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#sunset_Indian_river_lagoon #florida #sunset #waterscape # landscap #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#egret #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #sony #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#osprey_soaring #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#barred_owl #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#roseate_spoonbill #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#barred_owl #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
Walking near the Dungeness River I noticed these lovely maple leaves in the woods. I always feel the presence of a special feeling and spirit in the quiet forest.
"I understood at a very early age that in nature, I felt everything that I should feel in church but never did. Walking in the woods, I felt in touch with the universe, and with the spirit of the universe." ~ Alice Walker
#osprey #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#cara_cara #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #sony #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#back_country_florida #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#snail_kite #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture 1
#macromondays
#Curves
Curved bokeh à la Milanese
A quick afternoon capture of a stainless steel Milanese-style bracelet. The bracelet's surface has a multicolour ion plating that lets it shimmer in different rainbow colours, depending on the light incidence. And you know how much I love shiny, iridescent, colourful things ;) I know that the actual focus "line" is wafer-thin, so I thought I'd give it another try, but you already know the answer: I couldn't replicate "the wave" exactly. Of course not, so why did I try to do so in the first place) ;) I think we should appreciate our test shots more, not only that, we should embrace them – I certainly should ;) It's a single shot, illuminated with one single light source from the left, processed with the usual suspects (DXO PL6: sharpness and denoising; Analog Efex and Color Efex). The bracelet's width is 1,7 cm / 0,66 inches.
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone!
#MacroMondays
#Beads
A wearable rainbow in the form of a crocheted rope bracelet, made by a friend of my mother's (magrit k.). I also have a necklace to accompany the bracelet but with a diameter of 1 cm/ 0,39 inches (just like the bracelet) it is a little too thick for my personal (neck) comfort.
I've watched a few tutorials on YouTube to understand how this type of bracelet (or necklace) is made, and I should admit that my head was spinning after watching just a few minutes. Crocheting, braiding, or even knitting have never been my favourite DIY pastimes, I'm simply not good at all at this repetitive type of craft. And this style of bead crocheting seems to be super complicated and finicky because the very tiny seed beads (rocailles) are the required main "ingredient". So it definitely was a lot easier (and faster) to photograph the bracelet than to make it ;)
This is a single shot of the bracelet which I'd placed in front of my go-to black foam sheet. The bracelet has a magnetic clasp which I've opened before so I had a single bracelet layer only. I've taken another photo for which I've used the necklace that I had arranged in several layers but that was a little bit too much of a "rainbow colour explosion", plus I also prefer the slightly weird-looking "space worm" shape of the single layer bracelet with the black negative space around. Shot wide open at F/2.8 to get a super tight focus and some nice, bubbly "ball pit" bokeh :)
HMM, Everyone!
#great_blue_heron #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#sliderssunday
Finally I got around to process and upload another one from the epic Easter photowalk with m_laRs_k and magrit k.. It's another view of Shell-Haus (Shell House) in Berlin's Tiergarten district. The unusual cascade-like building was designed by German architect and professor Emil Fahrenkamp (1885-1966). It was opened in 1932 as a Berlin branch of the Hamburg-based oil company Rhenania-Ossag Mineralölwerke which was acquired by Shell plc in 1947 as "Deutsche Shell AG". Heritage-protected Shell-Haus is a 2.700 m²/29062,56 sq ft steel frame construction designed in the style of New Objectivity. For more general info on Shell-Haus and its tenants over the years, please check my album or Wikipedia (STRG/CTRL+ de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell-Haus).
The image is a true HDR made of three images. As usual, I've combined the photos in HDR Efex. More Sunday sliding was done in Color Efex ("Brilliance" and Warmth" and "Reflector Efex - silver"), Luminar Neo, and Topaz Photo AI.
Happy Sliders Sunday Everyone, and have a great summer/autumn week ahead!
#MacroMondays
#Backlit
Well, no, "Backlit" wasn't a snap, it never is. We've had this theme a few times, and I've struggled with it every single time. I don't know why exactly because I often use back-light for my macros, but when it's specifically asked for... The human brain can be a weird "machine", right? ;)
So this is a withered, dried, but still very graceful and lovely snapdragon (in German, it's Löwenmäulchen, "lion's mouth") petal collected from the balcony a week or so ago, and focus stacked to get all the nice backlit details. Ironically, it was one of the first photos I've taken today, but I was in this "Oh no, a petal is boring, let's try this, no, this is boring, too, let's try that..."-mood, so I took numerous photos of different things before I checked the time. "Oh dear, it's already that late!" So I quickly flipped through all the images in DXO PL6, and realized that the final jpg of the in-camera focus stacking snapdragon petal series actually looked fine. But I still wanted to see what Helicon Focus could do regarding the details and the (back) light artifacts, and the results were even better. Method C/Smoothing 4 yielded the best final results, and this is what you see here.
Setup: Snapdragon petal propped up against a small glass jar for stability, single LED light placed behind the glass jar. The glass jar helped a little to distract/diffuse the light which had been too harsh with the LED lamp placed directly behind the petal. Since the tiny jar was still a little bigger than the petal, there was some of it visible in the final image, so I masked the background out in LR (or rather: LR did it for me) and reduced the blacks, depths, lights, whites, exposure, clarity (in other words: everything) to zero to black out the backdrop. In PS/Color Efex, I used the "Brilliance and Warmth" filter to slightly increase the perceptual saturation and to add a little more warmth to the colours. Done. Finally :)
HMM, Everyone!
