My New (Woman) Purse

I'm not sure that I really have to specify, but since we've talked a lot about man purses here on Schnitzelbahn, perhaps I do.

While I really enjoy photography and love my camera, I struggle with how to carry it - especially for a long day of sightseeing. For Herr J - with his larger bag, stronger muscles, and smaller camera/lenses - it's not a major issue. He can easily fit his camera and several lenses in his manpurse, with plenty of room to spare. Plus, and let's be honest here...he doesn't care quite as much how it looks with what he's wearing or how it matches his shoes. This could change once he has multiple manpurses...we shall see....

I had a purse or two that were big enough to carry my camera and perhaps one additional lens. But their shoulder straps are always slipping off (especially when wearing a coat) and give me shoulder pain after an hour or two. When hiking or doing a lot of outdoor walking, I can use my wonderful little camera backpack. It's falling apart (the zipper is on its last legs) but it has some padding and the dual straps are much better on the back. Plus, since it's on there securely, I have both hands free.

The problem with the bag, however, is that most museums here prohibit any backpack style bags, no matter the size. While this bag is smaller than my purse or Herr J's, it's apparently the style that is the issue and the museums force you to check it. You can probably take a Birkin bag through, but not a small, flat camera backpack. Annoying and also I usually carried this as a combo purse/camera bag, so wouldn't want to check my wallet and sunglasses and phone as well.

After too many sore shoulders and annoyances, I had to make a change. I had seen a few really cool ones on US websites, including Kelly Moore's bags which look like a stylish purse from the outside, but are structured to protect your gear. However, the truth is that I'd also been looking for an excuse to get either a George, Gina, & Lucy or a Liebeskind bag. I love the hardware on the GG&Ls or the supersoft leather on the Liebeskinds, but I really liked the idea of getting something German and not yet well-known in the US. Occasionally I'll see a paparazzi photo of someone carrying a GG&L in LA, but it's not yet a well-known brand there. I hope it stays that way! Unfortunately I doubt it, especially now that they make leather versions (beautiful but NOT in the same price range!)...

Basically I was looking for the perfect blend of form and function, of style and structure. So, I took Herr J to go purse shopping.

Don't worry guys, this was not the cliché of dragging your man along for hours of painful shopping, asking if he prefers these Navy Blue shoes to those Prussian Blue ones that look indistinguishable to the average male eye. No, this was more of a surgical strike. I had done my recon, selected potential targets, and planned to have dinner afterwards at Augustiner am Dom. Nothing like the prospect of flammkuchen, zwiebelrostbraten, and tasty beer to hurry the process along!

So, our outing was successful and Herr J provided invaluable advice. Really!

Though it is not my typical style, I ended up getting a messenger style bag. I had planned to get something that at minimum had a shoulder strap, though I gravitated to the tote-style bags that had both handles and straps.  Herr J accurately pointed out that (1) this design will better distribute the weight, (2) keep my hands free for taking photos, eating ice cream, holding a beer, or all of the above, and (3) the construction and fasteners used on the messenger bag are much sturdier and can handle the weight and wear & tear that will come from carrying around a D700 and a couple of lenses (Here threre's room to spare after a D700 with 24-70mm attached, plus 70-300mm and 100mm macro).

It also needed to have a secure zip closure, in case I'm somewhere that pickpockets are an issue.

I chose the blue, so that it would work for all seasons and with black or brown. That's the girly part of things... In the past few years, I find myself gravitating towards red or blue bags, since they are much more versatile with shoes and coats. Now that I have to think about wearing coats much of the year.

How has it worked?

This bag has surpassed all my expectations. In my travels for work, it has turned out to be a perfect laptop bag as well! That was a big surprise, and a huge help when I have travels or a lot of walking. Not the most formal bag, however, so I have my eye out for something sturdy but a bit dressier (I'm thinking red this time, probably leather). 

Sightseeing in Stuttgart

Ice (wall) Climbing in Finland

We've posted already about our Winter Adventure in Finland -- building an igloo, snowmobiling, and sampling local liqueurs.  Another highlight was trying ice climbing for the first time. 

