#sliderssunday
As announced, this is a view of the metro station Museumsinsel itself. When I first read that the station was inspired by Karl Friedrich Schinkel's famous set design for the scene of The Arrival of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute; please see the link to Schinkel's design in the description for my previous upload which you can also find in the first comment), I thought "Wow, I can't wait to see it, it must be gorgeous!" And when I finally visited the station shortly after it had been opened, I was a little disappointed because it has none of the lightness and airiness that made Schinkel's set design so special and magical. To me, the station's overall impression is quite heavy, even somewhat oppressing, mainly because of the big, square columns and the fairly low ceilings. All of it probably because a part of the station lies under the river Spree, so there must have been special requirements regarding the station's structure and safety. But still... Somehow, the station even reminds me of modern-day brutalism of sorts, not of beautiful music and a starry night. But that's just my perception.
For Sliders Sunday, here's a selective colour version. I think this image lends itself to that type of editing because in the full-colour version, the dark grey granite from the Fichtelgebirge (Fichtel Mountains) in Bavaria had a yellowish hue due to the lights in the station. I didn't like that at all, so I desaturated all colours except the vibrant blue. This time, I also left the (one) person in the image, for scale. And yes, it was 2021, so the lady who waited at the station wore a face mask.
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, wishing you a sunny week ahead!
Tags: Sliders Sunday Post Processed to the MAX!!! Berlin Germany Deutschland U-Bahn U-Bhf. Museumsinsel Max Dudler Berlin-Mitte Friedrich Karl Schinkel Die Zauberflöte The Magic Flute Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart subway underground train metro station subway station architecture interior long exposure selective colour color pop blue electric blue monochrome black and white starry sky wide-angle photography POV leading lines Olympus E-M1 Mark III M.Zuiko ED 7-14mm f2.8 PRO
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Explored June 2, 2023
The weekend train? Maybe it can speed things up a little ;)
Photographed back in August '21 at the then newly-opened U-Bahn (subway/underground) station Museumsinsel at Berlin's historical centre, the Mitte district. The station is near of the Humboldt Forum/Stadtschloss (the new City Palace) and the eponymus Museumsinsel (museum island). It opened on July 9 2021 after a ten-year construction time. The station was designed by Swiss architect Max Dudler who took inspiration from Karl Friedrich Schinkel's famous stage scenery for Mozart's Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), specifically the set design for "The Arrival of the Queen of the Night" which Schinkel ( 13. März 1781, Neuruppin; † 9. Oktober 1841, Berlin) had designed for an 1815 production.
The main element of Schinkel's draft that Dudler had incorporated into the station's design was the deep blue, starry night sky. Dudler designed the station's ceiling as an aquamarine-coloured barrel vault decorated with 6,662 points of light over the underground tracks. Here's a link to an image of Schinkel's famous design:
CTRL+ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Flute#/media/File:Mozart_....
I do not recall if I had used the Oly's in-camera "Live ND" filter to simulate the long exposure. I did not have a tripod with me, and actually, the station is dark enough to get a long exposure effect without the Live ND filter (but bright enough to get a sharp shot without a tripod), but I simply don't remember how I have shot this (except waiting for one of our typically yellow U-Bahns to arrive at or leave the station, of course). Luckily, the station had been almost empty at the time, so I did not have to bother much about removing people from the image. I simply cropped the image so that the father and his son who had waited there for their train disappeared from the image ;) I have another image where you can see the actual station that I will upload for Sliders Sunday.
Let's hop on the yellow train and ride towards the weekend at... well, not exactly warp speed, but fast enough :)
Tags: Berlin Germany Deutschland U-Bahn subway underground train metro station subway station architecture interior long exposure motion blur speed light speed blue aquamarine yellow electric blue colourful starry sky Olympus E-M1 Mark III M.Zuiko ED 7-14mm f2.8 PRO
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...and roofs. So many roofs on which solar panels could be installed, but aren't. That's what I thought when I looked down on the city from the Reichstag dome. There are some roofs with solar panels, but not nearly as many as there could be. Especially not the roofs of the governmental buildings, although that could set a good example. But there are solar panels on some public buildings such as the Futurium (which you can't see in this image). Just for fun, I've marked the one roof equipped with solar panels with an image comment, alongside a few Berlin landmarks and sights.
