Crystal Flowers

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Zurich, 2015-03-03, with Sony A7 and Olympus OM 35mm f/2.0.

The old Olympus OM 35mm f2 lens doesn't have a bad reputation, but is also not especially well regarded. Both compared to other Olympus OM lenses for different focus lengths as well as in comparison to some other often legendary 35mm Leica or Zeiss lenses. However I like its out of focus rendering, which to me is kinda thick and warm (thought it isn't so obvious in B&W :), and for the web resolution it also looks sharp enough.

Black and white conversion is directly out of the camera. Oh, and the flowers are not really crystals or even out of glass, but does it matter?!

Zuri Town Hall Quay by Night

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A view on the Zurich Stadthausquai in a winter night, 2015-02-02.

The building on the left with the clock on the tower is the post office.

Then comes the department of the major - the traditional city hall. Thought there is another town hall one bridge further down the river which is actually the parlament for the canton. BTW, the town house (on this photo) is also the final scene of the most famous Swiss movie, Die Schweizermacher (starring Emil Steinberger). That one is all about getting the Swiss Passport :D.

Then the famous Fraumünster, which is the number one must see for tourists here. This is because of the Chagall Windows, which you can see as the three narrow tall black windows on the front side of the building (plus one more window on each side plus a third rosette, which are all not visible in this picture).

At the beginning of the bridge you see the small silhouette of Hans Waldmann on a horse, one of the two Swiss main general of the Battle of Morat. He was also a major of Zurich.

Behind this statue is the Zunfthaus zur Meisen, the wine makers gild, which was the riches of the Zurich gilds and looks a bit like a French castle - unlike all the other wooden or old style Zurich gild houses.

Oh, and last not least on the right side the tower of the St.Peter church (with yet another clock, in this case the biggest church clock in Europe - yes bigger than the Big Ben clocks).

With Sony A7 and the lens used is the Leica Elmarit-R 28mm f/2.8 vers. 1, stopped down, so with its six aperture blades you see six "sunstar" rays from the lights near the boats and on the bridge.

Golden Moons

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Giant christmas tree ball ornaments in the moon light in Erlenbach, 2014-11-08.

With Sony A7 and Minolta MD 50mm f/1.2.

Family Formation

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2014-08-14, on (my) way to work.. with Sony A7 and Minolta AF 85mm f/1.4.

Zurich Crane

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Zurich over lunch time with a 10 stop natural density filter and the Olympus OM 50mm f/2.0 Macro and Sony A7. This one is with 30 sec exposure time. I also made one with 1 and 2 minutes, however it seems there are some artefacts coming up in the resulting picture. It looked like maybe (with a second 2 stop filter on top of it) there were some reflections between the two filters, but it was some rectangular imprint, so it must be something like a light leak on the mount or some reflections through the lens adapter, don't know yet, but for 30 sec and one filter it seems to be OK.

Otherwise zero post processing or cropping, the black and white is also straight out of the camera.

Oh yeah, and what do you think of the crane? Art?

Oh, actually this is a macro lens, which is very practical in itself with f/2.0, which can be just as well used as a normal lens. Actually I am surprised, it is one of my favourite lenses, thought I haven't had any picture with it published on the blog yet. And even this time it is no close up photo - for which I like to use this lens very much.

Stop Fracking

In Germany!

Right now there is a campaign on Campact.de (454.367 votes so far) against a new law planned to allow Fracking in Germany in order to get to the shale gas.

I don't know much about the technology, but here is a longer Youtube video explaining a bit and the experience they have with it in the USA: WARNING Fracking An Inconvenient Truth



Personally I have no idea about chemical stuff and so, but it doesn't appear very wise to me to pump a chemical cocktail deep in the ground with the potential to poison our ground water for some limited gain…

Here is a Spiegel article about the law they plan:

Riskante Gasförderung: Gabriel plant Fracking unter Auflagen

Studien gehen davon aus, dass der deutsche Gasbedarf mit den Vorkommen über zehn Jahre lang gedeckt werden könnte. Allerdings gelten 14 Prozent der Fläche als Wasserschutzgebiete, somit ist das Förderpotenzial weit geringer. Im Mai 2013 war ein erster Anlauf für ein Gesetz gescheitert, unter anderem weil die CDU in Baden-Württemberg zu große Risiken für das Gebiet rund um den Bodensee befürchtete.
Die Grünen kritisierten Gabriels Vorhaben und zogen in Zweifel, dass dabei wirklich Umweltbedenken berücksichtigt werden. "Laut dem Schreiben von Gabriel soll Fracking in Zukunft auf 86 Prozent der Landesfläche erlaubt werden, damit handelt es sich um ein Fracking-Ermöglichungsgesetz"

As one commenter on the page remarked, basically Germany is willing to mess up its underground water, for a 10 year supply of gas! Maybe can rally up everyone via social media to prevent this madness in Germany.

Talking Hands

Zurich, Landesmuseum, 2014-06-21.

With Sony A7 and Leica Elmarit-R 60mm f/2.8.

An Eye, Ear, and Antler.

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2014-05-25, with Sony A7 and Nikkor 85mm f/2.

Movement - A Moment

A photo walk with the Photo International Club Zurich about the topic Movement.



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Sony A7 with Minolta MD 35mm f/2.8 and ND8 filter and the last picture with Sony A7 and Canon FD 135mm f/2.

Malamute

In the mood.

In Erlenbach, 2014-05-13. With Sony A7 and Leica Summilux-R 50mm f/1.4.

Cross

Erlenbach, 2014-04-21. Sony A7 and Olympus 50mm f/1.8.

Experiment with 1x1 format, even thought not used in B&W, as it typically is.

White Buoy

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Lake Zurich, 2014-02-24.

With Sony Nex-5R and Leica Summicron R 50mm f/2.

I'm Walking / For Sale

I don't know what they have in common - street photography? Both from today, 2014-01-21.

And with Sony Nex-5R and Olympus OM 90mm f/2 Macro.

Late Lake Side Sight

Zurich lake, Thalwil, 2014-01-19. With Sony Nex-5R and Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 AI-s.

The shadow, yes, that's me.