View allAll Photos Tagged nikcollection
💙💛🙏
#macromondays
#mesh
Sunrise over planet Colander. The extremely holey atmosphere of planet Colander, here as seen from its moon Cullander, and its particular surface structure, cause an extreme scattering of the light particles which results in the optical illusion that not one, but thousands of suns are rising not only from behind, but also through the surface of planet Colander. The phenomenon is also known as "bokeh rising". (Source: Meshypedia)
Not the most original choice for "mesh", I know, but I had photographed mesh fabrics for the previous mesh-related MM themes (please see the first comment, or my album, if you like), so this time it had to be something not so different different. Since I also didn't have much time for the photo (which is not per se a bad thing) it had to be a simple set-up. So I placed the small colander against a piece of cardboard with a shiny gold-coloured coating, held the transparent red chocolate box lid in front of the soft light LED lamp that provided light from above (and I'd placed one warm light LED lamp slightly behind the colander), and took a few photos from different angles. The blue hue, which reminds me of our planet's stratosphere, is the last bit of daylight coming in through my living room window.
Image processed in DXO PL5 (sharpening, DeepPRIME denoising, micro and fine contrast adjustments). Final processing touches done in Analog Efex (Classic camera 7, general adjustments, vignette, and Film "subtle", no grain).
HMM Everyone!
I'll catch up with you tonight!
#fencefriday
#Freitagsbluemchen
A huge rose family behind a new-old fence around my corner. They looked very playful, so maybe they were acting out a fairytale :) I've added a few photo comments, so you can make up your own story here. The role each rose plays might vary on a daily basis depending on each blossom's form of the day, while the fence's tips are a little more restricted.
Wishing you a Happy Weekend and HFF :)
Hofstaat
Eine große Rosenfamilie hinter einem neuen, auf alt getrimmten Zaun bei mir um die Ecke. Da die Rosen sehr verspielt aussahen, dachte ich mir, dass sie vielleicht gerade dabei waren, ein Märchen nachzuspielen :) Die Rollen, die die Rosen dabei einnehmen, variieren vermutlich nach Tagesform der jeweiligen Blüte. Die Zaunspitzen hingegen haben nicht ganz so viel Spielraum ;)
Ich wünsche Euch ein schönes Wochenende, liebe Flickr-Freunde!
#swallow_tail_kite #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
My cat, Mr. Meowzer, is a free spirit who comes and goes as he pleases. Feeling drowsy on a summer afternoon, he chooses to nap on my bed with an expression that says "Not today".
"Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."
~ Henry James
"Cats are connoisseurs of comfort." ~ James Herriott
Technical details
Exposure 1/40th second at F13 @ ISO 100
Canon EOS 60D & Sigma 10-20mm F4-F5.6.
Manfrotto 190 XDB tripod
Hahnel Remote Capture remotes
Formatt Hitech Filters CPL, ND 0.6 SE
Mindshift by Think Tank Filter Case
Optechusa camera strap
#macromondays
#Heart
The Look of Love, or rather the hazy gaze of love, which it often is, isn't it, when we fall in love with someone or something, and all of a sudden our mind turns off, and the yummy, yummy, yummy butterflies in our tummy take over...
When it comes to "Heart", I have already shot my bolt, or rather Cupid's arrow, with my image for last week's MM theme (which you can find in the first comment) ;) So I had to find something else for the actual "Heart" theme today because I didn't want to use the small silver heart pendant so soon again for another MM. I don't have many heart-shaped things at home, so at first, I considered buying something for the theme, but then thought "No, put your thinking cap on!" I have this sachet full of white, pink, and purple coloured Swarovski crystals in many different shapes (which I have already used for a few MM themes before), and among them are a few heart-shaped stones. That was my starting point. But I didn't want to present the crystals in a too kitschy way – and that was the difficult part ;) To make it short, a small two-in-one pocket magnifier with two plastic loupes came to my rescue. I have no idea where I have it from, it must have been a giveaway maybe at a DIY shop (the imprint says "Coilcraft, Cumbernauld, Scotland), I really don't know how it came into my possession, and I also had completely forgotten about it, when I stumbled upon it last week while looking for something else. It started with "Now where is that darn thing?!" (the one I was actually looking for), and happily ended with "Oh, what have we got here?" Because when you pull out both loupes from their protective plastic casing and arrange them in a certain way they form a heart shape. Nice :)
The width of the frame is 6 cm / 2,36 inches. Setup: I "glued" the two heart-shaped crystals onto a piece of gold-coloured carboard with modeling clay. Then I placed the loupe right in front of the two hearts, very, very close because otherwise, the hearts would have been a mere pinkish blur. I did some focus stacking, but it didn't look nice at all with everything in the frame sharp. So I went for a "single photo approach" with focus on the "eyes" (and once again that was my last photo). That did the trick ;) Processing-wise, I didn't do much this time, just the basics in DXO, some masking in LR, and as a finishing touch I applied a Film type in Analog Efex, one from the "Subtle" palette – and only today did I discover that these different film simulations have names, not just numbers, so from now on I can always tell you which of the simulations I have used exactly: here it was "Asai 2" :)
HMM, Everyone!
#black_bellied_ whistling_ducks #florida_birds #florida #best_birds_planet #planet_birds #birdbrilliance #birdphotography #nature #wildlifephotography #birdextreme #bestbirdshots #discovertheworld #nature_perfection #wildlifeperfection #gregorymountainpacks #sonyalpha #gitzo #leofotousa #markins #manfrotto #TKpanel #luminarneo #adobe_LR_PS #nikcollection #topaz #dxo
#osprey #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
#WindowWednesday
Explored 8 April, 2021
This grand piano won't produce any other sounds than that of cracking wood any more – it's a mere wooden hull, the keyboard and the strings are long gone. But perhaps the sound of this grand piano, played by invisible hands, is inaudible only to us, and every night at 12, when the clock strikes the witching hour, the spirits of the sanatorium meet there for the grand ball...
Another one from the abandoned lung sanatorium somewhere near Berlin. It was the first sanatorium for pulmonary tuberculosis in northern Germany and was founded by the German Red Cross in 1896. After the Second World War, from 1945–1995, the building complex was used as a Soviet military hospital (note the Russian slogan above the stage; unfortunately, I'm unable to read it). I have no idea what's it about the painted cross on the floor (or is is a hopscotch pattern?)...
For more "ghost music", please check the image in the first comment :)
Happy Window Wednesday Everyone, stay safe and take care!