Of course, one side-benefit was learning (and using) new gadgets!  In this case, we needed to attach crampons and learn to use an ice axe.  I had used crampons before while ascending Mt. Kilimanjaro, but they were not of the ice climbing variety.  The ones below are much larger and sharper - easy to rip a hole in pant legs if you misstep.  The ice axe was hard to use correctly -- most people swing it too hard and not quite at the right angle.  It requires much less power than you think to work.  You'll see it in action below...

                 

Here we are ready to go with crampons, helmet, and harness.  The harness is used for belaying as with rock climbing.  Don't be fooled by Frau A's pretty pink hat -- she was was one of the strongest climbers that day! 

                          

The "class" took place right at basecamp.  They have a climbing wall for summer, and create the ice face for winter.  Their web page does not give its height -- maybe 10 meters (30 feet)?

 

Here I am getting started.  We're not experts, but can tell you that the idea is to do most of the work with the legs.  The ice axe is used mostly to keep you on the wall -- in effect, you reach up and stab with the axe, plant one foot higher, and simply step up (then bring up & plant the other foot).  Rookies like our group send a lot of ice shards down below (need the helmet), but the instructor let the equipment do the work and could really move up the wall smoothly.

                   

Here is Frau A, about halfway up (left photo)... and then at the top! (right photo)  Once up there, the instructors let you pause to take in the view -- looking back over your shoulder to the frozen lake where we had made the igloos.

      

Frau A is clearly enjoying the success and the nice view!  After a pause, you lower your arms (with the two axes), lean back almost 90 degrees to the wall, and "walk" down.  Fun!  It's quite a workout -- using lots of muscles not needed at the computer desk.  Forearms were the hardest hit, gripping the axes all the time.                     

It was a great couple of hours and everyone in our group of five had a blast.  However, even after a number of climbs you still don't feel truly comfortable with the equipment / navigating up the ice.  None of us are ready to go ice climbing for real.  But it's a start.  Maybe we'll try a wall this summer and see what happens.

Google Doodles Quiz - Part 8...Popular Culture

In this prior post we briefly described Google Doodles and had a quiz.

Now it's time to guess the People and Items in Popular Culture whose birthdays were recognized with a Doodle:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answers below:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#1    Birthday of Lego bricks
#2    Birthday of Tetris
#3    Birthday of Pippi Longstocking ("Pippi Langstrumf" in Germany!)
#4    Birthday of the Ice Cream Sundae
#5    Birthday of Harry Houdini
#6    Birthday of Pac-Man (you could click on the logo and it opened a game you could play!)

The Demonym Quiz

I've received good feedback on the Google Doodles Quizzes... just quick, fun diversions.  So here's something else.

A demonym is the name for a resident of of particular locality.  In other words, "what do you call someone from...?".  Example:  People from New York are called New Yorkers.  Note that a "locality" can be a country, region, city, or any other recognized area.  Seems simple, right?

You might be surprised... A resident of Dundee (Scotland) is called a Dundonian.  Connecticut = Connecticuter.  See?

Now try to name the demonym for the following locations (answers below):

Twelve not-so-difficult

  1)   San Diego
  2)   Florence
  3)   Moscow
  4)   New Orleans
  5)   Michigan
  6)   Los Angeles
  7)   Denmark
  8)   Waterloo
  9)   Cyprus
10)   Damascus
11)   Sioux City
12)   Utah

Twelve more challenging

  1)   Phoenix
  2)   Savoy
  3)   Glasgow
  4)   Congol
  5)   Exeter
  6)   Halifax
  7)   Quebec
  8)   Manchester
  9)   Naples
10)  Brittany
11)   Liverpool
12)   Isle of Man

And one bonus!

  1)  Jupiter (the planet, e.g., an alien from Mars would be a Martian)

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ANSWERS 

Twelve not-so-difficult

  1)   San Diegan
  2)   Florentine
  3)   Moscovite
  4)   New Orleanian
  5)   Michigander
  6)   Angeleno
  7)   Dane
  8)   Waterluvian
  9)   Cypriot
10)   Damascene
11)   Sioux Cityan
12)   Utahn

Twelve more challenging

  1)   Phonician
  2)   Savoyard
  3)   Glaswegian
  4)   Congolese
  5)   Exonian
  6)   Haligonian
  7)   Quebecois
  8)   Mancunian
  9)   Neapolitan
10)   Breton
11)   Liverpudlian
12)   Manx

And the bonus...

