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Tag: autumn
Throwback Thursday: died too early
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Throwback Thursday: Elbe
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!
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Throwback Thursday: Indian summer
I took this image on Nov 1st, 2014. It was the grand final of a great fall. T-shirt weather during daytime, but already cold after the sun went down.
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Throwback Thursday: Nov 1st, 2014
Seven years ago, we had a fantastic fall. T-shirt weather during daytime and wonderful colors in the trees and on the ground.
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Lens-Artists Photo Challange 167: “Colors of Autumn”
It’s autumn since last Wednesday and Amy is already asking for autumn images.
P.S. don’t forget to click on the images to enlarge them.
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Throwback Thursday: connecting lights
This image is taken during our photographer’s roundtable in January 2010. It’s 11 years old. But I guess, it’s a symbol for this year: a vaccine is available, distribution of the vaccine hast started and the bright area in the sky is proposing a “back to normal” to come soon. Until then, keep safe!
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Throwback Thursday: industry on magic mushrooms?
8 years ago! What a day. Perfect weather. Even stars above the scene!
Our monthly photographer’s roundtable led us to this closed former steel plant in the north-western Ruhr area. Instead of tearing it down, the area was converted into a park and many parts are accessible for the people. This was neither my first, nor my last visit. Unfortunately, it’s nearly a 100km drive.
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Wordless Wednesday: young bearded tit
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Throwback Thursday: November blues in December?
I took this image a couple of years ago, but it could be taken today.
This image is illustrating, how I currently feel: bored, annoyed but at the same time lacking drive. I have so much to do, but I’m not motivated to do anything. So, I’m waiting for the time passing by when I’m back from work.
Only three weeks until winter solstice. Today, sunrise was at 8:24h and sunset is at 16:22. On Dec. 21st the sun will rise at 8:33h and set at 16:22h. But, when having so deep hanging clouds and fog, the days don’t get bright. People living further north even have way shorter days at the moment.
The weekend before last, the temperature was below 0°C even during the days with crisp blue skies. But, on the next Monday, the temperatures rose again and brought this uncomfortable weather: slightly above the freezing point, drizzling rain (with the ability to create black ice on the frozen surfaces of the streets), and the bad sight. A thick, warm jacket or better coat is important. Not because of the low temperatures, but because everything feels colder because of the moisture in the air. An umbrella does not help much. The drops are so fine, they find their way under the umbrella and make your clothes wet.
Unusually we have this kind of weather during November (but with much more rain). This year, November was way too dry. Forests are dying because of the lack of water. Lakes, and especially the artificial lakes for ensuring we have enough drinking water, are dramatically empty. Three hot years in a row without enough rain to refill all the reservoirs have consequences. Nature is fighting back!
We need more large forests to make sure, the rain will come back. But, without water, no forest can grow. Even, if it could, it would last decades.
This is flu weather. Keep yourself warm and take care of not getting infected by any of the bad viruses roaming outside at the moment. You know, there are a few viruses around much worse than flu.
Wordless Wednesday: Eurasian jay
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Throwback Thursday: Rear Window
Today’s subject is inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s famous movie as I kind of felt like the main actor of the story (played by James Stewart) might have felt. No, I’m not sitting in a wheel-chair, nor I’m handicapped otherwise. But, the remaining parts have some similarities.
Last Sunday morning I was attending a personal video conference from our living room. I was sitting on the couch with my notebook standing on the coffee table in front of me. So, I was able to easily watch out of the big window when I suddenly recognized a movement in the garden. That day was already winterly: cold (around 3-4°C), a gray covered sky and it was drizzling. Very uncomfortable being outside. Fortunately, I was sitting inside.
I tried to discover, what kind of movement I recognized from the corner of my eye. It was different from the regular bird’s movements. About 20 meters away from me I saw a gray subject laying on the lawn. But, I was still unable to determine what it was. After staring a couple of seconds on the subject, I got the idea, it could be a bird of prey with its prey after a successful hunt which it now covers with its wings to hide it from greedy competitors. Hurring upstairs for getting my camera, but I was too slow. The gray patch was already gone when I returned.
But, after a couple of minutes, it flew into our apple tree for a short rest. This time my camera was ready.
