Eight Minutes Old

Two weeks ago my professor and me were interviewed by the Deutschlandfunk, which is a big German Radio Station. The topic, of course, was the new study concerning Dark Matter. The (German) broadcast can be found online as a Podcast and in text. This week we got another Interview request, now from NDR Info. As my professor and the other Co-Author from Bonn are at a conference in the US right now, I was the only one to be interview. You can imagine this made me a bit nervous, but it turned out to be fine.

The broadcast (again in German, sorry), will be aired today between 9 and 10 pm in the NDR Info show “Logo”. It will also be available as a podcast (starting at 39:30 into the file). I am curious what it will be like.

For Monday evening I was asked to talk about the Modified Newtonian Dynamics at our institute’s Astro Club. That’s a regular (voluntary) meeting for the younger physics students*, organized by several very committed tutors. They give easy to understand (and usually German) talks and, if the weather is fine, also observe with the institute’s telescope.

After that I hope to find more time for my work again. And for some posts on black and white infrared photography (film, of course), as I have already shown you two of my infrared photos in the post about faked UFO photos. As an introduction, here is another one. It shows the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

*: Of course older students are welcome, too.

Tags: Astroclub, deutschlandfunk, Harbour Bridge, MOND, podcast, Radio, Rollei Infrared, Sydney, Astronomers, Astronomy, Australia, Bonn, Canon EOS 50E, Dark Matter, EF 24mm f/2.8, Infared Photograpy, News, Science, Students, Study, University of Bonn

After the two recent posts on my current photo series ‘Quadrants’, today I’d like to show you a single picture again. It is related to the series, though, as is was shot in the German city of Frankfurt and shows the city’s skyscrapers, too. In the following, I will discuss its composition. It is always interesting to see which details I find in my own photos that I did not realize when I pressed the trigger.

I very much like the composition of this shot. Lots of diagonal lines, triangles and plain areas. The center of the picture is defined by the head of a street lantern, attracting the eye. The dark lantern’s post divides the picture with a diagonal line in a harmonic ratio. The lantern is surrounded, or better: framed, by the two tall buildings. The perspective and distortion of the architecture gives you a feeling of their height. In addition to the buildings, the lantern head is framed to the bottom by a short airplane trail. That  condensation trail spreads between the left building and the lantern post, touching neither of them. Actually, no element of the photo is in front of another one, giving it a lighter feel, I think.

The geometry of the picture is beautifully emphasized by the black and white. The graduation is mild but there is enough contrast in every part of the photo. The sky is not over-exposed but shows a slight gradient, becoming lighter to the right. I just realized that the airplane is heading for that lighter part. Guess that helps creating the mood of the picture.

Tags: Frankfurt, urban, Airplanes, Architecture, black and white, Buildings, Composition, Condensation Trails, EF 24mm f/2.8, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Geometry, Germany, red filter, Skyscrapers , Sky, Windows

Here comes the second part of my Quadrants photo series is from Sydney, Australia. For a description of the project, please have a look at the last post. Basically, I take black and white photos of skyscrapers from a special, vertical perspective to point out the order in urban planning from a human point of view. Up to now I have done this architecture photography in two big cities, Frankfurt in Germany and Sydney in Australia.

Compared to the pictures taken in Frankfurt, one problem becomes obvious: the Frankfurt photos have been produced on a day with completely blue sky. While the weather in Australia used to be fine, too, the sky does show some clouds. I used a dark red filter to darken the blue sky, giving me a contrast between the sun-lit facades of the buildings and the space in between. Unfortunately, this also increases the contrast between the clouds and the sky. That way in many pictures the sky is not as empty as in the Frankfurt shots, which makes the black and white photographs a bit more visually disturbed.  A professional Artist might have wanted to wait for better conditions. But as that was not possible for me, I have to take what I got. And I am happy with several of them.

For now, these two cities are the only ones where I worked on this series. I would very much like to continue it in Paris, the La Defence area should be perfect for this concept.

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This time, I will not only present and discuss one photo. No, you can enjoy a bunch of them at the same time. The reasons for this are manifold, but the crucial factor was that Marc from Take Out Photo announced his new Monthly Special: Concept.

After I have already missed last month’s special on masking (even though I did use masks for my faked UFO photos), I better participate early this month. The topic Concept is great. I prefer these more abstract ideas over technical processes. Furthermore, working in a conceptual manner is what makes a photographer an artist. There are way too many people out in the web who chase after ‘the perfect shot’. But in my opinion, true beauty lies in a series of pictures that are build around a concept. Only then they can communicate s meaning in the spaces between the individual shots. The interplay of pictures activates our mind, making us wonder: what is the reason to take these photos, why in this way, what is the motivation … what is the concept?

By now most of you know my Touristscopes series, which is highly conceptual. I don’t want to bore you with them again. Luckily for me (and you), I am currently going through my stacks of negatives, putting together a portfolio. It will feature some of my conceptual photographic works. I will create a webpage with them, where I can present several series, instead on focussing on single photos. But that will take a lot more time to finish. In the meantime I start by presenting my newest conceptual series. It is called ‘Quadrants’ (that might change in the future). Before I go on, explaining my motivation and, yes, the concept, I guess it is best to show you some pictures first.

