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About this Web Site
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 About this web site:
I had long thought about registering my own Internet domain, but it took some time until I really began looking which domain names were still free. The only thing I knew for sure was that it should be a .net domain to express some international and networked sense. Not very surprisingly, the cool and cheeky names were already almost all taken, so I was looking for something calmer. After having decided for a name in July 2000, registering it online was only a matter of minutes - the begin was accomplished.
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 About its name:
after some days of domain name "research", I decided for sea-of-tranquility.net because I liked this name most. There are web sites with similar domain names. A key word search for "sea of tranquility" with yahoo.com at the beginning of August 2000 returned more than 1,900 hits (searching with google.com in October 2002 returned approx. 10,500 hits). E. g., the Sea of Tranquility (Latin: Mare Tranquillitatis) is also a named location on the moon (latitude 8.5°N, longitude 31.4°E, 873 km in diameter). There are also musical records and songs named after it.
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 About this web site's metaphor:
for many people, thinking about the expression "Sea of Tranquility" arouses a gentle fascination. In a non-material sense, we may feel that there is something more to reality than just what we can see at its surface. That there is a vastness full of tranquility within us; of a tranquility that is gently moving in itself. This vastness exists as well in all other people, in all sentient beings, in all that lives, even in all that is. It may be obscured and veiled by ignorance, distraction or confusion, but nevertheless, it is just there, and is waiting for us to find it.
And there are moments, situations or circumstances when the dark layer around our ordinary awareness that separates us from this reality, gradually lifts and we feel touched by this tranquility in a most peculiar way. Among the triggers for that could be the view of a mighty landscape, a starry night sky, or the ocean in the sunlight; the reading of a good book, the listening to a piece of music we like, a sudden meeting of looks; and many other things more.
So it is no wonder that this name has been given to places that were the objects of contemplation for hundreds or thousands of years.
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 About this web site's dedication:
I have tried to share some of my impressions about the inner Sea of Tranquility. It sometimes seemed impossible for me to express the Inexpressible, but I have tried to make use of the means available to me: the photographs and the texts on this web site.
Furthermore, I would like to quote Buddha's "Four Immeasurables":
May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.
May they be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
May they always experience happiness, which is totally free from suffering.
May they remain in great equanimity, which is without attachment and aversion.
I cannot think of any better, more heartfelt wish that has ever been spoken out. This is why I dedicate this web site to the well-being of all sentient beings. May it convey peace and joy to you.
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 About the title image (on the home page):
it was taken in July 1988 from a beach in Frederikshavn in northern Denmark, shortly after the moon (just waning from its full phase) had risen from the sea. A lighthouse on an island completes the picture from my point of view: it shows the real sea together with the moon with its sea of tranquility and the island with its navigational light for those who are on their way on the sea (of tranquility...?). The moon's sea of tranquility is invisible due to overexposure, the island is Hirsholmene, located a few miles north-east of Frederikshavn.
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 About the photos:
most of them were taken during my travels (long- as well as short-distance), when my camera was my permanent companion. Over the years, this resulted in an archive of thousands of color slides. A lot of them are nothing special but when I was outdoors and concentrated on a scenery, I sometimes felt when the time was right to release the shutter. When I succeeded, I could have captured something unusual or extraordinary - sometimes I felt that it was the moment's essence.
It also happened to me that I stopped for no special reason but then found something interesting - literally by the wayside. It's like the scene in the film "American Beauty" where only an empty, white plastic bag slowly dances in an eddy in front of a red garage door, for about a minute. That comes near to what I mean: beauty (sweet, bitter or strange) is all around us like a precious gift, but we can only see it if we are able to open our eyes.
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 About the texts:
a part of what I have collected over the years or happened to find it. Some of it just came to me. I then picked a picture out that in my opinion goes with the text. Or I found an interesting picture that inspired me to write down my thoughts.
The stories by Manfred Kyber (in German) made an inpression on me again and again over a long time, so that I eventually typed them out and also translated them into English.
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 About the technical stuff:
I had my selected color slides scanned at the lab instead of doing it myself, because the lab uses color-calibrated scanners with a sufficient resolution (2,400 dpi or more per dimension) and produces files in Photo CD format (.PCD) that contains the scanned pictures in several resolution levels - things that are not always given when scanning with the own equipment at home. Since 2004, I also sometimes scan a picture myself, e. g., from a black&white film for prints. My pictures on this web site are unmanipulated photos. My own postprocessing of the image files was usually limited to removing scanned dust, cropping, sharpening and scaling; in rare cases, I aligned the horizon or adjusted brightness or contrast. When I convert the files to JPEG, I use only moderate compression to preserve the details - that's why the files are rather big. I upload the files to the web server over an ADSL connection, at approx. 15 KByte/s - and with some patience: in the meantime, the files' sizes sum up to approx. 70 MB.
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 About the copyright: you are free to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work (these photos) under the following conditions: Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works.
Attribution means: you must attribute the work, i. e. give me credit (e. g., by mentioning my name and my web site); and send me an eMail, Non-Commercial: you may not use this work for commercial purposes, No Derivative Works: you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. We may also agree on other terms, depending on the given case; please feel free to contact me.
Technically: the contents on this web site that were produced by the author are licensed under the
Creative Commons License named Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
(in short: cc-by-nc-nd 2.5). Follow the link for details. If you intend to use them for other purposes, please contact me in advance. I can provide you with higher-quality material (e. g., pictures in lossless compressed file formats instead of JPEG).
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 About the author:
born in the sixties, grew up in south Germany, near Stuttgart. In the eighties, I moved to Ulm to study telecommunications engineering at the Hochschule Ulm (Ulm University of Applied Sciences, at that time called Fachhochschule Ulm). Now I work in the software development for embedded network systems in a network company in south Germany.
In the mid-80's, I traded my electric guitar for a camera and began taking photos with a Canon A-1 camera, first on Kodakchrome films, then I stayed with Fujichrome (like Fujichrome Sensia 100 or Velvia). I definitely prefer color slides and use a Leica projector with an original Leica lens that I still find very satisfying. In the spring of 2007, I bought my first digital camera (a Canon compact camera) and am since experimenting with it (the first photo is the Graffiti 'Birds').
I like travelling, hiking and reading, I also like to think and therefore really enjoy a qualified, open conversation. In music, I like Progressive Rock (Yes, Spock's Beard, Cryptic Vision), Pop (Roxette), Trance (Dario G), and Ambient (Christian Hüttner) and I am a moderate Trekkie (Star Trek fan).
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 Contact:
eMail form.
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Copyright |
Dedication
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