The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #374 is ‘on the move’. Most of what is on these photos has not moved in a long time. However, the machines they got moving again are brilliant. It is a place where they try to keep history alive and accessible, touchable and usable.
The Steamtrain Museum Katwijk Leiden is run by volunteers. It offers the history of steam trains and their use on narrow gauge tracks. And the volunteers fix up and restore old locomotives, carriages and other cars. They have a big storage full of old parts and rusty machines.
Every big city has its own mall, a big shopping center. Most of the times the shops and brands are the same as in the mall next to where you live. And the food court can be slightly different. The Mall of Berlin is no exception to that rule. The location (Leipziger Platz) makes it interesting, as does the architecture.
The dome on the Reichstag offers a wonderful panoramic view on Berlin. And you can walk the rest of the roof as well to look over the city. Here an impression in monochrome.
The front of the Reichstag. A visit was on the top of my list. In 1989 the Berlin Wall was right next to the building; and since 1989 this area was completely developed. So we booked a visit to the dome. On this photo I left the dome out consciously. I wanted to have an image like the building looked in November 1989 below.
Germany, Berlin – November 1989
The history of the Reichstag is connected to my hometown and Leiden. In 1933 Marinus van der Lubbe was accused, tried and sentenced by the Nazi-regime for setting fire to the building. He was born in Leiden en lived in Oegstgeest, as did his family.
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.
Last September I revisited Berlin after 46 years. One of the reasons to come back was to visit the Memorial to the murdered Jews in Europe. I had read stories and seen photos, and I wondered how I would take photo’s of it. And what it would be like to wonder through it. This visit I had my first experience with the monument. Here is the first impression (and the coming days I will publish some more).
A more detailed view of the photo I published yesterday of Leiden. Leiden used to be famous for fabrics, and canals provided the infrastructure for the logistics. Some of the canals were filled up in the second half of the 20th century. However, there are debates about opening a few of them again. These discussions focus on sustainability and environmental quality.
A view on the city where Rembrandt van Rijn was born, Leiden. It was the home where he grew up. There he started his now famous career as a painter. Later, he moved to Amsterdam.
Detail from a front in the Breestraat in Leiden. In den vergulden Turk used to be a restaurant. It moved decades ago to a different spot in town. It then changed its name to Wienerwald. The top of the original front is still there, and recently brought back to its old splendor.
I like monochrome photography for many reasons. One of them is the ability to play with the mood in the photo. Just by adjusting the aperture time or the opening of the lens, the same light delivers a different mood. This one and the photo I published yesterday, were shot on the same day.
This is the famous Cley windmill at Cley next the sea. It’s by far the best name for a coastal village. Interestingly, it actually does not have a sea front. The mill was owned by the family of James Blunt.
I have a fondness for black and white aka monochrome. That grew on me. Mono was cheaper 50 years ago and more ‘easy’ to handle in a dark room. Monochrome gives something extra at times. The sphere, the grain. And over all these years I learned to see objects in monochrome, visualizing what something looks like in grays.
When I bought my first Nikon digital camera (the D70), I naively asked ‘where is the monochrome setting?’. It was not there. Shooting was color only. If I wanted mono I had to create it myself afterwards in Lightroom, Photoshop or an app like Snapseed. But lucky for me, on the iPhone and on the recent Nikon Zf, there are monochrome settings. To be honest, that was one of the reasons to buy a Zf. So now I have a choice: choose a mono or color setting, or turn color afterward turn it into mono.
I know the taste of my ‘audience’ is different than mine. In three days I like to find out more about your taste. What do you fancy more: a photo in mono or in color?
This third and last one is about flowers, waiting for the recycle bin. The photo was shot in color.
I have a fondness for black and white aka monochrome. That grew on me. Mono was cheaper 50 years ago and more ‘easy’ to handle in a dark room. Monochrome gives something extra at times. The sphere, the grain. And over all these years I learned to see objects in monochrome, visualizing what something looks like in grays.
When I bought my first Nikon digital camera (the D70), I naively asked ‘where is the monochrome setting?’. It was not there. Shooting was color only. If I wanted mono I had to create it myself afterwards in Lightroom, Photoshop or an app like Snapseed. But lucky for me, on the iPhone and on the recent Nikon Zf, there are monochrome settings. To be honest, that was one of the reasons to buy a Zf. So now I have a choice: choose a mono or color setting, or turn color afterward turn it into mono.
I know the taste of my ‘audience’ is different than mine. In three days I like to find out more about your taste. What do you fancy more: a photo in mono or in color?
This second one is about sky. Always there, lots of it. In color it can be blue, white, gray, dark. In mono it delivers whites, grays and dark zones. In mono the image changes it seems. An abstract sky can turn into something mysterious. The photo was shot in color.
I have a fondness for black and white aka monochrome. That grew on me. Mono was cheaper 50 years ago and more ‘easy’ to handle in a dark room. Monochrome gives something extra at times. The sphere, the grain. And over all these years I learned to see objects in monochrome, visualizing what something looks like in grays.
When I bought my first Nikon digital camera (the D70), I naively asked ‘where is the monochrome setting?’. It was not there. Shooting was color only. If I wanted mono I had to create it myself afterwards in Lightroom, Photoshop or an app like Snapseed. But lucky for me, on the iPhone and on the recent Nikon Zf, there are monochrome settings. To be honest, that was one of the reasons to buy a Zf. So now I have a choice: mono or color.
I know the taste of my ‘audience’ is different than mine. In three days I like to find out more about your taste. What do you fancy more: a photo in mono or in color?
This is the famous Cley windmill at Cley next the sea. It’s by far the best name for a coastal village. Interestingly, it actually does not have a sea front. The mill was owned by the family of James Blunt. The photo was shot in color.