Hello. Here come some rooty tooty fresh and fruity pictures for your amusement. Enjoy.
Early morning somewhere in Germany last fall.
Schlagwort: Festbrennweite
Schichtung
Eurohotdog
Happy new year 2016. Catching up with the blog.
02/2015: Red chairs
I haven’t had much time for the blog lately, so this post was queuing for quite a while now, several months actually. In case you notice something weird in some frames, thats actual snow, which dates the image back to last winter. I’m currently right in the middles of semester 4 of Design study and as always working on several projects at the same time. Quick overview: New CI for “Türkisch-Deutsches Filmfestival Nürnberg” in typo class, a book about fonts in graphic class and several small photo projects to topics such as “home” and “rituals” for photo class.
Some of the photo projects will soon be on the website which im currently updating with new images. Also im working on several portfolios for application stuff. This post also contains some of these soon to be published works, as well as some commission stuff and of course lots of private stuff and uni stuff. Since there are some hundreds of pics waiting for the next post, its about time this on gets released, so have fun scrolling through some pics.
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Good morning.
sad days.
At the museum.
Im not a friend of exploiting the homeless or poor but i like to analyse public life in its entirety. Notice all those people rushing to work or doing shopping or getting home to their loved ones while this homeless man is sleeping on the ground. This is a very common scene in every big city i guess, still sad.
Taking a break.
01/2015: Bye bye Chiquita!
Hi folks. I have been pretty busy with the semester projects (see type magazine layouts and Frisches Design documentation) and with exhibitions, portfolio updating, relauching the website and arranging some nice series (check out here), doing some research about other photography and fine art schools and also some agencies and photographers that may be in for an internship. I also had some commissions and some personal stuff to deal with. So here’s a belated 2015 warm-up featuring some pictures and stories from last fall until now.
Starting off, some impressions from the “Frisches Design 2014” exhibition/conference. This was some night before the start when we set up the big plastic donuts
Mario, head of team Plastic Fantastique that created the inflatable plastic spaces, was rather busy watching the Champions League match of FC Bayern.
Poster of a Gerhard Richter exhibition.
09/2014: Strom aus ♥
Hello.
The last weeks have been really exhausting, work-wise, i’m looking forward to find some rest and some time to lean back in the winter holidays and to review the last year with all its ups and downs, its little unexpected joys and strenuous setbacks.
I hope you will too, because from time to time you just need to hold on to question yourself, your goals and ideals and to reflect on one more chapter of your journey.
So, uni-wise, we’ve been doing a whole lot the last few months: We filmed a documentary for Audiovisual Comm. class, did some advertising shoots for Photo class and created magazine layouts for Typo class.
Also i started doing some smaller commissions, which is cool because of the experience and the people i get to know and to work with. And then theres also some other photo projects im working on plus my complete portfolio which has to be revisited for the website.
So for now, here is the last entry for 2014, enjoy!
Welcome to the world of the rich and famous!
and the crazy ones!
A few days before our next episode of Fachschaftsgrillen, we ided to get some supplies.
Or say, a lot of supplies.
07/2014: Balloons & Coffee
Constantly shooting all kinds of stuff. Here are some more frames from Summer 2014. And i also found another great piece of music for this post, the new David Guetta single. lol.
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Cruisin around the Dutzendteich.
On the menue: Nothing.
Returning empty beer cartons.
August Critical Mass Nürnberg.
Critical Mass passing our street. The Hexar was somewhat irritated by the fly screens.
In a park. An interview of some poetry slam dude.
Got something for me?
Printing some stuff at uni + shooting some Trix in the Leica M6 (ID-11 since i ran out of Xtol)
Graduation exhibition. Some of us younger students did checkout and sold tickets and exhib catalogues.
05/2014: Two Lovers
The last weeks have really been exhausting, but in a good way. Since we’re doing real projects in classes instead of taking exams or tests, the semester ends with a big bang and everybody is hasting through the labs and hallways on their way to finish all kinds of exhibition stuff, portfolios, posters, web pages, essays, darkroom prints, movies or installations. People are stressed because of tight schedules, frustrated because of problems with computers, printers, programs, enlargers and all kinds of other stuff and at the same time happy because the semester is almost done and the summer season is ahead of us. I will post more stuff i did in photo class and typo class in the next blog for i’m not done with my portfolio yet. So here are some pictures covering the past months from mid-semester until now.
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In typography class. 
In the studio, working on some large format table top stuff. The whole process is sooo daaamn slow, especially when you’re used to shoot rangefinders, but the quality you get of those huge 4×5 negs is just worth it. 
It was that time of year again. Makes a nice composition.
In a bar. 1600 ISO at 2.8, i think about 1/8th. So yeah, i decided to get a Nokton again, i just need those two more stops.
OstAnders festival at Studio Eins. Some of us showed some (digtal) prints or illustrations.
Anselm approving the setup. 
Lonely beer bottle.
At Neues Museum. “Unschärfe” (=blur) was an installation inside and outside the museum. I also took a photo of the installation object, a huge room made out of steel grids and used it for a dyptichon for our human rights topic.
This dyptich i shot for the human rights topic. It is in fact a small piece of colour negative film, regularily exposed with a small pinhole camera i made from a 35mm film can (black one of course). The top part is actually shote inside the “Unschärfe” construction.
Some plants behind frosted glass. Looks haunting somehow but interesting at the same time. So i took a frame at 1/15th or so.
Silly subway stuff.
People reading.
Another Olympus XA artwork. It seems to have some trouble transporting the film for the first 1-3 frames. Looks funny though.
Kids drawing. Thats some HP5+ Stephan lent me btw since i ran out of trix.
Cig break.
Another election. Discussing who to vote for. Pathetic.
The smaller the camera, the harder the focusing. 
They built a wall around a tree, how nice is that.
Jonas and his digital pinhole cam. What a cheater 😀
Guess what, election. This time at the faculty. Some of us volunteered as election workers.
Back in photo class. We listened to some lecture about great photographers. Tanja all of a sudden pulled out a blank loaf of bread and a knife and was like “whos hungry?” and started cutting some slices. What a moment!
Olga and i went to the yearly “mobility flea market” to get a bike for her.
Printed this one.
Finally, a friend for my old bike. 
