31. July 2009 by Friedhelm.

You feel that you are about fifty years back in time when you walk through the city of Halberstadt. You see old, wooden framed houses, cobble stone street and people on bikes or walking. Stress seemed to be minimized.

My camera setting on all three images was aperture priority, ISO 100, f8. Time between 1/320 - 1/400s

The sign “Gyros” refers to a Greek restaurant. Germans love Italian ice cream and Greek restaurants and so does my wife. The smell of garlic is sometimes overbearing!

In the background you see the towers of the dome. That’s where we go next.

Happy shooting!

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30. July 2009 by Friedhelm.

Today Halberstadt is a small town with a population of about 40,000. This was totally different in medieval times. It became a bishop’s seat 804 AD and was granted market rights in 989 AD. The church of our Lady was built between 1146 -1160 AD.

Inside this Romanesque church I discovered this beautiful altar screen which is in urgent need of restoration. The images created in me an array of questions. I was wondering how the medieval world viewed the human being? It was definitely a different time without cars, computers and cameras.

Happy photographing!

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29. July 2009 by Friedhelm.

Puffy clouds, ripe fields and lots of green pastures, that’s how northern Germany looks like in July. In the background you see the city of Halberstadt. On the left hand side are the towers of three churches. They are the subject of my next photographic endeavor.

One more thought: Germany is remarkably clean. There was hardly any trash anywhere.We learned rather quickly that the deposit for bottles is pretty steep and you get the full amount back when you return the empty can or bottle.

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28. July 2009 by Friedhelm.

One of my goals for my photographic journey was to visit the city of Hildesheim, south of Hanover in northern Germany. My plan was to see the Dome and the 1000 year old rose. Since I was there I decided to take a peek into the other churches and I fell in love with this one, St. Godehard basilica. Godehard was a monk and bishop in Hildesheim and after his death the people built this church between 1133 - 1172 AD. The basilica was also developed in the Romanesque style, however, if you take a closer look you will find a lot of creativity throughout the building. First, form and color of the columns followed a pattern. There is one square column followed by two round columns.

Second, the stones on top of the pillars were very creatively carved and/or painted.

Third, the stones of the arch were used in a pattern.

I am not an architect but I was still amazed how much creative energy was used to create this church. I wish I can incorporate as much creativity as possible in all my images.

Happy photographing

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27. July 2009 by Friedhelm.

In the 1960s thousands of Italian workers emigrated to Germany. In many cities they established ice cream parlors. There is nothing better than an Italian ice cream after taking some great pictures.

Enjoy!

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26. July 2009 by Friedhelm.

Thanks to my wife Nancy, a research librarian,  I was able to photograph this romanesque church at the northern edge of the Harz mountains in a small unknown community named Gernrode. This church was build around 956AD and it is pretty much in original condition. You can read about it at the following link http://books.google.com/books?id=N9Nf-GHTgnEC&pg=PA300&lpg=PA300&dq=church+gernrode&source=bl&ots=TWFbSaR5mk&sig=Ulm1oAM44Fz9KaII0HmxrA2DxcI&hl=en&ei=XD1sSqLVPITSsQOAiaiWBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6

My photographic eye caught the beauty of the crypt. I combined three different exposed images into one HDR image which I edited then with a small free program called Shift N 3.5. This program can be downloaded for free and it helps to create proper perspective of buildings. Here is the link www.shiftn.de

Happy photographing!

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25. July 2009 by Friedhelm.

I took this photo on the last leg from Zurich, Switzerland to Fresno, CA. We left Zurich at 10:00 AM and I took this picture around 9:00 PM Pacific time (6:00 AM Zurich time). I used an image stabilized lens at 1/20 of a second, f4 at ISO 1600. The frost on the wing produced a nice contrast to the warm red colors in the background.

I spent four weeks on Europe, mainly Germany to visit family and of course to photograph. There were two important goals for me to accomplish. My plan was  to photograph at the Bundesgartenschau (Germany’s most important exhibition of plants and flowers) at the newly renovated castle of Schwerin (located in former East Germany) and I wanted to photograph architecture, especially old churches and castles. I started out around Lake Constance and my journey lead me further north to the edge of the Harz mountains where I found buildings that were around 1000 years old. I plan to share a few of my images and I invite your comments and thoughts.

I also like to thank my partner David who maintained our Photo-Blog during the time of my journey!

Happy photographing!

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22. July 2009 by David.

Decided to take a little drive this evening. Hope you enjoy!

Keep Clicking

Dave

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21. July 2009 by David.

When I took this photo I was awed by the deep colors. I didn’t like the sky but wanted to keep the rocks on the right side.

Sometimes a photo doesn’t work in the standard formats, 4×6, 5×7 or 8×10. In this case the sky was grey and doesn’t add to the seascape so I minimized it by cropping most of it out. But the size is no longer standard. What I created was a border around the photo using the ‘canvas’ function in Photoshop, it’s also available in Photoshop Elements, and can probably be achieved with programs like Picasa. I haven’t tried Picasa but if anyone is interested I’d be willing to give it a go and let you know how it works.

When this photo is printed out as an 8×10  (the black outline) it will have a white frame around the center photograph, and from a distance will appear to be matted. It will also fit in an 8×10 frame.

Or you can spend some time and fill in the dead sky with clouds, maybe I’ll show you that photo later, this took about 5 minutes, the clouds a LOT longer.

If you want some more detailed instructions just drop me a line at     dtooz@sbcglobal.net

Keep having fun

Dave

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20. July 2009 by David.

Looks like the scales on some kind of reptile or maybe the extreme closeup of an exotic cactus. Wrong, it’s actually the eroded hillside just south of Carmel. Not exactly the type of photo you would expect if someone said they were taking photographs around Carmel. I was just driving along seeing what I could see and came across this.  I like the texture and the otherworldly look.

Keep clicking

Dave

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