Archive for the “Against the Sun” Category
The last two rolls of film from Australia are developed, but I still keep on scanning. Can’t hear the scanner-sound anymore. But it will take some more hours to finish with that. Right now, I only have a collection of raw scans on my harddrive. Editing them, even in the most simple form (removing dust, one or two scratches and adjusting the graduation curve) will keep me busy in the weeks to come.
But the above picture I had to share with you now. When I scanned this shot, I fell in love with it right away. I took it at the Sydney Opera House, where I was looking for pictures of architectural details and maybe some tourists (it’s a hobby of mine to photograph people watching things and sceneries. Don’t know why  ). The contrasts in illumination were extreme, owing to the strong Australian summer-sunlight. That allowed me to make this silhouette photo. A man with a backpack is standing in front of one of the Opera House buildings, looking up to the impressive architecture. He stands in the shadow, but in front of a streak of light which falls through a gap between two parts of the opera. This results in him being a shadow figure in front of the illuminated area. Part of the building is well lit by the sun, so one can recognise the building. And as a bonus, at least to me, are the contrasty clouds in the sky.
I like the simple, abstract structures in this one, which combine with the human perspective in form of the tourist. But he, too is abstract, only a silhouette which might be filled with anybody.
Tags: Sydney, Architecture, Australia, black and white, Clouds, Contrast, Film Photography, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Human, Light, Scanning, Shadow, Silhouette, Sky, Sydney Opera House, Tourism, Tourist
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How does inspiration work? I don’t know how this is with you, but for me it is a rather mysterious process. You have to come across the right mixture of contemplation and new experiences. But there has to be more to it, sometimes we simply see something in a new way which might trigger an idea. That usually is not the case while we follow our daily routines, at least not when they include the usual, hectic lack-of-time-stance most people follow. I think it is necessary to stop for a moment, take a step to the side and forget about the problems we have not solved yet.
How does this correspond to above picture, you might ask. Well, the scene depicted in the photo inspired me to the “Brittany after the season”-series, I think. It was in northern Brittany, in a small tourist-town called Sables d’Or les Pines. The tourist season was over already and so we walked by many houses with shut windows. Itwas a bit frustrated that there was nothing interesting to shoot, wherever I pointed my lens, the picture newer felt “right”. Then we arrived at this wide square, between the beach and this big building. It was similar to the many individual houses, all windows where covered, the shops were closed, too. This concentration of the scenes before was what I needed to be inspired. Not singular houses, that are side by side but still separated, but this big building with lots of apartments and tourist shops that all were unused, the big square in front deserted. This center of a little town, without any human life except us. I suddenly saw the bigger picture, that all those places where people had enjoyed their summer vacations were abandoned for the rest of the year. This gave a deeper sense to pictures of shut-down shops and deserted houses. I felt I had found what I was looking for. Except that I first had to find it to know what I was missing.
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Tags: Brittany, Buildings, Canon EOS 50E, Clouds, EF 24mm f/2.8, France, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Houses, Inspiration, Photo Series, Photography, Sea, Sky, Tourism, Windows
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Time to go on with my black and white series from Brittany, France. As you can guess, this childrens’ playground is the same a in the two previous photos, the little plastic house and the slide can be see in the background. Here the focus is on the three swings in front of the empty playground scenery. I again shot into the direction of the sun, using a red filter to enhance the sky’s contrast. Luckily this worked because there was some haze in front of the sun and the dynamic range of the negative material is quite large. I wonder if I could ever adjust to digital cameras. Ok, one could use a filter with a gray gradient to darken the upper part, but I know I would be too lazy for such things.
Later, after scanning the negative, I found an additional detail in this picture: a little bird sits on an overhead powerline in front of a cloud.
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Tags: Against the Sun, Birds, black and white, Brittany, Canon EOS 50E, Contrast, EF 24mm f/2.8, Film Photography, France, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Houses, Photo Series, Photography, Playground, red filter, Sky, Slide, Sun, Swing
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Another photo from the deserted playground in Brittany, France. This time showing a childrens’ slide, lit from behind by the sun. It was an beautyful, silent morning, bright but with lots of small, glowing clouds in the sky. What else do you need? I wish I could go there again right now.
BTW: Rene over at rene-design.com has a small lottery up where you can win a 50 Euro voucher for a photo-studio equipment shop. But I’m afraid it’s in German, only.
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Tags: Against the Sun, black and white, Brittany, Canon EOS 50E, EF 24mm f/2.8, France, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Morning, Photo Series, red filter, Sky, Slide, Sun, Weather
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I was able to shoot this somewhat special view of the city from the kitchen window of a very good friend who lived in Bonn before moving to Karlsruhe. I think it’s time to write him a mail again.
For me, as I love pigeons (I don’t know why, but they fascinate me) the view from this window was spectacular. There were so many birds in the morning. Unfortunately, most of them retreated once I got my camera ready (here an old Ricoh KR-10, still heavy with a high metal-content in the body, but including a light meter). Usually I don’t expect starting to take pictures during breakfast, you know. But by now I’ve identified seven birds in the above black and white shot. Do you find them, too? 
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Tags: Fomapan 100, 50mm f/1.9, Birds, black and white, Film Photography, Germany, Karlsruhe, Pignons, Ricoh KR-10
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In one of my early posts (Trajectories) I’ve already mentioned that I like the lines drawn into the sky by the condensation tails of planes. In this image, the sun was right behind a cloud, illuminating it in this spectacular manner. Two streaks left by airplanes were crossing each other near the corner of one of the skyscrapers, giving the scene some dynamic aspect.
The picture was shot on black and white film using a dark red filter, which enhanced the contrast between the sky and the bright clouds. I was in La Defence, a district of Paris in France, on a bright and sunny day and had the chance to take some more pictures like this one.
Tags: Airplanes, black and white, Canon EOS 50E, Clouds, Condensation Trails, EF 50mm f/1.8 II, Filter, France, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Paris, Photography, Sky
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