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#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!
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
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!
#MacroMonday
#kitchen
Center detail of the underside of my smallest frying pan; width of the frame: 5 cm / 1,9 inches
I hope to catch up with you tonight, HMM, Everyone and always stay safe and healthy!
#windowwednesday
View down the central funnel inside of the Reichstag dome on top of the Reichstag building, the seat of the German parliament (the Bundestag). The funnel is a so-called "light-diverting element" with mirrors that guides diffuse daylight into the plenary hall of the German Bundestag ten meters below and also serves as an exhaust "pipe" that deflects used air from the plenary hall through the 10-meter-wide central opening at the apex of the dome (which you can't see here).
For whatever reason the checked "pattern" of the reflective windows on the funnel's base (theoretically one could take a look into the plenary hall) always reminds me of a gambling table at a casino, hence the title which I've borrowed from one of the best James Bond movies (and I also like the 1967 parody). But of course, there's nothing "royale" or "gambling-ish" about this profoundly democratic place (which, as you know, it hasn't always been). Surrounding the funnel's base you can find the permanent exhibition "From the Reichstag to the Bundestag" which tells the eventful history of the Reichstag building from its beginnings to the present day.
Happy Window Wednesday, Everyone :)
#sliderssunday
As promised (previous photo), I've opened the door at the end of the passage for you, and now we're in the sanatorium's most elegant (albeit in a slightly morbid way) lounge. A cocktail, anyone? Dust Martini? Madhattan? Deadquiri? Whisky dour? Or the classic,
a Bloody Mary ;-)
I've re-processed this photo today. As with the previous capture, a processed version has been waiting on my harddrive for months, but when I looked at it today, I found it way too harsh. At that time, I'd checked out DxO (and in the end uninstalled it for good),
and - knowing myself - I'd probably just applied everything possible ;-) This photo is another Lumix LX100 shot. This isn't even sharp all over, so I most likely still had my Oly mounted on the tripod from the previous photo, and this was handheld. I think the slightly blurry parts add kind of a weird underwater touch, but I hope it's still "pleasant" (for an urbex scenery) enough to look at. Well, I think it is, and I hope you agree. I did some more subtle processing here, detail enhancement only here or there, a subtle glow effect (ON1), Natural neutral density filter (Color Efex), and in the end applied some subtle de-noising in Topaz.
Cheers, Everyone, HSS, and I wish you a Happy Sunday and a pleasant new week ahead!
Wie versprochen, habe ich für Euch die Tür am Ende des kurzen Durchgangs geöffnet (siehe vorheriges Foto): Ob dies mal die elegante Lounge des Sanatoriums war? Auf der Cocktail-Karte stehen Klassiker wie Dust Martini (der die Knochen ordentlich durchschüttelt, ganz wie James es mag), Haipirinha, Tequila Moonrise... oder doch der Klassiker Bloody Mary ;-)
Ich habe dieses Foto heute noch einmal neu bearbeitet. Meine bereits seit Ewigkeiten fertige Version hat mir nicht mehr gefallen. Ich hatte damals DxO ausprobiert (und noch vor Ende der Testphase wieder deinstalliert), und wie ich mich kenne, hatte ich dabei alles Mögliche und bestimmt auch alles gleichzeitig ausprobiert. Hier bin ich dezenter zur Sache gegangen, Details nur hie und da verbessert, ein bisschen Glow aufgetragen, den oberen Bereich mit dem "Natural neutral density" Filter aufgehellt und zum Schluss noch in Topaz sanft entrauscht. Dieses Foto ist auch nicht überall ganz scharf; wenn ich mich recht entsinne, hatte ich - von der vorangegangenen Aufnahme - noch die Oly auf dem Stativ und dieses LX100-Foto entstand aus der Hand. Ich finde, dass es dennoch noch gut anzuschauen ist und ich hoffe, Ihr seht das ebenso.
Ich wünsche Euch eine schöne neue Woche, liebe Flickr-Freunde!
Explored September 16, 2022
Another one from the Reichstag dome on top of the Reichstag building, the seat of the German government. This is the "top of the top", the highest point of the dome that you can reach as a visitor. And yes, the top of the Reichstag dome is open. Always, 24/7/365, and there also is no mechanism to close it, not even when it rains.