#sandhill_cranes #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #canon #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#MacroMondays
#InABottle
My last "finished already on Friday" MM photo was a singularity, I assume. Because here I am back with my usual last-minute routine. My "In a Bottle" image is neither particularly creative nor is it an all-new setup. In fact, it is pretty similar to the setup of my image for "Stacked" (which you can find in the first comment if you like). I simply couldn't think of anything very original for the theme, but I knew I wanted to use a tiny (2 cm / 0,78 inches high) perfume sample bottle that must be decades old. The fragrance is "Le Dix" by Balenciaga, and it's not exactly my favourite fragrance (I prefer fresh, grassy, airy fragrances), but the bottle itself is too cute and special – so it's a keeper. You've already seen the perfume bottle's cap as "mushroom" in April 2019's "Bottle Cap" theme (please check the first comment as well).
So here's my little spring bouquet with a super simple setup: perfume sample bottle with (already slightly shrivelled, but that adds texture) random berries taken from the weekend bouquet bought at our local weekly market, placed on a glossy black tile, gold-coated cardboard placed behind the small scene, yellow light from the left, white light from the right, that's it. Processed in Analog and Color Efex.
HMM, Everyone! (I'll catch up with you tonight!)
Something that looks like an electromagnetic coil on a motherboard, or like a Warp core (an interpretation which I prefer, of course), but is an entirely "analog", very simple, everyday stationery item: A stainless steel pen clip that consists of a strong clip to which a flexible spiral that holds most thinner pencils or pens is attached (so it would have worked for last week's theme as well, but it hadn't been on my radar then). For completeness, I've added a blue aluminium Rotring ballpen that, at some point in its desk life, "lost" its clip (it came loose at some point so I decided to remove it). Colour light helpers were the usual suspects, and I've processed the image in DXO, Color Efex, and Analog Efex, with final touches in LR, which seems to be my preferred processing workflow at the moment.
HMM, everyone, I'll catch up with you tonight!
#macromondays
#Stack
Isn't it an obvious choice to combine random objects for a theme like "Stack"? Please say "Yes, it is!" :) When I was looking for objects I could stack for the new MM theme, I noticed two smaller chestnuts on my desk which I'd collected in autumn right in front of my house (It's kind of a ritual for me to collect a few of the first fallen chestnuts in front of my house). In Berlin, many streets are lined with trees of only one kind. My house is a corner house, and the entrance is on "chestnut street", while most of our windows look out to "lime tree street", just in case you were interested ;)
So there I had these two chestnuts, two fairly round objects (asteroid-"round", or Mars-moon-"round", one could say), and I wondered whether they are stackable. Stackable without little helpers such as modeling clay, because I wasn't sure if we were allowed to use such "hidden tools" for the theme. To my surprise, they were stackable, "gluelessly" :) But I still needed a third or maybe a fourth object. This was the point where "glueless" turned into clueless, and I picked random objects that would both keep my stack within the 3-inch frame and which also would be glueslessly stackable on top of the two chestnuts. At first, I thought of using the small golden crown which you've seen before as an MM prop, but it kept coming off. So in the end the "winners" were the fairy light "cuff" that I've already used for the "Star" theme from August 2022, and two small carnation blossoms, because... why not?
My image is a single shot taken in shadow priority mode. Light sources were one LED light equipped with the semi-transparent yellow bottle cap for some warm light from the left, and another LED light directed against the gold-coloured cardboard which I've used as a backdrop. That cardboard was part of food packaging, and it has an uneven, slightly reflective surface which created some nice bokeh. Processed in DXO PL6, Lightroom (where I did some masking on the chestnut stack to bring out more details), and in Analog Efex, where I used one of the "Subtle" film types (Fundy 2) and a slight vignette to add a vintage, matte touch to the image. Again, this is on the bigger side, the height of the stack is slightly more than 6 cm / 2,36 inches, and I've cropped the image so that the width of the frame meets the three inches rule as well.
HMM, Everyone!
(To the Other Side)
#MacroMondays
#Broken
What looks like a crack on a stick, a weird lollipop of sorts, actually is the broken-off tip of a small decorative pyramid made of crystal glass. I clumsily dropped it ages ago while doing some dusting (which apparently is one of the more hazardous activities of house cleaning). I was mad at myself because of it but then talked myself into it that the mishap turned a run-of-the-mill glass pyramid into something with character, a soul even. Why a soul? Well, thanks to the pyramid's faceted polish and highly reflective colour coating (which also screams macro dust) the crack is reflected (and also tripled) inside of the pyramid where it looks like a small burst, or something with wings, or a hidden energy chamber. Whatever ;)
This image also is kind of a personal "breakthrough" because I've tried to photograph this pyramid and its crack numerous times before for different MM themes, and was never happy with the results. My last attempt was for our recent "Blue" theme. I'd tried to focus on the reflected "inside crack", but I thought the crack was by no means sharp enough in the final image, so I decided to skip "Blue" (only to realise now that it was sharp enough when I looked at the image again yesterday, but that's the problem with a photo taken on Monday afternoon, in the end, I often don't see the forest for the trees). This time, what makes the image work, I think, is the fact that I arranged the pyramid in different positions other than just standing upright. For this (single) photo I laid the pyramid on a small blue glass jar and focused on the crack only. Lights used were two plain white LED lights from the sides and a handheld flashlight (spot) on the crack. The colours are partly reflected from blue and turquoise foam sheets I'd placed at the sides of the subject (also as a sun shield) but also come from the pyramid itself which is mainly orange with a hint of purple and a blue tip. The backdrop is black cardboard.
