When I started the Bi-Weekly Photo section, my main concern was finding time to write. I didn't think I was going to run out of pictures to post. I was actually hoping that, once I'd finished the lab course last month, I would have a lot more time on my hands and could go out and take pictures. I was wrong. I already missed last "By-Weekly Photo", and I still haven't got any more interesting material... While I'm not as busy as last month, I've still got a lot to do, so for the time being (might be the entire semester), I'm going to stop posting regularly.
I hope to be able to post every once in a while, though. On the bright side, my brother wants to get his car over to Germany, so I might even have another road trip from Spain to Germany coming soon.
In the meantime, here's a sight we had been waiting for here in Munich:
Spring's finally back. We can stop complaining about how cold it is. Sure, in about two weeks everybody's going to be complaining about how hot it is, but hey, right now the weather's great!
Showing posts with label europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label europe. Show all posts
Monday, April 22, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Bi-Weekly Photo: Garching Forschungszentrum
On the day of my last exam this semester I took my camera along to take a couple of pictures of the campus while there was still a bit of snow left.
The first one is right behind the faculty for mechanical engineering. This is not what it looks like while there are still lectures, it's usually quite lively, since its right in front of the faculty's cafeteria and on the way to the parking lot.
The second one is a picture of my faculty, computer science and mathematics. The trees arranged in a triangle and the binary counter lanterns in the foreground are a nice decoration which fits both the faculty and the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, which is just outside the picture's field of view to the left.
The first one is right behind the faculty for mechanical engineering. This is not what it looks like while there are still lectures, it's usually quite lively, since its right in front of the faculty's cafeteria and on the way to the parking lot.
The second one is a picture of my faculty, computer science and mathematics. The trees arranged in a triangle and the binary counter lanterns in the foreground are a nice decoration which fits both the faculty and the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, which is just outside the picture's field of view to the left.
Labels:
bi-weekly photo,
europe,
germany,
university,
winter
Monday, February 25, 2013
Bi-Weekly Photo: Snapshots in the Snow
After the birthday party last Tuesday, Pia and I were waiting for the train and I pulled out my camera. I like natural-looking night shots, without using a flash, so the 50mm prime lens came in handy. At an aperture of 1.4 it made it quite difficult to focus, but provided more than enough light to take some very nice shots.
There was a thick layer of fresh snow on the ground acting as a large and very diffuse reflector. On the other hand, Pia's umbrella blocked any direct light and provided a blue background, which is supposed to be a good choice when taking portraits. Combined with the warm color of the street lamp on the platform, it led to a very soft and pleasing lighting.
There was a thick layer of fresh snow on the ground acting as a large and very diffuse reflector. On the other hand, Pia's umbrella blocked any direct light and provided a blue background, which is supposed to be a good choice when taking portraits. Combined with the warm color of the street lamp on the platform, it led to a very soft and pleasing lighting.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Bi-Weekly Photo: Segovia
Today's picture shows my hometown Segovia as seen from Valverde del Majano, where my grandfather lives (to be specific, it was taken from here). It's a bit hazy, and the shot is a bit wide (it was taken with my 18-135mm lens at maximum zoom), but it shows all the important details pretty well.
The tower in the middle belongs to the cathedral, and to the left you can see south-western side of the Alcazar.
The tower in the middle belongs to the cathedral, and to the left you can see south-western side of the Alcazar.
Labels:
bi-weekly photo,
europe,
segovia,
spain,
winter
Monday, January 28, 2013
Bi-Weekly Photo: Experimenting With Long Exposure
One of the things I wanted to try when I bought the camera was long exposure shots, but I didn't try it until last December. I suppose I was too lazy to get out after dark to take some pictures alone. Fortunately, Pia saw a short clip about light painting on TV and wanted to do it herself, and since here in Munich "after dark" means at 4:30 PM during the winter, it was more like an afternoon walk.
In case you don't know what light painting is: if you have a scene with very little light or simulate that using a filter, you can capture that scene nontheless with a long exposure shot, where the shutter remains open for a long time period, "gathering" more light. If you take a strong light source and move it around the scene, that light source is "burned" into the image at every point it passes through, leaving a trail. This can be used to "draw" some interesting forms on your image.
We went to the park looking for a spot without too much artificial lighting and found this:
This was a rather quick shot (81s according to the Metadata), which is why the startrails are so short. It turned out to be one of the best shots, however. I still have a lot to learn about photography...
