October is slowly coming to a close. And what a beautiful month it has been. I have read that it will be the warmest October ever in Germany since weather recordings started back in 1881. Fall colors are stunning this year. No reason to travel elsewhere for that, Franconia is enjoying its own Indian summer. I took the photos in this post in the woods behind the house, using my iPhone 12 Pro Max. My daily 5K walk has become my personal color rush.
Tonight is “All Hallow’s Eve”, the eve before the religious feast All Saints (aka All Hallow’s Day), remembering the dead, saints and martyrs of christianity. Many of the traditions of Halloween are believed to originate in ancient Celtic harvest festivals and pagan traditions. It was mainly Irish immigrants to the USA who brought along the many more secular traditions like trick-or-treating, Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns and lighting bonfires. In Europe, All Saints was mainly celebrated in the religious sense (remembering the dead, lighting candles at their graves). Only in the last ten years the more “American” way of celebrating Halloween became more popular into what is now a big commercial business for retail.
This year, we in Frankonia are blessed with a colorful and sunny last October weekend. And with this image of an enchanted haunted house in a forest near Nuremberg I wish you a very happy halloween!
Photograph taken with my iPhone 12. Jpg out of camera.
This past weekend, the soft Autumn sun has graced Franconia, so yesterday I grabbed The Significant Other and my Leica M and headed out for a hike in the Steigerwald, a hilly region rising up to 500 meters above sea level and bordering on the valley of the River Main. The slopes down to the river are famous for their vineyards. And, this time of the year, are also famous for their colorful autumn views.
After just three days in the office, Namibia seems to be a distant dream. Amazing, how fast a three week vacation can pass, when you are fully focused on making the most out of your family time while traveling through a truly magic country in Southern Africa.
Besides being back in the treadmill of the job that pays the bills, looking out the window is truly frustrating. Photographically speaking, instead of focusing about playing with the light in the great sand dunes of the Namib Desert, or dialing in a wide aperture to throw the background behind the lion’s head properly out of focus, I know need to start thinking again about making use of puddles to capture nice reflections.
Well, know worries, there are plenty nice memories of Africa in the raw files on my MacBook’s SSD that still need sorting and working on. So you can expect a few more post as I finish up my “Namibia Explored” series in the coming days.
But outside it is cold, grey and rainy. Back on the autumn Streets of Nuremberg.
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November is upon us. Many persons I know dread this month, as it is the month of remembrance of the dead, the month of grey, foggy, cold dull days. There is lots of work in the garden to prepare it for winter. With the change of the clock to winter time this past weekend it is practically dark by 5pm. It is also the transition month between the last warm days of the year with the explosive colors of autumn and the happiness and joy of the upcoming festive season.
Even though daytime photography is practically limited to the weekend as daylight is limited to my working hours, November has great photo opportunities on its own. The fog that frequently enters the city and creeps along the banks of the Pegnitz river makes for great images when combined with the rays of the street lanterns and silhouettes of people rushing by. And its the best time to go out and do some night photography, something we now can comfortably do directly after work, without having to wait until 11pm like in the summer months.
Nuremberg provides for some awesome night photography opportunities, as you can see from the example above. I took this image from the Maxbrücke towards the Henkerhaus (hangman’s house) with its double arches crossing the Pegnitz River. Visible in the background are the twin bell towers of St. Lorenz Church.
I took this image with the Ricoh GR II. Specs are 1/4 sec at f/2.8 and ISO 1600. I rested the camera on the stone railing of the Maxbrücke and used the self timer to avoid shake. I always find it amazing what this small cam is capable of producing in terms of IQ.