In general, Peter Moons seems to appreciate geometric or minimalistic compositions that he finds in the urban environment. For example, I enjoy looking at his photographs of the Liège-Guillemins railway station in Belgium that was designed by the famous spanish architect Santiago Calatrava - what a fantastic location for the discovery of interesting geometric compositions! Noteworthy is also the parafasis gallery, for which Peter Moons combines a photograph and its mirror image into one, symmetrical picture. Finally, I would like to mention the ICM (intentional camera movement) photographs, which document the experimenting and creativity in Peter Moons photography. The idea of these photographs is to have your camera record a photograph while it is being thrown (tossed) into the air (or moved without tossing). Depending on your skills as a catcher this may be a good experiment to justify the purchase of a new camera, but many people obtain really interesting results. There is a vibrant camera tosser group on Flickr and even dedicated webpages (or a blog)! The resulting abstract photographs, including those by Peter Moons, look very fascinating, but I have not tried this technique myself. You can find many more photographs of Peter Moons on Flickr, his personal website as well as in his Blurb book.
Archive for December 2012
My photo treasures: Peter Moons
In general, Peter Moons seems to appreciate geometric or minimalistic compositions that he finds in the urban environment. For example, I enjoy looking at his photographs of the Liège-Guillemins railway station in Belgium that was designed by the famous spanish architect Santiago Calatrava - what a fantastic location for the discovery of interesting geometric compositions! Noteworthy is also the parafasis gallery, for which Peter Moons combines a photograph and its mirror image into one, symmetrical picture. Finally, I would like to mention the ICM (intentional camera movement) photographs, which document the experimenting and creativity in Peter Moons photography. The idea of these photographs is to have your camera record a photograph while it is being thrown (tossed) into the air (or moved without tossing). Depending on your skills as a catcher this may be a good experiment to justify the purchase of a new camera, but many people obtain really interesting results. There is a vibrant camera tosser group on Flickr and even dedicated webpages (or a blog)! The resulting abstract photographs, including those by Peter Moons, look very fascinating, but I have not tried this technique myself. You can find many more photographs of Peter Moons on Flickr, his personal website as well as in his Blurb book.


2012/12/29
by Unknown
Categories:
My photo treasures
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Tree silhouette 4: Christmas tree balls



2012/12/25
by Unknown
Categories:
1 peek,
Natural beauty,
Tree silhouettes
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A winter theme: Tree silhouettes

According to wikipedia, a silhouette is the shape of an object or person (or any living thing) of a single, plain color. Silhouettes are a very old form of expression and can be created by different means. Traditionally, they were cut out from black paper and mounted on a lightly colored background, but all sorts of combinations, variations and collages exist. I may have been preconditioned to this traditional art form because my parents have paper-cut illustrations and a book of a friend of theirs, Helmut Bögel, who is known for his humorous paper-cut illustrations of people. Silhouettes can also be drawn and of course photographed.
I hope that you enjoy some of these photographs and that they may encourage one or the other to have a conscious look at nude trees!



2012/12/22
by Unknown
Categories:
Natural beauty,
Tree silhouettes
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Once upon a time - the fairy tale of Camera and Lens Review


2012/12/19
by Unknown
Categories:
Fairy tales,
Photosophical
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Flora: Hippeastrum - Amaryllis
For a change, I would like to share a few interesting facts about and three photographs of the cultivated plant commonly named amaryllis. The amaryllis is an attractive houseplant that is particularly popular around Christmas because this is the time when it is flowering (which also makes it a frequently used gift). These bulbous plants are also praised by plant breeders, who have reared an overwhelming variety of flower shapes, sizes and colors (as a google immage search reveals). There are over 600 cultivated varieties! Of course, all cultivated plants have wild relatives or ancestors, and this is where things get confusing with amaryllis. The free growing relatives of cultivated amaryllis belong to the taxonomic genus Hippeastrum, which comprises around 90 species native mainly to south and central America and the Caribbean. The botanic name Amaryllis, on the other hand, refers to a group of plants home to southern Africa (there are only two species A. belladonna and A. paradisicola - the latter one was only described in 1998). The designation Amaryllis goes back to Carl von Linné (more about Linné can be found HERE or on "his" website) who described and named the genus in 1753. However, at that time Hippeastrum and Amaryllis were one and the same and therefore the popular houseplant became known as amaryllis. However, taxonomists take names and distinguishing marks very seriously and later decided that the south American and African plants belonged to different genera and after long debate decided on the names Amaryllis and Hippeastrum for the african and south american plants, respectively.
Although the taxonomy behind amaryllis or Hippeastrum may be interesting, it is not at all necessary to appreciate the beauty of these flowers and even less so to cultivate them in your home. The plants grow from a large bulb and if planted and watered six to eight weeks ago, impressive showy flowers are about to appear now. Amaryllis are considered undemanding plants that reward the gardener's small effort with long lasting and showy flowers year after year (however, we were not always successful in bringing our amaryllis to flower the next year).
I do not often photograph still life or staged objects almost like in a studio setting. However, sometimes I discover details and compositions that I would like to capture and find pleasure in photographing a particular flower of a bouquet or our house and balcony plants. I will show these photographs in the cultivated plants gallery and hope you enjoy!


2012/12/16
by Unknown
Categories:
Cultivated plants,
Flora
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1 peek: Carcolors 13

The thirteenth addition to the Carcolors gallery. The building reflected here is, according to my opinion, one of the ugliest buildings in Zurich: Brown with bright yellow balconies. However, the bright colors make for great reflections. Another version has already been shown in Carcolors 6.


2012/12/15
by Unknown
Categories:
1 peek,
carcolors
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1 peek: Snowy branches, golden leaves
It has been snowing quite a lot here in Zurich yesterday (already the second time this winter) and therefore I would like to share a fitting photograph. Although the composition above fits the season and the general scene when I look out of my window, the photograph has been taken a few years back (in 2010) and not even in Zurich (near Siegsdorf, in Germany (the link is for the german wikipedia entry because the english text is very minimalistic)). However, I really like this capture (which is part of the trees gallery) and how the snow marks and highlights the branches of the trees on the edge of the forest. It is wonderful how snow can transform and reveal things that are inconspicuous otherwise!


2012/12/09
by Unknown
Categories:
1 peek,
Natural beauty,
Snow,
Trees
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