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Rotehornpark
Magdeburg / Germany
See where this picture was taken. [?]
Here you can see the large panorama and the original size of the panorama
(3HDR Aufnahmen = 3 x 3 Fotos = 9 Bilder = 1 Panorama)
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
...Said: I thought it would be so!
#MacroMondays
#Tableware
The sad face of Witwe Bolte (Widow Tibbets in the English version; here she looks as if she had a toothache, doesn't she?) on the handle of the teaspoon from my childhood cutlery set. Witwe Bolte is a character featured in the first two verses/pranks (and the epilogue; my caption and sub-caption are the first two verses of that epilogue; the English translation is courtesy of David Gorman who translated the whole story) of Wilhelm Busch's "Max and Moritz: A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks". Max and Moritz is one of the most popular German children's books ever, published for the first time in 1865, and translated into 300 languages. The pranks are full of wicked humour, and when I was little, I didn't particularly like the characters of Max and Moritz because they were such nasty little boys who terrorized their whole village with the most outrageous pranks. In the end, they met an untimely end by being ground at the village mill and fed to the miller's geese (!). Pretty cruel, isn't it, but times were different (and much rougher) in 1865. Or were they?
So I guess my photo features what you might call my "signature macro colours", this time not achieved by using my makeshift colour filters, but makeshift reflectors instead, a new addition (next to the gold-coated cardboard) being a pink chocolate wrapper tin foil. I'm very busy at the moment, so I decided to stay in my comfort zone and just try to get a decent photo for the theme so as not to skip once again. The final image is a single shot, processed in DXO PL7, Analog Efex, and Lightroom.
Size of what you see of Widow Tibbets/the teaspoon's handle: 2 cm/0,78 inches.
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone! I'll try to catch up with you tonight!
Dear friends, I am realizing that my archives are rich in forsaken treasures – yes, I know that in those days of lockdown you all are realizing the very same thing ;-)
This picture comes from a sunrise session at my favourite location, the meanders of the river Adda, dating from April 2015. I would avoid to nag you about this incredibly wonderful location: you can take a look at my album Silent banks, the complete collection of the photos I have taken there; the attached narratives are rich in information about the place, if you are curious enough.
This location is especially renowned for its legendary morning mists, but only a thin layer of milky mist floated above the water that morning.
I have picked this specific bracketing for a number of reasons (including the dewdrops you can see on the grass in the foreground), but I suspect that its main merit lays in giving me a feeling of opening to new possibilities. In the same vein, I believe that this pandemic will open a whole world of new paths for us to travel along. After the pain and the sorrow, after having regained the closeness we had taken for granted for so much time before the storm abruptly took it away from us… After we have risen from the ashes of Covid-19 we will be bound to take seriously a huge lot of lessons that this (not even alive) tiny speck of proteins and RNA has taught us. We will have to unveiling our souls because everyone’s soul counts – everyone can contribute to a new way of living, just as now the raging infection requires that everyone accepts and practises the lockdown – and everyone has a role to play in this common struggle.
I have obtained this picture by blending an exposure bracketing [-1.7/0/+1.7 EV] by luminosity masks in the Gimp (EXIF data, as usual, refer to the "normal exposure" shot), then, as usual, I added some final touches with Nik Color Efex Pro 4.
I tried the inverted RGB blue channel technique described by Boris Hajdukovic as a possible final contribution to the processing. While this technique (which, its imposing name notwith standing, is pretty simple to implement) often holds interesting results in full daylight landscapes, its effects on a low-light capture (e.g. a sunrise) are utterly unpredictable, so at the end of my workflow I often give it a try to ascertain its possibilities. In this picture I have exploited this technique in a very frugal, yet effective, way – just some touches where needed.
RAW files has been processed with Darktable. Denoising with DFine 2 and the Gimp (denoised and original images blended by lightness).
Singapore Flyer
30 Raffles Avenue / Singapore
See where this picture was taken. [?]
Explore # 321 on Wednesday, March 23, 2016
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
This is my new Neumann TLM 107.
It‘s a large diaphragm multi pattern condenser microfone which sounds really great.
#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
Views of the Pacific Ocean from Crescent City, CA
"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."
