Blog

When the big ones aren’t there …

by Marc 06/15/2019 | 1 IMAGE IN THE BLOGPOST | No Comments

… the little ones have to take shelter together. Two of the three young storks had got up after the rain shower and cuddled together. This time Michael and I were not on the bell tower but climbed through the roof construction of the church onto the small ridge turret in which the hour bell of the church hangs. On a square meter two photographers sat under the protective roof of the ridge turret and had directed their lenses at the stork’s nest only 10 meters away.

When the two young storks had stood up and looked at each other beak to beak, our cameras clicked. You could still see the heavy rain shower on their plumage.

Where’s the umbrella?

by Marc 06/12/2019 | 1 IMAGE IN THE BLOGPOST | 2 Comments

This is how Michael Goltz titled his photo of this situation for the young storks. Both of us were lucky that we had a strong westerly wind when it started to pour and the sound hatch opened exactly in this direction and kept us and the lenses dry. Only the young storks lay pressed flat in the nest and let the shiver pass over them — patiently I almost want to say.

Meanwhile Michael and I thought about how we could capture the rain in the picture and had come up with the idea to push the ISO sensitivity down to get a bit longer exposure times. In the end this picture was taken with ¹⁄₁₆₀ second, which was a very long exposure time for 560mm focal length.

When I grow up, I’m gonna be a rattling stork

by Marc 06/11/2019 | 3 IMAGES IN THE BLOGPOST | No Comments

One of the three youngs in the stork’s nest on the church of Schwabstedt. Michal Goltz calls this, his church, the most beautiful church in the world. Under this motto he is running a photo project this year with one picture a day in and around the church of which he is pastor. His pictures can be seen here on the Internet.

During a visit I had the opportunity to climb the bell tower together with him and to sit opposite the stork’s nest through one of the sound hatches. We had to leave the place some minutes before 18:00 o’clock, because only one meter next to us was the bell of the church and our ears would have shattered if we had stayed there. But there was enough to experience.

So it was to be seen every now and then how one of the boys got up to stretch his legs and hold his wings into the wind. But who could have watched young storks rise from the nest when there was a stiff breeze? It’s nice to watch when the legs are stretched up and the body is supported by the wings. To the front the young bird still leans on its beak until everything else is on top, in order to finally straighten up: read more or write a comment …

Hafencity, Baakenhafen & Perseus J at anchorage

by Marc 06/04/2019 | 2 IMAGES | No Comments

What a mood for a short time Monday morning on the way to Hamburg! Thunderstorms came from the west and as I was driving towards the Elbe bridges, the morning sun still seemed strong. So I quickly went to the subway station Elbbrücken, grabbed my camera and walked onto the terrace at the end of the platform. I didn’t want to miss the view of the growing Hafencity, the Elbphilharmonie in the background of the ship lying on the anchor. Moreover, the construction cranes in this lighting mood are also a real eye-catcher…

But I couldn’t imagine what a spectacle it would be like in front of me. The clouds are showing all possible structures, vortices and distortions… In addition the dark grey band in the background, interrupted by light and in the foreground again the structure-rich grey cloud front. The whole picture has a crazy spatial depth!

I have also taken a panorama picture. In the original it has a resolution of 10.938×6.240 pixels, that’s 68 megapixels! It’s worth it to enlarge the picture with a click, I loaded it with over 3,000 pixels width into the blog: read more or write a comment …

Japanese cherry blossom fireworks in Hamburg

by Marc 06/02/2019 | 10 IMAGES IN THE BLOGPOST | No Comments

Since 1968, the Japanese community of Hamburg has been thanking the Hanseatic city for its hospitality with the annual cherry blossom festival. Approximately 2000 Japanese currently live in Hamburg, more than 100 companies have settled here in recent decades. Hamburg and Osaka have been twinned for 30 years.

The highlight of the festival year after year is the fireworks, which traditionally take place on the Friday evening of the festival weekend at 22:30 on the Alster Lake. It is organized by the Japanese companies based in Hamburg as a thank you for their hospitality and cooperation and is lit on and above the Alster Lake in the center of the city.

Source: hamburg.de

For me this fireworks belongs to Hamburg like my life. I still like to remember the time in the canoe club (in the 80s) when we paddled out to the fireworks with the tenner in the evening. According to regulations with a white bow lamp — at that time of course still operated with a candle!
This year I was actually on land for the first time, after all I wanted to take photos with several seconds of exposure time to capture the fireworks properly. I could not have imagined what was going on there 3 hours before the fireworks.

Many had provided the benches with tables and a complete dinner — stylishly with wine glasses and porcelain! A party tent was set up at the Fontenay height, with lots of crates of drinks at the edge and live music. The guitar music made the evening something special. Funny was the proximity to the small pier at Fontenay. Again and again rubber dinghies were launched. Some of them with auxiliary paddles, so that they could hardly be moved. But one had a place in the first row!

Then after entertaining hours of waiting the fireworks began and I was not disappointed. read more or write a comment …

Bees in our garden

by Marc 05/19/2019 | 3 IMAGES IN THE BLOGPOST | No Comments

Again and again I enjoy discovering bees on the flowers in our garden. Here are the Spanish harebells that have magically attracted a bee. For a long time the bee disappeared in the calyx, so that I could take a number of pictures.

A few details about the plant, from the web page »Mein schöner Garten«:

The Spanish harebells(Hyacinthoides hispanica) blooms in bell-florets and forms dense continuances fast in the shadow-garden through self-seeding and brood-bulbs. The Spanish Harebell is a multileaved, single-seeded bulb flower that grows as tall as it grows wide: on average 25 to 40 centimeters. The bulbs are large and yellowish white in colour.

From the end of April to June, the pretty white, pink or blue bell-shaped flowers appear. They stand in loose bunches on upright stems.

That’s exactly what’s so important to the bees. Before many useful plants start flowering in summer, this plant provides bees with a good source of food from the end of April. read more or write a comment …

Grain and rapeseed field at the avenue to Meilsen

by Marc 05/11/2019 | 2 IMAGES | No Comments

I’ve had this picture in my mind since several weeks. Every morning on the way to work, or on Saturday on the way to shopping, I pass these fields. In the morning sun, the rapeseed field shines really brightly behind the avenue trees of the old cobblestone road down to Meilsen. I have placed myself on the western side of the main road to get the cornfield in the foreground as a contrast to the intense yellow of the rape field. In addition, it had to be a panoramic photo to show the course of the road between the two fields.

But I also have an excerpt from the panorama motif, because I found the light on the strong green of the oak so beautiful:

Blog Updates