A design flaw? No, the open top of the dome is part of the Reichstag building's energy concept. As you can see in some of my other captures from the Reichstag dome (please check my albums, if you like), there's a large funnel at the centre of the dome which was not only constructed to lead diffuse daylight into the plenary hall of the German Bundestag (which is located right below the dome), but also serves as a ventilation system for the plenary hall. Stale air from the plenary hall is directed through the funnel and escapes through the opening at the centre of the dome. Moreover, on its way to the top, it also passes a heat recovery system that can extract usable residual energy from it.
And what happens when it rains? Don't worry, a device directly under the opening of the dome catches the rainwater.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend, dear Flickr friends!
Nach oben offen
Das ist die Reichstagskuppel tatsächlich, und zwar bei jeder Witterung. Was sich wie ein Planungsfehler anhört, ist Teil des ausgeklügelten Energiekonzepts des Reichstagsgebäudes, in das die Kuppel mit einbezogen wurde.
Wie Ihr vermutlich wisst, dient der Trichter in der Mitte der Kuppel nicht nur dazu, diffuses Tageslicht in den sich direkt unter der Kuppel befindlichen Plenarsaal zu leiten. Der Trichter dient auch als Belüftungssystem, indem er verbrauchte Luft nach oben direkt durch die Öffnung im Kuppeldach abtransportiert. Nicht nur das, auf dem Weg zur Kuppelöffnung passiert sie auch noch eine Wärmerückgewinnungsanlage, die ihr verwertbare Restenergie entzieht. Die vom Architekten des Reichstagsgebäudes, Paul Wallot (1841-1912), ursprünglich vorgesehenen Belüftungsschächte wurden beim Neubau der Kuppel übrigens wieder freigelegt und ebenfalls für die Versorgung mit Frischluft nutzbar gemacht.
Und was passiert, wenn es regnet? Keine Sorge, eine Vorrichtung direkt unter der Kuppelöffnung fängt das Regenwasser auf.
Ich wünsche Euch ein schönes Wochenende, liebe Flickr-Freunde!
#MacroMonday
#Button
Impossible, you say? Well, this shy and rare deep-sea creature, the Crested Rainbow Shell (Buttonia cristata), can do it :) But how? It eludes me...
This was literally the very last attempt at getting a sharp photo of these two buttons plus a little bit of rainbow reflection created by the afternoon sun and a large, diamond-shaped glass crystal (that was the elusive and also most difficult part). I wanted to photograph at least one of these four lovely vintage glass buttons which I'd bought at a very special button shop many years ago. But I didn't know how. They don't look like regular buttons, so to simply get as close as possible and take an abstract kind of image wasn't an option. I tried a few things yesterday, but I didn't really like any of it, except that I knew I wanted to have at least a very tiny rainbow reflection on the button. Today I then had the idea to temporarily glue two buttons together at the shanks using modeling clay – that way the shanks would be in the image as well, and you can now see that these are buttons. But I still had to wait for the afternoon sun to move around and shine through my window to get the rainbow colour reflection. This is why I'm so late today.
Size of the button's top: 1x1 cm / 0,39x0,39 inches. Setup: As mentioned above, I've stuck the buttons together at the shanks, and, also with modeling clay, fixated the bottom button on an aqua-blue coloured glass tealight holder (which I'd turned upside down). Lightsource: natural daylight, sunshine reflected by a glass crystal. Processed in DXO PhotoLab 4 and in Luminar AI where I've enhanced the details on the upper button and added some glow to the background.
HMM, Everyone, stay safe and healthy!
PHOTOGRAPHY Toporowski
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Spaziergang vom Trudner Horn nach Gfrill. Hier die Aussicht vom Trudner Sattel kommend. Herlich die Herbstfarben in Süd-Tirol!
#FenceFriday
Please press "Z".
