Monochrome Madness 3-52

Another year of “Monochrome Madness” is over. This was the third year and we have seen lots of interesting monochrome images taken by so many different photographers throughout the world. And, we have seen, the time of monochrome images isn’t over.

For this final post of the third year, I have looked through my images of the past 52 weeks and picked my 5 favourite images.

A huge “thank you” to Leanne Cole for all of her work to assemble a nice gallery every week during the last 12 months and certainly during the last 3 years, too.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-51

 

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-50

“Culture” has different meanings in German.

First of all, it describes how a community is organised. Each group of people can develop a certain kind of culture. How to treat each other, hierarchies or styles of music, theatre, art, poetry and so on. Common roots ensure common and similar ideas in how communities work.

Another meaning is in agriculture and in farming. There are culture plants and animals: domesticated plants or animals. They are usually planted or raised for human needs: either as  a source of food or to have other advantages from them i.e. cats hunting mice and rats, horses and donkeys carry loads or oxen pull the plow.

More than 2000 years ago, the Romans came north to conquer Europe. They brought their style of living, their ideas of art, their architecture and their plants, like vine and their knowledge how to produce wine from the grapes. As a result you can find wine yards everywhere, where the Romand have settled, when the soil made wine bars possible.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-49

 

The weekend before last, I was bored. All absolutely necessary chores were done and I didn’t have had any idea nor energy to do anything but sitting on the couch. While sitting there, our blooming Amaryllis caught my attention, because the sun outside made the petals opaque and nice structures popped out. So, I got up from the couch, fetched my camera, the extension tubes and my tripod. For about an hour I worked my way through the Amaryllis blossom and an African Violet. On Wordless Wednesday this week I’m gonna show you one of the violet images.

Some more images are already in my Instagram account.

I converted the image to monochrome by using MacPhun Tonality Pro 2, as usual. I really like the output of Tonality Pro. I even like it much more than Nic SilverEfex 2. It’s not only the output, it’s also the user interface, the option to use it native without Photoshop as a host application and the option to save images with all the edits changeable.

Every now and then, I edit my monochrome images by using my raw converter CaptureNX 2, Photoshop CS6, Nic SilverEfex 2 and MacPhun Tonality Pro 2 simultaneity for comparing the results. It’s almost always, that I like the version by Tonality Pro most and delete the other one.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-48

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-47

I’ve found these tiny blossoms on our monthly photographers roundtable (photowalk) last Saturday. They are similar to snow drops, but the blossoms a bit thicker and shaped like a bowl turned upside down. Snowdrops instead, are more slender and elegant. Just like comparing and apple to a pear. Apart from this, they have many similarities in their appearance. Follow my link back to a past post, showing the snowdrops. But, they are not related to each other. The next relative ist the Amaryllis.

Here they are called Märzbecher (Leucojum vernum). März = March and Becher = cup, bowl, goblet, mug, can. Their english name is spring snowflake or simply snowflake. According to Wikipedia, they are native to south Europes floodplain and mixed deciduous forests, but you can also find these strong protected spring plants in some regions in Germany and in gardens.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-46

 

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-45

For this themed MMC I re-edited an older image. As the theme is “shadow”, this series from March 2010 came to my mind.

It’s taken during a hike at a wonderful sunny day with a nearly cloudless blue sky. A snow storm covered the landscape with a very solid coating of fresh snow the day before and brought back a winter wonderland for a few days, although winter was already over at that time.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-44

 

Dancing in the dark in Lisbon 🙂

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-43

celebrating not only one day of love, but a whole life!

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-42

A few days ago, my daughter watched youtube music videos on the TV in our living room. When I came in, she was listening and watching a cover version of “Dernière Danse”  by the all-female e-string and e-piano band Amadeus. When hearing the music, I knew at once, I know that song, but with a voice. Next, she picked the original song by Indila.

One of the opening scenes in the original music video when the singer stands at a fence and looks over Paris from above the city. At once, I knew where that scene was filmed. It’s not far from the famous cathedral Sacré-Cœur on the Montmatre hill, where I took the image above. But, for this MMC I edited my image a little bit. Do you like it?

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-41

We have another themed MMC this week and the theme ist “reflection”. You can find many reflections around. But, not every reflection also works in monochrome.

So, I considered several images and finally decided to take this one taken last fall.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-40

Do you remember my last Monochrome Madness post? I told you about the weather warning we got. This is, how our garden looked like the night before the storm.

We still have snow. Although, we have had a week full of sunshine and blue sky, the sun wasn’t able to melt it down. The clear nights are cold (around -10°C). Even during the days the temperature stayed below 0°C. The forecast says, it will stay cold, but clouds are on the way to bring further snow or even rain.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-39

On Thursday evening we got weather warnings from the weather forecasters. A serious storm was upcoming and about to cross the European mainlands during the night. Although the temperature was slightly about 0°C it was snowing. Partly, there were heavy snow storms even in the usually snow free lowlands. This storm was called “Egon”. That’s a custom for every heavy storm, low-pressure area and high-pressure area. “Egon” came from western directions. Luckily, one major part of the storm passed about 100km north of my region. Another major part started in France (more than 300000 households were reported to have no electric power – for France that means “no heating”, because the houses usually have electric heatings) and passed east of us. So, we only got a snowy cover of about 3-4 cm in thickness, but melting because of the temperatures.

