To The Past

This is a very special place in my hometown, that i visit from time to time. It is always a nice location for images and to me it is always, as if i would enter the past, when i walk down this old country road.

As you, my dear readers, know, i do not show very much photos in these days. This has several reasons - first i do not have enough time for taking pictures in these days: I have to study and learn a lot, because of a job related re-orientation, a kind of "new beginning": I am back at university again - it is a lot of stuff to learn, i can tell you... In such a situation, you simply have not the "inner quietness", to realise your photo ideas.
The second reason: My dear friend and watchdog Moses has past away last october. :-( He was my companion for many photowalks and my new friend - and even bigger watchdog - Luna is much wilder and more impulsive than my old friend was. Not, that she is more aggressive, but she is very young and playful, and... a great Dane! ;-) To walk with Moses was always very easy, he was almost never pulling or hunting (maybe, because he already was seven years old, when i adopted him - in the end he was 13.). Moses leash was hanging over my shoulder and could use my camera with both arms. Whenever i wanted to take a picture, i just told him "Moses, wait..." - and he stops immediately, whatever he was doing.
Well, that was Moses. Frau Luna is different, she is much younger, and much bigger (great dane, maybe i will show here some images of her) and i need both arms and both legs, to react to her impulsive moods. She sometimes is really wild and has a never ending energy.
Though it slowly gets a bit better, there is no chance for serious photography - whenever i try to carry a camera, she usually wants to eat the body or play with the carrying strap... In the meantime i even have "collected" several strains and injuries. No chance for taking pictures with Luna - and after our walks i am in no condition, to go out for another walk without her... Don't get me wrong: She is really a beautiful and wonderful dog... but also very exhausting, with her 11 months of age and her ideas of fun.
So have to be patient and use my old Canon G7 for some quick shots, a very handy cam - the only camera, that Luna is not interested in, because the G7 is so small and discrete.
I hope, that i can show here in 2019 some more shots and that Luna gets more settled. "Stay tuned" in the meantime!

Everything is changing

In these days i have not much time for my photography, but from time to time i still go out and shoot a bit. And what i see, is in many cases not so funny. The "industrial agriculture" and modern power economy is changing the face of the world. It looks, as if we are entering a world of steel and machines. No cattle is on the weeds, no bushes, no trees. Ten years ago this perspective would have shown at least a few trees and bushes - maybe some cows. The big wind engines are all new - it seems, as if they now are "planting" energy on the fields...
I miss the "old school" nature 1.0 here: Bushes, trees, birds - something, that mother nature has created by no other purpose but being free.

From Day To Day

In these days i have not very much time for my serious photography - but on my daily walks with my dog i sometimes found interesting objects or places. We are walking in the wood behind our house and though we are walking almost every day the same route, it looks very similiar to the day before, but it never looks really equal to the week(s) before. We have the weather, the light, the day time - rain, snow, fog... So it is always good, to have the camera with you, so that you can record these differences and that you can capture good light or good occasions.
This place here is sometimes completely dry - then it is only the moss on the trees, that tells you: "It's often wet here!" But when it has rained a lot, a little lake land is growing. First it starts as a small puddle, then bigger - sometimes the whole area is wet.
Perfect for a photographer! :-)

Slow Food instead Fast Food

Slow Food is better than fast food - we all know this truism from our nutrition.
I believe, it is the same with photography. If we shoot quickly, we may shoot a lot of frames. But probable not a lot of quality shots. We are no photographer any more - we become a "cameraman".
To me a true photographer is a much more ambitious aim, than to be someone, who is collecting frames like a human observation cam.
So i made the new year's resolution, to take more time and work harder for a better photographic quality in future. In many cases it is not even very difficult. You just have to be slower, give yourself the chance of having ideas. Just take the time to be a photographer, instead what we call in german a "Knipser" (a snapshooter, a clicker). To get the greed for photographic prey under control, which is probable the reason, that we shoot and shoot and shoot.
The good news is: If i remember this resolution while i am shooting, my results immediately get better. Yesterday i shot a stance - and by no means not for the first time... Usually i make a few frames from the light mood and the forest track beside, when i am out in the wood with my dog.  Usually i do no think a lot about this stance. I just shoot it.
But yesterday i made a break - i was thinking something like: "How can i shoot this stand in a better way?" hmhm "Maybe like a building?" ...  "Maybe from the bottom to the top?" hmhm
So i tried a few new viewes, a new perspective - and here you see the result, i hope you like it:

Very simple, isn't it? ;-) Just be slow, think, try, use another perspective. It works!
These are my wishes for the new year: To remember my resolution and be slower: Slow Photography is better than Fast (Food) Photography!

Domain www.lutz-breden.com Blocked/ Deleted

I have decided to erase my domain www.lutz-breden.com, because i cannot find good reasons for me, to publish images under the roof of this domain. It makes more sense to me, to show images to a smaller circle of friends, for instance in the usual communities like photonet or fotoblurb.
The web is in my eyes getting more and more unsafe and for instance google image search shows me, how often my images have been copied all over the web. So i believe, it is better, to safe money by concentrating myself on my blog and to use the internet in a more private way.
But: From time to time i will show some new images here under this address. You will also find this blog in the usual google web search after typing my name.

