Tearing down the church

Several years ago, our family went to this downtown Methodist church with some friends. Today it's gone. It's been torn down  to make room for a shopping mall.

Buy - Rent

The construction site produces a fair share of dust in the air, creating interesting light for photographers.

Too late to look for the offering plate now!

The new cross

Ruins

The window had been long since bricked up

Exposed: The pink wall of the youth room

Stairway to heaven

Save that parking meter!

Looking in vain for the parking meter

Next in line?

Das Frühlingsfest war da

The spring fair came and went - unlike spring, which hasn't yet shown its real face here. But we're hopeful.
One Saturday evening I was invited to join the fotocommunity group from Kirchheim/Teck at the Wasen. We were to meet at 5:30 and I had told some other people about the meeting and was hoping to see them there, too. But at 5:00 I looked out our door and saw that it was cold and drizzly. That's not a good pre-requisite for a fun photowalk, but I decided to go anyway. However, I put back my Sony A77 and the new Tokina 11-16mm lens I had hoped to try out there and just took along my Sony RX100 pocket camera. Since I had taken pictures at the fair the past couple of years, this would be a good test for that camera, I thought.
By the time I arrived at the fairgrounds at 5:30, the sun had come out and it was warm! This first shot was taken around 5:40!

The Sony did a good job capturing the swinging pendulum while looking right into the sun.

And the RX100 is fast enough to focus on someone walking right by me. The fact that it doesn't make a sound a that it looks inconspicuous helps when doing street photography.

The colors are bright and cheerful - as opposed to these subjects.

The fact that the camera is small and light makes it possible to shoot from the hip, enabling you to capture honest poses.

I'm still a sucker for the watercolor picture effect of this camera. This photograph was shot through the transparent plastic siding of the crepe tent.

DANG! The camera is able to capture fast-moving cars!

The gesture!

I consider this a very lucky capture: The guy's pose, the flames below and freaking people behind him!

This could be a film still from a science fiction film. The new recruits are landing on the space ship and are going to be instructed by this war-torn captain.

Trying to get a new angle on the bumper cars.

Old-fashioned carousel.

This shot was actually taken the following day when I went there again with my daughter and her friend. The sky was amazing.

Das Frühlingsfest kommt

Even though many would doubt that spring is ever going to come this year, the Frühlingsfest will open on Saturday, April 20, come rain or shine. A few sunny days had us all thinking the seasons had changed, but this month is going to go out like the lion it came in on.

Nevertheless, the workers are preparing for the throngs of tourists who will want to ride the roller coasters and ferris wheels until they taste their beer again.

If someone asks you what the typical food is here in Stuttgart, Brenda would answer "1/2 chicken, pork steak and Swabian ravioli."

For those who just want a little snack, "almonds, nuts and nuts" are popular as well.

And what would such a Volksfest be without having the opportunity to drink yourself and the others under the table? Beer doesn't seem to offer enough of a kick any more, so pallets of sweet-tasting peach and plum schnapps are being delivered to give the young revelers something to smash on the ground once they've left the beer tents.

I'll probably meet up with a group of photographers around sundown to take some pictures of the fair in the evening, once the party is really swinging. That's no time for kids to be there, but every year I see dozens of children there until the lights go off.

With all the colors and lights and lines, it is indeed a feast for the eyes. Come out and enjoy it!

Abstract photography: Seeing things for what they aren't

Last night our monthly art group met again and it was my turn to lead it. We share the wealth of our knowledge because everyone brings a different artistic background to the table and we're all curious about learning what the others have to offer. It's a great give-and-take.
I wanted to talk about composition across the artistic genres and then get into abstract photography. As a warm-up exercise, we looked at the photographs in the current exhibition about the Occupy Boston movement. "What catches your eye in these pictures? And what keeps it in the frame?" I asked. Eye-catchers and eye-keepers include bright colors, stark contrasts, faces and eyes, lettering and patterns, we discovered. By not having the main element of the picture in the center, our eye moves from the dominant element(s) toward the center and then darts around, taking in the other eye-catching elements.
We wanted to try doing some of that ourselves. While my explanation puzzled a few at first, everyone eventually caught on.
First we made some sketches of what we thought might be interesting abstract compositions. Then we went around with our cameras, trying to re-create our compositional visions and sketches with the real-world objects we had at hand.

Soon, the penny had dropped and everyone was seeing shapes, lines and forms instead of pretzel sticks, tomatoes and wine bottles.

 And as the wine ran out, the empty bottles and glasses became part of our compositions, too.

And we even used them as creative filters!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

This exercise seems to work. Try it out and let me know how you fared!