Schnitzelbahn's Summer in Photos

Wow, it's been a roller coaster of a summer here at Schnitzelbahn. I don't mean in the up and down sort of a way...it's all been up! But I do mean in the way that once you get on the ride, there is no getting off until you reach the end! And it zips by at high speed!

While we try to unpack and recover and go through all the photos, here's a quick recap of the last few months. We'll post in more detail about each soon, especially our exciting wedding week.

Of course the highlight of the summer was our wedding 2 weeks ago in Charleston, SC. The one downside to it being your own wedding is that it's impossible to take pictures. So, we just have to wait a few more weeks until we get the photographer's photos. Herr J is pretty patient, but the waiting is killing me! 

At the reception, with our awesome caterers from Cru Catering

But in addition to the wedding planning we've also been working hard, working out, and trying to fit in a bit of travel where we can. Since this year I needed all my vacation for the wedding and honeymoon, we've tried to make some fun trips around the area. 

In the weekends leading up to the wedding, we combined those goals with some hikes in southern Bavaria.

After an earlier abortive attempt to hike up Wendelstein due to rain, we were determined to go up the next time, no matter the weather. Despite the heavy fog, we did make it to the very top, and saw absolutely nothing. But it was a great day and we had good company (and hiked the final hour in pouring rain).

On the way back down from WendelsteinLuckily the weather was better for the next hikes, though they were pretty tough ones, both over 1,000m climb!

View from atop the Rotwand

Herr J coming down from Guffert 

We also had the chance to see a bit of Germany's other regions when we attended friends' weddings in Duisburg (the Ruhrgebiet) and Lennestadt (the Sauerland). 

Landschaftspark in DuisburgMorning hike in the Sauerland

And we ventured a bit further with a long weekend road trip through the Czech Republic to see the sites, tour a couple of breweries, and visit dog breeders.

Cesky Krumlov

Did I mention PUPPIES??!!!!

 

We acquired some more photography gear in anticipation of our honeymoon safari, and practiced on the zoo animals.  

And of course took some weekend morning walks to feed the ducks and enjoy all the cute babies. 

And the persistent, but maybe not as cute, geese.

For me, it was also a summer of sewing projects. I'm currently finishing up a big scarf I started knitting on my weekly commute. However, I did develop a much closer relationship with my sewing machine (and make numerous trips to the fabric store) while sewing trachten-inspired bags for our wedding favors. 

And finally finished the dirndl I started last year. Had I known I'd be getting married this year, I would have picked a lighter fabric more suitable for a wedding reception. But still, I'm looking forward to wearing it to Oktoberfest this week.  

This year was a special birthday, as I had the chance to celebrate it many times. My birthday was exactly a week before our wedding, so I was in the US for once. It was a fun week of lots of cakes, presents, and time with friends and family. After celebrating with family on the actual birthday, my girlfriends from Dallas surprised me with a tasty chocolate ice cream cake the next day. One of my best birthday(week)s ever!

mmm....ice cream cake!

And after a week of work in New York, here we are back to reality....well, not yet reality or normal life...back to Oktoberfest!

Löwenbräu at the Oktoberfest opening parade

Friday Photo Favorite: Sauerland Spiderweb

More later on our past month of marathon travels, but here's a quick photo from a morning walk last weekend while we were in the Sauerland for a wedding.

Friday Photo Favorite: Charleston Door

Day-to-Night photos of NYC from Stephen Wilkes

Following the light paintings and effects by Lichtfaktor, we found some more fresh photography perspectives.
This time, it is Stephen Wilkes' "Day to Night" exhibit in New York's ClampArt gallery (see at Fstoppers).

His idea is to blend day and night views (of NYC, of course) into a single image.  ClampArt describes it as a
"merge of classic street photography and cityscape styles".  Here is the Flatiron Building, my personal favorite:

In order to achieve the effect, Wilkes photographs a scene for a minimum of 10 hours!  Coney Island, below:

Some of the others in this series (see his site, or the gallery) appear to be night photos with unusual lighting --
I prefer the three images linked here because they have a more impactful (to me) difference across the frame.
(Below:  New York Public Library, with Rockefeller Center and part of the skyline in background)

I can't imagine the post-processing involved with producing these, but the result is worth it.  Also would love to see the big physical prints in person.  Exhibit is open through October 29, 2012, for those in or around the Big Apple.

A Schnitzelbahn History: the beer blogs

We've received some feedback from readers that we should add "index" pages for specific content.
An index page is better than the Categories ("Navigation" on the right side of this page) because
you don't have to scroll through entries you've already seen -- instead, just go to the entry you want.

So, here is a brief index of our blog entries about beer:

- We put together a NCAA Basketball Tournament-style, 64-beer bracket, and tasted down to a champion.
   The "beer tournament" has its own index here going through every round of the competition.

- We tasted the starkbiers (bockbiers) from four of Munich's big breweries.

- Pope Benedict XVI is Bavarian, so naturally we blogged about the Pope Beer.
  This would go perfectly with the beer stein with the Lord's Prayer on it.

- Frau A made me a Christmas Advent calendar:  a case of beer.  24 in total, a different one each day.

- Companies are experimenting with champagne-style beers, such as these from...
   -  Sam Adams and Weihenstephaner (follow-up tasting here) and
   -  Sylter Hopfen

- In another German-U.S. collaboration, Schneider Weisse and Brooklyn Brewery joined forces to create a
   "pale weissbock".  We tasted this and report on it here.

- One German company tried using American-style longneck bottles with an opener on the bottom.
  In the same post, a couple of videos show you how to correctly pour a weissbier.

- Passing through Barcelona, we tested two Spanish beers (A.K. Damm and Estrelladamm).

We have also had some fun & interesting brewery and other related tours:

- We took a tour of the Kuchlbauer brewery and the crazy/unique "beer & art" Hundertwasser tower.
   Part 1 is here, and Part 2 is here.

- The owner of the Lamplbräu microbrewery, in the heart of hops country, gave us a great walk-through.

- In the Hallertau region of Germany, we walked through hops fields and later through the Hops Museum.

We'll keep adding to this index page as more blog posts fall into this category...

Friday Photo Favorite: The Big Day...

It's finally here...tomorrow is our wedding!

Lichtfaktor -- painting with light

Instagram has taken photo-effects to the masses, but there's still countless ways to experiment with images.  One example is Lichtfaktor (light factor, or light element perhaps):  Their web site says they are "a collective of light-painting artists" who are "pioneering into new territories".  Hard to argue with that, when you see their work.

I think the technique of light painting is using moving lights during long exposure, but that surely is an over simplification of what they do and how they do it.  The results range from simpler light-added shots...

and

...to full-blown light "paintings":

They will also set up at corporate events -- I need to have my company hire them!  One of their booths:

Employees (or customers, say, at a convention/trade fair) can get an enhanced photo like this Audi guy...

...or something altogether different, like these angel's wings on this woman:

In addition, they hold light-painting workshops.  I would love to attend one of these with Frau A:

They have many more neat pics on their portfolio page.

But their neatest trick to date?  VIDEOS.  Check out this one for Levi's -- production result starts around 1:45:

The growing plants, moving animals, and just-plain-fun and creative graphics are absolutely fantastic.
Well done, Lichtfaktor!