The Significant Other and I took the metro train into town today, heading to the Humbold Forum in the center of Berlin. The first photo I took on this week’s trip to our Nation’s capital. I just love the striped hoodie and its reflection in the train’s window. I shot this image from the hip using zone focusing on my Nikon Zf. Easy to do as I had a manual M42 mount lens attached via an adapter, the roughly 60 year old Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 2.8/35. Image specs 1/400 sec @ f/4 with ISO 1400. Setting an f/4 aperture, the aperture/range markings on top of the Flektogon told me that the guy staring into his cell phone had to be in focus. Post-processing in Lightroom Classic.
Today, October 3rd, is the German Unity Day, or “Tag der deutschen Einheit”, as it is called in our language. It commemorates our countries reunification in 1990, when the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) ceased to exist and joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), so that for the first time since 1945 there existed a single German state. German Unity Day on 3 October has been our national holiday since 1990, when the reunification was formally completed.
In this post I share some (vintage) images from the Reichstag dome on top of our national parliament building in our capital Berlin. Continue after the jump for its history and some more image, taken back in 2007 and 2008 with a Nikon D80 – remember the old days 😉 ?
What is the best way for the street photographer when the summer in the city gets too intense? Right, then it is the time for some high contrast monochrome photography. The monumental circular bronze fountain in Genoa’s Piazza de Ferrari, built in 1936 by the architect Cesare Crosa di Vergagni and donated by the Piaggio family, provides the perfect background. To see more images taken on this beautiful Piazza in the heart of Genoa, continue after the jump…
I have always admired photographers that have managed to capture a plane flying across the moon. And always dreamed about one day doing it myself. And then, as most often in life, things just happen. The Significant Other and I were sitting on the balcony of our Southern Home, enjoying dinner and the moon rise over the roofs, towers and domes of Genoa. The admittedly not completely full but rather large disc of the moon was rising quickly into the sky.
I had the Nikon Zf out with the Nikkor 24-200/4-6.3 attached to capture some close ups of the moon behind the historic skyline. Then, a bit later, the evening flight from Munich was coming in, also from behind the city, flying along the shoreline for landing at Cristoforo Colombo Airport. And I thought….this might just work out. And so it did. I squeezed off two shots, and the first one nailed it. Fly me to the moon….
As the saying goes…luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Although I nearly screwed up. As I should have switched the camera to burst mode, but completely forgot to thing about in this moment. Maybe because the Nikon has no lag at all and I completely trust that I can nail the exact moment. In my second shot, the plane was already half out of the moon.
I took the shot handheld, image specs 1/400 sec @ f6/3, ISO 500, 200mm focal length and -1 exposure compensation, retaining details in the moon surface. The image above is heavily cropped in. Postprocessing in Photoshop and Lightroom Classic.
Happy Birthday, Streets of Nuremberg! No, not to this blog that carries the name, which is also in its 10th year. Happy Birthday to the real Streets of Nuremberg. Yesterday, our city celebrated the 975th anniversary of the first documented mention of Nuremberg. On July 16, 1050, during the reign of Emperor Henry III., the city was referenced in the so-called Sigena document, which was issued at a Hoftag (imperial assembly) held in Nuremberg. In this document, Emperor Henry III confirmed the release of a woman named Sigena from servitude. This day is considered our city’s founding day.
At that time, Nuremberg was noted as the site of an Imperial Castle situated within a large imperial estate. This strategic location between East Francia and the Margraviate of the Nordgau (in what is now Bavaria) marked the beginning of the city’s historical significance.
This image is the oldest printed view of Nuremberg that was published in the Schedelsche Weltchronik back in 1493.
“Uzbekistan explored – People of Khiva” is the first in a series of blogposts about our recent journey through beautiful Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is an amazing place for street photography, the people super friendly and open to be photographed. Continue after the jump to see more street images from Khiva, our first destination in Uzbekistan.
Pasticceria Klainguti in Genoa has recently reopened after a long renovation. It is a historic pastry shop in Piazza di Soziglia in Genoa’s Centro Storico. The founders were four brothers — Giuseppe, Gioacchino, Adolfo, and Agostino Klainguti — who came from Pontresina, a town in the Grisons (Graubünden) canton of Switzerland.
They originally traveled to Genoa in 1826 with plans to sail to America, but instead decided to stay and open a pastry shop. In 1828, they founded Pasticceria Klainguti, which quickly became popular in the city. The shop is known for its traditional sweets and long history in the old city center.
