Thomas Birke

Always love to see my stuff printed. Great...

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:29:33 +0200

Always love to see my stuff printed. Great book!

Photos by Thomas Birke (Germany)

the social network san francisco time-lapse scene

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 02:10:43 +0200

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!

After a week of thinking I gathered lots of positive energy, and...

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 11:03:55 +0200

After a week of thinking I gathered lots of positive energy, and now have a bulletproof plan to speed up the 100 cities project. Thanks for the comments to my last blog entry, they helped a fair bit!

I made the following observations:

I earn enough money to live my life and payoff debts.
I accepted that I will need to keep my dayjob for quite a while.
when large format photography enters the game, I can not earn enough money to really tackle the 100 cities goal
lots of people like my stuff and encourage me to keep on moving
I couldn’t stand to wait for 18 months to start taking pictures again

This leads to an easy conclusion:

I give the possibility to support my venture to everyone, it was really shocking for me to see, that after more than 2 years, I do not give the opportunity to easily buy my stuff anywhere!
I let people decide the directions I am going. If you support me, it is fair enough to have some sort of control where your money goes to!

So how will it work? In my last post I calculated, that I will need around 5000€ per trip. I will make it very transparent where I am in the financing process for the next trip. Users will be able to support with three things:

buy a print - I will set up a shop
buy my book - I will publish a book on blurb soon
donate via paypal - this is the noblest form of support ;)

I will make it transparent what my margin on the products is. The whole margin will go to the financing of my next trip.

Everyone, who supports me will get the chance to vote for the destination of my next trip out of the 100 cities list. Votes will be weighed by the amount that goes to the trip money. So if you definetely want my next trip to be to Dubai, rich sheik, just donate 5k€ and I am off to Dubai. It’s that easy :)

After each trip I will giveback a full resolution image (300MPix) for all supporters with creative commons license.

I’ll try to integrate the whole project financing into this blog as smooth as possible.

So, I am off and need to start programming!

what to do, what to do.

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:59:49 +0200

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 :)

My top 3 and bad 3 Seoul experiences

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:12:53 +0200

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

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!
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
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

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…
Noone really seems to speak english - it had been a great problem for me to communicate, especially to security guards and bus drivers.
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/

Status Update

Thu, 06 May 2010 14:54:40 +0200

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.

my final equipment

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:50:30 +0100

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:

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.
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.
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.
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:

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
Find some plastic factory that can copy the Fidelity Design and adopt it to 12x20 - again, I do not want to go with wood
Find a light and stable Bellows
buy the most expensive LF Lenses on the planet to cover the Format with movements
get an assistent to help me carry the gear
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
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.
New Baggage, probably custom made cases because you wouldn’t get a single component in checked luggage, eccept the lenses maybe.
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:

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

I fathom the following lenses:

Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Symmar XL 210mm
Schneider-Kreuznach Fine-Art XXL 550mm
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.

Inspiration from My Bookshelf #2 - Peter Bialobrzeski - Neontigers

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:23:28 +0100

Inspiration from My Bookshelf #2

TODAY: Peter Bialobrzeski - Neontigers

(this series is about books I have in my bookshelf that inspired me a lot)

I don’t even know how I first took notice, but when I discovered the Neon Tiger works of Mr. Bialobrzeski, I was instantly hooked. It didn’t take long for me to buy the book. It is at least something, since I could never afford a print. I flipped the pages a thousand times, tried to reengineer what he would have done to obtain that look and find the locations. I still didn’t found out completely, but the quest helped me tremendously in defining my own style and find new locations. All I could imagine is: a) he uses low contrast print film, like portra NC and b) overexposes a lot, probably more than two stops than what I would expose. And c) probably some color correction in Photoshop, it seems like the black contrast got exaggerated in CMYK to obtain the details while maintaining the overexposed look. But that doesn’t really matter, lets take a look at the cover:

The book consists of 113 Pages, has been published by hatje cantz (ISBN: 3-7757-1394-8) and contains 40 Images. It features an Introduction by Florian Hanig, which I would copy one to one for my first book ;). The printing quality is very good, you can make out lot’s of details when you look closer.

