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Month: August 2021
Monochrome Monday 8-17
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Lens-Artists Photo Challange 163: “keep walking”
“keep walking” is the topic for this week’s Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge hosted by Amy.
Today, I have a fun pic for you. I took it a couple of years ago in Belgium. This young guy apparently didn’t want to get sandy feet. So his girlfriend (?) or sister (?) had to carry him.
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V …
… like vendetta or like victory? More of my images can be seen on my own blog.
V …
Throwback Thursday: a morning walk
3 weeks ago, I returned to this place, but this time without doing the whole walk as I did 4 years ago. Instead, this time I have had much more good luck seeing the wild flamingos than in 2017. So I skipped circling the lake this time and spend a lot more time with the birds.
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Wordless Wednesday: purple heron
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Travel Tuesday: inside Fairy Glen
What’s this? Why do all the stones laying here around? I have no idea. But, that place bore a surprise. Stay tuned.
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Monochrome Monday 8-16
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Lens-Artists Photo Challange 162: “It’s all about the light”
“It’s all about the light” is the topic for this week’s Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge hosted by Tina. I really have to stress this statement, because it’s a key message regardless of the kind of photography you’re practicing. Photographing a fantastic model or scene at the wrong time or having the wrong light makes the result dull and boring. Even postprocessing can’t change it.
These images are taken at the same location. For each image, I wrote down the date and the time. So, you can compare the different light situations. OK, two of the images are taken in the afternoon and the other three are taken around sunrise. But, even when comparing the images taken at a similar time you can see a huge difference as you can see in the next section.
Here, it’s the same. I love the 2017 image most. In 2019, we had nearly no morning fog and in 2020 it was too much fog. On the other hand, both years had no clouds to offer. Finally, I want to show you my favorite image from those 5 trips to that location.
In this image, we can see the warmth of the golden hour, morning fog, some clouds making the sky interesting, and a star in the tree created by the aperture blades from the light of the sun behind the tree.
I’m looking forward to the upcoming weather conditions to see if it’s worth another trip. It’s a one-hour drive to get there (not counting the walk over sandy ground) and sunrise is at around 6:30-7:00. So, I’d have to get up at 5 a.m to be on location on time.
Unfortunately, the weather is unpredictable bad this year. Gray skies covered with lots of could and much rain. Instead of summer, we got already 3 months of fall up to now this year. Since mid of May, we only got 5 days’ worth of the label “summer”. (I’m reminding you of the days of hard rain and flooding in mid-July) So, we’re hoping for a golden fall now.
In case, you’re interested in giving Excire Foto a try, there’s a free trial available for download. When you’re willing to buy a copy, you can use EXCIREFIRE20 at checkout to save 20%.
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spread your wings
More of my images can be seen on my own blog.
spread your wings
Throwback Thursday: go in single file
The weekend before last, we finally got some weather to go out with the camera. We were up quite early to reach our destination at a time before it would be crowded by morning joggers or other human visitors going on their roundtrip in this area. For wildlife photography, it’s important to have a calm surroundings to avoid disturbing the animals. We want to have them near to have a good sight. But, when noisy people are around, the noise will chase the animals into their hide or at least further away from the edges nears walking paths. In nature protection areas, it’s not allowed to leave the paths to give enough room for the animals (and plants) to live their life at our side.
A couple of years ago I was already there. Now, I came back with a better lens and much more luck 😊. I guess I’m going to show you a couple of more images in the next weeks taken at this northernmost free and wild flamingo colony.
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Wordless Wednesday: juvenile female marsh harrier
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Travel Tuesday: inside Fairy Glen
Fairy glen has more than one funny-shaped hill. This looks like a defense wall and a moat for protecting a medieval castle. The tradition says it’s built by the little folk also known as elves living in this glen (valley). On the other hand, geologists say, it’s created by glaciers. Decide your own, which explanation you take. Either way, enjoy the beauty of the valley and respect nature.
Leave nothing but footprints (without harming plants) and take nothing but photos and memories!
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Monochrome Monday 8-15
A bird’s back. Guess, which bird 😊 In the past, this was used for dedusting the houses.
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Lens-Artists Photo Challange 161: “feet & shoes”
This week, we have another hard challenge for me. Ann-Christine asks for “feet & shoes”, something I photograph only in extremely rare situations.
In the 1970s a young man from South Africa came to Germany to become a professional singer. Despite, German wasn’t his native language he sang in German, but with a very strong and easy-to-recognize accent. He performed Schlager, a specific genre of current music. I can’t describe it in my own words in English, so I looked it up in Wikipedia:
Schlager music (German: [ˈʃlaːɡɐ], “hit(s)”) is a style of European popular music that is generally a catchy instrumental accompaniment to vocal pieces of pop music with simple, happy-go-lucky, and often sentimental lyrics. It is prevalent in Central, Northern and Southeast Europe (in particular Germany, Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic states), and also (to a lesser extent) in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In the United States it is also known as ‘entertainer music’ or ‘German hit mix’.
Typical Schlager tracks are either sweet, sentimental ballads with a simple, catchy melody or light pop tunes. Lyrics typically center on love, relationships, and feelings. The northern variant of Schlager (notably in Finland) has taken elements from Nordic and Slavic folk songs, with lyrics tending towards melancholic and elegiac themes. Musically, Schlager bears similarities to styles such as easy listening.
