Who says that working from home doesn’t have its own adventures? Happily typing away on an email, I got a text message from Big Boy. “There is a Hawk in our driveway”. While pulling into our driveway with the car, he spottet the bird of prey eating away at a fresh kill direct in front of our garage. Only good, that the Olympus OM-D E-M1X and the 40-150mm F/2.8 with the attached 1.4 tele converter was just a grip away…..and then get up close with the eyes of a killer.
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!
We started our summer adventure into the Pacific Northwest with a maritime adventure, a whale watching tour out of Anacortes on Fidalgo Island, about 90 minutes by car north of Seattle. I have already done this tour over Memorial Day weekend (read the post here), and already back then I had decided to bring the family during summer vacation. The whale watch tour starting at 4pm in the afternoon was a four and a half hour trip on a larger boat. Obviously, nothing ever is promised when viewing wildlife (we learned this during many hours driving through the African bush without seeing as much as a hair of an animal). But we all were thoroughly exited, and were not disappointed. For our Orca experience continue after the jump… Continue reading “PNW Explored – San Juan Whale watching”→
In time for the weekend here is episode 24 of my “Instant Inspirations”, my series for you if you look for something to overcome “Photographer’s Block” or simply want to shoot something that you have never tried, or at least not recently.
Today I want to inspire you to go on a safari. A fine art photo safari. Something everyone can do that has a zoo or wildlife park in the vicinity. All you need in terms of gear is a camera with a zoom. While enjoying a stroll through the zoo, look for wildlife in high contrast lighting situations. You are almost guaranteed to find such situations during any visit. Shoot with a wider aperture, to throw the background out of focus.
Sunday morning I headed out to Fidalgo Island to do some whale watching out of Anacortes. Although I did not have to wait to get on the boat to sea any first whales. While doing a little hike to Porpoise Point near Rosario beach in the morning, I spotted some….Porpoises playing below me in the water while I did a picknick on the cliffs. The whale watch tour starting at 4pm in the afternoon was a four and a half hour trip on a larger boat. Obviously, nothing ever is promised when viewing wildlife (I learned this during many hours driving through the African bush without seeing as much as a hair of an animal). But I have to say, it turned out to be a whale of a day. See a few photos after the jump… Continue reading “A Whale of a Day”→
Rarely has the theme of the Weekly Photo Challenge from Word Press’ The Daily Post hit a nerve with me more as this week with “Serene“.
I’m totally in need of some serenity. The job that pays the bills has completely taken over my life, add in some special topics as the upcoming move of my big girl and the typical pre-festive season stress, another upcoming ten day business trip across the big ocean, and you can imagine why I would absolutely love to jettison myself out of reality and to a serene place like the lagoon of Walvis Bay in Namibia with its Flamingo swarms. Obviously bringing my camera.
Getting to some photography and even blogging has been a bit of challenge the past days, as well as answering comments and checking out posts from the blogs I follow, so apologies for not being present as much as I want to be.
The serene scene above was taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the mZuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom. Image specs 1/1600 secs @ f/5.6 and ISO 200, focal length was 150mm (300mm full frame equivalent). The photo is pretty much out of cam, aside from slight cropping.
Highlight of any Namibia trip is a visit to Etosha National Park. Founded in already in 1907, the Park spans an area of 22,270 square kilometres (8,600 sq mi) and gets its name from the large Etosha salt pan which is almost entirely within the park. The park is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including several endangered species such as the black rhinoceros. Besides the salt pan there are also areas of grass land, dry- and thorn-savannah. The wildlife is abundant, and especially in the dry season concentrated around the water hole. You can self drive through the park, mostly on gravel roads. There are several rest areas and camps distributed throughout the park where one is also allowed to leave the car.
Personally I find it super relaxing and almost meditative to slowly drive through the park, and just see what surprises nature has in store. Wildlife is not calculable, so some days you get really lucky, others there is not much to see. But the great thing is that anytime, around every corner, every thorn bush, the next amazing wildlife experience can wait for you. To see what we encountered in Etosha National Park, continue after the jump…. Continue reading “Namibia Explored – Etosha Wildlife”→
One of the very highlights of our three-week journey through Namibia came at the very end, with the visit to Etosha National Park. Doing Safari in the African bush is always an exhilarating experience, seeing the wildlife up close and in their natural habitat. We’ve travelled to many national parks in Southern Africa over the years, and they all have their own beauty. What makes Etosha special is the abundance of elephants, appearing in big groups, which we never saw before. For some elephant impressions continue after the jump…. Continue reading “Namibia Explored – Elephants of Etosha”→
As I already have written before, the master of Street Photography Henri Cartier-Bresson once stated that “sharpness is a bourgeois concept”. If you study his work (and that of other masters), he created many famous photographs that, while technically imperfect, strike the viewer with the heart and soul they carry.
When my Significant Other showed me this photo she took at a waterhole in Etosha National Park, I was immediately hooked on it. Yes, it is not pin sharp, and some critics might complain it lacks depth of field, but for me there is so much action and intensity in it that it supersedes any technical imperfection. This photo is so much Africa to me. So it deserves a prime spot on the blog. Kudos to the wife 😉
Yesterday the Streets of Nuremberg passed the mark of 3000 followers. For me it is still hard to believe how fast my little blog has grown since the first post I published just about 20 months ago to the day.
First of all I want to express my unlimited gratefulness to all of you who visit and read this blog. It is the joy of building the connections to so many great people across the globe through my blogging, the feedback I receive for writing about my passion for photography and my photographic endeavors – that is all the motivation I need to continue with the “Streets of Nuremberg”
Sure I ask myself what attracts people to this blog. Maybe it is a bit like this photo. Not technically perfect, but it carries heart and soul.
