Black and White - Phone Photography

who is there? - David Sames (500px)

Social on route - Silverlight-images (500px)

Modernity - Marco Patella (500px)

Imprisonment - Andy Lim (500px)

old school - Ana-Maria Popa (500px)

Winter Landscape Photography - Pin Board

Winter is for photographers one of the most interesting times during the year. Light is low and cold. With clear and dry air light usually has less red contributions. At sunset blue and lila colors come out more prominently than in summer.

With snowy winter landscapes a lot of very interesting textures and contrasts come out. Snow makes structures smooth and clean. The white color - a challenge for light meters - can appear in different light. It is the time of the year where it is easy to realise our relative perception of color. While the snow white can be really bright in white, it can be all shades of grey, it can be lila during sunset, or all kinds of blue on overcast days.

Below my Winter pin board at pinterest:

Inspiring Quote

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

- Roald Dahl

Photographers shooting film

In today's world of digital media; how many professional photographers who do shoot film on a regular basis are there?

A post from the "IStillShootFilm" blog portraits 10 professional photographers who still shoot film:

http://istillshootfilm.org/post/110901745797/10-professional-photographers-who-still-shoot-film

Creative Nature Photography

Nature photography can be purely documentary, or it can be a form of innovative creativity and art.

In this post I compiled some background on an example of very creative nature photography. Be it by means of composition, capture, or exposure.

The left hand image shows a researcher on a frozen lake at night. It is a master piece in image composition and exposure.

Title: Ice Study

Photographer: Henry Liu
Source: 500px

Comment by photographer: A self-portrait of me studying ice on frozen Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, about one hour after sunset.

Image details by photographer:
Nikon D800E, 13-24mm f2.8 (at 14mm, f2.8, 30s, ISO 100)
Focus stacking for full depth sharpness (6 shots at f2.8)

Both, the sky covered with starlight and the bright light from the flash light falling through the clear ice ad a third dimension and depth to the image. Scratches in the ice, producing diffuse white light from the flash light, add texture and some line and guidance for the viewer towards the person holding the flash light.

The image exhibits a very wide dynamic range from true white - the ice illuminated by the flash light -  towards true black - the mountains at the horizon.
The color spectrum is immense with strong whites, strong blacks, the greenish color of lake topography shimmering through the ice, the dark blue of the night sky, and everything in between covering lila, purple, red, ...

With all these photographic elements covered. This image is a nature photography which not only documents the sunset and upcoming starlight over frozen Lake Huron. The photographer added artistic elements and creative dimensions to the image by illuminating parts of the ice surface and the lake underneath with his flash light.

The sunny 16 rule

http://istillshootfilm.org/post/111300624658/an-in-depth-guide-to-the-sunny-16-rule

From Flores to Alor - Underwater documentary

Watch the three part documentary by Michael Bode of an exceptional trip by boat from Flores to Alor. the trip took place in 2008. A journey along the south-eastern islands of Indonesia. A very remote region with unexpected richness of underwater reefscape.


From Flores to Alor Part 1 - Whale hunters of Lamalera from Michael Bode on Vimeo.


From Flores to Alor Part 2 - Diving Anemone City from Michael Bode on Vimeo.


From Flores to Alor Part 3 - Traditional Alor from Michael Bode on Vimeo.

Black and White - Macro Watch Photography

Watch Mechanism - EncroVision (500px)

Pocket Watch - Edward Callender (500px)

Wheels of time - Ales Nanut (500px)

Vintage Clock - Cyrill Ionov (500px)

Time - Chris Pelliccione (500px)

Hasselblad photography - view through the view finder

Since I started #myhasselbladproject exploring analog photography using my 1976 Hasselblad 500 c/m camera, I collected images from Hasselblad cameras - mainly images showing the view through the view finder - at pinterest (All around Hasselblad medium format analog photography).

Below my Hasselblad pinterest board:

Portrait of a watchmaker

Watchmaking is a old traditional handcraft. A handcraft, almost an art with focus on technical details, design, and beauty.

Portrait of a watchmaker - by Richard (flickr)



The photograph shows a watchmaker at his working desk. The watchmaker is totally dedicated and concentrated to the mechanics of a watch. The light composition in this image underlines the focus of the portraited watchmaker to his tools and the mechanical parts of his manufactured product.
A documentary picture in black and white showing nice lines and proportions guiding the observers eyes to the technical piece of the watch, the central proposition of this photograph.

