Tag: Bavaria

Good Friday

Statue in der Pfarrkirche St. Willibald in Möning
1/250 sec | f/2 | ISO 1600 | 50mm

Good Friday is a public holiday in Germany. Time to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. Time to unwind a bit, taking The Significant Other and the Leica and heading out for a little hike near Etzelsdorf, visiting the site were the golden headdress of a bronze age sun priest was found that I wrote about in this post about our last trip to a museum.

While today’s images still are on the SD card in the camera, I want to share a photograph taken with the Leica M (Type 240) and the Summicron 50mm F/2 during another recent Sunday afternoon hike around the village of Möning, a few kilometers from our house. We took a peak into St. Willibald church, where I was immediately hooked by the rays of light falling through one of the windows of the old church dating back almost one thousand years.

That moment I was glad I had brought the Leica on this trip, as none of the other cameras I own would have been able to capture the magic of this moment as the vintage full frame rangefinder. The tonal range, the softness of the light is special to this sensor almost ten years old now. A perfect image to share on this Good Friday.

If you feel like picking up your camera on this (hopefully for you as well) long weekend and are still looking for more tips, explanations and inspiration around photography, check out my free Learning Center. And then have fun hunting for those magic rays of light.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend and stay safe!

Marcus

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Gnadenberg Abbey

Klosterruine Gnadenberg
Gnadenberg Abbey

My last post was about my first attempts shooting with a 60 year old lens. For that The Significant Other and I took a short trip to the nearby ruins of medieval Gnadenberg Abbey. We’ve never been there before, despite it being only a 15 minute drive from our house. And it is much too beautiful not to share a few photographs and the history of this magic place with you…

Continue reading “Gnadenberg Abbey” →
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Summer over the Imperial Castle

Imperial Castle Nuremberg
Imperial Castle | Nuremberg | 2017

Another splendid day over Nuremberg and a long weekend ahead, due to a public holiday on Monday. This iPhone panorama shows the castle gardens of Nuremberg’s Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle). Have I mentioned that I rarely shoot panoramas with my cameras anymore? Shooting a sequence of overlapping images and stitching them in Photoshop or Lightroom isn’t really worth the effort, as in most situations the iPhone panorama function does just fine.

Imperial Castle | Nuremberg
Imperial Castle | Nuremberg | 2017

This is the view from the city walls, where the wall walks atop the fortifications provide for a splendid view across the Tiergärtnertorplatz towards the Imperial Castle.

This photo was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 14-150mm F/4.0-5.6 travel zoom at 1/320 sec, f/8 and ISO200, focal length was 14mm.

I processed the RAW image in Lightroom, mainly opening up the shadows in the wall walk. It is a good example how much tonal range you can capture with a RAW and make visible in post processing.

I wish everyone a peaceful and relaxing weekend!

Related Posts:

An Emperor’s Morning

Nuremberg Explored (5) – Angelic Salutation

Spring on Nuremberg’s City Walls

Nuremberg Explored (4) – Historic Steam Train “Adler”

Learning Center – check it out, all my free tips and inspirations around photography!

 

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An Emperor’s Morning

Kaiserburg Nürnberg

It is a glorious morning above Nuremberg. On a day like this my Grandma always said “wir haben Kaiserwetter” – we have Emperor’s weather. So a perfect morning to show off one of Nuremberg’s principal attractions, our Imperial Castle, or Kaiserburg, built on a sandstone ridge above our historic Old Town. For more photos and a bit of history I invite you to continue after the jump… Continue reading “An Emperor’s Morning” →

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Happy Mayday from the Streets of Nuremberg

Scheune mit Kirschblüte

Happy Mayday from the Streets of Nuremberg! I’m really enjoying downtime with the family on this long weekend, as the first day of May is a public holiday in Germany. To kick off the new month photographically, I’ll take you on a small hike around the village of Oberhembach, just a few kilometers away from where we live. This is the prefect time of the year to just wander around and enjoy the springtime landscape, the fresh green around the little ponds outside the villages, the cherry and apple blossoms on the trees next to the half timbered farm houses, the chirping of the birds in the large pine forests that are spreading out around Nuremberg. Wanderlust around home. To get more impressions of a typical landscape and village outside Nuremberg, continue after the jump….. Continue reading “Happy Mayday from the Streets of Nuremberg” →

