AFTER THREE YEARS

Hauptmarkt (main market) in front of city hall, Bautzen, Saxony, Germany,

It has been three years that I visited my home country Germany and met family and friends, and I guess no explanation is necessary why it took so long to go across the Atlantic Ocean. Half of the trip was for education and training on the business side. The print and finishing industry is undergoing rapid changes, and Europe is leading the game in automation and robotic solutions for the post process in the printing industry (my part of the business). Mind blowing solutions were demonstrated to me and my American colleagues, a trip worthwhile!

The second half of the journey was dedicated to visits with family and friends. My wife Joan joined me in Dresden for this part of the trip. It was a very emotional visit (three years is a long time) and I’m absolutely grateful to have friends and family that offer hospitality way beyond anybody’s expectations. We really like to thank my kids, their families, and our friends who helped in an unforeseen situation during the last week. Anke, Tarja, Seraphine, André, Ramona, and our hosts in Bautzen, Gabriela and Claus!!! You are the best, and we hope to see you soon, maybe in the United States of America!!!

OK, it’s a photography blog, let’s talk a little about the image. I grew up in the over 1000 years old city of Bautzen, in the State of Saxony, and even after three years of absence still had the feeling, I have seen everything before. These blooming trees in front of the Rathaus (city hall) have not been there in my childhood. Many changes were made in this town during the last 32 years, after the wall came down in Germany, which divided east and west of the country for political reasons. Years ago I would have never made an image from that perspective on a day with overcast. With the blossoms in color contrast to the Rathaus and the mood of this gray day the click had to be made. It’s actually pretty busy during the week in downtown Bautzen, but I waited patiently until nobody was in the frame…

ADOBE STYLE IN DETAILS

Adobe style details, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

I haven’t created any interesting photos during the last couple days but I still work with some of the images I made in October last year during our road trip to New Mexico. Long before we went there I have been fascinated with adobe buildings and the way they are designed and built. Many places in New Mexico have adobe style architecture, even if some newer ones use modern construction materials but are made to look like the historic churches found in the area.

All photos in today’s blog post were shot just around the famous San Francisco de Asís Mission Church in Rancho de Taos, New Mexico. We visited the church on two days at different times and with different light. Many of my detail images were made while strolling around the church, apparently with black & white in mind, and this will certainly happen. However, some pictures live also from their colors or color contrast and triggered my desire to develop them the way you see them here. I hope you enjoy!

COLORFUL SANTA FE

Santa Fe Plaza - Fall colors right at downtown

Santa Fe, New Mexico is a wonderful city, with history, culture, and art everywhere you go. It is not difficult to find interesting subjects to photograph. As so often, there wasn’t enough time to explore everything but we had a very nice day, fully packed with sightseeing, looking at art, and of course, good food and drinks.

With more than 250 galleries to explore in Santa Fe you have a lot of choices. There is one I had on my list to visit since a long time. The Monroe Gallery of Photography specializes in 20th- and 21st-century photojournalism and humanist imagery and even if this is not your field in your own photography, it is a very inspiring place. Highly recommended!

Synonymous with New Mexican cuisine, chile peppers are part of New Mexican identity. These decorative clusters were hooked to each lamp post at the plaza.

This wedding wasn’t the only one we saw in town. The traditional march by the newlyweds and their guests through the streets to their venue is led by a Mariachi band.

New Mexico Museum of Art - The style of the building, called Pueblo Revival, uses modern construction materials made to look like the historic adobe churches found throughout the state's Pueblos.

Some souvenirs need a little more space in your luggage than others…

ENCHANTED HIGHWAY (A SLIDE SHOW)

Taking pictures of other peoples art makes me always hesitate and asking myself, why would I ever publish them? Here I try to put that in context with the Black & White photo “Enchanted Highway”, the only picture of that shoot that I really value. I do a bit of travel photography but mostly publish it in privately distributed books, and that’s where the pictures of sculptures would have a place to live. The photo of the “Enchanted Highway” stands out on its own, but why we would even go there, in the middle of frigging nowhere in North Dakota?

Wikipedia says: The Enchanted Highway is a collection of the world's largest scrap metal sculptures … along a 32-mile (51 km) stretch of two-lane highway in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of North Dakota. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanted_Highway)

I would agree not to call it a “tourist trap”, because we didn’t really see many people at the end of August 2020, during some of the best travel times.

