End-of-year-review 2016
Oh my gosh! 2016 is over for more than three months. Last call for the review. Let's start fast and slow down directly for the beginning of 2016. In the first quarter of the year I only visited one location: A fairy-tale field with primroses.
In the second quarter there wasn't much more time for photography. There is only one noteworthy situation for this article: The Friday after a very rainy week I left work earlier than I'm used to, took my rubber boots and drove to the Black Forest. There I found perfect conditions to photograph the steam Gertelbach: Green nature, a lot of water and mega slippery stones. I only managed to visit the lower section of the little river. I definitely have to go there again because the upper part should even be better!
Although I didn't find much time to take photos that first half of 2016 I had time to develop stuff from 2015. So I filled my Facebook site and my portfolio with beautiful captures from the the United States and Canada.
Then the third quarter started and it gave my photography a new boost. We stayed some days in the Netherlands. Seascapes, cityscapes and staircases were planed and I was able to realize almost all of my ideas. I haven't shown much photos of this time yet. To be honest I've only published the one of the staircase in the bible museum in Amsterdam.
But there were much more amazing shootings. The results will be shown soon. Perhaps I can make you curious with the following picture of Zaanse Schans. A beeeeeeeautiful outdoor museum with old houses and windmills. The village is located at the water and this is the perfect situation for morning fog and dreamy sunrises.
Back from the north we bought a bigger car and drove to the German Alps near Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I had some locations on my list but I didn't really nail even one of them. I've just hoped for more autumnal atmosphere in mid of September. That's why I haven't shown any picture of this trip yet. But I'm definitely going to. Back at home it was time for my favorite photo objects: hay balls and the heathland near Mehlingen in the West of Germany. I took so many photos of hay balls, at the end of the season even I thought it would be enough.
But it is never enough with the heathland. I felt in love with landscape photography there and I will always love this place. I visited the area at the perfect morning: Fog was hovering between the trees while the sun shined through the leaves and created stunning light beams. At this morning I didn't looked for some other scenes, I only shot light beams.
Late summer was also the time when I finished my time lapse movie "Morgenerwachen" showing a lot of locations in the Palatinate Forest captured in 2014. At the moment I'm working at the SLIDER PROJECT to shoot more impressive time lapse sequences in future.
Autumn came and the leaves got colored and mornings foggy. I decided to visit the Palatinate Forest at least once and was lucky enough to be there again at a perfect morning. Others photographers promised me, this was the best morning of the hole season. The place is called Rötzenfels and quite easy so access. Unfortunately I didn't captured a photo with the summit cross so I have to go there again.
In November I spent one day in Cologne. I had several staircases on my to-do list and for the evening the Kölntriangle with it's observation deck on top of the building with the best view of Colognes sunset. Photographing staircases is always exciting because one never knows what to expect. While photographing this staircase in a medical center I met a doctor's assistant and she was totally excited about the staircase and me taking photos of it. But sometimes people aren't friendly and don't tolerate photographers.
The end of this day and somehow the end of my photographic year was the sunset I watched on top of the Kölntriangle. While taking photos up there I had the feeling something is missing. Blue hour was almost over, suddenly the Cologne Cathedral was illuminated by lights: Yes, perfect, this was the moment I was waiting for.
Like usual at the end there stands the big question about my favorite photo of 2016. Actually I only show favorites in the review articles but the absolute number one of this year is the one from the heathland. I've took a similar one in 2014 and was totally stoked at this time. And in 2016 I had this feeling again. That is the real reason why I go out to take photographs!