Doesn't "she" look regal in her very own tiny, cosy, safe and totally social distancing compliant fence realm? It's "she" because in German "Blume" (flower) is female. I took this on my very first "Corona walk" back in March when it was still unclear if we were allowed to go for walks at all. Until then I had only ever left the house for necessary errands (it's not that much different now), but the authorities had not only reassured us that it's OK to go for walks, but had actually encouraged us to do so as long as we kept a safe distance to everyone and also didn't meet or go out with anyone else but members of the same household. Much has changed since then. Most people in my city don't care about the virus any more, and, as a result, the numbers of infections are rising again. I think the current situation is like a walk on a tightrope. It might go well, it might not...
This late March walk was just one around the corner, and this Queen of Weeds' realm lies right across the house I live in, on the other side of my street. My neighbourhood isn't spectacular in any way, but there are many nice old (from around 1900) apartment houses with just as nice old fences protecting their front gardens, and it was great fun and felt like real freedom to just walk around there and look for the little beauties along the wayside.
HFF, Everyone, and stay safe and healthy!
Sieht sie nicht zauberhaft und auch richtig majestätisch aus inmitten ihres kleinen, gemütlichen und auch sehr Sicherheitsabstand-konformen Königinnenreichs? Diese Königin des Unkrauts habe ich direkt bei mir gegenüber bei meinem ersten "Corona-Spaziergang" Ende März aufgenommen. Zu der Zeit, als es mit der Pandemie auch bei uns gerade richtig losging, war ja noch völlig unklar, ob wir nun auch "einfach so", sprich für einen kleinen Spaziergang, das Haus verlassen durften. Bis dahin war ich immer nur zum Einkaufen etc. rausgegangen (so sehr viel anders ist es jetzt immer noch nicht); aber nachdem uns von offizieller (Senats-)Seite versichert worden war, dass Spaziergänge ausdrücklich erlaubt sind, hatte ich mir die Kamera geschnappt für eine Runde um den Block, um mal ein wenig den Kopf freizubekommen bei der Suche nach den kleinen Schönheiten am Wegesrand :-)
Mittlerweile verhalten sich ja in Berlin (und auch anderswo) viele Leute schon wieder so, als hätte es das Virus nie gegeben und infolge dessen steigen nun auch die Fallzahlen wieder. Momentan ist das ein regelrechter Drahtseilakt, finde ich, es kann ebenso gut- wie komplett schiefgehen...
Ich wünsche Euch ein schönes WE, liebe Flickr-Freunde, passt gut auf Euch auf!
Explored December 17, 2020
Before autumn finally gives way to winter, here's another image from a photowalk with Flickr friends back in November 2018. This a a view westwards from the rooftop terrace of the Reichstag building. While the Reichstag building's rooftop terrace is by no means the highest viewpoint in Berlin, you still have a pretty good view over the city in all four directions. And on that particular(ly cold) day we enjoyed a lovely golden hour up there that ended in a really spectacular sunset later.
Some of the builings you can see here are amongst Berlin's landmarks: there's the Victory Column with the gilded statue of Victoria on top – which was featured in the video for U2's song "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" from their 1993 album Zooropa, and also in Wim Wender's movie Wings of Desire (1987). The tower on the right behind the Victory column which looks like the Eiffel tower's little brother is the Berlin Radio Tower which was inaugurated in 1926. On the left behind the Victory Column you can see the Teufelsberg ("Devil's mountain"), a rubble mountain which also covers the unfinished Nazi military-technical college (Wehrtechnische Fakultät); on top of the Teufelsberg you can see the remains of a former US listening station (the buildings with those spherical roofs). And the tower at the far right is the Tiergarten Carillon, the closest building to the Reichtags building in that direction. The 42 meter high Carillon is a large, manually played "Glockenspiel" consisting of 68 bells; it's located in Berlin's largest park, the Tiergarten (all those colourful tree tops you can see).
At first I thought I'd crop the image to get rid of the decorative roof element which you can see on the left. But then I thought that it's actually another layer in this multi-layered city image and also a nice anchor or entry point. Regarding the sky I should admit that I needed "a little help from my friends" aka photo editing software (Luminar AI to be precise): While the colours which you see are pretty much true to the golden hour colours we'd had on that afternoon – a warm, golden glow on the horizon that started to rise into the bright blue November sky – there was a fairly large area blown-out from the low afternoon sun which, for me, would have ruined the image. Other than that I've edited the image in Color Efex Pro starting from the preset "Warm Sunset".
