Street | Urban | Travel | Photography by Marcus Puschmann
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…
Continue reading “Bored in the Rain”
This photograph taken last night with my iPhone 14 Pro from our bedroom window is the byproduct of a fruitless hunt for the Aurea Borealis. Due to a recent coronal outburst of our sun, the magical fairy lights were visible much farther south as usual, and the past two nights they appeared over Germany, something that rarely happens. But they didn’t make it down to Frankonia. There were no polar lights.
But what amazed me was the lowlight capability of the iPhone’s camera. It was pretty much pitch dark outside. And this was, what the iPhone saw on a 3 sec exposure, handheld. Insane. Why bothering putting a system camera or DSLR on a tripod for a long esposure??
I was sorry for The Significant Other, who never witnessed the Aurea Borealis. I had the chance to see and capture the polar lights a few times while crossing the Northern Atlantic Ocean at night on a plane. Looks like one day we need to travel north in winter to make the wife’s dream come true…
Have a great Tuesday
Marcus
Related Posts:
Wish all my friends a blessed, happy, marvelous, successful, beautiful, inspirational, creative, wonderful and healthy 2023! May there be peace in all the conflict zones around the world, especially in Ukraine. And let’s all do whatever we can to keep our big blue marble alive and afloat for the sake of our children and all future generations! Happy New Year from the Streets of Nuremberg!
Marcus
The last day of 2022 is upon us. With all that happened, it was a difficult year for the world. And for sure it was a busy and special year for us as a family. But as every year, new years eve is the time to look back and reflect on my photographic journey 2022. Did I grow as a photographer? No, not really. It felt like „more of the same“. Due to various reasons, photography (as well as this blog) took the back seat of life in the past 12 months. My own perception was that I didn’t even made half as many images as usual. But as I looked at my Lightroom archive of 2022, I discovered that I took just as many photographs this year as I did in 2021. Noteworthy was the shift of the used tools, from mirrorless camera to my iPhone. I just didn’t have as much time to venture out with my camera as in the years before. But seemingly I compensated with many snapshots I took with my ever present iPhone 12 Pro Max and its truly good camera. Contributing to this shift was also the fact that during our only real vacation this year, our trip to Israel, my then new Leica SL2-S broke on the second day, so I had to shoot the whole trip on my iPhone.
So it was, photographically, a difficult year. But going through this years archives, I still found 15 photographs that triggered remembrances about places, moments and emotions that made my 2022. And that I’m truly happy about. Spoiler: My photograph of the year isn’t among them. For my „POTY“ and the story behind check back on January 2nd ;-). My second favorite image of 2022 is the one above of the Dome of the Rocks in Jerusalem. For me, this is as close as I probably will ever get to emulating a shot of Steve McCurry, one of my photographic heroes. For the rest of the gallery, continue after the jump….
Continue reading “My photographic journey 2022”
“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)
Marcus
Related Posts:
Nuremberg Explored (3) – Hangman’s Residence
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”
We’re not quite at Halloween, but close enough for this snapshot I took last weekend during a tour of the “Bayerische Landesaustellung” in Ansbach. And for sure a good reminder to make the most of every day, to do what you love and not waste time with worrying about things you can’t change. Because he is always there…
The statue of the Grim Reaper on display in the exhibition is made of sand stone and was created by sculptor Claude Curé back in 1723 and was part of the decoration of the burial chapel of a prince bishop in the Würzburg Cathedral.
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.
Have a great Wednesday!
Marcus
Related Posts:
Nuremberg Explored (8) – Martin Behaim
Frequent readers of this blog know that once in a while I take on photo shooting gigs like portrait sessions, an occasional wedding or a fashion shoot. This time it was Big Girl asking me to do a BFF photoshooting for her and her bestie. They asked for an outdoor setting with different backgrounds, so I took the girls to the Dillberg, a little mountain to the southeast of Nuremberg where we had lots of fun during the golden hour. See a few photographs from the BFF session after the jump…
Continue reading “BFF photoshooting”
How about eating Sushi while a swarm of fish is hanging lifelike above your head? The other day, The Significant Other and I enjoyed just that… Subsea Sushi in the Streets of Nuremberg.
Continue reading “Subsea Sushi”
Finally an image in the familiar 3×2 full frame aspect ratio. The Leica is back. Fixed and cleaned. And I got a free new battery with it (100$ retail value). I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Probably both. Glad to have the camera back. Because the SL2-S can do things for me that my other cameras can’t do. Like shooting with manual M-Mount lenses with a 0.95 aperture. On the other hand I’m still disappointed by their service and handling of the matter, after my brand new Leica failed me 3 days into our Israel trip with a mechanical shutter defect. I picked it up yesterday and took it for a spin around the Old Town, shooting with the beautiful TTArtisan 50mm .95 lens.
Continue reading “The Leica is back”
Last weekend, there was a lot of music in the Streets of Nuremberg, as my city was hosting the Bavarian Trombone Choir Festival 2022. Instruments of course are not limited to trombones, the choirs use all imaginable brass instruments. With a turnout of about 2.500 players from Bavaria and beyond, Nuremberg’s Old Town turned into the stage for a gigantic brass festival. For a visual tour of the event, continue after the jump ….
Continue reading “Brass Festival”
Sometimes the worst case happens. You are on vacation, bringing your best gear to capture all the magic of the places you visit. And then disaster strikes. My Leica failed me. My brand new SL2-S decided to stop working while we visited Jesus’ baptism site on the River Jordan this morning. “System Error” was the bright orange message on the display. Switching on and off, removing and re-inserting battery, changing SD cards and lenses. All the tips I googled in the Leica forum, nothing helped.
I send a message to the Leica store where I purchased the camera, pointing out that I was three days into a once in a lifetime vacation and I needed help to reset the camera (the SL2-S seemingly has no hard reset) or with whatever trick they have up there sleeves to somehow overcome the failure.
Well…I even got a return message two hours later. They wrote that they talked to Leica Service and they indicated it most likely is a shutter failure and they need to resend the camera to the factory for repairs.
Leica, in case you read this: My Nikons never ever failed me like this. My Olympus workhorses never ever failed me like this, whatever I did to them. This Leica SL2-S is a brand new camera that costs triple what I payed for these other cameras. And it simply stopped working, without warning, being handled and operated with care. Shutter Failure. Are you kidding me? And I’m simply being told I will have to send in the camera for repairs. No apologies, no nothing. A suggestion that I might want to look for a retailer in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv that maybe can take a look. Not even sending me addresses or phone numbers. Not even a simple sorry for having a new high end 5000 Euro camera fail on vacation.
Leica, your customer experience sucks! I would have at least expected some kind of “sorry”. Or a proactive suggestion how I could get it looked at here in Israel. And even when I get this thing repaired within warranty…how can I ever confidently take this camera on vacation again or use it on a wedding gig? So disappointed…so disappointed….
Now the old M240 and my iPhone 12 will have to cover the rest of the vacation. At least I brought a 10 year old backup and some vintage primes. And the iPhone camera is also quite capable. I’m looking forward to the challenge to get the best of the failed SL2-S luxury camera. To still capture all the memories of our trip to beautiful Israel.
Thanks for nothing, Leica!
Marcus