Nature, Abstracts & More

I am glad you asked, or in this case I am glad you scrolled a bit further! In this "More" section I will be addressing the technicalities of some of my pictures, explaining how they were taken and why I did things the way I did.

& More?

Be a Bee in the Center

Some colors work well as backgrounds because of their calming, non-attention-grabbing effects. One such color is green, and another would be blue. This is true because greens and blues are natural backgrounds: the sky, the ocean, the forests. On the color wheel, the opposites to blue and green are orange and red, respectively. Two strong colors that immediately pull our attention, a school bus, a fire truck for example.

So, how does that relate to this picture? Well, if you look at the color of the sleeve, red, and the color of the bee, orange, your brain instinctively knows what to focus on. But since the red is out of focus, our brain interprets it as being outside our field of interest and shifts attention to another subject. Our eyes move through the hand and finally rest on the tiny bee. The hand also helps provide scale to the main subject, and the side-lighting creates a shadow that adds a sense of importance to the otherwise tiny Bee. Our main subject, therefore, besides taking only 5% of the Frame, draws our eyes and shows it's presence, speaking for itself.

f/5.6 (wide open for this lens) at 300mm ensured the right depth of field and the almost "Macro" effect, the 1/1000s shutter speed guaranteed the absence of motion blur, the sun made sure there was available light for a correct exposure at ISO200.

Happy Needs no Reason

What defines happy? What is happy? What makes us happy? A smile definitely conveys the feeling of happiness, I think we can all agree on that. But what if it’s a dispenser for dog poop bags smiling at you? Does that still convey happiness? My imagination works just fine in that case too, and I feel happy looking at the picture below. Maybe I’m just childish, who knows?

105mm lens at f/5 ensured enough sharpness and low falloff in the corners for a perfectly crisp foreground with a nicely out-of-focus background, the blue car in the bottom right corner isn’t distracting (blue makes for a good background color anyway, unfortunately the street wasn’t entirely parked with blue cars). ISO 200 made sure the colors came through just the way I wanted, and a shutter speed of 1/200s kept motion blur away and determined the correct exposure.

Distracting Mirrors

An endless source of discussion with my partner is that I never seem to get things done; I’m always getting distracted and wandering off into my own wonderland. If you're like that, grab a camera and go wander off taking pictures of your personal wonderland!

One day, I was getting ready to cycle out of the garage in the basement of our apartment building when I got distracted by a reflection on the floor. It had rained all day the day before, and the drain, which is supposed to catch the water before it enters the garage, was clogged. This created a pool of water right in front of the garage door. Naturally, I quickly grabbed my camera (yes, I still walk around with a camera almost all the time) and took a few shots of the building across from ours, reflected in the floor. The round shape of the puddle created a window-like effect, and the out-of-focus leaves in the foreground didn’t distract from the scene; instead, they gave a subtle reminder that we’re not just looking at a wall but peering into a gateway or a window that has a wall. And yes, in case you were wondering, the picture was absolutely worth the discussion with my partner because, once again, I didn't manage to get things done.

f/5 105mm 1/30s at ISO450 a bit or "warmth" was added to the picture using GIMP. Original picture without warmth here.

Alex the Swan.

This one is beautiful, were it not so sad. Alex is a swan that lives in a lake in Stuttgart. Swans are monogamous animals, known for having only one partner in their life. But Alex has already tragically lost two. His second partner was hit by a car, one of these murderous machines.

People were excited when Alex found room in his heart for a second partner after the loss of his first. But after losing his second partner, he fell into a state of depression, now, he refuses to leave the lake, not even to feed on the grass by the shore. People throw him "food" the heavy, unhealthy stuff we humans eat but wouldn’t dare give to our own pets. And yet, we happily toss it to birds and other animals, the very food that makes them sick or addicted (and us too, by the way). If you’re reading this, please stop feeding animals human food. It’s no good for them. If you know Alex, respect him and feed him what he should be eating: grass, leafy greens, chopped vegetables, whole grains, or specialized food.

In this picture, Alex’s stare feels both intimidating and sad. It’s a powerful blend of emotion, evoking a strong response as this beautiful creature gazes at the viewer.

105mm f/8 at 1/1000s ISO200

Industrial Saturation

Art, especially sculptures, is rarely appreciated the way its creator intended. Art can be enjoyed in so many ways, but I find it sad that in our busy lives, we often don’t take the time to pause and appreciate pieces from every possible angle.

This picture draws the viewer in with the saturated red color of the rails or metalwork that compose the sculpture, which acts as an eye magnet. The saturated blue November sky behind it at 6:40 PM creates a strong contrast. I chose the relatively high ISO of 1600 to give the picture a film-like appearance, thanks to the "grain" produced by the camera.

24mm f/4 1/60s

Overpowering the Sun

I’m always amazed at how powerful a flash can be!

The picture below was taken under the strong midday sun, yet notice how the camera adjusted the exposure solely for the light from the flash, turning the background almost completely dark. My subject is side-lit, with the flash held by an assistant at the left corner of the frame, illuminating just the flowers and nothing else.

What would have been just another orange flower among many others, with a green grassy background, has been transformed into something much more expressive.

55mm lens f/16 1/125s with a little portable SB-400 Flash