Ostfriesland

 

We spent about ten days in Neuharlingersiel, Ostfriesland (in the North-West of Germany), for hiking and biking. My images are characterized by a sky which always looks as if it started raining in the next moment. Rarely did I go out alone for photographing. Above is an exception. I stayed to watch the sunset from this spot while the others were on a photographically less interesting place.

In case, you do not know, The area between the mainland and the Islands is flat seashore which can be walked on when the tide is low. As you see below, it becomes a completely different look when the tide is high. Both images have been taken from almost the same spot. The ground is full of life of all sorts and part of the UNESCO natural heritage, called "Wattenmeer".

The development of these images is always a process with several attempts. I made a first one on some of them in Lightroom, but only on the iPad I had with me. That is always disappointing. Pictures cannot be judged well on that device, nor is the handling easy. The second attempt is a first culling and editing on my desktop computer at home. But I always have to come back the next day for fixes. Usually, I discover so much more to do. I also tend to develop too dark in the evening. At daytime, I see that the images are too dull.

Look at the image above for an example. In the final edit, I added a radial mask across to get the people in contrast to the water. But you have to subtract the sky from it. Darkening the sky, selecting the right color balance, and sharpening all take a lot of time, and a good monitor.

This is another one from the series of sunset images. But I like the one below more which happened on another day.

I like the image above a lot. So I uploaded it to 100ASA for curation. Despite some likes and a positive comment, it landed only in the opening gallery. The broken down scores showed a low score in "creativity". Probably nobody saw how much editing I spend on this. But don't get me wrong. The sky and the mood was exactly so.

This is a difficult picture. I do not know yet if I treated it correctly. The scene is obviously very nice. That's why there is a photo spot exactly where I stand. But the colors seem to be off. The problem is that the light was not good. No amount of editing can fix this completely. I should try a B/W conversion. That should look amazing.

This is a more conventional landscape. The lens was probably the 24-70 f/4, although I had the 24-200 with me. However, the 24-70 f/4 is a lot better at 24mm. I find myself rarely using the 24-200 above 70mm. I am thinking of selling it and buying the 70-180 f/2.8 instead.

For the tea museum in Norden, I took the wonderful 50mm f/1.8. But the image above could have been taken with the 24-70 f/4 just as well. On the other hand, there are always dark areas or object to isolate. My favorite lens for these occasions is the 105mm MC. But I left it at home.

In summary, I am quite happy with my Nikon Z equipment. It is, first of all, reliable. That is important for me. The Z5 will not always autofocus perfectly, especially not with a slower lens like the 24-200. But with care, this can be overcome. For sports or actions, I recommend a higher Z camera anyway.

Let me finish with a bad weather shot. Though we were lucky when hiking and did not get wet a single time, there have been rainy days.

But then, there is always tea.