The locations are amazing, and I wonder how he obtained them. In his book, Mr. Bialobrzeski talks about using PR Managers of hotels and a lot of own scouting, maybe that is one way. Maybe I get a chance to ask him one day. Let’s take a look at my favorite pages:

See more inspiring images at his website! http://www.bialobrzeski.de/ (this also contains images not in the book)

For a complete reference of contained Images look: index 1 index 2 index 3 index 4

And finally, an image I found on the web, that shows him during work. Seems like he uses an older Linhof 4x5.

If you would like to buy the book, it is currently only available from some used book sharks at Amazon.com and Amazon.de - maybe you could try your luck on eBay! - The original price tag has been €39,80 in Germany.

lets get down to earth

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:19:00 +0100

I have a cold.

So I have a lot of time, lying in my bed and thinking about the things to come, the things I had planned. Everything has been on schedule up to now to start with 1000ppp on April. But suddenly it struck me like lightning. My plan has absolutely no room for failure, there is no time for beeing sick, no time for another hour of sleep and no time for any more hour for my daytimejob. But these things happen, as I learned right now with that dreadful cold.

I have to adjust my plan to cover these things and fit in some more. I totally left out social life, planning and preparations for trips and buffers for all other kind of things.

If I adjust the desired productivity ratio to 1/3rd, that would leave me with 10 publishable images a month - this alone is hard enough to achive, but it seems much more manageable than 30. This also fits nicely with the other math - a hundred cities and a thousand images equals 10 images per city. This means exactly one trip per month. I could separate the month - one half for taking images and scouting - and the other half for postproduction at my homebase and for planning the next trip.

The only catch would be the end date - it would have to be postponed to 2019 - I am curious if I have that long a breath! So stay with me and lets make it happen!

Things to do before 04/06/10

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:20:16 +0100

This is a short Reminder for myself about the things I have to do before I can start my 1000ppp project on 04/06/10. Let’s build up some social pressure to really accomplish these.

- prepare 30 publishable images, to have some advance to work with (finish by 04/05/10)
- cleanup studio, It really is a mess right now, wouldn’t want to invite any gallery owner over for a visit… (finish by 02/15/10)
- create custom theme for blog - don’t you think it’s booooring and lacking information (finish by 02/10/10)
- custom theme for shop - one identity! (finish by 02/28/10)
- develop supply chain - who is gonna produce the shitloads of images I am going to sell? I like Whitewall, but they are kind of slow… (finish by 03/15/10)
- close equipment gap - buy those things I lack in my equipment, that’s going to be the most fun part, yeah!!! (finish by 02/20/10)
- stock up on film - only have 30 sheets left…that’s 6 days of shooting at most! (finish by 02/20/10)
- create 1000ppp.com - I want to track this project on a separate page, separate from my portfolio and my blog! (finish by 02/28/10)

(via iseeyoueverywhere) This image is so awesome - it is a shame...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:53:32 +0100

(via iseeyoueverywhere)

This image is so awesome - it is a shame I don’t find a reference to the photographer - any hints???

on my way from Berlin to Stuttgart this morning. Note to self:...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:53:03 +0100

on my way from Berlin to Stuttgart this morning.

Note to self: invent a device that is capable of lifting up a view camera into the air and keep it absolutely steady for several minutes, to do arial night shootings at a never before seen quality.

What is technically possible with current high ISO technology (Nikon D3x) can be seen here - the images are interesting, but the noise and blurryness is absolutely disturbing from a large format photographers view ;)

Inspiration from My Bookshelf #1 - Floriane de Lassée - Night Views

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:56:00 +0100

Inspiration from My Bookshelf #1

TODAY: Floriane de Lassée - Night Views

(this series is about books I have in my bookshelf that inspired me a lot)

A friend of mine once strolled through galleries in Bejing and told me, he saw a Photographer that was doing stuff like like I do. So I researched a bit. It was at the Paris Bejing Art Gallery and it turned out to be a female french urban large format photographer by the name of Floriane de Lassée. Apparently she is very young and uses a 4x5 inch camera. I found out that she had a book on sale at amazon and so I instantly bought it!

The book consists of 96 Pages, has been published by Nazraeli Press (ISBN: 978-1590052280) and contains 41 Images. It features an Introduction by Virginie Luc. The printing quality is not the best luxury thing you have ever seen, but it is ok.

