I was planning on posting 2017’s best of or flashback post earlier than last year’s. Instead, I’m posting it much later, how about that! 2017 seemed like the fastest year in my life. It was the first full year of full-time self-employment for me and my office was still my bedroom in a shared apartment. It definitely won’t be next year, though. There were many highlights, many new plans made, lots of wonderful places visited, delicious food tasted, and great things experienced.

As announced about a month ago, here’s the second part of my Traveling Light pictures. I was delighted when I got more scans back from the lab and was remind once again of this inspiring event and of the great people I met there. Once again, though, I wish I had taken more photos. Almost two months have passed since the film photography gathering in Torroella de Montgrí. The inspiration and motivation to take action and change a lot of things was huge at first – and although it has faded a little bit, it’s still here.

We were going to hike and spend time in the Alps much more this summer, but somehow, time passed by way too fast. So this was our last trip of the summer to the mountains and it wasn’t even much of a hike either. And though it was very crowded – lots of Chinese tourists – and despite the overcast weather it was nice and the views were beautiful. Also, the closer we got to the lake in the last picture, the less crowded it got.

It took me some time to post this but it’s much better to look at those photos from this past summer in the Swiss Alps now that it’s cold out. Oeschinensee is a mountain lake with a wonderful blue color in a region that offers many hiking routes, from an hour short to a few days long. We chose a rather short one for a day-trip we had long been waiting for. It took us a few hours to walk from the cable car station to the lake, halfway around, and back. The views were gorgeous.

A few weeks ago, the film photography gathering Traveling Light took place for the very first time in a beautiful Catalan small town called Torroella de Montgrí. It was an amazing event with amazing people, the speakers were super interesting and highly inspiring and being around so many like-minded people was huge. This community felt really inclusive and supportive in so many ways. I recommend every film photographer to attend the conference next year.

Copenhagen is one of my favorite cities, not least because it has some of the world’s finest restaurants and excellent coffee. So this summer, I got to stay two full weeks in Denmark’s beautiful capital. The first week was spent in a big house with a bunch of friends and at a nearby gym, training all day at the BJJ Globetrotters summer camp – with a daily break for brunch of course.

I had been to Hamburg a couple of times before, but I never really spent much time there. All of my visits were very brief, like hanging out a few hours at the bus station on a 24h trip from Copenhagen to Bern. Or just visiting for a few hours to see a football game. This time, though, we had four full days to really see things, do stuff, and – most of all – eat things. Four days still aren’t very long, but we had a terrific time and actually saw and did a ton of things. We rented a beautiful Airbnb apartment right next to Planten un Blomen park and very close to the bustling Karolinenviertel and alternative Sternschanze area.

In early 2015, I went to Gothenburg, Sweden, for a semester abroad. I had a great time and met some great people. Luckily, we were able to sort of keep in touch within one small group of friends that was formed there. I’ve seen some of those friends a few times within the last two years, but this spring, we decided, it was time for a reunion. We settled on a house close to Warsaw, Poland, which we found on Airbnb (and later on Facebook). Unfortunately, not everyone could make it in the end. The house was just as beautiful as it had looked on the internet and we pretty much had our own little lake with a boat and a bridge, a little forest, and a huge sort of patio on the water.

After I had scaled down my traveling a little and spent the first few months of 2017 in Switzerland (and thus, by the way, successfully fulfilled one of my New Year’s resolutions), in mid-April it was time for a little road trip. Seraina got some days off over the Easter weekend and my parents let us use their car so we decided to spend a long weekend in France. Our first lunch stop was Annecy, a beautiful small city not far from the Swiss border.

I’ve sent another eight rolls of film to Spain for developing and scanning, but before we’re moving on to spring and summer, I’ve got one more winter post for you. It’s basically just a selection of photos that I have taken in Bern this past winter and wanted to share. The first six photos were shot on Gurten, the city’s local mountain (or more like a hill). It’s a wonderful hill with a nice view over the city.