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Fishing

I was browsing through my slides the other day to pick a few ones that I want to scan and add to my portfolio. This image was taken a few years ago on a pretty cold saturday morning in April. At that time the Oker reservoir (Germany) was filled pretty well with melting water so that people who wanted to fish could stand in areas (with bushes and trees) that are usually not flooded. An advantage for me was the perfect standpoint: I could select a nice almost triangular shaped blueish dominating area with the person and his fishing rod right next to the bush as silhouettes. The hard part was to maintain some detail in the shadows. It's a nice reflection of the quiet mood that I experienced when I took the picture.

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Ice and Snow

Visiting a known place has its charm in finding new ideas and perspectives of things one has seen often before. Photographing a scene that has been photographed over and over again has its charm as well in selecting a different view and maybe making it technically better. Images like this always remind me of a coastline with islands and untouched land. The last time I took a picture like this was about a year ago. Then I didn't have such a nice zig-zag line and there was a strong icy rim on the snowy part of the image. Then I also wasn't able to get that close to the scenery and therefore used a longer focal length resulting in less depth of field at a similar aperture. This afternoon I was able to take a very nice picture of scenery that always catches me with it's strong graphical nature (seems as if I'm lucky lately and get all the shots that I was trying to get for a long time). All in all that's not bad for being outside for "just a walk".

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Abstract Rock Detail

I was hiking through the Bodensteiner Klippen (Bodenstein Cliffs), Germany. When I passed a particularly narrow section I found this buckles-and-dents sandstone section. Because the sun was so low the scenery was lit in a very unusual way and makes it interesting to differentiate between the buckles and dents. I liked the very strong shadows and the way the images changes when you turn it in 90deg angles. Here the image is shown in its original orientation.

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The Brocken

I took this picture after year-long attempts to have the right weather and to be at the right place at the right time (of the year and of the day). Finally I got this shot of the Brocken (the highest mountain of the Harz, Germany) that's a bit more than just a boring evenly lit mountain top with some antenna on top of of it. It's a slightly different image than the one that I had envisioned, though. Because of construction work at the place I wanted to take the picture from, I had to develop something like a plan B (I guess this is what is generally called bad luck) and decided to take a picture with no foreground but rather distant trees. The beautiful evening light makes this image work for me anyway.

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Frosty Sunset

This is one of the last pictures I took in 2005. It was a pretty nice day and promised a reasonable sunset. So I went to one of the places in the Harz that I know that is good for nice sunset-watching and I got there just in time. If the wind wouldn't have been so cold, it would have been even nicer. This way a good year ended with a cool picture.

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Too Late

Winter has arrived a day after Christmas. Taking a nice walk in the snow made me think about the critters that haven't had such a bad (that is cold) time so far and didn't have to find a spot where they are protected from the elements. At least not until now. The snow was falling for a few hours and soon everything was all white. There were still some spiderwebs in the trees but these were now shaken by the cold and snowy winds and are likely to be torn apart soon. The talented builders of the webs seem to have found a place to stay. But apparently not all of them: this poor guy missed the boat and was moving only very slow when he walked over the snow.

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Early Morning Frost

What a wonderful day! The sun is shining and frost is covering the grass and trees. It is cold and it's a great day for getting up early to go outside to take pictures and to discover the little wonders that nature has to offer on an early morning in December.

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Advent Calendar

Advent. Time for visiting Christmas markets and enjoying the local specialities there. The marketers offer hot food like Bratwurst and hot drinks like Glühwein (mulled wine) to warm you from the inside. You can also find all kinds of Christmas things to set up in your garden or decorate your home with. I found this interesting Advent calendar-type food stand at the Christmas market in Goslar, Germany. Even though it was not snowing, it was cold enough to create a very nice atmosphere of enjoying the Advent season together with family and friends.

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Refinery

I lately visited Hamburg, Germany, and found this refinery amidst the port area. What caught my eye was the order of the fluorescent lights in this particular part of the refinery.

