A tour of the city Pößneck with light and shadow

I'm waiting for my surgery in hospital. And I am bored. To distract me from my worries, I was looking in our neighboring town. My dear friends and photographer Hartmut and Catherine have accompanied me and we did a tour of the city Pößneck.

Pößneck was founded in the 13th Century and has always been a city of craft and industry. They built ball bearings, manufactured porcelain and textiles.

Very special importance of the city as a location for a large printing.

Pößneck has one of the finest medieval town halls in Thuringia. One can find a lot of art in public spaces and beautiful new architecture. On the other hand, there are plenty of ruined buildings. In many corners of the city are houses collapsed and can no longer be used.

Here I show both sides of the city: light and shadow.

International Dog Sled Race in Frauenwald - some impressions

Last weekend I was with my camera in Frauenwald/ Germany in the depths of Thuringian Forest on the 18th World Championships in sled dog races.
Here are a couple of photos of the track and the Musher camp.

Unfortunately, the light was very poor and the wet cold has made little fun. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was great. The dogs, the drivers and the spectators had a lot of action.

Partners in sports and friends in life

Three snapshots of the international sled dog race in Frauenwald/ Germany last saturday.

Winter walk

  

It was ass-cold and the sky full of mist. The snow on the trees was frozen and squeezed the branches under its weight. It was quiet, only the trees creaking under the ice wind.

The small lake in the middle of the forest was petrified and white like the sky.

A dog team raced on crunching runners across the snowy meadow. Then there was silence again.

Dark and gray days - on the go with the Sony RX100

In these days and weeks, I can worry about my dear depressions. Each day begins and ends with a deep dark grey sky which it snows every now and then. The temperatures are at least minus four degrees Celsius. It is cold and uncomfortable.

What to begin on such days with a camera? Right, you shoot black and white, or at least more or less monotonous. The small, if expensive Sony RX100 is always in my coat pocket, as soon as I leave the House.

Every now and then it is worth, despite the bad weather and murky light, take a few pictures. Here is a small selection from the last few days.

Welcome to my hometown Saalfeld - the "winter - wonderland"

Winter is not my style. It's cold here in Central Europe and a low pressure system already follows the next. This means that throughout the day it is gray. It is snowing or raining. And if you have bad luck, it's raining and snowing at the same time.

Since the photography really makes little fun.
And yet I have my little Sony RX100 always there. Sometimes I take pictures but just to be rid of my frustrations.

In Germany, the owners of the houses are required to clear the snow and other debris away between six o'clock in the morning and ten o'clock in the evening. If one is on vacation or work all day, he must ask the neighbors to help out or much money involved a janitor - service.

Only the streets and sidewalks in rsponsibility of city council are not cleaned up. The employees are simply too lazy to work, or to think. The ordinary citizens must see how he comes home.

Look at the pictures to understand this problems.

Sometimes I trudge through miles of snow, although the roads are cleared for the cars. Nobody thinks that the pedestrian.

For many years, the global warming is threatened. But unfortunately she doesn't show up. Every winter in recent years is snowy and cold. It doesn't look well, as if this something would change.

Some days it's still fun to have the winter. Then, when the sun shines and it's not quite cold and windy. I hope spring comes soon this year. Then again, there are many beautiful things to photograph. 

In the footsteps of Bruce Barnbaum

For Christmas, my son has given me the new book "The Art of photography" of Bruce Barnbaum. For several days i browse interested in the around 400 pages- tome and discover inspiration on each new page. I'm amazed that black white photography can be also used for landscapes and such beautiful results are possible. I didn't reactivate my darkroom-photography-tools again that lies dormant for years in the basement.

But on the computer you can generate on the basis of an average color photos a wonderful black and white photo using by Photoshop. Unfortunately the weather not ready to play with my wishes in the last few days and weeks. Constantly the sky is overcast, it is raining or even snowing.

In the past week, I've used the time on the way to work and my free afternoons to take pictures in the style of Barnbaum. A bracketing of three images are the basis of the edited photographs. In the first step, the exposure bracketing are automated run by Nik Efex HDR Pro and then processed in Photoshop elements 10. I tried to create a monotonous result . Single splash of color are preserved only in individual cases. If at some point once again, the Sun is shining, I will show more pictures here.

Because unfortunately the Canon 600D with lens does not fit into my coat pocket, i created the photos with the small Sony RX100 or with the Canon EOS-M with 22 mm pancake.

On the way to work and back again - on the go with the Sony RX100

Lately in good weather, I run more frequently with my Sony RX100 in the coat pocket to work. This small compact camera go with me already some time not only on the way to work, but also for hiking and small travel.

The RX100 image quality is extremely good. This is due mainly to the sensor which has been very large with an inch in contrast to most compact cameras.

You can take pictures with this small marvel that can at least compete with such a beginner DSLR. The lens is very bright with its maximum aperture of 1.8 and if you stops two times, the image is razorsharp to the edge. The focal length ranges from 28 mm to 100 mm.

Certainly, the price you have to pay for this little camera is very high. But it is worth every penny. I know a lot of photographers who are traveling for months only with the Sony RX100 especially in the city. The camera is so inconspicuous-very good for street photography. Even in rock concerts in very low light conditions. No security-man really takes seriously such a small camera and they easily waving the user through.

It has in addition to the possibility of manually aperture and exposure time to adjust, semi-automatic and can be focused even manually. In addition, there are a number of automatic modes for almost all possible motives by the sport mode to the HDR mode. Also, you can easily create panoramas with a very high resolution. Videos are recorded with full HD, 50 frames per second. A single push of a button is enough to start the video recording.

The screen is three inches tall and has a resolution of more than one million pixels. You can judge the shot images in high quality on the monitor.

The ISO- Auto can be used up to ISO 800 without remorse. Until then, noise in the photos is absolutely not to perceive. Despite the 20 mega pixels which the sensor is crammed, the image quality is excellent.

What can one say in addition to the high price of disadvantages?

The buttons are mildly tiny and not really suitable for big man hands. The camera would be perfect, if it had a hot shoe and a remote control. Perhaps a Finder and a reasonable grip. But then it would be probably much larger, than it is at the moment. But just these tiny dimensions make it so unique. You can take it easily anywhere, it fits even in a not-too-tight pocket of jeans without dents out.

The images were photographed by September 2012 until this morning.