Some of you might already have seen this image on Instagram. It was so great to be able to have the cheetah coming so close to me and accepting me as a distant visitor (literally he was simply ignoring me, and that was perfectly fine)
In this image, I really, really love how the low standing sun models the body of this beautiful cat. Thus, the monochrome version is much nicer than the color version.
Today, I want to show you two versions of the same image. On the left, you can see the original color version, and to the right the derived monochrome version.
Although this image is quite similar to the one I published here last week, it has a very different ambient. That’s because of the exposure time. Last week’s image was taken at 1/80s, while this one needed 25 seconds 😲
Lovelocks. Lots of lovelocks. Literally tons of lovelocks. This bridge crossing river Rhine in Cologne is famous for carrying thousands of these locks. A couple of years ago, structural engineers came over to re-do the structural calculations because of the enormous extra weight the bridge has to carry. Although each lock weighs only a couple of grams, it sums up to tons because of the huge amount of locks mounted on the fences on both sides of the bridge over the whole span. Afterward, many, many locks were removed to secure the bridge. But, lovers filled up the cleared spaces quite fast.
The bridge is more than 400m long and nearly 30m broad. The longest span is nearly 170m to give room for the transport ships to pass below. Besides pedestrians, the bridge is used by more than 1200 trains per day. It’s one of the most important railway junctions here in Germany. You can find more details on Wikipedia, if interested.
I’m putting this topic up quite early. It’s about three weeks ’til Valentine’s day. So, take this as a reminder to prepare something for your darling. 😊
Thanks, Ann-Christine, for giving me the opportunity to remember a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Seychelles Islands back in October 2010. For two weeks I was in paradise. La Digue is one of the bigger islands forming the country Seychelles. It’s located in the Indian Ocean and belongs to the African continent. You can find it on a map when staring with your finger in Mombasa at the Kenyan coast and moving to the east and starting with your other finger from the Jemen-Oman-border going south.
Seychelles is south of the equator at 4°16′ S 55°46′ E. So they are outside the cyclone area. No dangerous animals are living on the islands. There is even no malaria threat in Seychelles.
The islands have a tropical climate. It’s hot and the humidity is quite high. Because of the short distance to the equator, there is no twilight. When the sun goes down, it becomes dark nearly at once. The sun rises at around 6 a.m. and goes down at around 6 p.m.
first sight of the paradise aka Seychelles
the church is already decorated for the upcoming national holiday
one of the fantastic beaches around La Digue
a big print of this image is in the image’s rotation box and thus hanging every now and then in our living room for a couple of weeks.
nightfall is very fast so close to the equator
I loved watching these pretty white long-tail tropicbirds when they were in the air. It seemed to me, they really have fun and enjoy flying fast and amazing courses.
When you want to read a bit more, you can find my posts here. Scroll down to the bottom of that page to start with the oldest post.
It’s Saturday evening, so it’s time for LAPC and Patti is our host this week.
The first object is from my “toy box”. It’s a view inside a (broken) hard disk.
Many people love lighthouses. This one is not in use anymore for a couple of decades. One of the famous comedians in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s used to live here: Otto Waalkes. Now, it’s used by the nearby city government for weddings.
Even (street) signs can offer something to look at. Decide on your own, which sign you need to follow. I found this in Normandy, France, a couple of years ago.
Or maybe, you’re interested in street art. Some war-knitting activities affected these poles in a street in our state capitol, Düsseldorf.
I met this strict-looking lady inside the botanical garden of Barcelona. It’s a memorial for the famous flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya (1913 – 1963).
Or, maybe you’re more in details. I illuminated this chain with two flashes, each with a gel attached to color the light.
This is another memorial, I found in Barcelona. I have to admit, I don’t know the meaning nor the artist. But, I liked the shape, the color at night-fall, and the minimalism in this image.
When you’re not familiar with a place, have a look for these telescopes. They usually point by default to an interesting area. In this case, it’s Hotel W in Barcelona.
To give your photographic eye special training, take your camera and walk around in your house or apartment. Try to capture interesting things. To make the challenge even harder, you can try to tell a story in only one image
It was a lot of fun, to dig into my own archive and assemble this tiny gallery for you. I hope you liked it. As usual, click on an image to enlarge it.
great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) / Buntspecht
An image taken last year in fall. Although this kind of woodpecker is searching for insects by pecking trees, he tried to find insects like i.e. the European green woodpecker (Picus viridis) by pecking the earth. The European green woodpecker is usually searching for ants. Therefore you can find them usually on the ground, where they are well camouflaged.
This week Tina challenges us to show some work out of our own page. hmmm, I usually don’t participate in other challenges than LAPC. So, I don’t have something to say today and I was considering skipping this week. But, I have two other pages for you:
Monochromia: when you’re a lover of monochrome images, this site is for you! You can find images published at least twice a day from many very talented photographers around the world working in different fields of photography. I’m a regular contributor over there. My slot is Friday 13:00h/1 p.m. New York time. But, I’m always reblogging it here, too.
Here’s one of my last images, I published over there:
The other one is my other, my personal, Blog. Currently, I’m running a poll to find the images for my next calendar. You’re invited to participate. Simply jump over and vote for your favorite images. The instructions are on top of the page in German first and in English below. It’s completely anonymous. I’d be very happy to get a lot of participants.
Although they seem very intense colored with the strong and distinct bars on their face, body, and legs, when looking at them directly, they vanish easily in their surroundings in the Kalahari desert and where else you spot them in Namibia. Regardless if the landscape is gray or reddish, they merge with the background. It’s really fascinating.
The first image was taken at 8:45 a.m. The second at 6:30 a.m. and the third at 8:40 a.m.
The last one is taken at 11 a.m. Do you find the second oryx in the image?
Today we have the first day of a new year. I often compare this day with a blank sheet of paper laying in front of me waiting to get written on. But, it’s also the perfect day to look back on the just past year and remember. So, this is kind of a follow-up to my yesterday’s post.
A week ago, I wrote about my yearbook. It’s also a book of memories (photographically). So, for today’s post, I’m just digging a bit more into the image folder to find the absolute essence of 2021.
Winter:
In early January we got a little snow for 3 days and in February ice rain and on top a quite solid layer of snow for about 2 weeks. A few crisp and clear nights gave me the opportunity to go out for photographing the night sky and some deep-sky objects.
Spring:
Spring started as usual, but too cold. The bluebells were not ready to get photographed, but the tulip fields were great again. Unfortunately, late snow destroyed many blossoms. So, fewer fruits grew on the trees.
tulips
Summer:
While June started great, by mid-June the weather turned. Gray skies and a lot of rain. The worst day was July 14th when huge amounts of rain fell over a very small band of land devasting the areas. Small creeks and rivers got soo much water, that they were overflooding the streets, railways, and towns besides them. Meters of water was standing in the streets. Up to now, the damages are not removed. Many people still have no heating in their houses in those areas. Many people lost everything except their lives while others were not so lucky because those also lost their lives.
Because of the bad weather, I didn’t go on excursions over the summer.
Fall:
Because of the weather, I didn’t go on any excursions during the fall, except using the first opportunity to see the cathedral in Cologne without any scaffold. The whole summer and most of the fall the weather was quite bad. Only a few hours of sunshine but even these days were cold. So, the Namibia trip from the second half of November dominates this section.
watching together
giraffe
During December, I was busy developing my images from Namibia. So, there’s nothing to add.
You can find the corresponding posts published by our hosts here: Tina, Patti, Ann-Christine, and Amy
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