It's been a while since I produced my last folio even though I was printng them agian and again in the last years. Now I have created 2 new folios: Polarlights and Birds of South-Africa. The folios can be downloaded as a pdf slideshow using the above links.
Schöckl is the house mountain of the southern Austrian city of Graz. With only 1400m above sea level it is high enough to be above the high mist layer, which frequently covers the city in autumn time. These are the days, when you can enjoy the sun and the clean air while looking down onto the cold cloud layer which is build due to a strong inversion layer: Schöckl.
Within the last months I produced a number of new time lapse movies. Some of them are shot durig the nights. Due to the high acceleration factor, the stars are passing by rapidly, 1800 times faster than in real life. I recorded the shadow of a sun dial with the same speed. But have a look yourself: time lapse movies.
November brings many days with high fog here in Graz, in the southern part of Austria. The city is known for this weather effect and the high fog makes the already short days even darker and the air quality degrades the loger the periode lasts. But if you move above the high fog layer, which often lays below 1000m above sea level, you will be rewarded by a clear starry sky. The fog layer keeps many of the artificial light sources back and the milky way shines clear; a wonderful sight, specially at new moon: starry sky.
Autumn is the perfect time to go out in the morning and try to document the wonderful awakening of the day. And if you are concentrating on Macro Photography you even haven’t to go far and can start right in the vicinity of your home. In the dawn, the dew from the last day is still frozen and with the rising sun the whole microcosms is changing rapidly, creating uncountable hidden photographs to be discovered: Morning Dew
The Unesco city of Trogir lies north of the Croatian town of Split and was the starting point for our sailing trip this summer. We followed the Croatian coastline through the Cornates towards Istria and then across the Adriatic sea towards Venice. Uncountable islands and the cristal clear sea made the sailing trip also a photo journey: from Trogit to Venice.
One of the biggest temples in the Hong-Kong area is the Wong-Tai-Sin temple. It is well known and frequently visited and it requires quite some logistic to manage the mass of people. Some visitors come from far and the bus park shows the coming and going of visitors all day long. My city tour than continues into the districts on the other side of Hong-Kong harbour: the districts of central and Sheung-Wan with their huge skyscrapers: Wong-Tai-Sin to Sheung-Wan.
In the old analogue time, infrared photography was a very complicate matter. The infrared films had a very early date of expiry, you had to change films in the camera only in shaded areas and the exposure meter was very inaccurate to use with infrared films. In he end, the results were always a surprise. This has radically changed with digital cameras, where you can see the outcome of your photograph immediately after the picture was taken. Especially the Leica M8 is predestined for infrared photography, because its infrared blocking filter does not block all the infrared is should when used In ‘normal’ photography conditions; this leads to shorter exposure times for infrared photography. More on the M8 is found in the article M8 infrared.
In Edinburgh I was mainly roaming the "Princess Street Gardens" and the "Royal Botanic Garden", both featuring a combination of buildings an many plants, a very attractive subject for infrared photography: Edinburgh Inrared.
The maontians are predestined for panorama photography. But in high alpine regions, the relatively structureless snow makes it difficult to creat an interesting panorama; and then there should also be something intersting in the foreground. I tried my best for the Jungrfaujoch Panoarmas.
If you are interested in panorama-photography and like to learn more about ist, you will find an easy guide here.
My recent work concentrates mainly on street photography. However, I haven't totally forgotten my projects. This is an update of the long lasting project Bus-Stops.
The beautiful city of Split lies in southern Croatia directly at the adreatic sea. You can take the night train from the capital of Croatia Zagreb to get there; the train is an experience on its own. Coming from the desolate and dry mountain landscape, you will suddenly see the Adreatic Sea: Split.
Barcelona with its multiple hills gives you many opportunities to take panoramas of the vast city landscape. Beside this, the harbour and the Franca Train Station are also great places: Barcelona Panorama.
Digital Photography makes it easy to shoot a lot. Nevertheless you still need to make a selection of your best shots and do all the post-processing work. Even though this step is not the most welcome one to many photographers, it's still a very important one. My panorama pictures which I shot in May are finally online: Edinburgh Panorama.
While we are having temperatures around 30°C here in central Europe, I thought some icy pictures from the Swiss Alps will act as a refreshment. The Jungfraujoch is also called 'Top of Europe' and easy reachable with a spectacular train system within the mountain. This site is also one of the top tourist places in Switzerland and the contrast of tourists in sneakers in front of the glacier is indeed fascinating: Jungfraujoch.
The second part of my tour through Edinburgh starts again at the Royal Mile and heads towards the sea, but this time heading North towards Leith. The aerial views were taken from the Scott monument which you can climb via the very narrow and steep stairs. And if you catch a windy day like I did (winds uo to 60km/h, around 40mph) you will ceratainly be impressed, not only by the view: Edinburgh, Part 2.
Edinburg is a very impressive city. After one week of walking the town I still didn't had the feeling of having seen enogh. In the summer time, sunrise is at 5 and the light will keep until 10pm. Inbetween, the weather might have changed 10 times. What else are you looking for when taking photographs? Edinburgh Part 1.
Since the Leica M system evolved into the digital age, lenses need to be coded to take measures against vignetting and other artefacts. This articles describes in detail the technical challenges behind this and the pros and cons of lens coding. You will also find hints of how to code the lenses yourself and how profiles in Lightroom may further increase correction measures: Leica lens coding.
With all the hype about the new Fuji X100 camera, the rangefinder camera system with a true optical finder is coming into discussion again. But the Fuji’s finder is missing one very important aspect: the focusing capability with the parallax finder system. The now more than 50year old Leica M system offers exactly such a finder. But what are the benefits of using Rangefinder Cameras at all and is a 50 year old design still useable today? This report will give you some insight: Rangefinder Cameras and the Leica M.
Since the Leica M system evolved into the digital age, lenses need to be coded to take measures against vignetting and other artefacts. This articles describes in detail the technical challenges behind this and the pros and cons of lens coding. You will also find hints of how to code the lenses yourself and how profiles in Lightroom may further increase correction measures: Leica lens coding.
As the search for new and better photo bags is a never ending story, my article about the ideal photobag is also extended continously. I have now added a Kata Slingbag and a very compact bag vor my Leica M equipment with three lenses and also some nice pictures which show the size difference between a rangefinder bag and a SLR bag.
I have also reviewed the last three articles and all of them are now also available as a pdf file for download (use the link icon at the top of each article to access the pdf). These articles have been updated:
- Tripod: all the details about one of the most important accessory in photography
- Folio Folder: How to produce and design your own presentation folder
- External power: how to build a flexibla and adaptable external power source for your camera
The second part of my Vienna pictures are no online: Vienna Revisited Part 2.
The sun is getting more and more active these years and with it increased aurora activity has already been reported. There will be higher chances to see beautiful auroras in the coming year, though better be prepared for polar light photography. Some new graphics about good locations for aurora watching have been added to my article aurora photography, and the text is now also availabel in pdf format to be downloaded. Three additional articles have also been updated and extended and are available as pdfs:
- geotagging: how to add geograhical data to your pictures
- time lapse movie recording: equipment and process
- the colour of light: about quality of light in photography
Use the pdf link at the top of each article to download the file.
4more articles have been reviewed and extended and are now also available in pdf format:
- wildlife photography
- photography in the cold
- M8 infrared
- Canon 5DMK2 field report
Use the pdf link at the top of each article to download the file. I'm currently working on the other articles and will upload the reviewed pdf version soon.
The technical article no startrails is now available in a new and extended version. I have added some explanations about the RAW conversion, about the coc (circle of confusion) calculation and the calculation of starts dependent of their declination. The new version of this article is also available in pdf format to be downloaded.
The article on aurora photography was also reviewed and is now available in pdf format.
The technical article Digital Panorama Photography is now available in pdf format.
The third larger city I visited this year was Vienna. We lived there for 2 years and it was very exciting to walk through the streets again. After 2 days and a 37km city-walk I ended up with quite a number of pictures. Vienna Revisited- Part 1.
The Leica M8 rangefinder camera is more sensitive to inrared light than it should be for standard colour photography. This might be seen as a disadvantage by some, as an additional IR blocking filter is required on the lens to prevent e.g. textiles to get reddish. On the other hands, and this is the big pro, it allows you to easily convert your digital camera into one useable for infrared photography by simply swapping the IR filter: Barcelona infrared.
This February I had the chance to stay for a long week end in the Spanish city of Barcelona. Even though we are still having winter here in Graz with temperatures below zero, it was pleasently warm down there and it was great to walk along the beach and into the city. I had only two lenses with me, the 35mm and the 50mm Summicron, and tried to take a little bit of Spain back home: Barcelona.
The first part of the Thames Path described the way from Richmond downstream towards Battersea Park. To finish the trail into the centre of London, I took the train into Vauxhall and walked into the capital. During low tide, the bakns of the river are easily accesible and open a whole now persepective: Thames Path 2.
Lenticulares Clouds are constantly flown through by winds that follow vertical wavelines. As the air reaches a certain altitude, the water condensens and vice versa when the air is dragged down again. Such, the cloud is constantly built on one side while it evaporates on the other. While this process is hard to see by the naked eye, it can easily be observed with the help of a timelapse movie.
During a solar eclipse, the earth is reached by only a part of the solar radiation and such is getting darker. While this process is almost not observable by humans due to the ability of the eye to compensate for such a slow moving process, it is easily seen on a time lapse movie. This movie shows the landscape around Graz in Austria during the 70% solar eclipse on the 4th of January 2011. After sunrise, the sun is partially blocked and the light gets dimmer again.
During my recent stay in London I was able to shoot several nice panoramas, most of them were recorded along the river Thames: London Panorama. The new title image was also shot at the Thames a little bit upriver from Battersea park.
To walk into a large city is a very special experience; and in tha case of London it's easy to just follow the river Thames along the Thames path, which brings you strait into the capital of Great Britan. I started upriver Richmond, about 25km from the centre of London: Thames Path.