For my photography friends, here is a little information for those who may consider to include this remote location in one of their future travel plans. If you just travel this road during the day, as we did, the direction of sunlight may not be in your favor. Some of the metal sculptures have their face pointed at Polaris and keeping the sun out of the frame might be a challenge during the day. As you can see in some of the images, clouds help a lot and finding a way to place them in your photo may be beneficial. Towards the end of this 32-mile trip the blue parts of the sky were completely covered by clouds and that was the other challenge to deal with… If time is not a factor and you can stay in the charming little town of Regent, North Dakota , I’m sure sunrise and sunset are your best friends…

SMOKE AND LIGHT

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, @ 72mm, 1/160s, f/5.6, ISO400, matrix metering, underexposed by -1 stop

I trust you all had a nice Independence Day here in the United States. We spent this sunny and very warm weekend tent camping with the grandkids and their parents and had an enjoyable kayak trip with them. Of course, eating a good dinner is important after such exercise! Shortly after the fire in the grill got started we watched how the smoke made the sun beams visible that came through the canopy of the trees. Oh, I can’t bypass such a photo opportunity… 😊

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4, @ 95mm, 1/200s, f/4, ISO400, matrix metering, underexposed by -1.3 EV

PAINTED DESERT (4) - ROUTE 66

Petrified Forest National Park is crossed by three other traffic pathways beside the park road. The major ones are Interstate 40 and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. Not so visible anymore is the historic Route 66. A line of telephone poles parallels the alignment of the former road through the park. This part of Route 66 was open from 1926 until 1958. The remains of this 1932 Studebaker sits where the famous highway once cut through the National Park and is probably one of the most photographed sites.

Probably many of those old Studebakers have used Route 66 in the heydays of this road. Today a photo helps us to imagine it…

When I took the picture of the telephone poles in the afternoon, the nice clouds from the morning were gone and with them all dynamic in the sky.

HOLBROOK IN “KILLER LIGHT”

Holbrook is the closest town to Petrified Forest National Park, only 26 miles west of the park. The old and famous Highway 66 ran through Holbrook and the rotten charm from the old times seems to be still present at some places. The first night, after just a short visit in the park, I was refueling my rental car at a gas station, when the setting sun suddenly produced the “killer light” I wished I would have had while still out in the desert. I let the gas run into the tank and quickly grabbed the camera. It only lasted for a minute…

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #11

Bear Head Lake, Minnesota

I admit, this photo was made with some quick instructions shouted across the water. I told Joan to paddle very slowly in front of the tamarack tree, that was for a brief moment perfectly illuminated by the sun. It could have been a great fall shot with its color contrast between the beautiful tamarack and the blue kayak, and as the ice on the cake a nice reflection on the water, if… Yes, if there wasn’t the dead trees in the picture. To be honest I didn’t even see them until I was back home and viewed the pictures on screen. Sure, I can invest another hour and remove all the dead wood from the photo. Photoshop and other software gives us endless possibilities to tinker with an image. But is it worth the time? I clean up a landscape picture if necessary, especially around the edges (called “border police” by other photographers), but I rather go out and shoot again instead of removing a bigger flaw in post process. Every photographer has to make their own decisions about how much time to spend for fixing a problem. Unless I try a new technique in post process I hardly ever exceed ten minutes for working with a RAW file and bring out the romance in the photo. Life is too short and the world doesn’t come to an end if a photo doesn’t get published…

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #5

Lake Itasca, Minnesota

On our first evening, just before sunset, I watched this angler paddling to shore at the campsite of Itasca State Park. A little bit of rim light from behind made him standing out even in front of the darker background. A peaceful scene and an easy click at 200 mm focal length.

Ozawindib Lake, Itasca State Park, Minnesota

We brought our kayaks with us on top of the car but during the next two days we had some doubts if that was a good decision. Heavy winds during the day kept us on land. This photo was made at Ozawindib Lake, which is a lot smaller than Lake Itasca, and the whitecaps and blurred leaves tell the story about the weather. With or without boat, the fall colors were just stunning.

Lake Itasca

Finally during our third and last evening we were able to launch the kayaks at Lake Itasca and enjoyed the beautiful scenes from the perspective of a paddler. Our dog Cooper knows this game very well. He jumps into Joan’s boat before it is even in the water…

This time I took the 70-200, f/4 with me. This lens is a lot easier to handle in the kayak and better to protect from the wet elements than the Sigma 150-600.

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #2

Winniwissa Falls, Pipestone Creek, Pipestone National Monument, Minnesota

Back from another trip to Dallas, TX I finally find some time to work on my photos from our travel through Minnesota.

Long before I moved to the US the life, traditions, and history of the native people has always interested me. I read many books about the Indians of North America in my younger years. Pipestone National Monument has been on the list to visit since quite some time. This location was the preferred source of pipestone among Plains tribes. The soft stone (catlinite) was quarried by Indians since a long time, possibly 2000 years. Still today Indians quarry the pipestone during late summer and fall. This is done by hard manual labor with sledge hammers and wedges. The red stone is under a very hard layer of quartzite that needs to be removed first. The sheets of catlinite are lifted from the pit and cut into smaller blocks, from which the pipes are carved.

A trail leads the visitor through the park, to old and active quarries, to quartzite cliffs, along Pipestone Creek, and to a waterfall. We visited Pipestone NM on a sunny and very windy day. Dealing with harsh light and high contrast was the challenge for anyone using a camera.

Pipestone is a sacred place and quarrying is accomplished with respect for the Earth. Prayer flags can be found at many locations.