Here's one light-painted by Pia. I didn't manage to draw anything good...
PS: Yes, the white, red and purple spots on the image are hot pixels on my camera's sensor... It was the first time I used the sensor for long periods of time. I suppose it got a little hotter than usually, revealing the otherwise less obvious hot pixels.
In case you don't know what light painting is: if you have a scene with very little light or simulate that using a filter, you can capture that scene nontheless with a long exposure shot, where the shutter remains open for a long time period, "gathering" more light. If you take a strong light source and move it around the scene, that light source is "burned" into the image at every point it passes through, leaving a trail. This can be used to "draw" some interesting forms on your image.
We went to the park looking for a spot without too much artificial lighting and found this:
This was a rather quick shot (81s according to the Metadata), which is why the startrails are so short. It turned out to be one of the best shots, however. I still have a lot to learn about photography...
Here's one light-painted by Pia. I didn't manage to draw anything good...
PS: Yes, the white, red and purple spots on the image are hot pixels on my camera's sensor... It was the first time I used the sensor for long periods of time. I suppose it got a little hotter than usually, revealing the otherwise less obvious hot pixels.
Labels:
bi-weekly photo,
desktop background,
europe,
germany,
munich,
winter
Monday, December 31, 2012
Bi-Weekly Photo: Madrid at Christmas
I'm back home for the holidays, visiting my family and friends. The latter is not always easy, since my family lives in Segovia and most of my friends in Madrid, 100km away. I took the bus to Madrid last Thursday afternoon hoping to meet a friend, but when I arrived I couldn't get in touch with her, so I took the chance to walk around Madrid and get some practice with the 50mm prime lens I got for christmas. I had never used a prime lens before, and I thought it would be harder to get what you want on the picture without a zoom, but i got used to it pretty fast. I guess that the fact that a 50mm gets more or less what you can see with your eyes in the picture helped a lot. That does not mean that the quality of my photos has gotten better, it just means that they contain exactly what I wanted to capture.
I spottet this protest against the plunge of Bankia's shares in Alcala at the center of Madrid. It's one of the few signs that make you notice that something's wrong in Spain. Which is something I really like about Spain: even though the situation is somewhat tough right now, the general feeling you get in the streets is that of a lively crowd.
Another thing I noticed is that the christmas decorations were simpler and there were fewer than in the past few years.
This, in my opinion, is a good thing. A few years back they started putting up lots of colors and weird "artsy" forms which didn't really have much to do with christmas decoration... Imagine the picture below, but with lots of different colors:
I spottet this protest against the plunge of Bankia's shares in Alcala at the center of Madrid. It's one of the few signs that make you notice that something's wrong in Spain. Which is something I really like about Spain: even though the situation is somewhat tough right now, the general feeling you get in the streets is that of a lively crowd.
Another thing I noticed is that the christmas decorations were simpler and there were fewer than in the past few years.
This, in my opinion, is a good thing. A few years back they started putting up lots of colors and weird "artsy" forms which didn't really have much to do with christmas decoration... Imagine the picture below, but with lots of different colors:
Monday, December 17, 2012
Bi-Weekly Photo: Somewhere in Castilla la Mancha
This was one of the many moments I regretted not having a GPS tracker for my camera. I took this picture from the car when my brother and I were travelling from Madrid to Alicante, on the eastern coast of Spain. If I remember it correcly, and by the looks of the landscape, the photo was taken somewhere in Castilla la Mancha:
I know the post is titled Bi-Weekly Photo, not photos, but i'll make an exception. Here's something you will almost certainly encounter as you drive through Spain's roads:
These bulls were originally put up during a marketing campaing by a company named Osborne, and have since become an unofficial symbol of Spain.
I know the post is titled Bi-Weekly Photo, not photos, but i'll make an exception. Here's something you will almost certainly encounter as you drive through Spain's roads:
These bulls were originally put up during a marketing campaing by a company named Osborne, and have since become an unofficial symbol of Spain.
Labels:
bi-weekly photo,
europe,
spain
Friday, December 14, 2012
Christmas in Germany - Feuerzangenbowle
It's that time of the year again, when magic and freezing temperatures turn the reaction to cheap warm wine from "eeewww!" into "mmmmhh... Can I have some more?". Once again, Munich is filled with christmas markets with all sorts of beautiful [and slightly overpriced] ornaments, delicious foods and of course, hot beverages, mostly alcoholic, to keep us warm. Here's a picture of an ornament shop at the christmas market in the "Marienplatz", with the town hall in the background:
Ever since I saw the movie by the same name I've wanted to try a "Feuerzangenbowle", a traditional christmas beverage made of hot wine with cinnamon and other spices, which is then sweetened by a block of sugar soaked with rum and melted by lighting it on fire. It was quite interesting to hold the cup and watch the sugar burn, slowly melting into it.