  1)  Jovian

So, how'd you do?

The Hoffsicle

Apparently The Hoff has now conquered Britain, as Del Monte has made a raspberry-flavored popsicle in his image (to celebrate National Ice Cream Month).

I don't even know where to begin...Let us know if you're in the UK and tried one. Better yet, send a photo!

Photoblog - Paris!

As Frau A teased in a recent post, we flew to Paris for a weekend to meet a friend of mine from Fairport High School.  (Graduated over 20 years ago!)  This friend is a professor and is teaching a course over the next month in Paris, so it was a great opportunity to catch up with her and see the city again.

It was definitely a walking weekend.  On Saturday we started at the Arc de Triomphe, and criss-crossed our way across the city to Notre Dame.  With a stop for Frau A to shop for shoes, of course.  On Sunday, we wanted to see the Catacombs (closed!) so spent the morning inside the Louvre, walked past Luxemburg Garden to the hotel, then in the evening walked along Sorbonne and border of the Latin Quarter to a nice restaurant.  Click on the map below for a slightly more readable version:

 

Have to start with a classic - Le Tour.  Unfortunately, we were on the city's west side Saturday morning, so looking east to the Eiffel Tower (and into the sun).  Photos turned out OK anyway.  Isn't it funny that they had planned initially to take it down after the 1889 World's Fair?

Did *not* choose to wait in line to go up the Tower.  If you really want to do this, be there an hour before it opens.  Even around 10am, the line was a huge snake of probably 300 people.  Even the line to use the stairs was at least 100 people!  You can wait 2 hours, and we wanted to move.

Another icon - the Louvre.  Had to wait a little bit to have few people in the frame, and finally got some reflections in the water.  What is especially nice is all the green/garden areas you walk through to get to this neat architecture (see the map again).  NOTE:  all these photos are out-of-camera JPEG... the HDR versions are coming in a future post!

Final super-tourist shot - Notre Dame.  Again, it's a view seen a million times that just doesn't get boring.  The Seine with boat in the foreground, large stone towers behind... could have spent hours here clicking away with the camera.

Fortunately, we did pass by again on Sunday evening.  Love the "street art" in front (well, maybe this is just graffiti).  Actually, there are free Paris street art walking tours available.  Could be interesting next time.

One of the things I love about the Micro-Four-Thirds cameras is that the lenses are relatively small compared to "standard" (APS-C) DSLR cameras.  I changed to the Panasonic 100mm-300mm lens (equivalent to 200mm-600mm in full-frame terms!) and got some detail of the gargoyles on Notre Dame.  Randon fact:  gargoyles initially functioned to convey water from the roof away from the side of a building, which reduced erosion of the masonry.

On the brief detour for Frau A to get a pair of her favorite ballerina flats (I'll let her share the details in another post) we passed the Paris Opera. I used the same zoom lens here.  Rather than be physically near the building and zoom out closely (which would result in a strange, sharp "looking-up" angle), I stayed further back and used the lens' reach to get a better framed shot.  These two statues are actually quite far apart (see the wide picture at the Opera link above). 

In addition to the familiar sights, Paris seemed to present some unusual things as well.  We see a lot of street performers in Munich (painted silver or blue), but this person below the Arc de Triomphe is the first King Tut I've ever come across.  Pretty credible too.

There are always crowds in front of Notre Dame, but this lady stood out.  She was feeding the pigeons and seemed to share a close, personal relationship with one.  Great smile - obviously happy with her friend.

It was a brief, running-around, interesting, and funny weekend.  Good food too - that's yet another post.  I suppose that's Paris.  It was great to see an old friend, experience the city again, and take more photos.  Ironically, we didn't capture a lot of pictures of "The City of Light" in the evening.  Next time...

Photoblog - The Daily Commute

My trip to work every day goes like this:

- walk to S-Bahn station (above-ground trains)
- take S-Bahn to Ostbahnhof (East Station)
- transfer to U-Bahn (subway)
- walk to office

It is actually quite efficient.  Maybe a 5 minute walk plus brief wait for the S-Bahn, one stop to the East Station plus short wait for the U-bahn, 20 minute ride to the final stop, and 5 minute walk to my building.  And I can grab a butterbrezel for breakfast if needed...

