Everyone knows that well-traveled roads wear down over time. They develop cracks, then the first potholes appear. Work crews are deployed to patch up the superficial damages. Traffic continues to roll. Then you notice larger surface alterations. And you realize, that the road has a damaged foundation. And you need to do a larger reconstruction, totally removing the old road surface, fix the foundation and then apply a totally new pavement. If you are curious how this analogy applies to the Streets of Nuremberg, continue reading…. (more…)
Ok, technically this is not a meteorite shower. It is an art installation called “Moving Mountains” by PNW artist Annette Bellamy. It is part of the special exhibition “the map is not the territory” in the Portland Art Museum. I took this indoor street photograph during last weekends visit to the museum that I used for some indoor street shooting.
Winter Travel Weather
But to me it looks like a meteorite shower. Or a snow- or hail shower. And this is exactly the kind of weather hitting many parts of the continental US today. Making for less than ideal travel conditions for my trip back to the Streets of Nuremberg.
I got up at 3am in the morning to pack my bags (went also to bed at 8pm to start my adjustment back to European time). Left my Portland Hotel at 4:45 for the twentyfive minute drive to PDX airport. Due to the winter weather in the Midwest the 7:10am United Flight to Chicago was delayed, but as the plane spent the night at PDX it was only a matter of getting ATC clearance. We ended up leaving at 8:25 for the 3 hour 30 minute flight to the Windy City, getting there 65 minutes late in snow, ice rain and low visibility.
A useful travel tip for ORD airport
When booking a connection through Chicago O’Hare I try to give me ample buffer time, which turned out to be a day saver. The remaining problem was that I didn’t realize that SWISS departs from Terminal 5 and not from the C concourse of Terminal 1 where the rest of the Start Alliance partners leave for Europe (note to self: it would be helpful checking the travel documentation once in a while).
Going to Terminal 5 would normally mean leaving the security area, taking the airport train to T5 and having to go once more through. But a very friendly United Lounge agent not only let me have a coffee in the T1 Polaris Lounge, but also pointed out a short-cut to T5, one that you don’t find if you follow the official signs. For that I had to walk from T1 through T2 and on to Gate G17 at the tip of T3. A relaxed 20 minute stroll. And from there, every 20 minutes leaves a shuttle bus that takes you directly into T5. Without having to go through security again, as you never leave the security area. This friendly hint really made my day – thanks United (I have to thank them also once in a while as I normally just bash them).
So now it is just a matter of waiting for my SWISS flight to Zurich to board. I should be back on the Streets of Nuremberg by tomorrow early afternoon.
Capturing the stories of the streets is what street photography is all about. When roaming the streets of a city with my camera, I’m constantly scanning my surroundings for those stories. Trying to capture life as it happens. The best photographs are those who tell a story, but with room for interpretation.
Also capturing gesture is very important for a street photograph. The gesture by these two gentlemen on the streets of Portland is what captured my attention in the first place. Suits, ties, walking stick and the little pony tail. The younger one is obviously trying to get a message across. His hand gesture, that leaves room for interpretation about what it meant. The two where totally ignorant of the heavy traffic passing them in very close proximity as they stood at the corner of a street in the Pearl District. An easy target for the observing street photographer. And another successful attempt to capture the stories of the streets.
Taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 12-100mm F/4. Image specs are 1/200 sec @ f/4, ISO 250 and 86mm focal length.
If you are looking for more tips and inspirations around photography, check out my free Learning Center.
I was kind of missing in action the past week, I have to admit, and this due to multiple reasons. First of all plenty of work for the job that pays the bills. Plus, I was severely impacted by a heavy case of jet lag during my first days in Portland. And this past weekend I was out and about in the city, preferring to roam the streets of Rose City with my camera doing some photography, rather than sitting in front of the MacBook and do blogging. Although I must admit I carried my little laptop with me in my backpack. I had some romanticized aspirations of doing some writing while resting in one of Portland’s many craft coffee shops. But with only two free days available, I ended up running around and shooting the whole time, despite frequent downpours that hit the Pacific Northwest over the weekend.
