• Heidelberg,  Landscape,  Motion Blur,  Train window,  Travel

    Train ride

    Lockdown drives us crazy. Official measures increasingly breathe the spirit of decay. The Age of Enlightenment is over. It is no longer a reasonable reflection that counts or thoughts, that are discussed. Politics behaves more like a war management. The first victim of a war is the truth. That’s more and more disturbing.

    This morning I stepped over an enigma. A structure in the roof of our Main Station in Heidelberg. As an image, there are many ways this structure could be thought of: a top-down bowl, a flying saucer – or a light dome. As it was still dark about 6 o’clock the windows appeared in a dark blue, like the adjacent ceiling.

    Other perspectives show a content that could be seen as a china plate. I couldn’t stop to photograph this dome.

    Longtime exposures made from a train window have a look and feel of their own. Perspective loses its sense. A moment loses its meaning. But these images are inspiring.

    How to photograph the feeling of eternity ? Can there really be a feeling of eternity or are we subjected to a deception when we perceive it ? Does time fusion help although a finite process ? The following image was captured with the Slow Shutter app on my cell phone with 8 seconds.

  • Heidelberg,  Long time exposure,  Motion Blur

    Autumn leaves

    We are the end of a year with unexpected restrictions and new dangers. A walk with friends out in the forest with their dog with a lot of distance between them feels uncomfortable. Time puts its stamp on you wether you want it or not. The feeling of an unstoppable acceleration is spreading.

    There is a well where the dog finds some fresh water. Behind the well broken stones and an old tree.

    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke

    There are less and less leaves on the trees, so that the forest becomes more and more monotous. A few trees and bushes still have yellow, green and even some red leaves. These splashes of colors are are transformed by deliberate camera movement into areas of color and luminous islands that cheer up.

     

    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke
    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke
    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke
    Strolling through autumn forest © Julian Köpke
  • Motion Blur,  reflection

    Expanding universe

    With these pictures, I attempt to take the water in a fountain the scale by using macro technique. Additionally, through different exposure speed the structure of the photographed water was changing at the same time, which made me think of the early phases of the expanding universe.

    By pure coincidence, there is a help for the scale, because a little blue tit passed by the fountain. The exposure was too long to get an unblurred image of the bird. With the size of the bird in mind, you can estimate the size of the fountain.

    Blue tit at my fountain reveals the scale of my fountain universe © Julian Köpke
    Reflections in a fountain: birth of a universe emerging from a black hole © Julian Köpke

    Blurry images look soft, the water more like a wad of cotton wool, the colors more like watercolors. The shorter the exposure speed was, the more the surface of the water appeared and the reflections from inside got more clear and distinct. Increasing structure reminded me of the early phases of our universe.

    At the end of this process I found a crystal, the water surface and the reflected color from inside structurizing it. I couldn’t stop admiring the structures that appeared to my eye when photographing the fountain.

    The increasing darkness during sunset interrupted my joy of discovery. Only the observation of the stars would still be able to mean an increase.

    Reflections in a fountain: Crystal structure © Julian Köpke
  • General,  Macro,  reflection

    Play of colors and light

    In our garden is a small fountain just beneath a hedge. A remarkable number of birds showed up to drink or to take a shower in it. The urge of the birds to bathe there was always stronger than the fear of our presence. What do they see in the fountain ? I couldn’t imagine an answer until today.

    Great Titmouse (Kohlmeise) © Julian Köpke
    Crow in our garden © Julian Köpke

    Today I made macro images of the fountain with a wide variation of exposure values to find a small world within it. Many of my fountain images remind me of the night sky and its wonders. Sometimes I had to think of our universe.

    The birds might see this ? I cannot be sure. But they are not blind, for sure.

    A macro of our fountain appears like a painting under many exposure conditions. A first glance of four images is presented here. 

  • Train window,  Travel

    Flying into Paris by train

    I love to look out of a train window. So many photo opportunities passing by – and no chance to capture one of them.

    With my iPhone App „Slow Shutter“ on our way to Bretagne via Paris sitting in a TGV (train a grande vitesse) going at 300 km/h I shot this series of images. The GPS tags are approaching Paris clearly. The result is a motion blur image dominated by horizontal lines.

    Oh: above 300 km/h the internet connectivity decreases its speed. What irony !