Animals

Finally Weekend
Ball Python | 1/80 sec - f/4 - ISO 1600 - 57mm

Ball Python | 1/80 sec – f/4 – ISO 1600 – 57mm

You also have those weeks where the job that pays the bills gently surrounds you and gradually turns on the pressure in order to suffocate you? Like a majestic Ball Python (aka Royal Python)? Well, I did make it into the weekend, although barely. The Significant  Other and I will head into the mountains to visit good friends. Looking so much forward to it!

The photo of the snake I took just the other week when visiting the Biosphere in Potsdam. I post-processed it in Lightroom Classic CC to a high contrast black& white image to be added to my fine art wildlife series (I blogged about the how-to here).

Hopefully I find some time on the weekend to catch up with blogging!

Wish you a great weekend!

Marcus

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Namibia Explored – Elephants of Etosha

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Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast | Berlin | 2017

Who says that Diamonds are a girl’s best friend? This photograph taken on the Streets of Berlin during my Eric Kim workshop last weekend certainly suggests otherwise. But it is another great example of how much fun it is to actually walk up to interesting looking people and ask them if you can “make” their portrait, something that I would not necessarily have done prior to it, a feedback shared by all participants (Eric’s blogpost with the best photos from my peers you can find here).

I know I owe you a full review of the workshop (at least I’m done selecting my photos and a few “making of” images), and I’m dying to take my newly acquired skills to the Streets of Nuremberg, but this weekend need to spend helping the significant other preparing the garden for winter and helping my big girl getting her apartment downtown ready for her move (yes, we’ve reached the stage where the first kid is leaving the house).

So in the meantime I leave you with the photo of this beauty and her beast, taken with my PEN-F and the mZuiko 25mm F/1.8 – my new favorite street shooting combo – as the 25mm (50mm full frame equivalent) is awesome for street portraits. Image specs are 1/180 sec @ f/2 and ISO 200.

Have a great weekend

Marcus

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Namibia Explored – Etosha Wildlife

Out of my way

Highlight of any Namibia trip is a visit to Etosha National Park. Founded in already in 1907, the Park spans an area of 22,270 square kilometres (8,600 sq mi) and gets its name from the large Etosha salt pan which is almost entirely within the park.  The park is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including several endangered species such as the black rhinoceros. Besides the salt pan there are also areas of grass land, dry- and thorn-savannah. The wildlife is abundant, and especially in the dry season concentrated around the water hole. You can self drive through the park, mostly on gravel roads. There are several rest areas and camps distributed throughout the park where one is also allowed to leave the car.

Personally I find it super relaxing and almost meditative to slowly drive through the park, and just see what surprises nature has in store. Wildlife is not calculable, so some days you get really lucky, others there is not much to see. But the great thing is that anytime, around every corner, every thorn bush, the next amazing wildlife experience can wait for you.  To see what we encountered in Etosha National Park, continue after the jump…. (more…)

Namibia Explored – Elephants of Etosha
Meet the Team

Meet the Team | Etosha | 2017

One of the very highlights of our three-week journey through Namibia came at the very end, with the visit to Etosha National Park. Doing Safari in the African bush is always an exhilarating experience, seeing the wildlife up close and in their natural habitat. We’ve travelled to many national parks in Southern Africa over the years, and they all have their own beauty. What makes Etosha special is the abundance of elephants, appearing in big groups, which we never saw before. For some elephant impressions continue after the jump…. (more…)

Perfect Imperfection
Background Fight

Bush Fight | Etosha | 2017

As I already have written before, the master of Street Photography Henri Cartier-Bresson once stated that “sharpness is a bourgeois concept”. If you study his work (and that of other masters), he created many famous photographs that, while technically imperfect, strike the viewer with the heart and soul they carry.

When my Significant Other showed me this photo she took at a waterhole in Etosha National Park, I was immediately hooked on it. Yes, it is not pin sharp, and some critics might complain it lacks depth of field, but for me there is so much action and intensity in it that it supersedes any technical imperfection. This photo is so much Africa to me. So it deserves a prime spot on the blog. Kudos to the wife 😉

Yesterday the Streets of Nuremberg passed the mark of 3000 followers. For me it is still hard to believe how fast my little blog has grown since the first post I published just about 20 months ago to the day.

