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... ;-)