Germany

I was pretty fortunately this year to meet Melanie. She is from Germany but has been living in the US. When she moved back to Germany for a bit I decided to take a vacation to not only visit her, but also to check out where she is from, you know, get the guided tour from someone who lives there. So I got a ticket and headed off to Germany.

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My flight was great, direct from Denver to Frankfurt. I got off the plane and walked on through customs and waiting at the other side was Melanie. It was great to see her! We headed off to see the country she grew up in… Of course, we started by getting some coffee since I was kinda jet Lagged.

The first morning I woke up Melanie was making breakfast and asked me to go to the pet store to get some feeder crickets for her brothers frogs. We were taking care of his apartment and his pets while he was on vacation and in exchange we also got to use his car. I agreed but in a small village in Germany, English isn’t exactly easy to come by… How exactly would you ask for crickets if you don’t speak any German? Melanie wrote me a note and I headed down the street to see what I could do. I walked in the store and looked around. Every where I looked I didn’t see any crickets… So finally I resorted to the note. After a quick greeting a woman took my note and grabbed some crickets and I was on my way.

We headed out to the world and over the next two weeks we were able to see Heidelberg, Sinsheim, Mannheim, Grombach, Bad Rappenau, Bad Wimpfen, Speyer and several other places along the way. We were able to see the Porsche Museum, The Auto & Technic museum and the Hockenheim ring. Yes, I know I am a nerd with the car stuff, but Melanie was very patient with my Car addiction and may have even enjoyed some of the experiences.

Melanie was great at showing me the area, we rode bikes to her families orchard, we explored Churches, castles and borgs. We ate all the local delicacies and we met people and saw what the towns had to offer. It was a great trip, a relaxing trip as well! We took photos of everything so how about I let you just check out each of the photos rather than ramble on!

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Bad Wimpfen Germany

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Bad Wimpfen

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Borg near Sinsheim

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Melanie outside of the borg near sinsheim. You can see the Vineyards in the background

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A view of the Vineyards at the Borg near Sinsheim. I will have to find out what the name of this place is again.

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The sunset over the Borg

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a panorama of the Hockenheim ring, Melanie is sitting in the seats on the right.

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A audi racing at the Hockenheim ring

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Melanie had told me that Germans really like to bring their own lunch wherever they go. These guys brought an entire spread, it was quite impressive and they may have had enough for us to join them, though we didn’t ask…

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The Hockenheim Ring Museum

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Mannheim Wasserturm

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Speyer, Germany
Speyer Dom

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Chris’s frogs that we were taking care of. Yes, I have a note that can get me crickets at a german zoo shop…just in case.

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Sinsheim Auto & Technik museum.

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Porsche Museum in Stuttgart

Daimlers Workshop, Stuttgart
Daimlers first workshop, this is where the first car was created.

Grombach
Melanies Grandmothers Barn and courtyard

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Heidelberg Castle

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Heidelberg

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The old bridge in Heidelberg

I will put up another post soon of my favorite photos from the trip. I guess this one is more of a quick tour through my trip to Germany.

AutoWeek

So for a few years I was a contributer to AutoWeek magazine. I shot photos and wrote articles for the Pikes Peak Hill climb. It was a very fun gig and I really enjoy that race, but eventually I had to give it up. I just have to many things on my plate and I needed to ease back a bit.

Steve Bennett from Martini racing at Devils Playground

One of my first articles for AutoWeek is one that I am most proud of. I was able to write for them with no restrictions. My article was just what I wanted it to be and although I felt that I could have expanded it a bit, it is an article that I would like to save. So take a moment and read this if you have a chance. I’d love to hear feedback, but I also just want to share it.

AutoWeek Link

Hells Belles at the Fox

It has been several years now that I have shot Hells Belles. It started off with a simple phone call and after I showed them my first shots I have been shooting many of their local shows ever since. I like the challenge of using the “natural” light of a venue. Some venues are definitely more of a challenge than others and some lighting tech’s are more challenging than others.

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The Belles are always good fun to shoot and they really do put on a great show! I hadn’t shot them for about 2 years when I finally got a new camera recently and figured it was time to stretch its legs! So how about we see what I got!

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Check out that guy smiling…kinda seems out of place doesn’t he?

Anyhow, The new camera is great, sharp pix. I find it to seem a bit less sensitive than my old camera, so I find that I have to shoot a bit lower shutter speed. I also think it really soaks up the reds a lot. so I may have to adjust a bit to that, overall i’m fairly satisfied with the results.

Here are a few favorites from the past several years with the old 1DMKII
Jamie

Jamie

Jamie

Adrian

Jamie

Adrian

Adrian

Anyhow, if you have never seen the Belles, check them out. They put on an amazing show and it is always worth the price of admission! Hells Belles Website