Underwater Time-Lapse Photography

Time-lapse photography is a very interesting format to make visible dynamics happening in our environment on a different timescale.
Time-lapse is very popular in making visible the weather evolution in a scenic landscape, or to show the business of an urban scene of city life. While already on land it is relatively difficult to correctly orchestrate a time-lapse capture this is by orders of magnitude more difficult when trying to capture underwater sceneries.

Here are some examples found at the Vimeo archive. Some of them are very interesting artistic productions.


Underwater Time-Lapse Tests from Alexander Mustard on Vimeo.


Underwater Time Lapse Test from Alexander Thornton on Vimeo.


Underwater Timelapse Full HD (Dolby 5.1) from EnriqueDM on Vimeo.

Gadgets for controlling time-lapse photography

Time-lapse photography is a technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that used to view the sequence (Wikipedia).

The holy grail of time-lapse photography are landscape sequences during day to night transitions. Difficulty is to adapt correctly exposure going from bright day light to darkness, moon light, or artificial light.

There are a number of gadgets to support producing time-lapse photography sequences. Here, two recent exciting examples.

Alpine Labs: Gadgets for controlling time-lapse photography. Radian is an entire system to not only control the camera during capture of a time-lapse sequence but also to introduce motion in the sequence.


Pico: a small and simple time-lapse trigger which can be programmed using a smartphone and connect easily to your camera.

Nikon D800 - Underwater Videography

Since a couple of years I am using a Nikon D800 camera in a Hugyfot housing for my underwater photography. So far I focused mainly on still images.

See the slideshow gallery below for some underwater macro photography from the Lembeh Strait, North-Sulawesi, Indonesia.

A more diverse collection of my work can be found in the underwater photography archive on my website www.andreasrmueller.com.


Lembeh Strait 2013 - Images by Andreas Mueller

Besides the excellent performance of the Nikon D800 camera for still photography, the camera has very good reputation if used in videography. I recorded once some short video sequences underwater. from a shallow dive at Middle Reef in Soma Bay, Egypt. And the result is very nice for an available light sequence and first try.

I do not know how often the Nikon D800 is used in underwater videography. Some other a little bit longer examples by videographer Rick Scott I found on YouTube:

Galapagos - Underwater short movie

The Best of Galapagos from RonScuba on Vimeo.

Black and White - Macro Photography

Little bells - Anett Bakos (500px)

feather and drops - Klaus Vartzbed (500px)

The perfect trap - Pablo Reinsch (500px)

Smiley's attitude - Valérie Tirard (500px)

Manta Rays - by Lea Lee

Manta rays are amongst the most majestic animals on earth. The way they "fly" through ocean water, the way they "dance" in currents, it is unique and exceptional.
While international protection is poor some countries realised the need and value in protecting manta rays and issued anti manta fishing laws.
Among these countries is Mexico where fishing for manta rays is banned since 2007. The Mexican standard provides protection for mantas and mobulids in all Mexican waters. (Source: mantatrust.org).

Fellow underwater photographer Lea Lee just recently made a trip to Socorro island off the Mexican coast in the pacific ocean and brought home a series of very impressive manta ray pictures. - Please, have a look at her flickr page.

Classic Cameras - Leica M system

Leica M series has been introduced in 1954 with the M3. The camera model series even made the technology step from film to digital full frame. Leica M belongs to the top end view finder cameras. The system is well known for fast and high quality lenses.

DigitalRev put together a beautiful documentary video about this timeless camera product line.

Luna - pocket sized 360° camera

Today I discovered an impressive new gadget. A tiny 360° camera no larger in size than a billiard ball.

Memora Inc. is a silicon valley startup company founded in 2014. It is specialised in virtual reality technologies. The 360° camera called Luna is the first product.
Luna is presented as serious piece of engineering. Plenty of features integrated into this 6cm in diameter ball.
The company is raising capital via crowdfunding in order to reach milestones in the development of their product portfolio.

Experimental film - Lomography Film

Referring to my earlier post on using experimental film (link) I can now present some results.

