Author Archives: jdkreuzberg

Into the Light Again…

I just returned from a tour of the Normandie in France, where I visited the D-Day landing beaches. These are apart from their historical background natural beauties in their own right. These are pictures from the most eastern part of the landing zone – Sword Beach – where three British divisions landed on June 6th, 1944. Take a look at the new Normandie Gallery.

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Tilting Shiftless

There is a new lens kid on the block: The Samyang 3.5/24mm TS  – a tilt-shift lens. I settled for this piece of glass because I didn’t want to spend close to 1800 Euros for the the Canon eqivalent plus the 400 for the Metabones adapter to put it on my Sony A7 bodies. Is it inferior compared to the Canon lens – certainly! But see for yourself -stopped down to f 8 on the Sony A7r – no sharpening applied in Lightroom. Certainly good enough for the enthusiast who doesn’t have to make a living out of architectural photography…saving more than 1000 bucks compared to the Canon rig and no adapter needed….

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Berlin Traffic – New Gallery Coming Up

I’m trying to integrate photography into my daily life.  I commute close to two hours – 5 days a week. Great time space for great pictures. Haha – most of the time I’m staring into my smartphone. New experiment. How do I crank pictures out of things I’ve seen a zillion times….especially when you are looking at the greyish semidarkness  of  a Berlin winter. Let’s give it a try.

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Please Comrade Lenin…stay some more!

Today we were able to visit one of the last Red Army bases in Brandenburg that have not yet been converted or torn down. As they stand they are places of history and a great trove for us decay photographers. Please let us take some more pictures before everything is gone forever…

 

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Sunrise…Sunset and Happy New Year!

It seems, I am narrowing down to shooting against the sun…. and to neglect the other branches of our trade.

Anyway, while doing this I realized that my Swiss army knife in terms of a travel lens  – the Sony FE 24-240mm – not the fanciest of the new FE lens array –  is a very decent piece of glass already wide open. Stopped down one click the results are pretty convincing even at the far end of the zoom range. I also noticed that when using a camera with a high end sensor, HDR –  with all its hassle –  is getting less and less attractive. If you know how to expose against the sun the dynamic range of modern full frame sensors opens up a wide array of post production choices without sacrifycing quality. Sunrise  – the 1st large picture – was shot with the Sony 7r. Sunset was shot with the Sony 7r II using 3 exposures merged to HDR in post.

Happy New Year to everyone! May the sun shine down on a world that doesn’t get any worse…Gutes Licht….. Good Light to all my fellow photographers out there!

 

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The Beast Has Arrived…

I just got my Sony A7 rII. Whilst this camera has been hyped a lot, I must say I am impressed – without defying the Canon and the Nikon tribe with their impresssive array of great gear. But let me say this: Mirrorless has come a long way and is here to stay.

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All those leaves…

I’ve been raking up the fallen leaves in my backyard. Some minutes to get down on the ground and take a few pictures…

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New Gallery: Havelland

I have just added a new gallery to my website: Havelland

The Havelland is a county west of Berlin and part of the state of Brandenburg. The county is flat and a mixture of heathland, bogs, forest and farm land. Once you leave Berlin and its surrounding suburbia the population density drops quickly to one of the lowest you can find in crowded Germany.  So you can really find great motives for landscape photography – if you stay away from the numerous wind wheels…

 

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Märkisches Museum Berlin

Yesterday I visited the Märkisches Museum ( take the UBahn-Linie U2 and get off the station named therafter). Apart from the pictures of the British amateur photographer Cecil F.S. Newman (exhibition running until October 25th) of the destroyed and war ridden Berlin in 1945/46 l (what could those people do with a Leica, a 50mm lens and Kodak film back then!) the museum itself (presenting the local history of Berlin) is a hidden marvel. I have to be back with a tripod and one my high resolution Sony A7’s. Yesterday I was using the A7s with my Zeiss FE 4/ 24-70mm. Still , I think, resolution isn’t a problem with that combo. The size of that figurine of Immanuel Kant is just about 12 cm (5 inches). Resolution wasn’t the problem, though. This guy was under glass – I didn’t have a polarizer filter. So the job demanded quite a lot of photographers legwork to get the light where and and how I wanted it to be.. Thanks  to God ; I could circle the darn’ thing while working the shutter…

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Theater ANU ; Berlin, Tempelhofer Feld

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