Summer in the City. The Significant Other and I spent the last evening of June in style, at the Entla’s beer cellar in neighbouring Erlangen. The site of a major 10 day beer festival each year, it’s actually much nicer visiting “The Mountain”, as it is called by the locals, when it is not packed by thousands of people standing shoulder by shoulder…
Having had the opportunity to test a Leica SL2-S full frame mirrorless system over the weekend, I have asked Big Girl to pose for an impromptu indoor portrait session. I wanted to do another test of the high ISO capability of the camera and find out how usable the files are in terms of noise when shooting at higher ISO. And, I have to say, the Leica performed admirably. But see for yourself…
The other weekend, my Dad and I went to a Classic Car exhibition in the Nuremberg Trade Fair. Big Boy got us the tickets, and it was a great opportunity to escape the Covid dullness and do something special. Not that I’m too much into cars. But they are sure fun to photograph. Especially when they are Classic Cars. So I grabbed my Olympus OM-D E-M1X with the mZuiko 12-100 F/4 with the intention to shoot some details of the exhibited cars. Click the link below to see some resulting images.
Just a random shot that I took yesterday at a classic car exhibition at the Trade Fair Nuremberg. Colors match those of the festive season, that is not so festive here on the Streets of Nuremberg. For the second year in a row, all Christmas markets in Bavaria have been canceled. The car show was still on, but you had to be double vaccinated and additionally present a negative Covid test certificate less than 24h old. Plenty effort to go watch some vintage cars. But at least an opportunity to grab the cam and do some creative shooting.
Image specs 1/10 sec @ f/8 and ISO 400, 200mm focal length.
Tonight is “All Hallow’s Eve”, 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. In Europe, All Saints was mainly celebrated in the religious sense (remembering the dead, lighting candles at their graves). Only in the last ten years the more “American” way of celebrating Halloween became more popular into what is now a big commercial business for retail.
This year, we in Frankonia are blessed with a colorful and sunny last October weekend. And with this image of an enchanted haunted house in a forest near Nuremberg I wish you a very happy halloween!
Photograph taken with my iPhone 12. Jpg out of camera.
A pumpkin patch in Germany is definitely nothing native. Sure, we grow pumpkins, we eat pumpkins, but buying pumpkins is something we typically do in a grocery store. Not so in a village south east of Nuremberg. Jerry is a farmer from the US who moved to Germany a few years ago. Unable to find the familiar huge pumpkins, he started to grow them himself on his farm. Then he turned it into a business. “Best Darn Pumpkins on this side of the Ozarks!” is his claim. His clients are mostly US citizens living in Frankonia and Upper Palatine, English was the most spoken language of the families collecting the pumpkins. And they sure have fun roaming the patch and taking home one (or two of three or four) giant pumpkins. For those families something ordinary like a pumpkin patch is special, it’s a piece of home away from home.
Life’s been wild lately, not only for us, but also for the rest of the world. “Looking at you” I dubbed this shot of The Significant Other looking at a Steve McCurry portrait of an Afghan mujahideen. The world famous documentary photographer, known for his intense portraits, took this image in Afghanistan back in 1979. We are in Zurich for the weekend and took the opportunity to visit the Steve McCurry exhibition that’s currently on display at the Maaghalle. Over the years, McCurry has been multiple times to Afghanistan, and some of his most iconic images are from there. On display at the exhibition, they now emit a strange sense of actuality, given the current sad events.
You know I like to shoot street photography in exhibitions and museums, and this beautiful curated and presented display of McCurry’s work provided an awesome background. For tonight I leave you with this initial image and get now busy with more editing from this afternoon’s photographic outing.
Image taken with my iPhone 12 Pro Max, post processed with iOS photo app.
We really got hit by snow over the last days. In fact, it’s been a few years since we had so much of the white powder. So much, that the other day The Significant Other and I took our cross country skies and started a tour right from behind our house. And this afternoon, right before sunset, we did another little hike into the winter woods surrounding our village.
Street Photography Quick Tip 19 – Shoot their backs
Here is the nineteenth edition of my Street Photography Quick Tips. Some short, easy to read and easy to use tips that I think could help you while shooting in the streets. Today’s post is about shooting the backs of your subjects
Another quick one from the recent snow day, showing the Imperial Castle in the snow. I love shooting into the light, be it artificial or sunlight. When used correctly, it makes for beautiful effects in your photographs. Just look at how the light from the street lamp falls on the reflecting surface of the snow. The shadows it creates add interest to the image, leading the eye into the frame to the brightest part and the massive tower behind.
The image “Castle in the Snow” was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1X and the mZuiko 12-100 F/4. Image specs 2.5 sec @ f/4 and ISO 250. Another quick tip for shooting in the cold: keep your spare battery warm in your pocket, to have it usable in case you need it!
If you are looking for tips and inspirations around photography, check out my free Learning-Center.
This afternoon I pulled out some random shots from this week last year that I think I never posted. And you can clearly see what’s missing this year on the Streets of Nuremberg…
“Let it snow” is a pop song from 1945, mostly played during the Christmas season, written and composed by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. Sung by many, the probably most popular version of this song is by Dean Martin. And a most fitting song for today, December 1st 2020, as the Streets of Nuremberg are covered by the first snow of the season. How is that for a winter cliché? And now I’m dreaming of a white christmas 🙂
This photograph of half timbered houses in the Old Town below the Imperial Castle was taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-100 F/4. Image specs are 2 secs @ f/8 and ISO 250, with a focal length of 31mm (equals 62mm in full frame). Camera was on a tripod. RAW conversion and post processing in Lightroom CC
Have a great Tuesday! And keep warm and stay safe!