Gordon's playground

	(BASF chemical factory - gas flaring during the night)

Welcome to my humble playground, friends!

`Having no idea whatsoever of proper website design / use of style sheets or wtf not, and with only 50M of web space available, this site is basically intended to share with you some of my more interesting cam-shots,so bear with me, willya please -I might still implement kewl stuff - or not - and updates will be done on a non-foreseeable basis` I would never be as bold as to call this a photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog

Welcome to my humble playground, friends!

Having no idea whatsoever of proper website design / use of style sheets or wtf not, and with only 50M of web space available, this site is basically intended to share with you some of my more interesting cam-shots,so bear with me, willya please -I might still implement kewl stuff - or not - and updates will be done on a non-foreseeable basis

I would never be as bold as to call this a photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog photoblog

+++ 23. October 2016: Update+++

Galaxy hunting with my 150-600mm 5.6/6.3 Telephoto lens :-)
	This is my first Backyard try to catch the amazing Andromeda Galaxy M31, which is rather close to us with a distance of 'only' 2.5Mio light years. It is, however, rather large with a diameter of 140.000 ly!! (click on image for larger view in new window)

+++ 25. April 2016: Update+++
	(click on image for larger view in new window)
	Cherry Blossoms in Sunset Light

+++ 25. April 2016: Update+++

(click on image for larger view in new window)

Cherry Blossoms in Sunset Light

+++ 04. April 2016: It's Spring Time!!!+++

Time to play with my 150-600mm 5.6/6.3 Telephoto lens from Sigma =)
	Spring King
	Spring Junior
	Spring Starter
	Spring Hater
	Bird of Doom, Artist's Impression ;-)

+++ 04. April 2016: It's Spring Time!!!+++

Time to play with my 150-600mm 5.6/6.3 Telephoto lens from Sigma =)

Spring King

Spring Junior

Spring Starter

Spring Hater

Bird of Doom, Artist's Impression ;-)

+++ 30. August 2015: Hoya Infrared Filter (R72)+++

Did a little messing around with an IR Filter I came across for a good price on ebay. I am not quite convinced yet that my Canon is suitable for these kind of pictures. In order to get a decent exposure, I need to leave the shutter open for like 1 minute. So noise starts building up, as well as wind will become an annoying factor...
Nevertheless, something else to try for a change, and this time in the local graveyard :-p
	In the left frame you can recognize noise, those are not stars xD
	Alien egg in front of a druid cult site :-)

+++ 30. August 2015: Hoya Infrared Filter (R72)+++

Did a little messing around with an IR Filter I came across for a good price on ebay. I am not quite convinced yet that my Canon is suitable for these kind of pictures. In order to get a decent exposure, I need to leave the shutter open for like 1 minute. So noise starts building up, as well as wind will become an annoying factor...
Nevertheless, something else to try for a change, and this time in the local graveyard :-p

In the left frame you can recognize noise, those are not stars xD

Alien egg in front of a druid cult site :-)

+++ June 2015: ND Filter experiments with water +++

...Long time exposures made possible during daylight in order to catch fluid motions will be my next passion - it just conveys this wonderful idea of magical places hidden to the passing eye!

this series was shot in Monbachtal, Black Forest.
I would say there is enough of magic and fluids in motion there - I spent two days there and feel like only having scratched the surface of possible angles

It's all just a matter of perspective. This one was taken with a 100mm Macro Lens, so don't be fooled =)

With that info in mind, take a look at some of the pictures in this series again and reevaluate what you might have considered to be landscapes :-)

enchanted forest?

+++ 14.10.2014: Neusiedl am See in autumn +++

...The sunrises there are often full of misty skies, and vineyards in autumn are always worth a shot. See for yourselves - it's quite often a certain mood hard to find elsewhere. Pictures untouched! (well, just cropped since they were taken out of a driving car)

+++ 04.09.2014: Birthday in Amsterdam +++

This nice Dutch city will forever be worth a trip to me. So when I treated myself with a new car as bithday present (and out of pure necessity: yes, I needed to sell my beautiful motor bike!) and took it for a test drive, it became clear to me that my new ride's target was sooo obvious :-)
By the way, best tip ever: valet parking service is a must in this city if you come by car and don't want to have it stolen/vandalized/towed away - cheap and safe! Get info from hotels of your choice upfront.

they love to ride their bicyles, they love to ride their biiikes :-)

the similarities to Venice come into mind :-)

+++ 06.08.2014: It's been a while...+++

...that I posted new content, I know. It's just a pain in the neck to carry around my photo backback on business travels.
Alas, here is a nice castle near Minden, NRW, called Bückeburg:
	what a sky it was!
	Huge pond on the way to the castle!

