video: rodeo party

Looking forward to a charity event at our barn and realizing I’ve never even shared this video of our big rodeo party some weeks ago.

By the way, I get asked sometimes why I keep my videos so blurry and in case you were wondering:
a. I like how out of focus photos and videos can sometimes capture the feel of a situation much more intensely than in-focus shots. And my videos are essentially designed to capture athmosphere and feeling rather than every detail of a situation. For me big events and masses of people in reality often seem to go by in a blur, unsharp with little details sticking out unnaturally clear (must be the HSP in me I guess…my way of dealing with information overload) and my videos try to accentuate that.
b. I plain don’t feel comfortable filming people in detail and putting this stuff online without getting written consent from them first (something I do with all my photos incidentally).

Wishing you all a great weekend!

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video

A first approach, a quick cut of one perfect day at our beautiful barn.
Please be kind…I know it’s too choppy and shaky and short and all sorts of things, but it literally took me days to make it.

I learned loads making this and I’m hooked…even though video is so much more complicated than photography. I think I still prefer the (almost) instant gratification a lovely picture offers but I’ll keep on playing with video in the future!

sundays

It’s about time I posted some random horse shots again, right? There’s a new boy at the barn and he’s gorgeous.

Sometimes the sunday I spend at the barn, in the arena or going for a relaxing trail ride, is the best part of my week. Definitely this week.

I don’t like to be negative in this space, but the truth is, I’m plain exhausted this week. There’s some family troubles right now (or still I guess), coming at us from different directions. Some days I think it’s going to be ok but often it just feels as though we’re all falling apart at the seams.
I’ve always been proud to say that I’m a person people can rely on, that if someone asked for help, I’d be there. Now I find myself drawing back, trying to proctect my emotional balance, fragile as it is anyway, to be able to keep on going. I guess there’s a fine line between self-protection and egoism and I can’t see it.

Anyway, that was just waiting to get out. We do have a lot to be grateful for and one thing I am intensely grateful for is some down time at the barn and a pony who makes me laugh, trying to catch waterdrops landing on his nose wile he’s being brushed.

same procedure

as every sunday.

And I still love every minute of it.

christmas recap

I hope you all had a wonderful christmas! We certainly did.
We spent Christmas Eve at my mom’s, Christmas Day at my boyfriend’s parents and the 26th at the barn.

It’s still Winter Wonderland around here, at the barn especially.

We had a Santa Claus parade.

Despite all the difficulties that come with continous snowfalls around here (especially with a small car and a public transport system that all but collapse at the hint of snow), it is sort of magical, and quiet, and nice.

indian summer at the barn

My favourite place in the world.

dressing up

Germany is known for its love of Carnival but, though I live in a Carnival-crazy area, I am not really into it. Too cold, too many people and too much drinking for my liking.
Every year in August though we have a horse rallye at the barn which involves a 4-hour-ride through the woods, stopping at different stands to do funny games with or without horses and collecting points. It also involves dressing up and there’s a price for best costume.
This year, my friends and I dressed up as bavarians (no, we do not dress like that in everyday life…ever!) and since we rode a bunch of Irish Tinkers the horses went as cows.
My friend with make-up on but still in normal clothes (isn’t she gorgeous?):

and Dana in full costume (I have no words for this, except to say she looked absolutely perfect):

I don’t really have a good picture of the horses, but here you can guess at how they looked a little.

In short, they wore horns and a bell with their names (Lotti, Seppl, Resi, Julchen…their real names btw are Johnny, Sky, Jimmy and Nico). Their manes were braided and we stuck little bavarian flags in them. Their tails we put in tights and they wore a blue and white tulle bow. OK, writing this it sounds not very animal friendly but please be assured they didn’t mind at all! They are the friendliest and most placid little horses and cared very little for anything but the fact that they got to go on a nice long walk through the woods.
In fact, they are the perfect horses for things like that, they don’t spook or get nervous by the games and they had a big part in our coming out 6th place (out of 25).
At every stand we performed a little sketch ourselves, made the stand people yodel and gave out a yodel diploma, some chocolate and these cute bottles of raspberry liquor as reward:

Need I mention we won best costume?

holga color love

The first color shots out of my Holga are finally done and scanned and I am in love (again). Unfortunately medium format color film is pretty pricey but I will have to splurge on it once in a while I think.
These were all taken at the last rodeo at the barn:


Aching feet after a day’s riding:

Yummy candy for sale:

The oppressive heat we’ve been having has been hard on the horseys as well, with little shade and lots of flies on their pastures:

And, to save the best for last (something I always find very hard to do…anyone seen the movie ‘Remember Me’? I have my dessert first too):

kid’s council 2010

Our annual charity event at the barn took place last saturday. We always have a big kid’s camp for 3 days and on the saturday host an 1880 country fair for the public, having a rodeo and horseriding show, lots of fun games and selling homemade wares. All the money is later donated to charity, so it is all for a good cause.

All the men at the barn put an incredible amount of work into preparing for the fair, building little stands for the games and selling wares all winter.

Every little detail is tended to and of course all is handmade and handbuilt and handpainted.



I didn’t take as many photos as I would normally have, because I was helping prepare the fair and then sell stuff the whole day.

Also I am not comfortable with sharing photos of people on the internet without them knowing, so I’m sticking to still lives here.


The light at the counter was perfect in the evening and I took lots of lovely close-up portraits. As these two gals are my friends I hope they won’t mind sharing theirs:


And two more camp shots. I didn’t get many, so I hope these convey the athmosphere of the whole place:


With a tent and a fire and food and maybe a horse, what else is there to want in life? Sounds pretty damn perfect to me 🙂

at the barn

I honestly couldn’t think of a fitting title and I didn’t want to call this post ‘even more Holga photos’. But that’s what they are basically, more Holga photos and I am really loving them. The Holga is the camera I take to work (I couldn’t not take a camera, I feel naked without at least one camera in my bag), because it is so lightweight and inconspicious. I have a half hour lunch break during the day, but as I am actually eating lunch during work I can just wander around Cologne in that time. You’ll probably get lots of Holga city shots on here in the coming weeks 😉
Ok, enough rambling, here are the pics, developed at home again:

The barn is one of my favourite places in the world, I can’t even explain why. Some more western shots of my friend:


And a last one that wasn’t actually taken at the barn, but I really like it (it’s called ‘Rainy days call for pretty shoes’):

Today is a bank holiday in Germany, which is why I had time to write this post in the first place. Planned for today is: sewing, horseriding, taking photos and barbecuing, all in bright sunshine 🙂
Hoping you are all having a nice day too!