Saturday morning at uni, Fachschaft breakfast time. Andi also brought some board games for the students to play in the community room. Its actually like a kindergarden but with typography and stuff…
Beppo and Basti, newly elected leaders of the student council.
Oh noes! 
Kornmarkt blues.
I wonder who arranged this and why.
Improvisation.
Hanging out after class. Kentmere 100 in Rodinal (Hexar AF). 
Smooth light that evening. Shot from our bedroom window. 
What a statement! And such nice structures too. 
waste removal coming through! 
Two lovers. 
Buddy for sale. 
I thought that was a funny moment. 
Sometimes i like to take a picture that is nothing special but has a single small detail that makes it less boring.
More Altstadtflohmarkt impressions. Stephan bought this very old portrait. The technical quality of this little piece was just impressive. 
Some happy people spreading the joy. 
Basti, Stephans roommate.
Inside the comic book store. 
Back to good old Trix+Xtol. Hanging out at uni, David enjoying his summertime coffee.
A poster at the academy of fine arts. Susi and i were there for a lecture about icons in photography. 
Taking portraits. 
Benno, shot with the M2 + Xsync-connected lighting.
Litte Mike discovered his hand.
Julian
Illustration exhibition of two great graduation works at Neues Museum. Prof Ackermann holding the opening speech.
Great use of space and arrangement of exhib pieces. 
We went to Kulturgarten later for a beer. Sometimes i does not matter how good you try to hide, you just fail. 
Basti in busy work mode.
That night there was a big storm outside and we watched from the window. I thought why not capture a lightning strike on film, should be bright enought to illuminate the scene. The first frame came out completely dark because i missed. This is the second try. 1/8th of a second at 1.4.
Shooting some footage for Cast class at Idas and Sibylles place.
Kafka, who was our actor. Killer dude.
Thank god the final scene takes place in a Biergarten!
Goin’ fishin’.
More family time in my uncles garden.
Looking up. 
Since i have left some rolls of TMY (= TMax 400), i shot one for fun. This is shot from the balcony, looking down in the hidden garden. 
A heart-shaped cake for Günter.
Best buds?
Shitting pigeons. Already printed this one. Well, Tmax definitely has its advantages. A very modern look and just non-existent grain. I still prefer the Trix’ character though.
At the bus station. Shitty weather. 
Some lines
Getting ready for Rock im Park.
Machines blocking the way for cyclists. 
The other day, Olga got sick. 
Back in the lab! Its Fuji Acros time! Leica M6 and Nokton. 
Another christian-ish pic of Christian.
Franzi and her Pentax ME.
Tanja jumping in the frame.
Some place at the border of Nürnberg. People running up the hill.
People fishing.
Some frames from the Volksfest in spring. 
Especially when shot in bright sunlight, Acros is just superb!
More trees for Nürnberg.
Duzy hurt his leg.
A man enjoying the sun, view from the lab in the little yard.
Thanks, i think i get it now!
Walking around, taking some pictures.
At another market, women hanging up some baby stuff.
What a lovely flag. 
We enjoyed some of the warm days at Naturgartenbad, which is just a great place to relax and spend the whole day at. Shot some Delta 100 too.
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Edited version. 
Untouched raw version from the LS-40 (=Nikon Coolscan IV) + Vuescan. Delta 100 is just good stuff. And seems like it loves HC-110 for development. Oh yeah, after using a dedicated film scanner for some time now, i have this hint for you: If youre struggeling with the quality of your scans, throw your flatbed in the trash (talking 35mm here) and get a real scanner. If your scans are still no good, your process most likely sucks. Check every step, like EVERY step: Camera working properly? Film stored correctly? Chemicals fresh? Dev process going well? How about your temps? Using wetting agent? Please please dont get disencouraged by all this stuff. But theres just some parameters that you should take care of if you want good quality (technical quality) negatives. However, having fun is still no. 1 on the list of course!
More hanging out. Olga looking at my grandpas sketchbook from the 40s and 50s. He made the last sketches in this in 2006 which is kinda cool.
We spent the next day at Tanjas parents’ house she was keeping while they were on vacation. What an awesome place with all kinds of trees, bushes and beds.
View from the greenhouse on the beds.
Mandy, the dog, was exhausted because of the sunny weather. Shes 18.
Another frame for the “Metering-on-my-hand” series.
Its beautiful because its in b/w.
We also took some portraits for photoclass with the 500CM. For the human rights semester topic, we had to abuse a roll of FP4+ 120 film negatives mechanically after development. I decided to cut up some portraits and mix the parts back togtheer into different portrait-like close-ups. I’ll do a scan of the print to show it in the next post probably.
Before destroying the negs i made sure to do a proper scan of every portait, just in case…
We went to the graveyard later.
So i worked on my project for the typography exhibition and cut some posters and stuff. Since i couldnt find a proper mat to cut on, i just grabbed a random magazine and cut on its back. Later i realised it was some LFI issue. Sorry guys.
The next day, i decided to take some photographs of the Rock im Park aftermath after work. The weather was perfect for Delta and i found some beautiful stills…
The whole area was of course cleaned some hours later, but still.
Some guys deinstalling some beams.
Beer can art.
I wonder what party was going on here a few days ago.
The pure joy of nature. Already did a print. Some weeks ago, i bought some packs of very old (30+ years) Tetenal Speed paper from a former photographer. Very nice guy. The paper is quite old and has gotten about 1-2 grades smoother (that makes a grad 4 back then a grad 2-3 today and so on), but all packs were still sealed and stored correctly. Turns out these old packs of Tetenal (24x30cm and 30x40cm) still work nearly perfectly. And also, now that i finally do darkroom prints, it turns out that my negs are already pretty solid for printing, which is great. For example, the print i did of the above frame on some grad 3 speed paper turned out almost exactly like the web version, lookwise. Deep blacks and rich highlights, though theres a lot more shadow detail in the print than in the scan. So im glad that all the time i intuitively edited my scans to a print-ish look, and not to something completely different. Sure, dodging and burning, multigrade and fiber is still to come, but for now i’m perfectly happy with what im getting out of my negatives. 
On top
Some strange people lurking around, looking for empty bottles and all kinds of stuff, gathering all kinds of crap like rats. Kinda interesting.
More people enjoying the green fields.
Some people looking for bottles on the left side, some weird dude taking a sunbath right in the middle of all this crap on the right side. Man do i love people.