When it rains do some indoor street photography
During one of the many more intense rain periods I escaped into the (totally awesome) Portland Art Museum. True to my often published theory that when its soggy outside, shoot Street Photography in a museum. And I got a couple good ones. For some more varied shots using this light installation as a background continue after the jump…. (more…)
Since arriving in the Rose City Monday night, it has been pouring down. It has been cold and miserable. There is nothing but grey outside the office windows. No chance to grab the camera and go out and shoot some street photography. At least we were spared the snow-induced chaos that has hit the Seattle area and the Columbia River Gorge just East of Portland and led to massive travel problems. Colleagues that booked flights via Seattle did not make it to PDX due to cancellations. I instead had booked a “Southern arrival route”, flying to Portland via Zurich and San Francisco, thus avoiding any weather induced problems. (more…)
We’ve got a lot of snow in the past days, although today the rain has washed away most of it. When it started to snow on Thursday, I decided to put camera bag and tripod in the car to head downtown for some after office shooting of the snow-covered old town. For more photographs and my weather induced challenges continue after the jump… (more…)
Frequent readers of this blog know that, once in a while, I like to participate in photo challenges on Word Press, albeit less frequently lately due to the discontinuation of the WPC from “There Daily Post”. And typically I try to enter a street style photograph into the challenge, that, depending on the prompt, is sometimes more and sometimes less difficult. When I saw the first post about Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge titled “In the Distance” , I immediately had one of my images in mind (many times the library catalogue in my mind works much better than the real one in Lightroom 😉 ) .
There are hardly more distant places than the surface of the moon. But taking advantage of our reflections in the framed, huge wall photograph of the lunar landscape in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, The Signifiant Other and myself managed to warp us directly into Space 😉
And a second image I chip in is the one from the (for me still totally amazing) Yoga lady doing a headstand on her stand-up board on Lake Crescent on the Olympic peninsula.
Yoga Queen | Crescent Lake | 2018
If you want to go out shooting on the weekend and are still looking for tips and inspirations around photography, check out my free Learning Center.
This day three years ago I started the “Streets of Nuremberg”. What a journey it has been. And what better way to celebrate the blogaversary as with two photographs of the city that gives this blog its name (also supposed to be a teaser about an upcoming post from Thursday night’s winter walk through the snow covered Old Town).
Aside from being my own creative outlet (“phototherapy” is a great way to compensate the pressures from the job that pays the bills), the real fun part is to connect with different people from all over the planet (this blog is read in 146 countries and counting…). So to all my readers, and especially to the many ones with whom virtual and real friendships have started, a heartfelt “Thank You” for being part of my fun ride! And to many more happy years of blogging to come!
City Walls | Nuremberg | 2018
The photographs were taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 12-100mm F/4 and a tripod. A post with more images and all the photographic challenges on that icy night is coming up.
If you want to go out shooting on the weekend and are still looking for tips and inspirations around photography, check out my free Learning Center.
Today it was finally travel day again, my first out-of-country business trip of the year. Just a one day trip from Nuremberg to Zurich. I left 5:15 to drive to the airport for the 7am flight to ZRH, needing the extra time due to the couple of inches of snow on the ground, as it had continued to snow throughout the night (last night I took camera and tripod to town for some awesome shooting of the snow-covered Old Town and the Imperial Castle – post coming up). For the rest of the photos and the days story continue after the jump….
Hotel room morning view of Tsim Sha Tsui | 2.5 sec – f/8 – ISO80
These days it is the job that pays the bills that prohibits me to pick up the camera and head into town. Especially now, that the gruesome weather of the past days has given way to calm winter weather.
But it is also the same job that comes with some benefits, like traveling to places around the globe. And while those business trips for the most part are limited to seeing airport, office and hotel, sometimes arises the opportunity to sneak away for an hour or two to catch some more touristic glimpses of those fascinating places. Especially, when you are willing to fight the jet lag and wander around a foreign city all by yourself late at night or very early in the morning.
This is a kind of throwback post of a short trip to Hong Kong back in 2010. I stayed in a hotel on the Victoria Harbor waterfront, directly behind the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. And while the special corporate rates normally get you only the backside rooms (or those facing the 10 lane highway), this time I got really lucky with this million dollar view across the harbor to the Tsim Sha Tsui area on the Kowloon side.
For the rest of the photos and some more info continue after the jump…. (more…)
Call Me | 1/200 sec – f/4 – ISO 250 – 86mm