Happy Hump Day, dear Flickr friends, wash hands, wear a mask, and stay safe and healthy!
The Peak of the Week ;-) Well, that's the weekend, of course, but we are getting closer to that now that it's Hump Day :-)
#windowwednesday
Laowa C-Dreamer 7,5mm F/2
This is the "berlin cube", a brand new building and architectural highlight right by Berlin's central station, the Hauptbahnhof. The ten-storey office building with a width, height and length of 42.5 metres each was designed by 3XN Architects from Copenhagen in an
energy-efficient way and is equipped with the latest technology, including 3,800 sensors for smart control. The photographical highlight is the glass facade with triangle shaped elements that reflect the surroundings like a kaleidoscope. The cube is great fun – and also quite challenging – to photograph, and I will return there soon with a different lens line-up :-) Should you happen to visit Berlin some day, the "berlin cube" should be on your list of things to photograph. The Hauptbahnhof itself is interesting, too, and the Government district and other points of photographic interest are near by.
Happy Hump Day, and HWW, Everyone :-)
Dies ist der "berlin cube", ein nigelnagelneues Bürogebäude direkt am Berliner Hauptbahnhof, das erst in diesem Jahr fertiggestellt wurde. Das wohl auffälligste Element dieses 42,5 m breiten und hohen Würfels ist die Glasfassade, die mit nach innen gerichteten Dreieckselementen ausgestattet wurde, die die Umgebung kaleidoskopartig widerspiegeln. Im Innern ist der vom Kopenhagener Architekturbüro 3XN entworfene und in energieeffizienter Bauweise errichtete Cube mit modernster Technologie, darunter 3.800 Sensoren für intelligente Steuerung, ausgestattet. Es macht großen Spaß, dort zu fotografieren und ich werde sicher bald wieder vorbeischauen, dann mit anderen Brennweiten für einen ganz neuen Blick auf den Cube. Wenn Ihr mal in Berlin seid, solltet Ihr unbedingt dort vorbeischauen. Das Regierungsviertel und andere Sehenswürdigkeiten sind auch nicht weit, sodass man sich dort locker einen Tag fotografisch austoben kann ;-)
Ich wünsche Euch eine schöne Restwoche, liebe Flickr-Freunde, passt gut auf Euch auf!
#MacroMonday
#Numbers
So you think that 42 is The Answer? To Life, Universe, and Everything? Have you ever wondered what would happen if one of those algorithms we deem infallible and that seem to dominate more and more parts of our lives turned out to be completely flawed? Because only a teeny-tiny bit of data was entered incorrectly? We'd all find us in The Matrix of 1984 sooner than we'd care for. Come to think of it, it's well possible that that is where we already are... Time for a little jail break and a trip (hitch-hiking our ride, of course) through the infinite, free Galaxies of our minds. And since the initial question had already been posed too vaguely, we might easily find that the Answer to all our questions is 51. Or 3. Or... I'll leave it to you ;-) With so many numbers today, I'd say that each and every number is the answer to each and every question :-)
Well, and to answer the question what it is that you see here: It's a glass stopper that once safely sealed a bottle of Rosé wine. These glass stoppers are really nice, they are beautiful, they are reusable, and sometimes they even make a nice macro subject. I have no idea why it says "51" on the stopper's underside, it's certainly not the diameter of that part of it (which is 1,3 cm / 0,51 inches). Maybe it's a type reference? Questions upon questions...
What is out of question, however, is the way I've captured and processed this image. I've illuminated the stopper (which I'd simply propped onto the table with a piece of modeling clay in a half-upright position) with green, red and blue-ish light. For the green light I'd placed a green bottle in front of LED No 1, and the transparent red lid of a chocolate box in front of LED No 2. Light No 3 was my small LED torch which I'd held above the stopper. Processed in Luminar 4.3 for detail enhancement on the "51", and in ON1 where I enhanced the colours, and added a soft vignette and some glow.
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone, stay safe and healthy!