Ok, next weekend. Visiting Olgas family again. (Back to Trix)
Happy grandparents.
Behind the scene.
Back to work.The Designers Night, a huge exhib at campus, was about to begin the next day. The team did some final installation work.
We also rent some oldschool couches and armchairs to set up a 70s style “chillout zone”. I wish we couldve kept these forever! Damn fire regulations.
Chef 1 and Chef 2.
The girls working on their exhibition stuff + Anselm on framing stuff.
Who would not want to move in here right away?
The WM was about to start.
Designers Night 7 exhib opening.
Beppo, head of team DN7 aka. space design class holding his opening speech.
Benno with a print from Lenny’s type/print experiment.
Back home, we invited Olgas family to our (not so) new place to have a nice barbecue together.
Olgas dad took some shots too!
I always find it hard to meter inside tents or bright rooms or such, it is way brighter than the meter says and i often end up with very dense because 1-2 steps overexposed negs. These could be “restored” pretty good using curves in Lightroom (because trix is killer!) but the overall tonality suffers a lot, of course.
The next day, we went for walk outside the city.
What an impressive secluded place. I like to come here every now and then, just the wander around and clear my head.
Leftover asparagus.
Neighbours keepin it classy. Shooting some TMax 400 again.
“Funny” postcards. Reminds me that theres actually “designers” that “design” this kind of stuff.
Working on our group presentation for idea development class. Michi got himself a nice Rollei 35 from ebay for 25€. What a sweet little thing with a mighty little lens.
Lilit and Beppo, doing nothing.
Curious tourists.
More presentation work. Man skyping with his daughter? (i guess) in the back.
Wasting more frames.
Whörd subay station, Beautiful light due to some glass construction on top.
Basti the thinker. So, nokton wide-open. Bokeh: Depends. Looks disturbing in one shot (above) and perfectly even in the next (below). Sharpness: Pretty good imo.
Somebody got a nice present.
Walked around later that day. Not the best weather, but i felt like just shooting some frames.
A strange lot of all kind of poles.
And some random geometry. Good night!
04/2014: Clouds under a bridge
Some new and not so new stories because i just started developing C-41 again. Lots of uni stuff, exhibs, festivals, excursions and of course photo class stuff going on. Some personal frames in between too. Im shooting a lot lately and i wouldnt wanna miss it. Not as much street as i would like to though, but that’ll change soon.
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Heres what happens if youre shooting with several cameras: Your chronological order will be pretty much fucked up. We ordered some film and paper for the photoclass and also two Tetenal C-41 Kits. So i started developing color negative film again in the lab at uni. Here are some older frames from around the start of 2nd semester.
So it turned out that nobody had done some manual small tank development in the lab for years. Usually, large tanks are used wich are permanently installed and connected to fresh water. Very comfortable but not very much fun if you ask me. Plus they only hold bw chemicals. Time to do some C-41! So when we turned on the water we got several liters of yellowish-dirty water. After the water turned clear or what we thought looked clear again, we started filling some tanks to pre-heat the chemicals and the small tank. However a water temp of about 40°C was wayyy to optimistic since the water had been running for about 10mins already and the boiler tank was pretty empty. So we decided to dev at 30°C. After the final rinse the film looked pretty bad, probably because of dirty water, non-working fixer because of low temp or whatever. After throwing it in the fixer again for about 5 minutes and washing again we put the roll in the dryer for another 10mins and everything was fine. The first frames have a weird blueish (so orange-brown on the neg) teint along the top side (see above) but overall, the film looks pretty good. However, i do not recommend to improvise with the use of your chemicals the way we did, except you really need to. Things can get really inconsistent and i guess we were just lucky this time.
Evening sun.
Nice colors at my way to work. Ektar with mad saturation of course (In the Hexar AF).
View out of our kitchen window at night.
Some color frames from the open day / portfolio presentation day. We used all the tables of this class room for the exhibition.
Left: My work, right: Stephan mounting his work.
Very nicely captured is what i thought before i realized that the snack box person on the right walking into the frame is me, so it must have been Stephan who took that shot.
Hexar in my hands again. Notice the kick-ass drying marks from the dirty lab water. Im pretty confident though that the more often we use it from now on, the better the water will become, once all that old lime and rust and shit is washed out.
Looking exited.
Ektar kicking that spring time right in your face. This blossom actually lasts only for a couple of days so when i passed by the scene on my bike i thought why not stop and take a boring picture?
Sandra with pink hair.
Some barbecue color frames.
Back to Tri-X. Scenes like these make me smile.
Nice BW Fuhrpark BMW. 
Kids checking out a mag. 
Simon and his shirt #3.
Olga waving me over. We visited a lecture about Foodsharing with Raphael Fellmer at the Bildungszentrum. 
Nice backyard.
Saturday photo class. Elmas waiting while we tried several light settings. 
Once the Sinar was set up properly, we metered the scene. 
Stephan metering. 
We shot some Polaroids and several sheets of FP4. Loading those backs was damn tricky since nobody except Stephan had done it before (including me, what a shame).
The next day, Andi & Irina and little Mike came for a visit.
One for Stephan. 
Btw i shot those with the Jupiter-12. Decent image quality for a 50€ lens huh?
For a walk around the block. Since Andi and Irina will have _a lot_ of beautiful digital shots of Mike, i think it would be nice for them to have some classic b/w frames too, right? 
In the studio. Mik did a shooting and i assisted and took some snaps on the side.
Connected the Hexar to the big light screens here. Works perfectly, in case youre planning to do a shooting with lights and flashes and stuff with your Hexar AF 🙂
Time for some portraits.
Bernd in early friday morning class.
By the time im writing these captions Nuremberg already has been relegated down to second league. Lol
I wonder what being a father is like.
Visiting Basti and Beppo. What a classy bathroom!
Still working on our first “yearbook” from first semester. We’ll probably print about 25 books.
Benno talking about a photograph he took for photoclass.
Elmas with glasses.
Visiting an exhibition with design history class. How many pairs can you spot?
Mik taking some miniature frames with his miniature cam. Its not a real camera actually but it makes shutter noises and flashes a little light.
We checked out a store that sells some old cameras. Poor collection, but thats Nürnberg. The small Minox 35 was kinda overpriced.
Since i had a flat tire, Mik and i walked through the city to the nearest bike shop and to his place to fix my bike.