+++ 06.08.2014: It's been a while...+++

...that I posted new content, I know. It's just a pain in the neck to carry around my photo backback on business travels.
Alas, here is a nice castle near Minden, NRW, called Bückeburg:

what a sky it was!

Huge pond on the way to the castle!

+++ 19.03.2014: Taxi Sightseeing Tour through Budapest! +++

...these postcard pictures have been on my list for a while :-)

this is simply the most magnificent building in Europe I've seen so far - The Budapest Parliament

+++ 12.2013: Vienna @night. continued. +++

EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM weaponized

really boring original stuff. But then I noticed I could use three slightly differently exposed stills from the same tripod point of view and made an hdr composition. Nice pop touch to it, and I love how the street lantern flares came out!

+++ 20.11.2013: Vienna X-Mas +++

Strolling from Stephansdom to Rathaus...Used: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II kit lens

+++ 05.09.2013: Wiener Prater +++

Lense flare mania! Shot with EF-40mm STM, f2.8, 1s, ISO 100.
	"The Third Man" enthusiasts ~~can~~ will be a little confused about the colors :-)

+++ 20.08.2013: Trip to the Canary Islands +++

Telling the rental car guy in Gran Canaria Airport that I needed a car I could sleep in comfortably, I received the keys to a Chrysler Dodge 'Journey' - and decided to do some island hopping during the days to follow by using the Fred Olsen Express ferries, accumulating 1200km after all =)

The light truck turned out to be a reliable work horse; equipped with a 4WD I dared to take the wrongest turns and ended up in places where surely no rental car was ever supposed to be hehe... However, sleeping felt better outside (on its sturdy rooftop), with temperatures never dropping below 27 degrees Celsius at nights. So in the end, it was oversized, but made me at least look like a local banana farmer as opposed to all the ford fiestas on the roads which obviously belonged to foreign car renters for the most part...

Typical coastal view of any of the Western Canary Islands; this is Tenerife.
On the North side of any island are usually clouds, but there are peaks on every island easily topping them!

...like so...

this is Tenerife again, with the iconic Teide volcano- Europe's highest one even (3,718m)

all in all, there are some pretty spectacular canyons to be found due to the volcanic history of the islands. This is a formation on Gran Canaria they even call the Andes :-)

The photo was taken with 10 minutes exposure time @11pm; the half moon is lighting the scene, with night lights of La Palma in the background.

yes, there is life ;-)

another panorama view from the so called 'Caldera'

hunting for light towers, this was my best prey

This image shows all the stages from Flower to Fruit

Milky Way Isla de la Palma behind observatory (click for animation)

...to be honest, this view was what I was here for all along...

-taken in front of La Palma's Observatorium, the least light-polluted spot on all islands - where else?

click in window for time lapse!

Milky Way above...

click in window for time lapse!

but there was also this...

Light Tower 2

+++ 11.07.2013: just random stuff since last update +++

...roof top grunge

...another shot from my roof top =)

guess where these were taken =)

...and this is Vienna for a change

+++ 10.06.2013: Canon 100mm Macro Shots =) +++

a basil flower

...Neckarstadt still in summertime - there were a lot of cottonwood seeds in the air, and this shot caught the moment quite well I thought...

Me luvv Bokeh!

+++ 15.05.2013: Canon's EF-S 40mm Pancake lens - no zooming allowed :-)
	...gotta love those sunsets! (click on image for large Panorama in new window)

+++ 04.05.2013: Cloud Chasing in b&w +++

BASF from Mannheim harbour side, view across the Rhein river. I decided to go for black and white in post processing, because it really invites to play with color hues in order to convey a certain mood, or to create graphical contrasts.
The first picture was taken with a grey (ND) filter on, effectively allowing to do a longer exposure during day light - this is why the water looks so calm.
	very windy day, felt like rain about to kick in every second...
	...but then the sun decided to break through!

+++ 04.05.2013: Cloud Chasing in b&w +++

BASF from Mannheim harbour side, view across the Rhein river. I decided to go for black and white in post processing, because it really invites to play with color hues in order to convey a certain mood, or to create graphical contrasts.
The first picture was taken with a grey (ND) filter on, effectively allowing to do a longer exposure during day light - this is why the water looks so calm.

very windy day, felt like rain about to kick in every second...

...but then the sun decided to break through!

+++ 27.05.2013: Sightseeing in Vienna +++
	Castle Belvedere Workout during Sunset

+++ 04.05.2013: Light Painting in Underground Parking +++

Had fun during this experiment =)
	Truly amazing things, these photons!