Detail of quartzite cliffs

The Three Maidens boulders, American Indians traditionally leave food and tobacco beside these stones in return for this land’s gift of stone.

(source used: Pipestone National Monument brochure)

 

THREE LIGHT SOURCES

Staircase, Meissen Cathedral, Germany

The Meissen Cathedral has many interesting architectural details. When I was ready to leave one of the chapels and stepped into this spiral staircase, I knew immediately I had a picture. The light that came through the small window and from the room behind me was complemented with light from a small lamp in the staircase. The mix of daylight and incandescent light from the bulb were actually well taken by the camera (white balance was set to Auto), but I knew only the development of the photo in black & white will do justice to the subtle impact of all three light sources.

OLD ARCHITECTURE

Alley in Meissen, Free State of Saxony, Germany

Ever since I live in North America my appreciation of interesting medieval architecture has grown. I grew up downtown in the German city of Bautzen, which is over 1000 years old. Being surrounded by old castles, towers, buildings, and structures, built 500-600 years ago, makes you not think much about it all the time.

During our recent visit in Germany we spent time in my home town Bautzen, in Dresden, Berlin, and also made a day trip to Meissen. This old city is even older than Bautzen and is the home of the famous Meissen porcelain. Here is a link for people that like to dig deeper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meissen 

Old towns like Bautzen or Meissen, built around castles on the rocks above the river banks, don’t have many straight lines. The play of light and shadows can be very complex and a rainy day with less contrast seemed to be a good time to capture the character of the narrow cobbled streets. I like how the reflection of the sky on the cobblestones leads the eye into the picture, the only one I was able to make without people in the frame. This city attracts a lot of tourists…

Sure, I could post “candy-colored” photos of the Albrechts castle, the Meissen cathedral, or many other places, as you may find them in the latest travel brochures, but working in black and white is the way I like in order to hide the modern touch of life better and tell the story of this old architecture. I have a few more, so please stay tuned if this is your cup of tea…

FLOODING AT THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

The Mississippi River is flooding and many places I visit frequently around Dubuque, Iowa are not accessible at the moment. I went out twice today in different weather conditions. Here are some photos.

11:20AM, Mud Lake

The park with boat ramp, campsite, and recreation areas was completely under water. The water reached the railroad tracks and I guess the park ranger had to drive through to reach his residence in the park.

11:43AM, John Deere Marsh

It rained and the fog didn’t even allow to see the main channel of the river. I have never seen the access to the trail under water. However, some ducks and geese didn’t mind it at all. The dyke leads into the marsh and finally to the main channel of the Mississippi.

4:54PM, John Deere Marsh

Same place, just five hours later. The rain and clouds went away, the sun came out and this gentleman made the best out of the situation and launched his canoe on the trail. The current was pretty strong, although the main channel is almost 1,000 meters away from this point.

5:42PM, Mines of Spain, at Julien Dubuque Monument

A freight train approaches the bridge that crosses Catfish Creek. At the bridge little Catfish Creek meets the mighty Mississippi. The high water pushed into the side valleys and flooded much of the lower parts of the valley.

REMEMBERED: SHOOT IT NOW!

Mississippi River, Dam #12, Bellevue, Iowa

In his book “It’s Not About The F-Stop” much admired photographer Jay Maisel says, Never go back. Shoot it now, When you come back, it will always be different. This came to mind today on my way back home from a trip along the Mississippi River. While slowly driving through the town of Bellevue, IA, I saw out of the corner of my eye this scene, the dam painted with gorgeous golden light. For a second I thought, maybe another time, I’m tired, I want to go home. I have done that at other occasions and always regretted my decision because it wasn’t the same at another time later. Today I made the U-turn, changed the lens, and zoomed with my feet in order to keep branches, lamp posts, and other annoying objects out of the frame. Any time I go to the Green Island Wetlands or other locations to the south along the river, I always look briefly at the dam #12 in Bellevue, but never had experienced such a warm light on the structure. There is only a short period of time every year when the point of sunset almost lines up with the dam.

In addition, it’s warm here, the snow from last week is mostly gone, and the Mississippi has open water even above the dams. Maybe my photo helps to tell this story too…?

OUT WEST #30 (LAST PART)

Horseman, Badlands NP, South Dakota

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @480mm, 1/640s, f/6.3, ISO100

This will be the last part of my photo story about our trip through the mountains and grasslands of the west in September. I have quite a few more images but for this last post I wanted to use a couple photos that leave no doubt about where they were taken, OUT WEST. Both photos were made the morning of our last full day in Badlands National Park. A horseman, who camped in the same campground as us, went on a ride and gave his horses some exercise and a big American Bison, the iconic animal of the west, gave us a nice gesture with his tongue while interrupting grazing just briefly.

I hope you enjoyed this journey and had as much fun as I had while stitching the 30 stories together. Your echo and opinions helped me to grow as a photographer and I’m thankful for everybody who stops here in the blog on occasion or every day.

American Bison, Badlands NP, South Dakota

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @500mm, 1/640s, f/6.3, ISO200