What counts are the images! They have been shot from rooftops and balconys in New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris and Istanbul. That is what I love. And how sweet the spots are! I wonder how she managed everything, because this is my single most concern, how to get permissions for publicly unaccessible spots like Rooftops on office towers etc. To give you some impressions:

See more inspiring images at her website! http://www.florianedelassee.com/site/beijing-night-views-2008/ (this also contains images not in the book)

For a complete reference of contained Images look here and here.

And finally, an image I found on Flickr, that shows her during work. I always marvel when I see some fellow large format freak in an urban environment doing what I love. This seems so unreal, but at least it shows, that we are not alone!

If you would like to buy the book, it is still available at amazon.com - here

dammit, I have strained some muscle in my back

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:41:34 +0100

and I can’t do much about it. It just hurts and keeps me from doing important things. Hopefully this will be gone by the end of the week.

100 Cities I want to take Pictures of by the end of 2012

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:51:25 +0100

The list is sorted alphabetically by country, then by city. The Number indicates the Population within the metropolitan area, as found on Wikipedia. I can’t wait to put checkmarks on every single city on the list!

Algiers Algeria Africa 3.500.000
Buenos Aires Argentina South America 12.925.000
Dhaka Bangladesh Asia 10.190.000
Brasilia Brazil South America 3.559.000
São Paulo Brazil South America 19.505.000
Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America 11.400.000
Belo Horizonte Brazil South America 4.810.000
Toronto Canada North America 5.855.000
Montreal Canada North America 3.385.000
Vancouver Canada North America 2.080.000
Santiago Chile South America 5.775.000
Hong Kong China Asia 7.000.000
Shanghai China Asia 14.655.000
Shenzhen China Asia 14.230.000
Beijing China Asia 12.780.000
Dalian China Asia 3.315.000
Chongqing China Asia 2.990.000
Guangzhou China Asia 8.500.000
Bogotá Colombia South America 7.755.000
Medellín Colombia South America 3.195.000
Kinshasa Congo Africa 8.540.000
Havana Cuba North America 2.190.000
Guayaquil Ecuador South America 2.645.000
Cairo Egypt Africa 17.035.000
Alexandria Egypt Africa 4.225.000
Addis Ababa Ethiopia Africa 3.055.000
Paris France Europe 10.480.000
Berlin Germany Europe 3.700.000
Frankfurt Germany Europe 2.295.000
Athens Greece Europe 3.760.000
Budapest Hungary Europe 2.055.000
Mumbai India Asia 20.400.000
Delhi India Asia 19.830.000
Calcutta India Asia 15.250.000
Chennai India Asia 7.400.000
Bangalore India Asia 7.030.000
Ahmedabad India Asia 5.265.000
Pune India Asia 4.835.000
Patna India Asia 2.235.000
Jakarta Indonesia Asia 23.345.000
Tel Aviv Israel Asia 2.655.000
Milan Italy Europe 4.335.000
Naples Italy Europe 3.020.000
Rome Italy Europe 2.715.000
Tokyo Japan Asia 34.670.000
Osaka Japan Asia 17.310.000
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Asia 5.715.000
Mexico City Mexico South America 18.585.000
Casablanca Morocco Africa 2.925.000
Maputo Mozambique Africa 2.060.000
Rangoon Myanmar Asia 4.310.000
Lagos Nigeria Africa 9.185.000
Pyongyang North Korea Asia 3.355.000
Karachi Pakistan Asia 9.665.000
Lahore Pakistan Asia 7.005.000
Lima Peru South America 7.915.000
Manila Philippines Asia 20.075.000
Warsaw Poland Europe 2.030.000
Moscow Russia Europe 13.670.000
Saint Petersburg Russia Europe 4.530.000
Wladiwostok Russia Asia 600.000
Riyadh Saudi Arabia Asia 4.650.000
Belgrade Serbia Europe 1.630.000
Singapore Singapore Asia 4.485.000
Johannesburg South Africa Africa 7.500.000
Cape Town South Africa Africa 3.175.000
Seoul South Korea Asia 19.660.000
Benidorm Spain Europe 65.000
Madrid Spain Europe 5.370.000
Colombo Sri Lanka Asia 2.050.000
Taipei Taiwan Asia 6.610.000
Bangkok Thailand Asia 8.330.000
Istanbul Turkey Europe 12.600.000
Kiev Ukraine Europe 2.565.000
Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates Asia 860.000
Dubai United Arab Emirates Asia 2.335.000
London United Kingdom Europe 8.580.000
New York United States North America 21.295.000
Los Angeles United States North America 14.940.000
Chicago United States North America 9.430.000
San Francisco United States North America 5.780.000
Miami United States North America 5.625.000
Philadelphia United States North America 5.550.000
Washington, D.C. United States North America 4.380.000
Detroit United States North America 4.150.000
Phoenix United States North America 3.570.000
Seattle United States North America 3.100.000
Caracas Venezuela South America 2.645.000
Saigon Vietnam Asia 7.005.000
Hanoi Vietnam Asia 3.440.000

