Nürnberg

Finally Weekend
Ball Python | 1/80 sec - f/4 - ISO 1600 - 57mm

Ball Python | 1/80 sec – f/4 – ISO 1600 – 57mm

You also have those weeks where the job that pays the bills gently surrounds you and gradually turns on the pressure in order to suffocate you? Like a majestic Ball Python (aka Royal Python)? Well, I did make it into the weekend, although barely. The Significant  Other and I will head into the mountains to visit good friends. Looking so much forward to it!

The photo of the snake I took just the other week when visiting the Biosphere in Potsdam. I post-processed it in Lightroom Classic CC to a high contrast black& white image to be added to my fine art wildlife series (I blogged about the how-to here).

Hopefully I find some time on the weekend to catch up with blogging!

Wish you a great weekend!

Marcus

Related Posts:

A Whale of a Day

Namibia Explored – Etosha Wildlife

Namibia Explored – Elephants of Etosha

Instant Inspiration (24) – Fine Art Wildlife

 

 

Weekend Rush
Weekend Rush

Weekend Rush | 2018 | 1/200 sec – f/3.5 – ISO 1600 – 12mm

Who says people aren’t in a rush on the weekend? Example of walk-by street photography. I kept the camera (Olympus PEN-F with the 12mm F/2 prime lens) in front of my chest and just snapped away at interesting looking people. I set the shutter speed at 1/200 sec, kind of the minimum required to “freeze” moving people, especially when I’m moving myself.

Obviously there is a lot of hit and miss in this approach, but actually I’m enjoying this “hunt” as a kind of photographic challenge to myself. You need to know your camera pretty well, as just a slight tilt in the wrong direction will result in chopped-off heads or people only half visible in the frame. I used the 12mm (24mm full frame equivalent), so this is as wide angle as it gets in the streets. And it means I need to be awfully close to my subjects to fill the frame.

Try it yourself, there is a lot of fun in this type of photography, and trust me, no-one will notice you snapping away, as long as you are moving as well. Obviously, having a small, inconspicuous looking camera like the PEN-F helps.

Check out my free Learning Center for many more tips about Street Photography.

Wish you a great Sunday!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Street Photography Quick Tip (1)

Street Photography Quick Tip (2)

Street Photography Quick Tip (6)

A Street Photographer’s Dialogue

Nuremberg Explored (6) – Historic Waterway
Alter Kanal 05

Historic Lock near Schwarzenbach

This post falls under my category “Nuremberg Explored”, although the Ludwigskanal is a bit outside of the city, just a few kilometers from our house. After yet another warm and sunny Saturday The Significant Other and I decided for a late afternoon trip to our favorite little Beergarden (Gaststätte zum Ludwigskanal) in Schwarzenbach for some food and a sunset beer. Just in case I decided to bring a camera, so I grabbed the PEN-F with the 12mm F/2. After dinner and just before sunset, we took a small walk along the historic Ludwigskanal, a now abandoned historic canal. For a bit of history and a few more photographs continue after the jump…

(more…)

Summer Smiles
Summer Smile

Summer Smile | 2018 | 1/400 sec – f/5.6 – ISO 200

As the work week is finally coming to a close, there is a lot to smile about. After the passing of a cold front, the weekend is supposed to be beautiful again, with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures.

We’ll be spending the weekend in our nation’s capital to visit close friends and roam the Streets of Berlin, always one of my favorite places for Street Photography. Good that I spent a good part of last night giving my cameras and lenses a thorough cleaning. I also finally hooked them up to my Mac to do the firmware updates I wanted to do for quite some time now. So all is ready for a weekend of shooting.

Yesterday I also received the printed and framed photograph that I ordered to be included in a year long exhibition of the work of local artists. It opens at the end of September, and I’m really exited as it will be my first ever exhibit. The theme of the exhibition is “on the road” , and I submitted the image of the historic jetty in Swakopmund, Namibia, I took last year and blogged about in this post.

I didn’t even realize it when it happened, but sometimes last week the “Streets of Nuremberg” has exceeded the threshold of 5000 followers. When I started this little blog two and a half years ago, I would have never even dreamed about one day reaching this number. Then again, blogging for me is not about statistics. By sharing my photographic experiences and tips via my posts and my free Learning Center, I want to inspire and empower others to get more involved in photography and the visual arts. And I want to give back to the community that gave me so much over the years. And the best part of blogging is making all those wonderful connections with likeminded people all over this planet. So to all of you a heartfelt “Thanks” for being part of my journey.

The photo was taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the 12-100mm F/4. Image specs are 1/400 sec @ f/5.6 and ISO 200. RAW conversion in Lightroom Classic CC

I wish all of you a wonderful weekend!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Learning Center is online

Road to Berlin

On the Streets of Berlin

Instant Inspiration (20) – Backlit Fountain

The Fun is Over
Street Fun

Street Fun | 2018 | 1/640 sec – f/7.1 – ISO 200 – 100mm

I’m welcoming myself back to my own blog, after a small summer break I took after returning to Germany from our family vacation trip through the Pacific Northwest. I guess everyone needs a timeout once in a while. The transition from a splendid three weeks off work back to the job that pays the bills was just too hard, and in the evenings I was just too tired to get in front of my computer to blog.

