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Picture of the Month

Every month I present here my picture of the month. The image can come from all kinds of styles and does not have to be related to the current month. The point is rather to present a wide range of images and to give the viewer the opportunity to engage with different kinds of visual art.

Miarto – My kind of art.


August 2024 – “Magical Lights”

This is the first time I have photographed auroras. The picture was taken on holiday in Sweden at Lake Värmeln. I was there on a cloudless evening and wanted to photograph the Milky Way, or at least the stars above the lake. Looking through the viewfinder of my camera, I spotted the purple-coloured light on the horizon; the lights were not visible to the naked eye. So you could say that I owe my first shot of auroras to a coincidence.

Aperture 1.4, Shutter speed 6s, ISO 3200, Focal Length 20mm


February 2024 – “Smokey Whisky”

I was inspired to create this picture by the Youtuber Andrew Lanxon. In one of his videos, he showed how he enveloped a filled whisky glass with smoke or fog using a hand-held fog machine. As I had the idea of buying a fog machine for such effects for some time, and put my wish into action in January 2024. Andrew used a cheap brandy instead of whisky in his video. He said that whisky was far too good (and too expensive) to waste, which I can totally understand. I made it a little cheaper and colored some water with food coloring.

Aperture 11, Shutter speed 1/125s, ISO 2000, Focal Length 85mm


September 2023 – “The Beach”

This picture is once more the attempt to integrate our home galaxy, the Milky Way, into a composition. I went for it on a cloudless evening on the island of Fehmarn to the beach. I have already looked at the composition with the beach chairs before at daylight. The picture consists of several exposures for the foreground and for the sky. While for the foreground with the beach chairs a long exposure of about 2 minutes was sufficient, for the sky I took 20 photos with 9s exposure time each. These were merged into one image in post processing.

Foreground: Aperture 2.8, Shutter speed 115s, ISO 640, Focal Length 28mm

Sky: 20x Aperture 2,8, Shutter speed 9s, ISO 3200, Focal Length 28mm


June 2023 – “Container Love”

This picture was taken on a Tuesday evening in September 2022. The weekend before I saw on the return trip from a visit to Hesse out of the corner of my eye that could arise at the Burkhardkai a nice photo opportunity. A brief search on Google Maps then showed me that the spot is easily accessible and there are even parking facilities nearby. Now only the weather had to play along, which was the case already two days later.

Aperture 13, Shutter speed 8s, ISO 200, Focal Length 46mm

On the picture you can see the two container ships

  • HMM Hanbada (366m length, 51m width; flag: Liberia)
  • Ever Alot (399m length, 61m width; flag: Panama)

The Ever Alot was the world’s largest container ship in September 2022, with a capacity of 24.004 standard containers. The ship is used in liner services between Northern Europe and Asia and can carry up to 240.000 tons of cargo. In addition to Hamburg, it will also call at the ports of Rotterdam, Colombo, Shanghai and Taipei, among others.


May 2023 – “Bulls Eye”

This picture was taken on 30 April 2023 during a visit to the Arche Warder. The Arche Warder is Europe’s largest animal park for rare and endangered domestic and farm animal breeds. The picture shows the head of a Murnau-Werdenfelser cow. I took it in the entrance to its stable and enlarged it during processing. For this picture I chose the following settings:

Aperture 9, Shutter speed 1/125s, ISO 800, Focal Length 200mm.

The Murnau-Werdenfelser cattle is considered to be undemanding. This breed became famous above all for its heavy draft bulls, which were willing to work and contributed to its rapid spread south of Munich. But the triumphal procession was short-lived. Their strength, namely their use as draught bulls, was their undoing: the focus was on rearing bulls, and the castrated bull calves were lost for breeding. In addition, from the 1950s onwards, the Murnau-Werdenfelser were faced with great competition from the milk-production-oriented Braunvieh and Fleckvieh cattle. Thus, after the Second World War, the population dropped rapidly from the original 23,000 to just 160 individuals.


April 2023 – “The Moon”

This picture was taken on April 03, 2023. It is my first serious attempt to photograph our satellite with my tele zoom lens. Since the moon appears very bright in the evening or night sky in comparison to the environment a short exposure time and a slightly closed aperture can be taken for a single photo. For this picture I chose the following settings:

Aperture 8, Shutter Speed 1/640s, ISO 400, Focal Length 600mm.

I took a total of 300 shots, given the exposure time this is relatively quick, and about 50% of them were then processed to create the final image, this is called stacking. Afterwards I increased the color saturation in Photoshop, so that the colors comes out more clearly. After all, the moon is not made of white or silver dust, but mainly of rocks consisting of minerals like basalt, plagioclase, olivine and pyroxene. In addition, the Moon also contains minerals such as iron oxide and titanium dioxide, which are found in various rocks. Iron oxide gives lunar rocks a reddish color, while titanium dioxide makes the rocks appear whiter. There is also evidence for the presence of hydrogen compounds on the Moon.


March 2023 – “Triumph TR3 B Roadster”

The Triumph TR3 B Roadster is a classic British sports car from the late 1950s. I spotted and photographed one of these beautiful vehicles in 2018 on the side of the road in Trans Kirke, Denmark.

The TR3 B Roadster was produced from 1957 to 1962 and was a successor to the successful TR2 model. The roadster was a two-seat sports car with a powerful four-cylinder engine and an attractive body that was both sporty and elegant. The car was also popular with racers and was often entered in motorsport events.

The TR3 B Roadster spotted in Denmark looked to be in good condition, with a rich green paint and a black soft top. The distinctive round headlights and shiny chrome grille provided a classic look that drew attention.

The Triumph TR3 B Roadster is a timeless vehicle that is still admired today. Its classic design and impressive performance make it a sought-after collector’s item and a dream car for classic car enthusiasts.


February 2023 – “Alte Harburger Elbbrücke”

For the month of February I have chosen a relativ new picture, it was taken in mid-January during a photo walk with “Lichtbildfreunde Itzehoe”.

The picture shows, in a lensball, the old Harburg Elbe bridge. Once one of the main traffic arteries in Hamburg, it is now a pedestrian-only bridge, cyclists and e-scooters are of course also allowed to use the bridge. With bone-chilling cold and cloudless skies, we found a beautiful light atmosphere. The blue of the night sky contrasted nicely with the yellow glow of the lanterns and the gray / brown of the bridge structure. This play of colors inspired me to experiment with the lensball, which resulted in this photo.