#macromondays
#highkey
Late in the game again with a photo that is a pure act of desperation. Really. I didn't want to skip "High Key", because it is pretty much out of my comfort zone so I wanted to meet this challenge. But I wasn't sure what to photograph. At the end (which means today) a tiny, shiny miniature crown that once graced a pencil bought at the museum shop of the Deutsches Historisches Museum (I've already used this crown in another photo which you can find in the first comment) and another watch (a Casio which you might have already guessed) came to the rescue. But does this image make any sense? I don't think so. Except maybe for the fact that a tiny crown is reflected in the glass of a digital watch that doesn't have a crown, only pushers. Oh dear ;)
OK, so let's skip my unsuccessful attempt at trying to make sense of an image that doesn't make any sense and get to the technicalities: The glass of this watch is double-coated (on the outside and on the inside). Seen at the right angle (light from above aka sunshine works best) it lets the dial shimmer in lovely pastel rainbow colours. But the glass also works as a mirror. So I simply placed the crown in front of it, illuminated the glass with a single LED light so the rainbow colour coating would work its irresistible iridescent magic on the crown's reflection, and took a single handheld shot. Which had to do, because I was running out of time. The bokeh in the lower right corner is the golden crown itself. Processed in DXO PL6, Color Efex, and Viveza.
HMM, Everyone, and have a nice week ahead!
looking down our street in Frankfurt-Nordend
during magnolia high-season 3 weeks ago.
Happy Sunday !
Just a bit of PS playing on a dull, rainy Saturday :-))
Explored June 12, 2022
#sliderssunday
As promised, here's the colour version of my previous upload (please see the first comment). I'm a bit late today, too, because I had to fix my Lightroom installation first. I had this wonderful plan of transferring the catalogue to an external hard drive, so I can use it both on my desktop and my new laptop and keep it synchronized on both machines, but something went very wrong, and I ended up with damaged catalogues on both machines plus I lost all editing work I'd done on my laptop on this image last night. Sigh. Luckily I could fix both installations, but I still have to go trouble hunting and see what went wrong exactly, because it really would be so convenient to use one external hard drive for both computers. Maybe it's the fact that my PC still runs on Win 10, while the laptop uses Win 11 – and yes, all you Apple users out there, I know what you will say now: that this would never happen on a Mac ;)
Either way, here's the colour version. It's much wider than the GR III version (18 mm vs. 28 mm), and there are two birds (please press Z) in it as a bonus, too ;) I did some sliding, too, of course, first in Color Efex where I used the preset "HDR-like" as a starting point, and tweaked it to my liking (I've added the filter "Reflector Efex Gold" to brighten the foreground, for instance), next in LR, and I hope you like this version as well. Happy Sliders Sunday, everyone, and have a nice new week ahead!
...City
While Rome is the Eternal City one might call Berlin the eternal building site. Or The Unfinished City. Construction cranes are as prominently featured in Berlin's skyline as sights. And it can happen that, if you haven't visited a place in a longer while ("easy" in pandemic times), you'll find old, familiar buildings gone, while new buildings seem to pop up out of nowhere everywhere. I've taken this image last week after a visit to the Futurium (a "House of the Future", opened in 2019 – I'll post images from there soon); in the foreground you can see the river Spree, and the glass building on the left is Berlin's Central Station, the Hauptbahnhof (HBF). Noteworthy: The HBF's upper platforms aren't fully roofed, because the Deutsche Bahn (DB; the German Railway Company) wanted to open the HBF in time for the 2006 World Football Championship by all means, and it would have taken until 2008 to finish the roof. The irony: All the construction parts needed to finish the roof were already manufactured. To this date these parts are stored on the premises of Berlin's East Station. Will the roof ever be finished? Who knows... The construction site you see in front of the HBF has nothing to do with the HBF's roof. It is that of the new S 21 suburban railway line, which is scheduled for completion in 2022. Allegedly...
At first, I wanted to process this as a monochrome, because the scene is rather busy. But I liked all these colours. So I thought "embrace the chaos, embrace the construction site and all those cranes", and do it in colour ;) The final image is an HDR made from three images (in HDR Efex), with further processing / sliding steps in Color Efex.
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, stay safe and healthy, and take care!
Die Unvollendete
Rom ist ja bekanntlich die Ewige Stadt. Und Berlin könnte man getrost als die Ewige Baustelle bezeichnen. Oder auch als Die Unvollendete. Baukräne gehören zur Berliner Skyline wie seine Sehenswürdigkeiten. Gerade in Pandemiezeiten, wenn man manche Orte schon lange nicht mehr besucht hat, kann es dann auch passieren, dass alte, vertraute Gebäude plötzlich verschwunden sind, während allerorten Neues entsteht. Dieses Foto des Hauptbahnhofs mit einem Seitenarm der Spree im Vordergrund habe ich vergangene Woche nach einem Besuch des Futuriums (2019 eröffnet, Fotos von dort zeige ich demnächst) gemacht. Die Baustelle am Europaplatz, die Ihr hier seht, bedeutet allerdings nicht, dass die Deutsche Bahn nun doch das Dach für die oberen Bahnsteige des Hauptbahnhofs verlängern würde. Die dafür nötigen Bauteile, längst fertiggestellt, lagern weiterhin (hoffentlich gut verstaut) am Berliner Ostbahnhof. Diese Baustelle gehört zur neuen S-Bahnlinie S21, für die ein unterirdischer Bahnsteig gebaut wird. Geplante Fertigstellung: 2022. Warten wir's ab.
Ich wollte das Foto erst als SW / getöntes Monochrom bearbeiten, weil hier ja ganz schön viel los ist. SW sah mir aber zu trüb aus, weshalb ich bei Farbe geblieben bin. Das Foto habe ich in HDR Efex aus einer 3er-Belichtungsreihe erstellt und für Sliders Sunday in Color Efex noch den einen oder anderen Filter (ich weiß wirklich nicht mehr, welche Filter genau) angewendet.
Habt einen guten Wochenstart und passt weiterhin gut auf Euch auf!
#macromondays
#redux2021
I should have chosen these small plastic bottles which contain an inhalant, and which I'd also considered for the Bottle(s) theme, right away. It would have spared me many hours yesterday and today photographing this and that, and today I'd actually committed myself to shoot a translucent fluorite with the extension tubes, because fluorites consist of such nicely cubic, all natural Geometry Shapes, but the dust, oh, the dust and lint. And mind you, I'd carefully cleaned it before the shooting. So in the end I must have met my very own army ("And if you complain once more, you'll meet an Army of Me"), because I decided that I'd take one last shot, and quit if I don't like it, and this is that very last shot. The inhalant bottles (which once were made of glass, beautiful, tiny glass vials, and nowadays: all plastic), when you take them out of the box, look like a cartridge belt, because they come kind of glued together in a row and one has to break off bottle after bottle. This and their fairly grim appearance (they look a little like a mixture of Daleks and Stormtroopers to me) made me think of Björk's 1995 song.
Sidelit from the right with one LED lamp, shone half through the blue tealight holder, and a handheld led flashlight. I'd also placed the red chocolates box lid next to the bottles to add some extra colour. Processed in DXO PhotoLab 5 and Color Efex (Tonal Contrast filter). Size info: Each of those helmet-shaped bottle caps are 1 cm / 0,39 inches wide.
A big Thank You to the MM moderators for another exciting year of macro challenges :) HMM, Everyone, stay safe and healthy, and take care!
