#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

#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

#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

#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

#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

#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!

#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

#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

#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!

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

#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!

#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!)

#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!

#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!

#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

#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

(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!)

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!

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

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

#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 :)

#sliderssunday

#ChristmasGarden

Christmas Garden 2019 at the Botanic Garden in Berlin. The illuminated glasshouse in my photo is the Mittelmeerhaus (Mediterranean greenhouse) which can also be booked for weddings and other events.

Since one of the most important ingredients that make a scene look Christmassy – snow – is obviously missing (nothing unusual in my region, February and March are the coldest winter months and the ones more likely to bring snow than December), I hit the sliders in various programmes to add a more festive atmosphere (and also to do something about the somewhat quirky-looking colours from the many illuminations). For the "starry night" texture in the sky, I've used one of the "Dirt and Scratches" filters in Analog Efex; if I remember correctly, it's a texture from the "Eroded" filter palette. I hope you like this little slider:)

Wishing you a Happy Fourth Sunday of Advent and Happy Sliders Sunday!

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" ;)

Sunset

#brown_bobby #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

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!

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

#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!

#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!

#great_blue_heron #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

#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!

#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!

#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.

www.google.com/nikcollection/

I added the Sea Gulls..We don't actually have those in Austin..:)

Collective 52 Photo Project. Week 6/52- ''Three''.

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🍀

Bachalpsee ou Bachsee est un lac d'une superficie de 8,06 ha situé à proximité du First au-dessus de Grindelwald, dans l'Oberland bernois, en Suisse. Le lac, situé à une altitude de 2 265 m, est divisé par un barrage naturel, la partie la plus petite du lac étant 6 m plus basse.

#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!

#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

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!

Oh dear, I should learn when to stop and admit defeat. Forkfeat? Have I forkfeited my macro luck? This is the second to last image I took today. Not to mention the photos I've taken yesterday. Many photos. Too many photos. Of the same two forks. Sheesh! Forks aren't my friends, it seems. Well, but since I've spent so much time trying to come up with something, I can't skip MM, of course I can't ;)

Well, so what you see are two two-pronged serving forks, the smaller fork in focus, the bigger one as bokeh. I'd stuck them together with the prongs pointing into the opposite direction, fixated "head" down by a clasp, and reflected on a black tile. The plan had been to capture both intertwined forks and their reflections, and most of it in focus, and in that I succeeded, but I didn't like the carefully dusted (but still dusty) background. The dreaded macro dust didn't dissolve into nice bokeh this time, because some of it inevitably was in the same line of focus as the prongs' tips were – because to make the image work the way I'd invisioned it, I had to focus on the prongs' tips at the point where they "meet" their reflection. It looked quite nice, actually, but have I mentioned the dusty surface of the tile?

So the setup for this – final – image has been pretty much the same, except that this time I'd allowed more blur and got closer to the prongs' tips – which eliminated the dust. I do hope that the next theme will be an easier one, but knowing myself... ;)

Happy Macro Monday, Everyone, stay safe and healthy!

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!

The collapsed building was once the original farm house. The home still standing was the final home on the farm.

#sliderssunday

And a light at the end of the tunnel that we are all trying to reach so desperately and as soon as possible? But before we can finally step out into the sunshine, we have to make it through a seemingly infinite and not exactly inviting looking corridor. Which brings me straight to the strange appeal of peeling paint – colorful, g(l)or(e)ious peeling paint in abundance, in all shapes and flakes imaginable. OK, I'll admit that this is probably a "peeling paint overkill", and to make it look more appealing I pushed and pulled the sliders hard ;) Pre-processed in DXO PhotoLab , HDR-fied in HDR Efex (which brought out the colours so nicely), glow-ified in ON1 Photo-Raw – and some other slidings I don't remember ;) As usual, I have a basic idea of how I want an image to look like, a certain mood I want to bring across, and then I use all sorts of filters and stuff to get there, but I hardly ever write down each step, as it's way more fun to go with the creative flow, isn't it? By the way, you can take a closer look at that chair by the door in the image in the first comment – and there you can also fully admire its super stylish decorative fabric :)

Happy (Sliders) Sunday, Everyone!

