Category: animals

animals, culture, insect, photo-of-the-day, photography, wildlife, world

Monochrome Monday 7-31

solaner

Sometimes you have to think out of the box. Until recently, I won’t have gotten the idea of showing an insect in monochrome. But, I stumbled upon an image a friend of mine posted on FB: a dragonfly. I liked that image very much and tried it with one of my own images.

So, what do you think? I’m curious about getting your opinion. What do you think?

 

Take care!

 

animals, culture, mammal, photo-of-the-day, photography, world

Monochrome Monday 7-30

solaner
full-frame, 12mm, tripod, graduated ND filter

I guess, nearly everyone immediately connects this image to Iceland. It’s the iconic mountain Kirkjufell, located on a small peninsula on the north coast of the Snæfellsnes peninsula, with the Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall in front, where the river Kirkjufellsá reaches sea level after falling down 16 meters.

It was great being there at a time with nearly no other tourists. Exactly opposite to me, a hiking path follows the river and I suspect many people standing there watching this beautiful waterfall. While I was there, only 3 other guys were watching from there. So, it was easy to wait a couple of minutes.

Take care!

 

animals, culture, mammal, photo-of-the-day, photography, world

Monochrome Monday 7-28 – locked again

solaner

Too many people were ignoring the recommendations for keeping distance between people. Too many people were ignoring wearing masks, where they are supposed to do. Too many people were constantly complaining about how they feel limited instead of simply following the rules to defeat the virus tantalizing us for up to 11 months now.

Recently, I saw a series of short interviews in a  news show on TV.  Pedestrians were interviewed in pedestrian areas in a couple of cities. Passers-by were asked about their opinion regarding the upcoming second wave of Covid19. I really was shocked by the answers by many of the young adults. Nearly all of them didn’t care. They understood the general rule from the first wave (primarily elderly and people with underlying health conditions were affected and endangered) as ‘younger people are immune’. They said ‘I’m not a member of one of the high-risk groups. So, I can act as usual’. They forgot, those young and healthy people generally not die because of the infection. But, this does not necessarily mean, they were immune. There are already a lot of young and healthy passed away while others still suffer from health problems even months after the infection is gone, even professional sportspeople. Loss of the sense of taste, the sense of smell, weak endurance, and problems coordinating the parts of their bodies because the virus also attacks the brain and the nerves. How long these problems will remain is still unknown. So, no-one is safe!

Up to now, we had quite good results here in Germany in comparison with other countries. But, it seems, these guys need the images again showing piles of coffins in the streets, like they had i.e. in Italy in spring, a perverted version of “seeing is believing” (Tom Hanks in Polar Express). We’re admired for having so few infections and deaths, but they don’t see, why our results are so good.

During the last couple of weeks, the regulation became stricter each week or so while the number of freshly infected people was rising. By today, we’re in lockdown again. During the next 4 weeks no restaurant, cinema, theatre, opera house, fitness center, and so on are not allowed to do business anymore, except for the restaurants selling food to take away. The list of businesses is quite long but different from the first lockdown in spring, this time schools and kindergartens are kept open. Although this was foreseeable, too many people were still ignoring the safety rules or, even worse, fighting against them by demonstrating and preaching the virus won’t exist and everything would be simply a fake by i.e. Bill Gates. Personally, I can’t believe this happens now, in the 21st century. People should be smarter now with all the ways to get information instead of fake news. Everyone should be able to decide, which sources of information are trustworthy and which are not. Now, with the new lockdown, we will definitely see many businesses bankrupting, despite the government tried hard to avoid it. The ghost of 1929 seems to rise again.

Sorry guys. This is a blog on photography and not a platform for political statements. But, I felt, it’d be necessary and this image illustrates, how I’m feeling right now. It’s one of my rare images taken in a zoo a couple of years ago.

I’m still offering a call via Skye or Zoom, in case anyone is in a similar situation, feeling lonely and has no-one to talk to. In case you’re interested, put it in the comments. I won’t publish that comment and only contact you to negotiate a call.

Take care!