Author Archive for JKA

21
Apr

Should we go to China for the Olympic games?

By JKA 1 Comment
Categories: Photography and Sailing
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That’s what many asked me in the last weeks since I got the accreditation for the games as photographer. I see their view in that and I think it’s a good question to be asked but very difficult to answer.

Imagine you are working/training hard for years not really different if you take it from the role as sportsperson of photographer to get the accreditation.

Maybe one difference have to be clarified I can do the best pictures during the games but I will never get a medal.

But let’s go back to the boycott, so you are asking now to give this up? I guess it’s much easier to ask then to decide. Since weeks discussions are hot about this subject, the press is overloaded with comments criticizing the government of China.

In the last years I travelled quite a lot in Asia and I had to learn that China has always being a strong or dominant country not only now. All this travel experiences in the Asian continent had one very important outcome the exchange of points of view and discussions about cultural differences.

I don’t know how much impact I had on the young Burmese student talking with him about our direct democracy we have in Switzerland compared to their political system, or more then 10 years ago the young man who showed me the temples in Cambodia by talking about education.

You can call me dreamer and say you won’t be able to change anything, but when I look back in my life there has always been a person who touched a certain subject in a discussion and I started to change things.

Yesterday watching the news in TV we saw young Chinese demonstrating in front of a French food shop, why? They believe that we are wrong.

If we, the western culture really believe that we have a different opinion about how the Chinese government should run his country I think it’s the wrong way to stay at home, we don’t have to go there and start a revolution but the right argumnet may lead in to some thinking wich may help.

Not sure how much opportunities all the participants in the Olympic games may get to run this discussion in a constructive way but if we have a chance I think we should do it and wy should we not express our point of view?

The Olympic committee made a decision some time ago when they have chosen China as Olympic host, I strongly believe that the members of the Olympic committee knew about the cultural differences and I also believe that a certain financial impact played a strong role, now this decision is taken and let’s do the best out of it.

A bit more as a year ago I had the chance to visit Myanmar, mostly as a backpacker and photographer taking pictures and dealing directly with the local people, haven’t spend and a large amount of money there for our point of view but some Burmese made good deals with me. Today after the revolution end of last year there are only a few tourist in this country, and who is really paying the bill? Not the government but the population.

So let’s go .

20
Apr

The brain defines the limit

By JKA 1 Comment
Categories: Photography
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Can you imagine to do 51 km in the alps with a altitude difference of 4000m in temperatures ranging from 5 to – 15 degrees?
Maybe yes if you are well trained but the guys I could follow with my camera they do it in less than 6 ½ hours! No I’m not joking this is serious.

We tock the helicopter from Arolla up to the Col de Bertol at 300metres. The walk up to the 3650meter high summit of the Tete Blanche was everything else as a walk in the park, at least for me with my almost 30 kg backpack with cameras etc.

With the limited view it was hard to estimate the distance to the summit and the last few hundred meters where never ending, the air got thinner, my legs weaker and the my backpack with the cameras heavier.

After a while I started to count the steps, every 60 steps a I started again and again just to motivate myself to get up there.

It was a wonderful moment when my guide Norbert Zurwerra shouted: “There is the summit”.

Up on the summit we found a big military tent and you can’t imagine the surprised faces of this mountaineers when a stranger drops in with the excuse we are here to do a few pictures.

After a coffee we could relax for a few hours but at 1.30 in the morning with the wind blowing at 80 km/m at minus – 12 degrees we got out of the tent.

Until this moment I had no idea what I’m going to see in a few minutes, all happend very fast, get the camera of the bag, set up the flash do a few shots to verify the settings and here they are, running as we can down in the valley but here we are at 3650 meters.

What was even more amazing that the Tete Blanche is not the end of the trail but they still had two more summits before it goes down to Verbier.

The definition of being fit became a complete new dimension. Until this moment I was sure to be fit and comfortable with my health.

How much do they train to get this level of fitness, at least 40′000 meters in altitude difference. With 50 weekends /year you know what they are doing in their freetime.