I burned my tonge attempting to drink it shortly after the flame went out, but once it cooled down a bit, it was really a treat! This is what it looked like half way through the "melting process":
Ever since I saw the movie by the same name I've wanted to try a "Feuerzangenbowle", a traditional christmas beverage made of hot wine with cinnamon and other spices, which is then sweetened by a block of sugar soaked with rum and melted by lighting it on fire. It was quite interesting to hold the cup and watch the sugar burn, slowly melting into it.
I burned my tonge attempting to drink it shortly after the flame went out, but once it cooled down a bit, it was really a treat! This is what it looked like half way through the "melting process":
Monday, December 3, 2012
Bi-Weekly Photo: Alcazar de Segovia
This is a picture of my hometown's old castle, the Alcazar de Segovia in Spain. Since I don't really know much about its history, and copying what another website says is kind of pointless, here's a link to Wikipedia.
Here's something interesting though: Take a look at the DVD cover of "The 10th Kingdom" and see if it looks familiar. Yep, they took the Alcazar and several church towers from across Segovia (including the cathedral, of which I will probably post another photo sometime) and pasted them all together. I think the Alcazar was also used as an inspiration on several other movies, but I don't remember any specific one right now.
Here's something interesting though: Take a look at the DVD cover of "The 10th Kingdom" and see if it looks familiar. Yep, they took the Alcazar and several church towers from across Segovia (including the cathedral, of which I will probably post another photo sometime) and pasted them all together. I think the Alcazar was also used as an inspiration on several other movies, but I don't remember any specific one right now.
Labels:
bi-weekly photo,
europe,
segovia,
spain
Monday, November 19, 2012
Bi-Weekly Photo: Arc de Triomphe
During my road trip in the summer I experimeted a bit with my camera. I wanted to try panorama photography, and the Place Charles de Gaulle in Paris seemed turned out to be a pretty good setting.
This is my first attempt at making a panorama photo. I stiched 16 pictures together with a piece of software called Hugin, trying to cut out as many cars as possible from each picture. Since the Place Charles de Gaulle is a huge intersection, it wasn't an easy task, and I couldn't remove every car, but I got close enough.
I also haven't gotten a hang of all the software's parameters yet, so the angle is a bit off (as you can see by the round upper edge of the Arc de Triomphe), but overall I'm quite happy about the result.
This is my first attempt at making a panorama photo. I stiched 16 pictures together with a piece of software called Hugin, trying to cut out as many cars as possible from each picture. Since the Place Charles de Gaulle is a huge intersection, it wasn't an easy task, and I couldn't remove every car, but I got close enough.
I also haven't gotten a hang of all the software's parameters yet, so the angle is a bit off (as you can see by the round upper edge of the Arc de Triomphe), but overall I'm quite happy about the result.
Labels:
bi-weekly photo,
europe,
france,
paris
Monday, November 5, 2012
Bi-weekly photo: Madrid's subway
For this weeks entry I wanted to post a picture that probably does not have any artistic value, but symbolizes my daily routine during my school years. I took this picture during the trip to Spain in September. It shows the subway station "Nuevos Ministerios" in Madrid, one of the major stations of the Metro de Madrid.
In case you're wondering, in Spain we have right-hand traffic. The Metro de Madrid is an exception. Apparently, when its first line was built, left-hand traffic was still the norm in Madrid, and when they changed that, they decided to keep the subway as it was to avoid additional costs.
Labels:
bi-weekly photo,
europe,
madrid,
spain
Monday, October 22, 2012
Munich in autumn
I was thinking of posting a photo that I find interesting every two weeks. I didn't manage to post a single photo since the trip in September, so I'm not sure if I will manage to keep up, but it's worth a shot.
