#StandWithUkraine

Playful in the Cold

And finally I got around to re-write my scripts for downloading and geo-tagging all my raw files.Phil Harvey’s exiftool is the core of this functionality, the rest is some shell scripts and perl programs to queryws.geonames.org for the name of the place that image was taken. The end result is an xmp sidecar file that…

Monochrome Slope

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Monochrome light like this I’ve met only rarely: Besides a little bluish cast, the subject matter is almost completely without color. Only when viewing the original file at pixel size I found yellowish spots in the rocks, but the rest are just shades of white and grey. Even the fir trees had lost their green…

Reflexive

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After some days without noteworthy photographic activities, I made use of the necessary shopping today to deviate my path through a nearby park. But it seems that I am either rusty or can’t yet develop the right feeling for my raw files. So I will let them stay in the folder and revisit later.

In God we should trust

Well, this (modified) motto of the United States makes up for a good summary of 2009. This is a year that is characterised by disappointments in most of the fields important for humankind: The financial crisis, created by a lunatic fringe of irresponsible bankers with full support of a large crowd of power-obsessed/greedy/intellectually handicapped politicians…

Waiting for the Christ Child

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…

Saline Chapel

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Today the kids had their Christmas concert, organised by the harp teacher in the old saline chapel of Bad Reichenhall. The outside of the building,here, does not show what an architectural gem is inside. As I wasn’t there for photography, here only two quick glances. But I will go back there, probably at a better…

Snow on a Pine Tree

Schönram, Bavaria

Whilst yesterday’s image shows a slight lack of sharpness due to the flexibly boggy soil, which moved under the tripod a tiny bit, the pine tree today is almost painfully sharp. And while I do not regret that softness in the complex dreamscape, in today’s image the sharpness I think is crucial – here that…

The Blues, visual and audible

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While working on yesterday’s images, blue in their tint as it was what the Landscapist would label as “entre chien et loup”, I am listening to internet radio. Only recently I got addicted to this vice, after having discovered the wonderful www.wwoz.org, a blues and jazz radio station from New Orleans. Original, traditional blues is…

Wet, Vivid Christmas

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Christmas Market, Munich The human, understandable reaction answer to the fading colors of our natural surroundings are, what else, more colors. The Christmas bauble and the reflection of the raindrops play nicely with the artificial light, only the blue LED’s, replacing the small Edison-type bulbs on many trees, can get enervating because of their overly…

The Non-Colors of Winter

It’s still too warm for the season. Last week it was like an experiment of snowfall, but it ended after three hours with barely noticable sludge on the streets. But the light is grey and tints the remaining leaves and fruits during the day. Only at night, when the Christmas decoration starts to scintillate, some…

Krampus running

In the alpine region there are still remnants from pagan or, more friendly, pre-christian times alive. The Krampus, in some traditions escorts of Bishop Nikolaus, are connected to the rite of the 12 days or Rauhnächte, where the expulsion of ghosts was tried with dances of wild, disguised figures. December 5/6 is taken into this…

Patterns, blur

In these not so bright days and with strictly limited daylight time budget for photography, the nearby parks and gardens are a natural choice. Using my primes at wide open f-stops, I always have to translate the image during framing as the viewfinder does not at all show the abstract patterns that get recorded by…

Hide the kids, he’s coming!

Sorry, but this kind of Santa Claus creates stomach churning feelings – it’s more a threat than a friendly reminder of christmas-to-be. I think it qualifies for a gallery of the “most ugly chrismas decorations” that Bernd over at babaoskar shoots back was intending. I do like the less agressively painted “Nikolaus” figures, the ones…