Another Church? You're not still surprised, I hope

IMG_0512, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

I regret to say, this will probably be my last photo for an indetermined period of time which will probably be long. There are several reasons for this. I can't upload to flickr any more this month. (Thanks to Justin for all his work on a way for me to host my images somewhere else.) All of my photos are on my external hard drive and for reasons still unknown to me, I cannot access this drive from my laptop right now. I have no idea why. The only thing I can figure is that the PCMCIA/USB card doesn't have the right drivers or something. Lastly. Well. Those are the reasons I probably won't post anymore this week. Next week I will be away in the United States and probably won't have any time to post, much less content to post. I'll be back, though. After the resources improve. Peace out homies, and thanks for visiting.

Sillounotte

IMG_0600, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

This is not quite a sillouette, since you can see details of the statues pretty easily. I think the orange sky looks cool, though. The white hole that is the sun looks pretty neat. Some might say it should have more detail, but you're not supposed to be looking directly into the sun anyway. You'll go blind, didn't anyone ever teach you that. Stop looking at the sun!

This blog is all about me learning how to make photos, I think. And hoping that other people get excited about taking and looking at photos too.

Colloseum

Colloseum, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

I'm a little late today (some of you may not even notice), but I hope to make up for my tardness with quality. I think I am more proud of this photo than I am of any other piece of artwork that I have ever created in my life. I took this photo when Alex and I went to Rome in November of 2005. I took the photo in RAW format. I have been asked by a few if I photoshopped it, but all I did was adjust a few of the settings in the RAW processing software. Which, from my understanding, is like making adjustments in the darkroom.

I am extremely happy with this picture. I have been saving it and now, here it is. I hope you like it half as much as I do.

My apologies for any comments which seem like an inflated ego, but of the photos I have taken, I really think this is the best. Doesn't mean it is museum-quality, just that I like it.

Peace

Outlook

Outlook, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

I took this picture on one Saturday (or maybe Sunday) in the fall. I think it may have been October. I went out exploring with my camera because it was beautiful outdoors. I found a little area...I guess it was kind of like the suburbs, but it was still pretty much in the city. Little homes which actually had yards, front porches, driveways and garages (or at least car-ports), and the like. There was a woman out front of her home sweeping the sidewalk. I tried to take a picture of her, but a) I am still sort of a pansy about photographing strangers and was even more so then and 2) the picture I did take is poorly composed. Very poorly composed.

I'm tired and I don't want to work.

Waterloo

IMG_0515, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

I took this in Hannover near the 'Waterloo' metro station the same evening I photographed the sunset with the sillouette of the church which I posted a few days ago. Have a great day!

spiraling staircase

spiraling staircase, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

This is looking down the exit stairs at the Vatican museum. I took this picture the last time I was in Rome in November. The museum was pretty cool. Lots and lots of gold and treasure 'collected' by the previous popes and probably a few crusaders, too.

Kronsberg Stars

Kronsberg Stars, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

I know that this image looks like it was rendered bz/with Digital Blasphemy (I never understood if that was a program or a 'brandname' which belongs to a person who renders the images), but this is really a photo I took. Its the same hill (Kronsberg) where I took those two pictures of the sunrise, but this is on a different day at a different time. I am so happy that this circle of trees exists on top of a hill. It creeps me out just a bit, but at the same time, its really cool.

Orange Threads in the Sky

Orange Threads in the Sky, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

Ooo, the sunrise! The fog covering the land in front of the horizon looked really cool. I think it looks pretty cool here too.

Church Sillouette

Church Sillouette, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

This is Saturday's post, early. I am leaving in a few hours to fly back to Germany. I intend to try to keep up on this, but I may have to slow my posting to a few times a week until I can get an internet connection in my apartment. I filled out a contract (in German) online a few days ago and printed it off to send in. I would, however, feel more comfortable if a German, or someone more fluent than I, looked it over for me before I send it in. By my estimations, it will be about a month before I get internet in my apartment but I have no way of knowing.

