Journal - Five Zero Project

I took the first few shots after a long pause from Kodak Tri-X film on a bleak, January afternoon. The pile of VW Beetle cars outside the ZKM museum in Karlsruhe offered a reasonable subject to shoot. Daylight was disappearing quickly, so it was the Beetles or nothing.

tagged

art,

karlsruhe,

museum,

volkswagen,

vw,

zkm

Friday

Apr062012

Crocodile Tears

Apr 6, 2012 at 10:52 | in

Animals,

The German Pharmacy Museum (Deutsches Apotheken Museum) is located inside Heidelberg Castle. As I walked in, a big sign stated "No Flash Photography!". Crocodile tears. Will I take away any images? The museum is very interesting for me, especially since the theme touches on my education and profession. I wanted to capture images of the artefacts and presentations, however, the "no flash" requirement presented a challenge. It was dark in the museum, and even at ISO 2500 and f1.4, shutter speed was down to 1/30ths or slower.

I came away with some decent images. No crocodile tears this time.

tagged

castle,

museum,

Sunday

Mar042012

It was a dog of a day today

Mar 4, 2012 at 18:32 | in

Animals,

Photography

I don't usually shoot pet photos, but today was an opportunity to do just that. I put an L.C.W Fader Mk II variable neutral-density filter onto my 50mm Summilux, and shot a few images of my two dogs, Othello (the black one) and Hamlet (the brown one). All images shown here were shot at f1.4 despite the bright, overcast midday sky. Without the ND filter, shutter speeds in excess of 1/4000th would have been necessary.

I am developing quite a liking to the soft, whirling, and creamy rendering of out-of-focus areas when shooting at f1.4. For the near future, I have decided to leave the ND filter on the camera for a while, and chase images at f1.4 no matter what the time of day (1/4000th is the fastest shutter speed on the Leica M9).

Let's see how it goes. Wuff!

tagged

ND,

f1.4,

filter,

neutral density,

summilux

Saturday

Feb252012

It was a juicy start...

Feb 25, 2012 at 18:41 | in

Places,

Street

...to my Barcelona trip. This shop in a narrow street of the old town was a real eye-catcher in the dark shadows cast by ancient buildings. The young lady saw me turn to line up the shot, and stood motionless with a smile on her face as I snapped the picture. I bought a glass of mango and orange juice, enjoying the juicy start to a day in Barcelona after a tough business trip.

tagged

barcelona,

fruit,

seller,

shop,

tropical,

woman

Monday

Nov282011

The People have decided

Nov 28, 2011 at 21:00 | in

Documentary

After many months of protest against the demolition of Stuttgart's main railway station as part of the Stuttgart 21 Project, yesterday, the referendum finally decided the project can continue. There is plenty of information about this project to be found with a Google search, so I express no more about this project beyond that expressed in my photo above.

tagged

Sunday

Oct022011

Deep blue sea

Oct 2, 2011 at 19:33 | in

Actually, it's not the sea, but the Alpsee (Lake Alpsee), near Hohenschwangau, Bavaria, Germany. It appeared a wonderful emerald colour, and extremely inviting, especially for a swim, or paddleboat ride for those landlubber tourists. I did not jump in since I had already received my fair share of Bavarian moisture. I had been out all day hiking, and it had only stopped raining when I reached the lake. The Alpsee was the last port of call before ordering that Bavarian sausage and beer.

tagged

alpsee,

bavaria,

germany,

hohenschwangau

Sunday

Sep252011

The only thing of importance...

Sep 25, 2011 at 20:15 | in

People,

...was to get one of those Weizenbiers (German wheat beer). It was the end of a long day's mountain tour in Bavaria's Alps, and all that mattered was that cool, gold, Weizenbier. Knees were sore from the descent, feet were tired from walking the steep and narrow trails that had taken me way above Neuschwanstein Castle to the peak of the Branderschrofen. I was tired but pleased with a fine tour and perfect weather. The only challenge left was to down that golden nectar. This part of the tour proved to easy and just as satisfying as the previous six hours of activity. Prost!