Now I’m back home sitting in front of my notebook writing this post with some small frost damages on the right cheek and ear. This is the end of the post as I want to go jogging a bit. I’m not planning to do the Patrouille des Glaciers in 2 years as participant. As photographer would be great and hopefully again with Norbert Zurwerra as guide, and next time I want to carry the heavy photo equipment up to the Tete Blanche without counting.

Enjoy the images

Jürg

PS: I almost forgot to say, It’s important to reach the summit but It’s even more important to come down safe. As the weather was still too bad for the helicopter, we did the way back to Arolla on our ski. Going up is hard but coming down isn’t easy too.

15
Apr

how much can you improve teamwork

By JKA 1 Comment
Categories: Coaching and Sailing
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Teambuilding for match race teams

Maybe you wonder why I’m writing about teambuilding for match racing teams. Probably the correct title would be: how much more can you improve teamwork.
Since we all saw the Alinghi team working as one perfect team during the America’s Cup, at least in the 2003 Cup, everybody knows that you require a high level of teamwork to perform in a boat.

Imagine now you get engaged by two top match race teams to improve their teamwork. As an example a normal good crew on a 30 foot boat takes about 15 -20 seconds to hoist the spinnaker, those guys sailing in the top 50 and 30 of the world ranking list do it in less than 12 seconds and they are not happy.

Therefore it is quite a challenge to support these 2 teams, what kind of advice would you give them, how do you advise them on areas to improve without compromising the already high level of teamwork?

The main area for improvement that I helped them to apply was communication between the team and the decision making processes. This can be applied on an overall tactical level but also in, for example, the hectic pre-start period.

The learning curve is never over and there is always room to improve, which is clear after such a training session.

We divided the training into 3 main steps:

  • Assessment: Know your strengths and weaknesses
  • Agreement: Of the strengths and weaknesses
  • Improvement: Apply this new knowledge

At the end the spinnaker came up in less than 10 seconds which was an improvement but the major change was in the communication between the team, there was almost no shouting on board, they all knew what they had to do and how to talk to each other.

You may ask yourselves why is communication so important? Imagine you are sitting in a meeting with 20 knots of wind and big waves crashing over the table. How do you make joint decisions in no time often without clear communication channels, but be working seamlessly and instinctively as a team with the same goals and desired outcomes? That’s where teamwork comes into play.

Sailing, like many team sports, can be an excellent tool for focusing attention on teamwork. If there is a misunderstanding about roles and responsibilities you find out within seconds, not days, weeks or even possibly months later as often demonstrated in the business world.

15
Apr

Photoshooting with Pucci

By JKA 0 Comments
Categories: Photography
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Pucci I is a dream a class of its own, a mix between teak, class, engine and power.
As usual it was early in the morning and on top of it end of February so a bit cold when we left the harbor for the shooting of the so called “gentlemen racer”.
The magazine Swiss Boat Yachting published 5 pages plus the cover of this boat in the April edition.
But look at the images it was worth to get up early in the cold.
You want to see more about Pucci click here.

13
Apr

You never know !!!

By JKA 0 Comments
Categories: Time to laugh
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01
Apr

40 feet catamaranes sailing in Lugano

By JKA 0 Comments
Categories: Sailing
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I know today is the 1st of April and it’s my birthday. Allmost 40 years of jokes I have been told in this day every year.

Now there is a story to tell, End of May from Friday 30.5 until Sunday 1st of June the world best extreme 40 sailing teams will sail against Alinghi and Team Origin is part of the event to.

To get a feeling of what will happen in Lugano in these days look at the video

07
Mar

Final rush for the Lugano Nautica

By JKA 0 Comments
Categories: Photography and Sailing
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Years ago in the IT business we did some expositions, every times it was an incredible amount of tasks and things to organize. Next week I will display 30 pictures at the Lugano Nautica and you know what noting changed, sometimes i’m asking mysleve this is simply the challenge when you do an exposition.
Today I got the images, the team from Fujifilm Switzerland did a great job, i like the quality of the photos.
Now the truck is on the way to Lugano with the photo’s and I’m really looking forward to unpack them in Lugano beginning of next week.
In the mean time we will upload all the images displayed in Lugano on the Lumobox Gallery, portal for professional photographers from Fujifilm Switzerland.
During the days in Lugano, the beautiful Pamela will help me a bit
Now let’s hope that the promotion effort done in the last weeks bring us a few good visitors.

