Motifs

Feel free to read my comments on these pictures which may give you some more ideas for your own pictures.

The Weather

Let's begin with weather. Any weather is perfect for good pictures, some images here were taken under rain. Fog like this is alway good to create good images.

Way into Gray

For me there's some lack of colors, but the picture pretty well has the mood from that moment.

A Fence

With the right perspective any object may give a worthy motive, like this ordinary fence in the winter.

Location and Time

Sometimes you just need luck to have the right combination of location, light, motive and your camera by hand. It's not difficult to guess, that the photographer was quite wet too afterwards.

Ironman

Yes, it's raining again. But exactly this mood emphasizes the athlete's strains during the Ironman in Frankfurt 2006

Stonehead

In this case mother nature impose some comic on that poor stone-head

Think

This is another example where a somewhat large focal length was used to properly arrange the motive in front of the background.

Statue

This is just a little statue. The primarily monochrome figurine separates well from the colorful background.

Water Romance

It's somewhat impossible to miss the lady in her red dress (Legoland Germany).

Soft-Shoe

This one represents a negative example of how to not make photographs... Didn't you notice the bright, distracting spot in the background?

Lamp

A completely different tone in the blurred backround separates the lamp quite well. Catched at Castle Hohlenfels, more pictures from there.

Chimney

This is an ordinary chimney, right?

Cutter in Back Light

And another back light image spotting directly into the sun (did you notice the reflex in the water?). The cutter itself is only illuminated from ambient light.
You'll probably never get such an image from auto-exposure. In this case reducing contrast in the camera or shooting RAW may help to get best results later.

Ice cream wather

With the proper light (the gathering storm) even a simple neon sign may be an interesting motive. Yes, it is again already raining here.

Primary colors

This image is mainly composed of primary colors.
Taken here: Eisenbahnmuseum Kranichstein. If you're interested, you will find some more pictures here.

Trawler

Even in a muddy illumination the colorful masts of the trawlers are eyecatchers.

Flash of Lightning

Safety first: Only shoot brewing thunderstorms from a good shelter, anything else is extremely dangerous! To finally catch a flash of lightning you need a lengthy exposure time, much luck, and probably a plenty of exposures though.

Dramatic Lightning

These extreme colors were achieved using the ContrastMaster plugin.

Misty

To capture this one, I looked through the viewfinder about an hour, until the quickly changing clouds release exactly this detail. Not more not less.

Fullmoon Scenery

This one was taken past midnight with the moon as the only source of light.

Lunar Eclipse

The red moon at March, 4, 2007, a few minutes before the total lunar eclipse. This shot was taken using a 750mm (eff. 1125mm) reflector telescope with focalprojection (only two mirrors between the sensor and the moon).

Radio Tower

Taken from this odd viewpoint, even domestic people have to look twice, to recognize this radio tower in Frankfurt.

Moving technic

To capture motion in a still image is sometimes a little tricky. In this case a steady hand and a longer exposure were enough. Well, using a speedlight would be the wrong tool here.

Bond-Car

I'm not completely convinced, that James Bond ever drives this car. Taken at the Car Cemetery Guerbetal (Switzerland) in summer 2009 before clearance. More images.

Transience

During the past 50 years nature definely triumph over technic. Taken at the Car Cemetery Guerbetal (Switzerland) in summer 2009 before clearance. More images.

Oldie Party

Standing inbetween these treasures of past days made me somewhat melancholic. Taken at the Car Cemetery Guerbetal (Switzerland) in summer 2009 before clearance. More images.

Something survived

Don't ask me how that one was placed there. Taken at the Car Cemetery Guerbetal (Switzerland) in summer 2009 before clearance. More images.

Fob Watch

I've included this one just to demonstrate, that you don't need a professional studio to create similar images. Using normal light bulbs and a manual whitebalance was the only trick in this case.

Matchstick

Yes, this is an ordinary matchstick and yes, this is fullframe. If you possess some old, manual wide-angle lenses, think about getting a retro-adapter to gain this magnification. But beware, a focal depth of less than one mm completely stepped down will test your patience.