Church...Sunset...Sillouette...Well, you can see the picture. I wished that the branch at the top of the picture could have been removed during the photo (I don't do much with the whole photoshop thing) but I couldn't get it out of the picture and keep the other important elements. Now, I'm not quite sure if that's a bad thing or not. I think it keeps you from straying too far from the orange glow on the horizon. Maybe it closes the dark sky just a bit and lets you come back to the jet effects in the center and the setting sun at the bottom.

Peace.

Am I flying or drunk?

IMG_0540, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

This effect was pointed out to me by a colleague of mine from Hong Kong. He's pretty awesome. I tried many, many times to capture this 'lane(?)' in the fussgangerzone between Kroepke and Steintor. I like the effect that this has, like you're flying through space toward the end of this 'pedestreet'. (not pedastreet.) Anyway, a little adjustment in White Balancing and this thing turned out as you see here.

I frequent Kroepke often. It is a major shopping area and there are also many bars and clubs in the nearby Steintor.

Peace.

Bleak or Bright?

IMG_0218, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

I like this picture. I took this one in jpg format instead of RAW, like I try to take all my other photos because this was in the days of extreme limitations on space. And because I switched modes on my camera and forgot that that switches the format in which the photos are taken.

I took this one in the Harz mountains while I was on a hike with one of my colleagues. It was extremely cold and there was a bit of snow on the ground. The amount of snow varied from about 1/8th of an inch to 3 or 4 inches. It was pretty awesome. You might see another picture or two from that hike up here later.

Macro Classico

IMG_0603, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

This is one of my first attempts with macro pictures. Well, besides the coinage shot a couple days ago. For the cliche macro shot, I don't think this one is too bad. I think for being taken in late fall, this flower's not looking too bad yet.

Peace out.

They're just so photogenic

IMG_0049, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

This is a church/temple in Rome. I like the up-close perspective with the church towering up into the sky.

The cool thing about this church, is that you can see the old columns of the Roman temple in front of the somehow-San-Antonio-ish church. On the tour, we were told that the reason is that the Christians wanted to turn the impressive structure into a church, which they did, but they could not tear down the columns in front of the building. The reason? They were buried in a few meters of dirt already. If you look at the front of the building, you notice the door is high above the 'ground'. There is also part of a statue in front of the door on the lower level. The top of the statue was broken off because it was above the ground and the door was put in at ground level. The darker part of the wall was below ground level. At the time I'm taking the photo, there is still several more meters dug out below the bottom of those columns. (That's how I got this perspective.) Rome is a city built several times upon itself. When the city fell, it was buried by the next great Rome.

Keith, I think I fixed the problem of commenting on this blog. Hopefully now everyone should be able to easily leave comments. And they are welcome.

Sunrise At Kronsburg

Sunrise At Kronsburg, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

I'm decently happy with this photo. I like the tree and I like the moon as a small, white fleck in the branches. Actually, I really, really like the tree. I like the way it towers into the dark sky, awaiting the sun's touch.

When I become really ambitious, I will find out when the moon will be lower on the horizon and in the right sky at sunrise (or at sunset) and go out and reshoot this. If the moon would be closer to the horizon, it would appear larger (Some optical illusion crap that I am all about using to my advantage.) and I think it would be very cool to have a sky with obvious sun events and a giant moon behind a sillouette of a tree. I don't think that would be too busy, but we'll see.

Kronsburg is a mountain, err, "mountain" near Hannover. It has an awesome circle of trees on top of the hill with some giant rocks. I saw awesome because it would be great for either a seanse or for photos. Kronsburg in one of the suburbs which I can reach with the local train. It's not actually a mountin, but it is a pretty decent sized man-made hill. I went with a colleague to watch the sun rise a few months ago. It started out cool, it was dark and the horizon was starting to lighten and what-not, but then it got really slow. I think we were outside watching the sun come up for somewhere close to an hour and a half before it finally broke out from behind the hills in the distance. We were actually turning to walk back down the mountain when it poked over the top.

From Kronsburg I also took some decent pictures of the night sky. Look for those in the future.

Coinage

Coinage, originally uploaded by Kyle S.

Honestly, I didn't really believe those people who said they took pictures that they didn't like at first, but when they saved them and looked later, they liked them much better, but I feel that way about this one. Maybe it's only because I haven't taken any photos in a long time and I have very slim pickin's right now.