tuesday inspiration

1. Hidden, 2. Untitled, 3. Untitled, 4. pear almond goodness, 5. ..., 6. Untitled, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. marseille 7

if i'm lucky, i'll manage to upload this one... happy inspirational tuesday! (it's still cold and wintery here, the forecast says even more snow this afternoon. i'm so ready for spring though.) 

as always, click on the caption underneath the mosaic to go to the photographer's flickr stream.

UPDATE: for all of you new to my blog or the concept of flickr favourites - welcome, nice to have you here! flickr favourites are images by other photographers - not myself - that i'm finding on flickr, a photo sharing platform. these finds inspire me greatly and i just like sharing this inspiration with you. so please note these inspiration mosaics are not made of my own shots, instead credit goes to the individual flickr photographers. again, if you click on the caption underneath the mosaic, this will take you to the photographers' flickr stream. you'll be able to see more of their work there. many of them are bloggers too. so once you are on their flickr site, you can click on their icon and select "profile", which in many cases lists a link to their blog(s). go and discover!

sign of life

i've missed you!

the internet drama continues. although, to be precise, it's a wireless drama. with my old pc, i can still access the net, but v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. surfing, blogging, uploading pictures - simply out of the question. it really, really drives me up the wall. after lots of attempts to fix it, i'll probably have to get some new hardware. hopefully i should be back to normal by the end of the coming week.

anyway, i simply had to go to a café this afternoon with working (!) wireless access to quickly say hello. and catch up a little.

last weekend (it's a week already!), lovely marion of l'inventaire de l'esthétique was in berlin and we went to see a photo show at martin gropius bau. mostly fashion photography from the 1950s to 1980s by f.c. gundlach. the rather fabulous shot of the two girls on a berlin racing track was on show too. it was great to meet marion, so many things to talk about! i'm sorry though berlin was so freezing cold that weekend. -- then, the day before yesterday, i received a sweet letter in the post with the most fabulously rose scented hand cream from marseille - sent by marion. you are too kind, thank you so much!

p.s.: the wonderful dress is my mum's. she wore it for her engagement in 1968. it's such a shame i can't wear it, i'm simply not as slim as her. but i like to look at it!

hiccups

you might have guessed... my internet access is having some hiccups (insert you favourite swear-word here). that's why i've been so quiet lately. hoping to get it fixed soonish. wish me luck!

friday inspiration

1. 19/365 Golden Shoes, 2. Cloud, 3. 7:365, 4. The start of girls' snowshoe race, Kiandra, 5. Portrait of small barefoot boy on a wooden ladder, 6. hot. salt. beef., 7. (Explored), 8. Squirrel's eye view, 9. She's Getting Ready

it's going to be another cold, cold weekend. i'm still looking forward to it - there'll be meetings with friends old and new, a photo show to see, some work and some rest. just the perfect mix. hope you are having a nice weekend too. what are your plans?

to check out the flickr photographers who inspired me this week, click on the captions underneath the mosaic!

corner view: style

i used to wear a lot of vintage clothes -- skirts and dresses and coats, scarves and sunglasses. very big sunglasses, the bigger the better. but somehow it feels like i've lost my knack a bit. these days it's mostly jeans and woolly jumpers. i hope i'll find the time again when spring comes to look for a few new vintage favourites.

that being said, what makes me happy and keeps me warm this winter is a vintage coat with a white collar that i bought online last year. i like to wear it with a russian scarf i've had for years. when i took these photos, my cat was not too impressed that my attention was not on her, so she walked into the picture. good idea, as it turns out.

for more corner views, take a look at jane's spain daily.

recently

recently i've been having a right old winter blues and craving colour like there's no tomorrow. in the news they said that we are having the longest sun-less spell since 1964 in berlin - 12 days and counting - and are probably not seeing any sun until the end of the week. i'm finding i'm getting irritable and gloomy, both are frames of mind i don't like. but i'll resort to your tips and read good books, listen to music, buy flowers and try to beat the moody patch. i will!

at the same time, while craving colour, that 365 project got me thinking a lot about what direction i want to take with my photography. i think i'm drawn to a certain aesthetic and certain tones and because of that have started to find out more about colour editing. see, i got that beautiful digital SLR from my family. and i love it, and it has tons of pros. only the colours are a world apart from analogue photography. however, i think i'm finding my feet a bit. do you perhaps have any tips what digital image editors are good, what apps you use (or presets or actions or whatever they are called in any given software)? i'm particularly after settings that give me an "analogue" palette. think pola-colours, 1970s cameras, you get the idea. if you do, please leave me a comment or email me (see column to the right), i'd love to hear from you!

you know what i'm dreaming of (i don't know if this kind of things exists or if i'm being silly)?: a simple filter that i mount on my lens that gives me "analogue" colours. wouldn't that be great? is there such a thing?

oh by the way - i'm not giving up analogue photography at all - i've got two cameras loaded with colour and b&w film at the moment. i love it far too much. i just don't want to believe that you have to go go either analogue or digital, or that shooting with a DSLR means my style has to change, like it or not.

phew. thanks for listening!

p.s.: pictures taken today with my DSLR and colour edited to what i'm aiming at.

saturday inspiration

1. ., 2. Tarde de café, 3. Untitled, 4. Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow. It only saps today of its joy., 5. On the cutting board, 6. Après-midi d'hiver, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. 10/365 2010

the photo finds on flickr cheer me up no end! take a look at these. and happy weekend!

light

i'm so waiting for the days to get longer. and cherish the light while it's there.

what do you do to cheer yourself up when the dark season seems too long?

corner view: holiday (1)

i know, i know, seems a bit over the top to do three corner views in one. but, in my defense: we did have a long break, plus i found the pictures just didn't work together in one post at all. so there you go...