Size info: The crack on the pyramid's tip is 7 mm / 0,27 inches long. The whole pyramid is 4 cm / 1,57 (stand space) X 4,5 cm / 1,77 inches (length of each side), so I could even photograph (and probably will) it in its entirety for a future MM theme. What looks like a stick inside of the pyramid actually is one of the pyramid's edges.
HMM, Everyone! (I'll catch up with you tonight!)
This volunteer Poppy appeared in my south-facing front yard in a rather precarious place much to my amazement. After years of trying to get Poppies to grow in my north-facing backyard with no success, I had given up on growing Poppies :( Then this year out of nowhere I have a Poppy growing (It is one of the cultivars that I had tried to grow unsuccessfully). I'm hoping it will continue to grow wherever it wants :) Mother Nature knows best!
"Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Nature to be commanded must be obeyed."
~ Francis Bacon
#macromondays
#MadeOfMetal
Oh, dear. I must have a "last photo, last chance to participate" subscription. This image was taken an hour before the last-minute (Monday evening) upload. I wasn't sure what to do for the theme (so many possibilities!), and only today did I have the idea to photograph the tiny golden crown which you have already seen for "High Key". Said and done, but there was something vital missing from all the photos.
But then, when I thought about a title for the photo (I had already decided to pick one of the slightly boring "crown only" photos), the title of a film classic with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck came to mind: A Roman Holiday. Now you will say: "But neither words, heart nor crown, are part of the title?!?" Well, not of the original title, but of the German one – which is "Ein Herz und eine Krone": Heart and Crown. The only problem was that the heart (which you have seen already for another MM theme as well: "Key"; you'll find both images in the first comment) was missing from the photos I'd taken so far.
Which meant that I had to start all over again. The plan was to focus mainly on the crown, but I didn't like any of those images, because the focus never was in the right spot. Focus stacking wasn't indicated this time, either, because this was an image that required some bokeh. So I gave it one last try, this time with focus on the tiny silver heart pendant only, and I let the small crown "do" what it can do best: dissolve into nice bokeh. Long live the last-minute idea ;)
HMM, Everyone!
I love to see Mourning Doves in my garden, they are so graceful and curious. Some cultures believe that when you are visited by a mourning dove, you are being visited by the spirits of those who have passed. This idea can often bring hope and solace to someone who is struggling with loss.
"Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all ..."
~ Emily Dickinson
Ride Like The Wind
#Sliderssunday
#800
This is the 800th photo I show on Flickr. 2021 also marks my 8th year on Flickr (I became a member in 2013), and, as most of you know, I've also re-discovered photos I've taken during a trip to Usedom (Baltic Sea) back in 2013. A nice coincidence, isn't it? So I decided to choose a photo from that trip as my 800th upload. I've learned a lot about photography during these past eight Flickr years. Back then, for instance, whenever there were clouds on a day I wanted to go out to take photos, I used to think "Stupid clouds, I want a blue sky." Nowadays, whenever I go out to take photos, and the sky is blue, blue, and only blue, I think "Nice, but I wish there were at least a few clouds." ;) So I had not been happy about the clouds on the day I took this photo, but I'm happy about them in retrospect, because they add such a nice drama to the image. Isn't it a good thing that we never stop learning?
Like my previous upload, this is another re-edit of a photo I've already uploaded to Flickr years ago. It's also a slider, because it's Sunday :) Processed in DXO PhotoLab 4, Lightroom, Color Efex, and Luminar AI – and the main difference to the original photo (please check out the first comment), apart from a bolder, more colourful processing, is the swallow. Which I've borrowed from another photo taken on that day at this same jetty at the Kölpinsee, a small lake 200 metres behind the Baltic Sea shoreline. This photo had the better, more harmonious point of view, the other photo, taken from a lower angle of view (so you couldn't really sea much of the lake) had the swallow, so why not combine both :)
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, and stay safe!
