Germany: Day 1

Typical German countryside as seen from Burg Hohenzollern

Greetings from Deutschland! Well, despite being severely jet-lagged and fatigued, I thought I had better post something before hitting the sack. I was up for nearly 35 hours yesterday (flight day), and after only 6 hours of sleep last night, today was still tiring.

Before I get into the photos, I wanted to mention that a massive stroke of luck delivered a small shipment of Panasonic's new autofocus Leica branded 25mm f/1.4 Summilux DG lenses to Beau Photo on Friday, my last day at work before flying to Germany on Saturday. Although the shipment caused my bank account to get lighter yet again, once I decided to take one of the lenses and shot some tests with it, I was ecstatic that I was able to secure one before my trip. Many of the photos following were taken with it. And yes, there are more available in stock at Beau Photo now! If you are a Micro-Four-Thirds shooter, this lens definitely deserves a look!

This next photo of my dad that I took while enjoying brunch, was taken wide open at f/1.4. The lens is exceptionally sharp, even wide open, and is definitely once of Panasonic's strongest lenses when it comes to overall balanced performance. As with all these images, click on them to open a larger 1600 pixel version. In case someone is reading this without having seen my previous blog entries and is wondering about the camera, all the shots were taken with my Panasonic GH2.

Here is another shot of my dad and his friend Franziska after a long day of wandering around Burg Hohenzollern, an old castle in Prussia. Again, with the Leica 25mm f/1.4 Summilux DG...

It was a fairly short drive to get to Burg Hohenzollern from Reutlingen, where we stayed the first night. Here is a view approaching the old Burg (the new 25mm lens again)...

With the 45-200mm zoom on the GH2 (at 190mm), I got this view...

I absolutely love the play of light and shadow on old stonework, especially with high contrast light. The textures are amazing and visiting old castles was one of the things I told my dad I really wanted to do while traveling through Germany. This next series is all about that, and all were taken with the Panasonic 7-14mm ultra-wide zoom...

Okay, snuck another one in with the Leica 25mm...

Back to the 7-14mm. As far as contrasty light on stonework, you sure can't beat the contrast of these next few! Flaringly bright light streaming in from outside and lighting up a very dark, tunnel-like corridor...

Would you believe cars even drive through there? Luckily as a pedestrian, you can hear the cars coming! This one with the Leica 25mm again, ISO 1250, f/2 and 1/25...

Lastly, I'll finish off this blog entry with a view inside Burg Hohenzollern's own church, showing some nice stained glass. That 7-14mm sure is w-i-d-e, since this shot is getting the ceiling in, right overhead... 

Detail view with the 45-200mm at 45mm...

That's it for tonight. A real gallery will have to wait for another day...