I loved the warm lights from inside the shop. In the window, you can see The Significant Other selecting a few sweets we took home. The passing people invited for a street photo, the red outfit of the passing pedestrian harmonizing with the yellow of the shop’s lights.
Taken with my Nikon Zf with the vintage Russian Zenit Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 manual prime lens. Image specs 1/400 secs @ f/5.6, ISO 3600. Post-Processing in Lightroom Classic
During last week’s stay in our “southern home” in Genoa, The Significant Other and I grabbed the opportunity to visit the World Press Photo Exhibition 2025 at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa. A hefty thunderstorm was passing through the city, so we gladly took the opportunity to spend some time indoors and explore this annual iconic photographic display. The exhibition was set up in the basement of the historic palace—once the seat of the Doges of the Republic of Genoa. To see more of it, continue after the jump…
Uzbekistan is not only colorful. It super friendly to the traveling street photographer. I‘ve never visited a country before where people are so easygoing about being photographed. They see a camera directed their way, they generally flash a smile! The Significant Other (the iPhone shooter) even observed, the bigger the camera the easier they agree to a photo. So photographing the bride and her friend during a quiet moment on her big day’s wedding photography session near Samarkand‘s Registan Square was easy. When the friend saw me aiming the Nikon, she started smiling. Amazing!
I took the photograph with my Nikon Zf and the Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR. Image specs 1/400 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 180 and 190 mm focal lenght. Jpg straight out of camera, no postprocessing.
Have I mentioned what a fantastic monochrome camera the Nikon Zf is? Even with a budget travelzoom attached.
Life is colorful in Uzbekistan. That‘s were we are since last weekend. The Significant Other and I are touring the magical cities of the historic Silk Road. After starting off in Tashkent, we continued on to Chiwa, then Buchara, and arrived today in Samarkand. Uzbekistan is a great place for photography. Colorful, vibrant, full of historic places. And especially great place for street photography. The locals are super friendly, generally smile when you signal you want to take a picture and many want to talk to you. They are curious to talk to you, living in a country that has just started to open up to tourism.
The cities, all of them more than two thousand years old, are full of life, especially at night, when the temperatures drop to comfortable levels. The two girls holding the balloons are standing in front of the Mir-Arab Madrasa of Buchara, an active university founded and built in the 16th century. The buidling is part of the Poi Kaylan complex, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I will share photos from this achitectural marvel in a later post.
I took the photograph with my Nikon Zf and the Nikkor 40mm f/2. Image specs 1/50 sec @ f/8, ISO 6400 and 40mm focal lenght. Jpg straight out of camera, no postprocessing.
Visiting my archives looking for a particular image from my time in the PNW, I stumbled upon this street photo I took during a weekend stroll through the Pearl District of the Rose City. Titled “Call me”, it is one of my favorite street shots from that year. Originally in color and portrait orientation, I decided to convert it to B&W, crop in and turning it to a landscape aspect ratio.
Doesn’t it look like a scene straight out of Francis Ford Coppola movie? Two sharply dressed men meet in on a quiet city street. The younger man, holding a vape and signaling a phone call, looking nervous. The older man, calm and steady with a cane, listening closely, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. Whatever they discussed, it was serious—like something best kept off the record. The photograph certainly has a kind of cinematic look. To this day I wonder what those gentlemen were discussing. The gesture is clear, isn’t it? One of those fascinating stories of the streets that wait to be captured by the passing street photographer.
Taken with my Olympus E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-100mm F/4 pro zoom. Image specs 1/200 sec @ f/4, ISO 250 and 172mm focal length in full frame equivalent. Post-processing in Lightroom Classic.
Are you kidding me? Eating a frosty ice cream on a cold and rainy day? Not for me, anyway! Spending the last week in our Southern Home in Genoa, The Significant Other and I were not blessed with the sunny and warm Spring weather you would expect from Italy. In fact, back in Nuremberg the weather was great all week with summer like temperatures.
Despite the wet weather, we headed into town a few times to run errands and treat ourselves to some great food. Having taken the Nikon Zf with me, I captured this mother and her kids enjoying some Italian ice cream, albeit a frosty one. Maybe they were visitors coming to town from one of the Cruise ships in the harbor. And felt they had to do it. At least they provided an awesome street photo subject, matching perfectly the image visible behind their backs. Quoting Shakespeare once again: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women, merely players”
Tonight, we will return to the Streets of Nuremberg to celebrate Easter with the family.
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