Another quick one from the recent snow day, showing the Imperial Castle in the snow. I love shooting into the light, be it artificial or sunlight. When used correctly, it makes for beautiful effects in your photographs. Just look at how the light from the street lamp falls on the reflecting surface of the snow. The shadows it creates add interest to the image, leading the eye into the frame to the brightest part and the massive tower behind.
The image “Castle in the Snow” was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1X and the mZuiko 12-100 F/4. Image specs 2.5 sec @ f/4 and ISO 250. Another quick tip for shooting in the cold: keep your spare battery warm in your pocket, to have it usable in case you need it!
If you are looking for tips and inspirations around photography, check out my free Learning-Center.
Instead of the bustling Christmas market on the main square there is emptiness and silence on the first advent weekend in the Streets of Nuremberg, with people being asked to stay home and most activities being shut down due to our second lockdown.
But resilient she stands, the old city, as she has for the past 970 years, having survived the plague waves of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries as well as the destructions of the aerial attacks during World War II that destroyed 90% of the buildings within the city walls. And the Imperial Castle, the mighty bell towers of St. Sebald church and City Hall will still be there when this ugly pandemic will finally subside.
To everyone out there, but particularly to all the many magic people I’ve had the blessings to meet through my blogging on the “Streets of Nuremberg” I wish a peaceful and merry Christmas and much love and laughters together with your family and friends.
Who says that Christmas photographs have to be all colorful and bright? Here is my version of a moody Christmas tree. Taken on the walls of the Imperial Castle Nuremberg with my Olympus PEN-F and the mZuiko 25mm F/1.8.
Image specs 1/60 sec @ f/1.8 and ISO 1600. Heavily desaturated (it is not a B&W conversion) in Lightroom Classic. I also introduced some grain and burned (brightened) the heavy rain clouds around the tree.
I felt like being moody today.
If you are looking for tips and inspirations around photography, check out my free Learning Center.
I always wanted to capture this photograph. The best sunset my city can possibly offer. It graces the cover of a coffee table book about Nuremberg by famous local photographer Herbert Liedel, who passed away in 2015. But this image it is hard to get. To find out why continue reading…
It’s been a while since my last episode of “Nuremberg Explored”, but I want to send you off into the weekend with a nice story from medieval times. The most famous Nuremberg saga is about the Eppelein horse jump in the year 1375.
We’ve got a lot of snow in the past days, although today the rain has washed away most of it. When it started to snow on Thursday, I decided to put camera bag and tripod in the car to head downtown for some after office shooting of the snow-covered old town. For more photographs and my weather induced challenges continue after the jump… Continue reading “Winter on the Streets of Nuremberg”→
One week to go until Christmas – and slowly I’m getting into the spirit. Last night The Significant Other and I visited a Christmas Show by American Musical Star and Dancer Gaines Hall. This afternoon it is snowing, covering everything outside with a beautiful white blanket. Perfect backdrop for all the beautiful lights and decorations The Significant Other has placed all over the garden and the house. Like every year, I have to admit she’s outdone herself again.
Probably due to the many black&white night photos I have posted lately, I got a question how to best approach night photography.
As for the technical aspects, I have posts in my Learning Center that covers some of those aspects, like the Instant Inspiration episode about capturing nocturnal skylines. If you search for “Night Photography” in the search field of this blog, there are plenty posts with photographs taken in the dark, and in many I talk about some how-to stuff.
If you go for best image quality, you will need a tripod (or something less sophisticated like a beanbag) to rest your camera on. For best image quality dial in a low ISO number, and select an aperture like f/11 for max depth of field. Result will be a slow shutter speed, hence the need for a tripod. Use the self timer of the camera to trigger a vibration free exposure.
If your camera has good image stabilization and a good glass attached you might get by shooting hand-held. With my Olympus cameras I can shoot 1/5 sec out of the hand and still get sharp images. When trying to shoot handheld at night, I usually shoot in P-Mode with Auto-ISO capped at ISO 1600 and I see where it gets me. Obviously, it also depends on the ambient light available, from street lights or building illuminations.
Typically I shoot in RAW and do the conversion to monochrome in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, using one of my proven presets as starting point.
This photo of Nuremberg’s Imperial Castle was taken with the Olympus PEN-F with mZuiko 25mm F/1.8 prime lens, image specs are 1/25 sec @ f/1.8 and ISO 1600.
A side product from Tuesday’s coaching session in Nuremberg’s historic Old Town were some of my own photographs from my blooming city that I need to show off. Enjoy more images after the jump… Continue reading “Spring in my City”→
To everyone out there, but particularly to all the many wonderful people I’ve had the blessings to meet (at least virtually) during my first two years of blogging on the “Streets of Nuremberg”, I wish a peaceful Christmas and much love and laughters together with your family and friends.
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 | 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.
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”→