Why ain’t there a 100? Well, I want to leave 10 wild cards to fill later, because I simply can’t predict which other wonderful cities come in to my mind within the next three years.

the 1000 published pictures in a 1000 days project

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:07:25 +0100

Hello my dear readers,

as you read the title, you may think “what a pussy, I take a 1000 pictures on one day, so what kind of challenge is that?”. Well, as you know I shoot 8x10 large format, which requires analog film and a lot of caring for every single photo. (Read my last post to know what it takes).

So what is a 1000 published pictures in a 1000 days about?

Simply put:

I intend to publish 1 image every single day for a consecutive 1000 days.

What do I mean by publishing? By publishing I mean making the image available for sale through my gallery site. If you take a look at my current gallery, you might get an impression what I deem to be publishable. The image has to be tack sharp and with perfect colour. Ready to be printed at 72 by 90 inch. An image really has to go a long way to fulfill this claim.

Regarding that ambition, a 1000 pictures is a heavy batch to keep interesting for every single day! This means I can not take pictures of Potsdamer Platz every day - (where I live and which is one of the few urban places in Berlin). This means I have to get out. Travel the world and explore every single city I have on my 100 places to visit list. This will keep the quality high and my inspiration and motivation levels as well! And also this will be the key element for everyone to revisit the gallery and get thrilled again and again.

About the financial Aspect

I presented the math earlier: to be able to make an image that can be published, I consider I need to make 5 images - that would be a 20% success rate, which seems unreal in digital times. Anyway, that would mean to publish a 1.000 images I would need to shoot 5.000 - which amounts to 60.000€. This is an amount of money that takes me almost 2 years in my current job to earn, but I spend it all on basic things already - so there is no way in doing this as a hobby! I have written down the details within this post - this indicates that finally I have to make 12.000€ a month to survive and keep the rate of published pictures at 1 per day. Selling that much to people I do not know seems fairly unrealistic, I will work on that issue for the next few months.

The Scheduling Aspect

Let’s take a look back to get a better grip on my possible production rate and succes rate:

I have been to Tokyo for three weeks in August 2008, for the sole purpose of taking pictures - I shot 67 8x10 images in total - thats a little more than 3 pics a day - see results here ( I have published 27 of these, so that is a 40% ratio!)
I have been to Hong Kong for one week in March 2009, for the sole purpose of taking pictures - I shot 33 8x10 images in total - that’s almost 5 pics a day - see results here ( I have published 10 of these, so that is a 30% ratio!)
I have been to New York for two weeks in August 2009 for Holiday - I shot 9 pictures and published none
During other short trips and local sessions I shot another 20 images

This means that since I started 8x10 large format in the middle of 2008, I only shot 139 images! You remeber Cartier-Bresson, who told us “your first 10.000 images are your worst”? If I apply that to my 8x10 endeavours, that would mean another 140 years of bad imagery. That must not happen!

How much time will I spend on a published image?

scouting 4hrs
shooting 3hrs
prescanning 10images 40mins
final scanning (2hrs scan time, 20min attendance)
remove dust and scratches 4hrs
fine tuning in Photoshop 3hrs
total: 15 hrs

That would leave me with 9 hrs left for the rest of my life including sleeping and travel, which I have to do quite a lot if I am to visit a 100 cities. Plus this leaves me with absolut no time for a daytime job!

So 1 image published a day is the absolute maximum!

I probably could outsource the scanning and de-dusting process, if I earn enough money - this would leave me with more time for scouting and organizing my online life.

I will put all weels in motion to start on 06.04.2010 so that Day #1000 is on 31.12.2012.

8x10 - My Large Format Image Production Process

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:00:57 +0100

This post describes my process of creating an 8x10 image in urban surrounding in detail. It is not a quick read, but mainly a resource I can quote to answer the questions about my working process.

