Tag: Nature

Serenity in Shades of Gray

Pine Tree Silhouettes
Coastal Pines | Liguria | 2026

There’s something truly special about black and white photography. For me, it’s more than just removing color; it’s about stripping away distractions and getting right to the heart of what makes an image compelling. It’s about reducing the scene to its purest form: composition. Serenity in Shades of Gray.

Take this shot, for instance, captured in the Ligurian Apennines, northwest of Genoa. The moment I saw these majestic trees silhouetted against the misty mountains, I knew it had to be black and white. The layers of hills fading into the distance, the stark outlines of the pines – it all just sings in monochrome.

When I shoot in black and white, the entire process becomes a tranquil enjoyment. It forces me to see shapes, lines, and textures in a different way. The absence of color simplifies everything, allowing the eye to focus solely on the interplay of light and shadow, and the arrangement of elements within the frame. It’s photography reduced to a minimum, and in that simplicity, I find immense satisfaction.

This image, with its quiet strength and layered depth, perfectly embodies that feeling for me. It’s a reminder that sometimes, less truly is more, and that beauty can be found in the most understated of palettes.

What are your thoughts on black and white photography? Do you find it as calming and focused as I do? Let me know in the comments below!

Image taken with a Fuji X-T50 and the Fujinon Super EBC XC 1:2.8-4.8/16-50mm R LM WR. Image specs 1/3200 sec @ f/7.1, ISO 250 and 31mm focal lenght (full frame equivalent). Acros Film Simulation – jpg out of camera.

Have a great Thursday

Marcus

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Remembrance

43

Airy Sunrise

Fine Art Airy Sunrise out of a plane window
Airy Sunrise | Netherlands | 2025

Isn’t it nice when a day starts full of color? This is especially true after having spent the night in an airplane seat crossing the Atlantic Ocean eastbound in a KLM Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I opened the shades, and there it was, the colorful airy sunrise. Playing round with my iPhone, it switched to macro mode when I zoomed in and focused on the ice crystals on the outside of the window. I really love the effect it generated. Kind of artsy…

I love these things, playing around with the camera (or the smartphone) and see what I can get out of interesting things I see. This is what I call my visual push-ups. Photography stands for “painting with light”. But it is also “playing with light”.

Get your creative juices flowing. Grab a camera (or phone) and try things out. As the saying goes: One good photo a day keeps boredom away 😉

For more tips and inspirations around street photography, head to my free Learning Center.

Have a great Friday

Marcus

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12

Sunday Walk with a Vintage Lens

Vintage Lense Photography with the Pentax Asahi SMC Takumar
1/125 sec | f/8 | ISO 100 | 50mm

Spring has finally arrived with sunshine and warmer temperatures. No doubt The Significant Other insisted we go on a hike through the Franconian countryside outside Nuremberg. I didn’t argue at all, as this was a great first opportunity to screw (literally) a 50 year old “Nifty Fifty” on my Nikon Zf for a first test of its legendary optics – the Pentax Asahi SMC Takumar 1.4/50. Join me on a Sunday walk with a vintage lens….

Continue reading “Sunday Walk with a Vintage Lens” →
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White Giant

White Giant - a stuffed white Tiger in Genoa's Museum of Natural History
White Giant | Genoa | 2025

There is more from the last weekend’s visit to Genoa’s Museum of Natural History. In my last post I have mentioned juxtaposition as compositional element. Now how about this juxtaposition? This white tiger was by far the largest tiger I ever saw, dead or alive. Crazy big. The card in the display said the animal died in 1758 in a Circus, was subsequently stuffed and eventually ended up in the museum for everyone to simply admire. The Tiger was huge by my standards. How must that little girl feel looking up to this white giant?

A street photographer can apply many compositional elements to the images to generate a viewers interest. Leading lines guide the eye through the image, creating a sense of depth and direction. The rule of thirds divides the frame into a grid, helping to position subjects in a way that feels balanced and engaging. And, like in this example, Juxtaposition places contrasting subjects or elements side by side to create visual tension or highlight differences. Like the white giant and the little girl.

Taken with my Nikon ZF and the Nikkor Z 40mm 1:2 SE, image specs 1/125 sec @ f/5.6 and ISO 6400, 40mm focal length. Jpg out of camera using the Zf’s default black & white mode that can be quick-selected by a dial on top of the camera.

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

Have a great Thursday

Marcus 

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17

Visual Push-Ups for January 18, 2025

Forest weeds
1/80 sec | f/8 | ISO 3200 | 200mm

Finally weekend! Fighting a little cold, I took it easy all day. But late afternoon, I felt an itch to go outside. And do some photography. So I grabbed my camera and went for a little walk into the woods around our house. And do my visual push-ups for January 18, 2025 . Click below to join me on my little photographic exercise…..

