New Home
Medienhafen
Düsseldorf Panorama
Cologne in Deep Fog
Müller’sches Volksbad
Blue Sky
Early Winter Morning
The Flood
Traffic Trails
Rotterdam
Telecommunications
Amsterdam Nieuwmarkt
London
East Tirol
Spiritual Water
Closed for the Season
Düsseldorf
Danger at Home
Red Sun
悟 Wù
Hong Kong
Tianjin in Winter
Tianjin
Dayanta
Glowing Sky
Drum Tower
Summer in the City
New Home
So this is it… My new home. The city where my new chapter begins. I am looking forward to all future adventures.
Medienhafen
This is Düsseldorf’s media port. It’s not being used as a port anymore but instead architects used the area to build impressive office buildings and hotels.
Düsseldorf Panorama
I took a similar shot two years ago but I went back to the same spot to see if I can improve on it with the same equipment. This is a detailed multi-shot panorama with a resolution of over 120 megapixels. I might get it printed some day.
Cologne in Deep Fog
A dense fog drowned out all buildings behind the Cologne Cathedral that night, giving the city’s perhaps two most prominent buildings even more attention.
Müller’sches Volksbad
The architecture in Munich is quite impressive. This public bath is a great showcase for baroque revival.
Blue Sky
Blue sky in a megacity that is usually known for strong air pollution. On this day, just before sunset, there wasn’t a hint of smog. A bird is enjoying the weather.
Early Winter Morning
I took this photo shortly before sunrise with freezing temperatures. It is a HDR that I stacked according to focus points. The front was actually too dark to capture with the same shutter speed so I killed two birds with one stone.
The Flood
Early 2018 Germany was hit with flood waters. This early morning the high water was accompanied by strong fog, drowning the city in an eerie atmosphere.
Traffic Trails
Early birds on their way to work.
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is a beautiful and modern city that boasts creative architecture. This image is a high-resolution composition of several images over 8 minutes shutter speed. During the last shot a water taxi conveniently drove to the dock that gave this scene a dynamic yellow line. I decided not to straighten the lines vertically for a more island-like feeling.
Telecommunications
Düsseldorf is known for telecommunications. Vodafone, Ericsson, Huawei and more have chosen the city for their European headquarters.
Amsterdam Nieuwmarkt
After a great day in Amsterdam, I took this on my way back to the hotel. It was quite late already but luckily in summer you can still capture some color in the sky. The original file is actually a composition done with Olympus’ sensor shift resulting in a high resolution 64 MP image.
London
If you are a photographer, you absolutely must book a visit to Sky Garden. That’s the easiest way to get a beautiful aerial shot of the city. However, they don’t allow tripods and many people will smear the protective glass before you get there. You will have to prepare well and get a bit creative for a good shot. I managed to capture this view over Borough Market, the Shard and the river Thames.
East Tirol
During an amazingly refreshing trip to east Tyrol, I captured this impression from our hut. The previous day we climbed down from our part of the mountains, crossed the valley, passed the waterfall and climbed up all the way to where the snow starts. However, that day it was extremely foggy and raining. We had no idea the scenery was this beautiful until the sky cleared up the next day.
Spiritual Water
On a rainy and foggy day, we decided to climb up a mountain. We could hardly see further than 20 meters until we reached the top. We were drinking clear water from the creek when suddenly the fog lifted up. It was not until then we noticed the small chapel next to us.
Closed for the Season
Autumn in Tirol. The grass turns yellow and gets covered by green moss. The scene also has a nice contrast of wood and stone. The private hut is unreachable by car but the view is breathtaking. Behind it the mountain gets very steep so there is no passing without proper gear. Just a few meters higher it was snowing.
Düsseldorf
I took this shot very early in the morning. The sun has just risen but is hiding behind the buildings. Düsseldorf is one of my favorite cities ever. Moving here gave me a lot of vigor.
Danger at Home
It doesn’t look like it, but this was a very dangerous shot. I climbed on the roof of my apartment in Xi’an and sat on the highest corner with no rails to protect me from falling down. It’s only 32 floors, but enough to pump my adrenaline. The scene itself is nothing special, just a residential area.
Red Sun
This is perhaps my favorite photo that I took in Xi’an. Even though you can see the smog, this was one of the prettier days. It’s not until the sun set down that the sky suddenly turned red. I shot an HDR with a c-pol filter to enhance the color. This version has hardly been touched. You can still notice the dirt on the lens.
悟 Wù
A handwritten poem with a too deep meaning for me to understand. Wu translates to realize, awaken.
Hong Kong
According to specs, my camera only has 16 MP. There are some tricks to increase the pixel count and this panorama sums up to a very clear 125 MP. It is one of the pictures I am most proud of because technically I can’t find any fault or at least I wouldn’t know how I could do better trying to capture the same scape.
Tianjin in Winter
This shot of 天津 Tianjin shows the 海河 Haihe river frozen over in winter. My main camera’s lens was sent back to Japan for repair so I had to fall back on a Sony DSC-RX100 which felt a bit challenged at low light but still managed to capture this nice view on a low-angled Joby Gorillapod.
Tianjin
Tianjin is such a beautiful city! I rate it among the best modern cities in China. However, the city also cherishes its profound past and it was an important harbor for international trade early on. Right now it expands quickly from its 14mio citizens and it must feel like heaven for architects. The buildings look phenomenal. When I visited there, my camera was broken so I borrowed a Canon EOS 5D for this shot.
Dayanta
This pagoda in Xi’an is very important to the history of Buddhism. Around 650 A.D. monks started translating and preserving original Buddhist scrolls that else would have been burnt and lost in the following wars.
Glowing Sky
This is another shot from Xi’an. I enhanced the colors of the sky. Actually Xi’an is a very desaturated city. Not only air pollution is a problem, but also dust that blows from the nearby plateau through the surrounding mountains. So when there is a nice autumn day with clear sky, the city feels like it blossoms. I wanted to capture this feeling.
Drum Tower
Drum Towers became an important trademark of urban cities after the Mongol Empire in the late 13th century. They signaled the time and with it the opening and closing of market hours. Zhu Yuanzhang had the Drum Tower erected in the early Ming dynasty. I took the shot from a balcony of one of the nearby restaurants in a shopping mall.
Summer in the City
Welcome to China! This is one of the very first pictures I took in my temporary hometown Xi’an. It’s not as pretty as Shanghai, that’s for sure. But it was an even greater experience. A challenge that turned out to be a lot of fun. I took this picture from the top floor of a hotel in a residential area. I couldn’t afford the room so I just grabbed a photo and said that I got the address wrong.