I will shoot a video for every single step in the future and put up a direct link here, so that you can see me work eye to eye.

So here we go:

find an area of interest - when I travel, I constantly make notes of interesting places, images and movies I have seen. I try to find out where the images and movies where shot, check on google earth and flickr - I am also randomly scrolling cities, looking for interesting building constellations, interesting shapes, highways, hills, water and bridges - I also check a lot of blogs and flickr streams for inspiration of places to go - the opportunities are endless!
Go out and scout the area - I usually do this at daytime, because I don’t like daylight for my pictures. So that time presents the perfect opportunity to scout - I ride to the location, usually on subway, sometimes by bus. I equip myself with a small digital point and shoot camera - I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2, which is a charm to work with. There is a follow up model - the LX3, which even is better. But it just doesn’t matter, as long as you can make custom adjustments to the aperture and exposure time, you’re fine. I then start wandering around, looking for interesting viewpoints and views, i checkout fire escapes, stairs, hills, plattforms, whatever could be of interest. I frame a lot with my small camera and try to imagine different shots with different focal lengths, make some wide angle images for documentation and then I go on. I prefer to scout by foot - I tried scouting by bike and by car, but I never found good places. You always have to find a parking lot or lock your bike if you want to examine something closer - and you stop from doing it after the 3rd time, because it takes so long in a city, especially finding parking lots!
Choose your subject for the night - Back home or in the hotel again I check the memory shots I made with my small cam and decide on the location to shoot. To make some informed decisions, I also check google earth again, to see the cardinal points and estimate, where the sun will come down or go up, because this is an important factor for the images I will be able to make. Then I check a weather website to see when the sun will go down or up, how strong the wind is, if there is rain expected etc. I usually refrain from going when there is more than 20 km/h of wind and heavy rain. If everything seems right, you’re good to go, just check for the nearest underground or bus station and the travel time and then start packing.
Packing the gear for the trip - You have a plan and are now able to pack your gear accordingly. Which focal lengths will you need? What film will be the best? Do you need one or two tripods? (I would recommend two tripods with more than 600mm of focal length) Which bellows would you need? On and on. This step for me is full of excitement, because it feels like preparing for a battle - remember - failing to prepare is preparing to fail! If you are not sure you have everything - write a list and take it with you. If you forgot anything in the field, add it to the list and check it everytime before you leave. I always forgot my loupe for example, which is a heavy burden for focusing. Check your list after ten successful trips and examine if you really needed everything - cross out things you didn’t ever need - makes your heavy gear a little more lightweight.
Getting to the location - Never underestimate the complexity of urban transport. Especially during rush hour your trip could take longer than expected. Loaded with heavy gear you are not as fast as with nothing more than a small digicam. I try to time my trips in a manner that I am at the location exactly at sunrise or sunset, because the interesting light usually happens 30 to 90 minutes after that event. This gives me some buffer and allows to conveniently assemble my camera!
Assemble your camera - try to imagine the perfect framing and decide what to set up, you should have thought about this already back home when you packed your gear. Since I have a monorail cam, i take the following steps to assemble: Tripod -> head -> rail clamp -> rail -> front standart -> rear standart -> bellows -> lens -> hood mask -> dark cloth - this generally takes about 5 minutes, including leveling the parts based on what the bubble levels tell me.
Adjust your Settings - Now it is time to crawl underneath your dark cloth and check the groundglass. Yeah, it’s mirrored and upside down and one of the best moments during the whole process. I use a loupe to focus, a 4x loupe by Rodenstock, and I feel this is totally sufficient. If you go higher in magnification, like with a 10x loupe, you see too much of the grain of the sanded groundglass und too few of the image. Check for straight lines, check if you don’t cut off anything and if the framing is as you thought it would be, close the lens shutter. Now it is time to decide on the exposure value. I mostly go with F22, since this is the best trade-off between abberation and the diffraction limit of most optics I use. To determine the correct exposure time I use experience a lot lately, since conditions are pretty standard all the time after the sun got down. Just to be sure I use my Minolta Autometer IV with a 5° Spot Attachment or my small digicam to make test exposures and reference the result to my f22 aperture. It mostly is between 4 and 16 minutes. Now to the worst part.