Das Licht am Ende des Tunnels? Schön wär's. Entsprechend der momentanen Corona-Lage müssen wir uns aber auf dem Weg zum Licht erst noch durch einen ziemlich langen Tunnel kämpfen, der gefühlt vermutlich so einladend lauschig aussieht wie dieser Korridor in einer alten Heilstätte. Manchmal frage ich mich schon, was genau den besonderen Reiz verfallener Orte ausmacht – insbesondere dann, wenn die (an einem solchen Ort erwartbar) mit abblätternder Farbe verzierten Wände auch noch mit so ausgesprochen viel und so besonders stark abblätternder Farbe geschmückt sind. Das Wort "dekorativ" möchte ich an dieser Stelle nicht verwenden, eindrucksvoll war es aber allemal. Und damit der Anblick nicht gar so sehr an das Geräusch erinnert, das Kreide auf einer Tafel erzeugen kann (was übrigens durch sog. "Ruckgleiten" entsteht und sich Haft-Gleit-Effekt nennt; nachzulesen bei Geo Wissen: www.geo.de/wissen/17915-rtkl-unangenehme-geraeusche-warum...), habe ich wieder ausgiebig an den Reglern diverser Programme gedreht: unter anderem HDR Efex, das die Farben der diversen An- und Überstriche und auch der interessant gestalteten Bodenfliesen schön hervorhebt, und ON1 Photo RAW, wo ich mit Glow- und Verwischen-Filtern versucht habe, dem garstigen Anblick ein wenig mehr Weichheit zu verleihen. Den Sessel, der ganz hinten bei der Tür steht, könnt Ihr übrigens auf dem Bild im ersten Kommentar in voller Schönheit bewundern :)

Ich wünsche Euch einen schönen (Rest-)Sonntag und eine angenehme, vorfrühlingshafte Woche – und passt weiter gut auf Euch auf!

#macromondays

#Snack

Width of the potato crisp: 5 cm / 1,96 inches. I used a sushi mat to fixate the crisp (so at least my accessories were healthy).

Of course it had to be a potato crisp after my potato crisp related confession in my description for last week's "Texture" theme. After all, I can't water your mouths and then come up with a healthy Snack such as olives, tomatoes, vegan piri piri cabanossi (delicious!) ... Although all three healthy options are favourite snacks of mine. But from time to time it has to be a small bowl of potato crisps. Which I never snack while watching a movie (way too dangerous), but usually in the afternoon when it isn't dinner time, yet, but there is that nasty little craving for something savoury. I could remain steadfast, of course, and wait for dinner, but it is not always an option, is it?

So here is part two of what you might call my "guilty pleasure series": last time it was the old clothes peg that secures the potato crisp bag (you can find the image in the first comment), this time it is a crisp from a freshly opened (only for the theme!) potato crisp bag.

My MM choice also is an exception from my "it's always the last image" rule because in the end, I picked the very first photo I had taken for the theme. I also arranged a miniature "Dutch Mountains" scene for the theme, because the crisps I've used are from Dutch organic food manufacturer Trafo, and The Nits' song "In the Dutch Mountains" played in my head during the entire photo shoot this afternoon. And it was a very narrow pick between the two, but in the end, this single crisp won. Other than the crisps I made the mountains of, which I ate, all the other crisps involved in the photo shoot went back into the bag, the one you can see in this image included – a small victory of steadfastness, one could say ;) The bag is now safely closed with the green clothes peg, for how long, I cannot say.

HMM, Everyone!

Make a Wish :)

#sliderssunday

Old photo, fresh slider: One of those cloudscapes/sunsets where one goes "Wow!", grabs the camera, and runs out onto the balcony to take a photo. Well, at least I do ;) We had a few of those sunsets this summer and early autumn, but since the house is still scaffolded and the (freshly galvanized) balcony parapets aren't properly re-installed, yet, the balcony is off-limits – so I had to dig into my archives to satisfy this certain "Sunday sunset slider mood".