#MacroMondays
#Pastel
This is one of those crazy purchases I solely made for photography and Macro Mondays – because when I recently bought this item, I already knew that I will never use it for its designated purpose which is: brushing teeth. Recently at the pharmacy, I saw Swiss Made Limited Edition "Curaprox" toothbrushes (very cleverly placed on the counter), each nicer than the other, and I immediately knew that I wanted to buy one of the differently-coloured two-part sets for a future MM theme. I picked a set called the "80's Edition" which, according to the manufacturer, is supposed to give you 80s vibes while brushing your teeth. For the above-mentioned reason I will sure miss out on having 80s flashbacks during my dental care routine, but honestly, I'm not sure if I even wanted to have them in the first place. Plus, this set of elegantly shaped brushes with multi-colour bristles also reminds me more of the 1950s. But then the 50s were very popular in the 80s, weren't they?
But enough of the 80s. In the set were a black and a baby pink toothbrush. The bristles of the pink brush are almost all pastel-coloured (mint, light blue, yellow, Barbie pink, baby pink), but unfortunately, there are also a few black bristles that actually look really nice among the pastel colours but obviously don't work for the theme. So I had to photograph the toothbrush so that the black bristles were "invisible". The easiest way to do so was to photograph the top of the toothbrush's head because in that position, the black bristles are hidden by yellow and pink ones. I also left the clear/translucent cap on the brush, because it has a hole shaped like the Swiss cross which I thought looked interesting.
The setup was very simple this time: toothbrush on a small glass jar, camera right in front of it, white foam sheet behind the scene, natural light from the windows. The camera's exposure mode was set to "Hi" (highlight) priority, and it's a single shot. Processed in DXO PhotoLab 6 and Color Efex.
HMM, Everyone, and keep brushing!
Explored 5 August 2021
How do we want to live in the (near) future? In decent conditions as well as environmentally and climate friendly? How should we plan the cities of the future? How should we get from A to B? How will we work, and how will we feed the world? All of these and many more topics regarding "The Age of Man" are being debated at the Futurium, " a house of the future", and a project initiative of scientific institutions and networks of several business enterprises and foundations as well as the German Federal Government in Berlin. The Futurium is not a "museum" in the classical sense, but more of an "activity place" which houses an exhibition, and also a so-called "Futurium Lab" where visitors can activily test out some the exhibits. The Futurium opened in 2019 and is located alongside the banks of the river Spree, close to Berlin's Central Station, the Hauptbahnhof.
I've taken this image at the exhibition on the first floor of the Futurium. It's an HDR made of three images, processed in HDR Efex Pro. And since there are huge windows on the part of the building that is facing the Spree and the government district, it's also an image for Window Wednesday :)
HWW, Everyone, and have a safe and good second half of the week!
Wilkommen im Anthropozän
Wie wollen wir in der Zukunft leben? Wie wollen wir unsere Städte umwelt- und klimafreundlich (um-)gestalten? Wie werden wir zukünftig von A nach B kommen? Und wie werden wir die Welt ernähren? Diese und andere Zukunftsthemen, die sich um das Zeitalter des Menschen, in dem wir uns befinden, drehen, kann man im Futurium erörtern, diverse Antworten darauf finden und, zum Teil, neue Technologien selbst ausprobieren (im Futurium Lab). 2019 eröffnet und in unmittelbarer Nähe zum Hauptbahnhof entlang der Spree gelegen, ist das Futurium ein lohnendes Ziel, auch für Fotografen :) Dieses Foto habe ich in der großen Austellungshalle im 1. Stock gemacht, das neben interessanten, skulpturartigen Exponaten auch einen tollen Blick auf die Spree und das nahe Regierungsviertel bietet.
Ich wünsche Euch eine entspannte Restwoche, liebe Flickr-Freunde!
Red Cliffs is a little known, rarely visited natural treasure, part of the Red Rock Canyon State Park in Kern County, California.
8 portrait exposure panorama. Go full screen on your browser and press L for highest possible resolution.
Thank you very much for all the kind comments and faves.
#sliderssunday
#Shocktober
If only tomorrow's MM theme were "Backlit" – this tiny spider that I found today, sitting on my insect shield and enjoying the autumn sun there, would have provided me with a nice photo. But the theme is "Sidelit", and I still have to take that shot. But first things first, after all it's (Sliders) Sunday, it's Shocktober (have I mentioned that the spider sat on the inside of my insect shield?), and a spider is just perfect for that :) I've used the 16 mm extension tube to get closer to the tiny beast. It patiently let me take a few shots, but not too many, before it went on the run first upwards along the insect shield. Later it must have completed the prison break, because when I returned to that window, the spider was gone. I've also used diverse filters on this image, in ON1, in Color Efex, in Analog Efex, to
give the image a proper Sliders Sunday look.
HSS, Everyone!
Wenn das morgige MM-Thema "Backlit" wäre, hätte mir diese winzige Spinne heute ganz zufällig ein schnelles Foto beschert; aber das Thema ist nun einmal "Sidelit" – und damit habe ich noch nicht einmal angefangen. Aber der Reihe nach, erst einmal ist heute Sliders Sunday, außerdem haben wir Schocktober, und dafür kam der achtbeinige Winzling in der Herbstsonne auf meinem Insektenschutzgitter (auf dessen Innenseite, wohlgemerkt!) gerade recht. Um noch näher heranzukommen, habe ich den 16-mm-Zwischenring verwendet, quasi als Arachnophobie-Therapie-Hilfsmittel. Das hat sich das Spinnchen tatsächlich auch ein paar Minuten gefallen lassen, bevor sie ihre acht Beine in die Hand nahm und das Weite suchte, erst vertikal das Insektengitter hinauf und später wohl durch eine der winzigen Öffnungen hinaus in die Freiheit, denn als ich kurze Zeit später noch einmal nachgesehen habe, war sie verschwunden.
Ich wünsche Euch einen entspannten Start in die neue Woche, liebe Flickr-Freunde!
#Donnerstagsmonochrom
This is a re-edit of a capture that I've uploaded to Flickr years ago (you can find it in the first comment), taken at the same trip to the Baltic sea island Usedom as my recently posted "White Like Snow" photo. Back then, I wasn't happy with the crop, and I also didn't really like the colour version, but still felt unsure of black and white. So I decided to do a new version in b&w and crop it as 1:1 format; I think the square format is a little more "direct", and it draws the view right to and along the wavy sculpture, "ready to climb up and ride the wave", so to say ;)
For the final new version I did some basic processing in DXO PhotoLab 4, then took the image into HDR Efex (the result looked nice even in colour) and then used a film simulation from the DXO FilmPack, the Ilford Pan F Plus 50. I've also done two more b&w edits in Silver Efex, but liked neither. And who knows, maybe one day I'll do another colour edit of this - or I'll find time to visit Usedom again and take an all new photo ;)
Wellenbewegung #2
Dies ist eine Neuinterpretation eines Fotos, das ich in meinen Flickr-Anfangstagen vor Jahren hochgeladen hatte. Mit dem "Original", das Ihr im ersten Kommentar finden könnt, war ich aber nie so richtig zufrieden, mochte weder den Bildschnitt so richtig noch die Farbe, hatte mich damals aber noch nur selten an Schwarzweiß herangetraut. Und da ich kürzlich ja ein "neues" (sprich noch nie gezeigtes) Foto von meinem 2013er Kurzurlaub auf Usedom hochgeladen hatte ("White Like Snow"), dachte ich, jetzt sei eine gute Gelegenheit, Euch mal diese Neubearbeitung zu zeigen. Ich habe mich hier nicht nur für SW, sondern auch für das 1:1-Format entschieden, weil die begehbare Wellenskulptur, die auf dem Weg von Ahlbeck nach Heringsdorf zu finden ist, ja die Hauptdarstellerin ist - und ich finde, dass der Bildschnitt hier "unmittelbarer" wirkt, so, als könnte man sogleich auf die Skulptur klettern und auf der Welle reiten ;)
Entwickelt in DXO PhotoLab 4 (Grundlegendes); danach habe ich verschiedene SW-Ansätze, u.a. auch in Silver Efex, ausprobiert. Diese finale Version habe ich aber nach DXO PL4 nur noch in HDR Efex bearbeitet (da sah sogar die Farbe schön aus) und anschließend im DXO FilmPack mit der Filmsimulation Ilford Pan F Plus 50 (mit kleinen Anpassungen) versehen. Und den breiten weißen Rahmen fand ich auch ganz schick :)
Or: An offer he couldn't refuse...
