#Germany - Maria Laach, Laacher See

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#Germany - Silbersand bei Mayen

From Germany

I remember driving by this house with my Mom on my way to or back from my Grandmoms.
There's two houses in this valley and one bus station.
I wondered what it would be like, living here out in this remote area.
I would have loved it. Being in the woods, playing in the river.
At those days you could ride your bike from Mayen to Rieden as a child without too much worry.
Of course you had idiots on the roads then too, but today I wouldn't advise that any more.
One house is still inhabited, the other one was crumbling and succumbing to Mother Nature then already.
Not much left today.
Just memories.

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#Germany - Kletterwald bei Mayen

I should have edited these photos a long time ago.
We were on a day out, my best friend and her two nieces.
For one reason or another I just didn't feel like dealing with the photos.
Well, time to get to work,...
:-)

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#Germany / Mayen, Kuhdrift

From Germany

Module 4 a - Advanced Mentorship for Photographers

Not completely happy with the results, but for starters,
here's a photo from a Medieval market in Koenigsfeld, Germany 2012

On all photos (except for the original) I have edited with fill light & contrast. For the b/w (sepia) one I have used a LR preset with the above adjustments.
Same for the 'creative' one (I would have loved something different, but I couldn't get there). 
The 'creative' one is a Holga preset & I've filled some light and added some vibrancy.

Original

From G+ Advanced Mentorship for Photographers - Playbox

Colour enhanced

From G+ Advanced Mentorship for Photographers - Playbox

Creative - aka Holga effect

From G+ Advanced Mentorship for Photographers - Playbox

Sepia - my favorite

From G+ Advanced Mentorship for Photographers - Playbox

#365 -2013 #011 / I can proof it

We had sunshine yesterday.
30 min of it and I missed 25.
When I got ready to take the dogs I could snap this last snip[pet of blue sky while outside. The clouds to the right are covering the skies since then and icy rain drops are falling.
I still enjoy being out. It's Sunday and in this weather, not many people are out.
If it were sunny, the were shitloads of folks out there ;-)

From 365 - 2013

Week 2 - G+ Advanced Mentorship for Photographers by Ron

One of the goals for this week was to shoot 3 images of one topic. 
Done that.
Another goal was to produce them tack sharp.
Failed.

Foggy, gloomy conditions make a bit of a trial for taking tack sharp images.
I got some good tips from our mentor and will (hopefully) give it another go today or tomorrow, depending on the weather and depending on how my cold advances and how I feel.

At least I used my Tri -  and Monopod this week. 
That was another task, start to form some good habits. 
I failed on the Shop and Storage clean-up part, but I keep working on those two habits ;-)
Forming bad habits seems to go faster than the good ones ;-)

From G+ Advanced Mentorship for Photographers - Playbox

From G+ Advanced Mentorship for Photographers - Playbox

From G+ Advanced Mentorship for Photographers - Playbox

And here is my original Plus post for this week, just for my own memory:

Mission 2 - Plus post

Well, well, I did manage to go out and shoot. Time and weather sure wasn't on my side, but that's just a lame excuse.
I did get my three photos, even the ones I did plan and the way I thought of them.
They are not tack sharp as requested, me bad.
I DID use a monopod (tripod was too much of a haul for the distance I had to cover and the little time I had), I did use AP since the camera has been smarter in this kind of weather than me.
But the foggy, cloudy conditions are defo not my best friend.
But I tried (and nearly froze my ass off, there's enough left of it though ;-))

As for the habits, using a tripod wasn't on my list, but since I did better with that than with the planned half hour work in my Zazzle shop and my archives, I think I should mention, that I took my tripod out (and used it) two times this week. And one time I took my monopod.
I still keep my planned new habits on my list and will follow through with them.
I guess new habits don't form overnight.

As for learning buttons on my camera, that came in handy today while trying to snatch some shots of a raptor in a far away tree. I wanted to rush to get my proof shots of my Lifer (Birding terms for a new bird that I hadn't seen before) and so, knowing where the buttons were and remembering that I can see what I am dialing in my viewfinder helped a lot while using exp. comp. I just took a few photos to get the bird. 
Then I could take all the time I wanted to set up my tripod and camera and shoot for better detail :-)

Photography Mentorship - Week 2 - Playing around

Collared Dove, Mayen Nette

So, yesterday I took my camera and my tripod out.
I mainly wanted to play with the idea Ron gave me about using 'aperture priority'.
I had the dogs with me and the weather sort of sucked (it wasn't snowing at that moment, but foggy and overcast).
On this photo I didn't use the Tripod yet, but I figured since Mrs Collared dove didn't fly away, I would at least fumble with the camera and try out the 'AP'.
It's not a killer sharp shot, but I can already tell the difference and that the camera is much smarter than me in choosing the right setting when it comes to aperture.
This will be interesting in the future. Maybe I get the hang of it this way ;-)

