Tag: mmc5

art, Computer, landscape, nature, people, photo-of-the-day, photography, seasons, travel, world

Monochrome Monday 5-52

solaner

The fifth year of monochrome images is over. Wow!

This series started as a part of Monochrome Madness organized by the Australian photographer Leanne Cole. But, after 220 weeks, she, unfortunately, stopped it last year for some personal reasons. Next week, I’ll start in the sixth year. Stay tuned what will come.

This week, I picked up an image taken last year on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. I already showed it here, but I picked it because I consider this is the one I love most from the images published here during the last 12 months. You can check them by clicking on this link. If you want to, you can drop me a line, what you think, which is best in your opinion.

Take care!

art, culture, landscape, nature, photography, seasons

Monochrome Monday 5-40

solaner

It’s winter, here, you know. Snow is usually part of the winter. In the past, I noted several times, snow isn’t that common in winter in my region anymore. During my childhood, the temperatures were below 0°C from November until End of March. Snow was on the ground for building snowmen, go sledging or having snowball-fights. Lakes and ponds had frozen surfaces to go ice-skating all winter.

Over the years, the start of winter got postponed. Less snow from year to year. Nowadays a thin snowy blanket is a rare event. Nearly no-one knows how to drive under these circumstances. Traffic-jams are the result and a number of car accents.

Nowadays even the freezing days are rare. Ice-skating on a pond or a lake? Don’t think about it. Even when there is an ice surface, this layer is too thin for step upon it. Nowadays, most time of the winter the temperatures are between 5°C and 15°C instead of below 0°C.

Take care!

art, culture, landscape, nature, photography, seasons, travel, world

Monochrome Monday 5-36 – Happy new Year!

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We’re standing right in front of a jump: 2018 will be 2019, soon.

Here in Germany, some people call the days between Christmas and New Years day the “days between the years” or short “between the years”.

Don’t get confused, the year starts on January 1st and ends at December 31st here, too. But, many businesses (primarily smaller ones) close their doors these days for a short vacation to recuperate from the very stressful Advent time (the 4 weeks before Christmas). Also, big businesses encourage their employees to take these days off.

In this context, you can understand these days as being a bridge between the years.

Another custom here is, making resolutions for the new year: stop smoking, stop drinking alcohol, more sports, living a more active life, finding a new job and so on. I guess, you got the idea. Also, you make a wish for your neighbors, friend and colleagues. These wishes usually include health and personal success (without going into detail).

So, I wish you a Happy New Year. And, I thank you for all of your support!

A new year is a bit like an empty sheet of paper. No wrinkles, no stains and nothing written or drawn on it. So, it’s up to us, to go forwards and leave some marks on the paper, to make sure, we’re alive and create some memories.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

(traditional gaelic blessing)

 

art, landscape, long exposure, nature, photography, review

Monochrome Monday 5-28

solaner

Today, I have an another image taken on the Ilse of Skye in April for you. It’s a long exposure: 25s at f22 and ISO 50 by using my standard zoom.

When we arrived at the parking lot, about a kilometer from the shore, we were already able to see the spray in the air and when we arrived, we were able to see, how strong the surf was. I’ll show you some images of the waves, soon.

Nevertheless, I left my tripod in the back of our rental car, so my beanbag replaced the tripod.

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You know, in the past nearly all of my monochrome images were developed by using Tonality Pro by Skylum (formerly known as MacPhun). Unfortunately, Tonality Pro is considered as a legacy or retired product in the meantime. But, the monochrome skills of Luminar were in my opinion not good enough compared to Tonality Pro. But, I guess, someone at Skylum heard my complaints and startet bringing the monochrome engine from Tonality Pro to Luminar 2018 and converted the presets, too.

This image, is the first monochrome image developed with Luminar, I’m really satisfied with.

There’s also some other news on Luminar: The most recent free update contains a new AI driven filter for enhancing the sky. As always, you can download a preview, in case you don’t have Luminar 2018 already. Everyone else can purchase a copy for a reduced price by using this code: SOLANER

*** </Ad> ***

Take care!

art, landscape, nature, photography, travel, world

Monochrome Monday 5-27

solaner
Rain over Loch Dunvegan

We got so wet – soaking wet. My trousers and my hiking shoes felt like I was coming directly out of the sea. Fortunately, I always wear hiking trousers, so the fabric was dry again after a couple of minutes (15 or so). My hiking shoes needed some more time to get dry.

Modern hiking shoes are made of special fabric to let moisture pass from the inside very easily and keep the feet dry, but work hard to not let water come in from the outside. The only weak point is the opening, where the feet are put in the shoes.

That day, the rain was so heavy, that it was able to come through my trousers and run down my legs and finally wet my shoes from the inside. The water used the opening meant to put the feet in them. That was too much for them.

After the rain, I pulled the inlay out of the shoes and dumped out the water. It’s really an unpleasant feeling when walking in soaking wet shoes. Back in my room, I removed the inlay again and stuffed toilet paper in my shoes to soak the moisture out of the material. Every now and then, I helped the toilet paper by letting a hairdryer blow warm air in the shoes.

About an hour later they were dried up completely and ready for the next trip.

Take care!