Earl Moore Photography
Night Streets - Munich, Germany


After taking all of the photos from our Europe trip with a Olympus E-P2 or Canon S90, I went out this past weekend to do some photography related to my job using my Nikon D700. The D700 felt more natural in my hands but at the same time really BIG and HEAVY. For carrying on a trip with lots of flying the Olympus was a smart choice — for times when size and weight doesn’t matter, give me the D700.

This photo is from Munich, Germany. We had a wonderful fifth floor hotel room where I was able to open the window and shoot. The only difficult part was there was netting over the windows, I assume to keep roosting birds away or us from jumping. To take photos, without the netting, I had to lean out over the wide window sill/box and work the end of the lens of the camera through the netting. It was a tight fit with the E-P2 lens but I didn’t have to worry about dropping my camera to the street below.

I’m heading to the North Carolina Mountains, probably the Great Smokey Mountains, for a couple of days at the end of this week and the D700 will be accompanying me.


16 Comments

  1. Earl, the pigeons the nets are for (or against) create tremendous damage in the city here. Especially their acid output dissolves the limestone that was used for many of the old buildings.

    The problem would be much smaller and could be handled with less intrusive measures if feeding the pigeons in the city would stop. But the birds get so much additional nutritients by irresponsible self appointed animal welfare activists, that their breeding rate sometimes even doubles. Add to that the lack of natural enemies in the city – and shooting in the city is practically forbidden – and you can well understand that their numbers have increased substantially and now provoke those expensive counter measures.

    • Markus, thanks, I thought that was probably the reason for the netting. We did notice there were lots of pigeons around…of course come to think of it, there were lots of pigeons in Bucharest and Amsterdam. It’s probably a common city problem…made worst by people thinking they’re doing something “good” by feeding them.

  2. A fine nighttime shot with excellent detail. I can appreciate your comments as to the weight of the easily transported cameras and the “big” camera. I’ve found my DSLR does a much better job of color accuracy too, but it’s still not full frame! drat!

  3. This looks like a very nice area to have stayed in and the photo is really nice. I wonder if someone in an adjacent building got a photo of you leaning out the window to get this shot.

    • Ken, now that would of been a wonderful shot…one for the story books…those crazy Americans. :-) It was a very nice area and the weather was cooperating while we were there.

  4. Will be looking forward to seeing images of the fall foliage.

    • I don’t know how much color there will be…I just hope we miss some of the crowds by going during the week. ;-)

  5. I’ve also seen the netting used in some of our cities, Omaha, NE is one of them. They have an older building, a courthouse I think, that is completely covered with netting. It is for the same reason.

    • It probably is for the same reason but I didn’t realize it had become such a problem and I hadn’t seen it here in the US. You travel much more than I.

  6. Nice view Earl. I was initially thinking the nets were to prevent bird smacks against the windows, but I suppose pigeons roosting also makes sense.

    I think it is interesting that Nikon hasn’t replaced the D700 yet, evidence of just what a winner they created. It is really hard to beat. Love the detail in this shot, and particularly because you present it in B&W. Perhaps it is an overstated observation about B&W, but the shapes and details really come alive without the colored lights of the night.

    • Thanks, Mark. It does seem very unusual for a camera like the D700 to go so long without an update. I know from experience they created a winner…but no updates are still strange in my book even if only a minor one. :-)

  7. No matter what you have some wonderful shots and memories of a great trip.

  8. That is a great nighttime image – I like how you managed to capture the contrast between the dark sky and the illuminated buildings.

    • Martina, I can’t take too much credit for that — I had my hands full just trying to overcome the physical restrictions of the netting. But luck is often as good as skill. :-)