Dies ist mein 800. Foto, das ich auf Flickr zeige :) Zufälligerweise ist es auch mein 8. Jahr hier bei Flickr, 2013 bin ich beigetreten, und da ich, wie Ihr ja wisst, kürzlich beim Durchstöbern meines Archivs den Ordner mit Usedom-Fotos vom Mai 2013 (wieder)gefunden habe, dachte ich, dass für "Nr. 800" ein Bild aus meinem Flickr-Beitrittsjahr gut passen würde ;) In diesen acht Jahren habe ich viel über Fotografie gelernt. Z.B. war ich hier damals gar nicht glücklich über die vielen Wolken gewesen, ein "schöner" Fotohimmel hatte doch bitte blau zu sein. Das sehe ich heute natürlich ganz anders – und so bin ich im Rückblick sogar sehr froh über diesen dramatischen Wolkenhimmel. Wie gut, dass wir nie aufhören zu lernen :)
Wie schon mein vorheriger Upload ist auch dies eine Neubearbeitung eines Fotos, dass ich schon vor Jahren hier hochgeladen hatte (Ihr findet es wieder im ersten Kommentar). Der Hauptunterschied zum Original, abgesehen von der kräftigeren, farbenfrohen Neugestaltung, ist natürlich die Schwalbe, die ich mir von einem anderen Foto, das ich an jenem Tag an diesem Bootssteg am Kölpinsee (200 Meter hinter der Ostseeküste gelegen) aufgenommen hatte, geliehen habe. Dieses Foto hat den harmonischeren Blickwinkel, das andere Foto, am Anfang des Stegs und aus einer viel tieferen Position aus aufgenommen, sodass man nur wenig vom so schön glitzernden See sehen konnte, hatte die Schwalbe. Warum also nicht beide kombinieren, es ist ja schließlich (Sliders) Sonntag: Aus zwei mach eins :)
Ich wünsche Euch einen schönen Sonntagabend und einen guten Wochenstart, bleibt gesund!
A rose for Gül 😊
Sevgili Gül, doğum gününü kutlar, yeni yaşında her şeyin gönlünce olmasını dilerim ayrıca bol sağlık ve güzel anlar🌹
A birthday rose for my dear Flickr friend highɛr *ground. I hope you had a fantastic day today, and I wish you all the best for your new year in life, and lots of health and happiness 🌈🌞✨
#sliderssunday
When summer makes way for autumn, all that is left of it are memories of colours, sunshine, warmth... memories that can sparkle like stardust. Or so ;) Anyways, that's what I thought when I noticed the colourful light reflections on a few petals of a bunch of purplish rose coloured Asters that stood next to my living room window two and a half weeks ago. The enchanting light play caused by a decorative glass element in the shape of a huge diamond that I keep on my window sill instantly caught my eye, and it also felt like a farewell greeting of summer, so I grabbed the LX100 and took a few captures. Slide-ified for Sunday in Analog Efex where I used the Zoom Blur filter, a vignette and one of the Photo Plate "Concrete" filters to create a dreamy, starry, outer space like effect. I also did some dodging and burning in PS and highlighted the colours and details on the illuminated petals in Luminar AI.
Wenn der Sommer Platz macht für den Herbst, dann bleibt uns nur noch die Erinnerung an warme, sonnige, entspannte Tage. Erinnerungen, die aber funkeln können wie Sternenstaub. Oder so ähnlich ;) Jedenfalls waren das in etwa meine Gedanken, als ich vor gut zweieinhalb Wochen ein zauberhaftes Lichtspiel auf den Blättern eines Sommerastern-Straußes am Wohnzimmerfenster entdeckte. Auf dem Fensterbrett liegt auch ein Glasdekoteil in der Form eines riesigen Diamanten, der immer sehr schöne Regenbogen-Lichtspiegelungen an die Wand zaubert – und dieses Mal auch auf den Strauß Blumen (die sonst immer auf dem Tisch stehen). Und so habe ich mir dann auch gleich die LX100 geschnappt, um ein paar Fotos vom Abschiedsgruß des Sommers 2021 zu machen :)
Please press "Z" :)
Another water taxi on the Spree, taken from the opposite Spree bank. As the water taxi in my previous photo, the "Prins Bernhard" (please see the first comment), the "Adele" chuggles down the Spree towards Berlin's central railway station, the Hauptbahnhof.
In this spot, the Reichtag building is on the right and almost at the rear of the viewer. On the right, you can still see a little bit of the Jakob-Kaiser-Haus that you can also see in my previous photo (and there it's on the left).
A nice bonus here was the group of all-female dancers rehearsing in front of the huge bull's eye window of the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus (MELH). That spot obviously is a favourite meeting place for such groups, because at our previous visit to the government district only a few days before this visit there had been another dance group rehearsing their moves right in front of that huge, round window. Maybe it's a "see and be seen" type of thing, this spot certainly is perfect for that ;)
Die "Adele", ein weiteres Wassertaxi auf der Spree, das wie die "Prins Bernhard" auf meinem vorherigen Foto (zu finden im ersten Kommentar) spreeabwärts Richtung Hauptbahnhof tuckert. Dieses Foto habe ich vom gegenüberliegenden Spreeufer gemacht, sodass sich hier das Reichtagsgebäude auf der rechten Seite, quasi fast im Rücken des Betrachters, befindet. Rechts oben könnt Ihr noch ein Eckchen vom Jakob-Kaiser-Haus sehen.
Die Fläche vor dem riesigen Bullaugenfenster des Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Hauses (MELH) scheint ein beliebter Treffpunkt für Gruppen aller Art zu sein. Denn bereits bei unserem vorangegangenen Besuch des Reigierungsviertels nur wenige Tage vor diesem Besuch tummelte sich dort eine Tanztruppe und übte ihre Schritte. Die recht große Gruppe, die ihr hier sehen könnt, bestand ausschließlich aus Frauen, die dort offenbar eine komplette Probe durchgeführt hatten. Dieser Ort ist natürlich auch perfekt zum "Sehen und gesehen werden" ;)
#breeding_roseate_spoonbill #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #sony #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo #capture_1 #rrs
#sliderssunday
A front garden around the corner with a fabulous "hanging lilac" (which actually is wisteria, thanks to everyone pointing that out to me in the comments 😊🙏) that reaches from the roof of that house almost down to the garden floor. Photographed on our way to the supermarket which we'd combined with a nice and sunny photowalk. I had set the LX100 to 4:3 image ratio (with that very convenient image ratio switch on top of the fixed lens), but the perspective correction in post turned it into something very 16:9-ish, so I added the white image border to make it appear a little broader. Plus I think the white frame/border suits this rather picturesque scene quite well.
