Seville explored – Real Alcázar introduces you to the Royal Palace of Seville, Spain. The palace was originally constructed as a fortress during the 10th century by the Moors and has since been expanded and modified by various rulers and monarchs. An UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is considered one of the most important cultural landmarks in Spain. It has been used as a filming location for several movies and TV shows, including “Game of Thrones,” which featured the palace as the setting for the Water Gardens of Dorne. For its history and more photographs of its splendor, continue after the jump…
Time to start the photographic recap of our recent trip to Seville Spain. The first post is about an impromptu Flamenco session we witnessed when strolling though the Plaza de Espana. For a bit of background about Flamenco and some more images continue after the jump…
I’ve received quite a few comments why I’ve been using my iPhone 14 Pro a lot lately, and not the Leica. Well, for one, because it has a great camera and a sensor that captures awesome images, and it is the camera that is always with me. But make no mistake. An iPhone (or any other modern “camera-phone”) will (at least with today’s technology), never be able to compete with a full frame sensor. When walking the streets of Seville I carry the iPhone and the SL2-S. And there are scenes like the one in the title image where I know it was worth lugging a 2 kilo camera/lens combo around. To capture the full tonal range of this magnificent building. And a sunburst to go with it. That’s what an iPhone can’t do.
This morning I was bored in the rain. I was sitting in my car in the pouring rain, parked outside the doctor’s office, waiting for my appointment. What better way to overcome the boredom than picking up the iPhone and shooting some abstracts through the rain soaked windows. See more images after the jump…
The fun thing when roaming the streets with a camera in hand is, that you never know what the real life happening around you has in store for you. The important thing is to keep the eyes open. Then you can discover all sorts of interesting things. Like the brand new Airphone Pro Max Plus, that the guy standing in Genoa’s Via Garibaldi is using.
The image was taken with my iPhone 14 Pro and post-processed (incl. B&W conversion) in Lightroom Classic.
If you are looking for tips and inspirations around street photography you can find in my free Learning center.
Here’s another street photograph using reflections to capture the viewer’s attention. Two passersby become three under the watchful eyes of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America. The legendary seafarer was born in Genoa around 1451.
His monument, built in 1862, is located in the Piazza Acquaverde in Genoa, directly next to the main train station, Stazione Principe. The statue of Colombo stands on top of a large marble pedestal, his left hand rests on an anchor while his right is on the shoulder of a figure of America typified by a kneeling Indian maiden holding a cross in the right hand. At each of the four corners of the base stands a smaller square pedestal, on each of which is a seated statue, representing Piety, Science, Constancy and Prudence.
In recent years, the Columbus Memorial has been the subject of controversy, as some people have criticized Columbus for his treatment of the indigenous peoples he encountered in the Americas. There have been discussions to remove the monument, but it remains a prominent landmark in the city of Genoa.
The image was taken with my iPhone 14 Pro and post-processed in Lightroom Classic.
If you are looking for tips and inspirations around street photography you can find in my free Learning center.
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 😉
“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)
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.
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
“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!
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.
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