Category: fall

fall, landscape, long exposure, nature, photography, travel, world

Throwback Thursday: working on my backlog

solaner

For a couple of months, I work to reduce my backlog of undeveloped images whenever I have some spare time. Over the years, some (many) folders of undeveloped images found their way only to my external disk The oldest folder is dated from 2009 😲. In general, these folders contain quite often only images of flowers, birds, cats or so and nothing from more important trips. But, also a couple of trips are among these, just like the one, I’m talking about today.

Back in October 2014, I was in Flandern at the Belgium coast. A few images were already developed, but the majority were still waiting.

When looking at the image files, I remembered at once, why they were still waiting for development. Especially in the upper parts of the images, the sensor captured a lot of dust spots. I haven’t counted them, but I guess, each image had more than a hundred of these spots to be removed. Fortunately, I took those images raw, so that the removal didn’t cause any quality problems and the raw development software is so well developed to remove these spots in general without any glitches.

Although having dust spots is not that uncommon, the enormous number of them, I was faced with, is. You have to clean your sensor when photographing with a camera with interchangeable lenses regularly. Back in film days, you did this each time when putting a new film in. Now, having a digital sensor, the sensor has to be cleaned regularly. In case, you’re not familiar with this, drop me a comment below.

As I said, having dust spots is annoying but not uncommon. But, the camera I was using at that time, had a huge problem. Those spots were not only dust. In addition, each shutter release distributed a tiny amount of machine oil being used for the mechanical part of the shutter over the sensor. Fortunately, this issue was accepted by the manufacturer and a portion of this camera model based on a certain range of serial numbers was called back for repair. Also, I would have been glad, if the call back was much earlier.

Take care!

 

autumn, fall, insect, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, seasons, spring, summer

Wordless Wednesday: hated but protected

solaner

Wasps are under nature protection, although humans usually hate them.

During summer, they invite themselves to our barbeques because they need meat to feed their larvae. In late summer and fall, they invite themselves to our coffee tables to get a porting of sweet cake, ice cream, or fruits. Although the larvae need meat, the adults feed themselves from pollens, honey, and overripe fruits. Thus, our cakes and especially plum cakes fit perfectly in their nutrition ☹️ and we have them around us each day with nice weather.

On hot days, they also come over to ponds, poodles, and bird baths to fetch some water for their larvae. These are leaves of water lilies in a pond. When there is a bit of water on such a leaf, they use it. If not, they have to stand on a leaf and drink directly from the pond’s water.

Soon, their breeding season is over. Then, the adults (all females) are unoccupied and roam around to find some sweet food and the humans are annoyed again.

Because of their importance to nature, they are protected. In case, you find a nest, you have to leave it alone. There are very high fines when a wasp nest is destroyed. In case, the nest is endangering humans, they can order a beekeeper to relocate the nest carefully.

Take care!

autumn, fall, photography, travel

Throwback Thursday: Elbe

solaner

The river Elbe near Rathen in Saxony in October 2015.

There is a childrens story by Josef Guggenmos (1922-2003) around.

The trees in the forest asked the fall upon arrival, what he has brought along, as each season brought them something. As he didn’t have anything, he stated they should be satisfied by their green clothes. But, they were not satisfied. Instead, they asked him to at least color their leaves. They want to be colorful at least for a certain time of the year. They would throw away their leaves once the winter would come to avoid making him angry. Therefore the fall sent the wind to ask the winter for permission. Finally, winter gave the permission but with a side condition: Fichten, Tannen, Kiefern, Lärchen (Spruce, fir, pine, larch – all plural) have to stay green. Unfortunately, the wind was sooo exited, that he mixed it up a bit and told the trees: Fichten, Tannen, Kiefern, and Föhren (Spruce, fir, pine, pine) would have stay green. That’s the reason, why you can’t have a Christmas Larch.

Ok, now the explanation. In German, the pine has 2 names depending on the region. While it is called Kiefer (singular) in most of the regions, it’s called Föhre (singular) in the Alpes region: Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland, and probably in South-Tirol (northern Italy). According to Wikipedia, Föhre is the older word, while Kiefer appeared first in the 16th century.

In case, anyone wants the read the full fairy tale, you can find it here. But, you have to either read it in German or ask a translator app for help. I’d recommend giving it a try. It’s a very nice story and not too long!

Take care!

 

abstract, art, autumn, culture, fall, flowers, food, photo-of-the-day, photography, technical, world

Lens-Artists Photo Challange 118: “communication”

solaner

LAPC is hosted this week by a guest host again: Biasini. She asks for our understanding of “communication”.

The first thing coming to my mind is the famous statement by the was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher Paul Watzlawick. He said, “you can not not communicate”. It’s not a typo doubling the word “not”.  It’s simple. Whenever people come together they communicate. They communicate by their clothing, posture, mimic, and gesture – the body language.

Besides direct (oral or body language) communication between humans, we also have signs, i.e. traffic signs, lighthouses, writings, and so on.

Take care!

abstract, art, autumn, culture, fall, flowers, food, photo-of-the-day, photography, technical, world

Lens-Artists Photo Challange 117: “A Photo Walk”

solaner

LAPC is hosted this week by Amy and she asks for images of a photowalk.

At least, once a month I go on a photowalk. That our monthly photographer’s roundtable. It’s always fun: walk, talk, take photos, and discuss the results afterward online.

These images are taking during my last photowalk two weeks ago. I had to take care of my grand-son that day and took him to the hills above the town. Our goal was a visit to the deer enclosure, a round trip of about 3 km or so. From the parking ground, our path first led us through the fields where we saw corn, apples, horses, and cows. Next, we entered the forest to reach the enclosure, soon. We also passed an area, where the lumbermen cut many trees and prepared them for transport. Many things for such a young guy to discover. Finally, we reached the enclosure. Unfortunately, only one deer was visible. The enclosure is big enough to offer a lot of hides to the animals. So, we only saw one. Fortunately, the little guy wasn’t disappointed and walked back with me willingly. Btw. yesterday, he turned 4!

Take care!

animals, autumn, bird, fall, landscape, nature, photography, seasons, wildlife, world

Throwback Thursday: wet

solaner

This is my contribution to The Lens-Artists challenge. This week Tina Shell challenged us with the topic “All Wet”. I’m quite late with my response.

I met these wet cranes last fall when I was heading home. Suddenly there were hundreds of them in the fields all wet from the constant rain.

Take care!