Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The fall in the middle

In Hornvík, Iceland, we came across this waterfall. In this photo I did place it in the center of the picture, unusual, I know. But it was scenic in very different ways from every angle and this one was worth an HDR for me. It has an interesting effect in black and white so I am showing this view of it instead of the colored version.





In Hornvík, Island, haben wir diesen sehenswerten Wasserfall gefunden. Ich habe ihn hier mittig im Bild platziert, weil er aus vielen Winkeln interessant wirkt und damit schön eingerahmt wird.

Das HDR fand ich ausnahmsweise in Schwarz-Weiß interessant, weil die starken Kontraste so besser hervortreten, die durch die Mittagssonne entstanden sind.

A lot of views

I like to share my views of landscapes, cities and the world in general in my blog - at least in a photographic way.



In November the views of my blog peaked to a new high. While October was leading the statistics with 869 views now November reached a new value with 1237 views between the first of November and today.



I am really happy with almost 6.000 views total an 20 % of them in this month. Keep coming back! 



I will try to keep you entertained here as well as possible - new trips planed, scenes around the area, and in total all those photos I took in the past and recently here, elsewhere, everywhere. 



I am trying to post one new topic a day, sometimes more, sometimes I am not quite reaching that goal. But feel free to read, write, comment, and take part in this.




My topics span pretty wide in location, topic, style and technique but I hope that keeps it interesting for everybody.




We may have met?

We may have met at some point? Well, I am not so keen on posting pictures about us all over the internet, but I want to give you an impression of us.

If we met, you probably saw a sight like this. So, did we meet? Let me have a message!

Wir könnten uns schon mal getroffen haben? Ich bin nicht so scharf darauf, Bilder von uns über das ganze Internet zu pflastern, aber hier ist ein Eindruck.

Wenn wir uns schon mal getroffen haben, dann habt Ihr vermutlich etwa so etwas gesehen. Also, haben wir uns getroffen? Schickt mir ne Nachricht!








 

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Alpine panorama

On the flight from Munich to Dortmund I posted about earlier, we had a great view of the alps in the sunset light. Do not ask me to name any mountains here. I just like the impression. If you happen to know the exact names of a peak or two... let me know. :o)






Auf dem Flug München - Dortmund, von dem ich neulich geschrieben habe, hatten wir im Sonnenuntergang einen guten Blick auf die Alpen. Fragt mich nicht nach den Namen der Gipfel. Aber, wenn Ihr wisst, was genau da zu sehen ist, dann laßt es mich wissen. :o)






Monday, November 28, 2011

industrial

In Ruhr valley, industrial sites are frequent and partially well inscened. This photo is from a harbour area near by. The scene looks better in black and white in my opinion. I took the picture for a contest of the topic "rust" but handed in a different one.





Sunday, November 27, 2011

harbour of Ísafjördur

Boats in the harbour of Ísafjördur at night in August 2011.

HDR of  3 RAWs, merged in Dynamic Photo HDR.


Made in Iceland - video by Klara Harden

Lately I stumbled across this video. I do not know Klara who made the video, but I did contact her after watching the video and got her permission to write about her video here.

On our trips to Iceland we have been thrown into situation after situation. We do not film ourselves but the self portrait video of Klara is a great teaser for me to act differently next time. She really captures an Iceland experience in all colors and all moods. 

She will probably like more views on her video and I would like to get you all to see the film. It is really worth watching. I will keep an eye on further projects of her, just in case she will publish more.




Ich bin neulich auf dieses Video gestoßen. Ich kenne Klara, die dieses Video gemacht hat, nicht, aber ich habe sie anschließend kontaktiert und habe ihre Genehmigung bekommen, über dieses Video hier zu schreiben.

Während unserer Islandreisen wurden wir auch von Situation zu Situation geworfen. Wir filmen uns nicht, aber das Videoselbstportrait von Klara macht irgendwie Lust darauf, es auch mal zu versuchen. Sie hat wirklich die "echte" Islanderfahrung in allen Farben und Stimmungen eingefangen.

