So some time ago I´ve been in Spain for a little climbing trip with some friends. Here now, for you to see, are some 30 images of that trip. All shot on medium format film with my beloved Mamiya 7II!

Arriving at Barcelona Airport, on the way to the car rental.

We could stay at a friends house in Reus, her name is Conxa and you will see her later! The sun was about to set and i saw this beautiful painting with the last sunbeams on it and had to take a picture.

After the first day of climbing i wanted to inspect the property where the house was located. It´s a huge olive tree farm with lots of nice buildings and a nice garden with lots of benches and even a rooster in a cage! That was weird…

Oh and they have their own bamboo forest! That i wanna have too someday!

This is Siurana, one of the better climbing spots in Europe. Lots of hard routes there! This is the village up on the hill…ultimate beauty it is!

I guess this is my favorite photo of the trip. It shows the beauty of the landscape in Catalonia really well i guess! Lots of unclimbed rock there!

We had to stop here cause i thought it´s going to be a beautiful photograph!

The picture on the right shows the route “La Rambla”, one of the most famous and hard routes in Siurana (and worldwide).

Franziska in Siurana climbing a 6b+ route.

Our last day in Siurana. Weather didn´t turn out as we expected it during the trip, but it was okay, except on that day…-3°C…waaaay too fucking cold for climbing! So i just took a picture and went back to the car! Morli playing moron on the right!

That is the tourist area in Salou…it looked so fucked up without tourists and so dead, but i somehow found it nice for taking ugly-building-pictures.

On the left you see Siurana, on the right you see Margalef where we went for a 2day trip. Margalef has much shorter routes with a different kind of rock. I liked it more but it was supercold unfortunately. Morli flashing a 6c route.

Morli on a wee break.

Franziska at the beginning of Chris Sharmas project First Round First Minute, 9b. So you can soo how overhanging it is, what you dont see is that the holds of this route aren´t really there! CRAZY!!!

There is so much more potential. So many unexplored rock there…no wonder the climbing scene is so big in Spain atm…

So here we see 2 climbing stars on a superfamous and superhard route. Climbing is Nalle Hukkataival and belaying is Dave Graham. 2 world class climbers! The route is Demencia Senil 9a+ (First Ascent by Chris Sharma)

Checking out the routes…

…and climbing them!

Because it was too cold to climb on the last day we explored the area of Montserrat a little. Alpine style this is!

Conxa held a nice catalan bbq on our last day! She invited lots of friends and we had lots of onions and lots of alcohol!

So a catalan bbq exists of spring onions placed over fire…letting them burn black, grab em, peel the burnt parts of and eat the rest with sauce! So good!!!!

This is how they drink wine in Catalunya.

I guess they cooked about 500 onions.

Morli enjoying his food!

This is how you look like afterwards, or worse.

Thats his real hair (i thought it was fake)

Flying home over the alps…

So it´s been a great trip even though it was too cold most of the times…BUT I can recommend Catalonia to everyone out there, also if you don´t climb! It´s such a beautiful area with lots of even more beautiful villages! Go there, rent a car and explore!
And if you climb, i don´t have to tell you how amazing it is! Just go there!!!

The next post is already approaching so stay tuned!

Cheers!

But we´ve been visiting our parents the last weekend and it´s been wonderful back home in the snowy Woodquarter!

My parents and Ulli watching the ski race in their pub.

When there is enough snow my Dad prepares cross country skiing slopes…hard work to get the Ski-Doo running with a bad hip…

Just magical!

Our cat, she cannot stand me and vice versa…My brother in law getting his hair cut by his wife.

Dominic, Ulli´s nephew.

Jonas, Dominic´s brother.

Sledding fun.

My favorite shot from that weekend!

More snow fun coming up this weekend!

Next Blog entry might feature some climbing photos cause I´m heading to Spain for a week for some serious climbing action!
So be prepared!

Cheers

Long time since the last blogpost, i know! Sorry for the delay but the coming home thingie took some time (catching up with friends, rearranging things blabla…).
One of the first things I had to do was getting myself a new toy, the wonderful Mamiya 7II medium format camera and of course i took it with me to celebrate NYE09/10 in carinthia.

We stayed at a nice apartment at the beautiful Weissensee, so here we go:

Here are some long exposure night shots taken from the balcony of our apartment and some from the middle of the frozen lake…

Here are some images from a little walk around the lake…we didn´t have the best weather but on that day it was quite a wonderful morning!

Sexy John (forgot to delete the frame like on the other images, but I´m too lazy to do that now…sorry for that!)

This is a 35min long exposure at noon! If your monitor is somehow calibrated you should see the long streak of the sun!

The last image from our short holiday, taken out of the window of our sleeping room!

A little more snow would´ve been nice but still, we had a great time snowboarding and walking around and drinking beer!

