Windows

Yesterday i found this image on my harddisk and played a bit with photoshop, (dodging and burning), to darken the parts (mainly upper right side), that were distracting the view and i was astonished, how much stronger the image looks, with "less" elements on it.
I really enjoyed the Flickr-comments about this work - and i am sure, that all readers know this feeling well from their own images: We see the photo, and we like it - but... Something is wrong and prevents the "wow effect". Too much saturation? Too much contrast (or not enough)? The wrong crop? The wrong format (4:3, 16:9, 20:9)?
Sometimes it just needs one simple action, and the image looks much better. But it is not so easy to find out, what it is, that the image is missing. Not in all cases can others help us, because they don't know our personal vision.
So i recommend every photographer a folder "unsolved cases" on his harddisk, it can be really fun to solve such "open problems", sometimes it needs just a bit time to find the solution.

X

I already showed this shot in my german blog, but i think, it could be also interesting for my international friends. It is hopefully a good example of "less is more" but i have to admit, that the b&w transition was really important for the image effect here.

Self

Here is a self that i made with "old" equipment, a 6 MP Canon 300D.
The 300D was my first digital slr and my first step to serious digital photography.
In the meantime people seem to think, that it not a real camera, if it has less than 12 MP, Canon offers a new 7D with 18MP and i am sure, that in a few years all consumer dslrs will have more than 20 MP.
But nobody really need's it. :-) 4 MP is in my eyes almost enough for most of the users. And many users are obviously forgetting, that it is not just the number of pixels, but its "quality". On the market of compact cameras we already learned, that a 12 MP cam has in many cases less image quality then the previous model with 8 or 6 MP, because the level of noise is rising with the number of pixels, especially on a small sensor.
So the number of pixels is absolutely not the only factor for a sharp image.
You can f.e. raise the quality of your pixels with the use of a tripod. (I would say, that you can increase the image quality of a 6MP dslr to "felt" 8MP, only by the use of a tripod.) If you are searching for the best possible quality, you should not use the open aperture, or a very small aperture - most lenses have the best quality at f 4 or 5.6 - and you can "increase" the quality by using a fixed focal length lens. No zoom lens can reach the quality of such a lens.
Last not least you should use good filters, f.e. a polarization filter and shoot in the RAW-format under good light conditions.
You see: If you are working carefully, you can present excellent results even with an "old" camera like the 300D. A good image idea/composition is always much more important for a good image result, than the pure resolution of the camera sensor.
And the data files are wonderful small, a 4GB CF-Card in a 20D or 300D allows many hundrets of shots in RAW-format, so there is no reason to bann the elder cameras from your camera bag... ;-)

I left Art Limited

Well, i tried it - but in the end i decided, not to stay longer at Art Limited. Why?
It is not very different to the FC, where everythings works because of vanity and comments, not because of the photographic quality. Okay, Art Limited has members on a much higher photographic level than the snapshooter-community FC - but you get most of your Art Limited comments as a replica to a former made comment and this costs a lot of time, to "feature" your photos by making contacts and writing comments. I don't need that any more, and i also deleted a lot of shots at Flickr. I will leave at Flickr a gallery with some placative shots, so that my friends can find some images in the web, but i concentrate myself more on real photography, and it leads to nothing, to spend too much time with the web communities generally.
I also erased my Fotolia images - i don't want to sell my images in this way. Maybe i will make a second try at Fotolia, but for now it is just a huge flood of images, and all i have got there were a few clicks and a lot of wasted time. I don't need that. ;-)

Between the Meadows

These two trees here are looking wonderful, especially in the evening light - but generally we lost (and still loose) many trees, which is a pity in my eyes. Some farmers (not all) have no sense for trees, they use the chainsaw and "redesign" their meadows to a kind of green desert, without bushes and trees. This does not only look very ugly, it is also a big sin against the nature. So i hope, that they come to their senses again: Nature does not need man - man needs nature!

Light On A Pyramid

Found in Fishery Harbour of Bremerhaven...

Still Alive - still attractive?! ;-)

I just got a Mail from the Flickr-Team, that someone has put my image "Still Alive" in his gallery. I appreciate the new attention for this relatively old image and thought, that this is a good reason to show it again on my blog... ;-)


By the way: The gallery function is new at Flickr. You can build a gallery with images of other members and your own photos and give it a name or a topic. So this function is something in between the well known fave-function and forming a group. With a little more time i will check this out by myself.

Branches

It is not so easy, to discover and show interesting shapes in nature and present them in one frame. The chaos of the forest disturbes such a shot usually with unwanted elements - but from time to time i am successful. I think this shot is such an example.