Processing-wise, this is obviously a slider. The early evening atmosphere of that very hot day back in August had been a little dense and somewhat hazy which made the colours in the original image (an HDR made from exposure bracketing) look a little weird, so I thought I'd try something with the sliders in LR, Color Efex Pro, and Luminar Neo. In the original HDR, there also had been some weird tiny spots (quite many weird tiny spots!), and when I noticed them I was pretty startled because I immediately thought of the dreaded sensor dust – which I've never had on any of my Olympus cameras' senors, and of all things, the new OM-1 should have already gathered sensor dust on its very first proper photo outing?!? Luckily, I remembered that I'd taken a few skyline photos through the not very clean windows of the Reichstag dome, and this was one of those images. Phew ;)
Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, and have a nice week ahead!
Tags: Sliders Sunday Post Processed to the MAX!!! Berlin Deutschland Germany Reichstag dome Reichstagskuppel cityscape skyline sky clouds hot summer day dense hazy buildings colourful Stadtlandschaft farbenfroh Sehenswürdigkeiten Berlino Berlín Berlim Berlijn Berliini panorama urbain panorama urbano stadssiluett şehir silüeti Берлін Скайлайн ベルリン スカイライン (風景) 베를린 스카이라인 (풍경) 柏林 天際線 OM Digital Solutions OM SYSTEM OM-1 M.Zuiko ED 7-14mm f2.8 PRO DXO PhotoLab 5 Lightroom Color Efex Pro Nik Collection Luminar Neo
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Deutscher Dom | German Cathedral #3
Explored July 20, 2020
Oh dear, I realise that this last part (for now) of my mini series of the German Cathedral was due two Sunday's ago. So I better upload it today so as to not keep you waiting for another week (and also to open the way for some new captures which I took this week at the "cube berlin"). I do have more captures taken inside the German Cathedral, and also at the Gendarmenmarkt, and will post them peu à peu. But for now, this is the last one.
This is another kaleidoscoped Sunday slide (and please check out the fourth comment – I was too slow with posting the photo link –, because last year I had already posted a slide of an image taken during that visit at the German Cathedral's highest point : right under the cupola). The title came to my mind not only because of the rather obvious "vertigo"-inducing height of the tower, and the fact that this is a duplicated / mirrored / flipped-and-combined version of the tower, but it's also derived from the fact that back in the day the two buildings adjacent to the German and the French Cathedral were both used as churches. The "New Church" of the German Cathedral was used as a "Simultaneum", a double church for Calvinists and Lutherans, and the French Cathedral was a church for the, also Protestant, Hugenot immigrants to Prussia. The "kaleidoscoping" was easy here; I copied the original capture to a new layer in Photoshop, mirrored it, duplicated the canvas, combinded both the original and the mirrored image, and then, in Lightroom, rotated the final image to the right. I think the final result looks very natural, almost as if the building had been constructed that way and not the result of a composite done in PS.
I hope that the French Cathedral, which also houses the "Hugenot Museum", will be opened again for visitors soon. It's under renovation since 2017; it will be interesting to compare the German and French Cathedrals' interiors; as I've mentioned earlier, the German Cathedral's interior was reconstructed in a modern way – lots of raw concrete as you can see above and also in my previous picture from the series –, while I assume that the French Cathedral's interior will be reconstructed true to the original (here's a link that will take you to the French Cathedral's website where you can check out a few interior captures – unfortunately very small, but you can see the difference: www.franzoesischer-dom.de/pages/start/de/franzoesischer-d...).
Happy Sliders Sunday Everyone, have a safe and healthy week ahead!
