Heidelberg | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts tagged ‘Heidelberg’

T06 Heidelberg: Church of the Holy Falcons Featured

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The Church of the Holy Spirit stands tall over Heidelberg’s Market Square. But up top its central steeple is an annual springtime renewal: a new family of falcons.

For a number of years, volunteers have managed the “nest box” in the steeple above the clock face, and run the Wanderfalken website. A couple of falcons pair up, mum lays eggs in the cozy church box on high, and parents raise the chicks over a timescale of weeks: until the chicks “disappear” in flight. All of this is in view of everyone who has Internet access.

The nest’s entrance faces “out” to the east, as seen in “Webcam 1” with Heidelberg’s Karlsplatz and Kornmarkt visible. Webcam 2 faces “in” to the “back” of the box, and Webcam 3 from the outside faces west to the roost next to the entrance.

*Church of the Holy Spirit, facing west from Marktplatz (Market Square): 1x digital zoom.*

*Falcon nest in the square above the clock face. In shadow to afternoon light, you can barely discern the presence of a falcon on the perch. 10x digital zoom*.

I made the first two images above with an iPhone15 on 13 May 2024, plus remaining same-day screen captures from webcams on the Wanderfalken website. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

T05 Heidelberg: my take on a classic shot

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This is a place I once called home.

I have no pictures or images of my 2 years in town and schlepping up to and down from Königstuhl hill. 2001 to 2003 remain firm in heart and mind.

But this image of Königstuhl and Heidelberg’s Old Town I got today: this will do very nicely as well.

*In evening light, castle ruins sit on Königstuhl’s lower flank (centre), with the Old Bridge over the Neckar river and Church of the Holy Spirit (right).*

I made the image above with an iPhone15 on 12 May 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Karpfengasse, Heidelberg Altstadt, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: home in the Old Town (HD)

One of the great joys of being back “home” in Heidelberg is a slow relaxed stroll through the side streets in the university’s Altstadt (Old Town). Residents will have “strong” opinions about navigating the Hauptstrasse (main road) at the best of times, but newcomers quickly learn about the side streets and alternate east-west routes. In this image is Karpfengasse (“carp lane”), facing north to the Kongresshaus Stadthalle in the background.

I made the image on 15 Mar 2017 with a Canon EOS6D mark1 and these settings: 1/250-sec, f/16, ISO1000, and 50mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-ofx.

Schloss Heidelberg, Neckar river, Philosopher's Walk, Heidelberg Altstadt, Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: it’s spring (HD)

The two-letter abbreviation “HD” is not only about “high quality”, but it’s also the abbreviation used to represent the Heidelberg area on Germany’s vehicle (license) plates. As of posting, (northern) spring equinox occurred a few days ago (20 March), and it’s time for less grey and more sun, with fresh air and a great view over one of my “adopted hometowns.” The image above offers a view from the ruins of Schloss Heidelberg (castle), into the Altstadt (Old Town) and the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge), and west along the Neckar river towards the city of Mannheim and the Rhein river in the hazy distance.

I made the image on 14 Mar 2017 with a Canon EOS6D mark1 and these settings: 1/1000-sec, f/16, ISO1000, and 24mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-oeO.

My Heidelberg: 38 Highlights from Home

Above/featured: From Philosophenweg: across the Neckar, over the Altstadt, and up to Königstuhl – 21 May 2016 (HL).

Heidelberg is “eine adoptierte Heimatstadt” (an adopted hometown). Some have called this place “scenic, natural, and spectacular”; some call it “boring, provincial, and extortionate”. I could be referring to Vancouver, but that’s a subject for another time.

I’ve long struggled with questions of place: what defines “home”? Can those definitions and qualities change with time? Do people have choice(s) and do they apply their choices in their search? Can people find meaning with “home”? Must “home” be restricted to only one place, or can different needs be met from different places?

Images can provide access to memories of having lived in a new country, experiencing the shock of the new, and settling into the mundane. I remember advice someone once gave me which became constant companion and reminder: that I was inhabiting a place at the same latitude as my birthplace, 8000 km in distance and 9 time zones apart on the other side of the planet, a place that’s seen its compact share of activity with flair and impact.

Most recall is naturally connected to sight. Occasionally, it’s a rush of the senses: the quick breeze on the skin, the ankle-spraining undulations of the cobblestone, how fog clings like a cold clammy cloak, the sing-song of birds among tall trees in the forest on the hill, the smell of grilled sausages in town by day, and the satisfying late-night noms of a spicy Dürüm Döner with a cool Ayran. And other times, human history leaps out and buries its claws, when the unthinkable must be acknowledged and understood in a synapsis of memory and senses.

In the autumn of 2001, I moved to Germany and Heidelberg: both sight unseen and without having learned any of the language. I stayed in town for a little under two years. What’s astonishing is I have no pictorial record of my time in Heidelberg, Germany, and Europe: I had no camera before the dawn of the smart-phone.

I have some great memories, even if time is casting long shadows. What I lost (no, gave away) was some part of me that actually has little to do with the “Schlager” hit song “Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren“. It might be a piece of the heart, a part of the soul, or simply a scrap of good sense; but what it is precisely still remains undefined and shapeless. Finding solid answers about what I’ve surrendered might take years. And so, for the sake of clarity, I’ve returned many times since leaving town in 2003. A sharper focus comes through the post-departure blur whenever I step off the train in town.

I couldn’t have possibly known the experience of moving to and living in Heidelberg would be life-changing. Time so far has been kind, because it didn’t take long for me to adopt Heidelberg as “home”.

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