spring2life take2

Winter seems to be coming through an end, but last week there was more than enough snow. What make me dig out that shot were the two trees in the front yard, so perfectly framing the entrance. The same stunning orb shape I found in the trees outside Freilassing train station (my weekly commuting hub). The red of the building’s paint here gets intensified by the low early morning sun, and whilst I usually try to keep my shadow out of the image, here I had to use it as a main element.

Today morning’s snowfall managed again to cast a spell on our garden. And besides the optical merits, it made me happy on a different level: All those hazel and alder pollen that had started to pollute (see that unison?) the air and made me announce my arrival wherever by loud and unstoppable pollinosis-induced sneezing: Now they are crushed on the ground, wetted to innoxiousness and frozen to death. Sometimes I am gleeful for a reason. It’s only that I now I just have a small grace period.

The lake we are heading for in the summer is now a cold, almost lifeless place (besides that one bald coot trying to destroy the reflection). But for a walk it is attractive now, even more so when light snowfall dampens the noise of the cars. Having the tripod with me instead of the fashy walking sticks meant that ground speed was lower than expected by my wife, but she managed to bear with me without suffering too noticable.

Update: Please find the wallpapers for February 2010 are online. You find them in the usual screen resolutions underhttp://markus-spring.info/wp/wallpapers/

Last weekend was sort of a landmark in the change of the seasons: for the first time we had direct sunlight again in our kitchen since beginning of december last year, as now the sun higher on the horizon again. But the during the week work usually finishes only when it’s already dark again. Learning to see differently, there is so much to discover even at night, and in the city it’s not a problem to hand hold most of the shots, cranking up the ISO to 800 or sometimes 1600.

These different trees were again treated in bibble5, applying a bleach bypass preset after masking out the (already sun-bleached) public transport signs and emphasizing the structure of the naked sycamore tree.

Again from the “park with the bridge”. Currently I have not much time for photography, I hope this will change for the better when the weekend comes.

Those shades of blue in the open sky and reflected in the snow have their own fascination. And there is no need to play with the saturation slider, simple underexposure by only a half of a f-stop got me the most wonderful blue I could imagine.

A Merry Christmas to you all!

I know I am late, but as a father of three (one seems to have got lost) Christmas day is full of activities, carrying a harp to the church and back, decorating the tree, rehearsing Christmas carols and the nativity play ranking much higher than photography. But we had a  wonderful Christmas Evening and a very peaceful holiday today, and so every effort was worth it.

Found in the pedestrian area. Due to the (usually) moderate climate, sycamore trees grow to large sizes here in Bad Reichenhall.

are the leaves for all the house managers and municipal workers – at least it seems so. Only hours after heavy gusts of wind had poured down all the fruits from beeches and chestnuts, together with some leaves, the leaf blowers/suckers started a concerto grosso, underpinned by the diesel growl of the road sweeping vehicle. Autumn music that is.

“I shouldn’t have stayed behind the tripod that long – now it’s really hard to move.”

I found these elders some time ago, but with their leaves on, the stems were always in such a deep shadow that I couldn’t get a reasonable picture. One point for autumn for this one.

“Those who god loves, he lets fall into this country” – a free translation of one of our great regional writers, Ludwig Ganghofer. Probably a bit declamatory, but on the other hand – the early fall days here in Klausbachtal don’t make it difficult to believe that this sentence is true.

A lazy day at the lake and not much to photograph until I saw the wind play with the leaves of that japanese maple tree (acer japonica). Here in Europe they are quite popular in the gardens because of that wonderful red of their leaves even in the midst of summer.

The image alone I found not interesting enough, but that development from the static leaves, suddenly showing their bright underside in a gust of wind and heavily shaking when the wind becomes still stronger, that was it for me.

i guess is what the landscapist might label it, but i can’t help: this is part of bavarian pittoresque, like it or not. 10min by bike from my home, the farmers of “schleicherhof” accomodate guests and care for their fruit orchard and their horses. the farmhouse is situated at one of the most scenic points opposite the entrance of the valley to berchtesgaden, overlooking the meadows to grossgmain, a village already on the austrian side of the border.

only 2 steps left from the position where the lead shot was taken, the scenery to the right unfolds in front of the eye. probably this can be called ‘kitschig’, but at least i enjoyed the minutes up there, the talk with the farmer (well knowing the photogenic qualities of the orchard as well as the vista with the cross, “marterl” in local language), the smell of the blossoms the sounds of the bees within together with the warmth of the late afternoon sun. of course the cars from the valley could be heard, this is reality and not backdrop for a sentimental film.

a catkin and box bouquet like the one i showed in this post usually is put next to the cross in the living room or in the kitchen of the farmhouse, however big specimen of those (referring to probably pre-christian fertility rites) are traditionally put on the meadows for the easter week and later on may end up on the wall of the stable, like here.

the world urban forum of the united nations in nanjing was also used by the chinese government as a platform for showcasing achievements in tourism and real estate development. one of the booths sported this forest of tree silhouettes which was consequentially used as a picnic arena for the local visitors.

the middle of the hall was filled with flower pots, scented osmanthus in this case, and only under close inspection it was – again – revealed that those were artificial plants. good optics, yet no substance.

the old sycamore tree with its expressive figure and cortex iuxtaposes nicely the oh so mundane ‘parking tickets’ signboard.

lightzone again proved to be a valuable tool to darken the background a little bit and except it from the sharpening algorithms.

the second shot is the shadow of St. Ägidius church here in Bad Reichenhall. i love the sharp silhouette of the branches against the soft shadow of the clocktower.

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spending some time outside on one of our favourite spots i noticed those deeply rooted, strong trees – probably hornbeams.

It is part of a series i took, just follow the link. i am considering to re-shoot this with different focus distances, given i can install helicon focus via wine on my linux box. sharpness in all parts of the image would be an added bonus here, i think.