The German word Schlager is also a loanword in some other languages (such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Serbian, Russian,[3] Hebrew, and Romanian, for example), where it retained its meaning of a “(musical) hit”. The style has been frequently represented at the Eurovision Song Contest and has been popular since the contest began in 1956, although it is gradually being replaced by other pop music styles.
Over time, Schlager music has gradually shifted on to electronic music rather than generic pop music, due to its widespread use of synthesizers throughout its various implementations in recent decades.
He became quite successful and still performs on stage. One of his most popular songs was in 1975 “Deine Spuren im Sand”.
Ths refrain of this song is:
Deine Spuren im Sand (deine Spuren im Sand)
Die ich gestern noch fand
Hat die Flut mitgenommen
Was gehört nun noch mir?
Deine Liebe sie schwand (deine Liebe sie schwand)
Wie die Spuren im Sand
Was ist mir nur geblieben?
Nur die Sehnsucht nach dir
Your tracks in the sand (your tracks in the sand)
Which I found yesterday
Took the tide with it
What is mine now?
Your love it waned (your love it waned)
Like the tracks in the sand
What do I have left?
Just the longing for you
But, you an also have light-tracks. They can also vanish that easy.
Here I have an example of shoes, which can also vansih very easy. “Sweet dreams are made of shoes”, or was what did Annie Lennox sang?
In case, you’re interested in giving Excire Foto a try, there’s a free trial available for download. When you’re willing to buy a copy, you can use EXCIREFIRE20 at checkout to save 20%.
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passing by
More of my images can be seen on my own blog.
passing by
Throwback Thursday: European bee-eater
Two and a half months ago. The same afternoon I took this image in the morning, the world started to get drowned here in western Germany. That afternoon we got the first monsoon-like hard rain out of a series with nearly daily repetition which summited (up to now) in the disaster 4 weeks ago. You might have heard about it in your news magazine on TV. Since then, we have only had a few sunny hours. Mid-July to mid-August is called Dog-days-of-summer. They are supposed as being the hottest days of the year. Usually, many people are complaining about the heat and lack of sleep because of the lack of air conditions in the sleeping rooms. IMHO, that problem isn’t the heat, it’s the moisture that makes the temperature feel hotter than it really is.
Nevertheless, instead of heat, we have too much water (rain) this year. I guess, summer is already over and we already arrived in fall without having had a summer. Only around 14°C, grey sky, and lots of rain, when the temperatures are supposed to be around 25°C or more under a blue sky.
Other regions in Europe are also complaining about bad weather: >40°C and huge wildfires endangering towns, villages, and even big cities in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Croatia, and a few more countries. Even Russia and Finland are recording all-time highs in temperatures.
Who still denies climate change? Everyone can contribute: reduce your consumption of electrical power, using green power instead of power made from coal, think twice if you really need to use your car, lower the temperature of your heating during winter by a few degrees, buy your groceries locally and do it in bulk (i.e. once a month instead of every other day). It’s not much for each of us, but summed up it contributes. In case, you want to do more, there are a lot of other options.
Ad: For finding images in your archive, Excire Foto is a big help. When using EXCIREFIRE20 at checkout you can save 20%.
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Wordless Wednesday: moth-to-be
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Travel Tuesday: inside Fairy Glen
Fairy glen has more than one funny-shaped hill. The tradition says it’s built by the little folk also known as elves living in this glen (valley). On the other hand, geologists say, it’s created by glaciers. Decide your own, which explanation you take. Either way, enjoy the beauty of the valley and respect nature.
Leave nothing but footprints (without harming plants) and take nothing but photos and memories!
Take care!
Monochrome Monday 8-14
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Lens-Artists Photo Challange 160: “My inspiration”
Summer is over? When looking at the calendar, it’s not over yet. But, when looking at the weather, you might think we already have fall here in western Germany. Nevertheless, the pause for our main hosts is over and Patti is hosting this week’s LAPC. Look at her site, to see, how to participate.
When doing some analysis on your photo archive, you can see, what really inspires you, even if you did not notice it yourself. My inspiration is the beauty of nature: landscapes, flowers, pretty ladies, and colorful birds are populating huge parts of my archive. On the other hand, you won’t find many cityscapes, architecture, tech, or still lives despite I do them every now and then.
You need to do some research on the weather and light conditions as well as light directions. Maybe you have to get up early or go to bed late at night (didn’t I say morning). Try to understand the customs and behaviors of the animals I want to capture.
In the past, I already introduced you to some pieces of software, being able to support you’re analyzing your photo archive. The AI analyzes and tags your images. When done, you can i.e. lookup, how many images of yours are tagged with a certain keyword. This helps you understand where your most active field of photography is.
In case, you’re interested in giving Excire Foto a try, there’s a free trial available for download. When you’re willing to buy a copy, you can use EXCIREFIRE20 at checkout to save 20%.
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encountering a black-headed gull
More of my images can be seen on my own blog.
encountering a black-headed gull
Throwback Thursday: European bee-eater
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Wordless Wednesday: moth-to-be
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Travel Tuesday: inside Fairy Glen
Fairy glen has more than one funny-shaped hill. The tradition says it’s built by the little folk also known as elves living in this glen (valley). On the other hand, geologists say, it’s created by glaciers. Decide your own, which explanation you take. Either way, enjoy the beauty of the valley and respect nature.
Leave nothing but footprints (without harming plants) and take nothing but photos and memories!
Take care!
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