hey!

did anybody notice the sundog that could be seen on …wait…
december 28th at 11:00 am CET that was!
(no, i don’t remember, the picture’s exif-data says so :shock:)

in case you missed it, that’s what it looked like:

seems to be a rather rare event, given that it’s caused by hexagonal ice crystals that need to have the same (=horizontal) orientation…
i was just given a scientifical explanation for this – check this site out for mor information.

besides: the german translation for sundog would be “nebensonne”

happy new year to everyone!
may your new year’s res-illutions at least last for another two weeks! :wink:

besides watching over our bang-traumatized dog i managed to get a few good shots of the fireworks in our neighbourhood. my new nd-filter and the radio remote control i got for christmas came in very handy!

little side note: i think it was a really humanitarian gesture to cancel the big-city fireworks in austria and – instead of blowing up loads of money in 20 minutes – contributing the money towards a fund for the earthquake/tsunami victims in southern asia! my family did the same.
and: innsbruck’s mayor disclosed her real power (and a very bad attitude) by saying she wouldn’t cancel innsbruck’s fireworks and giving in the very next day. i think she’s trying to tell us that (1) she’s just a political marionette and (2) she doesn’t really care about things outside our borders?

anyway, some pictures:

[view photos]

the german word “rorate” is maybe best described by “early-in-the-morning-christmas-time-mass “.
some friends and i decided to sing at one of those, which turned out to be the last one – just 2 hours ago.
luckily i got (almost) well again in time!

the church wasn’t lit at all, the only source of light were some candles, and every participant got one, too. up in the gallery we had some candles and a weak bulb for the organ. i didn’t want to use flash for the photos, so i stuck with my sony’s nightshot-mode for most of them. i didn’t take many pictures, anyway.

musically, i think it went really well. it wasn’t perfect, but a good result regarding the amount of rehearsals we could arrange and the time of performance: 6 am.
i LOVE to sing what is called “alpine christmas-songs” – traditional and almost unknown local christmas songs from some of tyrol’s valleys.
finally a chance to sing in a 6-voice male ensemble.

here’s one of the alpine christmas-songs for you:

[listen to sample]
ach mein seel’, fang an zu singen – zip [mp3], 1,1MB

 

[view photos]

 

merry christmas, everybody!

so…

i’ve been really ill for the past days, starting to feel better now.
since i can concentrate again, i’ve decided to upload some photos from late november. the “laptop-on-belly-way” is really nice and sparing, even if you’re sick!

where the hell did all the colours go?
all you can see now is white and grey, and some brown if you’re lucky… :???:

anyway, here are the first two updates:

[view photos: frost]
[view photos: piano special]

“piano special” was a recital organized by our music school. i went there to listen/take pictures of my brother playing the double bass (accompanying a little pianist with the rest of the young chamber orchestra), but i met some friends there, too…

more to come!

since my grandmother is on holidays in turkey this week, she lent me her car. *happy*
today i thought i should use it to full capacity, but i didn’t know where to go.
so i thought “what the heck, let’s go to grimms”. now, since i just made the name up that moment, grimms isn’t anywhere near a real (german) word…
but map24.com said that there’s a village called “krimml”, and that’s a nice compromise. :smile: especially since there’s a cascade in krimml, and a storage lake nearby, and the road leads up to 1600m and down again – so lots of different sceneries.

my little brother decided he was going with me, so we set out to krimml at 11:30. tom’s gps route planner did an amazing job! it’s so nice if somebody tells you what to do all the time…

we had a lot of fun while driving there, took some pictures, and went back again (with lots of short stops for photos). total driving time: 3 hours. total trip time: about 3 hours and 30 minutes.

the only thing that’s annoying when you’re driving is that you can’t use your camera. there was a lot of stuff i would have liked to take pictures of, but i had to concentrate on the road and there was no place to stop… well, anton took some for me!

anyway: thank you granny! (although you’re most likely not going to read this)

here’s some pix:
[view photos]

ok, it’s all fixed and (nearly) finished, so now i can tell:

a book is going to be published in mid-december, and i was asked to deliver photos! :grin:
it’s a book filled with wonderful poems by dr. ingrid riedl – and 10 of my favorite pictures.
the book is entitled “zauberfäden” (strands of magic) – which is also the title of the first poem inside.

go have a look at the cover:

and the invitation card:

(if you can make it – go there!)

and the
[screenshots]

thank you, lisa, ingrid & helga, for making this possible! looking forward to meeting you guys again!

ps: when it’s in store, i’ll post a link here!

yesterday, when i was waiting for a friend who …got away later than anticipated, i noted a few things:

[view photos]