TYZ

I must say, i like to be under the Autobahn. You can stay dry there when it rains and you hear the pulsing sound of traffic, like blood runs through the veins of a body.
It is a special place in the landscape, to a certain degree more untouched and not so ugly, as it seems at the first sight. You also can find a lot of Graffiti there, so you even can view art there... ;-)
Here i captured one for this blog:

The Negative Trend

Photography means a life long learning process, this is for sure. As you can see on my last submission, i am a photographer since August 1978, when i spent my confirmation money for an Olympus OM-2. I never regreted this investion, but my photography really developed since December 2002, when i started seriously in my digital photography. I officially joined the German Fotocommunity in January 2004 (my equipment was a Canon 300D) and learned a lot there. But it was time to leave the FC in 2008 - and it was the right decision. In the meantime i have learned a lot in post processing and composition, and i don't think, that i am on the top of my development. I believe, i am just beginning. :-)
With my "Lutz Breden unplugged" account at Flickr i want to concentrate myself more on the real good photographers - and the same with my work: I love nature and i love it, to take landscapes in the early morning, when everything is silent and the day is awakening.
But on the other hand, these kind of images are nothing special - though some people like my way of shooting landscapes. But in the next time i want to develop my personal style a bit better. There are some shots in my portfolio, that are hopefully very good, but i am not strictly enough, to shoot more of these kind of shots. Sometimes i cannot resist taking pictures, that are only looking good. (A kind of FC-desease... ;-) In the next time i want to shoot more radically, i hope, that i can make some new and good experiences...

Cathedral

I must admit a bit more retouching work as usual, because there were too many disturbing stumps in the foreground and i did not want to call this shot "dirty cathedral". ;-)

Wood Impressions

Since i was a young child, i love the wood, from the very beginning of my childhood. The animals and plants were always intersting to me, and i always loved - and still love - the dark and cool atmosphere of the wood, though we have in Northern Germany mostly coniferous woodland and only at the edge of our forests small stripes of deciduous wood. I loved to climb on trees or explore the wonders of nature - sometimes i found a feather or new - to me unknown - plants, mushrooms or flowers. Sometimes i even found dead animals or new buildings - this was always very exciting to me and my friends. I am very thankful for my childhood in a small village, because me and my friends had so much nature to explore. The wood was full of miracles and it was great fun to walk through the woods of my hometown.
This evening i was in the mood, to walk again a few minutes in one of these childhood-forests - and i was astonished, how similiar it looked to the time of my childhood, in the 60ties and 70ties. In the 80ties is looked totally different, because of a big clear felling, but in the meantime the wood has grown again and it almost looks like it looked when i was a little boy. This was the inspiration to me, to create a bit a spooky atmosphere on this shot, because i felt very small and little, then, when i entered the realms of this dark wood with the big trees. For children the wood is probable a bit darker and the trees are bigger than for grown up people.
One word about my used camera: I made the shot with the Oly E3, which is always a good companion, especially when it must go quick and i don't want to wear heavy gear. Together with the "kit lens" :-) 12-60mm and the built in vibration reduction system it is a very good and easy to wear "All in one"-solution. I do not need a tripod or additional lenses - the D200@18-200 is for some occasions my alternative to the E3, especially because of the bigger tele focal length (f.e. if it could happen to shoot wild animals or when i am out on big areas, where i have to shoot very long distances), while the Oly@12-60 offers good perspectives with the popup-liveview-display. The Nikon is better in noise, the Oly is more robust and water proof, its 12-60mm lens is almost a macro lens.
Both systems are great "1 camera/1lens for the whole shooting"-solutions, but this time i preferred the Oly, mostly because of laziness and because i used it not very often in the last weeks. I was in the mood for fourthirds, so to speak. ;-)

Quo Vadis in 2010?

Again i am thinking about the best way, how i can show my images in the web. There are so many new communities, and i am thankful to Flickr, that i have made so many great new friends and contacts there.
On the other hand, Flickr is a big time eater, if you want to comment all the contact's images and if you are member in many groups. So i already started with my "unplugged" account to concentrate myself more on the important groups and contacts, while i show at my "plugged" account the more placative and "beautiful" images.
There are also some interesting forums and communities in the web, where i read from time to time, but you cannot dance on too many weddings at the same time, and so i will concentrate myself more on this blog, my own website (which i will finish in the next year) and on Flickr. I think, it is a good idea, to use my "plugged" account as "gallery" and my unplugged account to stay in contact with my friends. I have also a third "archive" account, but this is only a working account, i will have no contacts there.

