Fotoeins Fotografie

15 for 15: Fotoeins’ Fotograms for 2015 (IG)

By HL fotoeins on 3 Jan 2016

The following are 15 key Instagram posts from this past year. They’re important in light of my growing desire to give into creative impulses to produce something a little different and meaningful than serviceable shots. There’s nothing wrong with “serviceable”; on the contrary, I’m looking for something extraordinary.

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(1) ➙ “A new beginning”, North Vancouver : 1 January 2015

“And so we are told this is the golden age, and gold is the reason for the wars we wage. Though I want to be with you, be with you night and day, nothing changes on New Year’s Day.” (U2, “New Year’s Day”.) Under a winter’s noon sun, I wonder what this woman might have contemplated and hoped for the new year.

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(2) ➙ “Ferried flight”, Puget Sound : 6 January 2015

Crossing Puget Sound, seagulls flew alongside M/V Kaleetan ferry for some 15 to 20 minutes. The light was very diffuse with low stratus overhead and thick fog on the water. After firing away a burst of shots, I lucked out with this shot of the gull “down wing.”

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(3) ➙ “Also sprach Zarathustra”, Vancouver : 15 February 2015

With afternoon sun on a clear winter day, I’m playing with edge effects with the sun’s sky position coincident with the corner of the sculpture called “Gate to the Northwest Passage” at Vanier Park in Vancouver.

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(4) ➙ “Day 4, Month 1, Year 4713”, Vancouver : 22 February 2015

The dragon parade for Chinese New Year has ended, and the crowds gathered in Vancouver’s Chinatown are beginning to disperse. The lead family of four and the parents’ open body language stand out tremendously well.

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(5) ➙ “Hands”, Meissen : 23 April 2015

Porcelain figures with the famous two blue-swords logo are still made by hand at the porcelain factory in Meissen, some 45 minutes northwest from Dresden, Germany. I like how the sculptor’s hands “cradle” and surround the work and details of the tiny figurine hand.

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(6) ➙ “Zwiebelkönigin” (onion queen), Weimar : 27 April 2015

At the time of this portrait, Stefanie was the reigning 2014-2015 onion queen of the Zwiebelmarkt (Onion Market) in Weimar, Germany. Every autumn a new queen is announced at the onion festival which has been held annually since 1653.

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(7) ➙ “Gnadenlos Schick”, Weimar : 27 April 2015

As part of the activities welcoming international guests to GTM15 in Weimar, Germany, the artists’ group “Gnadenlos Schick” celebrated “Mode als Kunsttheater”, or “fashion as art theatre”. Oh, that gaze; oh, those eyes! “Drop dead posh,” indeed.

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(8) ➙ “(Un)Amused”, Frankfurt am Main : 9 May 2015

With many taking pictures of the reconstructed buildings at Römerberg, I set my sights down to the people. This gentleman was left “holding the bag” and the leash, while his girlfriend went shopping for souvenirs. The body language of the biped and the look on the quadruped spoke volumes.

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(9) ➙ “After lunch special”, Vancouver Island : 13 June 2015

There’s much to contemplate with this stupendous view across Georgia Strait (Salish Sea) after a tasty seafood lunch at the Kingfisher Oceanside Resort, located south of the city of Courtenay on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island.

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(10) ➙ “Holiday dusk”, West Vancouver : 1 July 2015

On Canada Day, the coincidence of a rising full moon, its trajectory over the summit of Mount Baker, and fading dusk light after sunset provide a winning combination of a photograph from Vancouver’s north shore mountains.

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(11) ➙ Vancouver Instameet : 3 August 2015

Beautiful afternoon light, beautiful city, and the beautiful people: these are three elements found on the streets of Vancouver in the summertime. Plus there are cruise ships, countless visitors, and a lot of glass to round the picture. Schön aber langweilig, oder?

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(12) ➙ “Backstage spotlight”, Vancouver : 5 November 2015

It’s a real privilege to go backstage and witness a rehearsal before a group’s opening night; thanks to Ballet BC Up for a glimpse and preview of their performance at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Getting this shot of this dancer in mid-pose under the spotlight was a fortunate click.

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(13) ➙ “Night visions”, Rothenburg o.d.Tauber : 11 November 2015

A kind of magic glow happens where the patrician or nobles’ houses of the Herrngasse (Lords’ Lane) ends at Marktplatz (Market Square). It’s what happens when golden light illuminates half-timbered houses in this attractive Bavarian-Franconian town.

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(14) ➙ “Gonna be late”, Hamburg Speicherstadt : 5 December 2015

At the airport, taxis line up in the ready to pick up arriving passengers. For one particular ride, it’s gonna be one helluva wait. This is the taxi waiting area at the airport display inside Miniatur Wunderland.

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(15) ➙ “Mind the gap”, Berlin Charlottenburg : 7 December 2015

At Savignyplatz, I’m waiting for several elements to converge: passing trains, passersby, the headlights from cars. It’s all too easy. “Please pay attention to the gap between the online world and reality; there may yet still be a difference between the two.” That I’m pointing this out on digital/social media isn’t lost on me.

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I’m on Instagram

•   Follow me on Instagram here
•   14 for 14, from 2014
•   13 for 13, from 2013
•   12 for 12, from 2012

Featured image at top: morning mist, on board Regional Bahn train from Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Steinach in Bavaria, Germany – 13 November 2015. I made all of the photographs above with a Canon EOS6D full-frame DSLR camera. After uploading photos onto an iPod Touch, I edited the photos with SnapSeed, primarily for dodging, burning, sharpness, structure, and white balance, before I posted the final versions to Instagram. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-71y.