#sliderssunday

Laowa C-Dreamer 7.5mm F/2

It's been a while since I've "kaleidoscoped" an image, but this interior image of the modern roof of St. Matthäus-Kirche (St. Matthew church) at Berlin's Kulturforum lent itself to this type of processing because the single image is ever so slightly awry and not exactly centered. This is the most simple type of kaleidoscoping, I've only copied the image to a new layer, flipped both layers, and put them back together as a single image; finishing "this and that"-touches in LR, done.

St. Matthew is the only historical building left in this part of Berlin's Tiergarten district. The church building was constructed as a three-nave by Friedrich August Stüler, an exalted Prussian building official and one of the most important architects of his time. St. Matthew was inaugurated in 1846. Today, St. Matthew church is part of the so-called Kulturforum (Cultural Forum) that also houses the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), The Berliner Philharmonie, the Kammermusiksaal (Chamber Music Hall), and several museums.

In 1931, Lutheran theologist Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a member of the Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church) and a resistance fighter against the Nazi regime (he was murdered at concentration camp Flossenbürg only one month before the end of World War II), was ordained as St. Matthew's parson. Later, the Nazis planned to take down St. Matthew and rebuild it in Spandau because it was in the way of their megalomaniac plans to remodel Berlin as the so-called "Welthauptstadt Germania" (World Capital Germania). As a part of those plans, most of the local residential development had been taken down already before WWII. Allied bombings in WWII's last years finally foiled those plans but also left St. Matthew heavily damaged. After the war, only the church building's exterior was reconstructed true to the original, while the interior was rebuilt in an unpretentious, modern way.

Happy Sliders Sunday, everyone, and I wish you a great new week ahead!

Tags:   Sliders Sunday Post Processed to the MAX!!! Kaleidoscoping Cras credemus, hodie nihil Berlin Deutschland Germany Tiergarten St. Matthäus-Kirche Friedrich August Stüler modern roof interior church wood windows concrete construction composite flipped OM System OM-1 Laowa C-Dreamer 7.5mm F2 Venus Optics DXO PhotLab 6 Photoshop Lightroom ThroughHerLens

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Explored March 13, 2023

#sliderssunday

The new staircase at the KaDeWe, kaleidoscoped for Sliders Sunday.

The KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens = Department Store of the West) in Berlin's borough of Schöneberg is Germany's most renowned department store. With a selling space of more than 60,000 sq / 650,000 square feet, it is also Europe's second-largest department store (after Harrod's in London). Today, it attracts about 50,000 visitors every day. In 1905, merchant and businessman Adolf Jandorf commissioned architect Emil Schaudt to design a luxury department store on Tauentzienstraße at the heart of (West) Berlin. Tauentzienstraße is one of Berlin's major shopping streets and is, although, of course, a street in its own right, what one could call a direct "extension" of the famous Kudamm/Kurfürstendamm boulevard. The KaDeWe was opened on 27 March 1907. Ever since, it has seen numerous extensions, refurbishments, and owner changes. One of its major attractions is the food hall on the sixth floor.

I haven't been to the KaDeWe in ages. But recently, I stumbled upon a photo of an interesting-looking staircase/escalator here on Flickr – and to my great surprise that photo had been taken at the KaDeWe. So last week, my mom (magrit k.) and I decided to visit the store, equipped with our cameras, and have a look at the new staircase. What I can say is that this "Escheresque" staircase is very interesting indeed and that it's a great photo subject as well.

It was a short visit, however, because all we really did was photograph said staircase. The KaDeWe has changed so substantially, especially in the past 10 to 15 years, that it really isn't "our store" anymore. What I remember as an airy, generous, spacious place with a nice "vibe" to it, has turned into an almost smallish "monster store" packed with expensiveness. Maybe I'm a little unfair; I will soon revisit the KaDeWe because last week I'd only brought the little LX100 along (I wasn't sure if people with "big" cameras would be accepted there or if we'd get in trouble with security staff, but no one really cared about our photographic antics at the staircase), so I will return with my OM-1 and the wide-angle zoom. And maybe I will take some time to explore the "new KaDeWe". You will definitely see more of this staircase ("un-kaleidoscoped" photos, for instance) in the future :)

Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone!

Tags:   Sliders Sunday Post Processed to the MAX!!! Berlin Deutschland M. C. Escher staircase escalator moving staircase wood patterns texture skylight kaleidoscoped kaleidoscoping composite Rolltreppe Textur Oberlicht Panasonic Lumix LX100 Leica LEICA DC-Vario SUMMILUX DXO PhotoLab 6 Lightroom Photoshop Escheresque

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Explored 1, February 2022

#Laowa
Laowa C-Dreamer 7.5mm F/2

It's been a while since I've uploaded anything but images for Macro Mondays, and since I also didn't really have time for taking my photo for this Monday's "Currency" MM theme, this is my substitute Monday upload: an image that I've taken of the small, but very "pretty in flashy pink" staircase at the Futurium that leads up to the so called "Skywalk", a panorama walk on the Futurium's roof that offers a very nice view across Berlin's government district (please see the first comment). I've taken this image with the tiny Laowa C-Dreamer 7.5 mm ultra wide-angle lens that isn't quite as wide as the fabulous M.Zuiko 7-14mm, but is definitely capable of much, much nicer aperture stars.

