saturday inspiration

1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. Diana mini, 4. Handful, 5. Untitled, 6. in from outside, 7. Lomo, 8. baking, 9. Untitled

i am so spoilt. the boyfriend here once a week although he lives several hundred kilometres from here, and my sister and her family visiting this weekend. having a wonderful time with them, in particular my nieces (2 and 4 yrs old), who make me laugh a lot. plus lots of inspiring work. counting my blessings.

hope these images by gifted flickr photographers and bloggers inspire you as much as they inspire me. click on the captions to take you to their flickr streams.

p.s.: i haven't forgotten. there's the prints for my giveaway winners to be sent out next week. and the post about my five obsessions. and that idea about a swap. will do as soon as i can!

p.p.s.: a huge thank you for all your comments on my 'one hundred' post. you're just too kind. it means a lot. oh, next week my photo classes (b/w photography and dark room work) are starting!

corner view: water

when i was a child our family lived near a big river. we used to go for walks there, and my father loved to take his folding boat and go for little day trips. the river could be quite busy, with big ships sailing, so he used to go with a friend or by himself - for us kids it would have been to dangerous. every now and again though, he'd take the boat to a smaller river nearby and take some of us with him. here it's me and my youngest brother, 9 years my junior. (my father had been going to israel a lot back then, that's why he's sporting that fabulous yellow el al sun hat.)

these days, my favourite bit of water is the wannsee - a huge lake in berlin. going for walks there somehow really calms me when i'm tired or upset or just need to get out of the rat race for a little while. i haven't been going a lot recently. but i miss it and will go as soon as i can!

for more corner views, go to dana's while jane is away.

p.s.: as a postscriptum to last week's corner view "love", here's a sweet song i discovered via handmade love.

and the winner is

thank you all for bearing with me - i didn't have time for a post yesterday, even though i promised the winners of my giveaway would be drawn on monday. so here they finally are - 

ulrika, máni and kristina (not myself, obviously, but kristina from sweden!). 

congratulations, you've each won two prints of your choice from my blog. please just send me an email (see right in my profile section) with your postal address and the photos you'd like and i will snail-mail them to you as soon as i can!

today's photos show scenes from a 1920s dinner party / poker night here in berlin - a surprise party for a friend of mine, organised by some of his super creative friends last sunday. we all had to dress up accordingly. so much fun! pictures are quite grainy, since i don't like using flash and have somehow become a dedicated follower of "availabe light photography". (if you'd like to see more of it, head on over to my flickr.)

happy tuesday.

you can still enter

took these pictures a few weeks ago on a walk on a very windy day. spectacular skies. we walked along the river spree for a bit and had coffee at the house of world cultures. i really love that little pavilion tucked away behind the main building. the tiling is so cool.

oh, and before i forget: just a quick reminder that you can still enter for my giveaway on the occasion of my onehundreth blog post. three winners will be drawn at random on monday.

otherwise: have a wonderful weekend! what are you up to? snuggling up with woolly socks and a book on the sofa? or out for a autumn walk? making pumpkin soup? baking an spiced apple sauce cake? whatever it is: enjoy!

p.s.: i've been thinking about organising a little swap here. i'd put up some goodies i'm happy to swap - and who knows, maybe something catches your eye. what do you think?

corner view: dream

1. 071, 2. curtain, 3. 056, 4. Berlin 1971, 5. 2005 Dacha 226 - Blueberries and Brusnika, 6. Dacha, 7. Am Schrebergarten, 8. IMG_3046, 9. Allotment produce

i've got tons of dreams. well, who doesn't. not all of them are publishable though. so after browsing through my big, huge, ornate dream chest, i'm picking this one:

a garden. maybe an allotment. a dacha. that's a big dream. and has been for years. a place where i can grow my own fruit and vegetables. get my hands dirty with soil. sit in a cabin that won't quite heat up although i've fired the small oven. where i'm waiting for spring and the first signs of green. listen to the birds. read lots of books. have friends over for summer dinner with quiche made from my own fresh spinach. with a bottle of wine (or two). pick berries. and apples. where i smell autumn's coming. where i come occasionally in winter to check all is ok. and dream of spring making an appearance, all of a sudden, unexpectedly.

i know it will happen, one day.

(these pictures are not mine, but wonderful flickr finds. clicking on the links underneath the mosaic will take you there.)

see more corner views by visiting dana. usually, corner view is hosted by lovely jane, but she's off to philadelphia for a little break. wishing her a fabulous time!

inspiration tuesday

1. Untitled, 2. care for a tipple?, 3. Herbstzweig, 4. r o l l e r, 5. No.348, 6. Untitled, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled

time for some flickr faves. these are not strictly autumn, but for me convey stillness, the watchful eye, seeing beauty in the small things. qualities i admire. these are wonderful photographers - go and stop by their flickr streams. so worth it.

have an inspirational day.

p.s.: the very first picture i discovered via forty-six at grace. such an amazing blog. full of love for food and light and beauty. and texts that are pure poetry. read the text on travel by train. and check out that fig jam. oh my.

one hundred

hooray, this is the one hundredth post on no penny for them! time went by fast. it has been a very inspiring journey for me - and that's thanks to you. in the beginning, i wasn't really sure what blogging might be about, nor was i sure what i wanted, let alone that anyone might be interested in stopping by more than once (if at all). you've been there when i started using my praktica and photography began to be more than a casual past-time. i'm quite amazed by that. and i love hearing from you - thank you for all your comments, none of them goes unnoticed!

so to celebrate one hundred posts, i'd love to give away sets of two prints each. just let me know which two photos from my blog you would call your personal favourites and why (i'm curious!). i'll draw three winners at random next monday.

have a wonderful week.

