Tag: black & white photography

Castle on the Hill

Mauterndorf Castle
Castle on the Hill | Mauterndorf | 2022

I really don’t know why Ed Sheeran’s “Castle on the Hill” came into my mind when passing below medieval Mauterndorf Castle during a little afternoon stroll earlier today. But somehow it got stuck in my brain, so I keep singing it silently….

“I’m on my way
Driving at 90 down those country lanes
Singing to Tiny Dancer
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real
When we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill”

Actually the 11th century castle is on hill above the old mountain town of Mauterndorf in the Austrian Alps, but you realize it only when looking at it from down below (see image after the jump). But I liked the black and white version (doesn’t the iPhone take awesome monochrome photographs?) better for the title image of the post 😉

Continue reading “Castle on the Hill” →
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Kill the monster

Kill the Monster

“All Hallow’s Eve” is 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. The kids for sure haven fun with this, and so does the street photographer. And not all is lost, as sometimes the good magician seems to try to kill the monster.

I wish all of you a very creepy Halloween (stay safe noneless)

Marcus

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Little Smile

Little Smile
Little Smile | Capernaum | 2022

Going through some street photographs from earlier this year I noticed this image I took with my Leica SL2-S and the Vario-Elmarit-SL 1:2.8/24-70 ASPH just before the camera suffered a terminal shutter failure on the second day of my Israel trip. What is still clearly visible here is the incredible dynamic range of the Leica’s full frame sensor. I just love the soft tones on the face of the little girl, the triangular spot of light on her cheek. Given the fact that here is brightest sunlight in the background behind her face, it is amazing the sensor still captured these subtle details of that beautiful little smile.

Exif Data show 1/160 sec | f/4 | ISO 100 | 70mm. Black&White jpg out of camera.

If you are looking for some tips and inspirations around street photography, check out my free Learning Center. 

Have a great Saturday

Marcus

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Instant Inspiration (12) – Playfulness

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Multitasking

Multitasking
Multitasking | Jerusalem | 2022

While multitasking generally is a good concept, there are just some things that don’t run well in parallel. Especially, when they are time consuming activities. Like finding ample time for photography and blogging and matching that with the demands of a time consuming day job. And then throwing in a big project The Significant Other and I have been driving the past half year. And then another personal project that I’ve been on for a few months now. And as much as multitasking might help, the day has only 24 hours (albeit a former boss of mine insisted that a day has 48 hours).

But as the finish lines of the mentioned projects are in sight (no worries – you will eventually read about them here), there will be more time to pick up the camera and roam the streets again.

The photo from the streets of Jerusalem was taken with my iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Wish you a great Friday and a hopefully relaxed ending to a successful week

Marcus

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8

Ground Control to Major Tom

Ground control to Major Tom - a sleeping astronaut is depicted on a mural in a restaurant in Genoa.
Space Oddity | Genoa | 2022

“Ground Control to Major Tom” – I’m sure, you know the lyrics of David Bowie’s legendary song “Space Oddity”. I would question whether Major Tom would be available on the other side of the line. Not only, because yesterday NASA had to cancel for the third time the launch of the new Artemis moon rocket due to technical problems (I would be curious if they dubbed one of the travelling passenger dummies “Major Tom” – if anyone knows please comment below). But also because this astronaut, depicted on a mural in a restaurant in Genoa we (fittingly) visited last night, sure looks to be offline.

Let’s hope NASA fixes whatever probs they have with the Artemis rocket soon – and then goes on the radio:

“Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown, engines on
Check ignition and may God’s love be with you”

iPhone 12 Pro Max snapshot, converted to monochrome in Lightroom Classic. Oh, and the food in this place was awesome!

Have a great Sunday!

Marcus

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The only one

Mean looking man with a helmet holding a motorcycle
Got a question? | Genoa | 2022

Yesterday afternoon I was roaming the streets of Genoa with camera in hand, while accompanying The Significant Other on some downtown shopping. I snapped quite a few images over a couple hours time. Only a few came out decent. And then there is the only one that I consider a real keeper. Not a good success rate. But I’m totally happy if I get one good photograph out of a photo walk. The only one.

Image taken with the Leica SL2-S and the Vario-Elmarit-SL 1:2.8/24-70 ASPH. RAW conversion into monochrome and some post processing (mainly cropping) done in Lightroom Classic.

If you are looking for some tips and inspirations around street photography, check out my free Learning Center. 

Have a great Saturday!

Marcus

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Night Vision Lens

Band playing in a pebble stone alley
1/125 sec | f/2 | ISO 6400 | 50mm

I still owe you the images from the second night of “Viggiona by Night”. Different bands, different street food. I wanted to shoot with a different lens, and put my night vision lens, the TTArtisan 50mm .95 prime “Nifty Fifty” to a real test. I attached the M-Mount lens via adapter to the L-Mount Leica SL2-S. I was really curious how the manual focus 0.95 China built lens would perform vs the Leica Vario Elmarit zoom I used the previous night in the same conditions. See the results below…

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Travel Day (18)

Little Mr Traveler

I can’t believe I’m posting about travel again….at least air travel, that is. My last time on a plane was November 2019 on a business trip to India. After that, and thanks to Covid, my travelling live (for the job that pays the bills) came to a crushing stop.

But this morning, after some crazy months back home, The Significant Other and I took to the skies to fly to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport for two weeks of vacation in Israel. And for sure, this was the perfect opportunity to revive my Travel Day series of posts with episode 18. Continue after the link for some impromptu iPhone 12 travel shots from my first air trip in 30 months….

Continue reading “Travel Day (18)” →
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Nocturnal Street Photography

Walking the dog next to a museum
1/160 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 12500 | 70mm

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to test an amazing camera, the Leica SL2-S, bundled with the Leica Vario-Elmarit 1:2.8/24-70mm Asph. I was particularly interested in the low light capability of the 24mp full frame mirrorless camera. So I headed into town to do some nocturnal street photography…

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