Lutz Breden, in July 2015

Twist Dancers

An impression of trees and light, taken with a 50mm Nikkor on a DX-Nikon - with built in b&w transition. It does not necessarily have to be alway a zoom lens and a lot of post processing...

Occupier

I was walking near the fishery harbour of my hometown - they are building a lot of new halls there. The former nature protection area has at least partly become a building area - with some compensating area, but of course not of the same biological quality, as the original "Lune Plate" was. So i was a bit in a melancholic mood, when i walked between all the new buildings - mostly wind power factories. From the standpoint of composition i worked with the vertical lines here - with one "outpost" in the wildflowers. The symbolic "step" of the technical world into the realms of nature. This was my idea for the shot. Shown in colour, because i am a bit inspired by the colour photographs of William Eggleston in these days. I read about this great pioneer of colour photography, who was showing, that you don't necessary need to fullfill the clichés, when you work in colour.

X

I think, i already used this title before with another shot. This is probable, because i like the X-shape so much... ;-) I found this X in the fishery harbour of Bremerhaven, where i play from time to time with lines and shapes... I think, i should shoot more often in our harbour, i found a lot of interesting motives there on this shooting.

Light Mood

I really love to be out in the nature, especially before the day begins. This is a good chance to capture backlight situations like this one, if you are in the right place at the right time.
So i don't stop saying it: In my opinion sunsets or sunrises are interesting light situations und not necessarily a special cliche. To a certain degree almost each kind of photography is a kind of cliche - for instance portrait shots. Do we stop taking portrait shots, because we are capturing a cliche? I don't think so - each face is unique and something special. And i feel the same about landscapes and sunrises. To me interesting light is never boring and i hope, you feel the same about this shot here.

Apparition

Sometimes the leave-dress of a tree looks like a ghost to me. Here i found such an eerie "robe", what do you think? A spooky apparition, with open arms?
... Fortunately wonderdog big Moses was with me - so the ghost had no chance and vanished somewhere in the wood... ;-)

Horizontal Sunrise

I am convinced: Sunrises ARE good light, beside the cliche. But i have also to admit, that i was more looking for the cliche ;-), when i was taking pictures in my early Fotocommunity ("FC")-times, in 2004/2005. Mainly, because our Northern German landscape is not so very attractive for classical landscape photography - so i had (and still have) to search for special light or special technical ways (motion blurness, zoom-effects, long time exposure, using open aperture and so on) for creating interesting photographs.
At first i was a bit disappointed here, because the clouds were completely hiding the sun - it was simply cloudy that day - no sunlight was visible. But then suddenly there was that small light slit - and it was probable just because of this cloudshape, that the shot looks so special.
Of course this is no photoshop work, it is a "one shot" image. To me this is important, if we want to call something a "photograph" afterwards: It has to be a one-shot-picture. My opinion is: A true photograph has to have an aperture setting and a shutter time, otherwise it is a graphic, a montage or a painting. So once again: This is - after my own definition - a photograph.

Between Winter And Spring

I shoot more and more pure b&w and very often with the "in camera"-b&w mode. It is simpler, quicker and you concentrate yourself more on the main image elements and their b&w effects.
So it is not only "the best possible" technical image quality, that is important. More important is in my eyes the best possible image composition. (Important is for instance, that the exposition is done properly and that the photographer uses the right b&w settings.)
The digital photography generally is very helpful for developing the right b&w-mode, because it offers the photographer a preview directly after our shot. So we can change our settings directly on location, if necessary. But we should not switch between b&w and colour too much - the Leica M9 monochrome for instance is based on the idea of reducing the view to the main aspects of monochrome photography without the possibility of shooting in colour. Less is more!
The "in camera b&w mode" of ordinary DSLRs is in my eyes the "poor man's" Leica M9 monochrome... ;-)

36 birds

The world sometimes is a big theatre - and here we see (more or less) 36 birds "on stage".
The big view is strongly recommended, so that you can count all my birds... ;-)
Seriously: I work on a new image speech and have to admit, that i still like the look of 50mm (or similiar focal length in crop format, like 28, 30 or 35 mm) for my photography.

I-Pointment

8mm offers us a lot of room around our motives, as you can see.
I like to use my wide angle lenses mainly for two reasons:
1. For showing classical landscapes and using the lens everywhere, where i have not very much space, f.i. in small rooms. And
2. as a tool for extreme compositions, as a kind of creative "fun" lense.
It is a lot of fun, to put different image elements together and play with perspective and space.
I also must say, that a very good wide angle lens without distortion is not always the best lens for such "games". For instance the 8-16 Sigma is almost a kind of "corrected fisheye" and maybe not the first choice for classical "serious" landscapes, where f.i. a 10-24 or 12-24 Nikkor is probable better. But when it comes to creativity and biggest possible image effect, the extreme lenses are more interesting in my eyes.
This is the reason, that i recommend landscape photographers 2 or even 3 extreme lenses: One for classical landscapes, one for creative landscapes - and maybe an additional fisheye for "extreme fun". :-) 

After Harvest

In november our maize fields are showing a nice graphical effect. Wonderful long lines, great for photographic compositions. This image was made last sunday morning with the so called "kit lens 18-55mm", which is a good landscape lens in my eyes. The post processing of this image was made with Silver Efex 2.