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A Fast Ride (Carnival)

The "Freimarkt" in Bremen, Germany, is considered to be the 5th season in Bremen. Being the oldest festival in Germany (the first one started on October 16th, 1035 (yes, that's almost one thousand years ago)) there is of course, a tradition for all people living there to visit the carnival and to have fun together with family, friends and colleagues. The original Freimarkt was a market open for everyone who wanted to trade goods and was held twice a year in the center of Bremen. The word Freimarkt stands for the allowance given to the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen to hold such a free market. After almost 800 years of being mostly a trading place, things changed with the advent of the railroad. From then on the Freimarkt developed more and more like a carnival. Today every year about 4 million visitors come to enjoy the two weeks of the Bremer Freimarkt. There is no other carnival in Germany that has more carousels, rollercoasters or other rides.

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Autumn Leaves

Fall arrived late this year 2005. There were a few very wonderful days that I could use to wander around my hometown to find interesting objects related to this most colorful season. Here you can see a part of an old and rusty fence where a creeping plant found its way almost to the top. The light was perfect at the time when I found it and the image turned out the way I wanted it. Happy ME!

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Hurricane

Ridge

Washington again. Visiting Washington state in October was just great. After having a fun day at the beach we went up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. People told us to be aware of rapid weather changes, of possible snowfall and of deer. All of this happened--but in inverse order. The deer were very patient with the passing cars but were a bit shy when it came to standing still for a portrait shot (due to low light they had to stand still for a reasonable picture). The sound of the shutter wasn't to their liking as well so photographywise this was a rather disappointing experience. Then light snow together with close to zero visibility made the driving more and more interesting. We went up to the ranger station anyway and after a short while the changing weather conditions came along: the sun peeked through the dense clouds and light snowfall. What a spectacular play! "Rapid weather changes" got a whole new meaning when the snowfall stopped and the clouds had moved away within minutes and only the clear crisp air was left.

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Flotsam and Jetsam

The coast at Mora, Washington, is one of the places that I would call photographer's paradise. Besides the ocean and the often photographed coastal landscape around Mora and Rialto Beach, there are lots and lots of opportunities for taking pictures of interesting stranded goods. Here I found the contrast between the grey pebbles and the colorful stranded sealife like kelp most attractive.
Of course I had to pay for this picture: while concentrating on taking the picture I didn't keep track of the waves (high tide was coming in) so that I ended up with wet feet. Well, that's life...

2005-11-04: A Japanese friend, Hiromi, said after she saw the picture that most of the things one can see here can also be used for Sushi--hmmm, delicious.

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Round and Square

Being back in Chicago I took the time to finally check out Millenium Park with its very interesting sculptures and exhibitions--if you are in Chicago you gotta go there. I was also very lucky with the weather and found the "bean" especially challenging. In this picture one can see the contrast of the roundish shape of the sculpture and the square windows of the background building. Chicago got another really nice sculptural toy for the public. The Cloud Gate (the official name of the sculpture) is 66 feet long, 33 feet high and weighs 110 tons. The sculpture was made out of stainless steel by British artist Anish Kapoor. Informations especially about the Cloud Gate can be found here.

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Willem

When visiting my parents I played with their Welsh Corgi Willem who insisted that I should throw his ball over and over again. Just as dogs are he was not willing to pose for me in return. So I had to trick him a bit by hiding the ball and making him come close and curiously looking for it. Gotcha!

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Violet Flower and Grass

"Violet Flower and Grass"--sounds like real artwork, but is basically describing what can be seen. I was intrigued by the wonderful clarity of the violet flower against the background and the accompanying grass. Later I found it especially interesting that the major components of the picture are doubled--both the flower and the grass. The depth of field was selected carefully to make sure that only the front flower is sharp. The grass was used to lead the viewer to the background blur and the second flower.

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On the Beach

Arriving late at the coast had some advantages: the sun was standing low and made this picture possible and -- no fees for parking. The reflections of the sun in the tideland (or watt) made a strong background for the silhouettes of the people walking over the mud.

History of pictures of the week/month:
Pictures Of The Month (Jan. 2011 - current)
Pictures Of The Month (Jan. 2010 - Dec. 2010)
Pictures Of The Month (Jan. 2009 - Dec. 2009)
Pictures Of The Month (Mar. 2008 - Dec. 2008)
Pictures Of The Month (Mar. 2007 - Feb. 2008)
Pictures Of The Week (Mar. 2006 - Feb. 2007)
Pictures Of The Week (Sep. 2005 - Feb. 2006)
Pictures Of The Week (Mar. 2005 - Aug. 2005)
Pictures Of The Week (Oct. 2004 - Feb. 2005)

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