In my leisure time I joined several photography workshops of the VHS Iserlohn (that is an adult education center). They offered a course with the title "Orte und Plätze in Iserlohn" ("Locations and places in Iserlohn"). The instructor of that class works as a photographer for our local newspaper, the Iserlohner Kreisanzeiger, and he tought us a lot of tricks and gave also some tips at the meetings. We even have our own website. My brother-in-law Thorsten Kaltenborn programmed it and there is a link to it in the category Links. There you can see some of my pictures as well.
At the moment I have a Canon EOS 300 and a Canon EOS Rebel Ti reflex camera. With both of them I'm using a 19-35mm wide angle lens, a 28-90mm lens and also a 28-210mm zoom lens. Furthermore I have a Canon PowerShot S40 digital camera. I'm content with all three models. Having a digital camera is quit handy for normal pictures. But for better and larger printouts the reflex camera is the better choice if you ask me.
Theater
From spring 2000 till summer 2003 I was a member of the English Theatre Group of the VHS Iserlohn. Normally I was responsible for the lights but I played small roles as well. Furthermore I designed and programmed the website of this theatre group.
For more information about the English Theatre Group take a look at our website. You can find a link to it in the category Links.
Role-playing
From time to time I meet with some friends for role-playing. Most times we use the AD&D rules and the Forgotten Realms universe. I don't like being the dungeon master but nobody in our group really enjoys it so everybody has to be it sometimes.
Most times I play warriors or chaos mages. I don't like the normal magicians that much because their spells always work the right way. Therefore the chaos mage is more interesting because their power randomly changes and sometimes there can be very strange side effects as well.
Film and TV
I like going to the cinema and also watching movies on DVD. Because I prefer watching films and series in the original version I really love the DVD.
There are several TV series I watch regularly. I really like Star Trek and I have recorded most episodes on video. But I also watch other science-fiction series and "Farscape" is the best among them. Since my brother-in-law started buying "Buffy" on DVD I became kind of addicted to that series as well.
Normally I don't like animated series so much but some time ago I watched "Dragonball" for several times and started liking it. Now I'm a big fan of it and also of "Dragonball Z".
Sports
As a child I did gymnastics on a regular base and later I tried out fencing. While I went to university I was a member at a fitness center and tried to keep in form by working out there. But it wasn't that easy going there regularly because my studies came first. Since I moved to Bavaria I'm doing a lot of cycling. Furthermore, I try to go swimming once a week. In the United States I started with karate and I want to keep up doing that here as well. Additionally, I'm doing free-climbing but at the moment most of the time indoor.
Other hobbies
Collecting the Star Trek Customizable Card Game is one of my biggest hobbies. Furthermore I like reading books and working on my homepage.
From time to time I also play some computer games like "The Sims" or do some racing on my PlayStation 2.