foKuspoint

Snowmaggedon

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:34 -0500

That's what they call the snowstorm that just passed through. We were told that snow like this hardly ever happens. Well, the short time we live here we had two snowstorms. The December snowstorm of the century and now this. The amount of snow just short of a new record. We have 24 inches in DC.
After hanging out at home all morning we went out a bit in the afternoon, checked out the neighborhood. It was great. People everywhere, walking around having fun. When else can you walk on a major street during the day? It felt a bit like being on a ski trip, without the mountains of course.
Click here for some more photos of the winter wonderland.

Meet Abraham Lincoln

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:40 -0500

I guess this photo speaks for itself. Abraham Lincoln. This photo was made in the evening a couple weeks ago. I was surprised how crowded the Lincoln Memorial was at this time of the day. This statue is really impressive when you stand in front of it. The entire Memorial actually is.

DC - The Magic Hour

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:19 -0500

One more photo from my Saturday outing. This one was made in the early evening, not quite night yet, but dark.

Icy Water

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:49 -0500

Today was a fairly nice day, quite warm actually 47F, and so I went out to get to know my new home town. I thought it to be a good idea to see the monuments, some of them, and explore the city by foot and Metro.
I started out going to the Washington Monument Memorial, walked to the Capitol, back to the Monument Memorial, over to the World War II Memorial and then to the White House. That was more walking than I anticipated and now my feet hurt a bit. My trusted Salomon hiking shoes went bust (after 8 years) and I had to wear my sneakers which are not much younger. I need new walking shoes.
Despite the shoe issue it was a fun time. The photo here was made at the World War II Memorial. The water in the Reflecting Pool was partly frozen. Something hard to resist.

Wintery Dove

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:52 -0500

Last night we've been to a hockey game, Capitals vs Senators, and I made some fun shots with my camera. First I thought about bringing my Olympus but decided against it. Good thing. The seats are narrow and there wouldn't have been space for the backpack. The hockey photos can be seen in the words section: Unleash The Red!

For today I decided to post this photo of a dove. I believe it to be a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura). It snowed again last night and we had a little winter wonder land in front of our windows. The dove was just sitting there waiting to be photographed.

ATF Building In Washington DC

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:04 -0500

Finally out and about again. This picture was shot yesterday. It was very cold outside and windy. My fingers were like icicles. It was in the mid twenties (Fahrenheit not Celcius). I am not used to these kind of weather conditions. At least the sun was out. This photo was shot during a session for a real estate brokerage. Postprocessing was done with PhotoMatix.

Fun at Night

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:55 -0500

Last night I watched the X-Files on DVD, season 8 just in case someone is interested (not all the episodes of course). I also installed a new application on my Anroid phone while I was watching the show, FxCamera. Needless to say I had to test it right away. What a fun toy that is.
For this shot I set the camera to the toy cam filter with cross process emulation (blue). How cool is that. Due to the slow camera response it captured 2 scenes. I'm lovin' it.

Red Line

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:53 -0500

Now that I live in a city with a Metro I'll probably make quite a few photos there. Undergraound transportation does have it's own fascination. The escalators of this station are loud and melodical (well - sort of). They remind me of a free jazz session in times.

This photo was manipulated with the beta version of Bibble5. This version has quite a few improvements over the previous one, so I think I'll be testing it some more. Will it replace my beloved Lightroom? Probably not, but it has some neat features and it'll run natively on Linux, something Lightroom does not do.

Precipitation in the Form of Crystalline Water

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:31 -0500

We had snow last weekend. It was quite exiting. Later in the day it turned into rain, which of course is less fun.

Two more weeks until the new place is ready. I can't wait.

German Embassy in Washington DC

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:17 -0500

After our long trip east we went out today to stroll around town. One of our stops was the German Embassy in DC. I have to say it is a pretty cool looking building. It is not on Embassy row though.

DC seems to be a great city with beautiful neighborhoods. I'm looking forward to explore it more. Things are still somewhat unsettled and it'll be like that for a bit.

Goodbye West Coast

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:52 -0500

We are moving again. This time it's the real thing, not just a couple blocks down the street. We are heading to the other coast.
This pelican acted as a model at a pier. He wasn't shy at all (I actually have no idea if he really is a he or not), and seemed to pose for the people in front of him.

I will miss the beach and the weather, and pretty much everything else. But it'll be also a new start, a beginning of something great!

Aster - The Enchanted Flower

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:47 -0500

I read today that aster flowers are enchanted, and beside the capability of warding off evile snakes (what about the non evil ones?), they are also seen as a talisman of love. I had no idea. Quite a versatile plant.

Skipper - The Fast One

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:56 -0500

This hungry butterfly is a member of the family Hesperiidae, and superfamily Hesperioidea (they are the only family in this superfamily). They are named after their flight habits: quick and darting.
This family of butterflies is rather large. There are over 3500 skipper species and they can be found world wide.

The Birds

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:30 -0500

What are these birds up to? Do they gather for a little afternoon chit chat? Do they plan an attack like in the movie?

Leaf - A Plant Organ

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:22 -0500

I made this photo last week on a short stroll through town after a lunch. Originally we planned on a longer walk, but the full stomach didn't really agree so the walk was cut rather short - just back to the car. Lame - I know.
Time seems to fly and we already have October. Temperature wise you wouldn't really notice here. It's quite warm. In the 90ies where I work and good 10 degrees less where I live. Sometimes I do miss having four seasons.

Fig Beetle

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:20 -0500

This spectacular beetle is called fig beetle (Cotinus mutabilis). It has this metallic green color that looks so stunning in the sunlight.

The name of this beetle sort of says what it likes to eat. Figs, but also any other kind of sweet fruit. They seem to be quite a burden when you grow fruit. You will never know how much will be left for you. Which is of course extremely frustrating or even financially disastrous if this is your livelyhood. But no matter what, I think they look beautiful (I don't have a garden).

A Spider Spins a Silk Web

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:21 -0500

This beautiful spider is a Garden Spider, probably belonging to the family Araneidae. I tried to find out which exact Garden Spider this is, I guess some kind of orb weaver, but wasn't successful. If you know, please post the name.

Diving In

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:24 -0500

A creepy crawly shot today. After lunch we had a nice walk around the Terranea Resort near Palos Verdes. The trail along the bluff is really nice and the view is awesome. This bee was busy drinking nectar from those little flowers, which are beautiful by themselves.

A Day at The Beach

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:22 -0500

Labor Day weekend. We went out to Huntington Beach, walked along the pier. It was very nice. The weather was great and the beach was packed. Many people took advantage of the work free day to have some fun at the beach before school starts again.

I finally did it - I bought a new Laptop, a MacBook. Oh do I love that little thing. Lightroom runs so nicely on it; compared to the Windows versions it seems snappier, faster even, although in theory my desktop is a stronger machine and has faster drives. My DVI KVM should arrive in a week or so. I can't wait to hook it up to my nice monitor...

House on a Slope

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:29 -0500

Today's photo is from Seattle again. This house is close to the public market. What caught my attention originally were the reflections from the building across the street.