"Kaleidoscoped" to bring out the fun pareidolia that is apparently hidden in that staircase – and seriously, have you ever seen such charmingly "angry" stairs? It would explain the pink "complexion", though ;)

Have a nice week ahead, dear Flickr friends!

Tags:   Berlin Deutschland Germany Futurium staircase stairs pink aperture stars windows skylight eyes pareidolia angry fun kaleidoscoping Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III Laowa 7.5mm F/2 MFT C-Dreamer rectilinear ultra wide-angle prime lens DXO PhotoLab Angry Bird Oberlicht Treppe Blendensterne Pareidolie Gesicht Wut Spaß Fotomontage escalier lucarne visage face fureur scala lucernario faccia

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#sliderssunday

The berlin cube cloudified and kaleidoscoped for Sliders Sunday. Composite made of two images taken there in mid July. The first image is a capture I took standing right next to the cube's facade and pointing the camera straight up. In Photoshop, I copied the layer with the original image, flipped the new layer horizontally, and cross-faded it with the first layer by using the blending mode "Overlay" at 75 % opacity. 100 % would have resulted in a punchier look on the right side, but I rather liked the softness and that it somehow looks as if the cube would slowly dissolve into or merge with the clouds. The next step was to replace the sky above the cube(s). For that I used a small part of the very first image I'd taken at the cube; I was just about to compose the image in the viewfinder when I noticed the bird, and decided to skip the composing part in favour of the bird ;-) (Birds, just like photographers, love the new berlin cube. There was a constant coming and going on the cube's roof, and it seems that, while not even all new tenants have moved in, yet, the cube's roof has already been occupied by the bird population that lives in the Hauptbahnhof area.) Next, I gently HDRified the finished composite in Aurora, then went into ON1 where I added some sunbeams to the upper sky part of the image, and added a soft glow for an extra airy look.

Happy Sliders Sunday, Everyone, have a nice and safe new week ahead!

Kleine Spiegel-Spielerei vom "berlin cube" für den Sliders Sunday. Dieses Bild ist zusammengesetzt aus zwei verschiedenen Fotos, die ich dort Mitte Juli gemacht habe. Für Foto Nr. 1 hatte ich fast an der Fassade des Cubes gelehnt und die Kamera direkt nach oben gerichtet. Dieses Foto habe ich in Photoshop auf einer kopierten Ebene einfach horizontal gespiegelt und mit dem darunter liegenden Originalbild bei 75 % Deckkraft ineinanderkopiert. Danach habe ich den Himmel über "den Cubes" ersetzt, und zwar mit einem kleinen Teil des allerersten Fotos, das ich dort gemacht hatte. Ich war gerade dabei gewesen, eine gute Position zu finden, um den Cube möglichst sauber ausgerichtet fotografieren zu können, bemerkte dann aber den Vogel und beschloss, das saubere Ausrichten zugunsten des Vogels auf das nächste Foto zu verschieben ;-) Überhaupt ist der neue Cube schon sehr beliebt bei den Vögeln, die rund um den Berliner Hauptbahnhof leben. Während längst noch nicht alle Mieter in den Cube eingezogen sind, hat die Vogel-Gang vom Hauptbahnhof bereits das gesamte Dach in Beschlag genommen ;-) Bearbeitungstechnisch habe ich das fertig zusammengesetzte Bild erst in Aurora sanft HDRisiert und dann, in ON1, dem oberen Teil ein paar Sonnenstrahlen und zum Abschluss dem gesamten Foto ein leichtes Leuchten verpasst, um den luftig-leichten Look zu betonen.

Ich wünsche Euch einen guten Start in die neue Woche, bleibt gesund, liebe Flickr-Freunde :-)

Tags:   Berlin Germany Deutschland berlin cube Hauptbahnhof Sliders Sunday Post Processed to the MAX!!! kaleidoscoped cloudified airy soft bird composite modern architecture architecture glass facade reflections clouds sky blue sunshine sunrays white extreme perspective looking up POV point of view Architektur modern blau luftig Vogel Wolken Sonne Sonnenstrahlen Himmel Spiegelung oiseau nuages pasăre nori arhitectură uccello nuvole architettura pássaro nuvens arquitetura ptak chmura πουλί σύννεφο αρχιτεκτονική kuş bulut mimarlık птица облака архитектура Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mark II Laowa C-Dreamer 7.5 F/2 ultra wide-angle wide-angle ON1 Photo RAW 2020 Aurora HDR Photoshop Lightroom

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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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