When The Wind Whispers In The Trees

Digital b&w photography means to me, to use Photoshop more to increase the authenticity instead of creating so called "new worlds", which is photoart in my eyes.
Nevertheless all b&w photographies are to a certain degree "artificial" and not "real", because we see colours in the real world, and b&w photography is unable to show them like they look. But the loss of colour concentrates the view more on the essential things of an image, at least if the photographer has composed his image well.
It is the job of the photographer, to decide, if a photograph works better in colour or in b&w, and it is very important, to dose the post processing right, so that the beautiness of reality is not falsified by post processing (darkroom or photoshop) more than necessary. It is part of the magic of photography to me, that the illusions, that we see, are created by perspective, time or visual laws, not by the clone brush or "copy and paste"-work of photoshop. This makes an image cheap - while to know, that an image was mainly "painted by light", can be very fascinating. Only a fool will say, that it does not matter, how an image was made, if it looks good. There is a whole world between truth and illusion. To a certain degree each photographic process is a lie, only a copy of reality, not the reality itself. So a "photography" cannot tell the whole and complete truth - that means, that no image is able to tell the whole story, the whole truth. But that does not mean, that it makes no difference, how much the photographers is "cheating". A good and authentic photography tells us at least the "photographic truth", which means, that the image shows no willful manipulated/painted content beside the basic photographic work, like croping, contrast, sharpening - and to me dodging and burning, softening and minor retouching work is also "allowed" (i cannot see, that it is important for the authenticity, to show a hotpix or disturbing artefacts), while bigger manipulations like the cloning of trees, masts or other image elements are strictly forbidden.
I hope, that i could fullfill my own criteria with this image, which is telling you hopefully this -better to speak "my" - photographic truth.
Some remarks about the shot: It was made in the garden/park of our KASBA discotheque, when i stood under some big trees, waiting, that the rain stops, that started a few minutes before. I thought, that i could use the time, and so i shot some long time exposures. It was the wind in the trees, that looked interesting to me. The bigger branches moved less, than the smaller branches. And the wind was "whispering" at some places more than on other places, f.e. the fern in the foreground was moved more than the plants in the background.
I think, that it is very important to know, that i did not create the blurred spots with Photoshop - it was all done by the wind, not by me and Lightroom/ Photoshop helped me, to make this visible.

A Kind Of Magic

I know very well, why i differ that much between photography and photoart. This here is photoart, as you know, it is from time to time fun to me, to play with existing photos and create images like this.
But of course this is not photography in the true meaning, and this is not a true and authentic photo any more, though i did not even clone anything. But an authentic photo was that, what i had, when i started with my work. This here is the Frankenstein-version, a monster of colour and tones.
:-)
Nevertheless i hope, you like it.
Here you can view it in big:
lutz-breden.com/kom/

At the Dike

I visited the coast again, not for long, and not even at a good daytime - but i brought some interesting shots back home, because the light was not too hard - though it was about noon, when i was on location... So light is a bit similiar to weather: There is no "good" and no "bad" weather, only wrong clothes. ;-)
Here you see a composition, i made right behind the dike, i have to admit a certain dose of drama here ;-):

The following images are showing the twilight-like light conditions, one in vertical and one in horizontal format:

Last not least i captured some sheeps - with their intelligent facial expression they sometimes almost look human to me... ;-)

Click!

This is me, taking a picture of my camera, which was taking a picture of me.
You surely have recognized me by my haircut... ;-)

The Very First Light

Well, i must admit a bit "cliche" here - but i think, more or less each good looking image contains a certain dose cliche. In my former FC-times some users were derogatory calling such shots "postcard" images (while shooting other kinds of postcard images by themselves at the same time ;-)
Okay - to a certain point they are right, because beautiness or successful colour images are often printed on postcards or posters, they are simple with less image elements, strong colours and they are quickly effective, like this shot obviously is. You don't need to think very much, you can just view and love it. But i think, a certain dose of beautiness is okay for each photographer, unless he/she is not shooting this stuff exclusively or manipulating an ordinary image with painted colours or painted fog in this "dreamy" way.
This shot was really the result of the morning sun, it was NOT taken on a cloudy day - i did NOT clone the sun into it afterwards. The fog was also real, the red of the sun was real (though a bit increased with PS), this scenery was even more beautiful in reality, than it is here as photo.
So i have to say, that i will not apologize myself for showing this beautiful (and true) morning mood and i hope, you enjoy it with me! :-)

Impromptu

... found in fishery harbour Bremerhaven. Shown full frame.

Karstadt has busted!