+++ 25.04.2013: Smoke with flash +++

Inspired by some cool photos of smoke I came across in the Internet, I knew I needed to try for myself. I regard the outcome as FAIL, but decided to put one of the many (*really* crappy) trials up here nevertheless. It was colorized in Photoshop, and the flame look made its appeal at least close to sexy to my eyes.
There was too much air movement involved; after a few dozen shots I was starting to get sick of the heavy salvia scent (used an incense stick), the whole setup was done in my claustrophobic bathroom in order to have a dark area (no windows) during the day, and the manually triggered flash fires started to make my stretched arm go numb rather soon. This topic is not suited for improvisation!

With more thorough cleaning up of space and a better planned setup, this is definitely worth checking out more in the future, but it'll need to wait until I acquired a remote trigger for my flash unit :-D
	smoke particles, lost in chaos

+++ 24.04.2013: Promising 1st stacks of star pics taken in the city +++

Quite some visible noise, and only about 10 minutes (5s each @5.6 aperture, 50mm lens) for the landscape pic, and 20 minutes total for the right handed portrait pic. The vast amount of light pollution around this heavily illuminated pearl in the city center poses a real challenge!
What this was really about: Testing a location for my tripod in order to capture concentric star circles around the dome of the church; as you can see, my position was south of the church, but obviously a few steps off to the right. The 2nd try was a better viewpoint, although I will need to step away further; I think I will aim for the angel's trumpet next time to align with the North Star.
I am looking forward to the next try during one of the warmer nights - summer is coming :-P
	To me, this is the most beautiful building in Mannheim - Christ Church @Werderplatz (with so many different exposure settings, I had enough material to create an HDR composition of the building during the process, which clearly worked better on the right one)

+++ 17.04.2013: OMG - This is so effin' cool +++

1st Nightshot alert! ...and playing around with an Android app called DSLR-Controller, which allows me to remotely trigger the EOS 650D via USB-host cable. It offers the possibility to control everything you could do with the touch screen in live view mode, which is not really recommendable from performance point of view (at least not on the Galaxy S2 I own). What the app also allows, however, is to set up interval shots at any given delay, exposure time, and to basically repeat the process until batteries die. How awesome is that?

The image presented here was made with the described rig and took care of itself while I was sleeping =) In the first clear night after weeks, I positioned the cam on the rooftop. Some technical facts to catch up with what's actually visible in there and why:
Due to the Earth's rotation around its poles' axis, all stars in the visible (northern hemisphere) sky seem to rotate around the North Star in concentric circles, each describing a full circle in 24 hours, which means a 15 degree "streak" per hour.
When trying to capture this quasi-movement, a photographer normally chooses an adequately long exposure time. But since I live in a city, a lot of light naturally pollutes the night sky, depriving me of this traditional approach. The result would be a very overexposed image, with city light completely outweighing the subtle stars. Luckily, there is a solution to this dilemma.

The final result is composed of 115 photos with 30s exposure time each @ ISO 100 (least noise possible) and aperture value of 2,8. The rather short exposure time visualizes only a tiny star movement, but the lighting is more balanced and allows just enough visibility of the stars, without the foreground and general night sky appearing too bright. All pictures were taken without any of the camera's built-in gadgets like noise reduction, auto contrast and such; finding the infinite focus point in the dark can be a bit tricky, and it proves useful to mess around with white balance according to taste .-)
After waking up the next morning, I fed all pictures into a very convenient software by Achim Schaller, called *Startrails* (visit www.startrails.de for free download!) What this neat PC app does is stacking all selected frames onto each other automatically - one can even watch the trails grow during the process :-)
	I am really excited when I think about the possibilities this technique offers for "pseudo" long time exposures in light polluted city environments at night :-D

+++ 04-2013: Fantastic News, everyone!!! +++

I made me an early Christmas present, hahaha - and I'm happy like Rumpelstiltskin. I finally have a DSLR! and decided to stay faithful to Canon. So, it had to be an EOS. With the 650D being the latest model in the class I could afford, I now at least have the world's first camera with a touch screen - being spoiled by Iphone, Android & Co., this is a fact I embrace.

What can I say, I just love it, and really really wish I had started much earlier. Apart from the bulkiness compared to my older Powershot A650 (hey, thats the same model number I just realize :-) - so it just HAD to be), I think that the bottom line is, I like to take my time with the shots I take. I've always loved night shots, breathing in a scene while the cam just sits there and silently does its job. Thus, I tend to end up carrying around a tripod anyway, so why care about the additional weight?