#365 - 2013 #009 / Lonely winter days - Kuhdrift, Mayen

From 365 - 2013

Have a great week everyone.
I will be digging into the new Mentorship week and most
likely post more than be around. 
Will catch you on the bright side :-)

#365 - 20213 #007 / Frozen spring

From 365 - 2013

Frost was the death of these little Beauties. They popped up after the last cold spell, as soon as it got warmer. Got a wee bit mixed up, I think.

I am starting to feel a bit better. I guess after today, the back pain at least will be gone again. Perfect for the new work week. sigh :-)

Wishing you all a great Sunday! We had fresh snow. Hope it stays long nough for me to take some more purdy snow pics (maybe with some blue skies for once, pretty please?!)

#365/213 #008 / Different shades of grey

Different shades of grey

From 365 - 2013

That's sort of how I feel today too.
Backpain resulting in headache, combined with a hurting knee and various other small things. 
Time to go to bed yet?

#365 - 2013 #006 / Down the river Styx

From 365 - 2013

#365 / 2013 - 004 / Frozen

It's drizzling snow since early this morning.
The river is freezing closed from all directions
and the dogs are having fun ;-) 

Frozen from the ground

From 365 - 2013

From 365 - 2013

Snowwoman

From 365 - 2013

We met a friend

From 365 - 2013

Lilly and King :-)

From 365 - 2013

From 365 - 2013

From 365 - 2013

Play with me - anyone!

From 365 - 2013

From 365 - 2013

#365 / 2012 - 003 - And there it was again

And there it was again, that white fluffy stuff from the skies.
It makes for happy driving when there's a bunch of morons around, who are either convinced of being invincible, or don't know how to drive on icy roads.
The roads were covered in an hour and turned to ice at the same time where cars drove over. The 'de-icers' were out fast this time (is there a law that they HAVE to go out at certain minus temperatures?), but around Mayen were at least two big car crashes with many cars involved.
Gladly not me, I just had to deal with other idiots.
The kids asked me, if there's Christmas again, since it snowed.
Gotta love kids...
;-)

#Germany - Mayen, St. Veit Strasse

Yesterday I took a stroll through Mayen, trying to capture some of the old buildings left standing after the war. I was inspired by one of the books about the destruction that happened during the last days of war. 

Mayen was declared a dead city afterward. In the coming days I will go to some of the places in the book and capture the pictures in there the way the places look now.

I’m not sure how old these buildings in the photo are, I just know that for some reason my photos didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to. Time to relearn the camera and its settings, I guess ;-)

#365 2013 #002 Freizeitzentrum Mayen

This morning I’ve walked a path I’ve walked many times before.

Huge icycles below the Viadukt

From 365 - 2013

I’ve also taken photographs here many times.

Smaller ice blossoms

From 365 - 2013

That is possibly one of the reasons I have left the camera at home these past few weeks.

Strange tree trunks and folks asking me what the heck's so interesting here ;-)

From 365 - 2013

The feeling that I cannot capture new things.

Strange tree trunks and folks asking me what the heck's so interesting here ;-)

From 365 - 2013

Or the feeling that I cannot capture the Beauty adequately. 

Moos und Schiefer = Heimat

From 365 - 2013

Meaning I take the photos with the wrong camera settings (exposure, etc.) and being disappointed with myself when viewing them at home.

Fairy caves

From 365 - 2013

BORED!

From 365 - 2013

More strange trees and fairy caves

From 365 - 2013

More strange trees and fairy caves

From 365 - 2013

I will try not to fall into a slump again and instead just shoot with trial and error, sometimes use heavy editing and come along with a result that looks utterly different from what I have seen. 

Just home

From 365 - 2013

Which is what I did before too, but for some reason I stopped enjoying it.

Fantasy Reality

From 365 - 2013

With the new mentorship program on its way, I will open my mind again and just enjoy whatever I come up with.

Scrubby du

From 365 - 2013

Visit from Holga

From 365 - 2013

Kloster Helgoland voraus

From 365 - 2013

It’s not perfect photography . It probably never will be. But it’s me.

Trial and error

From 365 - 2013

Winterwonderland

oder: Spaziergang heute morgen :-)

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From Germany

From Germany

From Germany

From Germany

From Germany

From Germany

From Germany

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From Germany

From Germany