Autumn | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts from the ‘Autumn’ category

Fuji X70, Fujifilm X70, Fujifilm, X70, Peak Design

My Fuji X70: from Austria to the US Southwest

Instead of merely complaining about a desire to carry something lighter for day-to-day photography situations, I decided to do something about it a couple of weeks before my month-long visit to Austria in May 2018.

I looked online for a mirrorless compact camera, but I didn’t need the latest or a top-line model. I preferred an older model with a lot of online reviews and user comments, and I decided on a compromise among three criteria: cost, weight and size, and image quality.

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I-25, El Camino Real, US-66, Rosario, Budaghers, New Mexico, USA, fotoeins.com

US Southwest drive: road trip numbers & memories (2018)

Above/featured: NM I-25 southbound, between Rosario and Budaghers – 5 Oct 2018 (X70).

In October 2018, we embarked on a modest 2-week driving trip through parts of New Mexico and Arizona. We began in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, drove west towards Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, south to Tucson, and finally, northeast on the return to Santa Fe. With our first-time attendance at the Balloon Fiesta and first-time visit to the Grand Canyon accomplished, we’d like to examine further the Grand Staircase geographical formation beyond the Utah-Arizona border region and the historical remnants from old highway US route 66.

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Morning fog, autumn fog, Seattle P-I globe, West Thomas St Overpass, Myrtle Edwards Park, Seattle, WA, USA, fotoeins.com

Seattle: the Sound and the Silence

“Fog”, definition: “a thick cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth’s surface that obscures or restricts visibility (to a greater extent than mist; strictly, reducing visibility to below 1 kilometre).”

Fog isn’t atypical for autumn or winter in the city of Seattle or in the Puget Sound region. While less effective than snow, the damping by fog on light and sound can still provide a modest visual and auditory sensation of silence. That is, until headlights and foghorns pierce the temporary cloak and illusion.

740am, West Thomas Street Overpass (20171211).

751am, West Thomas Street Overpass (20171211).

830am northwest, into Sound fog (20171211).

840am southeast, as the sun burns through (20171211).

I made the photos above on 6 January 2015 on board the WSDOT Ferry MV Kaleetan from Bremerton to Seattle, and on 11 December 2017 near Myrtle Edwards Park. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-aYc.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber: medieval city by day

I’ve been hearing about this place for years. “Ya gotta come; the beautiful magical city is a dream come true.” At some point, hype bleeds into “white noise”, and attention turns elsewhere.

The day arrives when the timing is a great fit, when the city becomes the first stop on a four-week long tour of the country. I’m hitting a seasonal “sweet spot” in between the summer surge and the Christmas crush. There are far fewer tour buses and day-trippers, but even in mid-November, plenty of visitors are spellbound by the visual beauty. Freed by the weight of the crowds, the feeling collectively from Rothenburg ob der Tauber and her residents feels a lot like a big exhalation of relief.

Directly translated as “red castle over the Tauber (river)”, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is located in the Middle Franconia (Mittelfranken) region of Bavaria. The city lies at the junction of the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road) and the Burgenstrasse (Castle Road).

From the first community established in nearby Detwang in 960 AD/CE, the Hohenstaufen “Castrum Imperiale” (Imperial Castle) in 1142, a new settlement adjacent to the castle recognized as “Civitas” in 1241, the young city’s Free Imperial City status claimed in 1274, the Reformation’s arrival in 1544, the Thirty Years’ War siege and forced occupation in the early 17th-century, an independent imperial city forced to join the Bavarian Kingdom in 1802, Allied bombing destroyed a large chunk of the old town in World War Two, to subsequent post-war reconstruction and repair, the rich and tumultuous history together with the half-timbered red-roofed houses, cobblestone streets, and the stone wall perimeter make Rothenburg ob der Tauber one of the most beautiful medieval cities in Europe.

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Yaletown, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 26 Oct 2014, fotoeins.com

What about now? How about now?

I think I’ve struck a nugget of gold.

I also believe the chances of finding it again might well be slim to none …

Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, wrote in the 17th-century:

Il n’y a rien dans ce monde qui n’ait un moment decisif. (There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.)

Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson used this quote for the preface of his 1952 book “Images à la sauvette” (The Decisive Moment). That phrase has been described in great detail and (mis)interpreted over the years, undoubtedly adding only to the legend and his place in the history of photography. With his landmark photograph “Derrière la gare Saint-Lazare” (Paris 1932), Cartier-Bresson described moments like these as:

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression. (Photographier: c’est dans un même instant et en une fraction de seconde reconnaître un fait et l’organisation rigoureuse de formes perçues visuellement qui expriment et signifient ce fait.)

What does any of this have to do with the photo above? Everything.

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