Photographed with the little Lumix LX100 that is capable of taking quite nice light- and sunstars – and that is also a little prone to flares, but I rather liked this rainbow flare, so I decided to keep it in the image. Just like the airplane with its vapour trail which looks a little like a shooting star – wishful thinking, I know ;). And since it's (Sliders) Sunday, I also tweaked the sky's colours in Color Efex Pro – the original colours were mostly blue with some gold tones and hints of purple in the clouds, but the sunstar was already brightly orange in the Raw file. It's just a fun shot that I thought should finally see the light of day. I hope you like it.

Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone!

Altes Foto, neuer Slider. Normalerweise schnappe ich mir die Kamera und renne auf den Balkon, wenn ich einen besonders schönen Sonnenuntergang (oder besonders interessante Wolken) sehe. Da unser Haus aber immer noch eingerüstet ist und die frisch verzinkten Balkongitter noch nicht wieder fest und sicher montiert sind, ist der Balkon weiterhin tabu – also musste ein Archivfoto für den Sliders Sunday her. Eins, das ich mit der kleinen Lumix LX100 gemacht habe, die in der Lage ist, recht schöne Licht- und Sonnensterne zu fabrizieren. Flare-anfällig ist sie dabei auch ein wenig, aber wenn dabei so ein hübscher kleiner Regenbogenfleck herauskommt, bleibt er im Bild, genau wie das Flugzeug mit seinem Kondensstreifen, das ein wenig wie eine Sternschnuppe aussieht – Wunschdenken, ich weiß. Aber Ihr könnt Euch ja trotzdem was wünschen :)

Für Sliders Sunday habe ich in Color Efex ein wenig an den Farbreglern gedreht. Die Originalfarben des Himmels waren überwiegend noch blau mit ein paar goldenen Highlights und einem Hauch von Lila. Aber der Sonnenstern war schon im Original leuchtend orange. Ein reines Spaßfoto, das mal an der Reihe war. Ich hoffe, es gefällt Euch.

Habt einen guten Start un die neue Woche und passt gut auf Euch auf!

But it's just sand, Baltic Sea sand. The announced snowstorm has spared Berlin, and all that we have at the moment is a strong wind from the east and a light snow dance. When I flipped through my photo back catalogue, I stumbled upon the "Usedom 2013" folder and realised that the images I'd taken during a short trip to the Baltic Sea island Usedom back in 2013 weren't that bad at all... Usedom, a beautiful place with long beaches, impressive high coasts, and famous sea spas, is also humorously referred to as "the Berliners' bathing tub", because the Baltic Sea (and its islands) is only a few hours (by regional train) away from Berlin and has therefore always been a favourite holiday amd excursion destination.

The images were taken with my very first MFT camera, the tiny Pen E-PL3. Back then, I'd been shooting JPG only, and I thought that this nice- but also a little dull-looking image (it had been overcast most of the days we'd spent there) would benefit from some extra sliding :) HSS, everyone, stay safe and warm :)

Weiß wie Schnee

Aber es ist natürlich bloß Sand, Ostseesand, während der für dieses Wochenende angekündigte Schneesturm kurzerhand beschlossen hat, einen Bogen um Berlin zu machen. Beim Durchstöbern meines Fotoarchivs bin ich auf den Ordner "Usedom 2013" gestoßen und habe festgestellt, dass die Fotos von diesem Kurztrip auf die schöne Ostseeinsel vor fast acht Jahren gar nicht so schlecht sind wie gedacht. Usedom wird ja scherzhaft auch als "Berliner Badewanne" bezeichnet, weil die Ostsee inklusive ihrer Inseln selbst mit der lahmen Regionalbahn schnell zu erreichen ist; auch wenn wir uns damals, in der Woche vor Pfingsten, mit diversen Jugendgruppen in den üblichen drei Wagen quasi stapeln durften, denn warum sollte man auch einen zusätzlichen Wagen anhängen, auch wenn mehr Fahrkarten als üblich verkauft werden. DB-Logik...

Aufgenommen mit meiner ersten MFT-Kamera, der winzigen Pen E-PL3, als JPG (damals hatte ich mich an RAW noch nicht herangetraut); gestern habe ich dann bei der Neubearbeitung noch ordentlich in die digitale Filterkiste gegriffen :) Ich wünsche Euch einen schönen Rest-Sonntag und einen guten Wochenstart!