My home town Bautzen has many landmarks and they have been photographed probably millions of times. The Old Waterworks on the left and the church Saint Michaelis are probably among the most recognized ones. It is almost impossible to find a new angle or view but playing with exposure and the remaining light of the day made me create an image that I like and that you may not find in the postcard stand of the local tourist information... ;-)
It is sometimes tempting to make the same shots that you may find on the postcards sold in the local tourist information office of a city. I can tell you, I know them all in my old home town Bautzen, Germany. They have not changed since I can remember. As many other cities, Bautzen has its classic views that are liked by the tourists, and that's not a bad thing. As a native I feel I have to make a different approach if I want to offer an interesting view of my "old play ground".
It's the detail I'm interested in. I grew up in the old part of town and I really claim to know every stone in this city. Nevertheless I still can find shooting angles I have never thought of before. New details have been added by people that make a living in this town and some new ones are just as good as the ornaments of the old times.
If you know my galleries at pbase.com you may know that I have a foible for sign boards (click HERE if you don't but like to have a look at it). This is not really a board but comes with the same idea of promoting a business. A goldsmith in the old town of Bautzen put this frog with all its jewelery over his store front. Killer light just before the sun disappeared behind a roof of "Heringsstrasse" made me do the click.
A detail that has been added to one of my favorite restaurants is this blacksmith work in a window. The place is called "Mönchshof", which can be translated to "monks yard". Sorry, but food and ambiance will beat almost every place here in the US... ;-)
Another detail that caught my eye is this old horse trough located just around the corner at another medieval pub and restaurant. It has been affectionately restored although nobody really ties a horse anymore to the old metal rings.
Downtown Bautzen was already decorated for the annual spring festival "Bautzener Frühling". This event lasts three days and is filled with music, art, entertainment, and lots of food and drinks. Every year a flag contest is part of the festival and the best flags get awarded and will be used for the city's decoration during the next years.
The tower on the east end of Reichenstrasse is called "Reichenturm" and used to be part of the city fortifications. Its lower part was finished in 1492 while the upper part was added about 1718 during the time of baroque architecture. The tower is actually leaning by 1.44 meters but has been finally stabilized in 1954.
I grew up in the old part of Bautzen and it is always a great joy for me to see how the historic buildings have been restored from damage during WWII or how they are preserved from the normal influence of the weather. In my opinion, this is tax money well spent. As a photographer in particular it is not difficult to like this...
Three eventful weeks lay behind us and we are now back in Iowa again. I haven't posted anything recently but that does not mean I didn't take any photographs. Joan and I visited my old home town Bautzen in Germany and we had the pleasure to be at the wedding of my son André and his wonderful wife Seraphine. We had a great time meeting with family and friends and as you can imagine spending time in front of my laptop was the last thing I wanted to do. We also went for three days to Prague, the capitol of the Czech Republic and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I will post some images from our trip to Europe during the next couple of weeks and I hope you enjoy it.
Let me start with a picture from the over 1000 years old city of Bautzen, which is located in the Free State of Saxony in the Southeast corner of Germany. The evening sun spilled its warm light onto the Röhrscheidtbastei, an old bastion and one of the numerous towers that give the city its character. This was an easy task for the photographer. We were sitting in a beer garden and had just to wait until the light was right... ;-)
I'm still working on my images from last week's trip to Arizona and I like to show you a few more.
The little miner town Jerome has a very interesting attraction. The Gold King Mine and Ghost Town is just a mile north of Jerome. A fascinating place, hard to describe with words (at least for me).The location of the Gold King Mine was originally the community of Haynes, a suburb of Jerome in 1890. If you like to read more about it click HERE. This will lead you to the Sedona Verde Valley Tourism Council website, which has a pretty good story about this place and its owner.
As a photographer you may get lost. It is not hard to make up your mind where to point the lens first. Lots of good old stuff. As an engineer, I just got carried away by looking at all the old mechanical wonders of the past. From old mining equipment, to probably more than a hundred old trucks and cars, machines and tools, and of course the old buildings of the ghost town.
The museum closes at 5PM and light is harsh during the day. But hey, we have HDR these days and subjects, like you can find them in a historical place like this, can bare quite a bit of "HDR-retro-tweaking", as I like to call it. Nothing to loose for me... ;-)
No, not even an HDR image, just a brief "Hello snapshot" from Kansas City, Missouri. Business requires my presence here and that means no wildlife shooting this week. I have lots of unpublished images from the last couple months on my hard drive but I thought it doesn't hurt to show something totally different today. I hope you still enjoy.
One of the best things of digital photography is the fact that it gives you the chance to approach a subject differently from an artistic point within an extreme short period of time. Both images of Mingus Mill in the Great Smoky Mountains are from the same RAW file. The first one doesn't hide the fact that it was taken these days and it epitomizes the old mill as an historical building, worth to preserve, and worthwhile to visit, especially during the colorful fall.
The second one emphasizes the structure and want make you believe it was created only a few years after the old mill was built (Okay, forget my watermark in the lower right corner… ;-) ).
In most instances I know already when I press the shutter release button how I want the picture be seen. Nevertheless, sometimes it turns out totally different while I work with an image in post processing. In this matter I knew the colors of the leaves would give a nice contrast to the building but I also saw the potential of the structure for a good B&W image (even if I used a sepia tint here). For me, there is not really a better or worse. It is just a matter of mood and my opinion about which one I prefer may change every minute. Do you like any of them? If so, which one do you like more and why? I like to hear from you! :-)
I haven't done any still life for a long time and I guess it was time to do something different today. The recipe for this image was simple. I set this old 8 millimeter Univex cine camera on a rock with fossils, turned all the lights in the room off, and used two tiny LED lights as my light source. The background is a sheet of black foam board. Painting with light is something I wanted to try since I learned about it on a DTOWN-TV podcast. I thought a little alienation effect would look cool and so I tweaked the white balance in camera. The Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35/f2 ZF is a perfect lens for a project like this. It is tack sharp and with its smooth manual focus I can easily fine tune the focal point. I bought the 35/f2 several years ago mainly for my landscape photography but I love it also for still life photography and architecture. The D300s was mounted on the tripod, the remote cable release was plugged in, and the camera was set to mirror-up mode. All this is mandatory so you can handle the long exposure without any camera shake. I experimented with many different settings. Above image was made with 8 sec., f11, at ISO 100. I really had fun working on this little self-assignment. I'm sure it will not be my last one during the coming long winter nights.
It looks like I take leave from wildlife photography. Not really. My eyes and ears are always open for any critter that crosses my way. But there is not so much going on in August and I like to try other things as well.
This door of an older house in Dubuque caught my attention today. I don't know how old it is, but its rotten charm pleased my eye. I grew up in Bautzen, an over 1000 years old city in the Southeast of Germany. It is known for its old buildings, towers, and churches. Some are way over 500 years old. Looking at old structures, living in them, and living around them was nothing unusual for us. Modern life and preservation seemed always be compatible. After living in Eastern Iowa for almost seven years now I think I appreciate these old things on a totally new level because they are not abundant here. This old door said something about craftsmanship and I think it was worth the click.
Hi folks, It has been a little while since my last post. We have a good friend from Germany visiting us at the moment and that shifts of course my priorities. We were traveling to Milwaukee over the weekend and as usual I made lots of pictures. However, there is not enough time to process all of the images and write about our little adventures. Well, here is one that I took in the Calatrava pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum. As you maybe already know, beside nature photography I like art and architecture and whenever I have a chance I can't resist to make a click. That's it for today. Enjoy the rest of your week.