#macromondays
#Biscuit
Another day, another cookie. But something was different this morning. Sid didn't wake up with his usual ravenous craving for breakfast cookies (which would be followed by lunch, snack, dinner, and night snack cookies). He woke up with pangs of conscience. Was it right what he was doing? Eating cookies, cookies cookies? When he had taken a look at himself in the mirror the other day, he all of a sudden had a Dejá Vu. A cookie Dejá Vu. Oh dear, he felt panic rising. Was it possible that... he? Sid? Was... a cookie, too?!? He looked at the delicious-looking chocolate chip cookie right in front of him. "Hel...lo?", he asked with a quivering voice. "Can... can you hear me?" A somewhat deafening silence answered him. Next, he heard a familiar grumbling coming from below. And it was more than the usual "Me hungry, where are me cookies?" grumbling. This time, the grumbling in his stomach spoke to him. "Sid, Sid, Sid," it said. "You moron! You aren't a cookie, you are a macaroon. Ma-ca-roon. A fabulous Italian Brutti ma Buoni. Made with nocciole italiane. You are Sid. You are special. Capiche?" Sid sighed. A huge weight was lifted from his mind. "I'm Italian?", he asked in bewilderment. A big smile appeared on his face. "Wow! I must tell Grover, Kermit, and all the others when they come over for my birthday cookie party. I'm so proud!" And with an earsplitting growl of "Coooookkkieeees, Me Eeeeeat!!!!" he dug into his favourite type of cookie, the chocolate chip cookie right in front of him – and the world's shortest existential crisis ever had dissolved into thin air. Or rather: into crumbles.
Unbeknownst to Sid, however, Brutti ma Buoni (which means "ugly but good") are very much classified as biscuits. Just like the more obvious choice, the quinoa chocolate chip cookie on the small wooden fork. And both are delicious ;) Btw, did you know that the Cookie Monster has a name? Well, he does, and it is Sid. A fact that I learned when I did some research to refresh my Sesame Street knowledge. The Cookie Monster revealed his name as late as 2004, long after my own Sesame Street days, so I'm not surprised I didn't know ;)
Ingredients: an Italian hazelnut macaron, dyed blue with food colour, and adorned with modeling clay eyes, a chocolate chip cookie, a wooden fork (from an instant noodle bowl), a wooden drip mat, black foam sheet as backdrop, soft light from above. This is my test shot, a single photo taken in shadow priority mode. The width of the frame is 6,5 cm / 2,5 inches. It's not the technically most brilliant capture, but I somehow liked it even with all its shortcomings, so I decided to keep it short and simple this time. In fact, doing the write-up took much longer than taking the photo ;)
I'm very busy today, so I'll catch up with you tonight. HMM, Everyone!
Das Krümelmonster in einer Sinnkrise
Was wäre wenn... das Krümelmonster selbst ein Keks wäre? Das würde gewiss im ersten Moment der Selbsterkenntnis eine echte Sinnkrise in ihm auslösen (s. englischen Text oben). Wer aber das Krümelmonster kennt, und ich gehe mal davon aus, dass das die meisten von uns tun, weiß auch um seinen unstillbaren Hunger auf alles Krümelige ;) Vielleicht würde es sogar im ersten Moment darüber nachdenken, auf Gemüse umzusteigen – sobald es dann aber den ersten Keks zu Gesicht bekäme, würde es keinen Moment zögern und sich mit dem wohlbekannten, ohrenbetäubenden Schrei "Keeeeeekse!!!" darauf stürzen. Oder? Ich würde darauf wetten. Im echten Leben war es dann aber natürlich ich, die beide im Bild zu sehenden Gebäckstücke verspeist hat. Mit Genuss, denn sowohl das Krümelmonster in Gestalt eines mit Lebensmittelfarbe und Knetaugen (die ich vor dem Verzehr natürlich entfernt habe) präparierten "Brutti ma Buoni" ("hässlich, aber gut" – und das sind diese italienischen Haselnuss-Makronen) als auch sein bedauernswertes Opfer, ein Quinoa-Kakao-Keks mit Schokostückchen (übrigens des Krümelmonsters Lieblingskeks, was die Annahme, es könnte sich zum Vegeatrier wandeln, noch unwahrscheinlicher macht), haben nach "Mehr" geschmeckt. Dabei bin ich eigentlich gar kein Süßschnabel :)
#macromondays
#foil
A rather straightforward take on the foil theme. Since my origami folding skills are virtually zero, and an idea I had to put differently shaped small things underneath aluminium foil and then kind of sculpt the foil around these items so the foil would eventually mimic that shape didn't work out, because the foil either broke or the shape looked as if I had simply crinkled the foil (a resistant beast, that foil!), I decided to make the aluminium "aroma" lid of a freshly opened tin (containing chocolate chips for drinking chocolate) look as good as possible. When I pulled the aroma lid off the tin, the edges got nicely creased, so that was a starting point (amongst others). Since metal (I've used the matte side of the lid) takes on coloured light so nicely, I've captured different versions with different colour combos, and this rather fiery mix of red, blue, and yellow looked best.
The image is a focus stacking made of 15 images, combined in Helicon Focus (method A, radius 12, smoothing 4). Illuminated with two LED lamps and a handheld flashlight all equipped with my makeshift colour filters. In DXO, I did some minor sharpening and increased micro-, fine and general contrast. Nik Filters used: Classic Camera 5 (Analog Efex), tweaked to my liking, and Skylight Filter for that extra glow (Color Efex). The detail of the foil is 2,5 cm wide and 2 cm high (0,98 x 0,78 inches).
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone!