Jacques Cousteau
This breathtaking, high-angle photograph captures a natural infinity-pool perspective from a mountain beck crag. The foreground frames a turbulent white-water torrent plunging into a rocky, stone-lipped basin before slipping over a sheer precipice, creating a thrilling sense of depth and vertigo. In the distance, the landscape opens up spectacularly to reveal the patchwork green fields of the valley floor and the deep, winding expanse of Thirlmere nestled against the opposing fells. The inclusion of vibrant pink heather and hardy conifer branches clinging to the rugged, lichen-encrusted granite adds brilliant color to this elevated, classic Lakeland view.
#Thirlmere #LakeDistrict #Cumbria #LakeDistrictPhotography #WaterfallViews #InfinityPool #MountainViews #UKLandscape #ExploreCumbria #FellWalkingUK #Landscape_Captures
Planet Clingon? Yes, that's right. Because, as has been recently discovered, there's a sister species of the Klingons. I assume the differences between the Klingons and the Clingons are pretty similar to those between the Vulcans and the Romulans. This means that the Clingons are peaceful, polite, kind, and generally super nice, extremely relaxed people. What you see is a solar storm rising behind their home world. Solar "storm" in the Clingon solar system means a warm, gentle, slightly fuzzy breeze because, well, everything in the Clingon world is a little fuzzy. A favourite chill-out activity of theirs is smoking "pod", a very healthy and nutritious plant that, as a most welcome side effect, gives you sunny, bright (and somewhat fuzzy) vibes. Peace, folks!
Late in the game with this "lucky last shot". Nothing I'd tried before had worked out. With almost every MM theme, I try to make my subject look "different" so you won't recognize at once what it is. But when this is exactly the task, I go "What? How do I do that? And what could I possibly photograph?!?" As usual :) This is a single shot of a cling foil/film roll, taken with the Laowa 50mm Ultra 2x macro at a magnification somewhere between 1.5:1 and 1.25:1. Processed in DXO PL7, Analog and Color Efex Pro.
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone!
...no podÃa ser otra... Rosendo - Agradecido (Directo Wizink Center, Madrid)
Donostia San Sebastián, Basque Country.
Playa de La Concha.
A dragon boat team cuts hard through the river, paddles hitting in perfect rhythm as they push toward the finish. Spectators line the dock, boats crowd the background, and lush greenery rises behind the waterfront — a lively scene echoing the energy of a Kuching boat race in Sarawak.
#Kuching #Sarawak #Borneo #KuchingBoatRace #DragonBoatVibes #RiverGrit #PaddleHard #StreetToRiverEnergy #SarawakScenes #BorneoLife #RaceDayRhythm #WaterfrontGrit #UrbanRiverFlow
This photograph captures the powerful, multi-tiered Ritson Force waterfall cascading into a rocky pool. Unlike the "silky" look of long-exposure shots, this image uses a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion of the water, highlighting the chaotic spray and individual droplets as they crash against the rocks.
A large, fallen branch leans diagonally across the main flow, adding a sense of wild, untamed nature. The scene is framed by lush, deep-green foliage and moss-covered boulders in the foreground, creating a sense of depth. The lighting is soft and even, typical of an overcast day or a sheltered woodland, which allows the vibrant greens and the bright white of the churning water to pop without harsh highlights.
#WaterfallHunting #NaturePhotography #WildAndFree #Waterfall #NaturePhotography #ForestFinds #Cascades #WildWater #Greenery #LandscapeLovers #OutdoorAdventure #Nature_Perfection #WaterAndStone #ExploreMore #WoodlandWanderer
3 exposure HDR merged in Lightroom.
Samyang 12mm manual focus lens.
Thank you very much for your views, kind comments and faves.
#silderssunday
Sitting pretty, flying high...
This is just a spontaneous fun shot, duly over-processed for Sliders Sunday. It was one of those "Should I take the camera out or not?" moments where I also briefly worried that I might look silly photographing random doves (it was a crowded place, after all). Still, I also thought they looked funny and cute sitting up there on the roof of a subway station entrance, lined up "like organ pipes", as we say in German. I also didn't notice the plane when I photographed the doves but it was a nice surprise when I loaded the image into Lightroom (only to forget about it for another year), and it's a nice extra.
