earth & human - oneWay?

March 10, 2013 in 8, art, b+w, bermatingen, clouds, contrast, darkness, deeper meaning, field, fisheye, germany, fun, grain, landscape, light, minimalistic, nature, nex 7, people, shadow, sky, sony, walimex samyang rokinon, flower

do we go the right, correct, aligned and indulgent way? this one way, that is mandatory if you want to venerate your counterpart? or is it a one-way, a non-returnable relationship between mankind and nature?

the image, i show you today, displays the status quo, how i perceive the current evolution. nature is present, we see it, sometimes. but nature is more than that - it is the centre and basis of everything. we consist of nature and we'll be morphed into nature again, anytime. but what does the mankind do? the humans tramp on the nature's beauty and overuse its precious regenerative properties.

this being the case, i admit, with my graphical representation of the cooperation between mankind and home planet i look a bit at the black side, whereas this portrayal intentionally makes a very pessimistic, alarming image.

if you are interested in the scenery - how i discovered the scene - by clicking here you will be guided to the two stops underexposed, non-processed jpg from raw and by clicking here you will see a non-graphical, classic interpretation of the scene. pretty boring, isn't it?

swiss traveller

March 10, 2013 in 35, atmosphere, b+w, candid, contrast, darkness, germany, grain, nex 7, night, old photo, people, portrait, sel, sepia, shadow, sony, street, townscape, trip, urban, railstation, friedrichshafen

sometimes travelling people show unusual modes of behaviours. the man in the centre of my today's image carried a very heavy case, which, to his sorrow, had to be hefted upstairs on the platform to reach the trains.

after tina had drawn my attention to his troublesome ascent, i asked him if i can help... he answered with a swiss accent and without even looking at me that it's no problem for him to carry his case by himself. ok, whatever. although i won't go as far as tina, who presumed with a bit of black humour, that he probably carried any parts of dead bodies in his case - hopefully not! - i think, that his autarky has to do with either his attitude towards germany / germans or lived independence in old age.

however that be, i took to him.

frizzled

March 07, 2013 in 35, architecture, art, b+w, building, facility, germany, grain, monument, nature, nex 7, old photo, pattern, sel, sepia, shadow, sony, tree, window, salem, branch, wall

the castle garden of salem is a jewel in southern baden's cultural landscape. ancient architecture comes upon aged nature. in the scene above i especially liked the repetitive frizzles of the branches and the decoratively painted window frames.

approach for feeding

March 05, 2013 in 50, art, atmosphere, b+w, backlight, candid, contrast, germany, grain, hair, lake, lake constance, light, minimalistic, nature, nex 7, old photo, people, portrait, sel, shadow, sony, street, sun, hagnau, seagull

finally it's possible to work with backlight again. frontlighting is currently one of my favorite stylistic devices when it comes to composing candid street photographs. there are two, main reasons why very strong and bright backlight seems to be useful for a street photographer: firstly the subjects are often dazzled with the (sun-)light and thereby the people have their own issues to deal with. secondly the backlight makes for very hard contrasts, that support a clear graphical structure in your frame, only if the composition is suitable, of course.

driving all night

March 02, 2013 in 35, b+w, candid, car, contrast, corridor, darkness, deeper meaning, germany, grain, light, nex 7, night, old photo, sel, shadow, snow, sony, street, winter, truck, blur, action, movement

have you ever thought about the peculiarities of an engagement as a long-distance truck driver? considering the unfavourable boundary conditions i have great respect for this profession. it's not just that the family men are mostly not at home to wake the children in the morning or to put the kids to bed in the evening (like pilots, mariners, soldiers and probably a good many other professionals, too), in return they bring in only very little money. due to the schengen agreement the average wages for truck drivers still decrease since the east european drivers do the same job with less grumble for less money.

cuteness overload

March 01, 2013 in 35, b+w, candid, face, germany, fun, grain, home, nex 7, portrait, sel, sony, indoors, cat, kitty, pet, animal, whiskers, vintage, old photo, eyes

as long as the weather will stay that grey and misty, our sweet kitty nila won't leave the flat very often. as a consequence we have to look after and play with her more often than usual. even so we are easily able to tap into her cuteness.

snow curves for circles

February 28, 2013 in 50, b+w, bermatingen, contrast, germany, landscape, nature, nex 7, pattern, sel, sony, winter, snow, grain, field, agriculture

really don't know what the farmer has done here. whatever, the shapes make for a good subject. btw: you'll find a few new photographs in the glimpse galleries.

1202 - life delta

February 12, 2013 in 35, abstract, art, b+w, contrast, deeper meaning, door, edge, germany, grain, home, kitchen, light, nex 7, night, pattern, sel, shadow, sony

life delta - sony nex 7 | sel35 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/60

seeing the beauty in simplicity is the high art of life that should be mastered by everybody at least once in a while. if there should be even somebody who is able to master this task constantly, time after time, imo this someone has also mastered life itself. someone like this has coped the sorting of all the little deltas of / in life and has already developed a master plan to handle one of the most difficult aspects in life after all.

0902 - grain skin

February 09, 2013 in 50, beard, blur, courtyard, eyes, germany, grain, home, mirror, nex 7, night, personal, portrait, reflection, sel, self portrait, snow, sony, window, winter

grain skin - sony nex 7 | sel50 f1.8 | f1.8 | ISO6400 | 1/15

today i finally decided to make the next small (fun-) step in my photographic life - before the production of 35mm film will be completely discontinued anytime, i'm going to have at least one try with analog photography even this spring. therefor i ordered one role ilford delta 3200 Professional (b+w), kodak portra 800 (colour) and fujifilm superia 1600 (colour) each.

why such sensitive films? well, i want to begin (and probably stay) with a ultra-compact fun cam, something like a diana mini or any other lomography camera, since it has to accompany me to music festivals and other chaotic events where the nex usually has no place in. naturally you have to use high iso films if you want to shoot these lomo cams (fixed plastic lens, (almost) fixed, slow f-stop - f8/f11 switch, fixed shutter speed - 1/60) at dusk. although i definitely expect not less than blurred, grainy, absolutely poor exposed results of my coming lomo cam, i'm able to look forward to work with film. expectations can only be belied if they are exaggerated. actually i have only one expectation: with at a max 36 images on a role you have to think long and hard about your composition, which is why i hope to improve my photographic skills further.

with the intention to give high iso film a try sometime, i avoided to apply noise reduction to my self portrait already today. what you see is my grainy face in the double window of our kitchen with the idyllic, nightly yard in winter dress in the background.

0802 - snow streaks

February 09, 2013 in 35, action, blur, car, friedrichshafen, germany, grain, light, light track, movement, nex 7, night, pattern, sel, snow, sony, street, texture, winter

snow streaks - sony nex 7 | sel35 f1.8 | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/4

as one might expect particles, light and movement form interesting streaks in the eye of the beholder and of course this circumstance works also in nature.

awhirl - sony nex 7 | sel35 f1.8 | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/4

if in the case of a nightly car drive in a snow storm also the background contains a minimum of texture the drawn winter image should be really expressive.