Open Studio

Dec 032012
Open Studio

Last October I participated in an Open Studio weekend in my new neighborhood Fort Point. Cambridgeport does similar events but our apartment there was not really suitable to showcase my artwork at the right scale. The detail-rich prints from large-format film and large digital sensors need to be displayed in a format that allows the viewer to discover the stories within a print at a macro and micro level. Currently I am living in a friend’s studio loft with large open space and high ceiling. A perfect setting for showcasing artwork. Still, the wall space was somehow limited. I puzzled [...]

Megapixel shootout

Jul 302012
Megapixel shootout

  It has been a while since I wrote my last entry. Actually that was on the 18th of June shortly after the Radiohead concert. Since then I have been traveling to Germany and I moved into a new location. Enough to keep me distracted. The good news is that I spent more time on photography again. Now there are hundreds of images that need to be processed for future blogs. Throughout the last few months there has been one thing that I really wanted to try out. Last January I purchased a used Leaf digital back mounted on a [...]

Radiohead live

Jun 182012
Radiohead live

Yesterday I read the shocking news about the collapse of the Radiohead stage in Toronto. One worker died and several others got injured. Just a few weeks ago I went to the Radiohead concert here in the Boston area. A few colleagues of mine and I did a little road trip to see them and their opener Caribou. Thanks to Michael and Ramona we got amazing tickets for the area right at the stage. Along came my Sony Nex 7 and two lenses, the Sony 24mm 1.8 and my Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH. When we arrived I starting using the [...]

Three service experiences, three different stories.

May 282012

During the last nine months I had several camera equipment pieces that needed to be serviced. First a Zeiss 21mm 2.8 M-mount lens, which I really like, that suddenly went out of focus. At infinity the whole image looked completely blurred. Shortly after my Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH mount got wobbly. The lens was not firmly attached to the camera anymore. A few months later a purchased demo Leaf Aptus 2 12 digital back showed strange artifacts in some night images. It created a magenta haze on the edges. So all three had to be send in. Interestingly the Leica [...]

Employee entrance

Apr 082012
Employee entrance

An interesting painting around the Microcenter’s employee entrance door.

Easter Egg Hunt

Apr 082012
Easter Egg Hunt

I took this photo about 6 years ago in the South End/Boston at the Titus Sparrow Park. I lived in that area for four years before I moved to Cambridge. Every year at Easter time people from that neighborhood celebrate an Easter Egg Hunt. It is really a hunt, less a search. The idea is simple. Drop a few hundred or thousand eggs on a lawn, put some police tape around them and when the time comes you start a collecting frenzy that empties this field within ten seconds. The toughest, fastest, oldest kid will most likely get the most [...]

Paradise

Mar 112012
Paradise

We just came back from a one week vacation to the Dominican Republic. Both of our batteries were exhausted and we needed a recharge urgently. The plan was to not do anything but sit in a hammock and watch the water. Because my partner needed to do some work during the week, which almost caused us not to book anything this year, we decided on an all-inclusive package. This would allow her to work in the morning, while I would put my head into the water, and to do activities together in the afternoon without thinking of cooking or driving. [...]

Quick DOF example

Mar 022012
Quick DOF example

Here is a quick DOF example. I took this shot handheld with a Leaf Aptus back on a PhaseOne DF camera with a 80mm D lens. to test that combo.I used 1/180, the longest exposure time that doesn’t create motion blur with that lens. A good rule 3x the focal length. So ideally I would have used 1/250. You really have to hold still as much as possible to not get washed-out details. F4 was the aperture that I used. I am amazed how critical the focus needs to be. In the whole shot (slightly cropped) the red outlet looks [...]