Processed with the "usual suspects" Color Efex (just a little bit of "Brilliance and Warmth", Reflector Efex "Gold" to brighten the foreground), and the primary color sliders in LR.
Happy Sliders Sunday, Happy Mother's Day, and have a nice week ahead!
#macromondays
#smallandsmaller
Some bling in four different sizes for Macro Mondays and "Smaller and smaller". Real diamonds are born under pressure, but these Swarovski rhinestones were born from dust. We are in macro world, after all, which means: magnified dust. After a first rather frustrating round of doing some focus stacking and still finding the diamond-shaped Swarovski crystals, which I had so carefully cleaned with a fresh microfibre cloth beforehand, covered in dust, I had what you might call a sudden "de-dusting" inspiration: wet wipes for glasses. You know, those single-packed wipes that you shouldn't use all too often because they might damage the glasses' coating. And honestly, wet wipes for glasses never work without a good amount of repolishing with a microfibre cloth, because all they ever do is smudge the glasses further. But used on these small and smaller glass stones? It was worth a try, and it kind of worked. I'm not saying that the wet wipes removed every single speck of dust, but the crystals were much cleaner than I'd ever managed to get them with a dry microfibre cloth :)
The different sizes of the crystals are: 1,7/1,4/0,6/0,3 cm (0,6/0,5/0,2/0,1 inches) in diameter. I've placed the crystals on a glossy black tile and illuminated them with a soft photo LED light from above, white light from the left, yellow light from the right, and a handheld flashlight set on "spotlight" handheld from the front. The final image is an in-camera focus stacking JPG which I've further processed in Lightroom (clarity) and Color Efex (filters "Brilliance and Warmth", "Reflector Efex Gold", and "Skylight"). I did some final
de-dusting with the healing and copy brushes in PS.
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone!
A jellyfish with writer's block, that is, because the pages of this book are still empty. And they will remain empty because the sole purpose of this "book" is to radiate colourful light. It's an LED nightlight shaped like a book, and its pages light up when you open it. I picked the blue colour variety (the book comes with the typical LED colour scheme, each time you re-open it, a different colour appears) because it reminded me of a deep sea creature. The jellyfish's "head" is a view into the book's spine where the LED equipment is placed. I have used one single extra light source, an LED light equipped with the semi-transparent yellow bottle cap, to add a second colour to the pages' edges, but the main light source is the book itself. The height of the entire frame, negative space included, is 4 cm / 1,57 inches.
I've already used this LED book for another MM theme (Redux 2019); you can find the photo in the first comment together with another MM "jellyfish" (for 2019's "Pasta" theme).
HMM, Everyone, and have a nice week ahead!
#macromondays
#radiant
#macromondays
#lowkey
A low-key presentation is what I often "end up with" when it comes to Macro Mondays, so this week's big challenge for me was to find a nice subject. And this wasn't easy because, usually, I don't even think about doing low-key, it simply happens naturally. So my mind went blank regarding the subject I would like to photograph as low-key.
Somewhat luckily, however, I have just recently rekindled my old love for Casio watches, especially the G-Shocks, and after 20 or more years with only two Skagen watches to choose between I thought it was time for something new, so I bought one of the "Origins", a square one with a metal bezel that has a beautiful sunset gradient finish (from a series called "Shanghai Night"). That bezel is a beautifully shiny, blingy thing (while the watch module itself, unfortunately, is of the more simple kind), so you bet that I keep polishing it with my shirt, pullover, whatever I wear, or what comes to hand.
But what was the first thing I saw when I looked at the camera's display? Of course: lint and dust. But what else did I expect in macroverse, after all, dust will be dust ;) So I did some more polishing before I placed the watch inside of a black cardboard box to prevent diffuse daylight from coming into the little scene. The final image is a single upside-down shot (with my camera snugly and safely mounted to an overhead table tripod) with the main focus on one of the four pushers (each pusher is 4 mm / 0,15 inches in diameter). Processed in DXO PL5, Analog Efex, and PS where I did the final polishing touches (=dust removal). I decided to leave some of the dust in the image, namely where it had transformed into some nice, starry milky way bokeh ;)
HMM, Everyone, and have a nice week ahead!
#sliderssunday
Another cherry blossom from last year's visit to TV Asahi Cherry Blossom Alley at the Mauerweg between Berlin and Teltow. This year's cherry blossom has only just begun because we're having a fairly cold spring (with the exception of this weekend, but the cold will return tomorrow), and in a small street around the corner that is lined with lovely cherry trees, the blossoms are only just about to fully open.
