My trip in Alsace

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Sun May 18, 2008 12:40 pm

Since I don’t contribute much I thought I’d post some of the photographs I took this week during my trip in Northern France.

Random photos from Colmar, Alsace.

Sigolsheim, Alsace. “The grateful Alsace, the veterans of the 1st French Army, Rhine and Danube, to their American friends. Liberation of Alsace 1944/1945, 21e CA US, 3e DI US, 28e DI US, 75e DI US, 12e DB US, 36e DI US, 45e DI US, 62e DI US, 103e DI US”

Kaysersberg, Alsace

Stained-glass windows from a church in Sélestat, Alsace

The Alsatian plain viewed from the dungeon of the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle.

Offenburg, Germany.

And a stupid bonus, taken at night in Sètes, Southern France.

cjc15153 · Post by **cjc15153** » Sun May 18, 2008 12:52 pm

Nice photos. Are they the result of cross processing and odd lenses or adobe-ish magic?

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Sun May 18, 2008 12:56 pm

Both. The weird angles are the result of my ultra-wide angle lens. Most of the photographs are post-processed HDR.

CMur12 · Post by **CMur12** » Sun May 18, 2008 1:15 pm

Yukio, having viewed a number of your photos before, I have come to expect no less than excellence from you when I view your images. These are outstanding, and I thank you for sharing them with us.

- Murray

disposable · Post by **disposable** » Sun May 18, 2008 1:22 pm

WOW! Amazing photos..what kind of equipment do you use?

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Sun May 18, 2008 1:27 pm

Murray, thank you very much. I’m happy you like them.

Mat, I have an antique Nikon D70 coupled with a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5,6, a 18-70mm f/3,5-4,5 kit lens and a superior Nikon 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. All the photos above were taken with the Sigma. I’ll probably upgrade my D70 in June.

rustyblade · Post by **rustyblade** » Sun May 18, 2008 1:59 pm

Again, very nice Yukio. I love the HDR effects, looks like a super realistic video game.

Adeptus_Minor · Post by **Adeptus_Minor** » Sun May 18, 2008 2:41 pm

Wow, that is impressive.

The second shot from Colmar gave me 'Thief 2' flashbacks.

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Sun May 18, 2008 4:18 pm

Wonderful photos, Yukio. I wish I had such a talent.

2clfrwrds · Post by **2clfrwrds** » Sun May 18, 2008 7:22 pm

Yukio, your eye for composition is excellent, and your technique makes these images seem more like movies than still photos; rather than being slices of time, these images tell stories.

Your study and practice are truly paying off.

--Glenn

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:40 am

Thank you all for the positive feedback.

Richard, HDR is an amazing tool though the risk is to produce images that are all alike. Just to be precise, only the photos of Colmar, the backhoe and the church are HDR.

Glenn, thank you. A few weeks ago I hit a wall and was not able to produce any images to my satisfaction. I deliberately decided to ban my routine tools in order to force me to use new post-processing techniques.

By the way, here’s a bonus, the church from Kaysersberg:

Big Swifty · Post by **Big Swifty** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:56 am

Yukio,
Again I must say that you take the most magnificent photographs. I absolutely love it when you post photos.

Trumperman · Post by **Trumperman** » Mon May 19, 2008 9:06 am

Yukio,

You never cease to amaze me with your skills. Can I have your permission to print some copies for framing? (I will give you full credit) I would love to have your photos grace my home.

Regards,

Bill

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Mon May 19, 2008 9:15 am

Steve, thank you.
Bill, you can do whatever you wish with the photographs. Just tell me which ones you want and I’ll send you the high-resolution originals (except the second photo from Colmar; I accidentally deleted it

).

scruffy · Post by **scruffy** » Mon May 19, 2008 12:32 pm

Those are great photos. The dark skies look really eerie.

Post by **ichabod** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:53 am

No German Shepherd photos? I mean, Alsatians?

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:56 am

Yukio, I am so impressed with your photography that I have downloaded them all to my computer to use as background photographs. I'm using the one with the digger in it at the moment. I find that one particularly interesting in the way you have taken the photo.

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Tue May 20, 2008 12:00 pm

Dominic, I like how I managed to take all the photographs with nobody in them.

Gareth, thank you very much. What you like is the perspective distortion created by the ultra-wide-angle lens (damn, how am I suppose to hyphen ultra wide angle lens?). It allows for a wide angle of view of 102.4° and a minimal focusing distance of 9.4" / 24 cm. Anything near the border is heavily distorted. For comparison purpose, look at that (heavily post-processed) canon:

Here’s the same canon taken two years ago with a regular wide-angle lens.

mrsankey · Post by **mrsankey** » Tue May 20, 2008 12:19 pm

Absolutely stunning. Nice work.

Post by **ichabod** » Tue May 20, 2008 12:42 pm

Gareth wrote:Yukio, I am so impressed with your photography that I have downloaded them all to my computer to use as background photographs. I'm using the one with the digger in it at the moment. I find that one particularly interesting in the way you have taken the photo.

I keep going back to look at the one of the village, it looks like a model railway layout - surreal.