Meiborn, May 2011

Zandvoort, The Netherlands, May 2011

Zandvoort, The Netherlands, May 2011

Dünnwald, Cologne, Germany, May 2011

Maastricht, Netherlands, November 2010

Brighton, East Sussex, U.K., July 2010

Another try of a portrait-style animal photo.
This image was also taken during our trip to Southengland. The seagull was sitting on a wall at Brightons promenade and seemed to enjoy posing for my photos.

I got a close up lens as a birthday present last week. It’s a Marumi Achromat +3 and I use it with my Canon 70 – 200 4L. I found it quite difficult to use macro stuff, as you need very good light (or a ringflash) and a almost not moving target.
Today I shoot this bee at my brother-in-laws garden. I was lucky with this one, because the bee was not moving and the natural light was perfect today. I am really happy with the result of this closeup lens, even if it’s not as good as a real macro lens. By the way, the plant the bee is sitting at is a very special one and it is around 30 years old – but I unfortunately forget it’s name.

I took this photo some weeks ago on the island Juist. It was in the afternoon and the geese where flying in from the sea. There were several groups coming, altogether it were around one hundered geese in 30 minutes. I like this shot, because it looks like a drawing and the geese look like they are floating in the air.

I took this photo of the swan a few days ago at the lake in Colognes Blücherpark. The photo was taken at day, with very bright and direct sunlight, which messed up the colors and the white areas. This made it impossible to use the photo unprocessed. Because I liked the reflection and the posing of the swan so much, I decided to postprocess the picture and transform it to a night shot. I used the new Lightroom 3 for this work and tweaked the brightness and the colors.
I am quite happy with result and think the image now has some kind of a “mystic flair”.

Black & white portrait of a circus elephant.

I really like the circus – it always has great options for nice photos.
Unfortunatly I don’t like how they treat animals – I think an elephant should absolutley not be carried around europe in a van!
Therefore I would never pay to go into a circus, which features animals. I would rather go to a modern zoo, which tries to keep animals in wide “almost natural” areas.

Oh my noble friend of the woods.

Rhino at a waterhole in South Africa. Photo was taken at the Garden Route Game Lodge.