Hier ist das – vorerst – letzte Bild meiner Mini-Serie vom Deutschen Dom. Ich habe noch einige Fotos vom Gendarmenmarkt und auch vom Innern des Deutschen Doms, die ich peu à peu hochladen werde, aber wann genau, weiß ich noch nicht. Diese Version ist ganz offensichtlich nicht die Originalansicht (siehe vorheriges Foto aus der Serie im Album), sondern wieder eine Kaleidoskop-Spielerei in Photoshop. Das Endresultat (Vorgehensweise: Originalbild auf eine zweite Ebene kopiert, gespiegelt, die Arbeitsfläche entsprechend vergrößert, beide Bilder mittig zusammengesetzt, zurück in Lightroom und dort das fertige Bild einmal nach rechts gedreht) sieht erstaunlich natürlich aus, finde ich, fast so, als wäre das Gebäude so konstruiert worden und nicht das Ergebnis einer Photoshop-Arbeit. Im vierten (ich war zu langsam) Kommentar findet Ihr ein weiteres Kaleidoskop-Bild vom Dom, aufgenommen am höchsten erreichbaren Punkt dort: direkt unter der Kuppel.
Ich hoffe, dass bald der Zwilling des Deutschen Doms, der Französische Dom, wiedereröffnet werden wird. Momentan sind letzterer und das Hugenotten-Museum wegen Renovierungsarbeiten geschlossen. Ein Vergleich des Innern der beiden Türme wäre sicher spannend, da ich anhand von Fotos (hier zu sehen, leider klein, aber man kann den Unterschied zum Deutschen Dom gut erkennen: www.franzoesischer-dom.de/pages/start/de/franzoesischer-d...) davon ausgehe, dass der Französische Dom, anders als der Deutsche, auch im Innern originalgetreu wiederhergestellt werden wird, also ohne die zweifelsohne faszinierende Rohbeton-Konstruktion des Deutschen Doms.
Ich wünsche Euch eine schöne Sommer-Woche, liebe Flickr-Freunde, passt gut auf Euch auf und bleibt gesund!
Tags: sliderssunday Post Processed to the MAX!!! Berlin Deutschland Germany Gendarmenmarkt Deutscher Dom alt neu kaleidoscope Kaleidoscoping vertigo surreal Turm Beton Sichtbeton Spiraltreppe Wendeltreppe Kuppel hoch Architektur innen German Cathedral architecture old new raw concrete cement spiral staircase high tower perspectice extreme perspective handheld neck pain position architettura calcestruzzo scala a chiocciola Catedral Alemana arquitectura concreto torre escalera de caracol Cathédrale allemande de Berlin béton brut tour escalier en escargot Katedra Niemiecka w Berlinie arquitetura escada em espiral arhitectură beton aparent scară în spirală αρχιτεκτονική mimarlık Alman Katedrali архитектура Немецкий собор винтовая лестница вышка Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mark II Laowa C-Dreamer 7.5 F/2 Venus Optics prime lens ultra wide-angle lens wide-angle 15mm ON1 Photo RAW 2020 Luminar 4 #madewithluminar Topaz Sharpen AI
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Well, not exactly, but I'd indeed hoped that I could get them into the frame - and I did ;-) If you zoom in on the roof of the lower building you can see that there was a bird gathering (doves, I think) with quite a lot coming and leaving going on, and the three on the left (which are common swifts, as I know now, thank you BrigitteE1!) apparently were the late arrivals, or maybe they were on their way to their very own common swift party :-).
View of the German Cathedral (Deutscher Dom) on Gendarmenmarkt which is regarded as Berlin's most beautiful square. The German Cathedral belongs to a buiding ensemble that also consists of the Konzerthaus (Berlin Concert Hall) at the center of the square and the German Cathedral's "twin", the French Cathedral. The twin buildings flank the Konzerthaus, and neither the German nor the French Cathedral are church buildings in the proper sense - actually they are mere towers, and the name "Dom" (which also stands for cathedral) is actually derived from the French term dôme for cupola. The two towers once were complementary buildings to the adjacent New Church (German Cathedral) which was a Calvinist and Lutheran Simultaneum, and the French Church of Friedrichstadt (French Cathedral) which served as a church for the Hugenots that had found a new home in what then was Prussia under the reign of Frederick the Great.