I've photographed this blossom with the GRIII. The 28mm focal length GR lens is very sharp and it's also an amazingly good close-up lens, but at f2.8 as the widest-open aperture, it can be tricky to get a nice background blur. Here, the blossom was popping out amidst many other blossoms, so the backdrop was very busy and distracting. Since I liked how the blossom itself had turned out (apart from the fact that there's a good amount of blur right at the center – Sharpen AI dealt with that in a satisfying enough way so it's pleasant to look at, I think), I had to do something about the background. I didn't simply want to blur it out in LR or even completely remove it in PS because I liked the springy-fresh colours of the background, so I created two layers in PS, one with the blossom only, the other with the complete image, and opened the latter in Analog Efex where began to play around with the Zoom filter and the Dust and Scratches filter palette. As finishing touches I added the thin image border and hit the Primary Color sliders in LR. I hope you like this candy-coloured cherry blossom slider :)
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone!
#MacroMondays
#Keepsake
You've seen my Dad's old wristwatch before: back in November 2022 for (h)our (please forgive the silly play on words) "Vintage" theme (please check the first comment). Back then, I had paired it with my Mom's old thread counter, this time, I've photographed the watch on its own.
Since I thought it would look more interesting with some motion blur on the seconds hand, I decided to give the in-camera "Live ND Filter" another try. The Live ND Filter is great fun and
very useful if you want to take a long exposure shot in bright conditions but have forgotten to bring a real ND filter along. I believe that the camera takes numerous images in a very fast succession and combines them automatically in-camera. It only works in M mode, so it's not a totally automated process because your manual settings will affect the final result. On the E-M1III, you can go up to ND 32, the newer OM-1 even gives you an ND 64 simulation, but the E-M1III is my macro cam, and ND 64 would have been too much for my purpose (even ND 32 was because it blurred the seconds hand out almost completely). But ND 16 created a nice, "fan-like" effect, so I decided to stick to it. It still was a little tricky to find the best camera and seconds hand position, so I took quite a few shots, but in the end, I even had three options to choose from, so I consider this a success ;)
The font/style used for the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock indices is very typical of the 1960s (which is also the decade my Mom gave this watch to my Dad as an engagement gift). The watch brand is "Primato", a long-closed manufacturer from Germany's "gold town" Pforzheim (a nickname Pforzheim acquired because quite many jewellery manufacturers and goldsmiths reside there). Recently, U.S. watchmaker Timex has reissued a hand-wound 34mm "Marlin" watch that uses a similar font for the 12, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 hour markers. Just in case you were interested ;)
HMM, Everyone, and have a nice, sunny week ahead!
#black_bellied_ whistling_ducks #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #sonyalpha #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo
#macromondays
#miniatureitems
I've already photographed this tiny key (a pendant, supposedly, but I've never used it as such) for another MM theme, "Highkey" back in August 2017. You can find the photo in the first comment, there you can also see how small this miniature key is. Since it says "Del Cuore" on one side of the key's head I thought I'd combine it with an old silver heart pendant that I've also already used for another MM theme from 2017, "Heart".
I've placed both miniature items on a mirror tile that creates distorted reflections. Light sources were one LED light, equipped with the semi-transparent yellow plastic bottle cap, from the left, one plain LED light slightly from the right/front. I was also lucky that the early evening sun shone brightly through the living room window so I could use the glass prism to create some nice rainbow colour reflections on the heart – a lot of hit-and-miss (as usual, because the triangle-shaped prism reflects the colours everywhere except on the desired subject, but in the end, I succeeded – and the neighbours from across the street must have thought that I'm performing a weird light ritual when I waved my arm with the prism in my hand around by the open window) ;) This final image is an in-camera focus stacking consisting of 15 single images. Btw, I'd set the focus on shadow metering, and adjusted the exposure control accordingly. It helps tremendously to protect the highlights.
HMM, Everyone!
Ein neues Jahr! Neue Wege, neue Träume, neue Hoffnungen, neues Glück! Alles Gute für 2023🍀
A new year! New ways, new dreams, new hopes, new happiness! All the best for 2023🍀
#macromondays
#chip
A pyramid on Mars? Saharan dust over Mount Chip? An alien artefact? The rise and fall (especially the fall) of the ever-elusive neon empire? I simply couldn't think of a title here, and I'm too late in the game anyways. Same procedure as every Monday, I guess ;)
Either way, I've always wanted to photograph this decorative glass pyramid for Macro Mondays. I'd dropped it once ages ago, and the chipped-off tip made it the perfect subject for the "Chip" theme.
The setup was simple, I put the pyramid on a book, illuminated it with yellow (semi-translucent plastic bottle cap) light from the left, red (transparent red chocolate box lid) light from the right, and then held a piece of cardboard coated with a reflective gold colour behind the pyramid so the background would look like a sunset or the above-mentioned Saharan dust clouds. The pyramid itself is of iridescent colour, depending on the light incidence it displays hues of blue and orange.
HMM, Everyone!
This is a hidden old bridge in downtown Austin. I've used this image before, but I just downloaded Google's Nik Collection and had to try it out. Admittedly, I used Topaz, Lightroom and Photoshop on this image..;) Just so you know, The Google Nik Collection is now free. Here's a link where you can go and download it for free if you wish.