I want to start by posting one of the more recent photos. Since we're having great weather conditions this weekend in Munich, my girlfriend and I went for a walk in the park ("Englischer Garten") and took the camera with us:
PS: Feel free to leave a comment below! I would love some feedback, and it would be great to get to know my audience :)
I want to start by posting one of the more recent photos. Since we're having great weather conditions this weekend in Munich, my girlfriend and I went for a walk in the park ("Englischer Garten") and took the camera with us:
PS: Feel free to leave a comment below! I would love some feedback, and it would be great to get to know my audience :)
Labels:
autumn,
bi-weekly photo,
europe,
germany,
munich
Monday, September 10, 2012
Timelapse: Paris, France - Segovia, Spain
EDIT: Hint: If you just want to see the video, skip to the bottom of this post.
The bad quality of my posts about Japan is a very good example of why I shouldn't try to do anything creative at night after long trips. Still, I couldn't resist browsing through the pictures we took during our trip for the timelapse video tonight (after a 6 hour long drive). And of course, after looking at the pictures, I wasn't going to go to bed. I ended up making the entire video between 2:00 and 4:30 (AM).
First things first, here's our setup (if you didn't read the last posts, i'm currently on a road trip with my brother):
We used a small 720p Webcam, which we attached to the car using our extensive mechanical engineering knowledge and duct tape.
On the software side, we were running a small program named fswebcam on linux. If anyone is interested, here's the bash script I wrote so I didn't have to type in everything every time I wanted to start recording:
I cut the video with kdenlive. It can import a bunch of images as a video natively, but it's not very efficient at it, an my netbook is not that powerful, so I decided to merge all the images into a video first and then just edit that with kdenlive. To do that (without losing quality) you can use ffmpeg and select mjpeg as the video codec:
ffmpeg -f image2 -r 8 -i %d.jpg -vcodec mjpeg video.mp4
I don't remember where I got this from, but it works. Your files have to be renamed first, so that ffmpeg finds them using the format string passed in the -i parameter. I also made a script for that:
So, without further ado, here's the video. I hope you like it!
In case you don't like the embedded player, click here
PS: Here's where I got the music from: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/4402/outsider
The bad quality of my posts about Japan is a very good example of why I shouldn't try to do anything creative at night after long trips. Still, I couldn't resist browsing through the pictures we took during our trip for the timelapse video tonight (after a 6 hour long drive). And of course, after looking at the pictures, I wasn't going to go to bed. I ended up making the entire video between 2:00 and 4:30 (AM).
First things first, here's our setup (if you didn't read the last posts, i'm currently on a road trip with my brother):
We used a small 720p Webcam, which we attached to the car using our extensive mechanical engineering knowledge and duct tape.
On the software side, we were running a small program named fswebcam on linux. If anyone is interested, here's the bash script I wrote so I didn't have to type in everything every time I wanted to start recording:
#!/bin/bash
FOLDER=timelapse3s
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 <video device>"
else
if [ ! -d $FOLDER ]; then
mkdir $FOLDER
fi
fswebcam --no-banner --jpeg 95 --loop 3 -S 6 -r 1280x720 -d $1 $FOLDER/timelapse-%Y%m%d-%H%M%S.jpg
fi
I cut the video with kdenlive. It can import a bunch of images as a video natively, but it's not very efficient at it, an my netbook is not that powerful, so I decided to merge all the images into a video first and then just edit that with kdenlive. To do that (without losing quality) you can use ffmpeg and select mjpeg as the video codec:
ffmpeg -f image2 -r 8 -i %d.jpg -vcodec mjpeg video.mp4
I don't remember where I got this from, but it works. Your files have to be renamed first, so that ffmpeg finds them using the format string passed in the -i parameter. I also made a script for that:
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -ne 2 ]||[ ! -d $1 ]||[ -e $2 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 <input_dir> <output_dir>"
echo " <output_dir> must not exist"
else
mkdir "$2"
COUNTER=0
for file in $(ls "$1")
do
cp "$1/$file" "$2/$COUNTER.jpg"
COUNTER=$(($COUNTER+1))
done
fi
So, without further ado, here's the video. I hope you like it!
In case you don't like the embedded player, click here
PS: Here's where I got the music from: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/4402/outsider
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Road Trip
Like last year, my brother and I decided to make a road trip from Germany to Spain. Last year we only stopped to take turns driving, and didn't enjoy the trip itself to the fullest. This time, we wanted to change that, so we stopped and stayed in Paris for the night. We also attached a webcam to the car to "document" our trip with a timelapse video. We have over 20000 stills that have to be merged, cut and edited, so until then, here are some photos I took with the other camera:
My brother and me at the Trocadero in Paris
Notre Dame -- Taken from the car while driving by
Nice sunset somewhere in south France
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