Mik’s sweet Nikon with a broken shutter :/
Fixing my tire.
At the Ohmrolle Spring Collection 2014, an annual film festival where design students show their work to the public, semester 1 (30 sec commercial that we did) to 7 (huge impressive graduation works). The night was hosted by the Cinecitta movie theater which provided its 3 largest halls for the event. Jonas getting ready with a beer.
This was about 30mins before the beginning. Speeches and so were all held in hall #1 with livestreams to #2 and #3 reaching a total of about 1000+ people in the audience.
Basti and Sandra.
Elmas and me.
Tension rising right before the start.
People convinced me to take that shot. This is while our small group did a little thank speech after our movie was shown. I was pretty insecure whether to take a shot right in the face of a thousand people but im glad i did, though its not a masterpiece. It is more about the spirit and the will to document an unique moment. So in moments like these, you just ask yourself, are you or are you not a photographer? And then you just do it.
Exhib
“Puzzling images”
Hanging out at Julians place on a friday night. Anselm mixing white russian.
Roommate of Julian who got pretty wasted after a while.
Julian
Cheers!
Finishing the roll whith some attic stills. Damn good afternoon light. Should be perfect for some portraits like Marc does them.
Switching to kentmere 100 + rodinal in the M6. Sometimes the line between documenting and exposing starts fading, so it is the intention that becomes more important i think.
Hanging out after class.
Synchronized cig-lighting.
Curious ducks.
Cordula
They came so close we almost could pet them.
What on the menue?
Kitchen dev station.
Olga looking beautiful.
Faculty trip to some exhibitons in Baden-Baden. Started giving the k100 about 1 stop more light here, it seems to appreciate it.
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Prof. Schaden in front of the Kunsthalle, talking about the exhibition.
Benno taking frames while smoking a cig like a pro 🙂
Inside the foyer.
The exhibition Room Service is about art/artists in hotels and hotels per se as pieces of art.
So the exhib was inside the actual floorways and rooms of several hotels which was an interesting concept. Even more interesing though was the fact that while we had a look at the images and installations, the hotel staff kept cleaning rooms and attending their everyday business so at some point exhibition and reality started mixing.
Oh yeah and i also took a self in the bathroom.
After the exhibition, exploring the city.
Weve never been to Baden-Baden before. Turns out the city and its people are incredibly wealthy and the cityscape really consists of only parks, gardens, museums and luxurient mansions with a touch of France or Italy or whatever.
Old school.
We ran into David who in the meantime checked out some stores to buy some post cards. Also, i ran out of film but found a DM drug store and bought a roll of new APX 100 (3,45€, so pretty cheap).
According to Lenny, Mik and Simona, this could become a new series. For a stranger, this looks pretty dumb since i meter on my hand with the M6 most of the time, so why not take advantage of it?
Making it a day.
I have to say, the APX looks pretty good here.
Inside the museum for the JR exhib. People waiting in line to get their portait taken and printed on a huge poster (see below). Little girl watching whats going on.
Taking home the portrait.
So we had a beer on a bench across the street and just enjoyed the weather and i took some quick pictures.
A 100% crop. Funny that even the baby noticed us. She smiled and waved right after the shot, the day was just too nice to not be in a good mood.
Taxi, Baden-Baden style.
On the bus, going back home. Some people couldn’t decide where to sit so our driver got pissed and started grumping. I guess its not his fault, he also has to stick to time schedules and orders.
A proper reaction.
The last sunrays.
Back home, at Steffis new place.
New York, London, Nürnberg, Hongkong. Seems legit.
Some…thing.
Some more Ektar. Hexar because its pretty decent for a bike ride.
Early morning, Neli in front of the lab.
So on day the mailman brought me the big package we ordered for photoclass, so this is nothing but a proof.
Films, sleeves, some C-41 chems and some multigrade paper. Yep, thats about 800€. Doesnt look that much actually.
What a morning!
Weekend in Neustadt with Olgas parents. Time for some fuji acros. Olga taking a family portrait. Focusing with a rangefinder is not that easy when you first try it. Hair on neg for sharpness scale.
The kind of portrait i prefer.
Ok lets make some Pelmeni! First, make some dough with flour, water, salt and stuff.
Let it rest, then knead and stretch it. Cut out some little circles with a mug or so.
Fill with meat (or vegetables or whatever you like) and close the edges.
Thats how it should look like before cooking. Boil for several minutes in broth. Youre done.
Enjoy!
On the streets again.
At a big anti-war demonstration.
A man taking some notes and sketches of the scene.
Its pretty simple actually.
Mother and son.
Mother and daughter.
Sleepy kid with family vs. sleeping homeless men. Makes me think. The topic for this semesters photo class is “human rights” btw. Thats all for now.
03/2014: Among friends
Things are on a constant move. The second semester of design studies has started and it is damn fun. We’re permanently learning a lot of stuff. Not in a here-go-read-that-800-pages-book-about-mechanical-engineering kind of way i got used to in the past but in a learning-by-doing kind of way which is very very cool. Plus i’m getting to know more and more people better, not only from my class but from all the design classes. They’re nothing but great. Besides that, Olga and i are more than happy in our new home and im still working on instead of in the darkroom. So here are some new pictures and stories.
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These are some random shots from the Konica Hexar AF and a roll of Porst 400 color negative film. Yes, color. But since i ran out of C-41 chemicals and i didnt want to spend money on getting a single roll of cheap film developed, i browsed the internets for alternative dev methods. Turns out that you actually can develop C-41 film in BW Chemicals (i did not know that). So long story short, i developed the film in Rodinal 1+100 for a good 60 minutes @ 20°C. Seems like this combo will develope just EVERY negative film more or less correctly.
This film is already several months old, so i pretty much forgot about everything i captured with it. Some frames would have looked very nice in color i guess. Generally, when shooting color, i tend to focus on different things like an elegant combination of , yes, colors and a moody composition. With b&w, its more about light and shadows and geometric structures. So these are the frames that i think work good as monochromes too.
You may notice the subtle accentuated grain.
Im also still having trouble with bromide drag (the lighter areas on the bottom of some frames) which is caused by too little agitation of the developer (stand development). But besides this and the massive grain explosion, the tonal range is rediculously good imo. This is Olgas former school building.
