Achieved My Goal

Dear followers and readers of my photography blog,

I finally reached my goal!

End of last year I set a goal that I would upload one blog post around photography per day during the year 2016.

Here is a monthly selection of some of my 2016 posts. Some of them were referring interesting blog posts on other sites, some were featuring interesting videos, some were sharing my own experience and ideas, ...

It started with a simple post on January 1st 2016: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/01/happy-2016.html

Continued featuring the download page for my computer wallpaper photographs on January 2nd: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/01/computer-desktop-wallpapers.html

Featuring Manta photographs from Socorro of underwater photographer Lea Lee on February 14th: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/02/manta-rays-by-lea-lee.html

Black and White film photography from the Matterhorn on March 11th: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/03/matterhorn-black-white-film-photography.html

A Saturday morning excursion to the Zoo on April 17th: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/04/saturday-morning-at-zoo.html

Every Monday featuring 5 black and white images from different photographers on 500px as island photographs on May 2nd: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/05/black-and-white-island-photography.html

Or black and white giraffe pictures on June 13th: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/06/black-and-white-giraffe-photography.html

Some thoughts around taking pictures of random people on July 9th: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/07/people-photography.html

A feature about influential photographer Sebastião Salgado on August 14th: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/08/influential-photographers-sebastiao.html

A series on Thursdays entitled "Scenic Places in Black and White" featuring the Matterhorn area in Zermatt, Switzerland on September 8th: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/09/scenic-places-in-black-and-white.html

Expert talks on Sundays such as the "Expert Talk - Eileen Rafferty on Seeing in Black and White" on October 23rd: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/10/expert-talk-eileen-rafferty-on-seeing.html

Scenic places - my ToDo list on November 10th: http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch/2016/11/scenic-places-my-to-do-list-ii.html

Given that ToDo list and many more ideas there is more to come at http://andreasrmueller.blogspot.ch

Maybe not with one post ever day, but with more substantial information, experience around photography, and just many more good photographs.

Underwater camera housing manufacturer SeaCam recently reported that they are going to reengineer  the classic Nikonos RS 13mm fisheye lens for use on Nikon DSLRs.

The Nikonos RS 13mm fisheye lens was launched in 1992 and discontinued in 1996. However, there are still many of these original lenses on the second hand market.

SeaCam recently communicated to offer a service in order to adapt original Nikonos RS 13mm lenses for use on today's DSLRs. See the article on WetPixel.com.

Here is more about how it is being done: link

And excessive testing results: link

100 Most Influential Photographs

Creative Photography Techniques - Bottled Finnish Landscapes

Bottled Finnish Landscapes by Christoffer Relander: interesting and surrealistic pieces of art captured on film.

Read the article at thisiscolossal.com for detailed explanations and further examples. link

This effect is achieved by using double exposure technique.
The first shot is an exposure of the glass in front of an illuminated white background. Light is set up in a way that the glass area turns out underexposed or almost perfectly black while the illuminated background area is completely overexposed or burnt out.
In order to give the glass some plasticity and three dimensional look there need to be some reflections on the glass and shadows on the base ground.

The second exposure is in nature capturing a beautiful landscape and exposing the non or underexposed area of the glass. This second step implants the landscape into the glass.

The effect is gorgeous.

I am wondering if this can be done on digital too.
Technically there should be no issue. So, let's go out and try it.









Watch the documentary on how it is done:

Underwater Videography - Maldives

Black and White - New Year's Photography

May all your withes come true - Nick Beadle (500px)

Stunning Fireworks - Sa She (500px)

Chinese New Year - Kong Song Guan (500px)

People are gathering - Sa She (500px)

Fireworks in Festival day on Black background - Kumpol Shuansakul (500px)

X-mas Gifts for Photographers

In order to support the commercial aspects of Christmas holiday season, here some ideas of good gifts for photographers - or wannabe photographers - or photo addicts - or who ever likes to play with cameras and images!

Yes, posting this on December 25th is a bit too late. But this post was not meant to influence your own choice and creativity.
And, I am sure that - if this was a need - you consulted plenty of recommendation lists in the internet during your selection process.