I've always liked that I can read on trains (vs. driving).  But one of the reasons that I bought a Micro-Four-Thirds camera is that its smaller form factor allows me to carry it every day (in my man purse, of couse).  I've found that I can use the camera on the commute -- either getting to know it better (different settings), passing time before a train comes, or even capturing a unique moment.  Here are some examples:

On the return commute one evening, I arrived at the Ostbahnhof and noticed that the setting sun was low in the sky and the cloud arrangement made it look like the rays were streaming upwards.  Out came the camera.  I bracketed a few shots, and procesed this in Oloneo software for HDR tonemapping.

 

It was funny:  the taxi in the above photo (lower right) was waiting in line for new passengers, so he got out and started giving me suggestions on taking better photographs!  Here is another bracketed result, zoomed out a bit to get mostly sky.  Both results are a little grainy... I need to improve skills a bit.  But cool nonetheless.

The next photo was taken at my S-Bahn station - the first point in the morning commute.  The train on the other track was stopped for pasengers so I experimented with bracketing again.  I liked the detail that comes out in the train windows, and the sky is OK too.

The following photo is at the same station, but this time coming back from a late night at the office.  Almost home... but I took a moment to experiment with slower shutter speeds to capture a passing S-Bahn.  Hand held - not too bad.  The prominent yellow streak is the text that shows what train it is.  You can also see the red body color and the white stripes at the top & bottom of the "train" too.

 

When the weather is nice, I'll take a quick lunch and walk around with the camera.  On the edge of the work campus sits this semi-circle thing for sitting and relaxing.  Again, I took 5 bracketed photos and this time merged and tonemapped in Photomatix software.  Photomatix tends to produce great clouds and stone, and here enhanced the clarity of white clover in the grass (foreground).

Between two of the buildings lies a walkway, perhaps at the third floor level.  I just like how this came out, with the yellow against the blue sky (and seeing through the windows).  You will see stickers of birds on many windows in Germany -- I think they mimic outlines of predators and deter smaller birds from crashing into the glass.

 

This is a different walkway at ground level.  You again see a sticker of a bird.  Like the S-Bahn above, I like how merging and tonemapping brings out details through the window - this is pretty agressive processing though.  The white pyramids seen through the windows let light into tunnels running underneath the campus here.  At night, light from the tunnels make the pyramids glow slightly.  (I tried a shot of that, but really need my tripod...)

 

This next photo is at the U-Bahn station near the office.  This was after another long day of work, and I was experimenting with the Olympus "dramatic tone" art filter and liked the result.  Nice and contrasty.

 

If you take the stairs in the above photo, you end up on the platform.  (Oddly, this U-bahn station is above ground -- the end station of this line.  The trains immediately go underground from here.)  While waiting for the train to arrive, I took this photo after an early-evening rain.  I pushed up the contast and saturation a bit to exaggerate the cars and the water on the streets.

 

From the same platform as before... but obviously on a day when work lasted a lot longer!  This time I was practicing being steady with hand-held shots at longer shutter speeds.  The same hotel is on the left, but now you see part of the campus on the right side.  Funny - a bus was at the stop in each photo (lower left)!

 

This next shot is on the subway boarded from the platrorm above.  It's really late, so there are few passengers.  I could see down the train more than usual, and tried a few different shots.  Stability was an issue, but this one came out pretty nicely.  This again uses the internal dramatic-tone filter because bracketing would have been impossible on the moving train car.  I also found it amusing that I caught the signs in the middle of an update -- and the one closest to me had not yet caught up with the others (or had it just changed and the others would soon follow?).

I have to end with one more shot of the great sunset.  Even when I left the Ostbahnhof and got home, the sky was still interesting.  I bracketed this result from my building, with the sun hovering above the buildings.  Really fascinating how the sky is blue above the clouds, but below we get sunset colors.  There's some lens flare and red spots (an occational Olympous problem) but still an interesting outcome.

 

I love having my camera around to use any time (thanks, man-purse!).  Hopefully the experimentation and repetition help improve my skill, but in any case it's a lot of fun.