If you wanted to find a common denominator for the pictures of the day, it would be something like “still life”. The shots have nothing to do with the classic fruit bowl, but show sublime expanse, monumental size, experimental light and shadow plays or the memories of an abandoned place.
We started Saturday with an impressive black and white shot of the Torre de comunicacions de Montjuïc, the television tower at the Olympic site in Barcelona. The 136 meter high tower was built in 1991 for the Olympic Games that took place in Barcelona the following year. It stands at the Plaça d’Europa on Montjuïc, a mountain in the south-west center of Barcelona. Heike Maier photographed him. She writes to us about her photo: “I photographed the Torre Calatrava from different perspectives. I liked it very much and then I only converted it to B/W because I liked the effect better than color.”
This time the animal picture on Sunday showed a close-up of a cat’s eye. Photographer Aaliyah Schenk experimented with her new Nikon 105mm macro lens. Here’s how she photographed the cat: “I’ve always been fascinated by observing a cat’s eyes. The fine veins and the luminosity of the pupil. For the picture I used a tripod and a Rollei Lumen Pocket photo light to try to evenly distribute the brightness. Then all that was required was patience to wait for the moment when the cat opens its eyes.”
The picture from Monday was also created through experiments, but is much more abstract. Anni Offermanns worked with light and shadow: “For ‘indoor’ macro shots, I often construct the motifs and sets from everyday objects, here paper of the most varied textures deformed and put together in different ways. Square white and colored notes – also cut into triangles or rectangles – are rolled up into small shapes and draped in a “bag” made of writing paper and illuminated in such a way that the points, waves and straight edges stand out. The position of the individual elements in relation to one another is very fragile, which means you need a steady hand to hold the motif in the desired/favourable position for the photo. On the other hand, interesting shape variants arise when the individual parts shift through slight movement. In “Construct 3” the contrast of curved and pointed edges – together with the “dramatic” purple-violet lighting from two smartphones – results in the abstract impression.
Wide landscapes
Wednesday’s dramatic black-and-white shot captured “dermaeus” hiking in the Picota mountains near Monchique in the Algarve. “The picture was taken during a mountain hike in the Algarve on the Picota near Monchique. It’s a three-photo panorama that I took handheld. The implementation in black and white was done in Lightroom, where I put special emphasis on working out the sun’s rays to create the special look. The whole thing was finalized in Photoshop.”
The glacier world of Canada photographed from the helicopter and – much easier to reach – the coast in East Friesland were just as calm and wide. Photographer ‘Parudnick’ photographed it while on vacation. “The picture was taken during my vacation in Ostfriesland, where I spend autumn every year. In late autumn you can watch the coast very colorful sunsets. I took this photo in front of the harbor mole in Neuharlingersiel. The photo didn’t need much post-processing, except for a slight contrast boost. ‘The roof goes to Rauh’ comes from the Frisian Platt and means: ‘The day goes to rest.'”
The end of the quiet pictures of the week was a photo of ‘Boing-707’ from a former lung sanatorium at Grabowsee, a Lost Place near Oranienburg. The facility was founded in 1896 by the Red Cross. From 1945 until the withdrawal of the Soviet Army in 1992, the facility was then a military hospital. After that, the complex was a popular backdrop for films and photographers.
Saturday: Torre Calatrava
Instagram: heike.maier763 (Image: Heike Maier)
(tho)
