Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Blue Triangles



The architecture of this house has been interesting to me since I first saw it. But finally I got a chance to take photos of it. I went there in the blue hour and I think it is doing the building some flair.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Plum Blossoms



My plumtree infront of the forsythia bush.

Mein Pflaumenbaum vor den Forsythien.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

The treecreeper




Taking a walk on the easter weekend, we came by a group of trees on the edge of a forrest when we spotted the treecreepers. There were about 4 or 5 in the surroundings there. We kept watching an individual one jumping up the tree, hammering in the bark. 

Whenever the bird got really high up, we could not follow him with the camera anymore. But that is no problem really. Treecreepers can go up a tree, but they can not go down. 

Then they fly back down to the bottom of a neighbouring tree and start over.

So, as a photographer, you know, that your model is going to draw quite some attention to itself and start the cat walk again, from your end of the scene. Pretty convenient, if you ask me.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Finally Spring


 My cherrytree - Mein Kirschbaum


My plumtree - Mein Pflaumenbaum


Friday, April 26, 2013

The Kinglet

Lately I spotted a bird in the top of the spruce trees. It looked very tiny and it was sooo fast.

I whipped out the 150-500mm Sigma lens we got lately and tried hard to follow it. I was hoping that with a photo I could identify this bird. My first thought was: This has to be a kinglet. I didn't think that because I had ever seen one before, but because I knew the kinglet was the absolutely smallest bird in our region and that is was noticeably smaller than a winter wren.

I have my photos now that give prove: It was a kinglet.

Later that day I went back to the same general area and in a different part of forrest I spotted it again and managed some more photos.





So fast.


Neulich habe ich einen Vogel relativ weit oben in den Fichten entdeckt. Er sah so klein aus und so schnell.

Ich habe das 150-500mm Sigma-Objektiv herausgeholt und habe mir alle Mühe gegeben, ihm zu folgen. Ich habe gehofft, dass mir ein Foto gelingt, mit dem ich den Vogel richtig bestimmen kann. Mein erster Gedanke war: Das muss ein Goldhähnchen sein! Nicht, dass ich je eins gesehen hätte, aber ich wußte, dass das der kleines Vogel unserer Gegend ist, und deutlich kleiner als ein Zaunkönig. Konkret ist es ein Wintergoldhähnchen.

Ich habe meine Bilder bekommen und damit den Beweis: Es war ein Goldhähnchen.

Später am gleichen Tag war ich nochmal in der gleichen Gegend und habe den Vogel in einem anderen Waldstück wiedergefunden. Nocheinmal sind mir Fotos gelungen.



This is the cutest photo I could have ever imagined of this bird!

Ist das nicht das süßeste Bild von diesem Vogel überhaupt?





Thursday, April 25, 2013


This is a sunset in the fields between Hamm and Soest. Middle of April, no leaves out yet. The trees made me turn away from the actual sunset and take this perspective instead.

 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Swan on green



This swan is a sure sign of spring. The way the sun shapes the body makes me believe he posed just for me as he swam under the bridge and back out to the other side.

Well, he did this to impress the ladies, I guess.


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The river fields

These are the fields in the river valley where the storks and many other birds nest.



Monday, April 22, 2013

My Squirrel passed the test

In October we hung up a feeding station for squirrels - by vivara.de - and filled it with awesome nuts. Since then the birds have been very interested in the feeder since they can see the nuts but do not get to them at all.

The squirrel, though, never once made an attempt to get to this. Instead the squirrel emptied the bird feeder more and more.

Now, finally, in April, the squirrel found the feeder and figured out how to get to the nuts.

Here is a stretch of photos I took from my breakfast-table on Friday morning.





Sunday, April 21, 2013

Saturday, April 20, 2013

The storks are in town

For a little while now we have storks in town. And now we finally went to see them at their nest.

We got rewarded by a spectacular flight show: One stork was on the nest when we came there and the other one was circling above us. It went to land on the nest, followed by clicking action of both of them.

Here is the landing approach. Our thanks goes to the couple that drew our attention to the flying stork really early.


Seit einer Weile haben wir jetzt Störche in unserer Stadt. Und jetzt waren wir endlich mal dort, um sie zu sehen.

Wir wurden mit einer speziellen Flugshow belohnt. Ein Storch war schon eine Weile am Nest, während der andere über uns kreiste. Er landete auf dem Nest und die klapperten gemeinsam.

Hier ist der Landeanflug. Danke an das Ehepaar mit den Fahrrädern, die uns auf den fliegenden Storch sehr früh aufmerksam gemacht haben.