A few shots from this week

Feb 262012
A few shots from this week

This week I went to Indianapolis for a meeting and to NYC for a long weekend. I took along my M9P with just one lens, the 35mm 2.0 Summicron. While I did not actively take photos, I enjoyed pressing the shutter here and there. Besides spending time in the city I decided to visit Coney Island and Zion Cemetery. I had never been there before and now I had time. Actually I liked Coney Island. Great colors, even when everything is closed. I met a vendor from Pakistan, who didn’t want to get photographed but he offered me a seat. [...]

Cold commercial look

Feb 192012
Cold commercial look

Today I did a short tour up to Lynn, Marblehead, Salem. I stopped at Revere Beach for a stroll along the water. On the way back to my car I noticed the strong light that hit the vehicle. With the beach in the background and no other cars around it almost looked like a commercial setting. The contrast was strong, almost too harsh for any controllable lighting. I took a shot with my Phase One camera, which resulted in a very plain, greenish looking image. It was necessary to underexpose a bit to preserve the highlights of the image. It [...]

Lytro in the house

Feb 142012
Lytro in the house

Last week I had the opportunity to take a closer look at the Lytro camera. They were in town to show off their product at the MIT. They followed an invitation to our IDEO studio to get feedback from our creative group. First I have to say that it is an impressive concept. Based on research made at Standford University and further developed to a marketable product by one of their students and company founder Ren Ng, this small camera allows you to post define the focus point. How does it work? Don’t ask me, but basically it captures 16 [...]

Nothing there.

Feb 122012
Nothing there.

Today has been a strange day. For weeks I have been waiting for some overcast. I have a list of sites that I want to photograph but I would need even lighting, which an overcast day would provide. It is easy to do this in Germany and there is no surprise that Gursky’s, Bernd and Hilla Becher’s, Elger Esser’s, Thomas Struth’s early images illustrate this cold, neutral, clean aesthetic, that is characteristic for that area. Düsseldorf and the region around has less sunlight than most other areas in Germany. Perfect for someone who likes to shoot on overcast, shadow-free days. [...]

Good-bye Kodak

Jan 222012
Good-bye Kodak

Kodak has entered its last chapter. Chapter 11. It filed for bankruptcy this week. Over the next months or years we will see Kodak selling off any valuables that they own. Intellectual property, inefficient or non profitable business units, properties, etc. It will lay off workers and will tell investors that glory times will be ahead. What most likely will happen is that Kodak will survive for a short period of time and then will drop dead. I could tell you how sad that would be, that Kodak was photography and that they could have lead the digital revolution. Kodak [...]

Megapixel Extravaganza

Jan 032012
Megapixel Extravaganza

It has been almost two months since my last entry into my blog. That is a long time and not really beneficial to hold any audience. The reason is fairly simple to explain. I got distracted, demotivated, challenged, busy, bored, and lazy. But with every new year comes a New Years resolution, which may just last as long as any dietary resolution, but at least it will cover the first couple of weeks. One of my big resolutions for this year is to do “less, but better”. This rule used by famous designer Dieter Rams to describe his philosophy on [...]

The marketing dinosaur

Nov 142011
The marketing dinosaur

When your best friend sends you an email saying; “Slacker!  When do you post something new?”, then it is time to post something new. A few days ago I walked down Memorial Drive in Cambridge/MA. Sunlight was quickly disappearing at a time too early for my liking, when I spotted a yellow/red beacon. Since I moved to Cambridge Port I couldn’t stop looking at and photographing the old Shell sign right at the corner of Magazine and Memorial. It is part of a gas station installation but has been neglected for decades. I don’t know when it was installed but [...]

Few more images from “Occupy Boston”

Oct 232011
Few more images from

Reflecting

Oct 232011
Reflecting

It is crisp Sunday morning and our heating system woke up from Summer hibernation with a short, cheap sounding “Plop”. It gave up before it had even started. So I am hanging out in our study, the only warm, electrically heated room in the house. While drinking tea and chewing on a honey covered slice of bread I discovered two articles in the New York Times magazine, one about the training of Afghans to protect their homes and valuables from the Taliban, the other one is a photo essay about life in war zones. The first article is written by [...]

