Nürnberg

Never too late
Never too late | 1/100 sec - f/4 - ISO 1600 - 100mm

Never too late | 1/100 sec – f/4 – ISO 1600 – 100mm

For me it is never too late for a good hot Espresso. I can drink it in the morning, I can drink it in the middle of the night. I love my small coffee breaks when shooting in the streets, and I love my Espresso when doing some post processing late in the evening. I find it gets my creative juices flowing.

Image shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-100mm F/2.8. Image specs 1/100 sec @ f/4 and ISO 1600, 100mm focal length.

Post processing in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC.

If you feel like picking up your camera and are looking for tips and inspiration around photography, check out my free Learning Center.

Wish you all a great Sunday!

Marcus

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Hello November
Nightstand | 2018 | 1/4 sec - f/8 - ISO 1600 - 12mm

Vespa| 2018 | 1/4 sec – f/8 – ISO 1600 – 12mm

October has been good to us, especially weather wise, now November is upon us. A.k.a. the “greyest month of the year” (in the northern hemisphere that is). It’s getting cold and damp, daylight is getting shorter and shorter.

The perfect time to head out into the streets to capture interesting shades and textures under the streetlights, without having to wait too long that it gets dark.

Shot with the Olympus PEN-F and the 12mm F/2. Image specs 1/4 sec @ f/8 and ISO 1600. F/8 was needed for the extended depth of field I wanted to achieve, having everything sharp from foreground to background, and focusing 1/3 into the frame. Obviously, this resulted in a slow shutter speed of 1/4 sec, which still can be handheld due to the good image stabilization of the PEN-F.

Wish you a great All Hallows day and a good start into a creative November

Marcus

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Rainy Sunday
Black & White

Black & White

Back home from Memphis I found that whatever was left from an amazing summer in Germany has left. It was raining all day with temperatures close to freezing.

The best thing to do? Meeting up with old friends. Instead of a planned hike we escaped into a well-known art gallery. A perfect place for street photography on a rainy day, unless you want to go for the first puddle shooting of the wet season.

Although I had my E-M1 in the backpack, I left in the locker and shot with my iPhone 8 plus. Which is perfectly suitable for street photography.  And in a gallery environment, it even has its advantages. Other visitors tend to totally ignore you when you shoot with a phone. They don’t even bother walking out of the frame. This would have been a different story if I have had the E-M1 with the rather large 12-100mm in my hand. For more photos from my gallery shooting continue after the jump… (more…)

Escape Route
Into the Tunnel | Seattle | 2018 | 1/8 sec - f/4 - ISO 1600 - 12mm

Into the Tunnel | Seattle | 2018 | 1/8 sec – f/4 – ISO 1600 – 12mm

Well, escape route might be a bit exaggerated. I don’t need to escape. But The Significant Other and myself are heading out. We’re using tomorrow’s National Holiday combined with two free days to head down to Italy, into our former hometown Genoa. Taking in some Golden October mediterranean sunshine. And visiting with old friends. We’re so much looking forward to it.

Photo taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 12-100mm F/4 Pro Zoom. Image specs 1/8 sec @ f/4 and ISO 1600. I had dialed in the long exposure to capture the motion of the couple climbing up a lit up staircase in Seattle’s MoPop.

Wish you a great Wednesday!

Marcus

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Street Photography Quick Tip (16)
Order Here | 2018 | 1/320 sec - f/6,3 - ISO 200

Order Here | 2018 | 1/320 sec – f/6,3 – ISO 200

Street Photography Quick Tip 16 – Capture what captures attention

My Street Photography Quick Tips are short, easy to read and easy to use tips that I think could help you while shooting in the streets.

When shooting Street Photography, I’m always on the lookout for photographs that have the potential to make the viewer stop and think about the story behind it, before swiping on to the next image.

In this photo, the contrast between the bright face and the darkness of the window behind should capture the attention of the viewer. Then comes text, which is also something we more or less automatically scan. “Order here”. What is it that can be ordered from this girl? Also, the hand written sign about not accepting American Express cards tends to attract attention more then the logo cards of the other credit cards.

How do you see it?

Photo taken with the OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-100 F/4. Image specs are 1/320 sec @ f/6,3 and ISO 200.

Make sure to regularly check out my free Learning Center for all of my tips and inspirations around photography.

Wish you all a great week and a good start into the week!

Marcus

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Not always “on”
Social Media | Berlin | 2018 | 1/40 sec - f/2 - ISO 2000 - 12mm

Messaging | Berlin | 2018 | 1/40 sec – f/2 – ISO 2000 – 12mm

Most of us photographers don’t only shoot solely for our own archives, but share our work on our blogs and social media accounts (Instagram, 500px, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter). To find recognition, collect likes and comments.  And who doesn’t like to receive positive feedback?

But it shouldn’t turn into an obsession. I’m picking up my camera because I want to create art. If I shoot an image that visually pleases me, I’m totally happy. And if some of you like it as well, after I post in on my blog, that’s even better. My blog posts are automatically posted on my facebook pages, but I have to admit I rather infrequently check my facebook, be it my feed or comments/notifications. Flickr I hardly use anymore, on 500px I’m practically a no-show.

On Instagram I have two accounts  – Travimago for my travel images, streetsofnuremberg for the street photography. I have days where I post regularly on Instagram, followed by weeks where I am not active. Probably that shows in my followers there, only about 100 and 200 respectively. It spikes a bit when I post, then drops again to that level. I don’t see Instagram as an outlet that brings much benefits for me, also because I like to share some info with my photography, that I can do only in a limited way on this platform. And that probably no-one reads anyway, as Instagram is a swipe and like only medium. So as I’m not on a hunt for  likes and followers, I feel there is no real need to invest much time on my Instagram accounts. I mainly use it as a picture archive that I have on my phone where I can quickly show particular images to other people I talk to face to face about my photography.

So my main outlet is this blog, that requires already much of my time, preparing posts and photographs, writing, answering comments and browse to my feed from the many blogs I follow myself. Generally, the interaction through blogging beats anything I find on other social media channels.

As I mainly restrict myself to blogging, I’m not constantly “on” to check all social media channels, checking my likes and count my followers. Instead I use the time to pick up my camera and create art which is much more gratifying.

The above image was taken with my Olympus PEN-F with the mZuiko 12mm F/2. Images specs are 1/40 sec @ f/2 and ISO 2000.

If you look for tips and inspirations around photography and want to use the weekend to pick up your camera, check out my Learning Center.

Wish you a great weekend!

Marcus

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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

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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

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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

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