other photographers – Page 6

September 12, 2015September 12, 2015

A very interesting afternoon

As I wrote lately, Zuleikha developed some interest in stars, and in astronomy. So I bought her a little Newton telescope, and some books and a star map. And today there was one of the open door days at our local public peoples’ observatory, or in German, in our Volkssternwarte in Darmstadt. So that is where we went.

And it was interesting indeed. I talked to some people, and learned a lot, while Mitchie and Zuleikha listened to some talk, went into their library, and even had some cake. Later Zuleikha bought a photo of IC 1318, or the butterfly nebula from Mirko Boucsein, one of the members of the society. Mirko took that photo with a modified Canon 500D DSLR camera (minus the infrared filter layer on its sensor), and with a GSO 150/600mm f/4 telescope on a Skywatcher HEQ5 equatorial mount which was guided by a second camera.

I even forgot to take photos inside, and because the sky wasn’t clear, we couldn’t even look at the sun through some of their telescopes. But I was invited to come back on a Friday evening when there’s a clearer sky, and to observe some stars and/or deep sky objects together with them.

Before we left, we had to take a look over Darmstadt from the place which is called Luisenhöhe. We’ve been here, and I’ll definitely come back.

Thanks for reading.

September 10, 2015September 10, 2015

“Not always proud to be human”

What a wonderful story from David DuChemin, sending his “Postcard from Isla Mujeres” (Womens’ Island, Fraueninsel, in Mexico). Recommended reading because of behavioral questions for anyone, photographers should bookmark him anyway.

September 8, 2015

The “Wow!” effect…

… is what he manages to get with each post on his blog. Steve McCurry about portraits.

July 21, 2015

The best value in (Micro) Four Thirds?

Kirk Tuck, well-known Austin-based professional photographer lately wrote on his Visual Science Lab blog about the Olympus 40-150mm/4-5.6 zoom lens. He has the Micro Four Thirds version, and as I commented on his blog, both Mitchie and me have the older Four Thirds version, which we still can use with an Olympus or third party adapter, even with autofocus.

These small and inexpensive tele zoom lenses are marvels. Total gems within the system. Consider this:

Sunrise in a garden

You can click on the picture to get it on Flickr, even in the original resolution. This was taken at 76mm with the aperture fully open – and the picture was not sharpened. It’s pretty much like it came out of the camera.

If you shop around, you can get these (or the Micro Four Thirds version which should focus a little faster) for around 150 Euro or Dollars. And if you plan to get into the Micro Four Thirds system, definitely consider getting a double zoom kit which has this lens as well. It’s really good as you see, so for the price it’s a steal.

Highly recommended. And no, I’ll get nothing for doing so.

Thanks for reading.

July 7, 2015

One photo of me, two of the cat

Yesterday, Zuleikha took my picture, using my camera, lens, and studio strobe with a beauty dish attached:

And today, I took some of Tuna. Here’s one with a bounced studio strobe, and another one from outside:

All taken with the Olympus Micro Zuiko 45mm/1.8 lens, at apertures from f/2 to f/7.1. At the moment, and for living and breathing subjects, it’s by far my most used lens.

Thanks for viewing.

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015

Pictures from an exhibition

Well – the title is slightly misleading. Firstly, yesterday’s event was way more than just an exhibition, and it also has nothing to do with Emerson, Lake & Palmer (or Mussorgsky for that matter, and that is why I didn’t call it pictures *of* an exhibition). So here are a few photos from “Home is where…”:

Markus

Huge prints

Huge camera

Goj T-A-TR

And while speaking the keynote (or the laudatio), Markus took my picture as well, and he kindly allowed me to show it here:

_DSC1679 ©Markus Kuhn

See lots of more photos in Markus’ Flickr album. Or go there if you want to see those photos yourself – those prints are really impressive, and they will stay there for the next two weeks.

Thanks for viewing.

May 25, 2015

Invitation: “Home is where…”

Tomorrow starting at 1900 (7pm) there will be a vernissage in Mainz:

Home is where...

You can read a description in German on the site of PENG, and I will say a few words to greet the guests and to introduce the artists.

Entrance is free, and donations are welcome – it’s a non-profit event as you will see.

Thanks for reading – and it would be great to see some readers there.

February 15, 2015

A visit from Mélanie

Today Mélanie came over to visit us. She was one of the other two photographers with whom I met on January 18th in Mainz for an outdoor photo walk together with Meike, Rhia, and Jana.

After having some cake, we started to play around with my lights, so Mélanie took some photos of me, and I took some of her – with both her camera and mine.

From the ones out of my camera I selected nine, and it’s hard to narrow them down further – even Mitchie wasn’t able to select just a few out of these. So I decided to upload all nine to Flickr, and to let Mélanie see if she likes or even can use any of them:

I cropped the first one into a 5:4 format, but the rest are as good as out of camera. Not cropped and definitely not retouched.

To see more of Mélanie, and to have a look at her own art, please consider viewing her page on Facebook.

Merçi Mélanie – it was great to have you here. Cannot wait to repeat this.

Thanks for viewing.

February 2, 2015

I was photographed…

Me, photographed by Markus Kuhn

… taking a photograph:

Meike on the Rhine river in Mainz, shot by me. Simulated Ilford FP4+ film with an orange filter.

As you probably remember, I was invited to a shooting with friends in Mainz mid January. And the two other photographers were Mélanie and Markus.

The photo of me shooting Meike was taken by Markus, and he has some more awesome photos, some of which he kindly allowed me to show here:

Jana, photographed by Markus

Rhia, photographed by Markus

Markus has made two albums on Flickr – see his sets one and two for more great examples. I have ‘favorited’ several of these, and I can hardly wait to see some which Mélanie took.

It was a fun day, really. And it should be repeated as soon as possible.

January 19, 2015