Last night, when we were young...

London Jazz Festival

Great things happening at the Southbank. The London Jazz Festival is on, and some great artists are playing, you can even enjoy free concerts. Marcus Miller, Kenny Wheeler and a few more made for some great fun on Saturday, I just had to spend all day there.

Desert Rose

Last week I spent a few days in the middle of nowhere, or to be more precise, in Phoenix, Arizona. As I came in a bit before my conference started,  I took the opportunity to cruise around the desert on a motorcycle (I would call that heavy metal "agricultural" at best). Anyway, it was great fun and you get the sense how lonely one can feel out there.

The trip was some 200 miles, and some of the views very truly impressive.

The temperature was certainly on the high side, with peaks reaching 33 degrees Celsius. Not bad for mid-November, is it?

Ah! What pleasant visions haunt me....

...as I gaze upon the sea...
Like the long waves on a sea-beach
Where the sand as silver shines,
With a soft, monotonous cadence,
Flow its unrhymed lyric lines....

Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The secret of the sea", 1850

Shoe shining man

Another image I took while on holiday in NYC, but only managed to put online today. The bloke was waiting for customers to get their shoes shined. I do love his facial expression. He could with no doubt also play a major role in a gangster movie, I thought...

There is something...

There is something....something about the quietness when the sun has gone down and the city comes to a peaceful rest....have to admit that when I spent a few days in NYC recently it was really nice. Been to the Big Apple many times, but this time it was holidays, and discovering new areas was a lovely experience.

Growth

A stroll along Finsbury Avenue. Finding the right angle puts the perspective into context, whether it is a skyscraper or a a branch of a soon-to-be flower....

A day at the races

A friend of mine invited me to watch him racing around Brands Hatch in his old Mini. Great fun!

And although the next image wasn't taken on the very same day I think it tells a great story, too: Its all about dreams and something we strive to achieve...I admit I really like this picture.

Beautiful weddings are the best

I was invited to Avignon, France, to attend one of my best mate's wedding. It was breathtakingly beautiful, the venue could have easily been featured in a movie about the best things in the Provence region.

The crowd was lovely, and everyone was very fashionable.

Another nice thing about the South of France of course is that you get the goodies, like three different types of cherries, handpicked in a timely fashion for breakfast.

Lazing on a sunny afternoon

Had my lovely friend and her daughter over from Germany just the other day. We were hanging round my apartment although it was a sunny afternoon. She was flickering through one of my photo books and I thought the scene was somewhat bizarre, but check for yourself; it certainly made me smile. What a really nice day.

Troubled men, the fools we are....

But then, at least some things make sense...

Paris, Texas...

Not quite Paris, Texas, but on my road trip from London to Frankfurt I had the opportunity to have a few hours at wonderful Bruges in Belgium.

You should go see it, it's well worth the trip.

Isle of Wight

A weekend on the Isle of Wight. Very cold, but one could see the beauty of the island shine through, guess that begs a summer visit. And you need a sailing vessel, of course.

The Shard

Just the other day I went up the Shard, which for a small moment was the tallest building in Europe (now overtaken by Moscow's Mercury City Tower).  Good enough for me, I thought, so I settled to take some pictures from its 95-storey high visitors platform.

The only perspective though I really liked was this one:

Finally, I took a nice shot once I was back down again, I just happen to like patterns in photography:

Symmetry

Just a close-up shot of a tulip....love the symmetry...

Breakable

Went for a very early walk in snow-covered Frankfurt this weekend. The blue light was beautiful, I thought. I wanted to take a picture of the tree on the plain field, as it was sort of majestic (sorry for the obvious and hence somewhat boring wording).

But somehow the tree's true beauty only got revealed once I got very close.

Some of the branches were completely covered in ice. It felt as if somehow the ice worked as an insulation against the cold. And it felt very breakable, too.

Landscapes and oysters

Another January and another trip to San Francisco. I had a few hours on Saturday to travel and one trip was particularly spectacular, with some of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen in a long while.

If you happen to have a bit of spare time in San Francisco try to follow Highway 1, and some 10 miles north of Point Reyes you will hit Hog Island Oyster Farm, well worth a visit.