The downside, being a newbie and all: I realized very soon that the costly part is not the cam, but the lenses (doh!)

Be prepared for upcoming shots made with my new baby - and a whole lot of experimentation!

Due to the few days of sunlight I've had for testing the EOS 650D outdoors, the first trials were made during a visit to my Mum in her garden - of course!

1. Camelia (little bit of vignette blur added in post)

2. I just had to capture the bird feather-like colorization of this tulip strain's petals

3. small shiny cuties

Aaah, the gardener =)

and yes, I needed to pay my respect and 'beautify' her juuust a little
:-P

+++ 08-2011: Pictures of my bike trip to Norway +++

...how could I catch these sceneries by any other means than manually stitched panoramas?
	"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference" - Robert Frost
	unreal ...
	unreal, pt. 2 ...
	unreal, pt. 3 :)
	Bodø
	2 o'clock A.M.(!!)
	Viewpoint I
	Viewpoint II
	@World's End

	Ansel Adams, Norsk style ;-)
	Into the Wild, near Tromsø

+++ 04-2011: Trip to Venice +++

I fell in love with this jewel of a city the first time I've been there. Unfortunately, each time, it is harder to learn that I am not the only one.

new Arrivals: the monster in the back is called "Costa Fortuna"
17 decks, 2716 passengers

behind the scenes...

views from the water-1

views from the water-2

Marcus @night, no tripod :-/

views within 20m of my hotel exit

famous Cafe Florian

(BASF chemical factory - gas flaring during the night)

Welcome to my humble playground, friends!

+++ 23. October 2016: Update+++

This is my first Backyard try to catch the amazing Andromeda Galaxy M31, which is rather close to us with a distance of 'only' 2.5Mio light years. It is, however, rather large with a diameter of 140.000 ly!!

+++ 25. April 2016: Update+++

(click on image for larger view in new window)

+++ 04. April 2016: It's Spring Time!!!+++

+++ 30. August 2015: Hoya Infrared Filter (R72)+++

Alien egg in front of a druid cult site :-)

+++ 28.06.2015: just a fun picture +++

+++ June 2015: ND Filter experiments with water +++

+++ 14.10.2014: Neusiedl am See in autumn +++

+++ 04.09.2014: Birthday in Amsterdam +++

+++ 06.08.2014: It's been a while...+++

+++ 19.03.2014: Taxi Sightseeing Tour through Budapest! +++

+++ 12.2013: Vienna @night. continued. +++

+++ 20.11.2013: Vienna X-Mas +++

+++ 05.09.2013: Wiener Prater +++

+++ 20.08.2013: Trip to the Canary Islands +++

+++ 02.08.2013: I found the least light-polluted spot in my region: Time to catch some Milky Way! +++

+++ 11.07.2013: just random stuff since last update +++

+++ 10.06.2013: Canon 100mm Macro Shots =) +++

+++ 15.05.2013: Canon's EF-S 40mm Pancake lens - no zooming allowed :-)

(click on image for large Panorama in new window)

+++ 04.05.2013: Cloud Chasing in b&w +++

+++ 27.05.2013: Sightseeing in Vienna +++

+++ 04.05.2013: Light Painting in Underground Parking +++

+++ 25.04.2013: Smoke with flash +++

+++ 24.04.2013: Promising 1st stacks of star pics taken in the city +++

(with so many different exposure settings, I had enough material to create an HDR composition of the building during the process, which clearly worked better on the right one)

+++ 17.04.2013: OMG - This is so effin' cool +++

+++ 04-2013: Fantastic News, everyone!!! +++

+++ 08-2011: Pictures of my bike trip to Norway +++

+++ 04-2011: Trip to Venice +++

	Typical coastal view of any of the Western Canary Islands; this is Tenerife. On the North side of any island are usually clouds, but there are peaks on every island easily topping them!
	...like so... this is Tenerife again, with the iconic Teide volcano- Europe's highest one even (3,718m)
	all in all, there are some pretty spectacular canyons to be found due to the volcanic history of the islands. This is a formation on Gran Canaria they even call the Andes :-) The photo was taken with 10 minutes exposure time @11pm; the half moon is lighting the scene, with night lights of La Palma in the background.





	yes, there is life ;-)
	another panorama view from the so called 'Caldera'
	hunting for light towers, this was my best prey
	This image shows all the stages from Flower to Fruit
	...to be honest, this view was what I was here for all along... -taken in front of La Palma's Observatorium, the least light-polluted spot on all islands - where else? click in window for time lapse!
	Milky Way above... click in window for time lapse!
	but there was also this...
	Light Tower 2