The warnings were still current on Friday, also of my region, and lasted until Saturday noon. Although a heavy snow storm came up on Saturday and hindered me from visiting a friend, we have had good luck: our region was spared from the disaster.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-38

 

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-37

You know, I’m living in the northern hemisphere. And you also know, it’s currently winter here and it will last about 6-8 weeks until the first snowdrops or crocuses will pop up. So, why do I post an image with a blooming plant?

It’s a Christmas rose, also known as snow rose. It’s called that name, because its blooming time is around Christmas. This plant stands in our front garden and is blooming every year. A few years ago, my wife planted two small Christmas roses, side by side in our front garden. Although, both looked the same, one of them seemed to be weaker than the other and developed poorly over time. Unfortunately, it vanished some time ago. The other one, instead, developed fantastic. Each year it has more blossoms than in the year before. It’s always a pleasure to see the fresh blossoms either between the other, seemingly death, plants or among snow (when we have some).

I took the image on December 30th at noon. That’s usually a bad time for taking photographs because of the bad quality of light at (around) noon. But, in winter, when the sun is low above the horizon, she gives a beautiful, warm and soft light even around noon. Days are short now. Winter solstice or midwinter was last week. Despite the days become longer now agin, they are still short. Sunrise is late and sunset early. Thus, fresh green or fresh blossom are very welcomed.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-36

This week we have another themed MMC. Obviously the theme is Christmas. Because of my last trip, I have a lot of Christmas related images in my archive.

In this image you can find a few very typical Christmas decorations. The Christmas tree, a candle pyramid, a Schwibbogen, the miner and the angle.

The region of Erzgebirge has a very, very long mining history. The two figurines are very typical here. They were the first parts miners nicked out of wood during winter, when they were bored because it was impossible to work in the mines. The man symbolises the miner himself and the angle is his wife. Today, they are known in that particular dressing originating from the 18th century. Once you were able to find these in every window. One miner and one angel for the parents and for each boy child a smaller miner and for each girl a small angel.

The Schwibbogen (the wooden bow above the two figurines) symbolises the entrance of the mine. The origin of this symbol is also the Erzgebirge.

The candle pyramid is very common in Germany, but I don’t know much about the origin. so, I have to find out for one of my nest posts 🙂

Finally the Christmas tree. This tree was invented as a symbol for the eternal life because he is green even in winter. According to wikipedia the oldest official document mentioning a Christmas tree, is from 1527 in Mainz, a city in the middle of Germany. The bowls symbolise the fruits in the garden of Eden. The candles symbolise, “the light (Jesus Christ) will come back”. The other parts of the tree decorations symbolise the gifts brought by the there Magi.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-35

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-34

Apparently, I mixed up the dates and published my image for the theme “square” or “rectangular” last week. What to do now? I picked another image from my archive. 🙂

This alleyway is located in a museum. It’s a passage between two different parts of the building.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-33

This week we have a theme at Monochrome Madness. It’s “square” or “rectangular”.

I picked an image from my Iceland series. It’s a view inside one of the glass walls of Harpa, the fantastic opera house in Reykjavik.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of here Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-32

 

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-31

It’s mid November, the middle of fall. Although there are still many colourful leaves on the trees, we have had the first snow last week. The snow came over night and even during the days snow felt in the lowlands at a hight of about 200m. In several regions we have had the first snow break of this winter. Because of the many leaves still hanging on the trees, the weight of the wet snow broke of some of the branches.

This weekend, the temperature felt below 0°C at night and even during daytime the temperature was still very low. Most of the fruits remaining on the trees can’t be harvested anymore. Food for the birds. Ponts got an icy surface. Saturday was a quite beautiful day, cold but sunny.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-30

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-29

It’s time for Monochrome Madness. This week we have another themed Monochrome Madness. The theme is “travel”.

There are so many options to visualise travel:  think of i.e. luggage, people in a railway station, at a harbour or an airport, different travel vehicles or travel destinations and so on. I guess, you got the idea.

Despite I have many images from my different trips fitting for each of the above categories, I picked an image taken during one of my flights with a hot-air balloon. A fantastic experience gliding softly over the landscape.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers.

Take care!

Monochrome Madness 3-28

Here we have Le Phare De Ploumanac’h, the lighthouse above the fantastic Côte de Granit Rose in Brittany, again. Sure, I also love sandy beaches, but from a photographers perspective this kind of coast is much more interesting.

This image is taken with my full frame camera at 14mm, f8, 30 sec, ISO 400 and a 10x Formatt Hitech ND filter (to get the long exposure time) about an hour before sunset.

The other advantage of the long exposure time was, I got rid of all the other people climbing trough the rocks. The rocks are big, and the gaps between them, too. So, it’s quite dangerous climbing on them. Although some parts of this area are officially closed by the local government, some people were crossing the small fences and were climbing in forbidden areas. I also climbed through the rocks. But, in this particular area it wasn’t forbidden.

In post production I converted the image to monochrome by using the great Tonality Pro by MacPhun. Here it also got the final look by a sepia toning.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Thursday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers.

Take care!