Monday, May 30, 2011

And another time lapse video

While editing "The City In Motion", I found some older time lapse sequences on my hard disk drive. So I reedited them (shaking was horrible without a shutter timer...) and composed them to one of my favorite song of Phoenix. Watch, enjoy and share if you like the video!

For fullscreen video go to http://vimeo.com/fotogrphy/dresden-timelapse!


Time lapse video of the wonderful city of Dresden, Germany

Shot during 2010, the sequences were my first attempts to shot time lapse videos with my DLSR.

Camera: Sony A500

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The City In Motion

So here it is, my time lapse/tilt shift movie called "The City In Motion". Hope you like it!

Please watch it in full screen mode and HD if you internet connection is fast enough. And don't forget to give me some feedback in the box below the post. Thanks!

For full screen mode click  http://vimeo.com/fotogrphy/thecityinmotion

A smaller preview is here:


Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 9

Sadly the last day of this year's trip to the States (really feels like I'm going to be there every second year...) is approaching. My flight was scheduled for 3pm, so I still had time to chill out nearby. I grabed an egg and ham bagel as well as a Starbucks Vanilla Latte (honestly, my first Starbucks coffee during the trip: how could that happen?!) and walked over to Central Park. Temperatures were picking up, so I enjoyed my breakfast in the early morning sun. It is so interesting to see the city "getting up". Also the views in Central Park let you think you're somewhere completely else, while around the corner you see Midtown skyscrapers in the horizon.
Around noon, it was time to get the suitcase and finally leave for JFK. This time, I took the Jamaica route (not the Carribean but Queens!) instead of the usually used southern route through Brooklyn. Don't know why I always did the Brooklyn tour, but going through Queens is so much nicer. Often you could see Manhattan's skyline through the (milky) subway windows! So cool somehow.
At the check-in counter, a friendly Lufthansa staff member told me that I had three kilos baggage overweight and I had to pay another 150 bucks to get them through (lots of clothes and two Starbucks coffee pots really weigh that much...). Usually. After an inner sigh I thanked the guy for allowing me to keep my savings I made at my extensive shopping tours the days before. While editing my photos till boarding I decided to spent my last four dollars on a small coffee. Ain't that much you get on an airport anyway, I thought. Wrong. I got like half a liter of black gold, which was fine if you wanted to stay awake for a long time. But my initial strategy was another: getting asleep on the plane as soon as possible to avoid a huge jet lag. Hmm, believe I should have spent the money on something else... However, on the plane it looked like I had all four seats next to me for myself at least. Just before closing the doors an absolutely charming American man sat down there. Ummm, less space and less sleep... I still had the dream of sleeping after dinner (as bad as always), but the clever one next to me felt more like reading newspapers with his bright lights on. Thank you very much. I fought like two hours to find a reasonable sleeping position on two seats, pretty unfunny. What I got was being awake with closed eyes, so jet-lag here I come. Proving the intelligence of my seat neighbor, he decided to stop reading one hour before landing and sleeping the rest of the flight. Sympathy is different. :D Of course, to follow up my chain of luck that night, my connecting flight from Frankfurt to Dresden was cancelled, so I was in the position to enjoy the comforts of one of the most boring airports in the world for two more hours. I even missed the handing out of food vouchers...
Those unfortunes didn't harm the fun I had on this trip anyway. Being back to New York is always so exciting, everything is changing so quickly. Exploring an unknown city like Boston is one of my favorite hobbies and driving around the nice parts of the US countryside is exceptionally enjoyable too! So thank you USA for another amazing time there!

So this was the last part of the New York, Boston & New England photo series. As you've read before, I tried out the capacities of my camera with one more project. So be excited to see a 6:30 mins video feature viewable online next weekend. Hope you'll like it!


Saturday, May 7, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 8

Well, as I mentioned in the former post, I left Boston very early to beat the money clock and the traffic. Although I had less time to sleep, this strategy gave me enough time to visit a place I had to skip on my way towards Cape Cod: Newport. This wonderful place is really a must-see. For those who know the 17 Mile Drive in Montery, CA: Ocean Drive in Newport is the 17 Mile Drive of the East Coast (also called 10 Mile Drive)! Absolute calmness and harmony of the Atlantic ocean paired with rough rocks and hilly lawns topped by classy mansions... Oh well, what a place to live. Same thought Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a beautiful house here. The ocean route is an absolute highlight. However, it was followed by Bellevue Avenue, which is like a long pearl necklet made out of historic, splendid villas. I wished I had more time to explore them one by one!
Taking the Newport Bridge, I followed my scenic route back to New York City. In order to spend the evening in the city, I avoided any further long detours. So I reached the Alamo car rental station mid-afternoon safely. Big thanks to my GPS again, without it I would have lost the way through the suburbs of NYC and the Bronx. Again car-less, I quickly checked in into my one-night-only hotel on the Upper West Side near Central Park. Curiously, the hotel called Marakesh had five floors but no elevator. Oh, it was fun to carry my already overweight suitcase in room #506 (yes of course, fifth floor!). In comparison to my first hotel in the city, one star less means window without a view and permantent heating. Ok, it was early spring, but why can't you turn it off, so you don't have to turn on the air conditioner at night (like I had to do...)?
I used the last hour of sunshine for a visit of another Ivy League uni: Columbia University. After mostly chilling out and buying another logo t-shirt I decided to go down to Columbus Circle. I did some window shopping in the Time Warner Building, where they also had a lot of original Dali artworks on display. Last stop was Lincoln Center, before I got a Philly Cheese Steak and packed my stuff for tomorrow's flight back home to Germany while watching Let's Dance on TV ;)


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 7

Today was the time to explore Boston properly and with daylight. Fortunately, Boston is very walker-friendly, so I felt welcome. Since it was Sunday, the early morning was frighteningly quiet: Why was I the only human being on the streets?! Fortunately, the city was awakening some time later.
I walked eastwards to the city center to find the beginning of the Freedom Trail, a bright red-colored path through the city along all the important sites and buildings of Boston of the early times of this country. A lot of people followed the trail, which is a very connvient way to navigate all the tourists through Boston.
Weather was brilliant, though cold again. What would I've done without my gloves...
After finishing the long Freedom Trail I grabed another plate of disgustingly delicious Orange Chicken to avoid starving ;) It was then time to take the T (nickname of the Boston public transit system) to Cambridge, where I was about to meet a friend of mine at Harvard University. Christoph showed me all the famous places of Harvard and we really had a got time there. Personally, I think Harvard is pretty nice, but I kinda liked the campus of Yale a bit better. However, the MIT can't compete with both.
After an exhausting day I went back to the hotel to take some rest a prepare for my tomorrow's very early depature going back to New York City. Wasn't my choice, but I could save 15 bucks by getting back the car before 8am ;)