cat guarding the candy canes. our first christmas tree.

for more corner views, check out the links at jane's spain daily!

corner view: holiday (2)

happy kids. these are some of my nieces. having a big family is so lovely for holidays and celebrations.

just after christmas, we got together again with my brothers, sisters and their partners and kids. my mum made a cake, which she put on the back seat when driving - the dog had a panic attack and jumped right in. we started the party with a good laugh! and, shhh, don't tell anyone, but some of us actually ate it anyway (well, some of it). we are terrible.

corner view: holiday (3)

going for a winter walk with my mum and the dog. so windy and cold.

tell me, tell me (3)

a while ago, my sister re-photographed some of our family pictures (none of us own a decent scanner). sadly, this one turned out quite blurry, but you can still make out me on the right, i guess i must have been five around that time, next to me my mum and a friend of hers with her baby daughter. see how they fastened the top part of the pram on the sled? very clever. -- these days, all the side streets in berlin are properly snowed in, so that most people with young kids are pulling sleds rather than pushing prams. much easier in this weather and the kids love it. a friend told me yesterday that she tried to buy a sled herself and found they are sold out everywhere.

oh, talking about childhood memories, i've come across the nicest video via thank you very little (lovely blog, go and take a look!) -- a friend of hers from vienna made the video from his family's super 8 films. my parents never had a super 8 camera. did yours? oh, do take a look at the video!

and here's my next question for you: what's your favourite book or film this winter (or summer, for readers in the southern hemisphere)? i love reading your comments, so keep them coming!

saturday inspiration

1. L1001853, 2. Untitled, 3. Untitled, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. happy new year!, 7. _MG_5189, 8. New thrifted pillowcase, 9. 5 365 A whiter shade of lemon

thought i'd share a few more flickr faves with you over the weekend. some of these shots are by fellow-bloggers, friends and photographers whose work i have admired for long - some of them are by brand-new flickr discoveries. be sure to check them out by clicking on the links underneath the mosaic. be inspired!

as you can see, lots of portraits this time round, something that's fascinating me more and more. when looking at my own photographs, i see mostly stills, but taking portraits and reflecting life via the people around me is surely something i'd like to discover this year.

tell me, tell me (2)

thanks so much for playing along, i really loved all your comments and ideas on my last post!

and here's another question for you: what's your favourite winter food?

happy weekend!

tell me, tell me (1)

what is your favourite winter pastime?

p.s.: i'm currently trying to find out what i can do with what lens on my DSLR (and in what light). not as straight-forward as i thought. also have a roll of b&w in my praktica and a roll or colour film in my voigtlaender.

quiet days

the first few days of this new year have been mostly quiet. i've been feeling a bit under the weather and have been struggling with headaches a lot. so the quietness is something beautiful, really. here are some shots from the first week of january. the first one was taken on my street some days ago. if you want to know more about the others, head on over here.

by the way, these days, i'm finding that i so enjoy reading my favourite blogs and feeling that leaving a comment is in actual fact reaching someone. which is at the core of blogging for sure. but at the moment it just makes me particularly grateful. this sort of communication has encouraged me to do things that otherwise i wouldn't have tried. and i'm learning a lot as i go along. i'm also really enjoying our 365 project on flickr. the feed-back there is so immediate and helpful. and i've been trying new things with my camera already. so good.

found

when i came home this afternoon, i found this bright pink candy wrapper in the snow - just outside my front door. it says "alle wetter", literally "all weathers", a very old-fashioned expression meaning "goodness me!". made me smile. i just had to get the camera and snap it...

btw, it did take me ages to get to work today, but i'll admit the snow looks pretty. it's winter!

sunday inspiration

1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. call me, 4. .2035, 5. 1/365 2010, 6. if they ever find out, 7. found, 8. Bell, 9. Untitled

it's still very snowy outside, which means i can't ride my bike. yesterday i walked over to a friend's house for a coffee and to make some cake - and it took me almost 45 minutes. luckily it was crisp and clear, so nice enough for a walk. still, i hope they are clearing the bike paths soon, since i'll be helping out in the bookshop on monday and it's going to take me ages to get there by public transport.

for now, i'll be enjoying the pretty whiteness outside my window from my sofa...

be inspired by these wonderful flickr photographers. click on the links below the mosaic to see their site.

365

on the spur of the moment, i decided to join a 365 project on flickr. initiated by julochka and spud, this group is taking up the idea of taking a photo a day, all 365 days of this new year. it's a bit of a challenge, not only because i have the feeling that there might be days when i'm not really up for it, or when i just don't have the time to upload my photos, but also because there are quite a few very talented people out there who have done it before and even published books about it (say, a year of evenings). but i like the idea of learning as i go along and of eventually having a very tangible record of my year.

this is my first 365 photo, taken january 1, 2010. it's the cover of my brand-new diary for 2010 and a wintry magazine scrap. i tell you, i could do with a fur hat in berlin at the moment. it doesn't seem to stop snowing... 

do take a look at our flickr group. and if you'd like to play along, let me know in the comments. the group can be joined by invitation, i'll find out how to organise that.

one year

it's exactly one year ago today that i started no penny for them. it had been snowing, it was a quiet day, and i kind of thought: why not give blogging a try - not having the faintest clue what it would lead to.

i've made many new friends, met so very many inspiring people - both in the blogosphere and in "real life" - i've learnt an awful lot about photography, creativity, communicating and sharing. i am so grateful for all of you who come and stop by, who have encouraged me to keep going, stay curious and keep sharing what i see through my lens. i'm not sure you know how much you've helped to nudge me into a new direction. well, you did. thank you so much!

quote and graphics via daydream lily. it sums up so well how i feel about the coming year.

happy new year to you all!