Images from ‘Occupy Boston’.

Oct 162011
Images from 'Occupy Boston'.

Yesterday and today I stopped by at the site of ‘Occupy Boston’. I spent an hour to take some quick shots of the activities. Here are some of my visual impressions. D!RK    

Zone focusing with manual lenses

Sep 272011
Zone focusing with manual lenses

There is always this moment of excitement, appreciation, and respect when someone looks at a manual focus lens. The rings, numbers, and lines communicate control while demanding a certain amount of skill. A well designed, manual lens is a piece of beauty, like a jewelry or a precise tool (which it is). In recent years lens design has led to visually simplified lens constructions. Autofocus and viewfinder focus-confirmation have eliminated the need for manual controls. While photographers can still switch to manual focus, they often don’t have any focus lines printed on the barrels anymore. You still find distance indicators [...]

The Southwest: The National Parks

Sep 042011
The Southwest: The National Parks

Getting out of Vegas felt like a breeze of hot, fresh air. Suddenly you have space, lots of space, and less noise and people. Traveling through the Southwest is every European’s dream and so it was no surprise that most people in the parks were Germans, Italians, and French. It felt like being home, just with a different landscape. Our first stop was Hoover Dam at 120F temperature. Not only on hot days I can recommend the tour inside this amazing structure. Next stop was Grand Canyon Village on the South rim. Around five hours from Vegas this cozy place [...]

The Southwest: Las Vegas

Sep 042011
The Southwest: Las Vegas

Two weeks ago I left Boston for a well deserved vacation in the American Southwest. I had never been there before and seeing Vegas and the surrounding landscape had been on my to do list since I crossed the US border for the first time. My partner Kathrin had been invited to a sociologist conference in Vegas. Yes, what better place for them to talk about social dynamics, while at every street corner you can order women to your room within 20 minutes. Question: If Vegas represents the American Dream then what does Vegas tell us about our society? I [...]

Bats of Austin.

Aug 132011
Bats of Austin.

If you ever make it to Austin, don’t forget to check out a few highlights. 1. Stay at the Hotel San Jose on South Congress street. There is no other tranquil place like this in that city. Calm, understated, contemporary, relaxing, still right where you find the hip and edgy. 2. Check out the music scene on 6th Street. 3. Walk over Congress Bridge and imagine what is underneath. During the day around 1.5 million bats stay inside the bridge and take long naps. Right around dusk they seem to wake up and fly off the bridge to find food. [...]

Does an upgrade from an M9 to a Leica M9-P make sense?

Aug 132011
Does an upgrade from an M9 to a Leica M9-P make sense?

    NO! That is basically the short answer. The slightly longer answer would be; No it doesn’t make sense at all. So why do I have an upgrade floating around? Because life doesn’t always make sense. The M9-P is more or less the same camera. Technically it is identical with the M9. Cosmetically the top plate is slightly different, without the M9 sign and the red Leica dot. Instead it shows an engraved Leica name and camera origin on the top surface. The hot shoe is now black instead of satin silver. While the black M9 and the M9-P [...]

Hipstamatic, still filling a gap.

Jul 192011
Hipstamatic, still filling a gap.

Hipstamatic is nothing new. It has been around for years and people seem to have fun with it. What surprises me is that from time to time it makes me leave my pricey camera at home to just take shots with my IPhone. It is amazing because if you look at any specs the software really sucks. The resolution is low, the processing speed is really slow, sometimes it shifts the lenses without any obvious reason, the viewfinder is ridiculously tiny, and if you don’t wait long enough after taking the shot it may get lost completely. Still there is [...]

Pure lens porn

Jul 122011
Pure lens porn

A dear friend of mine sent me the link of a video that illustrates how Leica manufactures their lenses. It is amazing how much craftsmanship is involved. No wonder these lenses are so expensive. I really appreciate this dedication to detail and hand assembly. I watched this video and it made me feel differently about my lenses at home. I guess I will pick them up today and look at them with different eyes. It is fascinating that some of the best lenses in the world are hand assembled and don’t come out of a fully automated clean-room. I guess [...]