And this is a photowalk with Chris.
Dust in the attic.
Another walk.
Across to my everyday bike route to uni. End of grain.
Welcome smoothness. M6 + trix + xtol, classic combo.
My uncles garage.
McD stop.
Semester break and my day off from work. So this morning, Olga had to scrap the car windows.
First photowalk with Stephan.
Awesome weather.
I like that.
Something going on.
Stephans Olympus OM-2n with a 50mm rokkor. Besides Nikon F series one of the most elegant slr cameras imo.
Great light on the top floor of a car park near Opera house.
My sister came for a visit, classy as always.
Neighborhood.
Back home.
Working on the soon-to-be darkroom. Before cleaning everything, connecting water supplies and making all windows and doors light-proof, we had to get rid of some old metal shelves and wooden tables.
Ready to head to the recycling depot.
Another election campaign.
Good memories.
“Closing hour for Fürth only – Nürnberg likes to party.” Wtf.
The other day, Andreas and Irina finally became parents, so we came for a visit. This is Mike with his aunt Olga.
Foggy work day.
Like fish in a can.
Beautiful house wall somewhere in Nürnberg.
Blgllblglgbll
Kunsthalle
Picked up Michi for a photo session.
Before shooting, we had some coffee and tea in Michis and Jankas beauftyfully secluded backyard. Switchig to the Leica M2 with C-Biogon and Kentmere 100 here.
Michi shoots a sweet Nikon FM with some older 35mm AF nikon lens.
After riding around and taking some snapshots we decided to enjoy the late afternoon sun a bit more.
BEFORE: Zeiss C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8
AFTER: Jupiter-12 35mm f/2.8. I got a new lens to use on the M2 since i do not want to switch the Zeiss from one M to the other all the time. But since im studying again im kind of on a budget and so i kept looking for a cheap alternative to 35mm cv/zeiss/leica lenses. In the end i bought a J-12 for 60€ and a ltm->m adapter for about 20€. See the difference in quality compared to the Zeiss shot? Yeah, me neither. The frames tend to get soft towards the corners and its pretty prone to flare. In the center area, its tack sharp. And hey, this is a 35mm M-mount lens for about 80€!
First real life test.
Nurses and caregivers demonstrating against the very poor conditions in health care.
The next weekend, we visited Andi and Irina and their newborn.
The happy parents + Mike in chillout mode.
Being curious.
For another walk. Eugen looking enthusiastic.
Smooth light.
Going home. About 1/4s through the car window.
So this is the J-12, a pretty solid bakelite lens. What looks kind of dull here is actually the front lens coating which is either yellow, blue, purple or whatever, depending on the manufacturer that produced the lens (several russian factories used to produce jupiter lenses back then). Focusing is easy, although i think im going to make a little focusing knob with a simple zip tie. (UPDATE: Done, works like a charm!) Changing the aperture (which is NON-click!) is somewhat fiddly as the inner ring has to be turned and it only protrudes slightly from the focusing barrel. I love it.
Sunshine means Acros! My very first roll this year. Shot with M2 and the Jupiter.
Structures.
Getting ready for the summer season.
Manual focus ftw.
Visited my mother. They turned the studio into a small workplace to teach art classes.
Just like the light here.
The other day, we exhibited our portfolios at uni. A lot of curious young students and parents came to get a little insight on the faculties work and how the application process for design studies is organized. Stephan mounting some of his photographs.
Dominik and Kerim, two of our great illustrators, were occupied by young wannabe-artists the whole time.
Simon and his shirt #1.
Minimal stuff.
I finally managed to install the kitchen clock since olga bothered my for weeks. I think it looks nice up there.
Günter and i layed new floor tiles in my grandmothers apartment. Great view from up there.
This is a more original version with frame borders and the toning from colour scanning. I decided to file out the frame of my SA-21 negative carrier. Worked perfectly. I usually crop the frames for this blog anyway, but its nice to have and looks great on (digital) prints. As for scanning bw negs as colour, im not sure yet if theres any real improvement on quality, so ill keep experimenting.
Next day, after work cig. M6, trix, xtol btw.
Some construction stuff at one of my favorite restaurants. They installed some huge light tubes that create a very ambient scene.
Didn’t know that.
First day of the second semester! Michi and Max in the center.
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Prof. Vetter welcoming the students.
After the official part, the redesigned community room was opened to the students, which means beer and nice talks.
Basically this.
Simon and his shirt #2.
Printing some portfolio stuff for photography class.
Typo class.
Our sparce “dining room”. Temporarily.
Verdi strike in Nürnberg.
Switching to Delta 100.
Later, the people walked through the city with banners and posters.
Escorted by the police.
I documented some suff along the way.
Some people watched the spectacle with interest
While others just didnt even take a note.
Crossing a big steet. Awesome Delta tones here.
Studio Eins again. Our class organized a get together+party+exhibition. So everybody had to bring some pieces of recent work to frame and mount. I documented with M2+J12+Trix@1600.
Stephan, Simona and Katy blackening some old frames with markers.
Then we went shopping. Stephan got some cord and small clothespins to arrange our prints on the wall.
The face of pure happiness!
Hanging out.
Emma giving her best.
After we turned the lights off and switched to fiesta mode, this was like my only light source to take some pictures.
Which did not work very well. In scenes like these i really miss the extra stops of a summilux or nokton.
We also painted some mannequin parts. Basti took a snap with his phone, so i could take a decent frame of busty Christian right when his flash popped.
Stephan also designed two skateboard decks with black & white paint and matching markers. I like how the different layers actually separate from each other for they were hardly visible in that little light.
Fog machine kicking in.
Basti, Stephans roommate. Damn it was dark. Katy and Malena took some digitals with ISO 6400 lol.
Some of our artworks.
Later, Stephan and Anselm started tagging the door. I had to leave soon after because i picked up Olga at trainstation. She was in Berlin for a week with art history class.
In the studio. Klaus showing us how to use the generators for the flashes.
And also the huge dev machine for PE-prints in the darkroom.
Friday night, photography practice class. 1/8s here.
What you dont see every day at the super market. Decent tones for a 1600 trix.
Next vernissage at K4 Künstlerhaus. Faculties photography class graduation works.
Great pictures and also impressive companion volumes and photo books.
Franzi, ready to go home for the weekend. The trainstation is right across the street.