Mal was trotz der runden Form ganz Gradliniges für MM. Meine Origami-Faltkünste tendieren gegen null und da sich meine ursprüngliche Idee – verschieden geformte kleine Dinge unter Alufolie zu legen und dann die Folie so herumzudrapieren, dass diese die Formen annimmt – nicht realisieren ließ, weil entweder die Folie gleich riss (ein widerspenstiges Biest, diese Folie!) oder das Endergebnis wie ein beliebig zerknülltes Etwas aussah, habe ich mich dann dem Alu-Aroma-Deckel einer Trinkschokoladendose gewidmet und einfach versucht, ihn so ansprechend wie möglich zu präsentieren.
Nach dem Abziehen der Folie von der Dose hatte sich der Folienrand in recht attraktive Falten gelegt. Das war quasi der Ausgangspunkt – und ein paar dieser eingestanzten Quadratformen wollte ich auch mit auf dem Bild haben. Und weil Metallisches (hier die matte Rückseite der Folie) farbiges Licht so gut annimmt, kamen wieder meine improvisierten Farbfilter zum Einsatz. Ich habe verschiedene Farbkombis ausprobiert, und dieser Mix aus Gelb, Blau und Rot gefiel mir am besten.
Das Foto ist ein Fokus Stack aus 15 Bildern, die ich in Helicon Focus kombiniert habe (Methode A, Radius 12, Smoothing 4). Entwickelt in DXO (minimales Nachschärfen sowie leichte Verstärkung von Mikro- und Fein- sowie allgemeinem Kontrast), dann weiterbearbeitet in Analog Efex (Ausgangspunkt Klassische Kamera 5 mit kleinen Änderungen meinerseits) und abschließend in Color Efex (Skylight Filter für extra Leuchtkraft).
Ich wünsche Euch eine schöne neue Woche, liebe Flickr-Freunde!
#InternationalWomensDay
#March8
Not a ladybird which might have been a slightly more appropriate "supermodel" for International Women's Day because of its name, but an equally pretty Cryptocephalus bipunctatus. The whole supermodel thing is a relic of the past anyway, but unfortunately, we still haven't freed ourselves from questionable beauty "ideals" that often come across as beauty dictates. Social media and "influencers" don't make it any easier, especially not for the younger generation that is exposed (and exposes itself) to what one might call the "daily dose of beauty brainwash", recently taken to the next level with the all-new "beauty filters".
In Berlin (and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one of Germany's Northern federal states), March 8 is an official holiday, but not (yet?) in the other 14 of our 16 federal states. So this Wednesday – where all shops, schools, etc. are closed (and the weather is too ghastly to go outside – winter made a snowy-wet, cold reappearance) – feels like a very quiet, lazy Sunday, and I have too much time for writing rants instead of simply letting you enjoy this adorable, brightly orange beetle, a member of the so-called "Fallkäfer" (Cryptocephalinae) subfamily of the leaf beetle family. The name "Fallkäfer" (a beetle that falls or drops) derives from their distinctive habit of dropping abruptly when disturbed. This image also is a true oldie, I've taken it back in June 2017 at the beautiful public park Britzer Garten. The focus is ever so slightly off and more on the plant than on the beetle itself, but I think it's still sharp enough in general.
Wishing all of my female Flickr friends a Happy International Women's Day!
#macromondays
#Wrapping
When your synapses get fried by thinking about the Christmas presents... Or about which of quite many photos to pick for "Wrapping". I knew I wanted to photograph paper "bubble" wrap (which does neither consist of bubbles, nor is as soft as bubble wrap, because it's a rather stiff, sturdy piece of "honeycombed" cardboard which had been used in a parcel as protection, and which I've kept for use in a photo project), but I had no idea how to make it look Christmassy.
First, I added a tiny miniature railway H0-sized snowman to the scene to add some cuteness to the image, because shouldn't an image about wrapping materials, especially around Christmas, look nice and pleasing? It should, but it didn't work the way I had imagined the little scene. The snowman images looked boring, so I decided to go for a more abstract approach and photographed the honeycomb cardboard from different angles. The results looked interesting, but anything but pleasing – which brings in the "fried synapses", because in the end I didn't know which image to choose, so it was more of a spontaneous pick: a focus-stacked image of a single cardboard honeycomb taken from the front. At least I wanted to add some Christmassy colours to the image (or let's say: I tried to), so I illuminated the scene with red light from the left (filter: red transparent chocolate box lid) and green light from the right (filter: green bottle).
P.S. I used plastic bubble wrap as background, which you can't see, of course, because it's too blurry. I just thought I'd mention it anyways ;)
Happy Macro Mondays, Everyone, and Happy Wrapping :)
Newport, Rhode Island
A variation on a color image I posted a while back---this one from a slightly different position and later time (allowing for the lights on the distant Newport Bridge to be seen if you zoom in near the lighthouse).
Castle Hill Light overlooks the East Passage of Narragansett Bay. Across the way is Conanicut Island (a.k.a Jamestown) which is connected to mainland Rhode Island by the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge to the west and the Claiborne Pell (a.k.a. Newport) Bridge to the east, the latter just visible here to the left of the lighthouse. This was taken at the end of a gorgeous day for early March in southern New England; as a result I had to share the rocks with two other photographers, but we managed to stay out of each other's way. Now that we're headed into summer, this spot will be littered with people (tourists and locals alike) and un-photographable.
Filters: LEE "Little Stopper" (6-stop ND)
#MacroMondays
#Matchstick
I kind of blocked myself with this theme. I've already photographed two burnt matchheads for different MM themes, and since I wasn't really keen on playing with fire (maybe another time), there weren't many options left, especially because I also thought that I couldn't have anything but matchstick(s) in the photo. In the end I thought I'd check the matchbox for matches with "imperfect", kind of "Wabi-sabi-style" matchheads and pick two of them for the photo. Well, what can I say, at least it's a sharp shot ;)
Happy Macro Mondays, Everyone, stay safe and healthy!
Ein seltsames Paar
Irgendwie habe ich mich bei diesem Thema selbst blockiert. Ich hatte ja schon zwei Mal verbrannte Streichholzköpfe für verschiedene MM-Themen fotografiert, und weil ich auch gerade keine Lust hatte, mit Feuer zu spielen (vielleicht ein anderes Mal) und irrtümlich auch dachte, dass außer Streichhölzern nichts anders im Bild sein sollte, blieb nicht mehr viel Auswahl. Ich habe in der Streichholzschachtel dann nach nicht "perfekt" runden, quasi Wabi-Sabi-Streichholzköpfen gesucht und mir zwei davon für's Foto ausgesucht. Was soll ich sagen, wenigstens ist das Bild scharf ;)
Ich wünsche Euch eine schöne Sommerwoche, liege Flickr-Freunde, passt weiter gut auf Euch auf!
In a simple wooden hut, you can create great universal ideas because the seed of the great ideas often grows and develops in the land of modesty.
- Mehmet Murat Ildan -
...to light up your Sunday :)
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, and have a good and safe week ahead, take care!
