September Gift // Desktop Wallpaper Giveaway

The month September where I grew up will forever mean one thing - it’s school time once again, kids, set your alarm clocks to an early hour again, get new notebooks-rulers-cartridges in the office supply shop and be ready for some rainy afternoons filled with homework to do. It was a certain sweet but also depressing feeling of hopelessness at the same time. To get back to school and hang out with friends in the break times in the cafeteria was one good thing. But knowing that that’s actually the end of the long sunny summer days and it’s only gonna get worse and wet and dark, and the next summer is like an eternity far away if it’s there at all, made me pretty mental.

In short: those few days before September 1st - they were heavily confusing.In a way I’m actually happy the twelve school years are long over but I’ll always remember them in a sweet hate-love manner.

Bottom line is - we need a new vibe for September. And that is why I want to wrapt it up into one sheeny mantle of a cozy mood. I imagine him to feel lush emerald, calming, silently inspiring and soft, with its way more gentle sunlight and refreshing moisty breezes. I prepared a desktop wallpaper that reflects these sensations and reminds me everyday of what I want September to feel like.

Nonetheless - I want to share it with you as you can join my idea by simply enlarging and downloading this photo-graphic calendar wallpaper that I made (or downloading it over here). And if you set it to your desktop picture - please send me a screenshot to see how it looks like, because I’m very curious!

Enjoy the beginning of autumn and a gentle change of the seasons. And - go more to botanical gardens! It's overall calming and a beautiful place for photographic meditations.

+ + +

Photos made with Nikon D7000 + Sigma Art 35mm f1,4, in this botanical garden. Graphics made with Wacom Intuos on ArtRage Lite.

A Drone Experience

... or The Things You Can Learn From Your Older Cooler Brothers

Both of my brothers are technical geeks, of course. Because who's brothers actually aren't. Every time I come around to visit the one or another - there's new things to see, to learn, to touch and then be jealous about. This time my big bro' introduced me to his precious new toy - the drone DJI PHANTOM 3 Advanced. As an out-dated humanist I have never actually seen nor - moreover - tried out navigating a drone of that kind. It's this little light weight, four propeller thing with a flexibly attached camera; it can fly and be navigated for up to 2 km of a distance away from its controller. A 12 megapixel camera with HD video recording capacity - all there. And - when you attach your mini tablet or smartphone on the controller, you can follow the drones route from birds eye perspective while still keeping your feet firmly on the ground. How damn cool is that!

And so we packed the drone bag to drive towards the next calm corner in the busy city of Vilnius. My brother insisted on me overtaking the controller and daring to get the drone up to the sky. Amazing how easy with just four different finger movements you can come up with something amazing like that within minutes; I got thinking about how many more possibilities open up for creative people and artist, how many fantastic unseen images can be captured or even staged. Just to start with - look at this Lithuanian photographer Karolis Janulis who was obviously having lots of fun experimenting with his drone pet.

But as it isn't quite of a bargain that you spontaneously purchase out of boredom at night on Amazon, here's my top five reasons to start saving on one:

• it opens a rare perspective from a birds eye on demand, something that was not possible to be seen on a casual every day basis
• it reaches things, buildings, nature landscapes which are hard to be reached by foot or machine and makes an additional point of view possible
• it's practical for different kind of documentation like events, real estate, landscapes
• what ever you do photographically - it will bring you to the next level
• and let's face it - it's a great toy in general! like when back in childhood the kids who got those tiny remotely controlled helicopters for Christmas and from then on everyone wanted to be friends with them.. but that's a totally different kind of story.

Good to know: get at least one extra battery at purchase, otherwise you can pack up the propellers after just 20 minutes of great but short fun.

A few snaps from up above:

Look at that - the most symbolical building of Vilnius, the Gediminas' Tower, the reason why the whole city was build around that hill. I was navigating the drone up above it and around.

It was a rather special visit of my brother and Vilnius this time. To be honest, even though it's only the cream part I've been spending time at - like the old town, newly reopened parks with their musical fountains in bright sunshine, those busy but somewhat charming summer city corners amazed me. We were cruising on longboards in a big green park at dusk together with many other people cruising on other things while some DJs were changing one chilly vinyl after another, just because it's summer, just because it's good weather; we tested some of the new Vilnius talking statues between beers on a warm summer night to rediscovered some of the forgotten Lithuanian history pages while the streets were full of celebrating beautiful summerly dressed people; my bro' showed me a place to try out virtual reality glasses which was a whole lotta different experience all together. It was a quality visit for sure. And I'm happy to have a big brother there, too.