Free movie posters? Cool, better take all of them!
Artsy talk ?
Jonas
Friday morning class. Ida will probably kill me for this 🙂
Mr. fro got himself a new bike.
Last known picture of my old couch. Lasted for about 8 years.
Hurried people.
For a walk around Dutzendteich.
I like this one, although the composition is somewhat poor.
So the other day, we had a barbecue at the faculty, so we went to buy some beer and other stuff.
Guy behind us talking ridiculously loud on his phone.
Lenny and Michi setting up the grills
More people joining. Max giving his best.
The veggie grill, pimped hot stone version.
Christian. As the sun set i switched to the Hexar and Tri-X.
Girls talk.
Wtf
Lecker Schweinenackensteak.
Schweinenackensteak self.
Kudos to whoever took this pik, turned out quite nice.
Sonja, head of Fachschaft.
Eating a Schweinenackensteak.
Lenny telling stories.
Something happened to the Hexar here, probably switched to M-mode by accident.
Katha looking enthusiastic. Hexar still at f/2.
Manual mode again, 1/8th i think. Going home. Good night.
07/2013: Old friends new friends
Still sort of in between things. Uni started about a month ago now. We have to take all ten major courses (photography, film/animation, graphic design, typography, cast [like in podcast], space design, interaction, cgi, illustration and verbal communication) this semester and were doing more and more real projects which is very cool. Kind of the complete opposite to engineering classes at tech uni a couple of years ago. We are only about 50 people that are curiously getting to know each other. Very cool people i have to say. And since the only condition for the qualifying test was to be creative in any way (photo/film/animation/illustration/whatever), it is quite a challenge to figure out what anybodies talents are. However, theres also a lot going on besides uni, so heres another mix of everything.
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There was this weekend back in summer when we installed a small irrigation plant in Olgas family garden. I caught some moments on film on the side. Here, the whole team is getting some instructions. I shot a roll of trix with the Leica M2. Just so you know.
We spent almost half of the day digging those ditches through the garden, then laying all the small pipelines and connecting spray heads and valves.
After we had finally filled up again all ditches and ran some performance checks, we enjoyed the rest of the day and had some great barbecue. Eugen recovering from all the work and all the food here.
I ran into Waldi while going for another walk in the Südstadt district the other day. These are some frames from a roll of Kentmere 400 in HC-110, which i really start to appreciate. It has a kind of trix-ish tonality but lacks some of its tones imo. But for the price (3€ vs. 4,40€ trix) its a very serious option for me. Well see how it pushes in the coming winter months.
Another random people-shopping-frame.
This is a little craft shop of the Handwerkerhof that sells all kinds of leather goods. I had a little talk with this lady, discussing pros and cons of several materials that i could use as a strap for my M2. However, some days later i found some old leather band in my random-old-camera-accessoire-drawer (where you keep all the case and filter and cap and battery stuff) and had her rivet the ends with some small metal rings. The M2 is now equipped with a perfect matching (= fucked up 🙂 ) leather strap that only did cost me 5€! So if youre around and you need some leather goods such as straps, keyholders, wallets, messenger bags or whatever or some custom made leather stuff you make sure to check out this nice little shop!
Guy reading a newspaper. So heres another thing: I’ve been fighting for several years with the Canoscan 9000f + the Silverfast SE that came with it to get some acceptable scans out of my negatives. I should note that “acceptable” in this context just means “to my own taste”. Im not into that zonal system stuff and i dont like my negs to be flat and “classic” looking. I dont have an what you would call recognizable style yet, i just keep experimenting with different dev+post procedures to create a variety of different looks in contrast and tonality. However, me fiddeling around with dev temps and stuff is just one thing. The main point here is the scanner itself: I am just not satisfied with the scans the Canoscan produces. Well, 35mm at least, mf works great imo.
So i spent some time to compensate the scans lack of crispyness in post, and i mean i really did dig into things. I developed several workflows for lightroom+photoshop to get as much as possible out of my scans. But somehow, this final little bit of image quality i was unable to reproduce. So once more, i kept looking on ebay until i once again made a pretty good deal on a Nikon Coolscan IV. Yep, no V. I also switched from Silverfast to Vuescan. Silverfast might be pretty ok to work with, but the SE version that came with the Canoscan is just a joke as it only gives you 8bit bw images. I know, thats a lot of geeky technical stuff, but i think it might be useful to some at this point.
So i ran some quick test scans with the Coolscan and did a 1on1 comparison. The results were even more devastating than i thought. And still, this is just a IV version. Drop me a note if youre interested in a full size comparison. So, end of the story is that with the Coolscan (+Vuescan is pretty awesome also) im finally getting this sharpness and detail i want.
I know i know, its always (or say 99%) the subject or story or moment or feeling + a good composition that make the picture, not the technical stuff like a good tonal range, good sharpness or perfect development. But i guess sometimes, knowing your tech stuff well just helps the image. And sometimes it doesn’t. However, your images are always just as good or bad as the weakest part in your system. So if you’re out with your asph. Summicron, scanning the negs with a flatbed might not be what you wanna go for. Also if your just having fun with a small disposable 35mm: no need to set up the Coolscan 9000. Excuse this little technical excursion, back to the actual images.
Cute older couple.
A man reading some postings at the church. I passed him by and took a quick shot because it looked like a nice scene. When i passed this spot again as i walked back to the bus 20 minutes later, he was still standing there, reading those notes.
A roll of trix.
Im planning on doing some more underground and train station shots this winter. I had some of those in my portfolio which was approved at uni back in the summer.
And speaking of uni, there we are. This was the very first introduction course at the auditorium for all design students in october. There was a power outage the whole time so some students lit the scene with their smartphones, hence those shadows. This was 1/4s at 2.8.
The famous Maronimann.
Ah i miss the sun…
Another couple.
Some images are just timeless.
This Cellist (Alban Gerhardt) was playing some classical pieces in the middle of the train station.
People stopped and started listening, this girl took a shot with her rangefinder-covered! iphone.
Alex stopped by and started to sort the change i keep in a big jar. We loved to do this and then run to the bank to get some bills in return when we were kids.
Flea market with a roll of HP5+.
I still needed a bike for uni so i got curious and checked out all bikes that were for sale. Most dealers sold theirs for about 80-150€ and an hour later i was pretty disappointed and about to give up when i spotted a friendly-looking family that was selling all kinds of lovely, used stuff and also this beautiful Peugeot bike. We talked a bit and they told me that they had had it serviced just a couple of days ago. I told them i would need some cheap but good bike for riding to college and back and so they sold it to me for 30€. Yay!
Some people just like to attract attention, while others prefer to stay unobtrusive.
As a walked around i came across this beautiful installation of urban art and took a shot.
I took a step forward to frame the pigeon in flight when suddenly a second one came out of nowhere.
A sandstone wall.
Dumping some stuff at the recycling depot.
Cool hair. And check out that happy dog!
In the first semester, we have to take all the 10 courses that you can major in, just to get an impression of what each course is about and to get to know the wide range of “design”. Well, guess im not gonna be an illustrator.
Didn’t know we have that here now.
By the time im writing this post, summers all gone and all that it left is a layer of depressing grey shit.
Check out my beautiful bathroom tiles! This is a roll of kodak ektar shot with the Konica Hexar.
Nothing special about this frame, im just really really happy that im starting to get a grip on scanning the shit out of color negative film, now that im using the coolscan+vuescan combo. Finally, the colors seem to match each other and the images just start to look “right”, with no weird color shifts or so.
Another shooting with Olga.
Evening sun.
Stopped by at the former office. Chris joined and checked out the Zeiss.
This is the garage above the soon-to-come darkroom at my uncles place. Were going to turn this place into a complete workshop. First things first, making sure that people feel comfortable.
Just some nice colors.
Even salad looks great in warm sunlight.
Neustadt Bleichweiher.
On my way home from uni.
Wednesdays illustration course. We do all kinds of drawing exercises and projects and hang them on the wall to discuss afterwards.
Starting to note typography in public.
Free beer: tomorrow.
Circles and rectangles and lines.
Lunch with the family. Olga and my sisters wearing all the same sneakers by chance.
Andrea
At the lab.
For a walk with the beast, the Fuji GSW and a roll of Fuji pro 160NS (an older roll from summer).
Random Hamburg frame.
Back in Nuremberg at the Steintribüne, part of the former nazi party rally grounds. People enjoying the weather and the space. Hexar + Ilford Delta 400.
Sunday lunch.
Sunday walk.
No comment needed here.
Since it was a few days before Halloween, we decided to carve some pumpkins in the garden. Step 1: drawing.
Step 2: carving.
Step 3: making it durable.
Father and son.
Thy did some shooting stuff, probably for a website.
Well-arranged posters, german style.
Shot some Tmax 400 for a change, negatives turned out quite underdeveloped (Tmax negs tend to be slightly thinner than trix which is normal, but mine were really too weak this time).
For a walk somewhere.
Julian and Sandra cutting some advert stuff last minute we had design for typography course. Turns out those cutting machines are horrible!
Tanja looking fascinated while Nico is doing some card tricks
Hes a professional magician actually, how cool is that! We were all watching him doing several tricks in the afternoon break. Thats our professor for illustration in the back.
Dinner with Chris and Stephan, who just came back from Bangkok.
People kept asking why i always carry a camera with me. This is on my way home from uni in the evening. She was taking photos of the birds.
Friday morning, introduction course at the sound studio.
Whats left from my office.
Günter proudly demonstrating his new apple slicer.
Winter is here.
05/2013: “I think you should keep doing that as a hobby.”
Oh boy its another template again! I cant help it. To be honest im not even sorry. I just love to play with css. Whatever. This post will be rather personal than other ones, for reasons. Lots of pictures about family stuff of course. But also some stories about my work life or profession or whatever you may call it. You know that feeling when you go to work everyday and it feels ok? Not great, just ok. You do it because you can, because you get paid for it, because its comfortable. You just function and do stuff and you tell yourself “well it may not be what i dreamt of but a time will come. Be realistic. Whats to grumble about? Just be patient and wait” You know that feeling? Well i do. And there came a point where i asked myself “Wait? wait for what?” And for some reason i could not answer that question. That was back when i made the decision to apply to college again. People i told about this noticed “oh nice, so youre going to get your engineering masters degree?” and i answered “well, not exactly.”
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More on that in the post itself. This one contains much text, dont freak out. You can of course skip my confession writing ego trip stuff and just look at the pictures.
Starting with some casual Südstadt frames. This is the Hexar, loaded with Ilford Delta 400. Mid-speed films shot in bright sunlight tend to give hard contrasts anyway, so i decided to push it a little more and souped the roll in Rodinal 1+25.
As expected, contrast is dominating. However the tones are really nice in most frames.
This was in mid-June. People demonstrating for Taksim. If youre not that familiar with the topic you might wanna check out this documentary from Simon Becker, who was right there in Istanbul and captured some intensive moments when things started to escalate.
At some flea market.
Cigarette
I know its boring but i just like these kinds of structures and patterns, plus the grain is really nice. Only two years to get a clean, even negative.
One for the former smoker-me.
So after weeks of rain and depressive dark days the weather got better again. Finally.
Some factory building outside Neustadt.
What remains.
Since it was midseason, we decided to pick some strawberries. “Some” somehow became 3 kilograms.
So each of us got a bucket with about 1,5kg of strawberries. That was literally all i ate the entire weekend.
Some pickers in the background.
Remember?
This is Fuji Neopan 400 in Rodinal 1+50.
So we had some fun time shopping. Except that i didnt.
As soon as it started to rain, people start running for cover, which i always find kind of amusing. This guy didnt seem to care about this wuzz at all.
Opposites.
Another sunday morning flea market with cute puppies!
Later that weekend, lunch at my uncles place. Checking out the pictures of our boat trip some weeks ago.
Coburg. Next roll. Kentmere 400 in Xtol.
Sign on the left says “Frankonia! Apprentice stabs cousin to death at party!” So thats whats going down here. Were pretty mad people. Well, not really.
What an adventure!
Random
My mother in the studio. Thinking of stuff.
Gerhard was busy with some car repair stuff.
Some random frames.
Guys taking some snaps of two parked Audi R8.
Brake fluid, pants and shirts, thrown away like regular waste. People suck sometimes.
Yeah, you guessed right. Acros 100, Xtol, Hexar AF.
Wondering what they are looking at…
Skater guy with sweet skater scars.
