Taking a Short Break

I haven’t shot much in the last few days, so here is a series-of-three from the archives. I was playing a bit with the second image, thinking of black-and-white, but in the end liked the pale look even better. I thought this would be a nice way to group three images in a series, so I started looking for others that fit.

Bus Driver Taking a Short Break

Tailor Taking a Short Break

A Street Cleaner Taking a Short Break

I’m quite happy with this series, because there images are connected in several ways. The most obvious is the pale look, but also the three workers taking a break, looking a bit tired, looking towards the camera but not directly into the lens, all three shown in their typical surroundings along with their “tools”.

Should I change the color of the wall behind the tailor to match the pink areas of the first and third images? That would be one more “connection” between the images.

Hamburg at Night

It was getting late and dark last night while I was waiting for the Queen Mary 2 to depart, and all of a sudden I discovered that Hamburg has a pretty skyline. However I did have trouble coming up with three images, at least from the position where I was standing. Maybe I’ll go back to the south side a look for a third image.

Bad Luck with the “Queen Mary 2″

Last time the QM2 was in Hamburg I missed her, but this time around I was at the terminal short before sunrise. Unfortunately the weather was typically north German again, and there was such thick fog that I could no see any further than 10 meters. On top of that there was lots of security around the cruise terminal, so I was basically out of luck. At around 9 am the fog was gone and the sun was up, but I’d already missed the morning light and the QM2 was surrounded by repair crews from all sides.

So I gave up for the morning and decided to come back in the evening. Since the sunset was at 20:20, I was at the terminal at 19:00. But there were so many people and so many cars, that I could not even get close to the ship. My only choice was to go back to the nice location from the morning and wait for the sunset.

This was an hour before departure, and there was nothing more to get from that location, so I folded up my tripod and drove to the south bank, looking for a good view over the river. I did find a good position, but the QM2 did not leave on time, and it was 22:10 when she sailed past me. It was already very dark, so I had to use ISO 1600 to even get any images…

Still, it was a nice day, and I’ll probably go again when she returns in July, 2008.

Self-Assignment: Three of a Kind

Apparently the trick to “growing up” is to constantly push ones self by setting up goals and then trying to achieve them. But the goals have to be realistic, otherwise the whole thing ends up in frustration and ultimately in resignation. So instead of aiming directly for stunning images that speak volumes by themselves, I’ve decided to look for a series of three images on any given topic.

This has to be a simpler task, because multiple images can support and supplement each-other, and each image does not have to be perfect and self-explanatory in itself. For example, if I want to make an image about an exciting color combination, instead of looking for a simple image that contains all the exciting colors in one strong composition, I can make three images, each showing only one or two colors. Or if I want to show a beautiful plant or a blossom, I can take an image of it in the morning light, during the day with rain drops on it and then in the evening light. Or I can show different blossoms, with different sizes or in different stages of their development.

This three-of-a-kind idea has several nice side-effects:

• it forces me to “work the scene” in order to produce several related images,
• it makes me think about different ways of connecting the images: by theme, form, texture, or color,
• several images with a common theme are much better for putting up on the wall than several strong ones that do not fit well next to each-other,
• extending this idea leads to the development of portfolios, which seems to be the central aim of an art photographer.

So, the pressure is on again…

The Marseille Cafés

In my recent trip to Marseille I also tried to photograph the “spirit” of the city. And in Marseille and especially in Vieux Port, the spirit have to be the numerous cafés — filled up with people at all times of the day and most of the night.

Short Pause After Work

Missing out on a Beautiful Sunset

Too Early for Customers