A Photo A Week: All about the scenery
Tag: landscape
Hazy view
The view from Lindenfels castle across the hills of the Odenwald.
Slightly de-hazed.
Colour augmented.
And here the sundowner, colour enhanced, veering-towards-kitsch version.
Linked to the One-to-Three Photo Challenge.
Heimat
There is something about the landscape of the place in which we grow up – it’s edged in the soul, together with the people and the time it makes up what in German is called “Heimat” and for which there is no proper one word translation (essays and books have been written on this “most mystic of German concepts”).
As I live on the slopes, it is combination of rolling hills in the back and a long plain in the west, edged again by more hills. I could say I live “on the edge” if that wouldn’t conjure up sharp ridges and drops which do the softness of the landscape no justice.
The upper Rhine valley is at this point bordered by the Odenwald in the east (my figurative backyard) and the Pfälzer Wald in the west.
The reverse view with forests and castles and houses is contrasted by the view to the west:
A closer look reveals the mixture of agriculture and heavily populated near the Rhine, including large industrial sites (in fact, the world’s largest chemical complex is just a camera swipe to the left, on the other side of the Rhine).
It’s this diversity that I cherish, and that I call home.
For A Photo a Week: Landscape.
I’m a fan of … power cables
Apparently. Sometimes overhead power cables can make a shot, they become the focus. Sometimes it is possible to avoid power cables cutting through a picture by changing position, even if it means a minor to major detour. But sometimes these options do not exist or, more often than not, the picture will just change too much and not the one I saw before noticing the power lines. I do take the shots but the photograph will languish in the archive. So here are some photos with power cables where I wish there weren’t any:
Linked to I’m a fan of … #42. Have a look what are bloggers are fans of here.
Looking in or looking out
“Landscape is my mistress – ’tis to her I look for fame.”
John Constable
More photos inspired by this quote by John Constable can be found at Travel with Intent.
I couldn’t decide which monochrome version I prefer:
For Black & White Sunday: before and after.
For more monochrome and polychrome photos click here.
A castle, a river and mountains
Cee’s Compose Yourself – the challenge is: “landscapes”.
Two photos from Weinheim an der Bergstraße in Germany:
I prefer the second shot. In the first one, the area looks cramped as if it was in a narrow valley when in fact the Wachenburg looks over the wide Rhine plain. The clouds not only add depth to the sky but the shadows they cast also add texture to the forest.
Another German river valley, this time the Moselle. Vinyards rise on both sides of the river. The barge and the houses, especially the mansion on the left, serve as scale and enhance the steepness of the vinyards.
Same river, a number of kilometers downstream and at a different time of year:
The autumn mists casting a haze over the valley in the back, contrasting with the vivid colours of the yellowing leaves.
This is the Kleinwalsertal – a small anomaly as it is part of Austria but can only be reached from Germany because of the high mountain ridge towards the Austrian side.
This is half way up, looking straight out to the mountains of Germany:
Above Grindelwald in Switzerland, the bare rocks attest the higher altitude in this part of the Alps. The photographer in the foreground is deceiving the viewer. The shadow on his side of the mountain almost lets him look like a giant.
My final photo for this challenge – also from Switzerland with a paraglider high up in the air. Again this perspective is teasing the viewer because as high as the paraglider is – he is well below the peaks in the background to the right.
More than horizontal lines?
“Horizontal lines and horizon” – the ultimate travel theme, isn’t it?
Being (sometimes) quite contrary, I looked for horizontal lines closer to home. In details,
and in views.
Water is the element that lends itself most to horizontal lines
no matter where, no matter what season.
But the ultimate horizon shouldn’t be absent in a horizontal theme.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #6 Horizontal Lines and Horizon
pictures imperfect blog 