Photographic Arts

2012-01-27T10:05:00.000+01:00

The last photos taken and uploaded on Panoramio concentrated chiefly on the City of Leipzig, normally with regard to important pieces of architecture in the city center. Since the winter brought no snow so far and landscapes are rather dreary places right now, it seemed a good idea to focus on other aspects where you wouldn't depend much on the season or weather.

"Old and Young" - contrasting historic and modern architecture in Leipzig.


"Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, University of Leipzig" - I chose a perspective deviant from the usual "I took a photo from a monument" perspectives. I like it, because it makes the monument look larger and more influential.

"Gray Face" - A rather peculiar view on the city tower of Leipzig.

During the last months I recognized that you haven't necessarily to travel far to find great places to shoot. In Leipzig there are plenty of buildings, arcades, squares and nooks and corners worth to take photos of. The city of music and fine arts, of tradition and literature, of liberty and reunification, trade fairs, education and history offers more subjects than you'd be ever able to shoot, but this makes it sometimes difficult, or rather challenging, to take pictures of these places, especially of the sights. Some pieces of architecture were already taken millions of times before, and it doesn't seem so reasonable to take #1,000,001 exactly in the same way everyone did before. In point of fact, that was the main thing I learned during the last weeks; if you really want to take photos of sights, then deviate from the "standard perspective" and "standard view" chosen millions of times before. For instance, that's how I took "Gray Face", "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, University of Leipzig" or "Court Portal". None of these are perfect, but have some kind of uniqueness and are not a copy of that what people from around the world have taken many times before.

"Silent Solitude" - St. Nikolas Church (Nikolaikirche).

"Future City" - Augustusplatz Leipzig, showing the new buildings of the University of Leipzig.

"Court Portal" - Excelling due to another less common angle of view.

The city photos stand out against the rest of gallery due to two facts:

Many of them are black and white photos.
Many of them are taken in portrait format.

Actually, I don't fancy either of these styles. Since colors are an important part of photos, I normally avoid b&w photos. Also, many people tend to think that b&w is the key to a perfect photo - that's definitely not the case. However, since some photos were taken on gray winter days and had hardly any colors in it anymore (since architecture is normally not colorful), it was often better to transform the photo right to b&w, thus emphasizing the shape and structure of the subject and not the few remaining colors. The second point is due to some subjects which were pretty tall, but rather narrow. In this case, the portrait format is often the better solution and helps to make the subject looking still taller. However, since most people use widescreens nowadays, a portrait format photo may look pretty small on your screen (and therefore I often try to avoid it).

"Peterskirche Leipzig" - It is said to be the highest church of Leipzig, therefore the portrait format seemed more reasonable. There was hardly any color in this backlight photography, so I changed directly to b&w.

I really liked St. Nikolas Church, which I visited twice, and the Augustusplatz, also with due regard to the University of Leipzig, where I graduated some months ago, and whose new buildings, a present for the 600th anniversary, are now glistening in the winter sunlight, just as captured in "Future City". There are a few further buildings I've taken in consideration to take photographs of, but it rather seems that I'm "done" now. The next photos will be uploaded under the title "Lights on!", featuring both photos from Leipzig and Baunatal. They will be uploaded in the first days of February. Besides this, I'm gradually longing for the spring, then probably concentrating on landscapes again.

"Station Concourse Leipzig" - Another shot to express some kind of vastness (although, in this case, there are different possibilities to do so).

Thanks for your visit,

Patrick

Photo Report 2011

2011-12-26T16:52:00.003+01:00

From photographic point of view this year was rather a busy one for me, because I completely reorganized my photos, selected the ones I liked best, retouched them and added them to the new panoramio account I had registered during the last days of 2010. I gradually changed from dull documentary photography to more artistic photography, learned much about composition and theoretical photography (for this, the panoramio forums were a great help), and started to enhance my photos by post-processing, something I had never dared before. Especially in January, February and early March I added many of my older photos to the account, that is, the photos taken from 2003 through 2010. After this, I usually uploaded current photos, with some days or weeks of delay due to selection and improvement.

"Christmas Star (LG)", taken just a few days ago.

The following post will serve as a little summary for this year (and might make up for some missing posts...). You will see a selection of photos I like best, or which got much good feedback in Panoramio.

Early 2011

German winters can be rather long sometimes, lingering until early April. It is a time were photographers rather take their time for organizing, improving and watching pictures instead of taking new ones. A trip to Wernigerode brought some nice shots, but I liked the following photo best (taken near my home):

"Three Chimneys"

Spring

There are only few 2011 spring photos I really began to like so far. Some of them got a little oversharpened in the post-processing (something I learned this year and subsequently tried to avoid). One exception might be the following photo:

"Carpet of Dandelions"

Two sunset photos got pretty well-received, though. They are no spring photos as such.


"After Sunset"

"Last Minute"

Zingst (May 2011)

During a trip to Zingst in the context of the annual Zingst Seminar, organized by the department where I work, I got some of my best shots of the year. Although early May can be cool and dreary, especially in Northern Germany, we normally had gorgeous weather, with temperatures far above 20 °C. The following photos became my favorites, although I simply like all of my Zingst photos:

"Nationalpark Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft"

"Good Bye to the Baltic Sea" (taken on the last day of our trip).

"The White Sands of Mecklenburg"

"Where Peace Still Reigns"

Early June

I bought my new camera (Fuji FinePix HS20) in June 2010 and immediately set out on new photo tours. It took some weeks until I was able to handle it, because it was a great difference between the compact cameras I had before; however, I wouldn't like to miss it a single day now. In this time I rather focused on landscape and evening photography. There were some pretty shots amongst them.

"Church in the Evening Sun"

"Schlossweg Lützschena"

"The Bend in the Road"

"Across the Fields"

Summer Vacations

As in the years before, we spent our annual summer vacations in the Federal State of Mecklenburg (Northern Germany), a place full of photographic opportunities. As in Zingst, I brought many nice photos back home, amongst them the following:

"Misty Day"

"Greifswalder Oie"

"Backwater Delight"


"Lost in Time"

Late Summer

In late summer I ventured several local photo tours, now focusing both on architecture and landscape. I got some impressing photos, although they could not compete with the photos taken in Mecklenburg.


"Parkschloss Leipzig"

"Balconies"

Landschaftspark Agra

"Field of Windows"

Mallorca Journey (End of September)

In Mallorca, Spain, I had the opportunity to get both interesting architecture and landscape photos. I got more than 1,000 photos of Mallorca, and more than a dozen I admitted to Panoramio.

"Blue Lagoon"

"Pristine Shoreside"

"Valldemossa"

"Quickly through the Water"

Early Autumn

In early autumn, the leaves still green, I focused on special sceneries, and having some luck, got a few outstanding shots, which got more good feedback than any other photo uploaded before.

"Shadow and Sunlight Blessedly Mingled" (formerly "Elsterstraße Leipzig")


"Good Morning, Leipzig"


"Gaußstraße Leipzig"

"Like a Beautiful Dream" (formerly "Misty Leipzig")

Autumn

In late October, when autumn had proceeded, I rather concentrated on trees and woods, now in most beautiful colors, just as I did the years before.


"Autumn Leaves"

"Blurry Autumn"


"October Sun" (preliminary title)

Early Winter

Winter is not the best season to take photos, yet a few opportunities were waiting for me nonetheless. I realized that it would be pest to concentrate on objects and architecture now. During the last days of this year I took photos rather in Leipzig downtown, and started to realize that there is more photographic scope than I had originally thought. It is not very unlikely that I will take further photo there during the next months. One project already planned is a renewed photo of Alma Mater Lipsiensis (see also the photo below), the facade now completely revealed.

"Bright Winter Day"

"Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, University of Leipzig"

The latter photo is the last one I uploaded this year. It is also my first monument photo, and the first photo which I selected for the contest category "Cultural Heritage". I'm curious how much (or little) it gets appreciated.

Special Photos in Late 2011

"A Queen of Hearts", see also the respective blog entry.

"Alma Mater Lipsiensis" (University of Leipzig), taken on the day of my graduation (Oct 28) and named after its original name.


"Foggy November", taken on one of those many foggy days and nights we had in mid November. Exposure time: 4 seconds.


"Roads to Delitzsch", taken during my 3rd bike and photo tour I took this year. A dreary but mild day in late November, it was the latest bike tour I ever ventured.

Conclusions

I took more than 6,000 photos this year and contributed about 150 to Panoramio. Together more than 60,000 photos were clicked and this blog visited some thousand times. For this and the many comments and appreciative words, I want to thank every visitor and contributer.

Prospect - 2012

There are different possibilities and projects I currently ponder about...

Downtown Leipzig
Outskirts of Leipzig
Leipzig bordering counties / countryside
Leipzig surrounding cities
Black and white photography
Semi-abstract architecture
Redeveloped Völkerschlachtdenkmal Leipzig
Redeveloped Campus Leipzig
...

Most of my photos taken by accident became great shots, most of the planned ones didn't. So... time will tell.

Thank you for your visit, and a happy new year.

Patrick

A Queen of Hearts

2011-10-17T22:35:00.000+02:00

Exactly 10 years have passed since my last visit to Dresden. We were on a class trip then, a bright late summer day in early October '01, and I remember visiting different pieces of the cultural heritage, mainly the Zwinger with its various exhibitions. Leipzig and Dresden are the two major cities in the New Federal States of Germany, each having more than half a million inhabitants. It's certainly no wonder that I always had a peculiar interest in Dresden, and now that I was on a conference there, I couldn't miss the chance to visit the beautiful Old Town again. That Dresden occupies many interesting buildings from lost centuries is surely out of the question, yet I found the Frauenkirche the most wonderful one. Collapsing on February 14, 1945, it was one of the last buildings of the cultural heritage in Dresden which got destroyed during the air raids on the city in the Second World War, burying many hopes of the inhabitants that at least one historic piece of architecture would withstand the devastation. As a sign of reconciliation and peace, it got rebuilt from 1996 through 2005, mainly by donations and private contributions, and I am glad to call a photo of this building my own now.

The picture showing the Frauenkirche will be uploaded to my panoramio account in a few days or weeks. You are now able to see it even before it gets uploaded.

Dresdner Frauenkirche (rebuilt 1996-2005)

Of course, compared to Leipzig (which got less destroyed during the Second World War) there is less "Old Town" to be discovered in Dresden after all. Many streets in the city center are lined with postmodern buildings and drab blocks of apartments. However, the most important buildings got rebuilt during the last 6 decades, a couple of them are presented below:

Augustusbrücke and Katholische Hofkirche


Semperoper Dresden

Dresdner Zwinger


Prager Straße, pedestrian precinct (modern buildings prevailing)

View on the Elbe

Well, this was the first post in many months, I hope you enjoyed the photos. I plan to write posts more frequently again, so stay curious.

Curious Photos

2011-03-25T16:25:00.000+01:00

The more photos you take, the more strange or funny places and subjects you'll find. I normally concentrate on landscape, architecture and street photography, however, during the last years I also found a couple of pretty funny things which I had to capture by all means. These are often (but not invariably) traffic signs. A few pictures shall be presented now:

Where to Go? We want to have everything precise and exact in Germany, so funny combinations of seemingly contradicting traffic signs are an inevitable result.

For the Children to Play. Well, at least they tried to make it a little more "children-oriented" here. The message of this photo might be: "Sorry kids, we couldn't finish this living street. Either play in the fields or on the main road."

German Precision. Well, I measured it myself. It's actually 1123.7 m.

Hidden Street Lamp. For any reason this street lamp in Bautzen, Sachsen, wants to keep anonymous. It practically works undercover.

Standbad. A really nice day to get to the Strandbad (beach).

Sudden Snow Storm. Whoever the owner of this bike might be, it was certainly the right thing to take the bus back home that day.

The Gate Nobody Can Pass. That's probably one of the most secure gates in the world.

The Magic of Photo Retouching

2011-01-30T20:16:00.000+01:00

In the past I belonged to the people who never retouch their photos and rather consider it as cheating than something worth considering. However, in the context of creating my new photo gallery, I reconsidered my opinion again and tried to retouch a photo of mine using Gimp. The resulting picture was so much better, that I instantly changed my mind completely, and started to always retouch my photos from now on. Indeed, all photos in the new photo gallery (photographic arts) are more or less retouched, something I would have despised only months ago. Now, maybe to justify retouching and improving photos, I wanna present some original photos and the respective retouched photos. In almost each case it appears to me, that a decent retouching makes the photo looking a good deal better.

By the way: It seems that almost every photographer either retouches his or her photos, or at least does not consider it cheating at all. Since photography belongs to the fine arts, one is practically allowed to do whatever imaginable for a more beautiful result, which normally is the main aim in photography. I therefore do not regret my decision in the least and am always eager to learn new techniques of retouching and improving photos.

1. "The Old Homestead"

It was the first photo I retouched, rather out of fun than to seriously improve it. It was also the first photo I selected for my new gallery.

2. "Streets of Palma"

This is one of the few photos which turned from landscape format into portrait format. Of course, a high resolution is needed for those tricks.

3. "Lengthening Shadows, Fading Garland"

The most important things for me are to increase the contrast and saturation. I rather prefer full colors (high saturation), and would have never put the original photo in my gallery. The title refers to Montgomery's "Golden Road".

4. "Holy Entrance"

This was a photo where I had to retouch pretty much (it took some time to completely remove the annoying notice board in the background). If the subject is okay in general and the photo neither too dark nor to bright, it is normally only a matter of time and effort to make a nice(r) photo.

5. "Summer Evenings"

The original photo was too dark and pale. I changed the contrast, saturation and brightness and increased the yellow hues. It took some time until I was happy with this photo.

6. "The Colorful City"

This photo is another example where a better appearance is caused by a higher contrast and saturation. The flat colors are gone, a colorful city is revealed.

7. "Streets of Lindenau"

Changing the hues is another thing I sometimes perform. Winter photos, for example, have often an enormous blue cast, so I increase yellow and red. In the photo below I increased the red and yellow hues as well, because I find city photos better if red and yellow hues dominate. In landscape photography green and yellow should dominate.

The New Photo Site

2011-01-09T21:01:00.002+01:00

As some people have already seen, I possess a new panoramio account which I will use in parallel to my original account .../user/53443. The new account with the user number 2886489 can also be accessed by www.panoramio.com/user/patrick-arnold. It will contain some distinguished photos of mine which I really consider excellent. So far, I have uploaded 136 photos out of more than 36,000, so about 0.37 % or every 270th photo. I think I will always keep it below 1 %, maybe even below 0.5 %, because, as mentioned before, only really good photos shall be presented.

My first account was more like a huge melting pot where I had uploaded all kind of photos, mainly to broaden the supply of photos in districts and towns where not many photos had been uploaded before. I wanted to offer photos in regions where nobody else had uploaded photos so far, especially since I like watching photos in Google Earth myself, often being disappointed when I can't find pictures of villages or towns I'd like to explore. I never put emphasis on quality, though, and later rather regretted this. Over the years I had begun to see photography as a part of fine arts, not as mass production and mass publication. I wanted to present photos in a better quality, with special themes or gorgeous colors. For this I found it rather sensible to create a new account and do not mix my best photos with the every-day shots.

Now that StreetView has taken photos all over the town and will certainly go on during the next years, presenting geographic photos seems not so important anyway and I'll rather concentrate on photographic arts, intending to upload photos I like and consider good, not photos which might be useful in the map of Google Earth. Nearly all of the 136 photos has been retouched and improved, and are often quite distinguished photos from past photo tours. There are not only landscape, architecture and street photos, but also object and abstract photos.

I won't delete my first account. Having about 3,000 views every day, there is no reason to delete an account where so many people come to visit. However, I'm probably not going to upload further photos there, but rather care more about my new account. It had 1,300 views in the first two weeks, so this might be a rather good beginning.

I deleted some photos of my first account to avoid redundancy, but these photos are now visible on my second account (and in Google Earth, too).

Best,

Patrick.

A Walk Through the Winter Wood

2010-12-21T21:00:00.000+01:00

Last Friday I went to the dentist, the annual appointment which I usually shelve till the (very) end of the year, because I am seldom looking forward to it. My dentist office is about three kilometers away, and going by bike it would not even take 10 minutes to get there, however, due to the huge amount of snow that still covers streets and paths, I had to find some other solution this year. I therefore decided to go on foot and use this rare occasion to take some winter photos from the sceneries I'd have to pass.

The way to the dentist is a fair walk along allotments and railway tracks, through wooden areas and open fields, crossing rivers and little brooks. Even though many photos were a little overexposed due to the bright snow, I'm pretty happy with my winter photos after all.

The Arrival of the Snow Queen

2010-11-30T21:31:00.001+01:00

It is not even three weeks ago when the sun shone brightly from a pale blue autumn sky, still warming the country which had turned bare and bleak in the weeks before. We had 10 or maybe even 15 °C and wondered when winter would finally arrive. Well, we weren't obliged to wait much longer, because already at the end of November the winter intruded with all its might, which is surely a very unusual thing in Leipzig. Being located 100 meters above sea level, Leipzig is not your typical city where you would expect much snow, yet now it seems as if we will have the third snowy winter in a row, including much traffic chaos and icy nights, but also beautiful landscapes and enchanted streets. The photos presented below, taken from today, might give a sweet introduction into the next season, which from meteorological point of view starts just tomorrow.

Colors of the Autumn

2010-11-18T17:22:00.000+01:00

It's doubtful whether the autumn is the most fascinating season of the year after all; anyway it is the herald of the winter, and I haven't encountered many people yet who would fancy the latter. However, for a photographer, there is hardly anything much more wonderful than the autumn, with all its different hues of yellow, orange, red and violet, and with the low standing sun shining from a deep-blue sky on the compelling scenery.

Those golden days may long lie behind now, and dreary cold November weather had prevailed weeks ago, but nonetheless a few colorful autumn photos of October 2010 should be presented in the following.

Back from Vacation Again

2010-10-07T16:03:00.000+02:00

It's only 6 weeks ago since our last travel had been, but on September 26 we set out to a journey again. This time Mallorca, Spain, was the destination, and I'm sure there are certainly several stereotypes about this island. However, traveling to Mallorca only convinced me that it is a most fascinating island, with gorgeous places, great cities and lovely coves. I visited several cities, where Palma was surely the highlight as well as several parts of the island, especially the mountainous north of Mallorca. As matter of fact, I took lots of photos again, and a few will be now presented.

1. Arrival

We set out on a very dreary, cold day.

Waiting for our baggage at the crowded airport of Palma.

First impression - photo taken out of the bus near the airport.

2. Hotel

Our hotel (entrance)

Our hotel.

Beach and Mediterranean Sea.

Hotel - view to the main building.

The bar next to the pool.

Pool and sunbeds, main building in the background.

3. Vicinity

View over a roof.

Cala Mendia.

Romantica.

4. Portocristo

Portocristo, view to downtown.

Portocristo, downtown.

Portocristo, church in downtown.

A typical street in Portocristo, downtown.

Portocristo, view to the church.

More photos about cities and different places of Mallorca will be soon uploaded to my panoramio photo account.

Thank you for your visit :)

Back from Vacation

2010-08-15T10:44:00.000+02:00

Hello again,

After two weeks of vacation in Hohen Sprenz (located right between the two cities Laage and Schwaan, Mecklenburg) I'm now back in Leipzig again. As matter of fact, I took lots of photos and will publish a couple of them on this blog. Others will be uploaded on my panoramio account, especially photos I took in the cities we visited (Rostock, Güstrow, Bützow, Schwaan, Laage). Probably there will be some photos which are both uploaded on panoramio.com and here, so I'm sorry for the possible redundancy in advance.

The little track leading to Hohen Sprenz.

Our house where we lived.

The lake next to the house.

The castle of Güstrow (30,000 inh.).

Our car on a deserted parking lot at the motorway near Berlin.

Our trip to the Baltic Sea.

Dawning.

The Pedestrian precinct in the City of Rostock (200,000 inh.)

The market place of the City of Laage (4,500 inh.).

The marina of Kühlungsborn.

Wires and corn.

Now and Then

2010-07-14T21:36:00.000+02:00

Some people will still remember January 2010, where the streets of Leipzig were entirely covered with snow and ice and it seemed as if the icy winter would never come to an end. Now, exactly half a year later, many people suffer from the enormous heat which we have in Germany for several weeks, especially in Eastern, North and Central Germany. So, who would seriously think about the icy January now?

Well, I at least browsed through some photo archives lately and beheld the photos I took between Jan 3 and Feb 18, where Leipzig was constantly covered with snow (which is rather exceptional for Leipzig).

Now I found it pretty exciting to take some now-and-then-photographs. It was the first time I did this, and I have to admit that it isn't that easy to create the same photo again, which you took some months ago. However, I'm pretty content with the result that you can see below. The photos show streets and houses in Leipzig-Leutzsch, taken on January 3 (winter) and July 14 (summer). They are not your typical now-and-then-photos which normally compare today's photos with photos taken 10, 20 or 50 years ago, but I found them pretty interesting nevertheless. Enjoy and examine.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

Picture 10

Picture 11

Best regards

Patrick

A New Era of Single-Family Houses

2010-06-23T22:01:00.001+02:00

When I visited some cities in Gran Canary (2003) and Tenerife (2004, 2006), I recognized how different they construct buildings in Spain compared to Germany or Central Europe. The buildings rather look like cubes than like classic houses, having flat roofs, small, slot-like windows, and recessed balconies (which is called loggia in architecture). The colors are often much more friendly than in Germany: Bright, pale colors like yellow, light green, light blue, pink and orange seem to dominate, however, many houses are simply white, because the white colors reflect sun light the best. All in all, the Spanish buildings seem rather simple and practical, and you can use the flat roofs perfectly to take a sunbath or dry your clothes.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 1 - 3: The city of Las Galletas (ca. 3,000 inh.) in the south of Tenerife, 2006. The photos show buildings which are typical for the Canary Islands and Spain in general.

Now there is a new architectural style evolving in Germany, especially with regard to single-family houses. This style, which is called minimalism, is rather similar to the Spanish style described above. Flat roofs? A cubic shape? A loggia? This would have sounded almost impossible 10 years ago, but many new single-family homes look just like that now. I don't even have to leave the district where I live, not even my street, to find those new buildings. In the little district of Leutzsch there are at least 5 houses built in the new style, and it's pretty certain that further houses will follow. I wonder how other people think about this style. I know some who hate it, but actually I don't find it that bad. Why must houses have an inclined roof, gables and bay windows? Why shouldn't a private home be as practical and easy as possible?

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

Picture 4 - 9 show new homes in Leipzig-Leutzsch which are all built in the style of minimalism (except the building shown in picture 6, where it is not clear yet how it will look like when it is finished). None of the buildings is older than two years.

There might be two different kinds of single-family houses built in this new style: The ones who completely fulfill the rules of minimalism, which means that they are absolutely simple (flat roof, cubic shape, simple windows, no adornments or decorations at all; Picture 4, 5, 9) and the ones who partly fulfill the schema. The latter ones (Picture 7, 8) might have a lightly inclined roof for instance (but no gables and have still a rather simple shape) and is also called Stadtvilla in German (there is no proper equivalent in English, but you could translate it roughly as town villa or urban villa).

Well, I'm eager to know whether this new style will prevail after all or whether the old style (the classic single-family houses, shown in Picture 10) will endure. However, to figure this out one surely has to wait a couple of years, maybe even one decade.

Picture 10

Picture 10 shows classic houses in Paunsdorf-Nord, Leipzig, built approximately between 2000 and 2005.

Photos of Möckern and Gohlis

2010-05-28T09:40:00.001+02:00

Last Friday and Saturday the weather was rather fine, which doesn't seem for granted in this rather cool and rainy month. I immediately took my chance and went to Möckern and Gohlis as well as the city center to take some city photos. I've now uploaded some photos from Möckern and Gohlis, two districts which are pretty close to the city center and excel due to their rather old buildings. You can view the photos here and in a few days I also will upload the photos taken in the city center.

So long.

Thunderstorm

2010-05-24T19:29:00.002+02:00

Today there might have been the first actual thunderstorm we had in Leipzig in 2010. Well, I remember we had one in March or April as well, but it wasn't quite an exceptional one I guess. Anyway, today I had the opportunity to take some really great thunderstorm photos. I find them pretty nice, but of course one shouldn't forget that thunderstorms are still dangerous occurrences and that severe wind gusts and possible tornadoes had caused much damage in the eastern parts of Germany today; this also includes the thunderstorm shown in the pictures, taken at ca. 3.50 p.m. from the kitchen window.

The Magic of Sunrises and Sunsets

2010-04-25T21:14:00.001+02:00

I think it's hardly possible that there are any photographers in the world who wouldn't like sunrises and sunsets in general. Well, people often make shots from most different things - some prefer architecture and cities, others prefer nature, and others again prefer abstract things. However, when the sun sets or rises, most photographers agree with each other and start to take photos at once. Anyway, what is so special about sunrises and sunsets?

Philosophically the sunrise marks the beginning of a new day (and who knows what the day will bring?) whereas the sunset marks the end of a day (and who knows what the day really has brought?). However, photography and philosophy are two different things. They have something in common, that is for sure, but they aren't the same. So what is so special about this phenomena considered as a photographer?

It's only my own point of view, but I assume that the colors are the most important thing about sunset and sunrise photographs. When the sun sets or rises and you have a little luck, a huge amount of different hues will merge together around the sun. Typically the colors are (this shouldn't come as a surprise) yellow, orange, red and sometimes also a tint of violet and purple. Yellow, orange and red are warm colors which normally signify energy, vitality, joy and happiness. I think these are colors people like very much - and what would a sunrise be when it would consist of green, blue and violet?

However, the most important thing seems to be the enormous multiple merging of colors which you normally doesn't get when you simply take photos of a landscape, a building, an object etc. The sky is blue, the clouds are white and the grass is green - in a usual photo there is hardly merging of colors. This might be the reason what sunrise and sunset photos makes so special compared to other photographs.

Besides the colors the scenery has a big influence as well. Sunrises and sunsets normally take place rather early or late in the day (depending on the latitude and season), so it is often silent and deserted whenever you watch it. You normally would watch it somewhere outside the cities as well, typically on a lonely field, at the sea or on a remote hill - this can make it even more romantic.

The following photos are sunset photographs I've taken from a hill in Leipzig on April 23. Even though I possess about 200 sunset and sunrise photographs, I have to admit that I've never been able to get so wonderful shots.

Spring at Last

2010-04-18T17:31:00.002+02:00

After a long and rather untypical winter with lots of snow and coldness it now seems that spring has arrived at last (and hopefully for good). Some trees and hedges already blossom beautifully, their leaves almost fully formed, whereas others still appear in the same gray as they did in winter. Beholding pictures from last year, one can see that spring lags this year by about 10 days (yet last year's April was one of the hottest in history, so actually this shouldn't come as a surprise).

Now here are a couple of spring photographs I took this morning:

Greetings from Schöneck/Sachsen

2010-03-11T14:53:00.000+01:00

Hello again! During the more or less spontaneous trip to Schöneck/Sachsen last weekend I got the opportunity to take some impressing winter photographs. The city of Schöneck (about 3,500 inh.) is located more than 700 m above the sea level, making it one of the highest located cities in Germany. Hence, we had lots of snow when we arrived there last Friday, and a huge amount of new snow fell the day after. The following photos show the beautiful landscapes around Schöneck as well as the city of Schöneck. The family photos are omitted, but there is also a photo from the IFA-Hotel where we stayed for 4 days.

Pictures of Leipzig

2010-01-26T20:22:00.003+01:00

The presentation of Leipzig University that I uploaded about 2 months ago got a rather positive reception, so this might be the time to say thank you for the positive ratings and the nice comments. Anyway, in the post from November 20, where I had announced the upload, I'd also mentioned that I was working on a Leipzig presentation that was almost finished. Now I can tell that it is completely finished, and I'm quite content with it. The video is distinctly shorter than the Leipzig-University presentation (about 2:30), but I've worked on it much longer. Actually, I started it already in March 2009, but often paused for many months (and sometimes nearly forgot this diashow at all). Today, I finally brought myself to accomplish and upload it. You can now watch it here.

The video consists of 26 photos that show special buildings and places in Leipzig. I took them between 2003 and 2009 and converted each one into a "cartoon" by using the great Gimp-toolset. Some photos are uploaded to my photo account and Google Earth for a very long time, whereas others might be new to you. I hope you'll enjoy the slideshow and wish you much fun.

Patrick Arnold

Night Photographs

2010-01-20T20:28:00.000+01:00

I admit that taking photographs at night isn't that easy if you don't use a tripod (and I don't have one), but it's an interesting thing nevertheless. In the following I show you some photos I took last Saturday night with my new camera. I'm pretty content, even though the quality isn't extremely good. The photos show some streets in Leipzig-Lindenau at night, still covered with lots of snow.

Some Further Photographs

2010-01-17T20:43:00.001+01:00

I more or less promised you to upload some further photographs of the snowy city, so here you are:

Much More Snow

2010-01-03T17:18:00.002+01:00

People living in Leipzig or in its vicinity may still remember January 4, 2009 when a very unusual high amount of snow draped the entire city in white for many days. A layer of 15 centimeters of snow isn't that often here in the lower regions of Germany, yet this year just the same happened again (and almost at the same day). When I arrived in Leipzig on January 2, the snow was maybe 5 till 10 centimeters high, but by now it might be 20 centimeters or even more. Well, of course I couldn't miss this chance to take some photos, and now I'm going to upload some I like the most. Probably I'll take photographs in the next days as well, since it's very unlikely that the snow smelts away through the next week. So maybe you'll get a new snow post during the next days, but for now here are some of the photos I took today:

Photos Taken by My New Camera

2009-12-28T14:21:00.001+01:00

Here are a couple of photos I shot with my new Canon Powershot SX200 I got for Christmas. It offers 12x zoom and a resolution up to 4000x3000 (12 megapixels). I'm really impressed by it's picture quality, especially the colors are really great.

Tomorrow I'm off to Mecklenburg. Have a happy New Year!

Leipzig Received its First Snow

2009-12-18T18:21:00.002+01:00

Today a fresh 3 to 4 centimeters layer of snow has covered the City of Leipzig, just enough to take some first actual winter photographs (snow photographs), but too little to take really good ones. Anyway, Leipzig isn't a city that receives much snow during the winter, so actually one should be content with the few amount of snow that every now and then falls down. At the moments it's not only snow that covers the city, but also coldness. Having a maximum temperature of about -11 °C (12 °F) it's hardly possible to hold the camera in your uncovered hands.

Waiting for the streetcar to come I took the opportunity to take some sample photos nevertheless.

Leipzig University between 2006 and 2009

2009-11-20T18:25:00.004+01:00

I just uploaded a photo presentation about Leipzig University on YouTube, showing photos from 2006 through 2009. Click here and enjoy.

When I'd started my studies at Leipzig University in September 2006 I was barely aware that so much was going to change within only 3 years. Of course I knew about the plans and ambitions of creating a new campus and new constructions that would surround it, including the new Paulinerkirche, which was a rather controversial issue at this time; however, I had to deal with so many new things that I barely cared about those big changes. Leipzig university appeared to me as a huge tangle at this time and everything was so new to me that I was rather engaged in finding my rooms, lecture halls and institutions as well as understanding all the lecture stuff and the examination regulations than thinking about the construction of the new campus. Well, as you can see, I've changed my mind later.

The photos I took in 2006 (the first ones shown in the presentation) were not supposed to be memories of the old university buildings in the first place. I just took them, because this was my new education facility, my new second home. Only in early 2007, when they suddenly started to knock the old cafeteria down, I recognized that it would be rather interesting to take some photos showing the old state and the demolition. I realized, that it would be also great to take photographs during the building phase, showing the entire building process by degree. Today I'm very happy that I made this decision, since otherwise I'd never been able to make this presentation.

After getting my Bachelor Degree in November 2009 and finding myself in the modern, brand new buildings of Leipzig University, I found it pretty fascinating to make a presentation, which would show the changes between 2006 and 2009. After all I had the photos, so everything I had to do was put them together and create a presentation. Unfortunately the front building isn't finished yet (they say it will be in 2011), so actually the presentation isn't complete at the moment (yet I didn't want to wait two years longer).

I think the presentation isn't only interesting for former students or students, who still know the old campus, but also for students who are rather new to Leipzig University and have never seen it before. By watching the presentation they will see how it looked like just a few years ago.

As you can see, I unfortunately missed to take some photos of special places (and at special times). There are no photos of the corridors of the old main building (which were dull, gray or beige concrete walls without any wallpaper or paint), no photos of its entrance, and scarcely photos of the inside of the seminar building, as well as the cafeteria. Nonetheless I'm glad that I had at least enough photos to make a presentation.

Maybe you also want to know how I made this presentation. Well, I guess it wasn't much of a big deal. I accomplished it on one evening in only 2 hours, but had to adjust it in the next days, which was a work of further 3 hours. First I didn't want to use music in the background, but soon noticed, that the presentation would be rather boring without it. I decided to take simple (and rather neutral) background music, so Chariots of Fire for the first part where the old buildings are shown, including the process of demolition. The second title is Briefing Good, some background music from an old computer game called Mafia. The third one is Cello Suite No. 1 by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Trivia:

The caption color is yellow, yet a couple of times I was forced to change it (when the picture was too bright).
The program I used is Fotostory 3.
All photos in the last part (November 2009) were taken on November 7, 2009.
The first photos of Leipzig University I took on September 29, 2006 (some shown in the presentation).
A few photos are not in its chronological order (so the photo showing the Städtische Kaufhaus was taken in November 2009, but is in the part 2007 .. 2008).
The presentation consists of 68 photos, but I have more than 550 photos about Leipzig University.
The last picture in the presentation is a rather special one (I didn't choose it per accident). During the last 3 years Grimmaische Straße was an important place for me where I often took photos both of the old and the new buildings (you'll see Grimmaische Straße many times in the presentation).

Well, I hope you've enjoyed the little presentation and give me some feedback via YouTube or here. I've also made a Leipzig Presentation a couple of weeks ago, almost ready to get published. So maybe I'll put it on YouTube, too.

Getting my Bachelor Degree

2009-11-17T13:29:00.008+01:00

After more than three years of studying and learning I finally got my Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science on November 13. Since it was a rather important day in my life, I decided to take a quick photograph in my room. As you can see I've taken it at about 7.30 in the evening (on the day it was issued to me), and I wore my Leipzig-University-Shirt that my parents had given me for Christmas in 2006.

I like to freeze special moments of my life by taking photographs, but am normally not a part of them, nor do I upload them. Hence, this is supposed to be a rare exception.

In the next post I wanna show you some photos of Leipzig University. Some of you might be interested in it.

So long.

Autumn Photographs

2009-11-10T18:07:00.008+01:00

Autumn photographs are certainly a very great thing, because two important conditions must be fulfilled: Colorful trees (the leaves must have their right color, so they shouldn't be green anymore, but not already brown and spoiled either) as well as a sunny, fine day with a deep-blue, clear sky. Also, the sun should be rather high in the sky so that the scenery is illuminated from above and not from the side. Otherwise the pictures could get rather dark due to the long shadows that are caused by the low sun light. Last but not least you need to have a little time to take your photos.

So what is a great autumn photograph after all? I really like those pictures showing a couple of trees in different colors (green, yellow, orange, red), being completely illuminated by the sun, just like the second one I've uploaded beneath. Besides, you can go straight into the forest and take some photos of the wood. It might sound peculiar, but you can get an even better effect of your autumn photos if you take them against the sun (but with the trees and foliage in the foreground, of course). Further great subjects are colorful alleys like this, fruits (such as apples or apple trees, chestnuts etc.) and single tree tops (like the first photograph I've uploaded beneath).

It's a funny calculation, but each year consists of about 52 weeks, and only during 3 .. 4 weeks you can take good autumn photographs. If you miss this period and wanna take some autumn photos, you either have to wait for almost a year or travel to the southern hemisphere where autumn is from March till May. The same time pressure is in spring or in winter (if you wanna get some pictures that contain snow and ice, you often have to wait pretty long here).

In the last few weeks there were a couple of days were all conditions seemed to be fulfilled. I've uploaded several photos I've recently taken to panoramio.com, and some of them I like pretty much. Yet it's already mid November now; that is, the next autumn photographs I'll take will not be before September 2010.

I have more than one favorite autumn photo '09, but the following is definitely one:

And also:

First Blog

2009-11-04T15:10:00.010+01:00

Hi everybody,

my name is Patrick Arnold and I'm from Leipzig, Germany. I just created this account which is supposed to be an addition to my photo account on panoramio.com. During the last 3 years I've uploaded about 2,000 photos from Germany and a few other countries (such as Spain, Italy and Czech) I visited. Most of the photos were added to Google Earth and viewed thoussands of times, and lots of people from around the world have given very positive feedback. Yet since there is no way to write something on panoramio, I considered to create a separate account on blogger.com, telling you something about new photos I've taken and uploaded, about some special photo tours I took, and maybe even about photography and photo subjects in general.

I also plan to create and upload some pdf-photobooks so that each book will contain several photographs of a special topic. Useless to say, I'd only add photos to it that I consider the most populars in this category (according to comments, views, but also my own point of view). If some book is finished and uploaded, I'll also use this blog to inform people who might be interested.

Maybe I also will upload some photos in here. Who knows what future brings?

The photo account this blog refers is www.panoramio.com/user/53443. There you'll see many photos of mine, stored in many categories (tags). After a long time of consideration I decided to write the blog in English language, since this way everyone around the world will be able to read it (even though most of the comments I get on panoramio are written in German). I hope that people from Germany will understand that. Maybe I will write some special blogs in German and English, though. Let's wait and see.

Well, I think I've told everything which might be interesting so far, and hope that I'll get some comments every now and then. Of course I appreciate all kinds of comments, especially ideas for improvement, questions, and general feedback.

Thank you for reading my first blog, and see you soon again. :)

Auenwald Leipzig, October 31, 2009.