click and wait - not much valuable to say about this step. I hate it, since I am not a Zen person. Especially if it is cold or windy, because you always fear that your camera could shake and that’s the single most common source of ruined images for me. I tried to shield the wind with an umbrella, but I noticed very quickly, that you never have a constant wind direction in cities. During 4 minutes, the wind will come from every direction if you are among high rises. And I also blurred images with my umbrella, when a hefty blow came and I lost control and touched the camera with the end of the umbrella - how stupid is that! So all you can do basically is pray for slow wind for the whole time. To spend your time it is most advisable to check for other scenes and viewpoints during the exposure - behind the camera ;) .
change location - If I am done, I prefer to make a second exposure with another exposure time, 1 or 2 stops higher to enhance the chance of a good result, sharpness wise as exposure wise. To really exploit a location, you can take different angles on your subject or take images of different subjects in your view - play with the location of your camera and your available focal lengths. As a rule of thumb I always carry my assembled camera, if the next spot is not further away than 200m - if further away, I disassemble the camera, pack and get on to the next spot and assemble again. This can be motivating, but as you see the groundglass everything will be OK again.
get back home - you are done with the shooting process - hooray. I always enjoy the ride home, check for new locations on my way and just feel the city around me. You can flow since you don’t have a time constraint and relax a little. First thing at home is to change the film, mark the box and queue it for processing at the lab. I use a Harrison Film Changing Tent - perfect for hotel rooms that never have a perfectly dark room. I would advise you to take the largest, I have the 8x10 version and it is too small for 8x10 to change conveniently!
develop the film - I can not imagine developing 8x10 colour film by myself. There is too much precision, space and chemicals required for my taste. E6 is such a standard process, I never had problems with any lab developing it - neither in the US, Japan or Germany. The only difference is in the placement of the hook marks - which have been the most careful in Japan and the most rude and disturbing in the US. You always have to remove the hook marks with a cutter prior to wet mounting for scanning, so the amount and size matters. The price is between 4 and 8€, depending on the purchasing power of the Euro in the country you are in. I always prefer to develop film at the location I am at, to minimize the Risk of X-Ray Exposure while flying.
scan the film - I have an Epson V700 for prescanning - I just throw the slide onto the glass, do a quick 600dpi scan and get on to the next. That allows me to check for the sharpness and the overall potential of an image - which is hard to grasp on the light table for me. The ones I deem publishable are then queued for drum scanning. I think the only reasonable way to do drumscans is doing it yourself. I have seen a prepress house in New York, charging almost a 1000$ US for the scanquality I want out of an 8x10 slide! I Paid 3000€ for my scanner (a Heidelberg Primescan D 8200) and pay less then 1€ for consumables per scan. So my scanner amortized after just 6 scans, go figure! Since drumscanning is such a delicate and complex process, I think I will write an extra post about that in the future. I usually scan a 1,6GB File, which is the maximum my scanner can process at the moment - resulting in a 16Bit file with a dimension of 18.000 by 15.000 - or 300 very useful Megapixels. That file is then ready for the final touch.
postprocessing - Working on a 1,6GB tiff file is a boring thing - if you add adjustment layers you will soon get to 10GB and your RAM will melt faster than that Ice cone in the sun. I have 16GB installed and only one history step in Photoshop, and still it is paging all the time, taking up to 10 minutes for basic actions like colour mode changes. So what I do is resize the image to a manageable size, like 25MPix, and then record my actions, so I can process the large file with these actions later automatically overnight. This works. What I have not found a workaround for is the tedious task of removing dust and scratches. My record is 40 hours on one single image. This feels so unnecessary…but when it is done, I am happy and have the perfect image ready for printing. What do I do in Photoshop? I do not alter the image content. I only work on the colours. So I balance the light and contrast between areas, change the curves a lot, the saturation and the colour balance, so that I receive a result that resembles my imagination. When I am done, I leave the image open for a day, recheck it on my monitor if it is realistic and repeat this until I find the colour perfect for 3 consecutive times. Then I am done, I have an Image I can do whatever I want to do with.
Printing - I prefer printing on a large format laser printer - the OCE Lightjet 500XL offers the widest width at 72 Inches - and there is nothing better than an 8x10 image to print at 72x90 Inches. The result is simply breathtaking. The quality is unmatched by any Inkjet Printer print I have ever seen! Fortunately there are several printshops in Germany that use a Lightjet - I work with GIGANT in Berlin, perfect Service and Quality!

