tongue of snow

March 30, 2013 in 35, bermatingen, bokeh, fun, germany, green, nature, nex 7, rain, red, sel, snow, sony, winter, slide

of course, the closing winter wants to have fun for the last time. btw: there are also five new images in the glimpse gallery...

nocturnal activity

March 22, 2013 in 35, architecture, art, atmosphere, b+w, backlight, berlin, blur, bokeh, bridge, building, contrast, corridor, darkness, facility, germany, grain, light, monument, mood, nex 7, night, pattern, river, sel, shadow, sky, snow, sony, street, townscape, trip, urban, window, winter

betham city - sony nex 7 | sel35 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/30 — **betham city** - sony nex 7 | sel35 f1.8 | f4.0 | ISO1600 | 1/30

between nightfall and daybreak, the time when i'm able to spend some hours with all the things that haven't anything to do with any kind of duties, i use the chance to wander about the winterly town and capture these particular moments on sd card.

i can't even begin to tell you how much i love the prospect of the towers at potsdam square in the west of berlin. once again i was reminded of the tremendous gotham city from the batman series.

the museum island of berlin is divided from the rest of the city by the river spree. in the gallery below i like to show you two different views along the river from one of the thirteen bridges across the island. the first one was captured with standard, the second sample with very high iso settings: i tried to obtain a shutter speed that was suitable for freezing the fluttering flakes of white grain.

urban image

March 21, 2013 in 35, action, architecture, art, atmosphere, berlin, building, candid, contrast, colour, corridor, facility, fun, germany, glass, mist, nex 7, orange, people, sel, snow, sony, street, townscape, pattern, trip, urban, wall, window, winter, yellow, red

in berlin nothing is usual. have you ever enjoyed a building site view like the one above?

scratching the (white) surface

March 20, 2013 in 35, architecture, b+w, building, car, contrast, facility, germany, grain, mirror, monument, movement, action, nex 7, pattern, people, reflection, sel, shadow, snow, sony, street, townscape, trip, truck, urban, wall, water, window, winter, stairs, bridge, river, crane, sky, berlin, bundestag

as threatened yesterday i have to torment you mercilessly with images of this white, consolidated mass of water this week again - the forecasts predict nothing but winter. thereby i try to allot not more than a minor role to the still not escaped, meanwhile less strongly loved season and hope to cope with using its peculiarities as a stylistic device.

the german bundestag is the place of our government here in berlin. the shown, very cool and artistic building with a huge glass facade is one of the great many facilities that are occupied by parts of the governing parties and belongs to a vast complex of modern architecture in the middle of historic monuments besides the river spree.

there are a great number of things why i take to this photograph: the multifacetedness, the snow blower or the lonely soul in the middle of the frame, but i especially like the three-dimensionality of the picture - from the front with the blown snow flakes via the building with its diagonal stairs to the bridges and the crane in the reflection that had been located behind my point of view there are a lot of layers superimposed by each other.

three flattened seasons

March 14, 2013 in 30, bermatingen, branch, brown, colour, contrast, countryside, germany, nature, nex 7, orange, rural, shadow, sigma, snow, sony, winter, wood, green, spring, autumn, leaf

the circle is almost complete now. in my mind's eye only just a few days have gone since november of 2012 when the first snow and therewith the harbingers of winter arrived in south germany. just unreal, how fast the winter has passed again. as from today the forerunners of spring will spare no effort to chase the weak rests of winter off. on this occasion they are well-advised to put the residues of last autumn away, too.

sleet curtain

March 13, 2013 in 50, architecture, atmosphere, bermatingen, blur, bokeh, brown, building, door, facility, germany, nex 7, pattern, sel, snow, sony, street, townscape, wall, window, winter, wood, rain, timber-frame, countryside, rural

whilst my recent favourite airport frankfurt in the heart of germany is descending into snow and chaos, we will probably get not more than a bit of nasty, wet weather here at lake constance. at least another, highly likely final, opportunity for me to portray the rural appearance of bermatingen's townscape in a winterly atmosphere.

guerrilla crural cosy

March 03, 2013 in 35, architecture, blue, building, colour, contrast, fun, germany, monument, nex 7, portrait, sel, sky, sony, street, sun, townscape, urban, winter, art, statue, snow, heiligenberg

why should mankind generally accept that statues get cold legs in the depths of winter? until today i didn't know that guerrilla knitting is common in the country now, too.

“Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarnstorming, guerrilla knitting, urban knitting or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk.”

— http://en.wikipedia.org

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.

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.

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.