Friday Photo Favorite: The Commute

We've both been working too much lately (as you can see from the emptiness of Herr J's train home). 

One more rough week before a big work deadline, then we're off to arrange the last wedding details!

TGIF!!!

Friday Photo Favorite: Olympiapark Sunrise

This one is an HDR photo from an early morning trip to Munich's Olympiapark. 

I love the colors and light in this photo, as well as the winding path up to the lookout where we experimented with our tripods. It gives me a warm and peaceful feeling when I look at it. We have this one in rotation on our digital frame.

Signs of Spring

A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, I feel alive again...spring finally is here! 

 

 

Though most of the trees and flowers are still only budding leaves, there were a few early bloomers out at the Botanical Gardens. 

 

And of course many great flowers inside the greenhouses.

 

We're still a few months too early for the baby ducks and geese, but for now we have turtles.

 

 

And most of the trees in Munich are starting to show signs of life.  Interesting that Munich is a couple of weeks behind Frankfurt. These are the trees budding in the Bavariapark here in Munich. Last week in Frankfurt, the leaves were out and plum trees covered in bloom.

 

 

I've never seen anything quite like these blue and yellow ones, also at the Botanical Garden in Munich. 

 

Some of last year's swan babies hanging out in the pond at Schloss Nymphenburg. 

 

Even better, we can finally eat dinner outside again. The Augustiner am Dom has interesting signs of spring. Not just the Easter-ish table cloths, but that they seem to have lamb as their current seasonal menu. I do think of cute fluffy lambs at Easter, but it feels a bit odd to feature them as dinner! We had flammkuchen instead....

 

 And best of all? Spring means the beer gardens are open again!  

Hard to believe how quickly things changed. This is the Nymphenburger Kanal, only a few weeks apart. We went from people on the ice to algae and ducks swimming. 

Butterflies in Macro - Part 2

More macro shots of the butterfly exhibit at the Botanical Garden. 

Though this one was a special exhibit, Vienna has a permanent butterfly house (Schmetterlinghaus) near the opera. I love butterflies, so we'll have to visit next time we're in Vienna.

 

There were several dishes with fruit or dots of nectar for the butterflies to enjoy.

I love the textures in this one and the greens and browns. 

This pale one enjoyed a spot of nectar, while giving us a great reflection

 

 

Butterflies in Macro - Part 1

This past weekend, we spent Sunday morning at the Botanical Garden. They have a special butterfly exhibit, which runs through 25 March. A perfect opportunity to get up close and personal with the butterflies and my lovely macro lens. Definitely a bit of a challenge to use, but beautiful results. I'm still working on getting the proper focus, but I love that we can capture their faces too, and the lens has a gorgeous, creamy background. 

One of my favorites - for the color and the closeup of his face 

Kinda cute with his curly proboscis

I'd really love to see the Monarch migration one day. 

Not sure where these come from, but they have a beautiful blue and brown combination I hadn't seen before

Another of the blue and brown ones.

Cool how these have blue and black polka-dotted eyeballs!

More to follow tomorrow....

Winter Wonderland

I've been waiting for months for a good snow.

Friday we had weird snow with thunder and lighting. First the fat wet flakes that were pretty and melted, and then it poured down these tiny little flakes that quickly turned the roofs white.

Usually it's gone by morning, but I awoked Saturday morning to find it still snowing and a nice thick layer on the roofs.

I hadn't taken any pictures in a couple of months, but I had a big internal battle between photographic desire and my strong desire to not be cold.

Fortunately, the creative side won. Shocking, actually. But a really good decision to not procrastinate and just go ahead and bundle up and go out.  Though it was snowing hard while I was out and seemed it would continue, the rains soon came and washed away the pretty snow.

 

There are so many reasons to love Munich, but one of my top reasons is that when it snows, it feels like you're inside the picture-perfect world of a snowglobe.

Everything is coated with snow - I especially love how it coats every branch of the tree.

The beast-slaying cherubs at the base of the Mariensäule were no exception:

slaying heresy

slaying famine

Of course, with Munich being the little slice of slightly unreal paradise that it is, Marienplatz was cleared of snow before the snow had stopped falling. (The kids will be playing on the snow piles for the next 2 months!)

The trees behind the Rathaus are some variety of gumball tree. The snow makes perfect ornaments of them! 

Notice anything odd here?

It's actually a reflection. I was hoping this black glass enclosure would make the snowflakes stand out, but was surprised with the fun mirror effect.

I'd somehow never put together the cow fountain in the Rindermarkt with its name, but it actually was the cattle market in the old walled town.

And the Löwenturm has a lovely decorated tree in front of it.

It's not actually raining snow, but just playing around a bit with a slow shutter speed and Herr J's tripod.

A fun morning and probably a positive lesson in why not procrastinating sometimes is good. Really happy I had the chance to go enjoy the beautiful snow!

Street Artists

Remember Kurt Wenner's cool 3-D chalk art ("Anamorphic Painting," to be exact)?

There have been a few other really cool examples this year.

Planet Streetpainting's version of the Terracotta Warriors (even better, the LEGO version of the warriors!)

via w ooh me

This was from Florida's Sarasota Chalk Festival earlier this month, which had the theme "Pavement Art Through the Ages." Can't wait to see next year's art on the "Circus" theme!

A video of the making:

Another this month in Canary Wharf, by 3D Joe and Max, who are currently on a world tour. Sadly, no dates yet in Germany!

via w ooh me