See the images displayed in Lugano

See you in Lugano

Jürg

19
Feb

On the way to the olympic games

By JKA 0 Comments
Categories: Olympic Games, Photography and Sailing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Sometimes there are days you get up and you think it will be another boring day in the office doing the paperwork as usual if I’m not out sailing and taking pictures.

Today seemed to be such a day until I got the phone call from Swiss Olympic asking me if I still can go to China taking pictures at the games. I couldn’t believe my ears, what kind of a question…sure I want to go it’s something I’m dreaming and hoping since long time.

Now it’s time for a short break to enjoy this moment and then I guess we have to start to fill in a few forms…details about all this later.

Take care and enjoy the day

Jürg

07
Feb

MURPHY’S LAWS: go4image.com website is down

By JKA 0 Comments
Categories: Photography and Time to laugh

Since a few days the go4image.com website is down….the good old hard disk of the service provider was probably a bit too old.

In a normal case the backup should come in to the game but it looks to me that it didn’t. End of week the webpage should be back online, let’s hope.

In the mean time, someone may read carefully the good old MURPHY’S LAWS

“If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.”

Just in case here is the complet murphy’s laws

THE PRIME AXIOM: In any field of scientific endeavor, anything that can go wrong, will.
 2.  If the possibility exists of several things going wrong, the one that will go wrong is the one that will do the most damage.
 3.  Everything will go wrong at one time.
 3.1 That time is always when you least expect it.
 4.  If nothing can go wrong, something will.
 5.  Nothing is as easy as it looks.
 6.  Everything takes longer than you think.
 7.  Left to themselves, things always go from bad to worse.
 8.  Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
 9.  Given the most inappropriate time for something to go wrong, that's when it will occur.
 10.  Mother Nature is a bitch.
 10.1 The universe is not indifferent to intelligence, it is actively hostile to it.
 11.  If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
 12.  If in any problem you find yourself doing an immense amount of work,the answer can be obtained by simple inspection.
 13.  Never make anything simple and efficient when a way can be found to make it complex and wonderful.
 14.  If it doesn't fit, use a bigger hammer.
 15.  In an instrument or device characterized by a number of plus-or-minus errors, the total error will be the sum of all the errors adding in
 the same direction.
 16.  In any given calculation, the fault will never be placed if more than one person is involved.
 16.1 In any given discovery, the credit will never be properly placed if more than one person is involved.
 17.  All warranty and guarantee clauses become invalid upon payment of the final invoice.
 18.  Murphy's Law: "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it."
01
Feb

What happend in January

By JKA 0 Comments
Categories: Coaching, Photography and Sailing
Tags:

I think I was a bit lazy in the last month at least I did not post any news, the phone call from a good friend this morning saying…where in the world are you and what are you doing? Is probably the sign to do a bit more.

In January I was travelling a photo-shooting I Laos, I love that country. All this national protected areas are great to go and discover the still today plenty of untouched Asiaand no crime at all.
The last trekking was unforgettable, in central Laos close to the Vietnam border we spend a few days trekking from one village to the other, all of them from an ethnic minority called Kamoung.
The image below give you an impression about how they life.

 

Just after I came back home I jumped again in the plane to Manaco, sailing rules training for the Swiss Sailing Youth Team.
A bit of hearing training and on the water we played the good old team race game to apply the right of way rules.
I like to do the team race exercise during trainings, first off all you can practice rules in a funny way as the goal is not anymore to win but not to have the fourth position in the race if you do 2 teams of 2 boats.

Now I’m back in Switzerland and I working on 3 main projects, setting up the Laser Europa Cup 2008 for Lugano, then the Lugano Nautica where some of my sailing photos will be exposed and the with great pleasure we can finally start the preparation of a great sailing event which will be hold again in Lugano with some big 40 ft multihull. But details about that in a few days.

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