Surely on of the highlights of every Namibia trip is a visit to Sossusvlei, a salt pan surrounded by high red dunes, located in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The name Sossusvlei can be translated with “dead-end marsh”. Sossusvlei is the final drainage basin for the Tsauchab river, who ends here and will never see the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. To find out more about this fascinating natural marvel in the Namib desert continue after the jump… Continue reading “Namibia Explored – Sossusvlei”→
The “Streets of Nuremberg” continue with the road trip through Namibia. After leaving the capital Windhoek, we drove around 500 kilometers down south. First stop in the South of Namibia was Keetmanshoop with its famous Quiver Tree Forest.
This unique piece of nature comprises of about 300 trees of “Aloe dichotoma”, more commonly known as “quiver tree” or kokerboom, because bushmen traditionally used its branches to make quivers. The tallest quiver trees are two to three centuries old.
Quiver Tree | Namibia | 2017
African Sunset | Namibia | 2017
We arrived at the Quiver Tree Forest in the late afternoon, it is spectacular in the light of the fading day and to photography the tree silhouettes in front of the golden evening sky.
Tomorrow we will head to Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world only behind Arizona’s Grand Canyon. Stay tuned for more of Namibia!
Window in the Sky | Germany | 2017The summer has been wild here in Germany, with scorching hot days being interrupted by massive thunder showers causing flooding and heavy damage all over the country.
This photo of some distant cumulonimbus clouds visible between two cloud layers I took with my Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko14-150mm travel zoom. Image specs are 1/320 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 200 and 135mm focal length.
Raw conversion in Lightroom CC. I cropped the image to 16×9 format. After increasing the dynamic range by manual setting of the white and black points I reduced the highlights and opened up the shadows. After increasing saturation and contrast a tad I played with the tone curves, further bringing out the details in the thunderstorm clouds. Finally I increased the luminance of the reds and oranges in the HSL panel.
I’m thinking of getting a large print from this. Haven’t made up my mind yet.
Have I said that on of the greatest assets of my job is that it allows me connect with so many great people all across the globe. This is especially true for those I work closely with on projects, and this forges bonds beyond pure office colleagueship. With two others of those great guys I teamed up to spend our free Portland Saturday going hiking on Mount Hood. Leaving Portland at 9am we drove the 45 minutes to Zigzag Ranger Station where we asked for a recommendation for a nice hike on the slopes of Mount Hood. They recommended the Ramona Falls hike, a pretty easy 9 mile loop trail with about a 1000ft elevation gain towards the falls. The first 4 miles of the trail are identical with the famous Pacific Crest Trail, running from Mexiko through the US up to Canada. Toughest part was that we had to cross a mountain stream balancing on tree trunks. The weather was splendid, we had great talks and enjoyed a wonderful 3 hour hikes in the beautiful landscape of Mount Hood National Forest, with views of the 11,240 feet (3,426 m) volcano, walking through fairy like treescapes and capping it with the spectacular Ramon Falls, crashing down a black, 120 feet rock wall. As camera I brought the Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 14-150mm F/4-5.6 Travel Zoom. To see the pics from this great hike in the Pacific Northwest continue after the jump……. Continue reading “Around the World in 12 Days – Hiking on Mount Hood”→
It’s hot in Nuremberg, really really hot. So hot that this morning I decided to ditch my original plan to go shooting in the city. I did a bit of running in woods behind the house and then….nothing. As I have my “Around the world in 12 days” business trip coming up Tuesday I actually enjoy a bit of downtime. Summer vacation is still 6 weeks away. Not that we don’t have some refreshing seawater in Nuremberg. I’d just need to go to the Zoo. This would be really nice right now, taking a swim with our Dolphins in the beautiful open air lagoon that opened a few years ago.