This is the first image of a mini series that I will post this week. Next will be a capture taken inside of the tower, also photographed with my LX100, and I think on Sliders Sunday you will see a slightly more adventurously processed image also taken inside the German Cathedral (and shot with my Olympus). Actually this one was meant to be for Sliders Sunday, too, I have a version of this image replete with textures and other slightly more extreme slider work, but I didn't get around to post it last Sunday, so, since it's Tuesday,
I'll show you this newly and more conventionally edited version first. At first I thought about removing the treetop in the lower left corner with the clone stamp, but then decided against it, because I think it helps to "ground" this capture which otherwise has the strange effect as if that building was hovering up in the sky - just my impression, probably, but I decided to mention it in case you wondered about that bit of treetop in the left corner. Maybe I'll also post the other version later this year just for fun - and on a Sunday, of course :-)
Blick auf den Deutschen Dom am Gendarmenmarkt, der wegen seines besonderen Gebäudeensembles mit dem Konzerthaus in der Mitte, zu beiden Seiten flankiert von den architektonischen Zwillingen Deutscher und Französischer Dom, auch als Berlins schönster Platz bezeichnet wird. Die Aufnahme habe ich von der Außenseite des Platzes (an der Charlottenstraße) gemacht. Ich wollte auch unbedingt die drei Vögel (Mausersegler - Danke, BrigitteE1!) links mit im Bild haben, die offenbar die Spätankömmlinge der kleinen Vogelversammlung (Tauben, denke ich) auf dem Dach des Rundbaus vor dem Turm waren (oder vermutlich auf dem Weg zu ihrer eigenen Mauersegler-Party) - wenn Ihr ins Bild hineinzoomt, könnt Ihr dort die kleine Vogel-Party sehen.
Dies ist das erste Foto einer Miniserie, die ich diese Woche zeigen werde; als Nächstes folgt eine Innenansicht des Turms, auch mit meiner Lumix LX100 fotografiert, und dann, als (vorläufiger) Abschluss eine weitere Innenansicht - fotografiert mit meiner Olympus EM5II und aufbereitet für den Sliders Sunday. Eigentlich war schon dieses Foto für den Sliders Sunday gedacht, allerdings in einer anderen Version mit Texturen und viel stärkerer Bearbeitung; da ich es letzten Sonntag aber zeitlich nicht geschafft habe, seht Ihr nun zuerst diese konventioneller bearbeitete Version. Die Sliders-Sunday-Version lade ich vielleicht später mal hoch; ich habe ja auch noch andere Fotos von diesem Spontanbesuch des Deutschen Doms.
Tags: Berlin Deutschland Germany Gendarmenmarkt Deutscher Dom Karl von Gontard Christian Ungers Barock Architektur Bäume Vögel Wolken dramatisch Postkarte German Cathedral architecture trees birds clouds dramatic postcard architettura nuvole drammatico uccelli Catedral Alemana arquitectura nubes pajaros aves dramático Cathédrale allemande de Berlin oiseaux nuages dramatique Katedra Niemiecka w Berlinie chmura dramatyczny ptak arquitetura nuvens pássaros arhitectură nori păsări architektura arkitektur arkkitehtuuri αρχιτεκτονική mimarlık Alman Katedrali архитектура Немецкий собор птицы облака драматичный 建築 건축 建筑 Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 Lumix LX100 Lumix Leica compact camera MFT LEICA DC-Vario SUMMILUX ON1 Photo RAW 2020 Luminar 4 Topaz Sharpen AI Crazy Tuesday HCT doves Mauersegler common swift
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