I enhanced the plane in LR with an extra mask and then went into Color Efex. I used the following filters: Brilliance and Warmth and Skylight to bring back the warmth of that sunny June day (the SOOC Raw file was a little on the cool side), Detail Extractor, Reflector Efex ("Soft Gold") to brighten the lower part of the image, and Tonal Contrast (setting "fine", opacity 35 %). I also blew the image up in Topaz Gigapixel because quite a bit of the image was lost by cropping (of the distracting lower part because I couldn't zoom in any further on the doves) and straightening (because I had to shoot straight up).
HSS, Everyone!
7DWF, Saturdays: Landscapes
Babelsberg Palace in Potsdam was built between 1835–1849 as summer residence for Prince Wilhelm (the later Emperor Wilhelm I.) and his wife Augusta (of the House of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach). It was designed in the Gothic revival style. Since 1990 the palace and park are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin".
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babelsberg_Palace
Again (see album, please), I've used Alfred Grupstra's "Coolblue" LR preset as a starting point for the processing, but then still tweaked the settings. Since the processing added quite a lot of grain (not very pretty especially for the sky), I then smoothed out the sky with Nik's Dfine - several times.
I wonder: Can I add this to Sliders Sunday's group pool tomorrow when I've already uploaded it today?
Thank you very much for your comments and faves ;-) They are much aprecciated !!!
Das im gleichnamigen Park gelegene Schloss Babelsberg wurde als Sommerresidenz für Prinz Wilhelm (den späteren Kaiser Wilhelm I.) und seine aus dem Haus Sachsen-Weimar stammende Frau Augusta von Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Ludwig Persius und Johann Heinrich Strack zwischen 1835 und 1849 im Stil der englischen Gotik errichtet. Park und Schloss sind seit 1990 Teil des UNESCO Welterbes "Schlösser und Parks von Potsdam und Berlin".
Quelle: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Babelsberg
Lieben Dank für Eure Kommentare und Favs ;-)!
Magdeburg / Germany
three single shots
See where this picture was taken. [?]
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Beautiful scenery awaits as you leave Anchorage on the Seward Hwy and head toward the Kenai Peninsula. The Turnagain Arm is a body of water that has the unusual phenomenon of bore tides. The sandbars dotted against the beautiful blue of the water make a striking effect. Add the mountain backdrop and you've got a winner!
Blick von der Fußgängerbrücke auf die neue Autobahnbrücke der Nordumgehung in Bad Oeynhausen-Dehme. Ein stimmungsvoller Sonnenuntergang in HDR mit Snapseed auf Vintage-Optik getrimmt.
This lush landscape photograph captures a beautiful, multi-tiered waterfall nestled within the deep, wooded gorge of Healey Dell Nature Reserve in Rochdale.
The composition looks up the rocky channel of the River Spodden as it carves its way through ancient, dark stone formations. The fast shutter speed captures the energetic churning of the white water as it cascades down a series of natural rock steps into a calmer pool below. The gorge is enveloped in a dense canopy of summer greenery, with overhanging deciduous trees, mosses, and ferns softening the rugged terrain. In the bottom left foreground, out-of-focus white wildflowers (likely cow parsley or hogweed) add a beautiful sense of depth and framing, pulling the viewer right into the heart of this hidden sanctuary.
#HealeyDell #RiverSpodden #Rochdale #Lancashire #LancashirePhotography #VisitLancashire #HiddenGorge #WoodlandWaterfalls #UKLandscapes #Nature_Perfection #WaterfallHunting #GreaterManchester Outdoors
"The world is big and I want to get a good look at it before it gets dark." John Muir
The world seems very big from the vantage point of Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.
"Enjoy the little things in life... For one day you will look back and realize they were the big things."
~Robert Briault~
#MacroMondays
#Party
Happy 17th Birthday, Macro Mondays :)
I joined Macro Mondays on 26 September 2016, and I'm a happy member ever since. A wonderful group that has taught me new photo techniques, lures me out of my comfort zone, saves me from the Winter blues, and kept me sane during those weird, time- and endless days of the pandemic. I also admire how the moderators manage to come up with new themes every week. Thank you, MMs!