Hope you guys like the photographs and gimme your comments now!

Cheers…

There is still work to do and if i ever go back to Melbourne i´ll try to find girls as well!!
So here we go:

Dan – ShifterBikes; living legend in Melbourne; builds bikes and wheels;

Tim and his Phantom

Ryan – Graphic designer; likes to ride fast

Joshua – Photography student

Stuart – Lawyer; Track rider; his mother produces bike shirts like the one he´s wearing

Andy – Courier legend; runs the webiste www.fyxomatosis.com

Travis – Photography student

Mick – Busyman Bikes; builds the most amazing leather saddles

Thank you guys for letting me take your portrait! It´s been fun shooting in the streets of Melbourne with you guys!

Cheers, Andi

So here are my shots from our outback adventure last week. We had only 5 days planned for it and didn´t really know if we should book a tour or head out ourselves…We swore we´ll never ever book on a tour again but exploring the Outback for the first time…we didn´t really know what to expect so I had a look and found a nice tour which claimed to be off the beaten track and they had some good arguments for choosing them instead of the other backpacker tours, so we decided to give it a try! It was a good decision on the one side but still, not being able to stop whenever you want isn´t my sorta thing! Anyways, we had a good time and we slept under the stars in Swags (it´s an Aussie thing, google it!)! And that really is awesome! But enough talk, here are the photos:

Entering the plane in Melbourne. The uniformed lady didn´t like me taking a picture…yeeaaaaahhh like I´m a terrorist!

Approaching Alice Springs, Outback from above.

First stop on some stupid camel farm. They had Kangaroos as well. He wasn´t happy about me standing in his light.

Mt. Connor and Asians! Mt. Connor is in one line with Uluru and Kata Tjuta but is significantly older than the other ones, just so you know!

Uluru! Didn´t expect this rock to have such a big effect on me! It really is impressive in it´s size, just magical!

This is the way all the ignorants use to climb the rock. The Anangu people whish that noone climbs the rock because the path used for climbing is sacred to them. I don´t see the point in climbing the rock and the Base Walk (10km) is fascinating, but still many people don´t care about the Aboriginal people…

Sunset time…it´s hilarious: Tables with white table cloth and sparking wine, BBQ…they got everything for their customers!

But I have to say, Uluru during sunset is awesome to look at!

First night on the campground, almost alone (there were some other groups around, but the company we booked the tour with had it´s own campground a little further away than the other ones).

Next morning time for Kata Tjuta, the other and higher rock formation about 40km next to Uluru.

I love dead trees.

Valley of the winds. Breathtaking!

Mike, our guide, explaining how Uluru, Kata Tjuta and first of all Mt. Connor have been formed.

Everyone was asleep after the 4 hour walk!

Offroad firewood collecting.

Our second camp site. Bush, nothing else, we really were the only people around there! I guess in the end it was worth paying more for things like that.

The toilet!

Outback night art.

Time to get some rest in our swags.

Ulli and I felt adventurous so we placed our swags about 5m off the other ones! Everyone says it but its ture, you won´t see more stars than in the Australian Outback!

Kings Canyon, the next amazing site.

“The Garden of Eden”, a permanent waterhole in the desert.

Caroline, our swedish killerwoman helping out, we got bugged (I think our guide did it on purpose, for the experince…)

Last sunset in the Outback…

Alice Springs and the Outback have been a fantastic experience and we really enjoyed it. The Outback is so NOT how we expected it to be, so green and so many plants and animals out there, amazing! Next time we will come with a proper 4WD car and explore it ourselves, thats for sure!

That´s it for now, I need some rest before heading to the Bay of Fires tomorrow. We are travelling Tasmania at the moment (with a car we rent, not on a tour!) and it has been a pleasure so far. Today we stood at a beach and we haven´t been sure if it was snow or sand we were standing on, so white, unbelievable!
More to come soon!

Cheers to everyone and see you soon!

The last week we stayed at the wonderful home of the Phillipsons in Maffra, East Gippsland, VIC.

We had a blast there, our host Heather was so much fun and the house with its views was just amazing. Lots of wildlife too…didn´t take too many pictures cause we had to work our butts off!

So here is what i got (please forgive me about the bad image quality but I cannot render them again cause there is no time! Next entry will have better and bigger photos!):

Moon with aura…this shot was taken in Tallangatta.

Feinschliff…

King Parrot…welcoming us at the house.

Lookout on Mt. … don´t remember the name.

Near the farm during sunset

This happens when someone wants me to fix something…

Echidna showing arse…all those damn animals are so shy here!

View from the climbing rocks back to the farm.

Short bushwalk next day…Heather showing us how to enter a new property in Australia.

Trailer Park in the bush…

Earth Festival in Stratford. Very funny. These are some award winning Brahma Chooks!

