Blue hour photography

Regiswindiskirche / Regiswindis church in the old town of Lauffen, December 2015

Wikipedia: "The blue hour is the period of twighlight each morning and evening when the sun is a significant distance below the horizon and the residual, indirect sunlight takes on a predominantly blue hue. This effect is caused by the relative diffusibility of short blue wavelengths of light versus the longer red wavelengths. During the blue "hour" (typically the period is about 40 minutes in length), red light passes straight into space while blue light is scattered in the atmosphere and therefore reaches the earth's surface. Because of the quality of the light, this period is treasured by artists."

Although the wikipedia article is talking about a 40 minutes period of the "blue hour", in my opinion it's just a 10 minutes "tunnel" to hit the best ratio of background and foreground contrast.

In my second photo of the Regiswindis church the light was still much too bright - therefore the contrasts are much to "hard".

So: when is the perfect moment for the best blue hour shot???

You have to try out! Start early enough with your first photo (of course you MUST use a tripod!), later you'll realize that it's already much to dark to continue.  

Somewhen in the intervening time is the perfect moment for the best shot(s).

Lauffen town hall - parts of it used to be an old castle out of the 11th century - with illuminated Christmas tree in the evening hours.

 

 The old historic fountain in front of the Lauffen town hall - and the reflections of Christmas lights in the water surface of the well.

That's not longer a blue hour photograph...
...the sky is much too dark already.

A pleasant and peaceful 2nd Advent to all of you!

Buddha Museum Traben-Trarbach

Where do you travel to visit more than 2000 different Buddhas at one place?

Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, or... ?

...Traben-Trarbach, Mosel Valley, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany??? --> !!!

Buddha Museum Traben-Trarbach

There, along the lovely Mosel valley, you find a great and unique Buddha museum
with Buddhas from all Asian countries where Buddhism is widespread and part of the vibrant culture.

Certainly you understand that I cannot display a representative amount of all the different buddhas here in my post,  so I wanna present you at least my best photogrphs of this private, but publicly accessible collection.

Did you enjoy our tour through the Buddha museum?

Outside it looks quite different, quite German again... ;-)

No. 4 of all the TOP 100 sights 2015 in Germany: HEIDELBERG

Heidelberg's Old Bridge over the river Neckar with Bridge Gate and the Heidelberg Castle in the background.

And which are the other TOP 100 travel destinations???

The TOP 100 sights and attractions in Germany

OK, now you know...

...let's return to Heidelberg.

Once again: the Bridge Gate with its twin towers...

...THE top photo motif in Heidelberg: the Old Castle ...

..and a view along the long pedastrian zone with the steeple of the municipal church (on the left). 

Old long-playing record (you remember?) "Alt Heidelberg du Feine" / "Old Heidelberg you fine one"

and: (Latin scholar to the front) "Gaudeamus igitur" --> ""So Let Us Rejoice" / "Lasst uns also fröhlich sein!" 

is a popular academic commercium song in many Western countries, mainly sung or performed at university graduation ceremonies. Despite its use as a formal graduation hymn, it is a jocular, light-hearted composition that pokes fun at university life. The song is thought to originate in a Latin manuscript from 1287. It is in the tradition of carpe diem ("seize the day") with its exhortations to enjoy life. It was known as a beer-drinking song in many ancient universities and is the official song of many schools, colleges, universities, institutions, student societies and is the official anthem of the International University Sports Federation.

This is...

...what I don't want to post about! ;-) 

For those of you who come occasionally to Heidelberg (like me, because it's only 110 km away from my home town), there are even more popular places to spend some pleasant hours or even a whole day.

  

Therefore you have to cross the Neckar to arrive at a district called Neuenheim.

On a Saturday morning, ...

...this is one of my favourite places in Heidelberg.

Especially: the streets around the Neuenheim Market with their charming little shops and cafés, many of them "French style"...

...but the star / my favourite of Neuenheim is the weekly market itself!

Selected farmers, butchers, other producers and merchants with a wide range of quality and bio/organic products from the vicinity offer their choice of products.

The price-performance ratio of the products is really great compared to the high level of quality!

At the end of the market day you can enjoy a coffee (or two) and some German or French pastries in one of the many enchanting coffee bars...

Café Auszeit / coffee bar "downtime" (literally translated)

Now you may understand why I prefer the "quality time" at Neuenheim far away from the flow of tourists in the middle of Heidelbergs Old Town.

Partial eclipse of the sun in Germany

Did you see the partitial solar eclipse today over Europe???

Here are some of my impressions I took in the morning with my camera.

I put a neutral grey filter in front of the lens of my DSLR with a factor of 1000 that reduced the sun light dramatically.

In the second photograph you even can see the sunspot in the upper third of the solar disc.

The max. covering of 71% of the sun disc we had at 10:37 a.m. this moring; one hour later the whole haunting was over again.

Winter in Germany...

 

... can also look like this...

...or this...

...or this! ;-)

Or what kind oth weather did you expect when taking a vacation a the German North Sea Coast at the turn of the year 2014 / 2015???

I wish you all a great year 2015!

25 years ago - the fall of the Berlin Wall 9.11.1989

Welcome to an interesting chapter of German history.

The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.

Unfortunately I was not directly on site in Berlin to witness this dramatic historic event of the younger German history. I was sitting in front of the TV screen to trace the fall of the Wall.

But shortly afterwards (January '90) of that event we were able to visit Berlin and see the Wall riddled with holes already.

And we traveled the first time in our live to East Berlin, the border was already open, but you were still able to see and feel all the "original" Eastern Berlin aura (?) / flair (??)

I still have strong memories of the moment when I tried to took a photo in a pub and the innkeeper verbally abused me and asked me for my permission to take photos... ;-)

Most of the pictures I post here I took in the "Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland" at Bonn some weeks ago. There you find many interesting testimonia of the German history of the last 80 years.

But  the following photo of the wall remains I took two years ago on the Podsdamer Platz in Berlin.

The start of the construction of the Wall was in August 1961.

Hans Conrad Schumann (March 28, 1942 – June 20, 1998) was an East German soldier who famously defected to West Germany during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

On 15 August 1961, the 19-year-old Schumann was sent to the corner of Ruppiner Straße and Bernauer Straße to guard the Berlin Wall on its third day of construction. At that time, the wall was only a low barbed wire fence. From the other side, West Germans shouted to him, "Komm' rüber!" ("Come over!"), and a police car pulled up to wait for him. Schumann jumped over the barbed wire fence and was promptly driven away from the scene by the West Berlin police. West German photographer Peter Leibing photographed Schumann's escape.

Between 1961 and 1989 everybody had to pass the rough and restrective cross-border controls between West Berlin (BRD) and East Berlin (GDR).

Here are some impressions of a narrow original border control cabin between West and East Berlin.

*   ***   ***   ****   *****   ****   ***   **   *

Walter Ulbricht,  leader of East Germany from 1950 to 1971, and Erich Honecker, who replaced Ulbricht 1971.

By 1961, 1.65 million people had fled to the west.

Fearful of the possible consequences of this continued outflow of refugees, and aware of the dangers an East German collapse would present to the Soviet Union’s Communist satellite empire, Ulbricht pressured Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in early 1961 to stop the outflow and resolve the status of Berlin.

When Khrushchev approved the building of a wall as a means to resolve this situation, Ulbricht threw himself into the project with abandon.

"Tear down this wall!" was the challenge issued by United States President Roland Reagan to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall, in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Mikkail Gorbachev und Helmut Kohl 14. July 1990 in the Caucasus
talking about the future of the reunified Germany.

Good bye, DDR (GDR) ...

... welcome united Germany!