About me

Late 2021 I started with photography in a serious manner. Serious meaning having a focused direction, to shoot in raw and to post process the images taken. Before that photography was something I did on occasion but not seriously (there was no direction and I shot primarily in jpeg and did hardly any post processing). At the end of 2021 I researched post processing tools because I had taken a few photos on holiday and I wanted to correct them. Since I use Linux distributions on my machines I first looked at tools that I could install on them and came across DarkTable which is a free and open source tool for managing and processing raw images (if you haven't heard of it then you should really check it out it's awesome!). When diving into the functionalities of the aforementioned tool I discovered how important (and cool!) post processing is for giving your photos a personal touch and defining your own style. This triggered my enthousiasm to pick up photopgraphy in a more serious manner.

I decided to start with shooting landscapes for the following reasons: 1) I like to walk in a natural area, 2) I like to take my time shooting photographs, 3) It's a very challenging type of photography especially when it comes to correct exposure and focusing. Later on I also became interested in cityscapes whereby I prefer to shoot when it's dark (cities for me somehow look nicer at night when and if buildings are illuminated). Aside from landscape and cityscape photography I like to shoot flora occasionally mostly in spring

In my photography I choose to adhere to the following principles when post processing my images:

• I will not combine multiple compositions or introduce new elements into the composition.

• If I retouch it will be done mildly meaning I don't remove elements that are an essential part of the composition (e.g. removing a contrail is ok, removing a tree isn't).

• Colours need to be natural meaning the colours as seen by the human eye at the time of shooting must be visible in the photograph as accurately as possible.

Along with the mentioned principles the following choices (that I rarely deviate from) define my style of photography:

• I like my compositions to be well exposed in all areas even when photographing in the direction of the primary light source.

• I like all areas in my compositions to be in focus.

• I shoot larger objects/areas such as landscapes, trees, city areas, buildings, etc.

• For landscapes I prefer not to have any unnatural elements in my compositions (although I'm not paranoid about this).

• For cityscapes I prefer not to have people in my compositions.

When I go out on a photography session my preparation is usually minimal meaning I will keep an eye on the weather (I'm not going when it's raining and/or extremely windy) and I decide where to go usually a day in advance. If I go out on a landscape session I will not have specific pre established ideas about types of compositions or light conditions I'm going for (although I do prefer early morning light). I will take the conditions as they come to me and try to make the most of them. For cityscapes I can be more focused meaning I might have specific buildings or city areas in mind that I want to shoot before I leave. Sometimes however I just take a walk and shoot whatever I like in a more ad-hoc fashion.

If I arrive at a location that I find interesting  I normally shoot only 1 composition. This means in conditions of low dynamic range I shoot 1 raw image, in more challenging conditions this could be multiple shots with different exposures that I later (post processing) combine to a very high dynamic range image. What I will rarely do is to shoot multiple compositions at the same location and then decide later which one I like the most. On a typical session I will shoot about 10 compositions on average.

For shooting landscapes and cityscapes I use a professional DSLR camera. I do not have an interest in shooting film although I do respect those who do (especially if they use old style view cameras)! I only use prime lenses on this camera of the following type (percentages are related to how many compositions I shoot with that lens):

• 15 mm fish-eye (2%)

• 24 mm tilt-shift (58%)

• 35 mm (35%)

• 50 mm (4%)

• 100 mm (1%)

The 15, 24 and 35 mm lenses can only be focused manually but I prefer to focus manually anyway.

For flora I use a mirror less camera primarily with a 24-70 mm zoom lens and ocasionally with a 28 mm prime lens