In search of higher ground
02. March 2019 | link this post
I didn't think I'd write something like this anytime soon. I thought I'd left the Mac world and I thought I basically did that at the right time. When Marco lamented the state of Apples computers (and their software) a while back he of course focussed on what Apple themselves put into their system. Lately I've been looking at the world of computer Operating Systems more in terms of comparing ecosystems - the OS with the (3rd party) software it gives you access to. To be fair there is great software for Windows, for Linux and for the Mac. In fact as far as Windows goes I feel Microsoft these days makes great software, who'd have thought I'd ever say this 10-15 years ago. Putting care in how things look and feel The thing that strikes me…
Making Facebook be a website again
25. February 2019 | link this post
As it stand right now I am not actually ready to outright leave facebook yet. It has its uses for me, I know people that are on there and I am in a few groups I do not want to leave at this time. However I am also one of those people who are really taken aback by the things we hear concenring privacy issues with the company. I'm not going to say I'm surprised by these things because I am not in the least bit surprised. However even more then before it brings to mind a need to controll what data an company like Facebook can get access to. As it turns out there is at least an intermediate step that is fairly easy to take - deleting their app from your phone. To my mind Facebook as a website is something way more controllable then as an app…
On Surfaces, iPads and so forth
24. February 2019 | link this post
Years ago, when the iPad 2 had arrived, I was a happy user of Apples tablets for some years. Of course my iPad aged and after enjoying quite a long life with me it finally had to go. The technology was of course still new with it just being the second iteration of the tablets. Later I went to Microsofts Surface Pro and I've now used this for roughly two years. It's really cool, and it's propably not for me. The good parts The Surface as a piece of tech feels nice, so does the keyboard/cover Microsoft produces. Even though I've basically got the smallest version the experience of using the device for the first time is great. Actually it really reminded me of the experience when I got a MacBook in ~2006. Ambitions and where they may fail you…
Webdeveloper Position in Cologne
01. January 2019 | link this post
While this is a bit off the usual path I'm taking here I thought I'd link this here. In case somebody is interested in open position as a web-developer in Cologne Germany. we're looking for some backup: some details on the job
Moving offsite
26. December 2018 | link this post
Since I finally found some time to do this: my photography-related posts can from now on be found at film-rewind.com. This blog will return to be more of a mixed bag of general posts. Also the Photo Resources pages has moved over there.
Some first steps into printing
22. December 2018 | link this post
Recently I've gotten into printing photographs, starting out with a Durst F30 enlarger end currently considering an upgrade due to some smaller frustrations with my particular enlarger. For everybody who does film photography if you have the space to this I can only urge you in the strongest of terms to give the world of darkroom printing a try. A few years ago I did some inkjet printing but actually working with an enlarger is really quite magical by comparison. There certainly is a significant learning curve to it, but the reward for taking this particular plunge is the experience of a fascinating photographic process. While there seems to be an almost endless depth of things to learn the good thing about all this is, that to get…
Leica M4-2 and the 50mm collapsible Summicron, almost 1 year on
28. October 2018 | link this post
It is not really one year yet, but I felt like giving some of my impressions on what my time with this camera has been like and what I feel like this has done for me. Before I start with this maybe a bit of personal history on how I’ve gotten into photography. I started at around 2004 and originally what really inspired me were the images of the likes of Cartier-Bresson. However, being rather shy and apparently at the time all to willing to give in to that for the longest time I did neither reportage nor street or portrait photography. Instead I focussed on landscape and nature, something where I wouldn’t have to face other people. One of my reasons for getting a rangefinder was that I felt they lend themselves to kind of things I’d like to do…
Some ACROS love
14. October 2018 | link this post
Before the end of ACROS was announced I had ordered two rolls and meant to try it out some time. I since have shot one and I am really loving it. Guess I didn't really pick the best of moments for this ...
Technical Difficulties
03. October 2018 | link this post
I tend to advertise developing your own film as something that’s approachable and at its core quite simple. While that holds true I’ve also learned these days to always mind the basics. In my specific case my fixer became saturated and I must have really blanked when I tested it. It took my several days and films to figure out that I didn’t have any form of light-leakage anywhere but simply had to mix some new fixer. Of course the great thing about this is that you can fix it afterwards to a great extend: I’m currently retroactively fixing the films that were involved in this and seems like most of the pictures can be saved quite well. So developing your own film is still great.
Watching Ted Forbes „Art of Photography”
22. September 2018 | link this post
For a few years I have often watched Ted Forbes youtube channel “The Art of Phtorgaphy” and back when I started this channel was in a bit of a unique place: it really was about the art side of photography. Yes there certainly where tech-focussed videos on the channel: mostly on older analogue camera. But a lot of the content was about things like creative process, developing film (ok, that’s a tech-topic …), on past and present photographers and so on. I like talking about cameras and lenses as much as the next person and also, I do understand some of the things behind making a living by creating these videos. On only needs to look at the public view-numbers to see that a video on some Sony, Nikon, Fuji or whatever camera gets a lot more views t…