I think I know where the Man in the High Castle lives.

Dippach Hike - The Man in the High Castle

January 28, 2018

After being sick for a week and sitting at home, we headed out for the first hike in 2018. This is also going to be the first blog post in 2018 and I truly hope that 2018 will be much more fruitful for my blog than the year before. In fact, I already have a project in mind, one that will combine photography, traveling and my new passion: motorcycles.

I found a nice hiking trail about 10k from home in Dippach, Luxembourg and after calculating and planning the hike (with the gaiagps.com app), I concluded that 9k for a hike just after being sick for the whole week was enough (we usually hike longer distances). The weather, for the beginning of January and winter in Luxembourg, was particularly ok-ish - gloomy, a bit wet and with fog (obviously without snow).

The trail took us through muddy areas and our shoes finally looked 'experienced'. We passed by a bio-farm, a designer's house (which seemed heavily guarded, with thick outside walls and camera monitoring system (suspicious, isn't it?).

Last but not least, we came across a very interesting structure. Relatively big, neither a house nor a governmental building. It was shaped in the letter C, with two big and tall doors on both sides. The structure, obviously created by a man, had no windows and no visible purpose. My thought was immediate: it's where the Man in the High Castle lives, it actually was his 'castle'.

Konrad's Photo Impressions of Luxembourg Vol.1

December 11, 2016

After a long time of silence on my blog, I thought it was time to publish an update, even a short one. As you might already know, I’ve relocated back to Europe in June 2016. However, in order to keep things interested, I didn’t go back to Belgium. Instead, I moved to Luxembourg - a small (998 square mile) country, between Belgium and Germany with not one, not two, but three official languages. It sounds like an intriguing place, doesn’t it?

Since the move, I’ve been busy with so many things, including my work recently, that I really haven’t had time to work on any personal photography projects. However, I’ve been discovering the natural wonders of this small-in-size but big-in-varieties and taking a few pictures here and there. I thought to share a few photos with you, hopefully to make some of you interested in visiting Luxembourg at some point.

Natchez Trace Bridge at night (nightscape)

Turning a business trip into a small photo adventure

November 15, 2015

I had to drive to Nashville the other day for a business meeting. Unfortunately, I don’t travel much these days, especially to central and western parts of Tennessee so I wanted to take this opporunity to do some photography. I remembered that the Natchez Trace Bridge is close to Nashville. I googled for images of the bridge to get a sense of how it looks like, what’s around it and what opportunities it gives for photography. Next step was to research using google maps and street view. I knew I would arrive to the bridge after sunset so I wanted to take a nightscape / astrophotography photograph. At the end, I narrowed it down to 2 options: shoot the bridge from the road that runsunderneath it or take pictures from the bridge.

After I arrived, it turned out that the road that is under the bridge is much busier than I thought it would be so I immediately headed to the bridge. I rather quickly found a good spot, I put on a high visibility reflective jacket on (for safety), grabbed a flashlight from the car and started shooting long exposures. I also met a fellow photographer, Scott Dubose of Photographers Artistry. Scott does astrophotography (something I have very little knowledge about) and we talked for about 30 minutes or even more.

In a nutshell, it was an extremely good day because I ended up with a picture I like and I made a new friend!

Zion, Bryce Grand Canyon North Rim and more National Parks from the trip to Utah and Arizona

June 29, 2015

Hiking it Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon North Rim was very fun and interesting, with temperatures ranging from sizzling hot to a lot of snow in May. Here is a small sample of (mostly) landscape photographs I took during our recent trip in May.

Collierville Historic Train Depot at night (Collierville Historic Town Square)

Main Street Collierville Historic Town Square at Night

July 20, 2014

I think Collierville's Historic Town Square, which is just east from Memphis, is a perfect place for night photography and a group photo walk. I really enjoy the town square for night photography because it has a huge variety of subjects, from small family-owned stores to an old gas station and even a historic locomotive and train cars. Collierville's town square is relatively small, which is why it's also great for group night photo walks. Night photo walks are particularly challenging for an organizer because setting up tripods, cameras and nailing shots always varies between the participants and therefore it's difficult to keep a group together. Collierville's Historic Town Square is great for night photo walks because even if someone stays behind, he/she can easily catch up with a group because, well you're at the square :).

An old locomotive at night at Collierville Historic Train Depot (Collierville Historic Town Square)

For these reasons, I chose Collierville's Historic Town Square and I organized there a night photo walk last week through the Memphis Digital Photography Group meetup. Around 1o persons showed up, which was a perfect number or participants because less experienced participants felt comfortable to ask questions. I'm also pleased with feedback I received after the photo walk - everyone wants more night photo walks :)

McGinnis Services Station at night - Collierville Historic Town Square

ANNOUNCEMENT! Konrad moves to the US!

May 5, 2013

Well, what can I say more? :) I've been given an opportunity to move to the US, where I'll be working on some new and exciting personal photography projects. This unique and once in a lifetime opportunity came quite fast and unexpected. It took me some time to take my decision but there you go: I'm moving to the US! The move will be very soon because if everything goes according to the plan, I'll touch the US soil already at the beginning of June (yes, next month!).

The US Photography Projects

I don't know yet what my photography projects will be in the US. It's something I have to decide on quite soon. For sure, they will involve traveling, people and culture. I decided to drop studio photography and focus on outdoor and on-location photography. I really enjoy putting a subject in a unique and special environment and combining natural and artificial light. There is also a certain degree of unpredictability when shooting outdoor (changing light, environment, etc.), which makes it so exciting for me.

Follow me in the US

If you've been following my website/blog and my Facebook, Twitter and/or G+ accounts, not much will change. The website and the blog's addresses will stay. I might create an additional website (or two) that will focus on my photography projects.

Visual Impressions of Porto - Night Panorama Photograph

April 4, 2013

This is the third part in the photography's mini-series on Porto, Portugal I titled 'Visual Impression of Porto'. You can read and see the previous two blog articles.There is really not much to say about this Porto's night panorama photo. Some of you might be interested how I took this night panorama. The panorama you see is made out of 7 separate pictures that were stitched together in post-processing. Each picture was taken on a tripod in long exposure. Here are the Exif details: ISO 200, f/7.1, 8 sec. exposure.

The panorama by itself is quite big, actually it's huge: 15450x4093 pixels.

Visual Impressions of Porto - Art Museum

March 29, 2013

Porto Art Museum - Panorama of sculptures

When you're brainwashed with a variety of TV series, movies and pop culture, it's good visit a high culture place, like a museum, from time to time (at least, that's what my girlfriend says :) ).

The first museum that we visited (out of two, the second museum we plan to visit is a photography museum) was the Porto's Art Museum. The most interesting, in my very personal and subjective opinion, was the sculpture exhibition.

FYI: All the pictures were taken with an iPhone and edited on an iPad.

Visual Impressions of Porto - Abandoned Buildings

March 25, 2013

I arrived to Porto yesterday (Sunday) and I'll be spending here the whole week with a couple of planned trip to the cities nearby. I think that this short holiday is a pretty good opportunity for a little photo project. Although the weather forecast looks really bad for this week (rain every day), I came to Porto with these two things in mind:

- to shoot some night photography of Porto (yes, I dragged a sturdy[=heavy] tripod with me);

- to take a few pictures each day around a theme or something that I've noticed/discovered that struck me about Porto or Portugal.

For the latter, I noticed that Porto has lots of abandoned buildings. Every street has at least a couple of derelict buildings that in many cases are still for sale. But I don't think that these building 'destroy' Porto's look. On the contrary, they give the city it's visual identity and ambience!

FYI: the pictures were taken with an iPhone and edited on an iPad

Travel photos: Barcelona!

July 14, 2012

"I had this perfect dream" - that's how Freddie Mercury and Queen started off with lyrics to one of their hits "Barcelona", and yes - it was perfect but it wasn't a dream!

I love photography but being a photographer is not always easy. But you sometimes get nice assignments and projects in places like… Barcelona for example! Long story short, I got a chance to spend the rest of the weekend in Barcelona walking around and discovering this beautiful city.

It wasn't my first time in Spain but it was in Barcelona. I slowly start discovering Spanish culture and I think I'm in love with it. But there is one particular thing (besides great food) that draws my attention - the Spanish mentality. Spanish people are so nice and friendly that it's even hard for me to explain. Whenever and wherever I went, I felt safe (complete opposite can be said about Brussels).

Well, for those of you who don't know, summer has somehow been avoiding Brussels and Belgium this year. It's 9am at the moment, around 11-12 Celsius degrees outside and it rains. No other better opportunity to share with you few shots I took in Barcelona at the end of May!