And for "Party", it's Blingbert aka Bertie again. Of course, it had to be him ;) He got all excited when he heard what MM's Birthday theme would be about. "Let me come along!", he begged, "you know I love parties! Will there be Karaoke?" "I hope not", I answered. "Don't worry, Silke", Bertie said, "you don't have to sing, I'll do it!!!" He always knows how to talk me around. Bertie got even more excited. "I will sing an aria! How about something from The Valkyrie?" "What?!? No, you won't!", I yelled. "It's a party, Bertie, parties are about people having fun together. Fun. If you sing something from The Valkyrie the party will be over before it begins." Bertie looked seriously abashed. And I felt sorry for being so harsh on him. "Come on, I know you love Classical music. So let's take the 'Classic', and add 'Rock'. How about that?" "There's something like 'Classic Rock'"? He eyed me suspiciously. So what is more "Classic" in Rock music than the archetype of all things Rock? Rock 'n' Roll, of course. And when I played the YouTube video of Wanda Jackson's "Let's Have A Party" to him, he positively turned nuts. "Yessss! That's it! Why have I never heard this before? It will be a blast! And from now on, my second name is Wanda!"
You've seen "Blingbert Wanda" before (please see the first comment). For "Party", I retried my other idea for the (artificial) "Bird" theme: Bertie in front of a spinning fidget spinner. Back then, the backdrop had been far too busy. In my first attempt, I had used the camera's in-built "Live ND" filter, and didn't like either the colours, light, or the way the motion blur looked. So this time, I used a real ND filter, a Vario ND filter. It's also somewhat of a filter overkill because I wondered if I could combine the star filter with the ND filter because party = bling. I'm happy to say it worked, and this time, I also managed to get a nice-looking motion blur of the fidget spinner.
Setup: I glued the fidget spinner to a black tile with modeling clay. Next, I put Bertie Wanda on/halfway into a small glass Christmas bauble filled with tiny, shiny confetti stars. I used modeling clay once again to fixate the bauble on a small plastic box to get the right height. At one point, I also knocked the tile over when I rotated the fidget spinner, so the tile knocked Bertie on the bauble over, and all those tiny confetti stars got tossed onto the table, onto the carpet, everywhere... The joys of macro photography ;)
Size info: Bertie Wanda is 4,5 cm long, and the entire width of the frame is about 6 cm.
HMM, Everyone!
#MacroMondays
#Eraser
Old (I don't know how old), used, and pretty much-worn eraser that came to the rescue when I couldn't make anything interesting out of the fun eraser that looks like a little monster and the two new erasers which I'd bought for the theme. They look pretty but uninteresting in a photo. So I went on a desk treasure hunt and found the eraser you can see in the image. It's a round eraser, eggshell-white (now with a greyish hue from year-long use) that has a nice texture and is adorned with tiny (1 mm/0,039 inches in diameter) round dents all around. When I looked at the eraser through the viewfinder, I found the lettering "ELL" on its surface, obviously the only remains of what must have been the Faber-Castell Logo that consists of two juggling knights, below the knights is the brand name in capital letters, and below the brand name is the proud mention of the company's founding year "since 1761" in italic letters.
German writing implement manufacturer Faber-Castell produces about 2 billion wooden pencils annually, making it the world's largest lead and colour pencils manufacturer. The company also produces high-quality writing instruments, leather goods, and artist and office supplies. It was founded in Stein (Bavaria) by Kaspar Faber and is a family-run business in the eighth generation.
But enough on stationery companies. The final image is a focus stacking made of 15 photos. The in-camera stacking yielded a nice-looking result so I skipped Helicon Focus this time. To add some colour punch, I used my makeshift colour filters (red candy box lid from the left, green bottle from the right, handheld torch from above which I've shone through a blue tealight holder).
HMM, Everyone, and have a nice autumn/spring week ahead!
...y en el avituallamiento yo les pondrÃa esto... The Zac Schulze Gang - High Roller
Urnieta, Basque Country.
...y en la Meta The Zac Schulze Gang - Walking the Dog