Snow trucks

Jul 102011
Snow trucks

This morning I spent some time cleaning and deleting Lightroom collections. A bit of housekeeping in my digital archive has been necessary but neglected at the same time. I found this small collection of images of toy trucks in the snow. Looking at them made me feel refreshed. As much as I dislike the New England winter, seeing it in summer has some positive effect on me. That’s why I am sharing these images now, on a nice, hot day. In the meanwhile I will keep looking for my 2008 surf images. If I could decide between beach and mountain, the beach [...]

Urban stages

Jun 262011
Urban stages

It has been two weeks since my last post and I am realizing that writing them on a weekly basis is harder than expected. This morning I am sitting in front of my computer waiting for the weather to warm up so I can do a short bike ride before heading out to a BBQ this afternoon. A few days ago I prepared some examples around PS Photomerge which in the end didn’t look too convincing. So I looked through some of my recent images, not too many I have to admit, and found one shot that triggered a little [...]

The cropped cows

Jun 122011
The cropped cows

Since I started using a camera I have been following discussions about cropping images. Should a photo be cropped or should the final print show the untouched outline of the captured frame? People who are pro cropping may question why their artistic expression should be limited by frame or sensor sizes that someone came up with in a technical lab. On the other side photographers who see cropping as a sin would probably use Henri Cartier Bresson as an example of a master who never cropped his images. Actually he never cared about the printing part of photography so he [...]

Memorial Day

May 302011
Memorial Day

Have a great Memorial Day, wherever you are. Yesterday I went to the Boston Common, America’s oldest public garden. On display were thousands of flags, each representing a person from Massachusetts that has fallen during a war conflict. Just knowing that most flags stand for an individual tragedy that will never be told makes you pause. It reminds you of that famous quote: ‘The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.’ (Most likely first used by Tucholsky, not Stalin. WikiQuote)

Following In Sook Kim

May 302011
Following In Sook Kim

Years ago I had the strange idea to not only take photographs but to collect some of them as well. I think that a mix of passion, financial opportunity, and Grosskotztum ( a word that can not be translated from German) came together. At that time my focus had just shifted to more contemporary artists, still I started looking at Ansel Adams prints, since they had been an inspiration for a long time. It turned out to be a quick route. Actually a dead-end street. Prices were astronomical, far out of my reach. So I looked into more recent photographers [...]

Toronto outtakes

May 172011
Toronto outtakes

Here are some of my Toronto workshop outtakes as well. These images didn’t make it into the video because they didn’t fit the story or they were not strong enough. Still, I like some of them and that’s why they belong here.   First, a few more from the red/yellow theme   And a few random street shots.

Toronto fog

May 152011
Toronto fog

Yesterday the weather changed from being nice and sunny to foggy and rainy. We had been lucky throughout the workshop. The weather was nice and pleasant, sunny most of the time. I walked around the distillery district until I decided to stop by in the financial district as well. When I passed Union Station I took this picture of a high rise. It is a well known building in Toronto but I have no idea what it is called. It stood out with its golden glass while everything else looked dark blue. The fog created a nice fading effect which [...]

MagnumPhoto workshop

May 142011
MagnumPhoto workshop

Yesterday I finished my project at the MagnumPhoto workshop in Toronto. It had been a tight week with lots of learning from David Alan Harvey. Day 1 Student portfolio review all morning long and free street shooting time in the afternoon. I wondered around downtown and Kensington Market to figure out ideas and locations. My goal was to engage with people on the street and to photograph an emotional story. Instead of just “stealing” a photo I talked to anybody who seemed to be interesting. A couple that was hanging out in front of a church, a really old guy [...]