The photos were taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 100-300mm F/4-5.6 Zoom. Shooting at the far end of the zoom range I dialed in 1/1250 sec shutter speed to make sure I get sharp shots of the ever fast-moving dolphins. For both images the Oly selected the largest available aperture, f/5.6 at the tele end of the zoom. Auto ISO gave me 1000 for the first photo and 1250 for the image below. Not great, but acceptable. I shot with center point autofocus (most reliable in this situations) in burst mode (increases your chance to get a good image when the subjects move fast).
Today America celebrates 4th of July – Independence Day. A good day to show how beautiful this country is. With this selection of photos from my 2012 trip through the South West (see more after the jump) I wish everyone a fun and peaceful holiday! Continue reading “America the Beautiful”→
I arrived back home from the Pacific Northwest last evening. I’m flying out for another 4 days / 4 countries trip tonight.
In between there is a good day of…doing nothing. Like lying in a green summer meadow full of flowers. Gazing into infinity.
Image specs are 1/500 sec @ f/5.6 and ISO 500. To get this kind of effects use a zoom lens at its far end of the focal range (in this case 150mm in m4/3, equivalent to 300mm in full frame). Focus on a flower behind the first layers of grass and flowers.
For more photography tips and inspirations visit my Learning Center.
Today was a very warm summer day in Nuremberg. We had a great family barbecue and a good time. With this evening a six week stretch where I slept in my own bed comes to an end. Its back to travel days. I will leave for Egypt tomorrow to spend a good 24 hours in Cairo for some meetings, then fly via Vienna too Budapest for another day of meetings. Then I return to Nuremberg for a few days, then it’s back to the pacific Northwest the week after. Back to the usual life on the road. Both Cairo and Budapest forecast 30 degrees celsius and more. Wouldn’t a dip in cold Ocean waters be the thing to do on hot summer days like these? I invite you to join me for some underwater shots I took in Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium a few years back. For more photos continue after the jump…. Continue reading “StoNur on the Road – Georgia Aquarium”→
I couldn’t possibly ignore (photographically that is) that this Sunday is Mother’s Day. And so for my Mom and all other Moms out there: This Mother’s Day Rose is for you!
Sometimes I show you something on the “Streets of Nuremberg” that is outside the usual scope of my posts about street- and travel photography. During May natures just pops (pardon the pun 😉 ). Lush green and bright colors everywhere. But often the weather is still inconsistent, with many cloudy days. These conditions are actually perfect for some flower photography using a zoom lens. For more photos and some how-to continue after the jump… Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (17) – Flower Photography with Zoom”→
Ocean Dreams | South Africa | 2015 | 1/4 sec @ f/5,6, ISO 1000 and 300mm focal length
In time for the weekend here is another edition of “Instant Inspirations”, my series for you if you feel you suffer from “Photographer’s Block” or simply want to shoot something that you have never tried. Or at least not recently. With Episode 15 I encourage you to keep the camera out after sunset, leveraging the low light to achieve slow shutter speeds without the help of ND filters. But unlike in Episode 14, I leave the tripod at home because I want to combine motion blur with a bit of intentional camera movement (ICM) to create dreamy waterscapes at the wild coast of the Indian Ocean at Tsitsikamma National Park in South Africa. For the how-to, more images and links to all previous editions of “Instant Inspirations” continue reading after the jump…. Continue reading “Instant Inspiration (16) – Dusk at the Ocean”→
Happy Mayday from the Streets of Nuremberg! I’m really enjoying downtime with the family on this long weekend, as the first day of May is a public holiday in Germany. To kick off the new month photographically, I’ll take you on a small hike around the village of Oberhembach, just a few kilometers away from where we live. This is the prefect time of the year to just wander around and enjoy the springtime landscape, the fresh green around the little ponds outside the villages, the cherry and apple blossoms on the trees next to the half timbered farm houses, the chirping of the birds in the large pine forests that are spreading out around Nuremberg. Wanderlust around home. To get more impressions of a typical landscape and village outside Nuremberg, continue after the jump….. Continue reading “Happy Mayday from the Streets of Nuremberg”→
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