Mettmenstetten, Knonauer Amt
IT is my job — but not all I am. I dive, ride MTB, take photos, help out at the sports club and spend as much time as possible in the Philippines. And yes, there's a homelab at home too.
🤿 Under Water
Started with freediving in Tobago — and already with a camera underwater. I did my OWD in Lahamy Bay because photography demanded more bottom time than a breath could allow.
Scuba replaced freediving that way: not through better technology, but because a frogfish that doesn't move justifies a tank — and one breath doesn't.
Where it all started — freediving, and the first camera underwater. Seven trips in a row, crystal-clear water, almost no tourism.
Where I did my OWD. Mantas, dugongs, drift diving — the Red Sea as the logical next step after Tobago.
World-class macro on black sand. Frogfish, seahorses, mimic octopus. My main spot today.
Nitrox, dive computer, full-face mask. Cold water lakes in Switzerland to 30°C warm water in the Philippines. Focus: macro and critter diving.
Breath-hold diving without equipment. Less distraction, more presence. Ideal for photography and quiet observation on reef tops and seagrass beds.
Travel frequency
Usually once a year — almost always combined with a trip to my father in the Philippines. Tobago and the Red Sea occasionally in between.
📷 Macro & Light
Underwater photography changed my diving — not because I see more, but because I look differently. Slower, more precisely, with more patience for the one right shot.
Focus is macro: critters on black sand in Dauin, nudibranchs on Siquijor, everything that's small, colourful and rare. Occasionally open water and large animals — mantas in the Red Sea, sharks in Tobago.
Equipment
Favourite subjects
Masters of camouflage — sometimes right in front of you, yet invisible.
Requires patience. When they hold still, the shot is guaranteed.
Colours no monitor can reproduce correctly. Dauin is a mecca for them.
Rarely found, unmistakable in shape.
Intelligent, fast, unpredictable. The best shots come from waiting.
Open water, vastness, freedom. The opposite of macro — equally fascinating.
📷 Light & Moment
Above or below water — the question is the same: when do you press the shutter. The camera is usually along, whether travelling in the Philippines, on the trail or simply out and about.
No studio, no setup. Available light, real situations, real people. What counts is the moment — not the gear.
On the road with a camera — markets, alleyways, everyday life off the tourist trail.
Golden hour, backlight, textures. What the eye sees before the mind names it.
Patience before the shutter. Whether on land or underwater — the animal decides the moment.
Cameras
Full-frame DSLR for everything that demands light, depth of field and quality.
Compact for on the go — and the same body that goes underwater too.
Approach
If you wait long enough, the shot comes by itself. Usually. Sometimes not — but then it still wasn't wasted time.
Gallery online
🚵 Trail & Forest
Rode the Stöckli Morion Pro for years — until the bike gave up the ghost. Defective, beyond repair. That's how you end up on an e-MTB: not out of conviction, but because the old iron is dead.
The Knonauer Amt, Zug and Aargau stay the same. The trails too. Only the legs get punished a little less now — which is basically not a bad thing.
In Memoriam
Full Suspension · Swiss Made · Gone.
Was a good bike.
Garmin Stats
Everything lands on the Fēnix 8 and goes via Garmin Connect into the analysis. The Edge 1050 is particularly valued for the large maps when navigating unfamiliar terrain.
🚗 On the Road
Started with Opel, exclusively Cadillac since 2001. American size, V8 sound and a certain disregard for everything sensible. With the OPTIQ EV now electric for the first time — Cadillac stays.
🖥️ Self-Hosted
My homelab is not a hobby — it is real-time further education. What I build at home on weekends, I use during the week as a basis for decisions at work.
Philosophy: open source over vendor lock-in, self-hosted over cloud, documented over "I still remember how I did that". pfSense instead of Cisco, AdGuard instead of Pi-hole.
«The best monitoring system is one you built yourself and broke at least once.»
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
AI is not hype for me — it is a tool I use daily. Not to replace, but to work faster, research better and implement things that would otherwise take too long alone.
Local models run in the homelab. Claude runs at work. n8n runs workflows that connect both. The experiment runs permanently.
Daily assistant, code review, research — and built this website.
Workflow automation in the homelab. PostgreSQL backend, exposed via NPM proxy.
Voice control and automation logic with a local language model.
