A cold winter's day

Here's a quiz. What is this?

  The answer is at the end of this blog post.

January 5 it was cold-cold in Stuttgart. So of course I took off on a walk through town. Across the busy road near our house a new fancy-shmanzy car wash is being built. At this point it is just an empty industrial-style building with a cathedral ceiling, but when the sun shines through it, you can get some stunning shots!

Do you like the tilt? I decided to add an off-kilter angle to shake up the image a bit.

The gritty door and windows next to the big ride-up door also served their photographic purpose that day.

And this is what it looks like from the outside. You can see how well it blends in with the existing architecture!

A few steps further up the path leading to the Neckar River, I discovered numbered heating (or cooling?) units outside a huge storehouse. This is located at the heart of the wholesale district, so there are probably perishable flowers or fruits in there.

On the bridge the sun created wonderful shadows for me and the man headed my way.

The topic of one of the recent DPReview challenges was barbed wire. That got me shooting the stuff surrounding the gardens near our house. The pictures were interesting with the snow and clear sky in the background, but nothing great. Then these images popped up as I headed down into the underpass near the Mercedes Museum.
In the image above I like the contrasting colors and textures, the loopy razor wire and the smooth square tiles.

In the two photos above I tried to show how focusing on either the branches or the wire would make a difference to our perception of the image, but I don't think it makes much of a difference, does it?

Time out

The beach volleyball courts look oddly inviting to me even with a half a foot of snow on them.

Another DPReview challenge was called "Aftermath" and was set right after Christmas and New Year's. I got these two shots, though didn't enter either one because I didn't think they were that strong. The one with the cups was taken at the snowboarding competition where the sponsor, Relentless, was giving away its energy drink (perhaps because no one would buy it?).

And this shot was taken right after the sign was destroyed. It is one of those scrolling advertisements that had not survived a drunken pedestrian's fist.

It is wet. It is cold. It doesn't matter. (Ad for a four-wheel drive Mercedes)

That was it for a cold day's walk. Join me soon for other interesting topics!

Drum roll, please!

The answer to the quiz:

Snow blowing off the bridge railing