Month: December 2016

My photo of the year 2016

Let them Learn
Let them Learn | Tanzania | 2016

In my last post of 2016 I want to leave you with my favorite photograph of the year. It shows a group of small children in a very simple and small one room building deep in the Massai bushveld in Tanzania, that triples as kindergarden, elementary school and Lutheran Church. A few sunspots fall on the floor and on the children.

Of all the photos I took in 2016 this is not only the one that means the most to me. Photographically, but also the visit to this small Massai congregation out in the bush, where the clans still live in their traditional semi-nomadic way in their simple “bomba” (fenced in circular houses) without running water and electricity, was one of the most memorable impressions of this year and surely one I will never forget.

This photo also stands for my greatest wish for 2017. Let the children learn ! I truly believe this is the only way we can overcome the chaotic times we live in. If we would succeed  in providing education for all children on this planet,teach them the core values of humanity that are universal to all cultures, this world would be a better place. And my visit to the Tanzanian bush has proved to me once again that children are eager to learn. They are interested in the world. They want to broaden their horizons. This is natural to children. We just have to let them learn!

I wish all of you and your loved ones a great start into the new year. Have a peaceful, blessed, successful, healthy and happy 2017. Chase your dreams and make them come true!

Marcus

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StoNur on the Road – Banana Streets

Banana Market Mika Tanzania
Thumbs Up | Tanzania | 2016

I have promised to some readers that I show some more photographs from our Tanzania trip in February 2016. I visited this marvelous East African Country together with our local Lutheran Church’s Trombone Choir on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of the new Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) Frederick Shoo, to which our Choir was invited to participate. We spent a whole week in Moshi on the southern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Besides participating in the program during and around the inauguration ceremony we had the opportunity to tour Moshi and visit some church projects in the vicinity, before finishing off with a Safari in Arusha National Park (remember the movie “Hatari” with John Wayne, which was shot there?).

In this first blog post of a little Tanzania series I take you to the Banana market in the little town of Mwika in the Moshi Rural District. It is situated on the South Eastern slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano and the highest mountain in Africa,  rising approximately 4,900 m (16,000 ft) from its base to the highest summit at 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) above sea level. To find out more and see more images continue reading after the jump…

Continue reading “StoNur on the Road – Banana Streets” →

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Tranquility

Tranquility
Tranquility | Chiemsee | 2014
Christmas 2016 is in the books. New Year 2017 is around the corner. Here in Germany we call the days in between “zwischen den Jahren”, translating to “between the years”. Historically this was the period between the end of the old year (December 24th) and the beginning of the new year (January 6th). This period are also known as the twelve nights.

Traditionally this is a period of unwinding, relaxation. Most people are off work, going skiing, traveling to warm destinations or just staying at home.

Photographically this is also a rest period for me. I just don’t feel like hitting the streets, did enough of this in December. So it is time for revisiting some old photos in my library. I’m putting together the annual family photo book of 2016. I also read a lot of photography magazines and have finally some time to study the amazing work of Elliot Erwitt, one of my Street Photography heroes. I’ve treated myself to some of his books, but during the year really never had  time to go through them in detail. And of course I’m planning my next posts of “Instant Inspirations” and “Street Photography Quick Tips”.

The photo above is one from a past family trip to Lake Chiemsee, east of Munich at the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, taken exactly two years ago. It is famous for one of the Palaces of King Ludwig II (the crazy Bavarian King that also built the world famous Neuschwanstein Castle), a small version of the Palace of Versailles in France, situated on one of the two islands in the lake. It was a cold but glorious day that treated us to an amazing sunset. Taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the m.Zuiko 14-150mm f/4-5.6 travel zoom at 14mm focal length, 1/125 sec @ f/5.6 and ISO 200, handheld. This is one of my rare landscape shots I’m actually proud of.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and find some time to relax as well.

Marcus

Related Posts:

StoNur on the Road – End of the World

StoNur on the Road – Monument Valley

StoNur on the Road – Italian Sunset

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Merry Christmas from the Streets of Nuremberg

Christkindlesmarkt Nuremberg
Night before Christmas | Nuremberg | 2016

To everyone out there, but particularly to all the many magic people I’ve had the blessings to meet (at least virtually) during my first year blogging on the “Streets of Nuremberg” I wish a peaceful and merry Christmas and much love and laughters together with your family and friends.

Merry Christmas from the Streets of Nuremberg

Marcus

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Employee of the Month

Employee of the Month
Employee of the Month | Nuremberg | 2016

Now that we are near to the finish line of the annual Christmas Rally I want to dedicate this photo  from the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, together with my respect and my sincerest gratitude, to all the vendors of Christmas decorations, ornaments, crafts, food, drinks and many things more that sit for endless hours in their cold wooden stalls on all those Christmas Markets to give us passing visitors something to enjoy, to look at, to photograph and  to help us opening us to the magic of the festive season! Thanks to all of you! For me you all are my employees of the month!

Have a blessed Christmas!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Music raising to the skies

Christkindlesmarkt

StoNur on the Road – Innsbruck Christmas Markets

Have a great Festive Season !

15

Instant Inspiration (7) – ICM

Angel
Angel | Nuremberg | 2016

By popular demand here is the seventh episode of “Instant Inspiration”, something for you to try to overcome photographers block or if you simply want to give your photography a new angle. This epsiode is about using ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) for creative effects. For a bit of how-to, another photo and links to previous episodes 1 through 6 continue reading after the jump…..

Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (7) – ICM” →

27

Anticipation

Anticipation
Anticipation | Nuremberg | 2016

After inserting a video for the first time in my blogpost Music raising to the skies last week this  is another first for “Streets of Nuremberg” with the very first participation to the Word Press Weekly Photo Challenge. This week’s motto is “Anticipation” and fits quite well to Street Photography.

My contribution is this photo I took tonight on another visit to Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt. I captured this father and his little boy in front of one of the stalls selling toys. Isn’t this anticipation in the purest sense? Christmas is a week away!

Image taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Lens. I photographed the two through the glass side of the stall, thus the reflections. Image was taken with 1/60 sec at f/2.8 and ISO 1250. Cropped to 4×6 and adjustments to curves and clarity in Lightroom CC.

Have a good start to your week!

Marcus

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How many stories can an image tell?

Pensieve
Pensive | Cremona | 2016

What drives my  Street Photography is my genuine interest in people and life. The desire to capture a genuine moment of everyday life and preserve it for the future. A snapshot of a fleeting moment of a person’s life that exists only in the very moment I press the shutter and will never repeat itself again. Physically maybe, because the old man I photographed here might actually always be sitting in this very church bench. But how he felt and what he thought in this exact moment was genuine to it.

What was he feeling, what was he thinking in this moment? This is not a photo that I look at and think it is a nice and photographically pleasing image. And then move on to the next. This is a photograph that whenever I look at it I ask myself the same questions over again. Why was he there? What was he feeling, thinking? Why was he alone? Was he sad? Was he tired? Was he just seeking a moment of contemplation and calmness in the buzz of a Saturday morning in the city?

This is why I love Street Photography. How many stories can an image tell?

Related Posts:

Stages of Life on a Street Photography Morning

Stay Interested !

 

27

Music raising to the skies

Trombone Choir playing a concert in St. Sebald
Glorious Play | Nuremberg | 2016

Saturday afternoon was the annual concert of the Lutheran Trombone Choir Feucht (Evangelischer Posaunenchor Feucht) in St. Sebald, one of the two main churches in Nuremberg’s Old Town. If you want to find out why this is so special for me that it deserves an “off topic” blog post, to see more photos and even a video of one of the Christmas Chorals played continue reading after the jump…

Continue reading “Music raising to the skies” →

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Christkindlesmarkt

Christkindlesmarkt Nuremberg
Christkindlesmarkt | Nuremberg | 2016

While today it is pouring down once more, yesterday was a glorious December Saturday. Although we are far from having any snow (and the temperatures felt more like spring) it was still a special atmosphere on Nuremberg’s famous Christmas Market, the “Christkindlesmarkt” as it is called locally. It takes place in the four weeks leading up to Christmas (Adventszeit) on the main Market Square in front of the famous Frauenkirche (built in the 14th century). For more impressions continue reading after the jump…..

Continue reading “Christkindlesmarkt” →

25

Business Travel Reality

Imrisoned
Imprisoned | Dallas | 2016

The job that pays my bills requires me to travel all over this globe. Last week I was in Dallas. This week I was in New York. Friends often envy me for going to all those fancy places. The thing is, much more often than not I don’t have anything from my travels, apart from putting little flags  of the visited countries on the map in my office at home.

Sure there are some benefits, I don’t need to go to the movies because eventually I get to see all films on a plane (apart maybe from recently released “Sullly” about the successful emergency landing on the Hudson River – I seriously doubt that they will show this movie on a plane). And of course, the best thing of all is that I get to meet all different kinds of interesting people all over this planet. And sure, each trip at least contains on nice dinner to a local restaurant, so food wise I’m getting spoiled (which also has its serious disadvantages).

But apart from some glimpses of a skyline on my way from the airport to the office or hotel I very rarely get so see the sights and sounds of the places I travel to. That’s reality.

This is especially sad as I sometimes I would die to take my camera and roam the streets of the cities I travel to. To experience and capture life.

I can write a book about meeting rooms in this world. And the views from them, as long as they have one. You won’t believe how many windowless meeting rooms there are.

That’s for the most part the reality to my business travels. First you are imprisoned in a steel tube. Then you are imprisoned in a meeting room. But I love my job. And the best thing is the feeling of safely returning home to the ones I love.

Have a great day!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Street? Airport!

Street ? Airport ! (2)

Little woes of a traveling photographer

 

66

High Heels wouldn’t come

Tip Toe
Tip Toe | Nuremberg | 2016

There is something uncontrollable to street photography. You see a background or an object you find attractive as part of your overall image, and then you wait for a situation to happen, a complementary object moving into the frame. Here it was this advertisement using woman’s feet standing tip toed that struck me interesting in the context of this cold and rainy November day. I also liked the overall colors in the frame.

So I crouched down and waited for someone interesting to walk into the frame. I was hoping so much for a woman on high heels, but due to the weather I knew this was a long shot. And sure I drew enough puzzled looks, like “what is this guy doing there crouched down pointing a camera at this feet”. At the end there were no high heels. The position wasn’t all to comfortable and I was getting wet. So the guy with the umbrella rushing by in full stride was the best I got out of this situation.

A moment in the life of a street photographer 😉 …..

Have a great day!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Street Photography Quick Tip (2)

Rainy Streets

Instant Inspiration (I) – Get Down Low

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