like to share it with other people, please link to this page. Contact me for further information.