Tag: blackandwhite

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wanderlust

End of the World
End of the World | Oregon | 2017

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge has the title “wanderlust”.  It is the perfect theme to show you another photo from my trip to the Oregon coast this past weekend.

I took this image at Cannon Beach, where the late afternoon sun used a short break between showers to backlight the trees on the cliffs at the northern end of this magnificent mile long sandy beach at the shores of the grand Pacific Ocean.

I’ve been privileged to have been at the Pacific many times before, but never this far north. The moment felt special, the beauty of this moment where I saw the glow of the sun on the wet sand of this magnificent beach, the cliffs and the tree providing a perfect backdrop. The sound of the waves, the spray of salty air on my face. It felt great, I felt wanderlust throughout. I felt blessed that despite all the hard times that the job that pays the bills demands of my family and myself, it still gives me the opportunity to occasionally explore places I haven’t seen before and that I might never have seen otherwise.

Wanderlust!

The photo was taken with my Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom, image specs are 1/640 sec at f/9 and ISO 200 with 12mm focal length. B&W conversion of the raw file in Adobe Lightroom CC.

Have a great Thursday!

Marcus

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Instant Inspiration (5) – Puddle Shooting

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Instant Inspiration (3) – Silhouettes

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Where the river meets the ocean

Astoria - Megler Bridge
The Bridge | Oregon | 2017

Yesterday I did a nice tour from Portland, driving up along the Columbia River to Astoria where the mighty river flows into the Pacific, then down the coast to Cannon Beach and finally back to PDX. All in all I was 14 hours on the road. The weather was very oregonic, starting with pouring rain along the river, turning to a sun / show mix on the coast and eventually finishing in a nice sunset. I will need to hit the digital darkroom over the next days to look through my images, but I’ll show you a first photo from the mouth of the Columbia River, where a mighty, 4.1 mile long bridge takes Route 101 across and connects Astoria in Oregon with Megler in Washington State. It opened in 1966. The south part has a 200 ft clearance so oceangoing ships can pass on their way to the upstream harbors of Portland and Vancouver.

I took this long exposure image from the Cannery Pier just west of it. To smooth out the water and clouds I dialed in a 13 second shutter speed, closed aperture down to f/20 and used the lowest ISO of my PEN-F. To avoid overexposure I had attached my Haida ND3.0 neutral density filter, essentially a piece of darkened glass that reduces the amount of light hitting the sensor by 10 stops, the only way to achieve these long shutter speeds in bright daylight. The camera was mounted on a tripod and I used the Haida ND3.0 filter.

I converted the RAW file to monochrome in Lightroom CC, using a monochrome preset as a starting point and then mainly adjusting the gradation curves.

You will get to see more of this trip in the next days. Today will be all rain and I haven’t decided if I drive up to the Columbia Gorge to see the waterfalls.

Wish you all a great Sunday!

Marcus

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Music

Street ? Harbor!

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Sicilian Good Friday Procession

Easter Procession
Easter Procession

It is Good Friday. For many this day is the start to a long Easter Weekend. Time for relaxation, time to spend with families and friends. For many this is a day to celebrate and live their faith.

To this day I never felt the intensity of a Good Friday more than back in 2002 when we spent Easter in Sicily and watched the Good Friday procession in the Old Town of Trapani.

Easter Procession
Easter Procession | Sicilia | 2002
Easter Procession
Easter Procession | Sicilia | 2002

Whatever you do and wherever you are, I wish you a peaceful, blessed and happy Easter!

Marcus

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Spring Streets

Symmetry
Symmetry | Nuremberg | 2017

Spring has blessed the Streets of Nuremberg, people all are out and about, seeking those warming rays and a relaxed Saturday in Nuremberg’s pedestrian zone. Also for me an opportunity to look for some fresh street photos with my Olympus PEN-F. In this shot it was the striking symmetry of sun bathers on the bench, pedestrians moving into the scene from both sides in the background and the window dressing dummies right and left of the tree that caught my eye. Me and my significant other were sitting in a cafe enjoying a great double espresso and I was merely waiting for the elements to fall into place. Image specs are 1/320 sec @ f/5,6 and ISO 200. I shot in P-Mode. Fore some more photos and the stories to the images continue after the jump….

Continue reading “Spring Streets” →

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The Earth from above in monochrome

Monochrom Aerial Photography 01
Mt. Jefferson | Oregon | 2017

As the job that pays the bills denied me any time to go shooting these past days I need to dig in last weeks archive to send you into the weekend. All these photos are from past Thursday and I took them on my Delta flight from Portland to Los Angeles  on my way home to Nuremberg. Camera was my Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. I post the images in sequence from Mount Jefferson that we passed soon after Takeoff from PDX to the streets of Los Angeles while landing in LAX. For the full series continue after the jump….

