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.

2901 - turning point

January 30, 2013 in 35, 50, alps, b+w, blue, colour, contrast, friedrichshafen, germany, harbour, lake, lake constance, landscape, nex 7, seagull, sel, shadow, sony, sunset, winter

front row - sony nex 7 | sel50 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/100

we seem to reach the turning point of winter: at the latest the day after tomorrow the cold of the last days will give way to the thaw and indeed temperatures above 10 degrees. therefor the seagulls had ensured that they would be able to enjoy the best view over the still icy lake at the säntis, the highest peak in the lake's alp panorama.

attached shadows - sony nex 7 | sel35 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/2000

in a few hours when both the sun and the column of mercury will be rising again the ice and as a consequence also the dark shadows will suddenly disappear.

0210 - stacked & bread rain

October 03, 2012 in 8, action, animal, art, bird, bodman, duck, fisheye, lake, lake constance, landscape, nex 7, people, portrait, seagull, sky, sony, stone, walimex samyang rokinon, water

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f2.8 | ISO400 | 1/25 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.1

fortunately the announced walimex pro fisheye lens has arrived already today in the afternoon. for the evening i'd planned to shoot a special scenery in bodman-ludwigshafen at the western end of lake constance. a friend of mine had told me of the presence of an example of a very special kind of "lake art" - every now and then a stone artist places stone towers at the lakeside that seen as a stress engineer could really never bear.

for the viewer they exude calm and balance, really adorable.

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | 8mm | f4.0 | ISO400 | 1/100 | cornerfix & lightroom 4.1

heading for the place where the work is located we met a nice guy who was feeding the ducks and seagulls. although he seemed to be a bit strange he's surely a very nice and sensitive guy who cares about the nature and its animals.

i'll write more about the walimex pro fisheye lens during the next days. in advance only a very short information: it touches simply wonderfully and seems to be built of very high quality.

furthermore my two today's samples show how differently a fisheye lens can be used. both the emphasis of the distorted fisheye character as well as the use as an almost normal ultra wide angle lens are imaginable.

cu, trshptr