News
News and highlights
March-April 2010 - Photo displays at Bunna Coffee in Tempe and Echo Coffee in Scottsdale
February 2010 - 5th place at the Carl Zeiss Photo Contest 2009
January 2010 - Small world: How a photo of my hometown Kaufbeuren caught public attention.
In Dec. 2007 I took a photo of my home town Kaufbeuren, Germany during a visit there for my 30 year class reunion. Later I added the photo to my collection on Getty Images - certainly not for it’s artistic value... The photo was licensed in August 2009 to the advertisement agency Leo Burnett Ukraine for ‘outdoor billboard advertisement (beverage)’. That’s all I knew from my Getty statements. A few months later I found the ad on the web and found it interesting that a photo of my German hometown would serve as the background for a russian beer called Zatecky Gus, that has nothing to do with Kaufbeuren, but.. oh well, probably no one will ever notice.
Josef Schmölz, who lives near Kaufbeuren visited Moscow last year with his daughter and was surprised to find a beer advertisement at a subway station that displayed Kaufbeuren - in the middle of Moscow.... He took a photo of it and once back in Kaufbeuren, submitted it the the local newspaper (Allgaeuer Zeitung). They wrote an article about this curious fact, but they couldn’t solve the puzzle. My sister - still living in the area - saw this and since I had told her about the photo sale, called me and informed me about the newspaper article. I sent an email to the newspaper to resolve the puzzle and they wrote a second article about the curious odyssey of a photo of their home town. Small world....
source: Allgaeuer Zeitung
December 2009 - Display at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO
My photo “The Wall” form my abstract clouds series got accepted for the “Art in Nature” show in Dec. 2009 (Juror: Kathy Moran). They also used the picture for their advertising poster (right). Another picture “A matter of balance” will be shown in from February 17 through March 11, 2011 at the Center’s display “Elements of Water” (Juror: John Paul Caponigro).
“A matter of Balance”
September 2009 - A weekend with the
Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2,8/21 ZE
The Carl Zeiss photo division gave me one of their newest wide angle lenses for Canon bodies to test over a weekend. This lens is very different from the 85/1.4 (see entry below, Nov. 2008). While the strength of the 85mm is it’s softness and an incredible bokeh, the Distagon is one of the sharpest lenses I’ve ever seen. I was really impressed.
See more about this lens here:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=626351&page=7
Nov. 2008 - A weekend with a Carl Zeiss Planar T* 1,4/85 ZE
At the end of November I had the opportunity to test one of the new ZE lenses from Carl Zeiss that fits onto Canon bodies. I took photos at the Christmas Market in Baden-Baden, took the lens out into nature on a frosty morning and later took photos in Strasbourg.
Here’s my impression of this lens:
First off, as I am a physicist and expert in Lithography optics and know more about optics then I would ever need to know as a photographer, I could talk about MTF, distortions, aberrations and such. I won’t do any of this here. This is not about physics. Plus, everyone can read about this lens on multiple reviews. I look at this lens and the personal experience I had with it, with the eyes of an artist (and also a little with the eye of a technical geek).
The first impression I had was exactly in line with what everyone would expect: It’s a very solid piece of craftsmanship. The ZE lenses communicate with the camera, so I can handle f-stop with my camera and have a fully open aperture when I look through the viewfinder. The focus is smooth and has an extremely low slope. That allows very accurate focusing, but feels also a little long, when going from short distance to infinity. When using f/1.4, the manual focus is of course difficult - even with my EC-L cross split focus screen. Quick focusing for snap shots is pretty much out of discussion at 1.4. Some of my photos were off focus, because the viewfinder doesn’t have enough sensitivity to make full use of the fine focus adjustment capabilities of the lens, especially not if you have to be quick.
I still enjoyed working with this lens very much. The bokeh is incredible. In times of autofocus, autoexposure, etc. the fact that you have to manual focus to make your picture somehow brings you closer to the scene, makes you part of it - I know... completely irrational... but I can’t help it, that’s what I felt. Also: IT SIMPLY FEELS INCREDIBLY COOL TO HAVE A ZEISS LENS ON MY CAMERA... I can’t believe it, I thought after working working for this company for more than 20 years I should be immune to this... Having this lens on the camera is not just an experience with optics. Somehow it carries along some 150 years of a glorious history of making superior optics and making my photos through such a lens makes me part of this history.
I got one for myself...
Click here to see the results of my photo tour with this lens.
Oct. 2008 - Display at Pita Jungle
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-My artwork can be seen at Pita Jungle at Arrowhead from October to beginning of Nov.
Sept. 2008 - Changes in the Gallery
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-The Experimental Gallery contains now 3 new sub galleries:
Abstract Landscapes, Abstract Cloudscapes and Smoke flowers -
-The Peoples Gallery contains one new sub gallery: Studio Work
Aug. 31. 2008 - Finalist in NJPE08
-This photo from my Abstract Cloudscape series entered the finals of the
‘National Juried Photography Exhibition 2008’ at the 12 12 Gallery in Richmond, VA. Juror is Dr. Carol McCusker from the Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, CA. The exhibition begins Oct. 3rd and ends Nov. 9, 2008.
Aug. 28. 2008 - 4th place in outdoor photo contest
-A landscape photo at the top of ghost mountain in CA made the 4th place in the photography contest “The best outdoor Picture” of the german Magazine GEO
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Photo: Andreas Geh
My photo of Kaufbeuren
Billboard at a subway station in Moscow.
(Photo: Courtesy of Josef Schmölz, Marktoberdorf)
The topic of the 2009 Carl Zeiss photo contest was “Digital Culture”. A topic that is not easy to interpret without being trivial. Just in November 2009 I had a day layover Singapore and took a candid shot of a buddhist monk sitting at a starbucks caffe working on his laptop. I found it fits the topic well and submitted the photo for the contest, which is held annually by the Carl Zeiss Camera Lens Division. The contest accepts only photos taken with a Zeiss lens. Luckily I had my Planar 1.4/85 ZE on my Camera when I took this picture - It made the 5th place.
