Wish all my friends a blessed, happy, marvelous, successful, beautiful, inspirational, wonderful and healthy 2017! Have a great year!
Marcus
Happy New Year from the Streets of Nuremberg
My photo of the year 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
Merry Christmas from the Streets of Nuremberg
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
Employee of the Month
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
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How many stories can an image tell?
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?
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Stages of Life on a Street Photography Morning
Business Travel Reality
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
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Little woes of a traveling photographer
Have a great Festive Season !
This weekend marks the start of the festive season, with the opening of Christmas Markets everywhere. While for most adults it is rather a busy and often stressful time I will always remember the magic that the “Adventszeit” as it is called in German Language brought for me when I was a child as well as for my children when they were young. I wish all of you a peaceful and and happy festive season! And enjoy all the great opportunity it brings on for us photographers!
Marcus
Enjoy your Sunday
However you feel this morning – have a great Sunday!
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Stay Interested !
We are all living a different life. Coming from different backgrounds, living in different social environments, having pursued different career paths. Sometimes we are happy and content, sometimes we are deeply enervated or bored by our surroundings and about what we do. Sometimes we even feel trapped in life and by the burdens of having to make a living, feed our families and make our partners happy. And we feel we have missed opportunities in certain stages of our lives. And at times this leads to loss of energy and motivation.
But regardless of the situation, should we always try to dig ourselves out of these emotional holes? Finding new motivation and interest in what we do?
To read my thoughts on how this transfers to our Street Photography continue after the jump…
Go out and experiment!
Walking through Porto Azzurro the other week I was passing through the small shady alleys of the old town trying to find some protection from the blazing midday sun when I heard someone playing a bass. Through the open doors of an otherwise empty bar I saw this guy sitting in front of wide open windows, seemingly fully ignorant of the world around him, playing away some experimental tunes on his bass guitar. Even while improvising he played full of passion, and I felt very attached to the sights and sounds of this particular scene.
Shouldn’t we all do some more experimenting of our own? Playing around with things and in ways we are not familiar with? Ignorant of those who tell us what we should do and ignorant of the first achievements while expanding our creative horizons. After all, expanding our knowledge and horizons through experimentations is deeply embedded in our genes, as this is exactly what children do when they “discover” their world. And children don’t really care how the initial results look while singing, drawing, building etc., they rather enjoy the activity itself, the process of experimentation and discovery.
As photographers we can learn a lot from the trial and error approach of children. First of all it helps you to get your creative juices flowing when trying out new photographic styles. Experimenting around is fun, and don’t let yourself get discouraged when initial results don’t meet your usual standards. And don’t let other people tell you what you should or should not do, or what looks nice and what doesn’t. Just experiment with things you like and see how the results gradually improve. Enjoy the road of discovery.
Photography is my passion, Street Photography is the style that works best for me, but photographically I have tried many genres and still try out new styles. For example during this years summer holidays I experimented a lot with portrait photography.
And also creating “Streets of Nuremberg”, starting a blog to write about my photographic endeavors was (is still) an experiment to open a new creative outlet for me.
By experimenting more try to expand your horizons and find out what works best for you. Inspirations you can find everywhere, in books, other websites and blogs, social media or by talking to friends and connections in the digital world.
Discovery through experimentation can help to overcome the dullness of daily routine and to find happiness, purpose, and more motivation to live.
So go out and experiment!
Have a great Sunday!
Marcus
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Stages of Life on a Street Photography Morning
While strolling through the streets of Marseille’s magnificent Old Town some weeks ago I also took some photographs of local street life. While doing my selections / post processing a couple of images caught my eye. I realized that unintentionally I have captured humans in activities that for me are somehow representative for their respective stages of their lives. So I put them together in this post and wrote down a few brief thoughts coming to my mind when looking at those images.
I want to start with the elder ones. The generation that has built the foundations of what we live in today through a life full of work and caring for their families. The last stage can be a tough one. Poverty, deteriorating health, the loss of a partner, increasing loneliness. Still there are many that remain active, take their lives into their hands, find time to enjoy what they didn’t have time for during their working years. Still passing on their experiences and lessons of life. Continue reading “Stages of Life on a Street Photography Morning”
Let the Games begin !
Yesterday the UEFA EURO 2016 has started with the opening match of host France vs. Romania, with the French team winning on a last minute goal. I watched parts of the first half on a muted TV in an airline club at DFW airport, when the game was decided in the second half I was already in the air on my way back to Germany.
I have to admit the last weeks were kind of busy, and I completely ignored the media frenzy leading up the tournament. And even the opening match didn’t yet generate any emotions regarding this years soccer summer madness. Continue reading “Let the Games begin !”
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