The big german warehouse Karstadt has busted, they have no money to pay the rent for their houses. One more desaster, that we have to face in these days of financial crisis. In my eyes Karstadt is not only victim of management mistakes, but of our modern web-commercial activities - the people are buying always the cheapest stuff, and with the help of the internet they can easy find the cheapest shop. So WE all killed Karstadt and we should not shed crocodile tears about the lost for our city centres. We all get, what we deserve - and many more shops will follow Karstadt and Woolworth.

So i believe, we must rethink our own behaviour as customers, if we want a more human city atmosphere. How about not only buy the cheapest stuff? How about going to the shop close to you, even if you know, that the price is a bit more expensive than the cheapest price recherche in the web. If we all act like hungry grashoppers (in german we say "Heuschrecken"), we will erode our environment totally blank and clear.
So i think, we should return to buy shoes in a shoeshop, we should avoid to buy in the big chains and support more the small shops - and we should buy in our region.
It is f.e. idiotic, to buy frozen beef from Argentina in Northern Germany, instead of buying german beef here in Germany. (And of course also reverse: South american beef for South America.) Even if it is a bit cheaper: It does such big damage to the nature and i will stop this silly behaviour as much as it is possible to me.
I am convinced: We all (me too) are responsible for that, what happens in our world. It does not make sense, to put the finger on others. WE are destroying the nature, WE are acting like financial sharks. WE with our "cheaper-cheaper-cheaper"-behaviour are the true robber barons, and only we can stop this terrible development.
Less is more - this is not only a good rule in photography.

Primus Inter Pares

Very difficult light situation. Found this y-shaped tree in the wood, and i used my "old" Canon 300D@Sigma12-24 for the shot. I hope, that i was successful in showing the certain light atmosphere of the forest.

Old Hunting Lodge

This is the old hunting lodge in "my" wood, as i call the big wood behind my house. You see, it is a dark and a bit scary place and it is also a bit rotten in the meantime. I already know this hut for many years (for almost 40 years). In former times it was hidden behind a fence, in the meantime the fence is broken and you can go directly around it, this allows me to take pictures there. It is a perfect background for many images and the darkness allowes long time exposures as you can see on my previous post. The blurness in the leaves on this shot is also a result from the long time exposure.

The Puppet

Surreal self portrait, made with my "old" gear (300D@Sigma12-24, long time exposure).
This shot shows, how my photography has changed.

Which photographic community is the best?

In the last months i have thought a lot about the right image management and the best way of using the big communities for my photography. When i started with my digital photography more seriously in 2004, i was only active in the Fotocommunity (FC), and all my images were shown there. I learned a lot from my FC-friends and i am very thankful for the critical or encouraging remarks of my friends there. We used the FC "behind the scenes" for a critical exchange about our works, and i think, this was the time, where i learned the most about how to let images look good. We had the FC-gallery as a public area and "motivation zone" for our works, and i have to admit, that me and my friends supported each other in word and deed - it was always a big pleasure to gain a "gallery star". Unfortunately there are some birth defects in the FC, and these faults were leading to my first turning away of the FC in the end of 2005.
The first big mistake of the FC is: You cannot delete ugly remarks under your images by yourself. You have always to contact the admins, and it is clearly visible, that a few admins cannot control a commmunity of several hundret thousands of users.
Second big mistake: Everybody is able to create a fake account within a few minutes. With these fake accounts you can make trouble under other images - and because of mistake nr. one the photographer must look on remarks like "Sneaky little trash image" for the rest of his life, unless he is "running to mummy" (calling the admins for help).
Mistake Nr.3 is, that they have a lot of packs there, making trouble with other packs (because of mistake 1 & 2), especially in the gallery votings. It has nothing to do with constructive critics, when so called "street photographers" are writing destructive and condescending remarks about the works of nature photographers - it was in many cases the result of personal frustration of some people. In the end they had so many discussions with 200, 300 or more comments, that it was a big waste of time, to take part on this "discussions". I have to admit: Because of my temper i sometimes was argueing there too often, especially when my friends were attacked before. It was leading to nothing, and i regreted it afterwards, but now i think, the trouble is one of the principles of the FC. They probable think, that the users are more active, when they have such ugly discussions, but this works only for a short period. On the long run it is a shot in the foot, cause many ambitious photographers were leaving the FC. Simply, because they have better things to do, than to argue with boneheads.
In the autumn of 2005 things were escalating, when i made some suggestions who were pasted by several tenthousands of users. I was simply phrasing 4 points, to have a better and more constructive gallery voting, my so called "reform ideas", but the FC-admins did nothing, to improve the gallery voting. Main problem there is, that they are publishing under each image the name of the photographer, so that the voters (who are deciding about success) can vote for their buddies or against their "enemies". As a result of this idiotic system they have big brawls there, even today they have a lot of very destructive and ugly discussions between the users and some well know trouble makers, while the FC-admins seem to have no problems with the institution "gallery voting" or "voting center", as they call it in the FC.
You can find my reform ideas even today in many FC-profiles, because up to this day they changed almost nothing in their gallery voting. The old packs are still active there, but the whole FC has become boring, compared with 2005, because so many good photographers have left the community.
In a final big uproar (end of 2005) i left the FC for one year, came back for one year, saw, that nothing had changed (except the fact, that in the meantime many good photographers had left the club) - and left the FC for good afterwards.
In the meantime the number of comments and the quality of the shown images in the FC has gained a very low level. The FC has given away the chance of being a photographic hometown for good photographers, they concentrate their attention on newbies and hobby snapshooters. Very sad, because i like the way, how images are presented there - the dark grey background is much better than the bright white Flickr-background. But i have to face the facts: The FC admins do not want to change a bit there, and so their community has totally lost the attraction to me.