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The above black and white photo was taken in Sydney. It shows the complex layers of a modern metropolis. The city in this picture combines a small spot of garden-like plant life, over which skyscrapers rise into the sky, reflecting each other in the windows of their glass facades. A highway stretches over the whole scenery. The black and white emphasizes the geometrical structures, but I think it also increases the amount of visual confusion, as not colors can help guide the eye.

In my opinion this is not a typical view of the Australian city, which presents itself as a much more open place. There are lots of spot where the eyes can enjoy a wide view. But there are these almost claustrophobic urban places, too, where life is crammed between huge buildings and the structures of the city become complicated and complex. Still, Sydney is a faszinating city and taking urban photos there is lots of fun

By the way: We have spring equinox today, so night and day last for an equal time. This also marks the Iranian New Year. I think this is the calendar which makes most sense: the Western New Year was just defined to take place at this arbitrary date and the Chinese use a lunar calendar. Taking a astronomically justified date makes lots of more sense, I think. Anyway, congratulations to all Iranians (except for some of the more human-rights-ignoring leaders).

Another thing: I am trying to finally claim my Blog on Technorati (after having had problems for months after starting the blog and then forgetting about Technorati’s existence …). So the following is my activation key, which I will delete once everything is done. Done

Tags: Highway, Sydney, urban, Australia, black and white, Canon EOS 50E, EF 24mm f/2.8, Film Photography, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Reflection, Skyscrapers , Sky, Windows

As some of you might remember, I have this ongoing photo-series project: I take pictures of coin-operated binoculars and public pay-telescopes. As I don’t know of any proper name for them, I coined the term ‘Touristscopes‘. They fascinate me because of their appearance: they resemble faces, robot-like. The effect is called pareidolia. It is a human habit to recognize a face in the strangest things.

When I was in France last summer, in Normandy to be precise, I was able to collect some more touristscope photos. I used to shot them in a very standardized manner, filling the frame like head-on portraits. I always use the same 24mm lens and preferably a 100 ISO black and white film. The touristscope-types do not vary a lot, there seem to be three major models in France, which I have seen in Germany, too. That’s why I decidetd to also take pictures of the surrounding, the context of the touristscopes, in the future.

Below, I present you five of the touristscopes from Normandy. I choose to show them as a list, because that was the January Monthly Special: Lists at Take Out Photo. Finally, I managed to participate in a monthly challenge again.

Arromanches-les-Bains (overlooking the beach where the allied invasion landed on D-Day. Arromanches was where the allies build a temporary harbour to offload supplies for the troops.):

In Arromanches, too. Note the similar posture of the tourists :

Fecamp:

Le Havre:

Villers-Sur-Mer (Situated right next to the Greenwich Meridian, obviously.) :

Tags: Arromanches-les-Bains, D-Day, Fecamp, Greenwich Meridian, Le Havre, Villers-Sur-Mer, Beach, black and white, Canon EOS 50E, EF 24mm f/2.8, Film Photography, France, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Haute Normandie, List, Normandy, Photo Series, Photography, Portrait, red filter, Sky, Street Photography, Telescope, Tourism, Tourist

I’m busy with the final preparations of my trip to Australia. A college of me an I will visit the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra for two weeks, giving talks on our research on Satellite / Tidal Dwarf Galaxies and discuss with the local researchers about their projects. Especially interesting for me is the so called “Stromlo Missing Satellites Survey” (SMSS), a project where they map the southern sky searching for not-yet-known satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. That should give me more observational input for my theoretical works.

We will start next Monday, arriving in Singapore on Tuesday for a short stop-over of one night. It’s ‘perfect’ timing: there is monsoon-time right now. But so what, they have a constant 30 degrees Celsius all year round. Then we will depart for Australia on Wednesday, arriving in the early morning (local time) in Sydney to catch a bus to Canberra.

I must admit I am a bit excited about the trip. Until now I never traveled this far. I never left Europe, actually (the continent that is, I have been in Switzerland which is not a member of the European Union). I wonder how I will react on the jet lag, and the different climates. From late, not too cold Fall to humid, tropical, to dry and hot Summer … I was told that there were 35 to 40 degrees in Canberra some days ago.

I will try to blog while I am traveling, and of course take black and white pictures. I’ll take only one of my Canon EOS 50E bodys with me, with the favorite 24mm/f2.8 and the 17-40mm/f4.0 lenses.  Unfortunately my tripod would be too heavy. Last week I got the last 77mm red filter that was available from Amazon, making the 17-40 lens finally usable for me. I  love to see everything in red when looking through the viewfinder, it improves the contrasts and makes it easier to see in black and white.

Hopefully the films I pack are enough. I decided for ten rolls each of Fuji Neopan Acros, Tri-X and an Rollei Infrared. The latter is of not much use in winter, so I am even more happy for the trip into the summer right now. (No, I did not forget that I promised to write something about infrared photography.) The films will have to wait to be processed until I am back, though, so maybe I blog some shots from my cell phone. I don’t like these at all, but it is an easy way to show and share impressions. Or I can convince my wife to present some of her digital shots, as she is accompanying me.

Tags: Australian National University, Canberra, Kodak Tri-X, Mount Stromlo Observatory, Rollei Infrared, Sydney, Astronomers, Astronomy, Australia, Canon EOS 50E, EF 24mm f/2.8, EF L 17-40mm f/4.0, Flight, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Observatory, red filter, Satellite Galaxies, Singapore, Summer, Telescope, Tidal Dwarf Galaxies, Travel Photography, Travel-Photography, Travel