My blog

Walking through Ulm

Saturday, Apr 21, 2012 12:17AM / Standard Entry

Yesterday I’ve been walking through town with my camera to take some shots. It’s really easy to take images when you are traveling to some place you don’t know very well because beeing in town has become a too familiar location. But sometimes there will pop up some new ideas or some old ones of already missed opportunities.

The Ulmer Münster appears to be stuck in Ulm’s well known fog. The majestic and world’s highest spire reaches for the still far ahead but approaching cloud bank.

Since this year, this miniature model is beeing displayed to all visitors and citizens of Ulm. If you are a local, you will recognize every single spot.

That afternoon, this miniature certainly draged all my attention on it. Though I knew it’s standing there since a while, I really never have taken a closer look before.

Green it is everywhere in Ulm, very common narcissus or the rosy and ‘glowing’ cherry blossoms. The bee seems to be busy already.

The Blau (Blue) originates from the Blautopf , about 14 Kilometers away from Ulm and leads into the Donau (Danube). Before doing so, it’s passing through the Ulmer Fischerviertel (fisherman’s quarter). The Fischerviertel belongs to the oldest parts of Ulm.

Free imagination, what do you see?

This is the city library. A modern designed glas pyramid in the center of the city’s historic center.

Dusk is approaching and the sun will disappear, leaving back behind the sky,cooling down and darkening.

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Tamriel Map II

Thursday, Apr 5, 2012 12:31AM / Standard Entry

It’s April and typically for this month we have what we call, the april weather. That’s unsettled weather of it’s best kind. Sun, rain, wind, sun wind rain, rain, sun and so on.
When I pack up work and the weather is in my favor, I sometimes take out the big board, where the draft is nailed on, outside the garden. Recently did so and continued with the western and southern coastline including High Rock, Hammerfell, Sunset Island, Valenwood, Elsweyr, Cyrodiil and Blackmarsh. After finishing the by rivers pervaded Blackmarsh, I had to put in a break. Morrowind with Vvardenfell’s thousand of Islands will be next as well Skyrim and the rest of High Rock. Then I made it around whole Tamriel.

The southern provinces from left to right:
Valenwood, Elsweyr, Cyrodiil and Blackmarsh

Blackmarsh rivers and deltas. This particular province took just as much time as the rest of the southern coast did.

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Olympus Badge

Tuesday, Apr 3, 2012 2:02AM / Standard Entry

Recently I had an small idea to improve the appearance of my camera bag. Usually when people carry their cameras, you can recognize the brand by the carrying strap, most time titled with Canon, Nikon or Sony. Since I use Olympus and hardly carry my camera outside the bag due to it’s size and weight(when fully equipped), I’d still like to show, what kind of camera I use.

Of course it should look very unique and special and so it happened, that I’ve made my own custom badge. Planing, constructing and execution have been done within only two hours. I knew from the very beginning, what I’ve been looking for.

So after everything has been finished, I end up with this small shiny badge, ready to be mounted to my camera bag.

The E-Series is a camera system by Olympus that has been produced between 2003 and 2010. The Olympus E-5 is the last model of the line. I began with an E-510, released in 2007 and continued with an E3, also released that same year.

The main frame is made out of aluminium combined with a stainless steel cover. Beneath the cover is a framed piece of copper. For optical purpose, 12 inherently safe nuts have been added to the outer frame.

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My Elder Scrolls Tamriel Map

Sunday, Jan 29, 2012 8:36PM / Standard Entry

Each game so far took place in one province of the continent Tamriel. Hammerfell and High Rock have been the first ones in TESI Arena and TESII Daggerfall. Morrowind, Cyrodiil and Skyrim are the most recent provinces. Since Arena, there has been a official map of that particular continent.

The official map of Tamriel

What is the Lore in Elder Scrolls? – It is the definition of the whole world as it’s beeing described by ingame books and stories. Tales, History, Geography and much more to fill the whole world. But the computer games unfortunatelly can’t handle that much content and get cropped to a more playable version. Major cities ingame appear to be small as villages but in the lore they are actually very big.

I’m not very well acquainted with the lore myself and so I decided to create a more fictional map based on many official and fanmade maps.

Especially Skyrim(north), Cyrodiil(center) and the Island Vvardenfell (Morrowind) appear to be extremely detailed because I took them from the official maps.

Tamriel Map redone

After that job was done, the template needed to be created. Imagine I draw everything on a normal piece of paper first, then copy it to my final paper sheet.

Tamriel Copy Image

Skyrim Map Mountains

In the meantime I’ve prepared the aged paper sheet of 100x70cm with the classic black tea method. I love the way the wrinkles show up that strong contrast.
Actually I intended to weather it at the end but the ink will blend out in contact with water and destroy the drawing.

I’m into the game series since The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind, released in 2002. After TESIII, Oblivion pleased the RPG gamer community with a new vast open world and fantastic graphics. Then on 11th November 2011, the fifth game of the series called Skyrim took it up to the next level.
Each game so far took place in one province of the continent Tamriel. Hammerfell and High Rock have been the first ones in TESI Arena and TESII Daggerfall. Morrowind, Cyrodiil and Skyrim are the most recent provinces. Since Arena, there has been a official map of that particular continent.

There have been very beautiful illustrated maps within the game’s case wich differ each time in style. One day I came up with the mind, to recreate a map like this including all provinces at once and not just a single one. As well I should put it down with ink on paper. But on a size of 100x70cm I need an detailed template of the locations and the shape. My biggest problem is the lore of the Elder Scrolls World.
What is the Lore in Elder Scrolls? – It is the definition of the whole world as it’s beeing described by ingame books and stories. Tales, History, Geography and much more to fill the whole world. But the computer games unfortunatelly can’t handle that much content and get cropped to a more playable version. Major cities ingame appear to be small as villages but in the lore they are actually very big.
I’m not very well acquainted with the lore myself and so I decided to create a more fictional map based on many official and fanmade maps.
Especially Skyrim(north), Cyrodiil(center) and the Island Vvardenfell (Morrowind) appear to be extremely detailed because I took them from the official maps.

After that job was done, the template needed to be created. Imagine I draw everything on a normal piece of paper first, then copy it to my final paper sheet.

In the meantime I’ve prepared the weathered paper sheet of 100x70cm with the classic black tea weathering method. I love the way the wrinkles show up that strong contrast.
Actually I intended to weather it at the end but the ink will blend out in contact with water and destroy the drawing.