Continue reading “Visual Push-Ups for January 18, 2025” →
21

Final sunset of the year

Last sunset of 2024
Final Sunset of the Year | Lungau | 2024

This is it – we’re (almost) done with 2024. The final sunset of the year has happened, and I captured it. I’m soooo ready to turn the last page and close the book on the old year. And this picture is my epitaph for 2024. Too many people we know have passed away. Too many people we know have fallen seriously ill. The corporate rat race has exceeded any previously known limits and has drained us more than ever before. And I wouldn’t say the world at the end of 2024 is a better place than at the start of the year. While also many positive things happened to us and we for sure realize that we are much privileged in many aspects (and we are totally grateful for all of that), The Significant Other and I won’t shed much tears for the old year.

We will spend the evening celebrating friendship over a relaxed dinner and with some good drinks. And then we will welcome 2025. May it be a better year for all of us! And let’s all do whatever we can to make 2025 a truly better year. For all of us!

Happy New Year

Marcus

34

The night something magic happened

Aurora Borealis in Germany
Aurora Borealis | Nuremberg | 2024

Faithful readers of this blog know I have a passion for the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. I was blessed enough to have seen them three times from an airplane window during winter night crossings of the Northern Atlantic Ocean, and I’ve shared those stories here and here. Unfortunately, The Significant Other was never with me when the magic happened. So we continued to have the dream to one day see the “Dancing Lights” together, during a winter travel to Norway, Finland or Iceland. But then, this past Friday, the Aurora Borealis unexpectedly came to us, in the night something magic happened…

Continue reading “The night something magic happened” →
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Mayday

Lightning over the Port of Genoa on a wet Mayday
Mayday | Genoa | 2024

No, there wasn’t the need to call “Mayday” (an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications) last night. But for sure the 1st of May started with a bang in Genoa, with a front of thundershowers moving in from the sea after three very nice and rather warm spring days.

I took this photograph while sitting on the balcony of our “South” home with a glass of a very good Italian Red, and I captured it with my iPhone 14 Pro. In all fairness, it took me about 60 attempts to finally catch the lightning, and what a nice one it was. Soon after the shot, the rain started pounding and the spectacle was over. It’s still raining, so we’re having a rather wet Mayday. But who would complain about enjoying a very lazy public holiday?

Have a great start into May!

Marcus

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Another step down the road


22

Heart of a Magnolia

Magonila Blossoms
Heart of a Magnolia | Nuremberg | 2024

What does a street photographer do if he hasn’t (for various reasons) time to head into town for street shooting? He grabs his camera, heads out the door for five minutes and takes some ICM photographs of a nearby Magnolia tree that is in full blossom. And capturing the heart of a Magnolia…for a few more images from my quick lunch break photo session click below….

Continue reading “Heart of a Magnolia” →
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Another week, another exhibition

The Significant Other and I have spent the days before Easter down at our Southern Home in Genoa. Last time we were there we visited the photo exhibition Children by Steve McCurry. The same venue, Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale, now features another of my hero photographers of whom I own various books, Brazilian born Sebastião Salgado. Another week, another exhibition. Join me for a visit of the splendid exhibit “Aqua Mater”, combined with some in-show street photography….

Continue reading “Another week, another exhibition” →
9

Color Rush

Herbstfarben - Color Rush
Color Rush | Franken | 2022

October is slowly coming to a close. And what a beautiful month it has been. I have read that it will be the warmest October ever in Germany since weather recordings started back in 1881. Fall colors are stunning this year. No reason to travel elsewhere for that, Franconia is enjoying its own Indian summer. I took the photos in this post in the woods behind the house, using my iPhone 12 Pro Max. My daily 5K walk has become my personal color rush.

Continue reading “Color Rush” →
17

The winter that wasn’t

Winter Forest Sunburst
1/50 sec | f/16 | ISO 400 | 12mm

The last day of February is upon us. And it’s time to finally say goodbye to the winter that wasn’t. This winter was too warm, it was grey on what felt like 90% of the time, it was unusually stormy. We had some snow worth speaking off just before Christmas, that was it. The winter 21/22 was a winter to forget.

How it should have been shows this throwback photograph from February last year I took in the woods on nearby Moritzberg. While I get there is post-processing software out there that helps you to place a sunburst in any given image, it is much more gratifying capturing it in camera. You just need the sun, an object to partially hide it behind, and a camera that allows you to set a small aperture (I usually capture sunburst with f/16). E voilà!

The good news is that you can capture sunbursts also in spring. Now we only need to have a spring that comes with some sun days! But as the saying goes…hope dies last.

If you are looking for more tips and inspirations around photography, check out me free Learning Center.

Have a great start into March and an awesome (photographic) spring

Marcus

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