Here he sits, still having the prey in the left claw. I’m not perfectly sure, what it is (was). I guess it could be an Eurasian blackbird.
Btw. the German name “Sperber” is derived from the Old High German words Sparo (sparrow) and Aar (eagle). So, we have a sparrow-eagle 😊
Btw2. The German title of the movie is “Das Fenster zum Hof” and translates to “The window to the courtyard”, which is in my opinion a better description for the movie. But, as it is Alfred’s creation he has the right to name it whatever he thinks is right.
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Throwback Thursday: Ferris wheel
A friend of mine posted an image on FB of a Ferris wheel at night. I liked the image very much. While chatting with her online, I checked the archive of this blog to see, if I have one of my own images already online. I found a couple of other funfair related posts i.e. here, here, and here. The image I was looking for, I unfortunately only have on my other blog to showcase as an example for the “Kirmeslichter” (lights at a funfair) workshops, I’m offering. This year I didn’t offer that workshop, because there were no funfairs because of the COVID19 pandemic.
Each year in September the funfair comes to my town, but not in 2020. Nearly every year I’m out for at least one night to capture these special lights. The Ferris wheel is usually the center of such a funfair. That one year, there was another circling attraction right behind the Ferris wheel and I was waiting with my camera for a moment when both of them were operating. The carousel in the background only has two arms with a gondola for about 8 people in each. When in operation, the gondolas are circled first in one direction and after a short stop, in the other direction. I can’t imagine how it could feel sitting in one of the gondolas.
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Wordless Wednesday: last apple
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Throwback Thursday: another photographers roundtable during lockdown
You know as a regular reader, I’m part of a monthly photographers roundtable. We’re meeting each first Saturday of a month for a photowalk in our region. Under the current condition and rules, although we don’t have a complete lockdown as we had in spring, that’s not possible. So we had a Zoom meeting combined with an exercise to be done during the week before the meeting.
This time I picked a theme for all of us instead of selecting a card from the Inspiracle card deck. Each of has can show up to 5 images wherein a maximum of 2 is allowed to be taken from the archive. We’re in November and in the northern hemisphere, this month is considered dark, unfriendly, and depressing. In Germany, we have a couple of memorial days during November dedicate to the death. When now the Mexican “Día de los Muertos” comes to your mind, you’re completely wrong. Check the link above to learn a bit more about these memorial days. Because of this background, it came to my mind the give us “fading, transient, transience” as a theme for the exercise.
Here are my results:
The first 4 images are taken for the exercise, while the others are from my archive.
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Wordless Wednesday: fall
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Throwback Thursday: The viewpoint
The setting sun on Oct. 27, 2010 after a whole day on the motorway to get our daughter back. A couple of weeks she was at a health resort for a cure. We arrived a day ahead because another way it won’t be possible to be there on time.
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Throwback Thursday: 10 years ago ….
Throwback Thursday: foggy morning
Another result of the workshop, I held a month ago. It’s not the first time, I had photographed this group of birches. I really love how they stand out of the heathland especially when there is morning fog.
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Lens-Artists Photo Challange 118: “communication”
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.
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Throwback Thursday: workshop results
Two weeks ago I was holding a workshop again. Not a big one. Because of the pandemic regulations, only a very, very small group was with me.
We were reaching our destination before sunrise at about 6 a.m. (oohhh, that’s before breakfast 😳). Amazing how many people were already there or were arriving shortly after us. About 30-40 photographers, mostly equipped with a tripod and a bunch of filters (noooo, no Instagram-filters 😇, glass filters) and about 20 joggers. It wasn’t my first visit here at that early time and in the past, I never met more than two or three people (mostly walkers and not photographers). When I was leaving I met some people walking their dogs or so. So, I was quite surprised how crowded the location was.
But, I won’t complain. As expected, we were gifted by a lot of morning fog, a nice sunrise but unfortunately no clouds.
About 2 hours later, all the beauty was gone. But, our memory cards were filled instead to keep the beauty.
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Lens-Artists Photo Challange 117: “A Photo Walk”
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!
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Wordless Wednesday: sparrow
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Throwback Thursday: before sunrise
It’s always hard to get up so early in the morning. But, when on location before sunrise you can find the sweet spot for your photo easily.
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Wordless Wednesday: fallen leaves
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