Niederrhein; Nature in Northrine Westfalia, Germany

[the solitaire]

A few photos of nature reclaiming an iron smeltery in Meiderich, Duisburg, Nortrhine Westfalia. The former smeltery stopped production in 1985 and was formed into a public park in the 1990's. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and left to be reclaimed by nature this is a very interesting photography location with many photographic opertunities. I did not use them all, but I do intend to go back there soon



Birding with a 28mm PC lens. Is that even possible?



Nature and industrialization form a stark contrast in this area



Walking through main smeltery #5



I need to edit some more of the photographs I made here today. Updates will soon follow

[HCS]

A few photos of nature reclaiming an iron smeltery in Meiderich, Duisburg, Nortrhine Westfalia. The former smeltery stopped production in 1985 and was formed into a public park in the 1990's. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and left to be reclaimed by nature this is a very interesting photography location with many photographic opertunities. I did not use them all, but I do intend to go back there soon

Perhaps the next (after Maastricht) NG event? Perhaps to link to a Photokina visit?

[HCS]

And ... great stuff !

[the solitaire]

Perhaps the next (after Maastricht) NG event? Perhaps to link to a Photokina visit?

That would be a really nice idea. Although, we were there during the week. During weekends 2 things are different.

1: There are more people there
2: As soon the sun goes down the whole installation is lit by various colored lights

The following link is in German, but the slide show shows some pictures of the park with lights

http://www.landschaftspark.de/der-park

[John Geerts]

Great stuff,  and yes, looks like a nice location for an NG event.

[the solitaire]

A bit of a different subject matter compared to the industrial setting from our last excursion.
This time we went to the heathland near the Dutch/German border. Spring has most definately arrived there.

Along with photographs I want to share this short (cellphone) video to show what our photo hikes generally look like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAf8GecVBCw&feature=youtu.be













All of these were taken with the 55mm f1,2 Nikkor-S.C wide open on my D3. There are just so many photo opertunities there that I feel sorry every time we have to leave the area, but at some point the dogs want to go home and go to sleep. I guess that is one of the responsibilitie sthat comes with pets

[Danulon]

Seeing your photos, I feel that you really missed out on the Scotland event. 

[Frank Fremerey]

You have a very special way to work with light.

The forest almost looks translucent in your pictures.

[armando_m]

What a beautiful series !

Thanks for sharing your images

I like how the images connect with nature

[BW]

Agree with the former comments. Outstanding pictures and definitely your own style. That I like

[the solitaire]

Guenther, I feel that I missed out in that indeed. The area would have offered many fine oportunities.

Frank, this translucent appearance is, in part, the magic of the first green leaves that are nearly that. Translucent.

Armando, thank you. I feel humbled by those words, because when I'm there I too feel connected to nature, and it means quite something to me if others can recognise this in my photos.

Thank you Børge. This style is just me trying  to show what I see the best I can. Style develops as I learn more about photography and processing

On our last trip to "Tor 9" I brought the new-to-me 80-200 f4 Ai-S zoom to see if that can replace the 135 f3,5 and 200 f4 in my bag.
Here are some photos taken with this lens.







One of the nicest features of the lens is the close minimum focus difference



And the ability to let dogs appear out of nowhere

[Frank Fremerey]

The more natural look in the last set appeals to me. Lumi jumping through the trees. Fun shot and perfect definition.

[the solitaire]

Thank you for the kind words Frank.

There is a place and time for everything, and even though I really like my fast primes, this zoom certainly gives me some depth of field that sometimes really works for a scene like this.

For the past 5 years I tended to use f1,4 and f1,2 lenses wide open for this kind of photography, but I also really liked th elook the 135mm f3,5 gave me a few weeks ago and now with the slow 80-200 zoom I am bound to go through another transition in the way I observe and study the scenes I try to capture.

Photography is a learning process. In the end, it is the journey which really matters, but it is always nice to bring a few souvenirs along the way

[Jakov Minić]

Buddy, I really like your style of mellow, hazy, pastel colored photos

[John Geerts]

Agree.  Nice examples indeed. The lens looks sharp, comparable with the 4.5 N  Last series I think. The earlier C versions are a bit rounder in their rendering (to my feeling as it's difficult to prove such a thing in a scientific and statistical way), think you can compare that with the first multicoated versions of the 85, 135/2.8 and 3.5 and 200.