Travel Photography

Hello Africa !
Hello Africa

Hello | South Africa | 2015

Africa is calling again! Tomorrow I will once again board a plane for a long distance flight. But this time it is for a family vacation. And the destination is Namibia. 23 years after our first visit we will return to this great country on the Atlantic Ocean side of Southern Africa. I’m looking forward to  the immense friendliness and hospitality of the local people, colorful street life, great landscapes with oceans, canyons, mountains and deserts and the wildlife in the bush and the plains.

We are deeply in love with Africa since having lived in Johannesburg in the early nineties. Back than we have toured all of South Africa and the neighboring countries like Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. We spent our vacation two years ago in South Africa. Last year we visited Tanzania. And this year we are looking forward to see Namibia again.

The equipment I bring is my OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom with the 1.4 teleconverter and the PEN-F with the mZuiko 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. Additionally my Walimex  7,5mm 1:3.5 Fisheye and the mZuiko 12mm F/2 prime lens.

So stay tuned for some insights into Southern Africa when the Streets of Nuremberg will travel the roads of Namibia.

Watchtower

Watchtower | South Africa | 2015

 

Safari Roads - Buffallo hiding

I see you | South Africa | 2015

Safari Roads - Lion blocking the road

Hungry | South Africa | 2015

Have a great Sunday!

Marcus

Related Posts:

StoNur on the Road – Ain’t I cool ?

StoNur on the Road – African Primary School

StoNur on the Road – Banana Streets

Street ? Beach !
Leader of the Pack

Leader of the Pack | Oregon | 2017

Who says Street Photography can only be done in the streets? Check out these photos from Manzanita Beach at the Oregon coast that I took during my coastal road trip last weekend.

Obviously, beach life in Oregon is quite different from beach life in SoCal or Florida, even in August. The northern Pacific has no more than 13 degrees celsius, so swimming is more a challenge than a refreshment, even on a nice August day.

I had the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom with me while I sat in the warm sand and observe the beach life around my.

Remember to dial in a bit of positive exposure compensation. The bright light and white sand tends to suggest the meter in your camera there is too much light in a beach environment, leading to underexposed photos.

For a few more images of Oregon beach photography continue after the jump…. (more…)

Travel Day (6)
Alone in the Air

Planespotting | 2017

Another ten day stretch in the Pacific Northwest comes to an end, in a few minutes a Delta Airlines Airbus A330 will take me into the afternoon Portland sky for its 10 hour journey across Canada and the North Atlantic Ocean to Amsterdam, from where I take the connecting flight back to Nuremberg.

On the flight I will open the digital darkroom to go through my photos from last weekend’s trip to the Oregon coast, where I had plenty opportunity for some nice travel photography (you might have seen the two appetizers here and here). But there are even better times ahead (not only photographically 😉 )….three more days in the office and then I made it to summer vacation. And my destination will be Namibia.

The photo above was taken with the Olympus PEN F and the mZuiko 14-150mm travel zoom. Image specs are 1/500 sec @ f/8 and ISO 200, focal length was 150mm (equals 300mm in full frame due to the m4/3 crop factor of 2).

Have a great day!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Around the World in 12 Days – Shanghai

Street ? Airport ! (7)

Travel Day (4)

A Pacific Sunset
Pacific Sunset

Pacific Sunset | Oregon | 2017

I’m back in Portland after a great weekend on the Oregon coast. I took too many photos that will take a few days to sort through and post-process. So like yesterday I show you once more the final image of the day, a sunset scene near Lincoln City. Isn’t this what a drive along the great ocean is all about?

In my free Learning Center is a post how to shoot silhouettes, check it out!

Image was taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. Image specs 1/2000 sec @ f/9 and ISO 200, 90mm focal length.

I wish all of you a great week.

Marus

Related Posts:

A Capital Sunset

Instant Inspiration (16) – Dusk at the Ocean

A distant sunset

My Sunday Miracle

The End of the Road
Hecata Lighthouse

Hecata Lighthouse | Oregon | 2017

It was a long trip down the Oregon Coast. I had sunshine on white sandy beaches and spectacular views of a blue Pacific Ocean. I had the incoming seafog turn the coastal rain forest trees to misty giants while hiking along the cliffs of Cape Lookout. I saw seals, and I saw grey whales. My last highlight of this splendid day was the beacon of historic Hecata Lighthouse near Florence, where I’m spending the night. This coast is magic. If you haven’t visited it put in on your bucket list.

The Hecata Head Light was built in 1894, the 56-foot (17 m) tall lighthouse shines a beam visible for 21 nautical miles (39 km; 24 mi), making it the strongest light on the Oregon Coast.

Photo taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. Image specs are 1/200 sec at f/3.2 and ISO 200. Focal length was 67mm.

