Off for Budapest
I am flying to Budapest tomorrow and will be back January 28th.
I hope to bring back some wonderful photography. I hope you do the same.
See you in a week!
Yours
I am flying to Budapest tomorrow and will be back January 28th.
I hope to bring back some wonderful photography. I hope you do the same.
See you in a week!
Yours
Hello to all my dear followers of this Blog.
Today I want to say sorry for not being too active in the past two weeks.
I was in the middle of my exams, and had to focus on school and several other, also photography related, quiet time-consuming stuff.
But now I am through all that and will hopefully be able to focus more on this blog and photography.
Nevertheless I got some good news:
I successfully participated in a big photography contest and made it into the top three in two of three topics. This was a Berlin competition, and I am now qualified for the national contest, for which I hope the best. Cross Fingers!
At the moment I only know that I am within the top three, but I dont know which places I made.
I will of course update you as soon as I know, this information is quiet recent so forgive me the lack of details.
Thank you so much for everything!
Yours
My Photography is a product of the digital age.
I started photography with a DSLR (Canon EOS 400D) and if I think of analogue experiences of mine, I have to think back at least 7 or 8 years when you usually took a compact film camera and 2 films on any trip you did.
I never actually “learned” real photography.
What I mean by real?
I mean, I never learned photography from A to Z. The D in DSLR makes it a lot easier to get into it, and to produce technically “good” photos. The cameras of today are very customer friendly and not made for professionals only anymore.
Dont get me wrong, I love digital photography and I sincerely believe that I would not have catched the “fire” if there wouldnt be DSLRs. Postprocessing my photos is a big reason why I love it so much, so is sharing on Flickr and other platforms. I would totally sort myself into the DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHER category.
Nevertheless I often felt that the way I approach photography is a whole different one than how photographers 20 years back had to do it.
When I go shooting, I often shoot up to 500 or 700 shots a day.
I am completely happy if there are 5 shots that I consider good enough to process them.
I rather shoot 10 images of a scene than to think about a really good concept and get the ONE shot that really works.
A big reason for this is that digital photography is literally for free once you have got the equipment.
You dont need to pay films and pay for developing them, you only need enough Hard Disk memory (cheap as hell today).
I dont think that there is anything wrong with it, I believe its good that SLR photography has made its way to the average consumer and that most of the people who want to photograph can afford it. But its changing the awarness for THE IMAGE, its not worth anymore what it used to be worth. Today you take images at hundreds without being limited to 36 shots on a roll and the costs that follow.
Since I know that I am usually photographing in a bulk, and that my archives of the last three years is consisting of more than 120.000 shots, for a long time now i felt that I wanted to get a feeling for how photography used to be.
Now I did the first step.
On Mandys and mine trip to Leipzig on the weekend before last weekend, we visited a huge flea market a bit outside the city centre.
It was a real flea market, not the mainstream fake version that you often find in Berlin, and the things that were offered were actually old, many broken, and the interesting things hid between tons of useless stuff. You get the idea.
Many sellers offered old analogue cameras, most of them broken compact ones, and some overpriced SLRs.
But at one certain selling tent, this guy had only one camera, on a CANVAS HOLDER in the middle of the table.
I instantly grabbed it and liked it.
It was a Exa 1a, a name that even I, who has never really been interested in analogue cameras, had heard before.
I played with it, without really knowing what I did there, when another customer approached me, telling me how good this camera is. He showed me that everything was working and even told me some of the improvements of this version to the standard one. He also assured me that the offered price was a very fair one for a camera in this condition.
This somehow made it for me.
After two minutes of bargaining I bought it, and felt proud the rest of the day.
I also looked it up online, and from what I read its a camera with good reputation and high building quality.
The fact that it was produced in G.D.R. assured me of this.
At the moment I am still in the “playing mode”, I havent got any films yet.
I cant wait to start trying it, and more so I can hardly wait to pick up my first developed film roll.
I am planning to use it only from time to time, and mostly as a stylistic device.