Explored January 10, 2021
#MacroMondays
#BoardGamePieces
STRG / CTRL+ www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEn16GyRuZA
No modeling clay involved this time. These are stacked "Mensch ärgere Dich nicht" game pieces a millisecond (or so) before the tower tumbled down. "Mensch ärgere Dich nicht" (Man, don't get angry!") is a German board game classic based on the Indian game Pachisi and the English game Ludo. It was developed by Josef Friedrich Schmidt in 1907/1908 and has been sold over 90 Million times since then. I wanted to skip at first, because I'm not really a board game player, and thus also don't really have any board games – except a small box of travel games bought for... a previous Macro Mondays "game" theme. Of course :) I still had no idea what to do with the fairly boring-looking game pieces, but noticed that the plastic cones were hollow – which makes them stackable. So the attempt here obviously was to capture the game pieces tower in the moment of the fall. To make the tower fall, I've used a toothpick which I've retouched with the clone-stamp later in PS. I made a few beginner's mistakes using the Oly's "Pro Capture" mode, but the picture turned out quite nicely anyways, so up it goes :) The height of the stacked game piece tower was 4,5 cm / 1,7 inches, so, together with the reflection and the negative space above the yellow cone, the frame, which I've also cropped quite considerably, should be well within the 3 inches limit.
Happy Macro Mondays, Everyone, stay safe and healthy!
#MacroMondays
#Odd
For "Odd", I immediately had the idea of combining Ohropax® earplugs and my new Sennheiser earbuds. The idea probably came to my mind so easily because my old, trusted, super comfy custom-made earbuds stopped working properly just recently when the right earpiece went "deaf" all of a sudden. I had them sent to the manufacturer, and even though they don't make those earphones anymore (only hearing aids, their original field of business), I still hope that they can fix it. The irony here is that I bought these earphones at the audiologist (you couldn't buy them anywhere else) years ago, because to make the earpieces, the audiologist had to make a silicone earmold, secured with a cotton thread so you could safely remove the silicone once it had hardened. So I sat there, waiting with my ears totally muffled by the silicone, and rummaging about the pretty likely next step following the purchase of in-ear headphones: hearing aids if I turn up the volume too loudly...
The width of the little scene is 5 cm/1,9 inches, so the width of the frame, negative space included, is about 5,5 cm/2,1 inches. The final image is an in-camera focus stacking made of 15 images. And yes, I have bought these colourful Ohropax® earplugs just for the theme, because I thought the standard yellow or orange earplugs would look a little boring for my "Sister Disco" setup ;) The earplugs come in four colours, blue, green, yellow, and orange, and all have a nice marbling pattern. I decided to use only three of the earplugs so the scene wouldn't get too big and there would also be some negative space to let the image "breathe". Processed in DXO, Color Efex Pro, and Photoshop.
Soundtrack: CTRL/STRG+ www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTTY6Z51mO0
HMM, Everyone, and have a nice, sunny week ahead!
Apparently Q's new secret weapon isn't as secret as he (or I) thought ;-) So here's yet another needle capture for Macro Monday's "EYE(S)" theme.
The row of seven needles is 3,5 cm / 1,37795 inches wide. Please view large.
Q's neue Geheimwaffe ist gar nicht so geheim wie er (und ich) dachte(n). Hier kommt also ein weiteres Nähnadel-Foto ;-)
Breite der Nadelreihe: 3,5 cm. Bitte zoomen ;-)
Thank you for your kind comments, I appreciate every single one, and your faves! Vielen Dank für Eure tollen Kommentare und Faves!
A Happy Macro Monday, Everyone!
#macromondays
#Magnetic
A fun theme. Originally, I'd wanted to use a magnet sculpture of the Berlin TV tower (it came in separate parts consisting of a ball and several differently sized magnetic steel bolts, so when I unpacked it, I didn't even realise it was supposed to be the TV tower, but thought it's a DIY sculpture of sorts), but it's fairly big on its own, and I also couldn't get rid of the reflections in the steel ball, so I decided to use the smallest bolts only (length: 7 mm / 0,27 inches), and combine them with... whatever stuck to them while I went searching for some interesting-looking magnetic things around the apartment. Which in the end boiled down to two small steel nibs and a Campo del Cielo iron meteorite nugget (which is 3,5 cm / 1,37 inches long).
The final image is a 15 photo focus-stacking, combined in Helicon Focus (method A, R1, S1) and further processed in Analog Efex (vignette) and Color Efex (filters "Darken/Lighten Center", "Brilliance and Warmth"); and I think most of you can guess by now what I've used it to create the coloured light ;)
HMM Everyone!
...and roofs. So many roofs on which solar panels could be installed, but aren't. That's what I thought when I looked down on the city from the Reichstag dome. There are some roofs with solar panels, but not nearly as many as there could be. Especially not the roofs of the governmental buildings, although that could set a good example. But there are solar panels on some public buildings such as the Futurium (which you can't see in this image). Just for fun, I've marked the one roof equipped with solar panels with an image comment, alongside a few Berlin landmarks and sights.
Processing-wise, this is obviously a slider. The early evening atmosphere of that very hot day back in August had been a little dense and somewhat hazy which made the colours in the original image (an HDR made from exposure bracketing) look a little weird, so I thought I'd try something with the sliders in LR, Color Efex Pro, and Luminar Neo. In the original HDR, there also had been some weird tiny spots (quite many weird tiny spots!), and when I noticed them I was pretty startled because I immediately thought of the dreaded sensor dust – which I've never had on any of my Olympus cameras' senors, and of all things, the new OM-1 should have already gathered sensor dust on its very first proper photo outing?!? Luckily, I remembered that I'd taken a few skyline photos through the not very clean windows of the Reichstag dome, and this was one of those images. Phew ;)
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, and have a nice week ahead!
#sliderssunday
Explored July 4, 2021
Another re-edit of an image that I'd taken during a trip to the Baltic Sea island Usedom several years ago. Duly slid for Sliders Sunday – you can find the almost SooC original upload in the first comment. In the original, un-cropped image the beach line is almost exactly in the middle, because I hadn't dared to get any closer to the person that was lying there so picturesquely (and, as an afterthought from pandemic times: perfectly socially distanced). And since I had been so far away the gulls are mere spots of white in the distance, but I think they are still easily identifiable as gulls, albeit pretty impressionistic – or even pointillistic – gulls ;)
HSS, Everyone, and have a safe and nice new week ahead!
Weiß – Blau – Gelb
Eine weitere Neubearbeitung eines Bildes von meinem Usedom-Urlaub vor etlichen Jahren (ein erneuter Ostsee-Trip ist also längst überfällig). Für den Sliders Sunday habe ich angemessen an den Reglern diverser Bildbearbeitungsprogramme (namentlich aus der Nik Collection) gedreht. Das praktisch unbearbeitete Bild findet Ihr im 1. Kommentar. Beim unbeschnittenen Originalbild war die Strandlinie ziemlich genau in der Mitte – und das war mir schon damals zu viel Strand gewesen. Dieses Mal habe ich nicht ganz so viel vom Strand weggeschnitten, aber immer noch ein gutes Stück. Auflösungsmäßig geben hier die 13,8 MP der kleinen Pen in Verbindung mit dem Lumix-Weitwinkel-Pancake nicht so viel her, ich hätte deutlich näher an die so malerisch zwischen den Buhnen drapierte Person herangehen müssen, hatte mich aber nicht getraut. Aus dieser Entfernung sind die Möwen dann auch nur noch weiße Punkte, aber ich denke, dass jeder trotzdem weiß, dass es sich nicht um expressionistisch (oder pointillistisch) hingetupfte Farbe, sondern um stets hungrige und freche Ostsee-Möwen handelt ;)
Habt einen schönen Sonntag und eine guten Start in die neue Woche, liebe Flickr-Freunde, und passt weiterhin gut auf Euch auf!