Going Magnum

May 072011
Going Magnum

I am excited about going to Magnum. Not the ice-cream, not the TV show, not any male enhancement pills. I will join the MagnumPhoto 2011 workshop in Toronto. It is a one week program with a diverse mix of group sessions, individual photo shoots, critiques, lectures, long work hours, an exhibition at the end, and hopefully some good drinks and food in between, all run by seven of their photographers plus staff. Many participants have already arrived and are spending time this weekend to get together and shoot photos. The group has traveled from all over the world to participate. [...]

Interesting Leica / IPhone 4 camera concept

Apr 262011
Interesting Leica / IPhone 4 camera concept

This is a concept by Black Design Associates that combines the IPhone 4 with a Leica Gestalt. I have to admit that having the IPhone 4 screen on a Leica is an interesting thought. More info here on Engadged.com.    

My digital camera designs from the 90ies.

Apr 242011
My digital camera designs from the 90ies.

During the mid 90ies I did not take a lot of photos. I owned a Canon AE1 P which I got as a Holiday gift in 1984. Somehow I did not feel the urge to pick it up and use it. While neglecting photography as a craft, it occasionally crossed my path as a design challenge. Digital photography was still in its first steps. I did a few sketches around potential camera systems that would use digital image sensors. I remember looking into the Yellow Pages (Yes, the web was just forming its structure in Germany) to find photo studios [...]

Cool camera concept

Apr 142011
Cool camera concept

I found this video link on my Facebook site this morning. I like the design of the camera. Very clean and simple. Not sure how I would use the detached lens. Would be nice if you could mount the lens on a tripod and use the screen to set up a studio scene. D!RK  

Photographs from Argentina

Apr 112011
Photographs from Argentina

This weekend I spent a bit of time to reedit my photos from Argentina. Last year we traveled to Buenos Aires, where we stayed for a week. It is a vibrant, modern, culturally rich city, that provides visual stories at every corner. Here is a set of my favorite images.

Short Saturday walk with the Summicron 35

Apr 102011
Short Saturday walk with the Summicron 35

Weather was nice so I decided to grab my Summicron 35mm lens to get used to it again. I have been using the 50mm Summilux for a while as my primary lens. For many years the 35 had been my only lens. Personally I don’t like switching optics very often. I prefer to use one and to leave it on the body for a while. To me its like doing sports. If I haven’t used a focal length for a while I need to get back into it. Yesterday when I walked around I felt a bit rusty with that [...]

The fake border

Apr 092011
The fake border

Yesterday I had a conversation with my colleagues about craft and design. Briefly we touched software like Hypstamatic, which nicely simulates image styles from the past. Users can get excited about the look and feel of these images. Since the introduction of digital photography people have tried to simulate the characteristics of film and hand-made prints. Old prints show an evidence of craft and technique, especially when you leave the edges exposed. Each image has its own signature which is defined by the unique look of the film’s borders. Have a look at a large Polaroid print or an unmatted [...]

The importance of critique, or how I enjoy to dislike my work.

Apr 032011

Yesterday I had an eye-opening experience. I joined a workshop on visual storytelling with Ed Kashi. For those who don’t know him, he is member of VII. One of his photos won the UNICEF Photo of the Year in 2010. Check out his website to see more of his amazing work at www.edkashi.com . I signed up for this workshop because I wanted to learn more about his work-flow and his use of stills and video in the field. I believe that strong visuals are crucial for my design work. Part of my job is field research to inspire design. We observe [...]

Corner views

Mar 262011
Corner views

Architecture fascinates me. Especially contemporary buildings. Every time that I photograph a structure I ask myself if I want to capture a detail or the whole. Recently I started photographing corners of buildings. I believe the inspiration came from Hiroshi Sugimoto. One portfolio that I admire is the one of blurred architectural portraits. He visually reduces buildings to their signature structures. All details had been removed. The other portfolio is his Seascapes series. Sugimoto captured various oceans and seas with the same composition, a 50/50 split between sky and water. It creates a simple, consistent visual language throughout this portfolio. [...]

Sony NEX-5 video by Dan DeRuntz & Angelica Leonard

Mar 192011
Sony NEX-5 video by Dan DeRuntz & Angelica Leonard

My dear co-worker Dan created this beautiful video with his Sony NEX-5. It is called Butterfly Hatari. He used a 35mm 1.4 Voigtlaender lens and the Sony 18-55mm lens to shoot the sequences. Personally I like his use of a steady cam. It creates a nice flow along the fences. Get a cup of coffee and enjoy this short gem. D!RK

One year with the Leica M9. A review

Mar 172011
One year with the Leica M9. A review

In March of 2010, I finally received my Leica M9. I had been thinking about this camera since its introduction. My sustained interest in the M9 taught me this: if you can’t get it out of your head, you have to get it into your hands. So, in January 2010 I placed orders at several stores, hoping to get this camera before an upcoming trip to Argentina. Quickly I realized that this was not going to happen; so many people had placed orders that my name landed at the very bottom of every last list. At the time, I was [...]

Early steps

Mar 122011
Early steps

This morning I sat down with a cup of tea and started cleaning up my hard drive. I have to admit that it is a total mess. Everything that I created before I got introduced to Lightroom, exists in multiple formats and in multiple folders. The nice thing is that I always find photos that I had not seen in a long time. This is one of these photos that had a big impact on me. I took it when I was seventeen years old in the small village called Costarainera, Italy. It is located in the hills between Geneva [...]

Size matters

Mar 062011

My dear friend Isidora from Spain sent me an email right after she had looked at my blog. She told me about her visit to the Madrid art show ARCO. A lot of the photography on display were huge prints of large format photographs. Large prints have been a ‘trend’ in contemporary photography for the last 20 years. A huge movement towards that direction started in my home town Duesseldorf, where students of Bernd and Hilla Becher used new technologies to display photography at an unknown scale. Suddenly the artist could show scenes of incredible detail. What was only possible [...]

One dog

Mar 062011
One dog

If you live in Cambridge, MA you may know the Trader Joe on Memorial Drive. You might have seen its mural on the side of the building. It was created in Summer 2005, maybe 2006. One day I walked by and saw the painter working on this wall. I liked that contrast of colors, scaffolding, and people. I decided to photograph it but I needed a day without sunshine and without cars blocking the parking spots. One Saturday morning I walked by and found a spot right in the center in front of the mural. It was a nice overcast [...]

The photo booth

Mar 062011
The photo booth

Yesterday we had our annual company party at a bar in Cambridge. How fun. People got drunk, danced, had a good time, and they took a lot of photos. Not with their cameras but with the photo booth that was located inside the bar. Actually you can squeeze a lot of people inside such a tiny box if you really try. To me it is fun to see how people express themselves. Me included, here with fabulous Jeewon! I took some shots as well with my camera and I have to say that I like the lighting that the box [...]

Finding a perspective

Mar 062011
Finding a perspective

A while ago I went to the Monterey Aquarium and I took some photos with my Leica M6 and a 35mm Cron. I like the small package of that camera and the 35mm lens gives me enough focal length to work with. Many people don’t like the idea of fixed lenses. They feel that they can’t change the perspective and that is why they prefer zooms. With fixed lenses I zoom as well. My legs are the zoom. I have to get closer to the object to zoom in and step back to zoom out. This first photo is the [...]

Hole in a wall

Mar 062011
Hole in a wall

This is my first entry in my personal blog. I want to use this platform to tell stories why, how, when, and where I took some of my photos. A kind of “looking behind the curtain”. I have always been interested how photographers, artists, designers are creating their work. Some might argue that this would take away from the impact of the photo. I think it adds to it. I am not telling anyone what to see in a photograph. I am just providing some extra resolution. It makes a story richer.   I took this image of the woman [...]

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