Photoblog - The Daily Commute

My trip to work every day goes like this:

- walk to S-Bahn station (above-ground trains)
- take S-Bahn to Ostbahnhof (East Station)
- transfer to U-Bahn (subway)
- walk to office

It is actually quite efficient.  Maybe a 5 minute walk plus brief wait for the S-Bahn, one stop to the East Station plus short wait for the U-bahn, 20 minute ride to the final stop, and 5 minute walk to my building.  And I can grab a butterbrezel for breakfast if needed...

I've always liked that I can read on trains (vs. driving).  But one of the reasons that I bought a Micro-Four-Thirds camera is that its smaller form factor allows me to carry it every day (in my man purse, of couse).  I've found that I can use the camera on the commute -- either getting to know it better (different settings), passing time before a train comes, or even capturing a unique moment.  Here are some examples:

On the return commute one evening, I arrived at the Ostbahnhof and noticed that the setting sun was low in the sky and the cloud arrangement made it look like the rays were streaming upwards.  Out came the camera.  I bracketed a few shots, and procesed this in Oloneo software for HDR tonemapping.

 

It was funny:  the taxi in the above photo (lower right) was waiting in line for new passengers, so he got out and started giving me suggestions on taking better photographs!  Here is another bracketed result, zoomed out a bit to get mostly sky.  Both results are a little grainy... I need to improve skills a bit.  But cool nonetheless.

The next photo was taken at my S-Bahn station - the first point in the morning commute.  The train on the other track was stopped for pasengers so I experimented with bracketing again.  I liked the detail that comes out in the train windows, and the sky is OK too.

The following photo is at the same station, but this time coming back from a late night at the office.  Almost home... but I took a moment to experiment with slower shutter speeds to capture a passing S-Bahn.  Hand held - not too bad.  The prominent yellow streak is the text that shows what train it is.  You can also see the red body color and the white stripes at the top & bottom of the "train" too.

 

When the weather is nice, I'll take a quick lunch and walk around with the camera.  On the edge of the work campus sits this semi-circle thing for sitting and relaxing.  Again, I took 5 bracketed photos and this time merged and tonemapped in Photomatix software.  Photomatix tends to produce great clouds and stone, and here enhanced the clarity of white clover in the grass (foreground).

Between two of the buildings lies a walkway, perhaps at the third floor level.  I just like how this came out, with the yellow against the blue sky (and seeing through the windows).  You will see stickers of birds on many windows in Germany -- I think they mimic outlines of predators and deter smaller birds from crashing into the glass.

 

This is a different walkway at ground level.  You again see a sticker of a bird.  Like the S-Bahn above, I like how merging and tonemapping brings out details through the window - this is pretty agressive processing though.  The white pyramids seen through the windows let light into tunnels running underneath the campus here.  At night, light from the tunnels make the pyramids glow slightly.  (I tried a shot of that, but really need my tripod...)

 

This next photo is at the U-Bahn station near the office.  This was after another long day of work, and I was experimenting with the Olympus "dramatic tone" art filter and liked the result.  Nice and contrasty.

 

If you take the stairs in the above photo, you end up on the platform.  (Oddly, this U-bahn station is above ground -- the end station of this line.  The trains immediately go underground from here.)  While waiting for the train to arrive, I took this photo after an early-evening rain.  I pushed up the contast and saturation a bit to exaggerate the cars and the water on the streets.

 

From the same platform as before... but obviously on a day when work lasted a lot longer!  This time I was practicing being steady with hand-held shots at longer shutter speeds.  The same hotel is on the left, but now you see part of the campus on the right side.  Funny - a bus was at the stop in each photo (lower left)!

 

This next shot is on the subway boarded from the platrorm above.  It's really late, so there are few passengers.  I could see down the train more than usual, and tried a few different shots.  Stability was an issue, but this one came out pretty nicely.  This again uses the internal dramatic-tone filter because bracketing would have been impossible on the moving train car.  I also found it amusing that I caught the signs in the middle of an update -- and the one closest to me had not yet caught up with the others (or had it just changed and the others would soon follow?).

I have to end with one more shot of the great sunset.  Even when I left the Ostbahnhof and got home, the sky was still interesting.  I bracketed this result from my building, with the sun hovering above the buildings.  Really fascinating how the sky is blue above the clouds, but below we get sunset colors.  There's some lens flare and red spots (an occational Olympous problem) but still an interesting outcome.

 

I love having my camera around to use any time (thanks, man-purse!).  Hopefully the experimentation and repetition help improve my skill, but in any case it's a lot of fun.