But there is plenty to do photographically, I still need to edit and post-process most of my images from our trip, write the remaining “PNW Explored”posts about the Oregon High Desert, our trips up the volcanos Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens,  and to wrap it up, a visit to the fascinating Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, just hours before we boarded the flight back to Germany.

I dearly need to clean my camera equipment, the dust and dirt really took its toll after three weeks on the road.

And I really have to catch up with all the comments on this blog I haven’t answered, plus check out all the blogs I follow and I haven’t visited in the past weeks.

The summer fun is over, now it’s back to work!

The Streets of Nuremberg are back in business 😉

Have a great Wednesday!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Learning Center is online

Hello from Seattle

A Killer Week

Back on the Streets of Nuremberg

 

Dreams come True
1/125 sec @ f/2.8 - ISO 500 - 60 mm

1/125 sec @ f/2.8 – ISO 500 – 60 mm

Last night, Big Girl has made one of her dreams come true. As kid, as probably all girls do, she wanted to be a Ballerina, but for one reason or the other, she never made it to join a ballet group. As teenager, she watched all episodes of the Australian ballet TV series “Dance Academy”, sad she missed the opportunity and stating that she’ll never be a dancer. Then, at the turn of being 20, she signed up for ballet classes at our local adult evening school, together with a friend.

And last night, after a nearly a year of hard work and endless rehearsals, she took to the stage in a production of Romeo and Juliet, all organized and played by the local adult evening school, featuring their ballet classes for adults, teens and children. Big Girl’s group played three supporting roles, first peasant ladies, then maids, and finally some court ladies of Juliet.

For how it came out, more photos and the equipment I used continue after the jump…. (more…)

Never give up
Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse | Nuremberg | 2018

There were too many clouds in the southern sky. We were enjoying a great dinner with friends and family out on the patio on a warm summer night. Everyone was exited to see the total lunar eclipse. At 22:30, as announced, the International Space Station ISS appeared as a brightly glowing spot out of the North, passing directly overhead before vanishing behind the clouds. We almost gave up hope. But then, all of a sudden, the sky cleared and we had a perfect view of the eclipse. By the time I grabbed the tripod and my Oly, walked a few hundred yards to an open field and set up shop, the moon was already starting to move out of the Earth’s shadow.

The photo was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the 40-150 F/2.8 Pro Zoom with the MC 14 converter attached, giving me a 210mm focal length (equals 420mm in full frame). Image specs are 1/8 sec @ f/4 and ISO 1600. Cropped, curve adjustments and slight sharpening of the RAW was done in Lightroom Classic CC.

Wish you all a great weekend!

Marcus

Related Posts:

The Hood and the Moon

Namibia Starry Night (and how I photographed it)

The Classic Seattle Night Shots

Weekly Photo Challenge: Glow

Fair Evening
1/6 sec @ f/6.3 ISO 200 54mm focal length

1/6 sec @ f/6.3 ISO 200 54mm focal length

Well, to be correct, last evening was not all that fair, but rather rainy. The summer is taking break in Nuremberg, before we are supposed to get another heat wave starting tomorrow. Still, we went to our local little summer fair, and I brought my (in this combination weatherproof) Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 12-100mm F/4 for some shooting in the blue hour. Fairgrounds are great places to snap away, colorful and full of happy people. The person behind the camera can shoot fairly inconspicuous. You can experiment with various depth of fields and shutter speeds. For the rest of the photographs continue after the jump… (more…)

Instant Inspiration (25) – Foodporn

img_0553

“Instant Inspirations” is my series for you if you look for something to overcome “Photographer’s Block”  or simply want to shoot something that you have never tried, or at least not recently. Episode 25 is about shooting some quick “foodporn” with your iPhone. For some how-to, my workflow and more of my iPhone Sushi photographs continue after the jump… (more…)

Instant Inspiration (24) – Fine Art Wildlife
Java Leopard

Java Leopard

In time for the weekend here is episode 24 of my “Instant Inspirations”, my series for you  if you look for something to overcome “Photographer’s Block”  or simply want to shoot something that you have never tried, or at least not recently.

Today I want to inspire you to go on a safari. A fine art photo safari. Something everyone can do that has a zoo or wildlife park in the vicinity. All you need in terms of gear is a camera with a zoom. While enjoying a stroll through the zoo, look for wildlife in high contrast lighting situations. You are almost guaranteed to find such situations during any visit. Shoot with a wider aperture, to throw the background out of focus.

To find out how to shoot this type of scenes, a bit of post processing advice and some more high contrast fine art wildlife photos from my last “safari” continue after the jump… (more…)