• General,  Heidelberg,  Landscape

    Infinite avenue of trees

    On Sunday we met with friends to walk in the castle gardens of Schwetzingen, especially to the cherry garden of the mosque, because the cherry trees are starting to blossom. Weak intermittent clouds created a diffuse light in the park with warm intermediate tones. The well-designed baroque grounds everywhere show the joy of technical possibilities to expand – or even deceive – the human horizon of experience.

    There is a small section in the park with a trompe l’oueil designed to make infinity tangible. In summer, ivy grows along the tunnel-shaped lattice to create a tube view.

    Trompe l'oeuil at Schwetzingen Palace Garden © Julian Köpke

    When photographing the following avenue of trees at the edge of the mosque, it was of course clear that the perspective should give the impression of a long path. I tried 2 days later to increase this effect by repeating the image in the picture, which can easily be done with digital photography and post-processing. After the second repetition, I think the eye is very well deceived and no longer perceives a real end.

    Compare to the original here.

    Infinite avenue of trees in the Schwetzingen Palace Garden (virtual reality) © Julian Köpke
  • Heidelberg,  Landscape

    Winter in Heidelberg

    The Königstuhl in Heidelberg is a popular destination at any time of year and in almost any weather. It can be reached via many routes on foot or by bicycle, by car, by bus or by mountain cable car. 

    The first plans for a transport system were made in 1873 as a rack railway. Two years later, agreement was reached on a cable car, which was completed in 1889. It reached the castle and a viewing hotel higher up, but not the Königstuhl. It was not until 1907 that the Königstuhl mountain station was completed, which made it possible to travel all the way to the top with a change at the level of the lookout hotel. The difference in altitude to the valley station is 436m.

    The building of the mountain station is a mixture of half-timbered house and the same red red sandstone as town houses in the city or the castle, which originates from the area. A flat is included above the operating level.

    The noise of the valley does not penetrate up here. The snow provides further reassurance. The house stands here as if fallen out of time. Only the weather station on the roof and the flagpoles on the right indicate modern times.

    The position of my photograph was on an icy footpath with icy steps. I didn’t fall, but I was standing very unsteadily. The shot nevertheless radiates a lot of calm, the house in warm tones, the landscape wintry cold.

    Königstuhl cable car top station © Julian Köpke
    Mountain top station cable car Heidelberg Königstuhl © Julian Köpke
  • flowers,  Heidelberg

    Sunny day with spring character

    A sunny day in winter without training or weekend obligations: we can let ourselves drift a littleThe Hermannshof in Weinheim with its botanical garden attracts many visitors, especially those with cameras. Many kneel or lie down on the floor to gain a beautiful perspective. You don’t notice dirty trousers. Rather, trousers like that ennobles the wearer.

    First light welcomes a crocus when the sun shines abundantly and the joy of photographing is written on the face of all visitors.

    First light for a crocus © Julian Köpke

    Winter residual flowers in the first spring light: Helleborus

    Helleborus © Julian Köpke

    At the end of our sunny stroll we sat down in front of a café for a tea. We met this Siberian Husky in front of our café. It took me a while to recognize three legs and a shaved fur on her right hip. Due to a chondrosarcoma her owner had decided to have an operation on the dog. She did quite well, as far as a human may understand.

    Siberian Husky © Julian Köpke
    Siberian Husky © Julian Köpke
  • General,  Heidelberg,  Landscape,  Travel

    Back home in the summer heat

    It is the photographer’s art to emotionally convey the mood and light during a shot. This becomes all the more difficult the greater the differences between the location of the recording and the location of the processing. When we departed from Iceland, it was only 6 degrees Celsius with nice Icelandic sunshine. In Frankfurt on arrival and in Heidelberg on the following days it was 30 degrees and more.

    So it is all the more gratifying when a photo, developed late in the evening, is selected to Flickr Explore after the first 2 days of work and dead tired in the evening at 11:30 p.m. This time it is the famous Black Church of Budir. For aesthetic reasons, I had removed an empty flag pole that belonged to the cemetery.

    This year, for the first time, several of my pictures were selected. To keep an overview, I have arranged all the in explores into one album.

    Black church at Budir © Julian Köpke

    On the way to Boudir, we drove through the Hvalfjörður Tunnel, which went alarmingly deep under the ocean. After leaving the tunnel, the rain stopped again and again and the clearing of the thunderstorm clouds over the mountains appeared in the south.

    After the tunnel (Clearing at Þjóðvegur) © Julian Köpke

    This clearance of the clouds and the breaking of the light were good signs. We had left Keflavik paralyzed by quarantine and in continuous rain. A strange ghost ship at the exit of the village with a big hole in its belly was swaying back and forth, whiped by gusts of wind and rain.

    On the very sunny day of our return to Keflavik 11 days later it was gone. As befits ghost ships.

    Ghost ship in harbour Keflavik © Julian Köpke
  • Heidelberg,  Landscape,  Motion Blur,  Train window,  Travel

    Train ride

    Lockdown drives us crazy. Official measures increasingly breathe the spirit of decay. The Age of Enlightenment is over. It is no longer a reasonable reflection that counts or thoughts, that are discussed. Politics behaves more like a war management. The first victim of a war is the truth. That’s more and more disturbing.

