My Hobbies

Photography attracted me since highschool where I used the light room of the facility for black and white photo processing. Back in 1990 during journeys to the US as a professional I bought in Boston my first SLR camera, a Nikon FM2. That camera accompanied me on overseas trips to New Zealand and Australia. Since then I got addicted to this brand and upgraded my camera equipment steadily.  Currently I am using  a Nikon D7500 and Nikon Z8 with  the „holy trinity“ of full-frame lenses plus some fast fix focus lenses. Primarily I am using the cameras for photo shooting in nature and during travelling. Sometimes I was invited to events like weedings or anniversary parties to take pictures, a task which needs a kind of unobtrusivness and an ability to gain the trust of the photographed.

Hiking is one of my favourite outdoor activities. The picture on the left was taken on a tour on the hiking trail called Eifelsteig. That 313 km long distance trail is crossing the national park Eifel in a couple of stages. It starts in Kornelimunster nearby  Aachen and ends in Trier. I began that hobby back in 1989 as a kind of relief from a stressy job. One of my favourite hiking areas is the Canarian island „La Palma“. Meanwhile we are a group of six friends who meet every month for a hike in the wider surrounding area of our home county.

In 1996 I started with motorcycling again. Motivated by some friends I bought BMW R850 and enjoyed a couple of long distance journeys in the Alps, Spain and France. Three years later after 60,000 km I replaced that bike by a BMW R1150 GS which you see on the left picture which was taken in Norway on a ferry across one of those marvellous fjords. Due to the lack of time my girl friend and I did not make it to the North Cape. Anyway,  I made the trip to the North Cape in 2022 – now with a R1200 GS , one of the last air cooled versions of the GS. Probably you may be interested in reading my Norway travel blog. On October, 2023, I decided to focus more on photgraphy and activities for the organisation NABU. Therefore, I sold my motorbike to friends starting with the motorcycling hobby. As Nelly Furtado sang „All good things must come to an end“ .