The Girl who was a Fox

one good side about living on an island far far away is that friends want to eventually come and see it and see me. Helgoland seems to be an island where 'no one has ever been but was always curious to come and check it out'. as i am here right now, some adventurous friends dare it and take a weekend or more off for a short discovery trip. when i get visits here, they mostly are intense and very cozy, i show around the island, tell stories about baby seals, show the ocean horizon all around this tiny little island. we bond on this island much more, more intense than while i was still living on the mainland, where on weekends eventually you come together for a party or a dinner, but rarely experience a face to face time over a few days. then i bring them back to the boat and wave good bye. Maren came to visit me last weekend. she is a girl fox and she writes beautiful songs. i first met her outside of a café in Bochum where she was knitting a big fluffy Iceland style pullover, as she had spent lots of time living in Iceland. the second time i saw her in a sweater with a fox picture. i immediately had to show her my fox earrings i was wearing those days. on the last day of her Helgoland visit the sun was tickling my bedroom wall. we got inspired and played around for the sake of beauty.

for Maren's music you can check her page Girl and the Fox or visit her facebook site.

her left arm/shoulder tattoo was made by the Expanded Eye art duo, also to be found on facebook and instagram.

her right lower arm tattoo the leaf was designed by... me! <3 the ones who know me have seen it many times changing on my arm or had been given one, too, with my legendary permanent CD marker. since 2012 random examples one, two, three, four, five are to be found on my old blog. Maren eventually got it inked in Iceland.

ps:

“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world …”

Photography Adventure #3: Meadow Magic

From my left way up to the dark sky and down on my right I see the borders of our galaxy. The milky way all blooming in an August nights gloom. I live my dream - I live at the sea. Not only at the sea - I live IN the sea. Helgoland isn’t set at the water, it is far away in the north sea and contains out of sea shores as it is such a tiny piece of land. Often I make a late night run or walk around the island just to remember where I am and what my personal paradise feels like. while letting some music on my earphones give the rhythm to my steps, with my hips I start invisibly dancing. The beauty and whole sense of living here is to have the treasure just seconds away from the home door. It is above fantastic to be able to reach the beach and escape to the meditation zone within minutes.

When I go out past sunset it is like going to my very own personal Church. Here is where in my mind I pray in positive vibrations rather than thoughts, and above all I sense gratefulness. Here I sense - God remembers what I crave for, and I don’t really need to think in sentences. Stars replace candles, last bits of the setting sun replace all the golden framed imagery and the the smell of salted waves seals the whole deal of sacredness.

My Church feels more like a safety zone that way. I remember my own dreams and my real me doesn’t have to hide anymore neither fit in some kind of shapes.

The lighthouse scans the sky in ever same steps reminding us of how far away we actually are. The windmills in the far north join my earphone music with their collectively blinking red lights.

When I start heading home I am clean and free again. Super free, filled with air and freedom for the eye in such a tiny closed pinch of land miles and miles away from mainland. No real place to escape, and yet feeling more free and connected than ever.

How ever life goes on and no matter how much longer I stay here, this island will always stay the place for me, where I found peace and for a few seconds there decoded the sense of life.

Photos underneath of when Indre Winterrain was visiting and we went out for more photographic adventure.

Photography Adventure #1: Blue Smoke

a few years ago i discovered Tumblr (for those who don't know - it's a blogging platform for all sorts of media, but mostly used for images. this platform is used a lot to re-blog other people's images on the own tumblr blog; and so at the end you have a blog mainly with a collection of images from anyone who once shared an image on the web or on another tumblr blog). those image collecting tumbler blogs - which offer an on-growing collection of images dedicated to a certain theme, or colour, or mood.. - those are addicting. since i was writing my Bachelor theses, and then later my Master thesis, i kept on looking for tumbler blogs like this on the web just to distract myself and get lifted up a little bit from the grey studying monotony. i would say around 60% of the time that i actually had dedicated for my studies that day went on jumping from one image blog to another. just watching, scrolling, getting one inspiring moment after another. at that time i was admiring and observing and thinking 'oh wow! oh wow!.. oh wow....'. there were photographies and drawings i had never seen in any album, in any exhibition, any photography book. it would be images of dreamy meadows, girly things, flowers, witchcrafty details, mountains.. its hard to just describe.  today i can say this activity pretty much shaped my eye for what i want my photography to look like. the aesthetics, the compositions, the mood and colour combinations. at the end of this post i will put a few link examples for what i mean.now after have said all of this i am very happy to say that since recently i started creating more and more images on my own. usually in the past and of course still with a pleasure today i captured images on my travels and weddings the way i found them or the way i saw them. today more and more i try to put things and people in a scene and challenge myself with certain uncontrollable conditions. these images bellow are a result of one recent experiment: putting a person in a scene in a pre-defined outfit in a pre-chosen location at a certain time of a day. adding a requisite to all of that, like a colourful smoke torch that i don't know anything about but had seen it on many of the tumbler blogs mentioned above . i am starting to feel deeper satisfied with the fact that i am getting closer to the image aesthetics which i have admired so much once. i can actually be a creator of one of those dreamy image.

now these are a few of the images i created together with Indre when she recently visited me on my current home - the island Helgoland.

as promised i am sharing a few of my most influential imagery blogs:

http://fiebre.tumblr.com/ http://shawnlowe.tumblr.com/ http://www.carissagallo.com/ http://juliatrotti.tumblr.com/ http://cabinporn.com/ http://madfuture.com/

now of course todays Pinterest and Instagram had made it a bit different and i mainly scroll through those sites today instead of Tumblr. yet it's just a little tribute and a thankful thought that i dedicate the creators and participants of Tumblr ,-)