Sie wird sich vermutlich freuen, mehr views in ihrem Video zu finden und Ihr Euch hoffentlich über den Film. Er ist es wirklich wert. Ich werde ein Auge darauf haben, ob sie zukünftig noch mehr Videos veröffentlicht.

The Harbour of Ísafjördur

There is a pier in the harbour of ìsafjördur that looks really scenic. Here is an HDR of this place.


Saturday, November 26, 2011

A piece of Ice(land)

Lately we had the first frost here in Germany. And while I was driving to work, I had to stop at a traffic light across from a busstop in town. I looked over to the left and saw Iceland. Well, I saw it upside down. But I did see Iceland. Really this is just a stain of frost on the glass of the busstop but it looks like Iceland to me! Must be a sign!



Friday, November 25, 2011

Fish Drying - part two

I posted about Icelandic fish and shark drying and the specialty "Hákarl". Here is another HDR of the fish drying hut in the harbour of Ísafjördur. The link to my last posting about this is here.

click to enlarge

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Found a video about Iceland

I found this video about Iceland on the internet. It is a promotional video about Iceland by Keflavík Airport. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do.


Ich habe dieses Video im Internet gefunden. Es ist ein Werbevideo für Island, gemacht vom Flughafen Keflavík. Ich hoffe, Euch gefallen die Bilder so wie mir.


Herbststimmung

Neulich vor meiner Haustür...




Lately infront of my door...

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

fish drying

In Isafjördur in the Westfjords of Iceland, people partially live of the fishing industry. And dried fish from Isafjördur is a specialty. 


In the winter, fish drying happens in slatted huts on land at the coast. But in the summer time flies would be all over the fish before it dries. Therefore there are drying huts that swim out in the bay of Isafjördur. They are further out than the insects can fly so that the fish can dry unspoiled.

You can see one of the huts swimming out there. The photo was taken in August 2011, in the middle of the night. Which is not so bad, since the arctic summer keeps the nights nice and light.




In the posting below you can see an HDR of a fish drying hut on land with explanation and a link to a cooking site talking about Hardfiskur and Hákarl.


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Drying Shark

click to view larger



In Isafjördur they dry fish to make the types of dried - and therefore preserved - fish. This house here hosts mostly drying shark. Icelanders eat grey shark, dried, cubed. 
Oh, and they do like to shock tourists by serving it. I recommend Brennivín with it.

This photo was taken in the harbour area of Ìsafjördur, Westfjords of Iceland. There is an open air historical museum in the front part of the harbour peninsula and the drying house - hosting real shark - is set up there. It is not your typical museum but just a collection of houses, one hosting exhibits, one hosting an incredible fish restaurant, and more.

The photo is a HDR made of 3 exposures, handheld through a hole in the fencing. The 3 CR2 files were imported straight into Dynamic Photo HDR and processed in fusion blending. Little post production.


Icelanders call the dried shark Hákarl and I did find a blog that talks about it: Icelandic cooking

We did try it a few times already and actually like it. Not everybody does, though.

Right underneath the part about Hákarl there is a section on Hardfiskur (dried fish), that is part of that drying tradition.

Oh, when you are on that blog already: Try that reciepe for date cake and tell me how you like it. I made it twice already and I am blown away. 
Oh, I did make it without the caramel topping, but once I bought a bottle of caramel sauce. Both versions work well.



Westfjords in Black and White

I think, ther Westfjords are a classic place out there, since out in Hornstrandir there is no permanent inhabitation anymore for about 60 years. This lead me to present some photos of the landscape in black and white. I would like to hear about your opinions on this. 











Monday, November 21, 2011

sky view

On a flight from Munich to Dortmund in November 2011 we had an incredible sunset. There was a solid cloud cover from the alps all the way up to Dortmund. The colors were great. Some of that impression I can transport in this photo.