Phew, what a long Post! If you have any further Questions, feel free to post them, I will be glad to embed the answer into the description.

my kind of photography

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:00:00 +0100

After reading my theory on what is a good photo, it is quite interesting to find how different one can perceive a picture. For myself, I love shapes and Colors of many forms, whereas the meaning is often irrelevant or the picture transforms some feeling of tranquility at best. Other people love meaning above everything, see the lomo lovers, they dwell in feelings allone.

See my favorites or my galleries on flickr: hail to the laundromat, light and colour, elevated roads and rails, urban photography, tender is the night.

These images have been collected over more than three years. They have an astonishing consistency regarding the amount of meaning, colour and shape. These images inspire me and push me with my own photography.

It is obvious that quite a lot of them have an urban background. I have been asked often by people, what it is I connect with urban scenes. I never knew a good answer other than “I think it looks cool”. Now that I really think about it, I might say I know.

Most people only see chaos and noise and feel unsettled when viewing urban imagery. Example:

(c) by *toki - http://www.flickr.com/photos/toki_dub/2919145344

But what I see is tranquility. The movements are frozen, you have a good viewpoint and can see the big picture. (That is why I spend such a great deal of time finding good viewpoints for my own images - to create that feeling of remoteness) You can let your eye wander, gather the proportions of the city, try to fathom the content and purpose of buildings. All of that without any disturbance. You can think about what people might be doing as you see the scene.

Or this is what I do most of the time: you can lose yourself in the astonishing colour and shapes that the millions of lights of a city create. The overwhelming complexity and interaction of human made structures can be glimpsed and felt - a feeling that is quite strong for me. And I know that there are other people out there, that feel the same about urban photography! I know it by the comments and discussions I had, and that makes me very happy.

One other important aspect for me is the level of detail an image provides. The larger the resolution, the more details you get, the more you can loose yourself in an image. That is the reason for me to go large format 8x10 at least and why I can’t settle for anything less! This kind of technology gives me the opportunity to have 600 Megapixels and 2 meter printouts at 300dpi. Most people say technology is not important for a good picture. And if you remember my last post - they are right - if an image evokes enough feelings, it doesn’t matter with what camera it has been shot. But the feeling I want to create requires a great deal of detail and doesn’t allow for blurred images, so there is no absolute answer to the question if the tool matters - it all depends - for me it matters, ‘cause I need MPix!

I will try to improve my own imagery and want to create thousands of pictures with colour, shape and a feeling of tranquil complexity in cities. Stay tuned and watch me progress.

The meaning of photography for me.

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:00:00 +0100

Photography is everywhere. When I walk through the streets of Berlin on a saturday afternoon, I have the impression that half of the population owns a digital SLR and the other half some kind of point and shoot camera. And everyone is snapping happily away. You can see the results on flickr.

Most of these images don’t mean anything to me. They may mean something to the people that have been shooting them or that are involved in some form.

Then there are images, that mean something to many people. What is the difference?

In my opinion it is not some form of golden ratios or a specific set of rules that has been followed each and every time religously. It is not entirely a visual thing as well. For me a good image is the result of meaning + shape + colour. An image doesn’t need to include all three elements, but it might be easier to reach a high result of emotional connection to any given image, if it incorporates every one of the three qualities.

Meaning - Meaning is something that an image can transport by evoking feelings, memories or desires. This is because our brains associate, reflect and process the content of an image based on experiences, knowledge and values that are the core of every personality viewing an image. Every image can transport a message to some degree. Different people have different minds and perceive different meanings with different intensity. Nevertheless I would say that pictures involving humans evoke the strongest and most consistent emotions among most people.

Shape - Shape is all about geometry, vantage points, lines, angles and proportions. We perceive certain forms as harmonic, while others don’t please our eyes.

Colour - The colour of an image is the third important ingredient. Is it in balance throughout the entire image? Are there contrasts, that lead our eyes, that feel good or bad?