I added the Sea Gulls..We don't actually have those in Austin..:)
#Donnerstagsmonochrom
#monochromethursday
More from the May photowalk at the Berlin government district. On that very sunny day, there were many opportunities to photoGRIIIph nice shadow patterns, especially along the Spree with its many bridges and stairs. These stairs lead to the path right next to the Spree. The (bit of) bridge that you can see on the left is the new Kronprinzenbrücke (Crown Prince Bridge) which was designed by internationally renowned Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava in 1991. The Kronprinzenbrücke (the "Crown Prince" part refers to Friedrich III. who was Prussian Crown Prince at the time the original bridge had been built in that place (1877 to 1879, although the origins of the bridge date back to 1709). Calatrava's design was the first new bridge that was built after the fall of the Wall and the first building across the former sector border between West and East Berlin.
This image looks best in contrasty b&w, methinks, but I have a wide-angle colour version (photographed with the Oly) which might make a nice slider, so maybe you'll see that version on Sunday ;) Composing the image on the Ricoh wasn't that easy, because using its screen in bright sunlight is always a little bit of a "blind flight", but I'm glad I managed to capture the complete shadow pattern that the stairs' banister cast onto the path – even though only "just so" ;) Image processed in Nik's Silver Efex and Lightroom with the new masking tool (it's fun to use and very convenient!).
Happy Donnerstagsmonochrom!
Ein weiteres Foto vom Foto-Spaziergang im Regierungsviertel im Mai. An diesem sehr sonnigen Tag gab es viele interessante Schattenmuster zu fotografieren, insbesondere entlang der Spree mit ihren vielen Brücken und den Treppen, die zum unteren Weg direkt an der Spree führen. Diese Treppe führt hinauf zur Kronprinzenbrücke, von der Ihr links ein Stückchen sehen könnt. Der Neubau der in ihrer Urform seit 1709 existierenden Brücke wurde 1991 vom international renommierten Schweizer Architekten Santiago Calatrava gestaltet und war der erste neue Brückenbau nach der Wende und der erste Neubau über die ehemalige Sektorengrenze zwischen West- und Ost-Berlin hinweg.
Der Bildschirm der Ricoh hatte es mir hier nicht ganz leicht gemacht, das Bild vernünftig zu komponieren (im grellen Sonnenlicht gestaltet sich die Bildkomposition damit nämlich eher als Blindflug), aber ich bin froh, dass ich hier das M-förmige Geländer mit korrespondierendem W-Schattenmuster komplett mit auf dem Bild habe - wenn auch links nur gerade so, aber immerhin ;) Ich habe von dieser Szene auch eine weitwinkligere Farbversion (mit der Oly fotografiert), die einen guten Sonntags-Slider abgeben würde, ich denke, diese werde ich dann auch am Sonntag zeigen :) Hier musste es aber einfach kontrastreiches SW sein. Für die SW-Konvertierung habe ich Silver Efex aus der Nik Collection verwendet und danach noch verschiedene Anpassungen mit dem neuen (und sehr intuitiv zu bedienenden) Maskierungswerkzeug in Lightroom vorgenommen.
Ich wünsche Euch eine schöne Restwoche!
The collapsed building was once the original farm house. The home still standing was the final home on the farm.
#macromondays
#geometryshapes
Same procedure as last week... I wasn't really happy with any of my images, and took several more (of the same subject) today, but in the end I decided to stick to an image taken last night. It's strange sometimes, isn't it? So here we go, circles, or rather holes of a reduction sieve (?) that came with my espresso maker. Each of the holes has a diameter of 1 mm / 0,03 inches. I wanted a very narrow focal plane and everything else as bokeh, and in that I guess I've succeeded – somehow. Well, I hope you like the image anyway, I've looked at it too many times yesterday and today, so I can't see the forest for the trees (or the coffee for the holes) :)
It's a single image illuminated with one LED lamp (equipped with the blue tealight holder), and backlight coming from another LED lamp (equipped with the yellow plastic bottle cap) on which I had also placed the sieve. Processed in DXO and Color Efex where I'd slightly tweaked the colours by adding some warmth with the Reflector Efex Gold filter.
HMM, Everyone!
#sliderssunday
After showing you a view of Sanssouci Park's Orangery Palace from the lawn in front of the stairs leading up to the Palace, I thought you might be interested in a view of the main level of the Orangery Palace building ensemble. There won't be any newer images from the Orangery Palace than the ones from my 2018 visit, because when I checked Sanssouci Park's website for some extra information about the Orangery, I learned that the entire place – the palace, the plant halls, and the adjacent areas – are closed for renovation. Work started in 2019 and will last until 2029 (!), so my 2018 visit was a lucky one. Unfortunately, I hadn't visited the Palace's interior back then, so that's definitely a missed opportunity because the interior will be redesigned as an event location. Everything according to heritage protection, I assume, because you don't mess with UNESCO World Heritage status, but it still will be different. The heritage protection is probably also the reason why the renovation takes so long.
For Sliders Sunday, I've chosen a postcard-style edit with a vintage look for this sunny scene. In a way, these photos are already vintage, especially in the light of the ongoing renovation. This also turns this image's five-year hard drive slumber into a short nap. This image had still been totally untouched (and quite a few more photos from that visit still are) because back then I couldn't see their potential. So I'm glad I'd finally decided to upload the "Green Arrow" (my previous image) because that made me take another look at the "Sanssouci 2018" folder. Btw, one thing I've only noticed now when looking at the photo, not when I took the photo, is the fellow photographer (I don't know him) ;) I also decided to leave the two persons on the bench in the image, because they are half hidden by the fountain, and I think they also add to the relaxed and happy atmosphere.