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Monday Mountains (2)

Giant under the Stars
Giant under the Stars | Germany | 2009

I never expected the positive response to my first “Monday Mountains” post last week, showing an areal view of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya. So here is the second edition. As my blog is running on CET this post might actually show as being published on Tuesday, but as I’m currently on a business trip to Los Angeles this technically is still Monday evening due to the nine-hour time difference. So it counts 😉 ….

The mountain depicted here is the Watzmann,  a mountain in the Bavarian Alps south of the village of Berchtesgaden.  Rising to 2713 meters (8900 feet) it is the third highest peak in Germany, and the highest located entirely on German territory.

As in last weeks Monday Mountains I gave some tips towards shooting out of an airplane window, this week I can give you some inspirations towards night photography. When I took this image of Mt. Watzmann from the balcony of a hotel room in Berchtesgaden it was actually pitch dark outside. Mounted on a tripod I set my Nikon D80 (that I was using back then) to an exposure time of 164 seconds, so almost three minutes. The f-stop (aperture) was f/5. As the camera was mounted on a tripod I used the lowest ISO of 100 for maximum image quality. I used self timer (2 seconds) to avoid any camera shake after pressing the shutter. Due to the long exposure time the star trails also nicely appeared in the night sky.

The details that come out of a long exposure night photography are simply amazing. Moonlight is very soft, so it maximizes the textures that come out of an image. You have to try this!

Have a great week!

Marcus

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Monday Mountains

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Tranquility

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Nuremberg Explored (4) – Historic Steam Train “Adler”

Adler
Adler | Nuremberg | 2008

After lots of photography related posts it is about time I show you some more of my hometown Nuremberg. In this latest episode of my series “Nuremberg Explored” I take you back some 180 years to the very beginnings of railway industry. For the whole story and more photos of the historic steam train continue reading after the jump….

Continue reading “Nuremberg Explored (4) – Historic Steam Train “Adler”” →

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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

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Nuremberg Explored (3) – Hangman’s Residence

Hangman's Residence Nuremberg
Hangman’s Residence | Nuremberg | 2016
Today’s episode of Nuremberg Explored features the Henkerhaus (Hangman’s House), built together with the adjacent Henkerturm  in the early 14th century as part of Nuremberg’s medieval city fortifications.

Situated in a sandstone bridge directly over the Pegnitz river the Henkerhaus is the former official living quarters of the executioner of the free imperial city of Nuremberg. The historic building houses a museum that offers fascinating views into the job and the criminal history in medieval Nuremberg. Much of the information comes from first hand, as Franz Schmidt, the most famous of the city’s hangman’s provided insights into his life by leaving us his diaries. Nurembergs Hangman’s lived their isolated lives in these quarters for almost 400 years from the 15th century to 1806. 

The buildings on the left are the Wasserturm (Watertower), built in 1320-1325 and the Weinstadel (Winehouse), a historic half timbered house that today is used as a student dormitory.

I took the photograph with my Ricoh GR II with 1/6 sec, f/2.8 and ISO 1600. B&W conversion in Lightroom CC.

Related Posts:

Nuremberg Explored (2)

Nuremberg Explored (1)

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Apocalyptic Fountain

Happy Girl in front of fountain
Happiness | Munich | 2016

After a business meeting in Munich yesterday I had a half hour left before my train departed back to Nuremberg. Close to Munich’s Central Station is the Karlsplatz or “Stachus” as it is called by the locals, a huge square with a big fountain on it. Knowing it is a good place for Street Photography I just went there to see if any opportunities for some candid shots would open up. Continue reading “Apocalyptic Fountain” →

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