A poster for the annual academy of fine arts students exhibition. This was actually just a reminder because i was way to lazy to use my phone.
This roll of film has seen the inside of a camera before.
Challenge accepted!
Stopped by at fotomax for some camera strap, all they got are these sun-sniper kind of things. Pretty usable for your big DSLR, but damn ugly. This guy is testing some equipment right outside the store.
Südstadt, my favorite greengrocer.
I wonder what i looks like from inside.
Finishing the roll.
So the other day i felt like shooting some street with the Rolleiflex. Since i recently bought some rolls of Efke 25 i loaded the little gem and went for a walk. Sry about the border across the frame in the top area, that is from an obviously misaligned glass i put on top of the negatives. Helps a lot with flatness though.
25ASA shoots surprisingly well hand-held.
Ok, not so street-ish, but wow at those tones the efke produces!
Back to 35mm. Back to Leica. Except that it is not the M6. Actually it was a rather impulsive decision, but the other day i spotted a really good deal for a recently CLA’d M2 with a superb black Zeiss C-Biogon. I immediately thought to myself “this is the real thing!” and just went for it. Since i got the Hexar i dont use the M6 as frequently as i used to, so i thought, why not give it a try. (Plus the deal was really really good. The body is a real user but with fresh service, the lens is new)
Oh yeah and another thing: Since i ran out of Xtol i was in the mood of playing around with something new, so i bought a bottle of Kodak HC-110 which here in Europe comes as very highly concentrated syrup in a 1l bottle. It is recommended to make a 1+3 stock solution for better handling. That means, it is way easier to measure and pour correctly from A to B. Plus your bottles and scales will be easier to clean because the stock does not stick to it like the syrup does (it really does, feels like maple syrup or honey so make sure to clean all your stuff really good to get rid of possible residues from the developer.)
So these are some frames from the M2 with C-Biogon, Fuji Acros in HC-110. People dancing for some reason.
Cute little fellow.
Made me think of this. Nice tattoos though!
So we had some lunch when these guys passed by.
HC-100: great tones. C-Biogon: great rendering and smoooooth bokeh.
Well heres another story: as mentioned above, i applied at Nuremberg University. Not for Engineering but for Design (with photography being a major subject ofc). I have had this crazy idea in my mind about becoming a designer/photographer/writer/whatever creative stuff since a long time, but somewhere along the way it got lost. Until now. So as i said, at some point, i told myself “just go and try it, you have nothing to lose. They could turn you down, thats all. PS: Youre a pussy if you dont do it!” It was back in march when i took this decision and so i had some time to select some pieces, write some documentation stuff and design my portfolio (which i never did before). I handed in the folder in may.
Since im not necessarily an award-winning drawer, i put together a collection of small series of both analog and digital pictures i took in the last years. This here is a cycle of 4 abstract water stills i took about a year ago.
More abstract stuff from another series.
All the analog stuff i handed in is featured in previous blog posts: some street shots from Nuremberg train station and from Paris as well as some stills from Prien am Chiemsee and from a walk in the woods. So im not gonna show that again.
About a month later i recieved a letter from the college saying that my portfolio was approved and that i was invited to the qualifying examinations in july. That was when i slowly started getting nervous. So july came and i took the tests, here is some of the stuff we had to do. Day 1: written exam, designing a bookcover and drawing a storyboard.
Day 2: Photography (actually we had to choose between drawing, photography and filming. Not so hard choice for me). Prof Jostmeier gave us a quick early morning briefing on the topic and the time schedule in the photo studio. I was torn between throwing up from anxiety and the urge to document this. We were all just nervous as hell but somehow i still wanted to capture this moment, knowing that it would be very intense and unique. Well, for me at least. Its always personal after all.
So after several hours of shooting we returned to the college and had some time for selecting, post production and for writing a down some lines about our approach on the topic.
The topic for photographers was “Zeitspiegel//Spiegelzeit” which means something like “time//reflection”. These are three of the images i submitted.
Girls viewing their portfolios. i5000 btw. Way to go. After we had finished the drawing/picture taking/filming part, we got back our folders and waited for an individual talk with one of the professors. In the end, those two days went pretty good and its again time to wait for a response. If you have questions about the whole process of application or about specific tasks, feel free to drop me a note.
Ok, back to normal life. Later that day, i had a look at the annual student exhib i mentioned before. As always, very interesting stuff and great people.
Guy taking pictures of some of the installations.
Time to lay back and just relax. Finally!
Last roll with the M6. Ektar, labdev. Its like in the wild nature.
Whats wrong?
Some stuff going on at Nuremberg castle.
Some regular bw again. M2, Kentmere 100 in Rodinal.
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These papers looked kind of scientific, weird deja-vu.
We decided to have a small barbecue. Dont mind the very blown-out highlights here, still fighting with crappy Silverfast SE.
I live on the 2nd floor, so i just dropped a cable out of the living room window to power my macbook (old Simpsons episodes!) Well, its just a very dull backyard…
Hey buddy!
I remember that on this day, it was incredibly hot outside, like 35°C. I walked around for half an hour in the sun and was completely exhausted. She probably felt the same.
This was about those 2 guys inside the store checking out some instruments. Worked out great. Yeah.
Probably the best thing to do on this day.
Some more Acros stuff.
So the summer came and it came like a punch in the face! We decided to spend that sunday at the lake.
Still funny that some people didnt seem to care about the outside temps at all.
At the annual Classical Open Air, which takes place in the nice spacious Luitpoldhain park here in Nuremberg. Sun was already gone and there i stood with my 100 ISO film.
That was around 8pm, most people had occupied the place hours ago. Acros rules here.
I remember when i was at the Open Air some years ago with my girflfriend at the time, it was not that crowded and we could easily find a comfy place for our blanket an hour before the start. Here, everything you see from the foreground to the trees in the very background is actually people listening to the concert. Ridiculously overrun. The week after i read in the paper that there were some 75k people in the audience that night.
1/8th.
There was a glitch in the matrix.
Let the nature in!
Some weird stuff again at the train station.
This one is about nothing specific i think.
Curious kid.
The next weekend, Chris joined our little hangout behind the building. This is the smoothest roll of Delta 100 i shot since ever. M2/Zeiss again.
Spent the day at the outdoor bath. I really love Delta in HC-100 at the moment, it just gives some exceptional tones imo.