#macromondays
#Bottles(s)
Please press "Z".
This is the base of a green glass bottle that once contained white wine and now is a vase. I often keep beautiful bottles, big or small, just because they look nice. I use them as decorative objects, as colour filters for tabletop photography, or as vases. And when I saw this bottle, I bought it specifically because it looked so nice (hoping that the content would be nice as well – it was), and with the intention of turning it into a vase. There's a glasser around my corner who has cut off the necks of quite a few bottles for me, as the DIY methods you can find on YouTube seemed too unsafe for me to do it myself. When I turned the bottle upside down, I noticed the really interesting-looking circular pattern at the base consisting of many tiny indendations. I've experimented with light from different positions, and backlit (with a hint of red light slightly from the front / above) brought out the patterns best.
There's also a bit of an optical illusion here, because the whole bottle base is convex (as to be expected), and the circle at the centre is a convex shape of its own, even though in the final image it looks concave, sort of bulging. And with those two extra, almost V-shaped indentations at the centre it reminded me of a reptile's eye staring right at me ;)
The "V" shape at the centre is 0,5 cm / 0,19 inches long, and the circle itself has a diameter of 2,5 cm / 0,98 inches. It's a single shot processed in DXO PhotoLab 5, with further tweaks in Analog Efex (vignette, Vintage Camera 5), and in Color Efex (Brilliance & Warmth, Detail Extractor, Photo Stylizer).
HMM, Everyone, take care and stay safe!
Schau mir in die Augen, Kleines? Nun, warum nicht. Denn weder hat Humphrey Bogart das tatsächlich so gesagt noch ist Kaa böse, obwohl er in den Disney-Verfilmungen des Dschungelbuchs so dargestellt wird. Und eigentlich ist das der sehr harmlose Flaschenboden einer ehemaligen Weißweinflasche, die nun als Vase fungiert. Ich hebe oft schöne Flaschen auf, egal welcher Größe, die ich als Deko-Objekt, als Vase oder auch manchmal als Farbfilter für Fotos verwende. Bei dieser besonders schönen Flasche, die ich schon mit dem Gedanken, daraus eine Vase zu machen, gekauft hatte, hat mir der Glaser um die Ecke den Flaschenhals abgeschnitten, damit ein ganzer Strauß Blumen darin Platz findet und nicht nur eine einzelne Blume. Ich weiß, dass es auf YouTube jede Menge DIY-Anleitungen gibt, die mir aber alle zu unsicher sind, um das selbst zu machen. Jetzt habe ich beim großen Fluss aber DIY-Sets entdeckt, die ich mir mal genauer ansehen werde ;)
Die Flasche an sich hätte für ein Makro nicht viel hergegeben, als ich sie aber umdrehte, fiel mir am nach innen gewölbten Boden ein interessantes kreisförmiges Muster, bestehend aus vielen winzigen Einkerbungen, auf. Und das habe ich mir dann durch das Makroobjektiv mal genauer angesehen. Das Resultat erinnert mich ein wenig an ein Reptilienauge, besonders mit den beiden länglichen (vorgewölbten) Einkerbungen in der Mitte. Dass der innere Kreis nochmals deutlich nach innen gewölbt ist, aber wie ein Auge konkav wirkt, ist eine optische Täuschung (wie sie bei solchen Formen häufig vorkommt, finde ich). Das Foto ist eine Einzelaufnahme, hauptsächlich von hinten beleuchtet, mit etwas rotem Licht leicht von vorne / oben für extra Akzente.
Habt eine schöne Dezemberwoche, liebe Flickr-Freunde, und passt gut auf Euch auf!
This view was definitely one of my highlights from the trip. The day started off very grey and when we arrived at Skógafoss it was raining a bit. As I mentioned in my earlier description it was crowded by the waterfall itself, but the further we walked, the less other tourists we saw. Then suddenly the sun started to shine gently between the low clouds, and revealed all the beauty of the curvy and hilly landscape. The temperature also rose and in October, in Iceland we were able to take off our coats, sit on the hillside with a cup of coffee and just enjoy the scenery in front of us, with the sound of the flowing water to make it even more intense. The first few days were amazing, but sometimes it felt like being in a hurry. No wonder with all the things we wanted to see and our busy schedule, but this was maybe the first time where I sat down and thought: "wow, this is Iceland and this is why we do it!"
Thanks for having a look! All faves and comments are highly appreciated!
Spring is here - and this joy may distract us from the current events, and in nature we can still take pictures at any time. I hope you are all well, don't let it get you down and take good care of yourself !!
#macromondays
#Vintage
#sharpnessisnoteverything
Extra! Extra! Read all about it, the vintage watch in a miracle cure...
I had two possible subjects for "Vintage", a brass thread counting glass that my mom (magrit k.) got during her dressmaker apprenticeship, and an automatic wristwatch that had belonged to my father. The plan was to combine these two items. I placed the thread counter's magnifying glass over the date, and while I was checking out different positions of thread counter, watch, and camera, all of a sudden the seconds hand appeared on my camera's display. Now you might think that this is nothing special, the seconds hand of a watch does move, doesn't it? Well, this one didn't. For the past 15 or so years, it didn't move an inch. I've been wearing this watch nonstop for many years after my father died, and I had it repaired several times, but at one point it stopped working, and the watchmaker told me that the movement was finally beyond repair. And now the seconds hand started moving out of nowhere. You can tell that I was surprised. Even shocked a little when the watch started working again all of a sudden. Immediately, The Who's song "Miracle Cure" from Tommy popped up in my head, hence the title ;) So what I will do next is carry the watch to a watchmaker and have it cleaned and checked. I still can't believe it ;)
Technically, this is one single shot. I had focused on the dial, through the thread counter's magnifying glass, which explains the distortion of the dial. The main focus is, of course, on the magnificent seconds hand ;) The frame around the dial is the brass thread counter; the manufacturer was "Hostmann-Steinberg" which is the blurred lettering that you can see. Processed in DXO PL6, Lightroom, and a variety of Nik Collection filters.
Happy Macro Monday, Everyone!
Behind the window...
#windowwednesday
Beautiful autumn day at the Lake Tegel in Northern Berlin. The unusual bicycle on the jetty and the charming old boat next to the newer, streamlined yacht caught my eye. When I took a few photos of that lovely autumn scenery, I thought that the old boat was empty. But when I processed this image for Window Wednesday, I realised that, unwittingly, I had kind of trespassed onto a rather special moment. That boat hadn't been empty at all. Please zoom in, and you'll see what I mean with "special moment" ;)
Happy Window Wednesday, Everyone!
