I’ve been posting at random over the past few days, something new and something old. This is something slightly old. There was something about the way the woman was standing and observing the scene that made me reach for my camera and capture this.

I know sunsets are done to death by every aspiring photographer as they manage to look good no matter how much one screws them up. But inspite of that cynicism I still like the magic of a sunset, the beautiful golden light making everything appear melancholic and soft. So here goes the first, more to follow in the days ahead.

A couple of days back I went for another walk along the Rhine and got back with some stuff I’m happy with. Here is the first one of those.

I’m not sure if any of you will like a burnt out source of harsh light smack in the center, taking away attention from the rest of the photo. But I personally like this shot. The sun was anything but harsh. It was bright but not harsh, a warm winter sun bringing winter hardened skin to life. What those three guys were doing perfectly captured the spirit of the day, a day to bask in the gentle warmth of the sun and watch the day unwind in the company of friends.

Thanks for the nice comments yesterday, much appreciated. Coming to today, it’s a pretty dramatic title but to me that is what this scene evokes, that something big and sinister is about to happen, and the deliberate diagonal composition just adds to that effect imo. The original was not as dramatic as this but a little PP can make a world of difference. In the end, this is how I interpreted the original scene.

This can be a companion piece to the one I posted a couple of days [back here](http://www.visual.arthedains.com/index.php?showimage=160). It is from the same place but looking in the opposite direction. Don’t even ask me why I used such a shallow aperture for a photo like this. I think I shot this without thinking! And that tone is just the result of using a different white balance, cloudy in this case, as simple as that!

Oh, carnival starts here tomorrow so I hope I’ll be afforded some good photo opportunities! As they say here Kolle Alaaf!

Yesterday, after days of dreary rain, the weather here cleared suddenly. To not miss the window of opportunity I immediately took off with my cameras and went towards the Rhine river. I got a few pics which I’m happy with. You can expect to see them over the next few days.

This one is from the top of one of the bridges over the Rhine. This photo has gone through substantial PP as I wasn’t happy with the way it had come out. Mainly, I increased the dynamic range to make the clouds stand out better, which was the original intention behind taking this shot. In the end, I’ve to say I like the way this photo has come out. When I started PP I had no idea I would end up with this!

Quite surprisingly, this was selected as the photo of the fortnight in one of the photography forums I’m part of! Even without that this would still be one of my favorites as I’m happy with the way it came out. And oh, I think this is the first photo here with my recently acquired Minolta 17-35mm zoom lens.

This is a scene that transpired about a week back here. One of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen and I almost missed it! I regret that I was not in a better position or with proper equipment to capture the gorgeous beauty of that evening. All I could manage was this by going onto the roof of the building I work in. I took a bunch of photos but as it was very dark for hand-held shooting this is one of the few that came out decently.

Inspite of some minor quibbles with the composition I quite like the way this shot has come out. It didn’t need much post-processing either except for some sharpening. The only thing I had think a little about was what white balance to use. I finally settled on this.

This is a part of the Cologne skyline. In the distance, almost dead center, is the magnificent Dom (cathedral), an amazing example of Gothic architecture. This perspective does not do much justice to the sheer size of the cathedral. I’ve some photos of it that I shot from near it that need to be scanned. If possible, I’ll post them soon.

Some trivia, apparently, there is a building rule here which forbids any building to be taller than the Dom and that the Dom should be visible from any side of the city!