I am hoping that this will teach me a lot about real photography, without digital sensor and in camera light metering.
I will of course keep you updated about how this will develop (pun intended).
But for starting with this, I could really need some help.
What film types can you recommend me? I would like to shoot Black and White Film, if the price difference to color film is not utopic. Where is the best place to get it?
Are there any tips you can give an analogue amateur?
What is the Exa best for?
What are its soft spots?
Thanks to all readers!
Yours
Today I uploaded my shot #600 to Flickr, and I felt like its time to reflect the quiet long time it has been and to summarize how Flickr helped develop me and my photography.
600 images, that equals about 3 1/2 years of actively shooting, processing and sharing.
Many things changed over the time.
My Photography evolved from the snapshots of a Beginner to something at least amateurish with a bit of composition and creativity and will hopefully improve even more in the future years.
My cooperation with Getty Images, one of the worlds leading stock image agencies, lifted my expensive hobby to a revenue source that gave me the chance to let my equipment pay for itself.
In September 2011 I will finish my second year of selling through Getty, and I am still very happy with the sales I am having and the share I am getting.
Personally I discovered travelling as my favourite second hobby (not really through the influence of Flickr but certainly through the impact of photography on my life) and through Flickr I met many many people from the countries I visited, who showed me around their city, who I showed around mine.
I am still very good friends with many of them and this influence is really opening my mind.
I also met several people from Berlin there who are sharing the same hobby.
A big thank you to everyone who I met through Flickr, you are awesome guys and girls!
I see Flickr as an old friend who I know for a long time, and who introduces me to some of his friends every here and then. Its incredible and incomparable how people from all over the world, people of every belief, living condition and political attitude meet here for sharing the love for the same passion.
This really changed my view of the world, and it makes me love photography even more.
Photography makes it so easy to get in contact with new people, even for this single purpose, I wouldnt like to miss Flickr as a means of communication of like-minded people.
Also photographers usually know special spots in their cities that are actually…special.
By having a locally experienced guide, you can really discover places that are probably not interesting to the average tourist, but which are definitely photogenic and unique.
I had this luck several times and can only recommend it.
Yeah, Flickr really helped me a lot developing as a photographer, and it has always had a big influence on me.
I did not only shoot for me, but also for my followers. This made me shoot more regularly, gave me a kind of rythm, and delivered a constant flow of exposure and feedback, which definitely had a huge influence on the photography that I am doing today.
Some of you may probably want to know some hard facts, numbers etc.
Here are some my Flickr Stats, dated August 30th:
I registered on Flickr in December 2007, and am actively using the service since March 2008.
Up to this point I call 669 people a contact, in return 7805 people call me a contact.
This is an amazing number, and I am proud that so many people are interested in my photography.
I am also using Flickr as a private image storage, I have amassed 128.844 private images that I store there.
In terms of visitor stats, I received a total of 1.358.375 clicks, which I am very proud of.
I usually get around 1.000 to 1.500 clicks a day. A bit more on days that I am publishing a photo.
My most clicked image by far is the Sick Fearless Bastard, with over 200.000 clicks.
This image got impressively viral, and still receives around 250 clicks a day.
In the Flickr search it ranks within the top 10 most interesting for the terms “cat” and “kitten”, which gets me a couple of clicks every day.
Interesting fact: The owner of the cat and balcony is a Flickrite, that I am now very good friends with.
I met him in Berlin and he invited me over to stay in his apartment. Big proof for everything I said in the last paragraph.
Surprisingly the Sick Fearless Bastard is not my most commented one, even though its the most interesting (Flickrs opinion), the most clicked and most faved shot.
The most commented shot of mine is this (quite old) shot, that I still love a lot.
I will write an article about the Sick Fearless Bastard in the close future, so if you are interested, keep an eye on this blog or simply subscribe to my Feed!
OK, thats it from my side-
what feeling are you having towards Flickr?
Whats your Flickr stories?
I would love to hear them.
BTW: I am always interested in a joint shoot in Berlin, so if you are coming anytime soon simply contact me.
Yours,