About this site
This website was built together with Claude Code (Anthropic) — as a learning exercise and experiment in AI-assisted development.
Content, structure and copy come from me. Code, components and layout were implemented by Claude — on instruction, with corrections, iteratively. Like working with a very patient developer.
Approach
AI doesn't replace thinking — it accelerates implementation. If you don't know what you want, AI won't help you get there either.
🏝️ Second Home
Started on Siquijor — almost every year since 2006, until the island felt as familiar as home. Since 2024 Dumaguete is the new base: closer to the airport, closer to my father, and with Dauin right on the doorstep.
Trips have become homecomings. You know the street vendors, the best karinderias, and which jeepney route gets you there — even without Google Maps.
Best travel season
November – May · Dry season, visibility up to 25m+
✈️ Travels
From the Caribbean via Egypt to the Philippines — almost all trips were diving trips. Tobago was the go-to spot for years: great visibility, little tourism, friendly locals. Since 2006, Siquijor took over.
Winter · Spring 2026
Qatar Airways Qatar Airways 
Philippine Airlines 🛏 Belmont Hotel Manila (overnight)
Philippine Airlines 
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines ⚠ Route via Singapore – avoiding Middle East airspace (war)
Winter · Spring 2025
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Winter · Spring 2024
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Autumn 2024
Qatar Airways 
Malaysia Airlines Malaysia Airlines Qatar Airways Winter · Spring 2023
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Autumn 2022
Winter 2020
Singapore Airlines 
SilkAir (→ Singapore Airlines) SilkAir (→ Singapore Airlines) Singapore Airlines Spring 2019
Swiss International Air Lines Swiss International Air Lines 
Siquijor 
Siquijor Province Spring 2018
Singapore Airlines SilkAir (→ Singapore Airlines) SilkAir (→ Singapore Airlines) Singapore Airlines Summer 2018
Swiss International Air Lines Swiss International Air Lines Winter 2017
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Spring 2017
Winter 2016 · 29 days
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Siquijor Siquijor Province Siquijor Siquijor Province Siquijor Siquijor Province Winter 2012 · 27 days
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines 
Air Philippines Air Philippines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Siquijor Siquijor Province Siquijor Siquijor Province Siquijor Siquijor Province Winter 2009 · 32 days
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Lalao Casa Miranda · San Juan
Siquijor Province Autumn 2007
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Tupod Coco Grove Beach Resort
Siquijor Province Autumn 2006
Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines 
Scarborough Scarborough · Private guesthouse
Summer 2005
Lufthansa 
Condor Condor Lufthansa ⚠ Break-in at accommodation · Passport, IDs, bank cards and all travel documents stolen · Simultaneous break-in attempt in Switzerland
📷 Photo album → Scarborough Scarborough · Private guesthouse
Summer 2004
Lufthansa Condor Condor Lufthansa Scarborough Scarborough · Private guesthouse
Spring 2003
Lufthansa Condor Condor Lufthansa Autumn 2003
Edelweiss Air Edelweiss Air Scarborough Scarborough · Private guesthouse
Summer 2002
Lufthansa Condor Condor Lufthansa Scarborough Scarborough · Private guesthouse
Spring 2001
Lufthansa Condor Condor Lufthansa 
Marsa Alam 
Red Sea Governorate Autumn 2001
Lufthansa Lufthansa Scarborough Scarborough · Private guesthouse
Summer 2000
Lufthansa Condor Condor Lufthansa Scarborough Scarborough · Private guesthouse
Spring 1999
Lufthansa Condor Condor Lufthansa 
La Réunion 1 week · Island road trip
Mauritius 3 weeks · Hotel La Pirogue · Flic en Flac
Summer 1996
Air Mauritius Air Mauritius Air Mauritius Air Mauritius 
Dominican Republic La Romana · Casa de Campo
Winter 1993
Balair Balair 
Hungary Camper road trip
Vienna Camper road trip
Summer 1982
Switzerland Various cantons incl. Ticino
Germany Black Forest · Gernsbach · Gaggenau
Baden-Württemberg Austria Austria Childhood & Youth
And professionally?
25+ years of IT experience, Fortinet stack from A to Z, SD-WAN across eight EU sites, Cybersecurity Lead EU — that's the other side. If you'd like to know what I do and can do professionally.