First of all I want to express my unlimited gratefulness to all of you who visit and read this blog. It is the joy of building the connections to so many great people across the globe through my blogging, the feedback I receive for writing about my passion for photography and my photographic endeavors – that is all the motivation I need to continue with the “Streets of Nuremberg”

Sure I ask myself what attracts people to this blog. Maybe it is a bit like this photo. Not technically perfect, but it carries heart and soul.

Have a great Wednesday!

Marcus

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High Key Wilderness
Etosha Animals HeyKey Panorama 03

Zebras in Etosha | Namibia | 2017

Somehow I have a hard time transitioning back to Street Photography, so here find another Africa post. While  sorting through my Namibia photos and selecting the ones I want to include in the photo book of our vacation, in a calendar etc…. I was also playing around with animal images I could convert to monochrome. I have a high key preset in Lightroom that I wanted to try out on panoramic groups of animals I photographed in Etosha National Park with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 with the MC-14 Tele-Converter that increases focal length by factor of 1.4 . The Lightroom adjustments basically include increasing exposure and playing with the grad curves, were I increased the light midtowns and turned down the dark midtowns, to get that high key effect. I also increased the contrast and the clarity. To see more monochrome Etosha wilderness photos continue after the jump….

(more…)

Namibia Explored – Cape Cross
Cape Cross 07

Cape Cross | Namibia | 2017

It’s travel day! We’re sitting at Windhoek Airport awaiting our flight back home to Germany after three magic weeks in Namibia.

While waiting for boarding I want to share the next episode of my “Namibia Explored” series, our trip from Swakopmund to Cape Cross.

Cape Cross actually has two major attractions, one of which heavily relates to Nuremberg.

To find out what it is and see some more photos of a colony of 250.000 seals continue after the jump….

(more…)

Cool Down desired
Pair of Dolphins

Cool Pair | Nuremberg | 2015

It’s hot in Nuremberg, really really hot. So hot that this morning I decided to ditch my original plan to go shooting in the city. I did a bit of running in woods behind the house and then….nothing. As I have my “Around the world in 12 days” business trip coming up Tuesday I actually enjoy a bit of downtime. Summer vacation is still 6 weeks away. Not that we don’t have some refreshing seawater in Nuremberg. I’d just need to go to the Zoo. This would be really nice right now, taking a swim with our Dolphins in the beautiful open air lagoon that opened a few years ago.

The photos were taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 100-300mm F/4-5.6 Zoom. Shooting at the far end of the zoom range I dialed in 1/1250 sec shutter speed to make sure I get sharp shots of the ever fast-moving dolphins. For both images the Oly selected the largest available aperture, f/5.6 at the tele end of the zoom. Auto ISO gave me 1000 for the first photo and 1250 for the image below. Not great, but acceptable. I shot with center point autofocus (most reliable in this situations) in burst mode (increases your chance to get a good image when the subjects move fast).

Waves

Waves | Nuremberg | 2015

Have a great weekend!

Marcus

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Happy Easter from Bruno
Killed the Easter Bunny

Killed the Easter Bunny | Thalwil | 2017

Down with the bunnies
Easter belongs to kittens
The Lamb is waiting

Easter is upon us. Finally time to relax. We are visiting friends in Zurich. The weather is rather portlandish 😉  So enough time for a second Sunday Haiku 🙂 ! We plan to visit the Swiss Photo Awards Exhibition in the afternoon, I’m really looking forward to it.

The morning show belonged to kitten Bruno. He was not at all into all the hidden chocolate eggs, but the plushie bunny came just right.

Taken with the Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12mm F/2.0 @ 1/60 sec, f/2 and ISO 500.

You all have a great Easter Sunday!

Marcus

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Road Taken

Safari Roads

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge has the theme “The Road Taken”. I enter the Safari Roads of Southern Africa. There are not many things in life that are more exhilarating than to take a 4×4 before sunrise and head out into the African Bush. The road is bumpy, but it feels more like a refreshing massage. The fresh air is full of excitement. You don’t know what animal waits for you behind the next curve, blocks the road, hides behind the bush watching you carefully. Every trip down these narrow dirt roads will have its own surprises for you. If there is something you need to put on your bucket list, it is an early morning ride on the narrow roads of the African bush veld. To see what blocked my road and hid behind the bushes, continue after the jump…..

(more…)