Let me give you some examples here (it doesn’t mean that the specific images lack one or the other quality, it does only mean that the mentioned qualities are so dominant, that I feel these are responsible for me beeing connected to the picture)

meaning + shape + color

(c) by Rivo Sarapik - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rivos/448267405

meaning + color

(C) by alex magalhaes - http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexmagalhaes/2999176086

meaning + shape

(c) by Robert Doisneau

color + shape

(c) by Doruk Bayer - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dorukbayer/389637881

shape

(c) by Charlie Xia - http://www.flickr.com/photos/charliexia/510781144

color

(C) by Edward Olive - http://www.flickr.com/photos/edwardolive/2142418106

meaning:

The selection is from some of my alltime favorites and reflects my personal view on photography that I can connect to.

my goal

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:14:00 +0100

After reading my last post about how to become a millionaire, I think the most important aspect is, to never start the process with the number in mind in the first place. So my goal is not to become a millionaire. What for, it’s just a number - if I reach it one day, fine, if not - it depends.

My primary goal is to be able to do what I want in my life. I don’t want to be forced to cancel things I fathom, just because I don’t have the money. Currently I am in such a phase of my life - I want much and have too little. But staring at that million Euro border is limiting my thoughts - the amount is not important.

The only thing that is important for me personally is the amount of money I need in a month to live the lifestyle I want - so let’s take a look at the figures to get a more differentiated picture:

for basic living, I currently need about 2.700€ a month, including rent, insurance, food, transportation, entertainement, debt repayment and other common stuff - I can cover that by my salary from my current job, but that would not allow me to do much more

now to the financial backing I need for the fulfillment of my desires:

I want to shoot 10 large format (8x10) images a day - that amounts to 4.500€ a month for film and development
I want to travel half of the time, so I need approximately 1.200€ a month for hotel fees and 3.000€ in airfare

One time investments:

a Gitzo GT3541 LS - 700€
Arca Swiss Cube C1 Head - 1.400€
Arca Swiss Monoball P1 - 450€
Schneider-Kreuznach APO-Tele-Xenar 600/800mm - 4.000€
Schneider-Kreuznach Super-Symmar XL 210mm - 3.000€
other small things - 1.000€

This would amount to 10.550€ - since I intend to make a 3 year plan, this would amount to 350€ repayment for a loan.

The final math looks like this now: 2.700€ base + 8.700€ desires + 350€ investment repayment = 11.750€ per month I need after taxes.

To earn such an amount of money with my daytimejob as an IT consultant for one of the largest IT companies in the world would easyly take more than 20 years to achieve if I work my ass off and don’t do ANYTHING else. So this is inacceptable.

But it is a revelation too: to live the life I dream of, doesn’t require me to become a millionaire, but only a mere 12K€ a month!

So here is my plan of how to achieve this:

I will pursue my dream of taking 10 large format images a day. I consider 10% of my images to be quite good enogh for hanging on a wall and 1% to be potential killer images that sell massively. So after doing the math one can easily see, that at the given rate I could publish one image per day for sale. Let’s assume a month has 30 days - this would mean that I would only need a profit per image of 400€ - this seems so much more realistic to achieve than some abstract goal of earning 1.000.000€.

I even have a plan of how to cash in on these images - I will create a shop, and sell one new image every day in 3 different editions, all highly limited and every sole edition making at least 400€ of profit, if it’s a better image it could make 1.600€ in profit and cover 4 days, taking out pressure to succeed, and if killer image, it could cover 14 days of profit. For Example:

10 images at a smaller format / of a simple make, 40€ of profit per image
6 images at a large format, like 1 meters in width, making 200€ of profit per image
1 image at a really large format, like 2,25 meters in width, making a profit of 4.000€

I consider the market for my imagery to be quite endless. Many people want original images on their wall, no 10€ posters that everyone has. But original artwork of photography masters is damn expensive, so they shop the midmarket of limited but not overpriced originals. The success of midmarket galleries like yellow korner or lumas that cater the 100€ - 1000€ range is proof enough. The best thing about that market is, that not the name is the key purchasing trigger, but the perceived quality of the imagery, and that is an arena I have no problem picking up fights for attention. Further nurtured by the evergrowing importance of social networks and the fact that open web personalities can gather lots of attention. So I make my venture public, open my accounts and motivate everyone purchasing my photos to see the person behind the lens and do something good and fuel my desire pursuit. I hope this also motivates people to do their thing respectively. The tagline could be: independent images for independent minds.

I can’t wait to start, and will talk about the transition from wage slave to knight of desire pursuit and about my photography philosophy during my next posts!