Desert for the kids!

Pizza oven which was built by Heather´s sister Beth. That woman is someone else though!

Me in young!

Ulli met Captain Koala!

Heather´s choir had a quick performance.

After Earth Festival Heather showed us the area, here we are on the ferry to Raymond Island. There are approx. 140 Koalas living on that island.

Real aussie bloke (=guy) in one of the first ever made Holden cars!

Ulli spotting a Koala with it´s baby on a tree! It made her real happy

Rainbow Lorikeet

Ha! The real Captain Koala…on a small tree so I didn´t had to climb high!

90Mile beach…it´s not exactly 90 miles long, but almost (around 88miles).

Glennmaggie Scottish Something Festival. Heather was performing with her choir. Lots of drag queens around!

Lots of old people as well!

Some ladies performing…that was really bad, haven´t seen anything like this before…should have taken a video!

I loved their outfits!

Family portrait! Tilly, Beth, Heather and their Mum and Granny.

Last evening at the Phillipsons. View from the house to the climbing rocks.

Main building.

Pool with Pool House.

Pool with amazing clouds.

Heather cooking. Her food was just fantastic!

So that was our 10days in East Gippsland! We loved it there but our time is running out and we have to see more of this magnificent country!

So in approx. 5 hours we are heading to Alice Springs into the red centre of Australia! WOOT!

Next entry in about a week with lots of Outback photos!

Cheerio!

So the last 10 days we spent at Snowy River Camp which we left yesterday. Now we are in our apartment in Melbourne for the last night…

Heading off to another farm on Sunday. I will keep you updated!

But for now enjoy the last week´s happenings!

Merry and Ulli feeding Douglas! Right before putting him to bed…

Morning milk…

Peter in washing dishes…me not helping…

Ulli serving dinner…me not helping…

Next day at the lake…the light was phenomenal!

The “flying fox”

Landing zone!

Blurry asses…Douglas sat down in his own poo, hence the greenish mark…

He´s the best!

Peter and Merry chillin´

But not for long…one of their cattle got loose so we had to bring it back…

back with his buddies!

So I went horse riding…never would have thought of that! Luisa and Ulli preparing the horses…me still not helping…

Peter cutting nails…

Mei Alde und der Hengst. Really like this one!

So that was it with Snowy River Camp! We really had a great time and we do miss Merry&Peter and Douglas

If there is time we might go back for a week before heading back home…well see!

Alrighty, last night in our wonderful apartment…tomorrow we have to move out and have to sleep the next 2 nights in a hostel before heading to East Gippsland for some farming and rock climbing! WOOHOO!!

Oh an yeah, the Outback is calling! We´re flying to Alice Springs on the 13th! Juchee!

So long, all the bloody best from Down Under!

Cheers.

Soundcheck started very early and lasted forever, Robo

mmmhhh…bananas…

Ian Fisher was a guest musician and also did the preshow…

So that was it, a little concert photography for a change! But next blog might be with an Australian topic again I reckon

Cheers mates!

Since my last post some time has passed. Lots of waiting for the working visa which unfortunately did not arrive…so I´m back in town soon!

But before going back Ulli and I are doing a bit of farming and stuff which we started this Monday.
Here are a few first impressions and some last St Kilda photos…We fucking love Melbourne esp. St Kilda so we hope to be back soon!

Oh before I forget: One of my “Boys of Hetzendorf” photographs got featured on the PDN Photo of the Day Blog and that made me very happy

Anyways, here we go:

Making Of image of a little project which is shown to be…well…I don´t know…once I´m back in Vienna i guess…photograph by Ulli

St Kilda shoreline with Melbourne skyline in the background! It´s so awesome there…

St Kilda Beach

So, shortly after we arrived at Snowy Mountain Camp we got to know Douglas! He is amazing!

Snowy Mountain Camp is a camp for schools where they stay for some days and let the kids do lots of activities. They got a climbing wall here, an abseiling wall, a flying fox (google it ) and much much more…it´s great fun so far!

Ulli fell in love with him immediately…

me 2 … he is a WOMBAT btw!

the surroundings…Tallangatta Valley

lots of cows there…and sheep…and emu´s…and alpacas

the Flight Deck…our home for the next days.

Dodge the sheepdog

Shadow, a very fit 15yr old dog.

Ulli working out…

the lake and some more impressions.

looks like summer, but it´s spring right now!

Sunset and time for going to bed, I´m not used to physical work anymore

On the next morning a bunch of kids arrived and they need to be entertained! More images to come friends!

See you soon!

I get going with a series of seascapes i shot along the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island in Victoria, Australia. If you are on facebook you might know them, but here and now you can see them in a proper way and in bigger size! So go check them out again!

And subsribe to my blog, there is more to come!

Enjoy!