Continue reading “The Earth from above in monochrome” →

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StoNur on the Road – Vintage Propliner

ford-tri-motor-01

While I was in Detroit this past week there was no time to see anything besides airport, hotel and office. So in order to show you something from my latest travel destination I went back to my 2013 archive where I did spend a weekend in Motown. Back then I visited the Detroit Institutes of Arts, one of the principal art museums in the US, the Ford automotive plant in Dearborn and the nearby Henry Ford Museum. From this awesome museum are the photos  for today’s post, triggered by a conversation I had with fellow blogger  Tim S. Allen (check out his great site!) about a vintage airplane, the Ford Tri-Motor, that first flew in the 1920s. Tim, this is for you!

To see more photos of this magnificent vintage passenger liner, read about its history (it was the first plane that flew over the South Pole) and some interesting information about the Henry Ford museum (it has some really historic artifacts on display) continue reading after the jump…

Continue reading “StoNur on the Road – Vintage Propliner” →

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Super Sunday

Cathedral
Cathedral of Light | Texas | 2015

Super Sunday is here. Super Bowl LI is upon us. The Atlanta Falcons take on the New England Patriots. Since my days as exchange student in the USA in 1984-85 I’m an American Football enthusiast. Since then I have watched every single Super Bowl live on TV, even when here in Germany the game is on in the middle of the night. Not to mention that during NFL season usually my Sunday evenings are full of football as well. So you can call me a hardcore fan of this game. I rather not mention that since my exchange year my heart belongs to a team that has been notoriously success less  in the past twenty years, even though in this year they showed some signs of life again. I hope I live to see them reach the big game once more.

To see more monochrome photos of one of my live football experiences and read about some  of my thoughts about the game continue reading after the jump…..

Continue reading “Super Sunday” →

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude

Solitude
Solitude | Cremona | 2016

I’m getting the hang of these photo challenges.  This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge has the theme “Solitude”. And I can once again match that with fun of my Street Photography photographs. Well, “street” is relative, as this image was taken inside a church in Italy. For me this is a perfect representation of solitude.

For me solitude is nothing negative. I don’t mind being alone at times. I’m alone a lot when traveling on business, at least while in the hotel in the evenings. But I’m at peace with that. Those evenings I spend with a good book or with photography. There are always photos I need to work on, there are blogs to read or blogposts to write. Sometimes I grab my cam and head out on the hunt for some new images. Perhaps I’m at ease when alone because I have a family and friends I can return to.

I acknowledge there are many that have no one to turn to. And those might hate being alone.

Photo taken with my Olympus PEN-F at 1/20 sec @ f/5.4 and ISO 1600. Lens was the mZuiko 14-150mm f/4.0-5.6 Travel Zoom. Monochrome conversion in Lightroom CC.

Have a great weekend!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Weekly Photo Challenge: Graceful

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Music

 

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Music

olympus-pen-f-concert-photography-12
A man and his trumpet | Nuremberg | 2016

I recently have discovered the Weekly Photo Challenges on WordPress for me. It is so much fun to try to answer these challenges with Street Photography images. This week’s theme of Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge is “Music”.

Frequent readers probably have already seen my four entries for the “monochrome music” challenge.

To see all my other monochrome music photographs for Cee’s challenge and for the links to the original posts continue reading after the jump….

Continue reading “Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Music” →

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I’m only looking

Silent Virtue
Silent Virtue | Nuremberg | 2016

Detail of a bronzen face on Nuremberg’s Fountain of Virtue (Tugendbrunnen) created by Bendikt Wurzelbauer in the years 1584-1589, situated next to the North Tower of St. Lorenz  Church.

It was a conscious try at a high key photo with a very narrow depth of field to fully blur out the passing shoppers. I dialed in 2/3 of a stop positive exposure compensation. Image taken with the Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 17mm f/1.8 prime lens at 1/250 sec, f/3.5 and ISO 200. There is this rumor that mirrorless cameras can’t create a decent bokeh…

Have a great day!

Marcus

Related Posts:

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

Rainy Streets

From the castle they gaze into the sun

Bubbly Happiness

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Arrivederci Summer

Espresso Cups
Espresso | Nuremberg | 2016

This is it, the final warm weekend of the Summer 2016. Have been enjoying a cup of Espresso on the terrace of my mother’s nursing home in Nuremberg. We’re expecting a marvelous Sunday as well tomorrow.

Image taken with the high contrast program of the Ricoh GR. 1/500 sec @ f|6,3 and ISO 250.

Wherever you are have a great Sunday as well!

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Big Business

Big Business
Big Business | Cavo | 2016

Another image from my recent vacation on the Italian island of Elba, taken in the village of Cavo at the north tip. I just loved the passion of this big dude, doing is utmost to sell some jewelry to this group of elderly local beachcombers. I think they enjoyed the negotiations as much as he did, at least everybody seemed to have fun.

The beach of fine light pebbles was beautiful, the water crystal clear. Not many tourist there, mainly locals, as this group of Italian grandmas enjoying their late afternoon together with some of their grandchildren.

And I enjoyed some street photography while lying lazy on the beach. How ’bout that for a change?

Enjoy your day!

Marcus

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