Category: plants

abstract, art, flowers, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants, spring

Throwback Thursday: during a short rain break

solaner

It’s mid of May. So, we’re in the middle of spring. To be honest, usually, spring starts in March over here outdoors, sometimes even in late February. First trees getting their leaves, spring flowers are blooming, temperatures are rising, and blue skies replace the grey blanket above our heads.

This year, we have spring flowers, but quite late and the trees are getting their leaves, but the temperature won’t rise. We still have temperatures between 10°C and zero. The sky is merely still grey without any structure and it’s drizzling very often. Not much rain, but enough to annoy us, while nature does not benefit because the amount is too small. 

In German, we have a weather rule “Der April weiß nicht, was er will” (April does not know what he wants). This describes the overall fast-changing weather conditions we experience in April. Even snow and ice are still possible and could possibly remain for a few hours. But, the overall statistics say, April 2023 was colder and wetter in comparison with the average since the beginning of weather recording more the 100 years ago.

Take care!

 

flowers, nature, photography, plants

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #237: Lowering Clarity to Bring Softness

solaner

Today we have a conceptual topic for LAPC. Usually, you want to have crisp clear, and sharp images. But, sometimes softness better supports the message you want to transfer.

You can try to reach this by decreasing the contrast or the clarity (if your raw development software supports offers such a feature), but in general, it’s much better to take care of this right when taking the images.

Especially in people photography, this softness is used to transport intimacy i.e. when taking images of brides. In the old days, photographers used either soft lenses (I have such a lens, but use it only very rarely), vaseline (never tried, because I’m afraid of ruining my front lens as they are coated nowadays), or nylon stockings (used every now and then).

As I never publish images of customers, I can’t show you any images of people. But, I also have a few images of flowers to demonstrate the effect.

Maybe, I was able to inspire you to dig in your archive and find some images, you can publish your images on your blog and set a link to Bren’s inspiration post. Don’t forget to tag it with LENS-ARTIST, so we can find it.

For the next at least two weeks I’m pausing with LAPC, because I’m on a trip. As usual when on a trip, there won’t be much time to blog. Days start early and last long, when on a trip. My usual posts are scheduled as I always do. So, there won’t be a pause at all.

Take care!

 

culture, landscape, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants, seasons, winter

Monochrome Monday 9-34

solaner

Happy New Year!

The calendar says it’s January now. January means we’re in the middle of winter in the northern hemisphere and winter is related to snow.

Freshly fallen snow lays on the ground like untouched and clean linen. The same is true for the first day(s) of a new year. Everything is still unclear and uncertain. Although some topics might already have been planned, everything still has to happen.

Take care!

 

animals, mammal, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants, wildlife

Monochrome Monday 9-32

solaner

 

 

Take care!

 

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nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants

Monochrome Monday 9-20

solaner

 

 

A “detail” from the inside of a wooden windmill, initially built in 1706. Here, you can read more.

Take care!

 

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In addition, I want to share some news on Luminar Neo with you. The latest update is capable of working with raw files from OM-1, EOS R3, and Lumix DC-GH6. There’s also another extension announced. So, five of the 7 extensions are already available

1) HDR

2) Noiseless AI

3) Upscale AI

4) Background Removal AI

5) Fokus-Stacking

6) will be announced in October

7) will be available in December

Focus stacking is a technology where a couple of images taken with different focus points from exactly the same place are merged to get images with a much bigger field of depth than possible with a single shot by closing the aperture. Up to 100 images can be merged that way. This is extremely interesting for macro photography, but also in certain fields of landscape photography, this is really useful. Many of the more recent cameras already support capturing such a series of images by automatically shifting the focus point through the scene. Luminar Neo supports you with the necessary functions to merge those images into a final one with a huge field of depth.

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nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants

Monochrome Monday 9-18

solaner

 

 

My last vacation with my wife and my grandson (nearly 6) surprisingly gave me the opportunity to explore an old wooden windmill, a so-called smock mill. A few years ago, I already was there, but wasn’t aware of the option, to tour the windmill. The souvenir shop held me away.

The windmill was initially built in 1706 and reconstructed after a fire in 1920/21. It’s still in use as a flour mill. In the basement of the windmill is a shop offering natural products as well as souvenirs. While in the shop, my grandson asked quite loudly (as kids of that age do), if he could go upstairs and see the inner parts of the windmill and the owner answered (instead of us), that it would be possible when paying an entrance fee and at least one of the adults would accomplish him. So, I’m glad, he was with us and talking that loud.

For a long, I wanted to visit an old windmill with my camera. It was fantastic to see, how everything was constructed. It was amazing to see all this old technology and that it remained the centuries and wars.

The windmill has 4 floors. All of them offer only very few free (unused) room to roam around. I even had to leave my backpack on the first floor to be able to climb up to the upper levels. While my wife and my grandson only claimed up to the second floor and were frightened to use the steep ladders further up, I made my way up to the top. Fortunately, no one else was there at the same time. The next visitors arrived on level 2 just when I came down again from level 3. In my image above, you can watch down the ladder connecting levels 2 and 3.

Take care!

nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants

Monochrome Monday 9-17

solaner

 

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Take care!

 

nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants

Monochrome Monday 9-15

solaner

Europe is currently suffering from a big drought. For weeks, we didn’t get enough rain. It’s the fourth drought during summer in a row. Last week, the official meter of the river Rhine, one of the big streams of Europe, in Emmerich near the border to the Netherlands reported, that the meter sunk under zero! That’s possible because level zero was declared at some time in the past and never before did the river has a lower level. Shipping is still possible but the ships are half-empty and have to sail at very low speeds. The middle of the river is deepened to being a road for the ships.

Saturday morning, I went to our state capital Düsseldorf. At this location, the river usually should be about 400m broad. You see, I’m standing in the riverbed and the river is missing about 7-8 meters of water here according to my GPS measuring at the current water level and at the regular water level visible on the ground.

You see the clouds in the sky. During the night from Friday to Saturday, some rain fronts passed in from the Atlantic Ocean. For a few hours, we got some rain for the first time in the last weeks (months). When I got up, most of the front already passed and only some drizzling remained.

In Bavaria and Austria, they got more rain than the soil could cover. Some landslides are the result and cause severe problems. I assume, most of the water will go to the river Danube and not to the Rhine 😦 But, a few kilometers east of us, they also got flood-rains. Train tracks are damaged by the masses of water. The railway company announced the repairs would also least last about 24 hours. On the pro side, we can say, that water will help fill the rivers around and the Rhine.

Take care!