 

Friday, April 19, 2013

spring rabbits

These rabbits are enjoying spring.


yellowhammer



This yellowhammer was one of a swarm of a mixed birds feeding on a field. She was sitting in the brush work and the only way to get the photo was to focus manually. Otherways the branches would distract my focus too much.

Diese Goldammer war ein Vogel aus einem völlig gemischten Schwarm, der sich auf einem Wildacker sattfraß. Sie saß im Geäst und ich konnte nur manuell fokussieren. Beim Autofokus haben die Büsche und Äste meinen Fokus ablenkt.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Oh Deer!


These are pretty much teenagers. These deers are last years young ones and they took quite a while checking us out. Sauerland, North Rhine Westfalia, Germany, easter weekend.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The Swan


A photo taken by the river in our home town. Spring is coming, as you can tell.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Structural changes

Here is a photograph of the coal mine tower in Dortmund - Eving. I was hunting motives for my regular photocontest and was working on the topic of architekture.

A modern office building is integrated into the coal mine tower that is out of use.

Hier ist eine Aufnahme des Hammerkopfturms in Dortmund - Eving. Ich war auf der Jagd nach Bildern für meinen regelmäßigen Fotowettbewerb und habe mit dem Thema Architektur gearbeitet.

In den außer Betrieb genommenen Hammerkopfturm hat man ein Bürogebäude integriert.


 

Monday, April 15, 2013

Hotel View

In La Roche-en-Ardenne we lived in a cute Hotel, called "Les Genets". The view was just great! This is photographed out of out bathroom window. Out of one of the two windows, that is.




Saturday, April 13, 2013

The Rivers of the Ardennes

In the Ardennes, Belgium, the rivers are quite a sight. We drove along such beautiful stretches that we were sorry, we could not bring home photos of more great spots. But there is a limit to everything.



This is the Ourthe in 2 different spots.

 

Friday, April 12, 2013

The cutie again

Our squirrel deserves more than one post, right? So here is another.







Thursday, April 11, 2013

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Heron



I found this grey heron sitting by the edge of a fish pond. After some photos of its head only, that was sticking up over the bank. Then we walked around the pond and the heron flew off after we had passed him. Here is the view of it flying.


Diesen Graureiher habe ich am Rand eines Fischteichst gefunden. Nach ein paar Fotos nur vom Kopf, der über die Böschung ragte, sind wir um den See herumgegangen und nachdem wir an ihm vorbei waren, flog er davon. Hier ist eines der Bilder im Flug.

Achouffe, Ardennes, Belgium.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

La Roche-en-Ardenne

We just spent a few days away. Elsewhere is a great place, did you know?

Our elsewhere was La Roche-en-Ardenne. Here is a first view of it.









Monday, April 8, 2013

Grünfinken



Unsere Grünfinken lieben die neue Futtersäule.

The green finches love our new feeder.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Hohes Venn

This is not the weather condition I was expecting to find Hohes Venn, the highland moore at the German / Belgium border, in at the end of March. But with sunshine and blue sky, I thought the snow on the ground was looking good!


This is not the weather condition I was expecting to find Hohes Venn, the highland moore at the German / Belgium border, in at the end of March. But with sunshine and blue sky, I thought the snow on the ground was looking good!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Another panning Image

As you have seen, I like panning images. Since I first stumbled upon this technique I have been trying to make stunning images like the ones I saw in that gallery. Meanwhile I have found my own interpretation, I guess.

Here is a "normal" and "mine" version of the same trees. The photo was taken in the highland moores of Hohes Venn near the Belgium / German border last week.

Both photos came about within seconds of eachother from the same spot. Just handling the camera differently makes all the difference.

my interpretation of reality

just before


 

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Cutest Winterguest

This squirrel comes to our backyard all the time, now. With my new lens (Sigma 150-500mm) the views are great and can be captured just right.



I am curious to your captions of this last photo. It seems to make people come up with great thoughts.

 

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Monday, April 1, 2013

Not a Joke

Be warned, today is April Fool's day. But this photo is only funny, not a joke. We went to the North Sea lately, as I reported, and were stuck in thick fog.

We also drove one bay further and walked out to the lighthouse - Westerhever Leuchtturm. It is just residing in the foggy marsh, not really visible for anyone.

Seid gewarnt, heute ist der 1. April. Aber das Photo ist kein Aprilscherz, es ist nur lustig. Wie ich schon erzählt habe, waren wir neulich an der Nordsee und steckten dort in dichtestem Nebel.

Wir sind eine Bucht weiter gefahren und sind zum Leuchtturm gewandert - dem Westerhever Leuchtturm. Er steht da in seiner nebligen Salzwiese, nicht wirklich sichtbar.