Auf einem Flug von München nach Dortmund im November 2011 hatten wir einen beeindruckenden Sonnenuntergang. Von den Alpen bis kurz vor Dortmund hatten wir geschlossene Wolkendecke. Die Farben waren aber unglaublich. Ich hoffe, ich kann einen Teil des Eindrucks in diesem Bild transportieren.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Spruce Beasts

In the market square on Saturday morning: The Three Beasts of Spruce fighting for christmas to arrive. I admit, the photografic quality of this snap shot is questionable. But I thought, the guys were cute. And a little frightening.




Gestern morgen auf dem Markt: Die Drei Tannenmonster kämpfen für Weihnachten. Ich geb's ja zu, die photographische Qualität dieses Schnappschusses ist nicht gerade berauschend, aber ich dachte, die wären süß. Und ein bisschen beängstigend.

A beauty in the grass

Another horse we met in Iceland. Isafjördur, 2011.



Saturday, November 19, 2011

Iceland's horses

Iceland is famous for its horses. This one is a beauty in the sunlight.





Friday, November 18, 2011

Steve McCurry's website

From time to time I post about other photography websites and other people's photos.
There is a website I came across a few month ago while surfing photo pages on facebook, I think. Someone shared the link and I was glued to the screen for the entire evening.

Steve McCurry does not only take photos in places that I and most of my friends will never really get to, he also is a really great photographer that captures scenes, life and emotion with a lot of style.

I would love to post his pictures up and down this post, but that is not ok to do. So I just give you the link and hope you see for yourself. I especially love the India pictures.

I am totally at loss for telling you what photos to check out. I just found one of the galleries. It is called "elephants". Those photos there... just look at the first two of them... how great.


Let me know what you think of this and how you like it.

Manchmal poste ich etwas über andere Photografie-Webseiten und Photos anderer Leute.
Neulich bin ich über die Website von Steve McCurry gestolpert, weil jemand den Link in einer Photodiskussion auf Facebook gepostet hatte, wenn ich mich recht erinnere. Danach war ich einen Abend lang an den Bildschirm gefesselt.

Am liebsten würde ich dieses Posting mit seinen Bildern pflastern, aber das geht natürlich nicht. Also gebe ich Euch den Link und bin gespannt, was Ihr davon haltet.


Ich mag besonders die Indien-Bilder.

Ich habe so gar keine Ahnung, auf welche Bilder ich besonders hinweisen soll. Gerade habe ich die Galerie "Elephants" entdeckt. Guckt nur mal die ersten 2 Bilder an...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

hunters at sunset

On Norderney this month we were on the way back from a long walk when we heard noises that sounded like muted gun shots. It turned out the local hunters were out. Their target were the local rabits that are so many that we well understand the need for extensive hunting. 

One of the men we met in person. He was hunting with a falcon and a dog. We talked to him for a moment and he let us know that he has been on this task for over 20 years. The bird was just beautiful and stunning this close up.










The hunter was saying that it was hard to get the rabits once they started the hunt. As soon as the shots could be heard or the bird flew over once the rabits were gone.
So I am proud to show: I got one just in that situation, well, shortly after we left the man and his bird. But I am only shooting with a lense.







Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Mobile devices

For anyone who checks my blog from mobile devices: Blogger now offers an optimized profile for that and I did activate it. I think it is easier to handle on a smart phone than the regular profil. Please let me know if that feature - or anything else about the blog - is on your mind.



And more Jökulsárlón

More photos than I can ever post here, but still there will be some more.










Monday, November 14, 2011

More Jökulsárlón

As I posted yesterday: We went on a amphibic ride on Jökulsárlón and took photos of the icebergs close up. Here is more of that:

Wie gestern gepostet: Wir waren auf einer Amphibienfahrzeugtour auf der Jökulsárlón und haben Eisberge aus der Nähe fotografiert. Hier ist mehr davon: