What's (in) the Picture?

Chris Breebaart Photography – finding stories

Posts from the ‘Monochrome’ category

Obscured by Trees

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – April 2024

The Lens Artists Photo Challenge #297 is ‘music to my eyes’. Images and music are a strong way of bringing back memories, feelings, situations you once experienced. This photo clicked my memory for a Pink Floyd album ‘Obscured by clouds’. It is not so much the clouds that obscure in this image, the branches of the trees create a web of lines over the sky and sun.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Old Memories

The Netherlands, Voorhout- April 2024

This is an old cart that was used in the past at flower auctions. Long ago I used to work in the Summer months at the bulbflower auction Flora Rijnsburg (Now part of the Royal Flora Holland Group). These carts transported flowers through sales at the clock and distribution of them to the buyer via a transporter belt. They were extremely heavy and not easy to handle.

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Leiden

The Netherlands, Leiden – March 2024

A few weeks ago I published a photo from the same point of view, but with basking sunny weather. This one is showing an overcast day, in the middle of the week. The previous one was shot with iPhone13promax, and this one is iPhone15promax. Spot the differences :-).

Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Liberation 1945

The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – May 1945

This week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge #292 is ‘People here, there and everywhere’.

I do not know who took this photo, I do not know the date. We assume it is just after World War 2, May 1945. And we assume my father took it. The photo lacks focus unfortunately, but that adds to the thrill of figuring out what is on it. Luckily we could ask the youngest sister of my father (my last aunt still alive); she thinks it is taken just after the war.

There is a parade on the street, observed by people; among them the sisters and brother of my father from the top window of my grandfather’s house (called Weltevreden) where my father lived. The point of view is from a window of the house where my mother lived, and where I would be born 14 years later.

The negative is quite poorly and damaged, but a sweep through Lightroom and Snapseed provided this old memory.

First Terrace Sun

The Netherlands, Leiden – March 2024

The theme for the weekly Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #291 is ‘Cityscapes’. The first sun got people out to enjoy the rays while having a drink on the junction of the Oude Rijn and Nieuwe Rijn in Leiden. On the right De Waag, the weighing house.

Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Python

The Netherlands, Efteling Kaatsheuvel – June 1986

The Efteling is a famous theme park in Kaatsheuvel in Brabant. This is one from a dusty archive, with a negative that could have been a lot better in exposure, but at that time you could not look at the back of the camera to see information for improvement! It shows the rollercoaster Python, circling towards the end of the ride. For lens artists challenge #290 Circular Wonders.

About the B4 retouch series:
I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.

Originally shot with Nikon F301 on Kodak TriX, scanned from negative and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Red Lights

The Netherlands, Leimuiderbrug – February 2024

No one seems to like these circular wonders, created to keep traffic circulating and flowing in a safe fashion. Especially when they are red, a circular red or an arrow for direction. For lens artists challenge #290 Circular Wonders.

Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Ceiling

The Netherlands, Leidschendam – November 2023

Two days ago I published a detail of the ceiling at Westfield Mall of the Netherlands in color. This is the monochrome version of the same image, in my opinion even more magical than the color version. In the feedback some wondered how this structure can be a ceiling. Here is an earlier publication showing the top light window in the ceiling in mono.

The lens artists photo challenge #279 is ‘magical’.

Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Elgin Marbles

England, London – September 2004

These sculpture (nicknamed The Elgin Marbles) are originally from the Parthenon in Athens. Lord Elgin supposedly bought them from the Ottomans, who occupied the present Greece at that moment. The Greek try to return these marbles for decades, the UK government refuses, saying it’s British heritage. Last week a meeting of the UK prime minister with the prime minister of Greece was cancelled, after the Greek PM reiterated the ownership of the marbles. How mesmerizing and wonderful must it be to see these ornaments in the place they belong, on top of the Acropolis over Athens.

The lens artists photo challenge #278 is ‘unique’.

shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.

Rain and Shine

A Magnolia tree. Autumn is a time of rapid changes. It can be light and sunny with wonderful colors on display, or grim and dim in rain. Both have its unique beauty in my humble opinion.

The lens artists photo challenge #278 is ‘unique’.

Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version

Autumn Paths

The Netherlands, Warmond – November 2023

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #275 is ‘filling the frame’. Each photo fills a frame of course, but this is about focussing a subject, and eliminate distraction.

A cycle path along a railroad in Autumn with some added atmosphere in monochrome. Feel free to make up your own story.

Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version