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone!
#sliderssunday
Spring scene from happy pre-Covid times, photographed at the Britzer Garten, one of the largest and most beautiful public parks in Berlin. Originally, the park had been created for the Bundesgartenschau 1985 (BUGA – a biennial federal horticulture show in Germany), the first BUGA to be held in Berlin (West). After the BUGA, the park area had been extended and was re-opened as the Britzer Garten in 1989. Apart from the everyday recreational park goings-on, there are annual flower shows such as the Tulipan in spring, the Rhododendron and Azalea Show, or the Dahlienfeuer ("Dahlia Fire") in autumn, plus other festivals and events throughout the year. Back in 1985, the BUGA had been a huge thing, and I remember well the automated recording on the metro – every morning when I went to school, and every afternoon when I returned home from school – which was played when we passed a certain interchange station: "Passengers travelling to the Bundesgartenschau, please change here for the U7."
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, stay safe and healthy!
Ein Foto aus glücklicheren Vor-Corona-Zeiten, aufgenommen im Britzer Garten. Der Britzer Garten ist einer der größten und schönsten Parks in Berlin. Die weitläufige Parkanlage wurde für die Bundesgartenschau 1985 gestaltet, nach der BUGA noch erweitert und dann 1989 in ihrer jetzigen Form als "Britzer Garten" wiedereröffnet. Der Park bietet viel, z.B. einen wunderschönen Rosengarten, ein Freilandlabor, die Parkeisenbahn sowie jährlich wiederkehrende Blumenschauen (die Tulipan im Frühling, die Rhododendron- und Azaleenschau sowie das Dahlienfeuer im Herbst), außerdem jede Menge Extra-Events wie die Sonnenwendfeier, Walpurgisnacht, St.-Martins-Umzüge und, als Höhepunkt, das "Feuerblumen und Klassik Open-Air" mit vielen Konzerten und großem Abschlussfeuerwerk. Momentan ist der Britzer Garten zwar geöffnet, die Sonderveranstaltungen mit viel Publikum sind aber allesamt auf 2022 verschoben worden. Zumindest die Blumenschauen sollen aber wie geplant stattfinden, da der Park so großzügig angelegt ist, dass man sich sehr gut aus dem Weg gehen kann. Ich erinnere mich noch sehr gut an die Zeit der BUGA '85, als ich jeden Morgen und Nachmittag – auf dem Schulweg – in der U-Bahn an einer bestimmten Umsteigestation die aufgezeichnete Ansage hörte: "Besucher der Bundesgartenschau steigen bitte hier in die U7 Richtung Rudow um."
Ich wünsche Euch einen guten Wochenstart, passt gut auf Euch auf und bleibt gesund!
I think we've all had this experience during a holiday abroad. We are hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles away from home, and all of a sudden you notice a car with your hometown's license plate or hear someone speak in your hometown's or region's dialect or slang. Maybe you will engage in a small chat with those people you have never met at home because they live in a different part of town, but here, at your holiday destination, they are like neighbours, and a remark like "It's a small world!" won't be surprising. One of those holidays was one from my childhood, we were camping in France, first in Brittany, but the weather was horrid, so we moved on to the Atlantic coast, somewhere near Bordeaux, where we stayed at a beautiful, very well-kept, very clean pine forest campsite nearby a huge, sunny, pleasantly empty beach. And boy, there were so many cars with a capital "B" for Berlin (and "B" for West Berlin only at that time) on the license plates at that campsite :)
Quite obviously one reason I remembered that anecdote in connection with this photo is the tiny-looking Earth globe balloon that you can see on the right behind the Tempodrom's roof. The "World balloon", as it's officially called, is a 150 m/ 492 ft. high viewing platform on a tethered balloon located at Checkpoint Charlie. Have I been up there myself already? To be honest: no. It sure is tempting, especially because on a clear day the view from the platform reaches as far as the outskirts of Berlin, but I'm a little bit afraid of heights, I don't like flying, and the thought of being up there in a flying object only secured by a steel cable, even if it's only for 15 minutes, is quite intimidating. But maybe I'll do it one day :) The imprint on the balloon says "DIE WELT" (The World) which is the name of one of the biggest German national newspapers and the balloon's sponsor.
For more info on the Tempodrom's history, an event location originally founded in a circus tent in West Berlin in 1980, please check the description for the photo in the first comment. There, I'd also remarked that the Tempodrom, depending on the point of view, sometimes looks like a starship, a circus tent (intended), or a crown. This zoomed-in view reminds me of a crown or even a mountaintop. You'll get this particular view, with the World balloon rising next to the "crown", when you approach the Tempodrom from its backside, through a small park located between the German Museum of Technology and the site of Anhalter Bahnhof.
Regarding the image's processing, I can only tell you as much as that I did quite a bit of "sliding", this and that, but with long breaks in between, so I can't remember the single steps except for the last finishing touches which where: 1) "Reflector Efex (Silver)" filter in Color Efex to brighten the foreground, and 2): adjustments with the primary colour sliders in LR.
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone!