The Photokina, one of the biggest trade shows for photography, will take place in Cologne from September 21 to 26. As Cologne is only half an hour away, I will probably go there, even though I am not too technology-oriented. Two years ago I was at the Visual Gallery, which was impressive. As the admission to the exhibitions is free, I will go there. But I am not yet sure I I also go to the trade fair. It probably depends: If i win a free ticket, I’ll go. The good thing is that there are plenty of opportunities to win free tickets, which I want to share with you. The dates in brackets give the respective deadlines.
Photoappar.at: Ralf-Jürgen Stilz hast 5 one-day tickets, you only have to ask him a question about lomography in the comments (in German, probably). (August 11 2010)
BlogTimes.info: Ronny has 10 tickets, but to have tha chance to get one you need to edit a photo he offers for download in DNG format. (August 31 2010)
The same holds true for the five day passes of Martin from visuelleGedanken. (15. August)
Answer the question “What do you look forward to most at this photokina” at fotoTopic and maybe you win one of ten tickets. (August 20)
If you send them 7 reasons why you use DiaShow 7, you might get one of the 150 day tickets from the Das AquaSoft Blog. (August 31)
EIZO gives away one two-ticket-set per week. (September 19)
The tanala Foto GmbH does the same among all it’s Facebook fans.
As a transition stage back to some photography blogging, I’d like to point you at a documentary: “The Eye 3D“. It was produced last year, as part of the International Year of Astronomy, and shows the “life and work at cerro paranal” in the Chilenian Acatama desert, where the Very Large Telescope is located.
On their website, you can find some 3D still pictures which you can enjoy if you have one of these red/blue glasses. The trailer below is in 2D, but I think it already gives an impression.
This post is my reaction to a call for all German Photography-Blogs. lts not very interesting, so I do not translate it. Instead, I will post another in a few moments.
Auf BlogTimes gibt es einen Aufruf von Ronny an alle deutschsprachigen Fotografieblogs, sich doch bitte zu melden. Dabei wird eine offenbar stattliche Liste von Blogs zum Thema Fotografie zusammen kommen. Ich melde mich mit diesem Beitrag ebenfalls gerne. Dazu muss ich aber erstmal einige Fragen beantworten. Wer das Blog regelmaessig liesst kennt meine Antworten sicherlich schon, daher gibt es gleich im Anschluss noch einen weiteren Beitrag.
Seit wann besteht Dein Fotografieblog?
Da muss ich kurz nachschauen … oh, seit dem 2. Juni 2008. Ich habe also in kürze zweijährigen Geburtstag … vielleicht sollte ich mir bis dahin noch etwas feierliches ausdenken.
Welche Schwerpunktthemen behandelt Dein Blog? ( z.B Allgemein, Tipps und Tricks, Technik, Fotowettbewerbe, Eigene Inhalte*** über die Fotografie, usw….)
Vor allem analoge schwarzweiss-Fotografie, darunter viele eigene Inhalte, die ich vorstelle, bespreche und erläutere. Ich tue das in der Hoffnung, dass andere und auch ich selbst etwas dadurch lernen. Zugegeben, manchmal endet das auch eher in philosophischen Betrachtungen. Ausserdem schreibe ich Ausstellungsbesprechungen und gebe hin und wieder allgemeinere Tipps und Hinweise oder beschreibe wie manche Bilder entstehen (zum Beispiel die UFO-Fälschungen). Neben der Fotografie kommen manchmal auch andere Themen zur Sprache.
Wieviel Beiträge veröffentlichst Du durchschnittlich pro Woche?
Das schwankt üblicherweise zwischen einem und drei pro Woche, momentan bin ich arbeitsbedingt in einem längeren Beitragstief, aus dem ich langsam wieder herauskriechen will. Insgesamt zählt fuer mich aber die Qualität und Länge eines Beitrags, nicht die bloße Veröffentlichungs-Frequenz.
Welche fotografischen Bereiche interessieren Dich in der Fotografie?
Nun, vom technischen her die analoge schwarzweiss-Fotografie, das merkt man beim Betrachten der Seite sehr schnell. Bevorzugte Genres und Motive sind hierbei Landschaften und Städte. Ausserdem einige konzeptionelle Serien, die eher dokumentarisch sind. Ein Bereich, der mich besonders interessiert, auch wenn ich selbst nicht sehr aktiv darin bin, ist die Reportagefotografie.
It is relaxing to look at a lot of classical photography. In the web, it is always about the most-recent camera models, the most trendy style and the most impressive photoshopping techniques. This noise suddenly vanishes when one enters the photo exhibition “Licht Gestalten”. The show in the Rheinisches Landes Museum in Bonn shows photography by Konrad Rufus Müller, from the years 1960 to 2010. They all are black and white, analogue and Müller himself printed them in his Darkroom. Even today he still works with his 1975 analogue medium format camera. And only with available light. Still he is successful and his photos are published in many important magazines.
Konrad Rufus Müller shoots portraits. Mostly German politicians. There is a reason why he often is called “the chancellor-photographer”. Since the first one, Konrad Adenauer, he has took the portraits of every single chancellor in Germany. And those of other politicians and well-known persons. Short texts in the exhibition tell the stories behind some of the photos. From those one can learn that contacts and recommendations are essential in this field. Furthermore, Müller meets his subjects at eye-level. He is neither stunned by their power, nor does he try to expose them in a bad way. He does not call himself a journalist, but a Artist (he studies painting), a chronicler maybe. The exhibition thus not only shows his portraits, but also still lifes and landscapes.
The presentation of the photos is structured alphabetical, according to the subjects’ names , not chronological. With Konrad Rufus Müller’s photography this works very well. Like the technology he uses, his stile has remained similar over the years, it seems. The exhibition is very enjoyable and interesting. It shows, that it is not of importance to follow every trend. The true photo artist better finds his or her own way, sticking to it.
Here comes the second part of my Quadrants photo series is from Sydney, Australia. For a description of the project, please have a look at the last post. Basically, I take black and white photos of skyscrapers from a special, vertical perspective to point out the order in urban planning from a human point of view. Up to now I have done this architecture photography in two big cities, Frankfurt in Germany and Sydney in Australia.
Compared to the pictures taken in Frankfurt, one problem becomes obvious: the Frankfurt photos have been produced on a day with completely blue sky. While the weather in Australia used to be fine, too, the sky does show some clouds. I used a dark red filter to darken the blue sky, giving me a contrast between the sun-lit facades of the buildings and the space in between. Unfortunately, this also increases the contrast between the clouds and the sky. That way in many pictures the sky is not as empty as in the Frankfurt shots, which makes the black and white photographs a bit more visually disturbed. A professional Artist might have wanted to wait for better conditions. But as that was not possible for me, I have to take what I got. And I am happy with several of them.
For now, these two cities are the only ones where I worked on this series. I would very much like to continue it in Paris, the La Defence area should be perfect for this concept.
This time, I will not only present and discuss one photo. No, you can enjoy a bunch of them at the same time. The reasons for this are manifold, but the crucial factor was that Marc from Take Out Photo announced his new Monthly Special: Concept.
After I have already missed last month’s special on masking (even though I did use masks for my faked UFO photos), I better participate early this month. The topic Concept is great. I prefer these more abstract ideas over technical processes. Furthermore, working in a conceptual manner is what makes a photographer an artist. There are way too many people out in the web who chase after ‘the perfect shot’. But in my opinion, true beauty lies in a series of pictures that are build around a concept. Only then they can communicate s meaning in the spaces between the individual shots. The interplay of pictures activates our mind, making us wonder: what is the reason to take these photos, why in this way, what is the motivation … what is the concept?
By now most of you know my Touristscopes series, which is highly conceptual. I don’t want to bore you with them again. Luckily for me (and you), I am currently going through my stacks of negatives, putting together a portfolio. It will feature some of my conceptual photographic works. I will create a webpage with them, where I can present several series, instead on focussing on single photos. But that will take a lot more time to finish. In the meantime I start by presenting my newest conceptual series. It is called ‘Quadrants’ (that might change in the future). Before I go on, explaining my motivation and, yes, the concept, I guess it is best to show you some pictures first.
As some of you might remember, I have this ongoing photo-series project: I take pictures of coin-operated binoculars and public pay-telescopes. As I don’t know of any proper name for them, I coined the term ‘Touristscopes‘. They fascinate me because of their appearance: they resemble faces, robot-like. The effect is called pareidolia. It is a human habit to recognize a face in the strangest things.
When I was in France last summer, in Normandy to be precise, I was able to collect some more touristscope photos. I used to shot them in a very standardized manner, filling the frame like head-on portraits. I always use the same 24mm lens and preferably a 100 ISO black and white film. The touristscope-types do not vary a lot, there seem to be three major models in France, which I have seen in Germany, too. That’s why I decidetd to also take pictures of the surrounding, the context of the touristscopes, in the future.
Below, I present you five of the touristscopes from Normandy. I choose to show them as a list, because that was the January Monthly Special: Lists at Take Out Photo. Finally, I managed to participate in a monthly challenge again.
Arromanches-les-Bains (overlooking the beach where the allied invasion landed on D-Day. Arromanches was where the allies build a temporary harbour to offload supplies for the troops.):
In Arromanches, too. Note the similar posture of the tourists :
Fecamp:
Le Havre:
Villers-Sur-Mer (Situated right next to the Greenwich Meridian, obviously.) :
As you can see above, the first bunch of films exposed in Down Under has finally arrived. I guess it makes sense to start with something typical, so here are two icons of the city of Sydney and Australia in general: The Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, combined in one picture. I too the photo from a ferry departing at the Circular Quay, using the EF 17-40 mm f/4.0 lens at it’s widest focal length. The shot is nothing special, just a black and white photo of the two landmarks (By the way: shouldn’t it be called citymarks?). At least the sky makes the photograph a bit more dramatic, I am happy I decided to buy a dark red filter for this lens, too.
So , now I’ve got ten out of 34 films developed. Time for scanning them. Unfortunately, I became an involuntary workaholic recently. There is one paper I was asked to contribute a section to, and that has to be finished as soon as possuble. As usually, things look easy at first, but it turns out to become more and more complex. I hope it is worth the time. It’s a pity I can not give more details, but before it is published, I prefer to keep quiet.
The title explains itself. Bloggers are supposed to present their best picture shot last year. Of course it is difficult to choose only one photo. Especially as half of my pictures right now exist in a latent form on undeveloped black and white film only. And the majority of my scanned photos is not even edited. But I had a look at them and decided for the picture presented above. It is, at least, on of my preferred photos of 2009.
The black and white shot was taken last summer in Normandy, France. It shows the entrance to the harbour of Le Havre. Two protection walls ending in buildings and a small lighthouse each. I took it from a barrier protecting the marina. It is a long-time exposure of 30 seconds, resulting in the flattened sea and the slightly washed-out sky. In the center you see the blurred structures of small boats from a sailing school leaving the calm water of the harbour for the sea. I like the contrast in the photograph and the hard structures of the rocks in the foreground and the buildings in the background. The exposure time could have been a bit longer, but my factor 1000 grey filter did not allow for more. I might get a stronger one for the next time I am near the sea.
Hey Guys, well, I am back in Germany now. After some warm Days in Sydney, Australia (including some hours at the sun-filled beaches of Manly and Bondi ) I have returned, just to find Europe freezing under a carpet of snow. The return flight on the 22nd of December was good timing: Right after the first cold weekend with closed airports, but before increased security at airports. So everything went smoothly, although the 22nd was my ‘longest day’ so far: it had 34 hours instead of 24, because of the time-difference of 10 hours. We got up at 3 in the morning in Sydney and arrived after noon here in Bonn.
Well, then there was Christmas, which we more or less did not notice at all: jet-lag and coming from 30 degrees Celsius at a palm-lined beach is not the best preparation. And now there is Snow everywhere, and the temperatures remain freezing for the last and probably also the next week. This actually slows down my film-processing. I’ll explain why:
All in all I shot 34 rolls of black and white film in Australia (well, and in Singapore). In Sydney I finally ran out of film, I had packed 30 rolls, so I had to buy some. Quite expensive over there… Anyway, now they all have to be developed. I prefer to do this on my own, in the bathroom-lab. But I can only process two at a time. It would take me weeks to develop all of them, especially because of the time they take to dry when it is cold. So I decided do send them to a good lab for processing. The first 10 are on their way already. But I am afraid of sending the others right now. The frost can not be good for them. So I am forced to wait for warmer days.
Oh, before I forget it: Happy New Year to everybody. The last one was extremely busy, with me finishing my last exam, helping to organize the TDGBonn conference (and attending it), writing my thesis, giving a talk about it and becoming a PhD Student. I married my wonderful wife, who also finished her studies in fall, and we went to Australia. I would not have expected so much to happen in only one year. But it is a good feeling to look back at it. And it somehow fits that it was the International Year of Astronomy. For me, it also was a personal year of astronomy.
Of course there is more to do. Right now I finally write the paper about my work. This is my first priority right now. I gave a first draft to my professor yesterday, so I can spend some time on other tings over the weekend. And there are new projects planned. I am eager to tell you about them, but I better wait until everything is settled.
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