While I did not yet expose the Rollei Infrared and the Crossbird Creative film I have results for the Lomography black and white and color films.

The first version of the Lomography Earl Grey 100 black and white film I exposed in the little town of Rheinfelden. The results are images with good contrast and very fine grain.


2015 December - Rheinfelden - Images by Andreas Mueller

Lomography Color Negative 100 filmes I exposed one roll in Bern on a sunny but cold winter day and the second one in Aarau on a cloudy winter Sunday. Results are sharp fine grained images with a color profile including a rather strong contribution of red and brown tones. While this could be a result of the spectrum of the winter sun it would be interesting to see the color performance of this film in bright sunlight on a Summer day.


2015 December - Bern - Images by Andreas Mueller


2016 January - Aarau - Images by Andreas Mueller

How To Choose Film For Beginners: A Guide to Buying Your First Roll

http://istillshootfilm.org/post/110810597513/how-to-choose-film-for-beginners-a-guide-to

Impressions of Indonesia

A short film by Alex Beuerle. Documenting the beauty of Indonesia's underwater reefscape and country.


Impressions of Indonesia from Alex B. on Vimeo.

Black and White - Product Photography

Tobasco, Noir et Blanc - a.m.medina (Flickr.com)

Montre en noir et blanc, Florian B. (Flickr.com)

Mamiya RB67 - Photodiox Pro (Flickr.com)

73/365 - Stylin' - Reggie Ballesteros (Flickr.com)

274/365 - The New Wayfarer - Reggie Ballesteros (Flickr.com)

Canon 1DX - Nikon D5

Now Canon announced too a new top end professional DSLR camera 1DX.

Jared Polin from FroKnowsPhoto compiled a side by side comparison of the two cameras.

Film is a Choice of Medium; Not a Hipster Aesthetic

Film is a Choice of Medium; Not a Hipster Aesthetic: A photographer's choice of film over digital has to do with the fact that they're two different mediums.

"On the other, the mindset behind film requires you to be incredibly more discerning."

"If a person chooses that format, they often do it for the experience in the same way that one uses a Zeiss lens over an autofocus lens–the manual focus experience forces you to put a greater emphasis on what you’re doing, concentrate harder and pay attention to details that otherwise could easily be neglected with digital. Again though, it has to do with the process."

Shibuya, Tokyo - Urban Photography

One of the most impressive locations of my recent Tokyo trip was the large crossing at Shibuya station.

The traffic lights at Shibuya crossing change every 2 minutes and thousands of people from five directions are crossing. There is approximately a number of 100'000 persons passing through this crossing per hour. This makes the Shibuya crossing the busiest crossing in the world.

 My search on 500px.com for "Shibuya crossing" yielded a number of very exceptional images of that place.

Making analog film

Have you ever wondered how black and white film is being made. Watch this video from the Ilford factory.

While some of the classic film are still manufactured niche manufacturers are producing special unique film.

A recent project is CineStill Film which brings motion picture film to the still photography format.

While a couple of 35 mm film are available CineStill is missing 120 medium format film. In order to do so CineStill Film is running a crowd funding campaign to raise capital for the production of respective medium format roll film.

If you are interested in medium format film photography become a contributor to back CineStill's film production. Many already invested. So did I. Help to make this rolls of film available.
#CineStill120

Tokyo - Street Photography

Crossroads at Shibuya station

Tokyo (東京) is both the capital and largest city of Japan. The greater Tokyo area exhibits one of the highest population densities in the world.

However, a visit to Tokyo offers a great and special experience in contrasting city life. 

Sensō-ji temple, Asakusa

Urban centres with heavy visual and noise imission are next to calm spiritual centres. Modern city architecture is next to traditional well preserved buildings. Huge crowds of people, next to lonely alleys. 

For a photographer it offers endless motives, subjects, and sceneries.

Tokyo - Images by Andreas Mueller

People of the Coral Triangle

People of the Coral Triangle // James Morgan // 1080p from James Morgan on Vimeo.

Black and White - Modern Architecture Photography

cheesegrater - Tony Hunter (500px)

Kilo Hotel - Tony Hunter (500px)

Into the sky - Alexey Pavin (500px)

Just Two Left at the End - Wayne Grazio (500px)

Hemisféric Darkled with Ripples - Dark Reid (500px)