Have a good Sunday!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Around the World in 12 Days – Rose City Waterfront

Where the river meets the ocean

Instant Inspiration (15) – Long Exposure Waterscapes

Willamette Blue Hour

A window in the sky

window in the sky

Window in the Sky | Germany | 2017

The 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 a good week!

Marcus

Related Posts:

A German Sunset

Instant Inspiration (16) – Dusk at the Ocean

Learning Center

Around the World in 12 Days – Home again
Rainbow Flight

Rainbow Flight | Munich | 2017

10 Flights. 19300 miles (31000 km) distance flown. 44 hours of flight time. Nuremberg-Frankfurt-Vancouver-Portland-Vancouver-Taipei-Shanghai-Seoul-Tokyo-Munich-Nuremberg. Amazingly, non of the flights where in any way delayed. After 12 days of traveling westbound around the world I’m safe and sound back home on the Streets of Nuremberg.

It was a very intense but productive business trip, and it included some opportunities to see something outside airports, taxis, hotels, and meeting rooms, and I’m very grateful for that. The best thing was meeting all those great people in Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan. But also revisiting Shanghai‘s amazing citycenter and being able to explore Tokyo for the first time was a treat.

A somehow perfect ending to this special voyage was the last short flight from Munich to Nuremberg, when a rainbow graced the sky above the plane when we boarded and that pointed exactly into the northerly direction towards home.

Dramatic Landscape

Home | Franken | 2017

And the special light that flooded the ground near the village we live in during final approach to Nuremberg airport. I love to travel and explore the world. But it’s always good to return home.

Have a great week!

Marcus

Related Posts:

Around the World in Twelve Days

Around the World in 12 Days – Greenland

Around the World in 12 Days – Rose City Waterfront

Around the World in 12 Days – Hiking on Mount Hood

Around the World in 12 Days – Taiwan

Around the World in 12 Days – Shanghai

Around the World in 12 Days – On the Streets of Tokyo

Around the World in 12 Days – Tokyo Impressions

 

Around the World in 12 Days – Tokyo Impressions
HamaRikyu Garden

HamaRikyu Garden | Tokyo | 2017

Having a free Saturday at the end of my trip around the world in twelve days is nothing spectacular. Having it in Tokyo is. A bit of web research helped to come up with an itinerary that would take me to some of the highlights of this fascinating city. To join me for the sightseeing trip continue after the jump…. (more…)

Around the World in 12 Days – On the Streets of Tokyo

Tokyo Asakusa Street LifeMy last update on my business trip around the word came from Shanghai. After spending one night and an intense business day in the Chinese megacity I took a China Southern A320 to Seoul, where I got into my hotel in Pangyo at 9pm in the evening. Dead tired I went to bed immediately, got up at 4am, did emails and calls and went to the office. There was just no opportunity for any photography at all. But I was absolutely blown away by the friendliness of our Korean colleagues, they went out of their way to make me feel welcome. So my memories of Korea will be that of super friendly people and great food I got when they took me to lunch. Then it was off to the airport again, this time a Korean Air Boeing 777-300 took me in 1h 50min to Tokyo’s Haneda airport, then I took a taxi to my hotel near Shinagawa Station. After a productive day in the office and finishing all the meetings on Friday afternoon I took the subway to Asakusa , the center of Tokyo’s shitamachi district, an old town part where the atmosphere of the Tokyo of past decades has survived. Besides the narrow alleys the main attraction is Sensoji, a very popular Buddhist temple, built in the 7th century.  To see some random photos of the Asakusa area and the local street life continue after the jump…. (more…)

Around the World in 12 Days – Shanghai
Shanghai Skyline

Skyline | Shanghai | 2017

This day of my business trip around the world ended with one of the most spectacular view on this planet. As described in my last post, we flew into Taiwan the day before. Suffering from jet lag due to 9h physical time difference to the US west coast, I had a short night, hitting the sheets around 10pm, then being wide awake at 3am in the middle of the night. I don’t fight jet lag, so I got up and started working on emails and doing calls. At 9am I was in our Hsinchu Office for management meetings and an employee town hall. A quick but great lunch with our Taiwanese hosts, then a driver took us back to Taipei airport were we took a brand new China Southern A350 for the 1h 15min flight to Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. I was on the ground in Taiwan for less than 24 hours. I didn’t even get as much as a glimpse of Taipei city or the Taipei 101 tower.  Landing around 6pm we cleared immigration and found our driver who took us to the hotel in Pudong where we arrived around 8pm. Despite being dead tired after a super long day, I couldn’t let this opportunity slip away. Getting around Shanghai by taxi is cheap and easy. So I through my stuff in the room, changed into shorts and T-Shirt, grabbed the cam, and ten minutes later took a cab to drop me at the Pearl Tower for some quick nightly sightseeing around one of the world’s most spectacular skylines. See yourself after the jump…. (more…)