oh, look

these past few weeks i have been showered with gifts - i'm feeling a bit like a child, stunned by that curious birthday-and-christmas-feeling rolled into one.

two of those gifts came from sweden.

my blogging friend kristina sent me this wonderful vintage book on portrait photography called 'the story of a face' by hillary g. bailey, published 1938 in san francisco. glamourama. a treasure trove of information on lighting, perspective, frame, pose and much more. i particulaly like the fabulous photos overlaid with diagrams, illustrating graceful poses. and also those images showing how easily a static pose can be turned into a dynamic one, just by moving a shoulder, by the turn of your head. i keep thinking who of my friends i will declare my next model to try out the graceful poses. watch out... - thank you so much, kristina, for this lovely gift! as if that wasn't enough, kristina also included some postcards made from her very own photographs, which are so lovely. i'm particularly in love with the orange that looks just like a detail from a flemish still-life. beautiful.

another parcel from sweden reached me a little while ago, this time from gothenburg. cecilia of vejacecilia had one of her amazing illustrations to give away and i was so very lucky to win! i was so excited when that cardboard tube with lovely swedish stamps was sitting on my table, waiting to be unpacked. and what a truly fabulous illustration i found inside, plus a moo mini card and some moo stickers. i'm still looking for a matching frame to put the print up on my wall. those green und purple colours make me really happy and i can simply get lost in those meandering lines, all drawn by hand. thank you again cecilia!

there are many other friends who spoilt me recently, too many, in fact, to name them all. let's just say i'm so grateful to be blessed with these special people who keep thinking of me and never cease to surprise and amaze me. you rock!

tagged

i've been tagged by cabrizette, friend and fabulous blogger from marseille - go and take a look at her blog! - to post the tenth picture from my first album. i had no idea what i would find, eh voilà! a photo i took nearly two years ago, showing the wallpaper in my favourite café. can you make out the pattern (the photo is very dark, i hate using flash...)? it's little birds arranged into geometric formations, really rather unusual and pretty. the wallpaper is eggshell white and three-dimensional, the birds are embossed. the white stripe you see is indirect lighting they have fitted behind their leather benches. i could spend hours there (i actually do, come to think of it).

since i took this photo, the interior has changed a tad. it's comfortably worn in and slightly battered in places, but i like it just the same. plus, they know i like my espresso macchiato when i come round in the afternoon or a glass of sekt (sparkling wine) in the evening. shall i tell you where to find it?

ok then. it's here.

i'll pass the tag on to to marion at l'inventaire de l'esthétique (if you like to play along, that is!).

corner view: love

love is when you stop looking for the exit.

discover more corner views via jane's spain daily. oh, and here's one of my favourite songs at the moment: 

let's not ever take love for granted.

p.s.: (you know i'm a great p.s.:'er, don't you?) i often just can't get my head around the fact that while i'm very, very happy at the moment, some people are living through very sad and rough times. i really don't get it. but i suppose it would throw our planet out of synch if we were all sad or happy at the same time - and we couldn't be there for each other either. maybe that's why?

thank you

thanks so much for all your kind comments on my last post and all your birthday wishes! i'm really touched.

thanks also for bearing with me - i've been a bit absent recently. this afternoon i came back home from a long weekend, which was wonderful, and jumped straight back into work.

i'll be around more this week and look forward to catching up with all of you. what are your plans?

p.s.: for now, i'll leave you with two pictures from the latest roll of film i shot with my praktica. i really love those lights - i saw them again when i was at art forum, berlin's annual art fair. they are easily 2 metres in diametre. impressive.

p.p.s.: oh, and do you like swedish pop music? then do take a look here!

what counts (and corner view, too)

last sunday i turned forty and no, i'm not feeling older, or different, or melancholic - to be quite honest i still feel as much like a girl and perhaps even less like a grown-up than before. funny that. i kind of expected something to happen. maybe i was simply expecting it to happen in the wrong places?

i'm usually not much of a party girl, but this occasion seemed to justify something special. so i had lots of friends over, first at my place for drinks and a bit of catching up, and then at 'claerchen's ballhaus', an old-fashioned ballroom in berlin's mitte district for a bit of dancing. the pictures were not taken this last sunday (i was so all-over-the-place i didn't even load my camera with film...), but last year with my little digital point-and-shoot. they perfectly illustrate the evening though. lots of talking, laughing, eating, drinking, dancing. friends were there from school times, from university, from various stages of my working life, from london, from all over germany and from berlin.

i am so, so grateful to have people in my life who care about me, who are there when i need them, who are happy with me when the sun is out as much as when it's pouring down, who celebrate with me, who are my extended family. who take me as who i am. 

that's what counts. 

p.s.: for those of you stopping by to look for my weekly corner view - this week's theme, picked by epe, is 'your city's souvenir' - well, this post is a double-act... berlin has lots of typical souvenirs to offer. think television tower miniatures, cards and mugs with the brandenburg gate, (fake) rubble from the berlin wall, beer steins with city scenes (which is so odd, thinking that beer steins are a very bavarian thing and not berlin at all), berlin teddy bears (the city's crest has a bear in it) and even television tower or brandenburg gate cookie cutters. still, for me the ultimate berlin souvenir is a visit to claerchen's ballhaus. treat yourself to it when you're here! more info about it over on my other blog, mostly berlin.

autumn is here

1. ***, 2. Volrat Tham 1970, 3. Gallery of the Tams Theater am Sozialamt 1969, 4. Eskilstuna 1969, 5. Pori 1960, 6. devonette 60s sweater vest, 7. enamelware, 8. osv, 9. make time for yourself

the air is getting colder, i had to put the heating on.

my flickr favourites for today. check out those photographers.