    This morning I stepped over an enigma. A structure in the roof of our Main Station in Heidelberg. As an image, there are many ways this structure could be thought of: a top-down bowl, a flying saucer – or a light dome. As it was still dark about 6 o’clock the windows appeared in a dark blue, like the adjacent ceiling.

    Other perspectives show a content that could be seen as a china plate. I couldn’t stop to photograph this dome.

    Longtime exposures made from a train window have a look and feel of their own. Perspective loses its sense. A moment loses its meaning. But these images are inspiring.

    How to photograph the feeling of eternity ? Can there really be a feeling of eternity or are we subjected to a deception when we perceive it ? Does time fusion help although a finite process ? The following image was captured with the Slow Shutter app on my cell phone with 8 seconds.

  • Background,  flowers,  Heidelberg,  Macro

    Heidelberg Castle, flowers and flypaper textures

    Heidelberg Castle is a landmark. In winter its red color becomes softer. For one winter Frederick V. became king with his home in this castle. After that, Germany sank into the 30 Years War. The castle had been ruined already by fire a couple of years before.

    Winter Castle of the Winter King © Julian Köpke

    The delicacy and dreaminess of a photo is not always the result of intensive digital processing. The ranuncula of the following image hardly needed editing. You can feel it. With a tripod and a 85mm Lensbaby velvet at f/16 I shot this image with really delicate color.

    Ranuncula © Julian Köpke

    The lavish feast is over. Paradise is no more. The king went into exile. We’re staying.

    The roaring party is over © Julian Köpke
  • General,  Heidelberg,  Landscape,  reflection

    Snow and sunshine

    It is a nice experience to walk the same path under changing light conditions at daily distance. In winter there is not much botanically happening, only the snow can be more or less – or the fog. The possibilities of imaging with a camera essentially change with the extent of the available light. A sunny day shows a maximum of available light.

    Does sunlight make a picture atmospheric ? With cloudy skies or even some fog, the conditions for background and foreground change substantially and pictures without sunlight can be be very varied and gain a special depth of expression.

    Sunlit snowy branches © Julian Köpke

    The above image shows: shadows during a day with a blue sky are blue, too.

    The detection of expressive light situations without a tripod and without HDR technology requires a limited amount of light that the sensor can still process with out blown-out lights or drown depths.

    Snowfall in the clearing © Julian Köpke
    Winter walk in the snowy forest © Julian Köpke
  • Heidelberg,  Landscape

    Staying at home

    This year we spent 5 weeks of our holiday involuntarily in Heidelberg. with the light of a late winter afternoon just before the winter solstice and some mist in the air, dreamlike impressions arise. We didn’t have to cover a long distance. In the hills above the town there is a plateau within walking distance with a farm, commemorative cemetery and a forest all around. Had it not been tor the photo equipment, we would have really been on foot up the mountain.

    Two trees above Bierhelder Hof © Julian Köpke

    Going closer to the fence that surrounds the dairy cattle, you will see straight into the foggy valley. No roofs, no industry, no highway, no noise. Just a wooden house in the forest like in a fairy tale. The colors blur into a monochrome something.

    Valley view in Heidelberg above Rohrbach © Julian Köpke

    Perhabs we feel invited to sit by a bench in the woods. When the seat is dry really ….

    Bench in the woods © Julian Köpke

    At the end of the short walk we step on a Tori, which in the backlight shows us the lightness of Japanese beauty.It is probably to be assigned to the Heidelberg twin town Kumamoto on the southern most Japanese island Kyushu.

    Tori in Heidelberg (Kumamoto) © Julian Köpke
  • Heidelberg,  Landscape,  World at night

    Earthlight, Jupiter and Saturn

    The sun is setting in the west. The Moon moves east and setting in the west, too. If one compares the position of the Moon relative to the prominent planets Saturn and Jupiter, because they appear close to each other, it is no longer below the two, but to the east next to them.

    Yesterday, crescent moon right below Saturn and Jupiter © Julian Köpke
    Today, Moon east of Saturn and Jupiter © Julian Köpke

    Temporarily there was much less haze today, so that the earthlight (in german: aschfahles Mondlicht) of the moon in the right hand image is very well visible. Yesterday you could only guess. With the spotting scope the crescent moon shows up well detailed.

    Waxing crescent moon, 72h old © Julian Köpke

    The spotting scope allows to photograph the two planets Saturn and Jupiter with a full frame camera in a single field of view at lowest magnification (x30, which is about 800mm focal length). The structure of the planets ist better outlined with short exposure times (see insets), the Galilean moons of Jupiter need a longer one.

    Saturn and Jupiter, 4d before Great Conjunction © Julian Köpke
  • Heidelberg,  Long time exposure,  Motion Blur

    Autumn leaves

    We are the end of a year with unexpected restrictions and new dangers. A walk with friends out in the forest with their dog with a lot of distance between them feels uncomfortable. Time puts its stamp on you wether you want it or not. The feeling of an unstoppable acceleration is spreading.

    There is a well where the dog finds some fresh water. Behind the well broken stones and an old tree.

    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke

    There are less and less leaves on the trees, so that the forest becomes more and more monotous. A few trees and bushes still have yellow, green and even some red leaves. These splashes of colors are are transformed by deliberate camera movement into areas of color and luminous islands that cheer up.

     

    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke
    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke
    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke
    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke