Thomas Birke

Five days are over, I have stayed at 3 different places now, and so far I am pleased with my choice.

You can find larger sizes of these at flickr.

During the days I have scouted most of the Central spots I had planned to check beforehand. That was a lot of walking, and as it always is going up or downhill, I really have sore muscles ;). Most of the spots turned out not to be what I was looking for, but the views I had at the appartments do compensate for that. The current appartment is in a building with rooftop access on the 24th floor, and I hope it is not that windy tomorrow so that I can do a nice panorama…

So here is my current scouting and the planned spots:

Until now I have done 4 exposures, not really much, but one shot per day is the maximum I get because I need the twilight!

I am curious of what’s still to come…

So I finally get started again. Arrived in Hong Kong about 10 hours ago and everything went well. All my equipment arrived safely and my 20 Sheets of Portra 160NC 12x20 were with me in the cabin for the whole trip. As I have flown in to Hong Kong for 4 Times now, I knew that sitting on the left side of the plane would lead to the highest chance of great views as the approach is usually from the south encircling all of Hong Kong. It was a bit cloudy, but still magnificient.

As we got down over northern Kowloon most of the clouds were above and the view was great and I was getting excited.

I checked in to the Conrad on some left over bonus points for the first two nights, and I got a room with a great view of one of my favorite buildings - the Lippo Centre. Will post a picshortly on flickr. Unfortunately it is over the weekend, so no office lights are on in Central, which makes photographing corporate buildings quite boring.

I made a quick walk through central, but did not found anything new as I have strolled around here quite often. But it feels so good to be back into Hong Kong madness.

As for the next days: I will scout extensively throughout the day, have researched a lot of prospective spots, and will take “real” images during twilight time. I will try a new way to get to great spots this time: I will change to a new appartment every 2-3 days. I checked all offerings on airbnb for Hong Kong and chose the most promising where you either live on a high floor or have rooftop access. The price range is from grungy Sham Shui Po (30€) to Glossy Central (120€), on average I pay about 70€ a night, that is within my budget, so I am curious how this will work out.

Finally an image of what lies ahead: all of my appartments and spots I am going to check out in one overview, I have also marked the route of today…

It has been a long time since my last photography related trip. That was back in June 2010 where I have strolled through Hong Kong with an 8x10 Sinar p2 Large Format Camera. At that time I have been using the camera for 2 years and have been to Tokyo, Dubai, Hong Kong, New York, London and Seoul. The images I made where nice but for my taste they could be better, sharper and with even more detail. I think it is wasted time and effort to carry that heavy camera to remote places and going through all the hassle whilst not getting the best possible result. I know that 1 Gigapixel is doable with the biggest camera, which would be 12x20 inch. (My final equipment) - 12x20 inch is the absolute limit for me, because that would be the biggest format where the film itself fits the regulation for carry-on baggage, and no one sane would ever put film in checked baggage.

8x10 photography was expensive and brought me to my knees financially, but it is nothing compared to 12x20! The dimensions might not even double, but the prices for film and equipment do five-fold.

There is virtually no used market, as there is so few buyers and sellers. I have been waiting for a specific lens on ebay for two years - it got sold once and that was almost at retail price. The same goes for the camera itself. In the end I bought everything new and had the camera manufactured at Richard Ritter, who builds amazingly light ultra large format cameras. I had to wait half a year for it,
but it paid off. My new equipment is now 500g lighter as my previous sinar 8x10 p2 outfit, thanks to the use of wood and carbon fibre instead of solid blocks of aluminium. As lenses I bought a Schneider Super Symmar XL 210mm and a Fine Art XXL 550mm.

This is the reason, why there has been no news for more than 2 years! I have been saving money and gathering my equipment. Everything is set up now and I can continue for my quest to photograph a 100 cities and visually explore the nature of urban density. Not by the end of 2012 though (100 cities post) ;).

I will resume from where I started - the next trip will be Hong Kong and I will start in 5 days!

Just watched the social network - quite entertaining flick. But what really stuck me was one scene in the middle, and of cause it didn’t even have the slightest thing to do with the caracters on the movie. It is right in the middle, where things move to San Francisco - you see an amazing perspective and time-lapse from sunset to the night.

This really pumped me by it’s visual power. Afterwards there was a cut into a club scene with extremely loud music.

I thought this is exactly what my photography should be about! I try to find a clip about the scene, it’s really awesome!

As you may have noticed, everything has been quiet during the last few weeks. I haven’t taken a real picture since June, and this is really annoying me.

I might have made success too dependent on technology, and thus ended up with a nice equipment on one hand but with a seizable size of debt on the other. I thought, if I could produce good images in the best attainable quality, then the return must be a magnitude better then with cheaper quality. I was wrong. Photography is not an investment decision.

Now I made everything so complicated. If I want to take pictures in a city, let’s say Singapore, It would cost me around 4000€ at least.

- 1000€ airfare (lot’s of excess baggage due to heavy equipment)

- 1000€ hotel (2 weeks, can’t organize and secure equipment in a youth hostel)

- 1500€ film and development (100 images is a good job in 2 weeks)

- 500€ for food and transportation

Let’s say I do it digitally, I would be able to fly for 500, sleep for 500 and food and transportation stays the same. Plus I would end up with 1000nds of images and not some dozens.

4000€ vs. 1500€

Wow. I could make 3 times more Photography with a less hasslefree equipment.

But as long as there ain’t no 100MPix back I have to stay analog large format, to get the quality I want - I don’t want to go back.

So this means: I have to work, since photography doesn’t work for me. I will earn my freedom to do the images I love with the equipment that is necessary. And if this involves 60 hour weeks in my IT company I will endure it. I think it’s better than prostituting my images and deduct my quality to just keep going.

So what does this mean? I will not be able to take any further trips during the next 18 Months. Afterwards, If I have to stick to the scheme, there will be 2 cities a year possible. So if I go on to tackle my 100 cities goal, It will take 50 Years. That’s going to be interesting :)

Hello,

as you may have known I have been to seoul for a week to shoot the city on large format and add footage to my 100 Cities project.

Here are my top and bad 3 about the city:

TOP

1. The air is super clean, I suspect this is due to the massive amount of trees spread all over the city - there are so many forests, you just need to take a quick stroll and you feel like there is no megacity around. When there are no or only light clouds, the sky has an awesome blue and the far sight must be at least 50km. There is no smog in the air and this is of course perfect for photography!
2. The subway system. It is the most efficient I have ever seen! And it is dead cheap at 50 cents a ride. The trains were crowded most of the times, but never as fully packed as it is the case in Tokyo or Paris, where you sometimes have to wait for the next train to take the ride. I suspect they have a very good crowd management system. All the tracks on every station are walled, so no one can fall on the tracks - the doors only open when the trains arrive. The best thing: in every station there are map stations with huge touch sensitive plasma screens, where you can scroll and zoom the google earth like map with the touch of a finger - they even have street view. This is by far the best orientation system I have ever seen, called daum digital view! http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4061/4449540861_af4dc2c3e6_b.jpg
3. Family Mart or 7/11 - this is existing in every asian megacity, but it still is the coolest thing to be able to grab a snack or a beer anytime you want - perfect for jetlagged europeans!

BAD

1. The North Korea Situation. Basically, they are still at war with only a cease fire in place for 50 years. You notice this on every corner, especially as a photographer with heavy equipment. I have been told several times to pack and go away, apperantly because there were some military installations around and they were afraid of spying. This is so stupid! When I would like to spy, I’ll check google earth or walk around with a pen camera - not with a ton of equipment that takes 10 minutes to assemble. Climbing a mountain, totally wasted and full with sweat - and then beeing told to not take pictures there is such a bad experience…
2. Noone really seems to speak english - it had been a great problem for me to communicate, especially to security guards and bus drivers.
3. The trees. I know, they are good, but for photographers they are a pain in the ass! Seoul has a lot of great hills with fantastic views, but most views are shaded by a gazillion of trees - it is so hard to get a good view without trees blocking the way. They should at least crop the trees at some viewpoints!

All in all Seoul is a very enjoyable megacity and a great place to live I think. Close to the quality of Tokyo - they know how megacities can do it right!

I hope some of my pictures show it - currently I am uploading them into my Seoul flickr set, so check it out from time to time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/move_lachine/sets/72157624187670400/

Hey my dear fellows,

I have been terribly busy the last couple of weeks. This is of course due to my need for constant money from a daytime job. Anyway, I have some cool Months ahead of me.

13th of May - 17th of May I will be in St. Julians, Malta

22nd of May - 30th of May I will be in Seoul, South Korea.

19th of June - 27 of June I will be in Hong Kong, China.

If anyone wants to meetup and show me some cool spots, go ahead and mail me.

So expect some new Images starting early June. I am so curious about Seoul, since this seems to be one of the most underrated cities in the world related to it’s size. I know some people that love it though, and flipping through some images on flickr and Google I might become a fan too! Lots of density and high-rises, hills for good views and lots of traffic - looks like perfect ingredients for my images.

So long, I’ll keep you posted.

I did some calculations and defined the final equipment I will need to perfectly produce super large prints of urban landscapes.

I made the following observations:

1. I like 8x10 and it is a good way to achieve my goals. But after trying different print sizes I get the feeling, that 1,50m by 1,20 meter is the largest I can go and still have unlimited sharpness - meaning you can go as close as you want to the image and never get the feeling the detail goes no further. I mean at a 1,50m printsize you can really examine the print at 5cm distance and still see every smallest detail.
2. I do not like the 8x10 aspect ratio - it is not made for the human field of view. The human eyes want wide screen images, like cinema scope.
3. The highest and largest quality print in the world can be achieved by an OCÉ Lightjet 500XL - it has a maximum print size of 300x180cm.
4. The 300x180cm print size is ideal to create the feeling of “beeing there” - I have tried this and it is amazing!

See the following image with me in front of an 300x180cm print at my last show in October:

you can find the image here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/move_lachine/2831249098 (sorry for the look, I was a bit drunk)

So, what conclusions du we get? Exactly - the perfect format to cover 300x180cm perfectly sharp is 12x20in. The aspect ratio is just right and the resolution as well.

OH MY GOD.

12x20! Only the toughest and meanest guys in the world go that large. And if they do, they mostly shoot landscapes from close by their car. One guy whose work I recently found and admire is Clyde Butcher, check out his website. I do not want to imagine the trouble of airtravel with that monstrous equipment, I think carrying it alone will be impossible. So these are the obstacles I have to overcome in order to shoot my dream format:

1. build a decent 12x20 camera -  I do not want a wooden camera, since I do not trust them - my CNC milled Sinar is just perfect - I imagine having a custom Sinar 12x20 back made
2. Find some plastic factory that can copy the Fidelity Design and adopt it to 12x20 - again, I do not want to go with wood
3. Find a light and stable Bellows
4. buy the most expensive LF Lenses on the planet to cover the Format with movements
5. get an assistent to help me carry the gear
6. Get Kodak to produce a batch of 12x20 cut colour film e100g or 160nc for me - they do this for large orders in the $20K range
7. Get a hell of a faster computer - mine has 16GB RAM right now and 8 cores, and totally kneels in front of a large 8x10 scan - impossible to think of a 12x20. I fathom I need at least 128GB RAM and certainly some Fibre Channel Disks to accelerate the swapping.
8. New Baggage, probably custom made cases because you wouldn’t get a single component in checked luggage, eccept the lenses maybe.
9. An Airline Elite Member Status that allows to carry 40kg of luggage, I do not want to pay 30€ per kg per leg - that would be insane

But hey, at least I already have the following to start from:

1. a light meter :)
2. a sinar p2 8x10 - a very sturdy base for ANYTHING
3. a Heidelberg D8200 Drumscanner and a big 212mm drum that can take 2 sheets of 12x20 film at once

I fathom the following lenses:

1. Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Symmar XL 210mm
2. Schneider-Kreuznach Fine-Art XXL 550mm
3. Schneider-Kreuznach Fine-Art XXL 1100mm

Alright, I am glad I got that of my chest. Now I can bury this post and look at it when I have assembled my FINAL equipment.