Then i tried some other communities. Here is my personal subjective judgement:
Photo Points should be called "Photofriends", you will only find "nice comments", and the people there are friendly and good fellows - but not very interested to improve their photography. Nevertheless Photo Points have some good artists there, and they are showing not only mainstream-images, but more seriously pictures, selected by a jury.
Sternview - is a german "clone" of Flickr, but only a poor copy in my eyes. Especially the bright white background shows, that they are not interested in photographic issues. I believe, Sternview was more founded, to sell the "Stern Magazine" and get some images from the hobby snapshooters. The photographic standard is not very high. The same with
Chip Fotowelt: Commercial interests, very much advertising, mainstream and colourful images manipulations instead of good photography. Forget it!
Photo Sig: Club of frustrated amateurs. At Photosig you get comments and critics - but on each image, even if the image is perfect. :-) They would criticize the best works of photo-history there, Henri Cartier-Bresson would get tipps for making his images more interesting... :-) They have also a poor level there, the admins are interfering very much (f.e. one female admin told me, that Ansel Adams was no good photographer in her eyes (though she called herself a professional - i wonder in which business. Obviously not in photography.). I remember one hot discussion with an hdr-freak (a candyman from USA, creator of the most ugly and artificial images, that i ever saw), who was trying to give me lessons about good photography. He found, that my images needed much more hdr and tonemapping...
In my eyes photosig is more something for hobby snapshooters, who have fun in discussions, even if there is nothing to discuss.
I tried some other communities (i still have an account at Fototalk and at Art Limited) - and i will probable try out some more in the future, but Flickr is - so far - the best community for photographers, simply because it is the biggest community - you can find everything there. Professional photographers will find good contacts, and hobby snapshooters can use it for "awards" and "invitations". I use it for an exchange with some dear contacts, that i made there in the meantime. For example my Flickr-friends Michal, Rui and Rob are very good photographers, each new image is interesting and inspiring to me.
But because you have a kind of "image flatrate" at Flickr, there is the danger of inflation. So many images, so many contacts and groups. It is sometimes really exhausting.
So i remembered the old quote: Less is more!
I reduced the number of my contacts, made a new account ("Lutz Breden unplugged") and in the meantime i hide the less interesting images after a little time. So i show not longer more than 200 images, but at least 20,30 images. It makes it more easy for my visitors to take a look at my portfolio and i can be sure, that they will view the most interesting images, not only the latest.
For the future i will concentrate myself at Flickr on less groups, for example AoL (Art of Landscape) and SVS (Something very special, my own foundation) and few good photographers. I don't want to waste to much time with vanity comments.
Beside my Flickr-Work i will build up my own website (www.lutz-breden.de) with a collection of my best images.
I think, this is the best way to use the web for ambitious photography. Each artist needs a feedback and some good words from time to time - but base flattery or feedback of bad photographers is more or less a waste of time.

New Start for this Blog

I have decided to post here on this blog in the future mostly in english language, because most of my contacts are international - and in the meantime i am able to write much faster in english, than in former times. (Thx to many Flickr posts...)
If i nevertheless make some mistakes, i was glad, if you would correct me. It is not always very easy, to write in another language than the mother tongue. F.e. i wrote in many of my posts "watch this shot in big" - a Flickr-contact told me, that american and english countrymen would have used "VIEW this shot in big"... So i hope, that i will not forget this hint and i try to avoid similiar mistakes. ;-)
The same with reading. I understand the sense of many comments, but if some people make remarks in colloquial speech, i sometimes have to slow down my reading speed, cause i have to think about the sense of all the abbreviations and hidden jokes.
So in english language things you must treat me like a 6 years old child. I hope, that i can grow up a little, in the next years.
;-)