Ich habe kürzlich mal wieder den schönen Tegeler See im Berliner Norden besucht. An diesem Steg an der Seepromenade fielen mir das ungewöhnliche Fahrrad (es könnte sich um ein "Load" von Riese & Müller handeln) und die beiden Boote ins Auge, das linke schon älteren Datums, dafür aber sehr charmant, und daneben die schnittige, noch ziemlich neue Jacht als Kontrastprogramm. Beim Fotografieren hatte ich noch gedacht, die Boote seien leer, aber beim Bearbeiten fiel mir dann auf, dass ich hier, auf dem alten Boot, rein zufällig einen ganz besonderen Moment eingefangen habe; wenn Ihr reinzoomt, könnt Ihr sehen, was ich meine ;)
Habt eine schöne Restwoche, liebe Flickr-Freunde!
Explored July 4, 2023
#MacroMondays
#Feather
Plume grass is an extremely rare type of grass that can only be found in the deep sea in light-flooded caves (illuminated by the just as rare but permanently glowing deep sea rainbow) or above the clouds. I couldn't verify the origin of this specific bunch of plume grass, because it had materialized itself on my photo (aka living room) table out of nowhere. OK, joking aside, "nowhere" is a small paper bag that I keep in my original MM box (numerous boxes have followed since) in which I've carefully stored this feather ever since I found it on the ground in front of an outdoor owl cage/compound at the Tierpark Berlin back in 2017. The owl inhabiting said cage had eyed me suspiciously all the time plus its plumage colour and pattern were very similar to that of this feather, so it was pretty sure that owl's feather.
The feather, or rather the part of it I'd found (it looks as if it had broken off because the quill is missing), is very fluffy and delicate, and it has a white/light brown zigzag-like pattern. The entire length of the feather is 6,5 cm/2,5 inches, and the (upper) part of the feather that you can see in my image has a length of 2 cm/0,78 inches and a width of 4 cm/1,5 inches..
Since a feather is all about airiness, freedom, and a creature soaring the sky up above I thought I'd use a bright blue backdrop for a change. I still didn't know how to add a little more vivacity to the feather itself, since while beautiful it isn't exactly colourful with its muted tones that suit a predator well as camouflage. My makeshift colour filters didn't work too well for the scene I had in mind because they coloured the backdrop as well. But the sunshine came to my rescue. I keep all sorts of stuff on the window sill, like a sundial, and also rocks and crystals, and among these "dust collectors" also is a huge, diamond-shaped glass crystal. Its facets conjure lovely rainbow-coloured light reflections onto the wall and the window sill when hit by the sunlight at the right angle. And when I noticed the sparkle, I thought "That's it, hooray!" :) Not that it is easy to direct the rainbow sparkles to a specific subject, it was a lot of hit-and-miss, but in the end, I once again had a few images to choose from. I also took a few images of a plain white feather that actually reflects the rainbow light much better, but since I had to make a choice, this image made it mainly because of the white bokeh balls in the upper right corner (probably light reflections from the glass crystal as well) because they reminded me of sunlight shining through a very clear water surface (or of a small fleecy cloud), illuminating a beautiful "underwater scape".
HMM, Everyone, and have a nice week ahead!
#sliderssunday
Explored 23 May, 2021
You might wonder about the title. Well, what you see in the photo is the river Spree taking one of its many bends across Berlin, and this particular area that you can see on the opposite river bank is also called "Spree-Bogen", "Spree bend". This area used to be the home of the Meierei C. Bolle (dairy farm C. Bolle) that was founded in 1879 during one of Berlins particularly strong periods of growth. The two glass towers belong to an U-shaped building ensemble that was the (rented!) seat of our Federal Ministry of the Interior from 1999 - 2015.
This is one of the images that needed time to "develop". I've tried several different processing approaches over the past months, and I was never really happy with any of the results, because I always found the sky too blue, the image too bright, the clouds not nice enough... I once even replaced the sky in Luminar, but didn't like that, either. So back to the original sky, and just the other day, when I gave it another go, I finally stumbled upon the solution. In a first new version I had processed the image in HDR Efex, kind of liked it, but still found the image too bright. Just for fun, and for comparison purposes, I decided to also process the image in Aurora HDR, tried a few of my favourite presets that I use as starting point in Aurora, and... Bingo! In the "Dramatic" preset collection, there's a preset called "Sleepy Drama" which desaturates the blue tones and adds a darker look to any image – and that did it, at least for me. I still tweaked the preset's settings to my liking, and, in Color Efex, added some Brilliance and Warmth. I hope you like the image :)
Happy Sliders Sunday, stay safe and healthy, and take care!
Bolle reiste jüngst zu Pfingsten...
Blick auf das Spree-Bogen-Areal, gelegen an einem von sehr vielen Spreebögen durch Berlin. Auf diesem Areal wurde 1879, während einer besonders starken Wachstumsphase Berlins, die Meierei C. Bolle erbaut, deren Gründer Carl Bolle allerdings nichts mit dem bekannten (und so lustig wie hintergründig makabren) Bolle-Lied zu tun hat, dessen gesamten Text (bitte alle Strophen lesen, es lohnt sich) Ihr hier finden könnt: STRG/CTRL+ de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolle_reiste_jüngst_zu_Pfingsten. Es passt nur gerade so schön zu Pfingsten ;)
Die beiden Glastürme sind Teil des U-förmig gestalteten Spree-Bogen-Gebäudes, das von 1999 bis 2015 das Bundesministerium des Innern beherbergte (zur Miete!). Diese Bild hat sprichwörtlich Zeit zum Entwickeln gebraucht, ich habe über die Monate immer mal wieder diverse Ansätze ausprobiert, aber es hatte bislang nie richtig "Klick" gemacht, immer war mir der Himmel zu blau, das Bild zu hell, die Wolken nicht schön genug... Einmal habe ich sogar in Luminar den Himmel ausgetauscht, was mir aber auch nicht gefallen hat und sowieso nur eine Notlösung sein sollte, weshalb ich schlussendlich doch beim Original-Himmel geblieben bin.
Kürzlich habe ich dann noch einmal einen Anlauf in HDR Efex gestartet, was mir schon recht gut gefiel, mir aber immer noch zu hell war. Nur aus Spaß und auch zum direkten Vergleich habe ich mich dann noch durch meine Lieblings-Presets in Aurora HDR geklickt. Meistens nehme ich in Aurora eines der "Dramatic"- oder "Artistic"-Presets als Ausgangspunkt für die weitere Bearbeitung. Hier war es das "Sleepy Drama", das – endlich – den Knoten löste. Für den "sleepy" Look werden die Blautöne entsättigt und für das "Drama" wird die Tonwertkurve in Richtung Tiefen korrigiert. Ich habe dann noch eigene Anpassungen vorgenommen und abschließend in Color Efex etwas "Brilliance and Warmth" hinzugefügt. Mit dem Ergebnis bin ich recht zufrieden, zufrieden genug jdf., um es Euch zu zeigen. Ich hoffe, das Bild gefällt Euch auch :)
Ich wünsche Euch schöne Pfingsten, passt weiter gut auf Euch auf und bleibt gesund!