This post is more sort of intended to already now start your thinking process for next year's instance of the Christmas event. Or, maybe to rethink what is really useful as a photographer's gift.

#1: Lensbaby

Have you ever wondered how certain very creative effects in photography have been achieved? - Have you ever searched for all this expensive equipment giving the creative freedom in order to get photographic effects not everybody can produce?

Then Lensbaby might be a good choice as a gift - yes, it can be a gift to someone who will for sure give you access to using it, in order for you to fulfil  your dreams!


Lensbaby is offering a series of small lenses for different effects. Get ab overview at http://lensbaby.com/shop/

Such as tilt shift effects, twist effects, fisheye effects, ... and some more.

Be it individual lenses or kits with a series of lenses. There is something for everybody.




#2: Trigger trap

Trigger trap is a sophisticated remote trigger for your camera. All you need is a Triggertrap Flash Adapter, a Triggertrap Mobile Dongle, an iOS device running the Triggertrap app, and a flash with manual mode.

This tool helps you using your iOS device to take full control over synchronising your shot, or using remote release for different applications.

Be it HDR photography, timelapse, a scream booth, light painting or anything else, this setup will do the job.






#3: Lens Mug

A coffee mug in the design of a high end DSLR lens. That's something enjoyable for any photography addict.  - Let's only hope that lenses and mug are always securely kept side by side...







That's it. Three ideas. I don't want to give more ideas here. It should still be some challenge to get your gifts ready for next year's celebration.

Merry Christmas and let me know what your favourite photography gifts are!

X-mas Photography

Christmas time nowadays is a festive event all around the world. In many places this is the time to decorate buildings, trees, and everything with lights and strange stuff.

It is definitely the time for night photography in color.

It's also an event for children and families. With all the decoration this gives rise to plenty of interesting portraits of kids wearing ridiculous costumes and being irritated by what their parents are doing to them when setting up spectacular sceneries. Such as the little baby wearing the santa claus cap in the sledge with the reindeer.


And if it's not about children and lights then it's about snow and winter.

Hence, the elements of Christmas photography are simple. It's more about finding the right exposure best representing all those little lights and decorations.

Merry Christmas!!!

DIY Matchbox Pinhole Camera

Build your own pinhole camera using a matchbox!

Here is a how to build a matchbox pin hole camera in seven steps. link

Try it!

Or this one at lomography.com: link


Or as a how to video:



Some images shot with such pin hole cameras are pretty impressive. Seems worth trying:

Scenic Places - Kamchatka

Yelizovo #2 - Kirill Vedeev (500px)

Recently a photography friend of mine shared his 2017 photography adventure project with me. - Volcanos of Kamchatka!

Hmm, ... Kamchatka..., where is that?

Not admitting that I had no idea I asked google. And here is the answer. Kamchatka is the peninsula at the eastern edge of Russia. It is rough wilderness and a landscape with many volcanos.

The volcanos of Kamchatka are registered as an UNESCO world heritage.

With 270'000 square kilometres the Kamchatka peninsula is slightly bigger than the United Kingdom (242'500 sq. km). Population is extremely small. Kamchatka is home to 170'000 people.

Not only spectacular by nature it must also be spectacular to get there at first for travel photographers. - A am waiting for my friend's experience and recommendations to be shared.

In terms of climate the Kamchatka peninsula is heavily influenced by cold winds from Siberia and cold ocean currents from the Oyashio sea. In consequence the landscape is covered by snow from October to late May.

Brown bear eating salmon - Eyal Cohen (500px)

Kamchatka is home to the Kamchatka brown bear. But also other predators are present such as the arctic fox, the tundra wolf, or the east siberian lynx.

After this little research, I think this place could truly be an interesting target for nature photography.

There are several photography tour operators with interesting offerings, such as:

Unusual Expedition: http://unusualexpedition.com/singapore/index.php/portfolio-items/russia-kamchatka/

For an impression of Kamchatka's nature and wildlife, have a look at the Nat Geo Wild documentary "Wild Russia":

Influential Photographers - Richard i'Anson

If you are into travel photography, then I recommend to have a look at the work of Richard I'Anson.

Richard is a freelance travel photographer. He's been traveling the world for more than the last 30 years working on his stock photography portfolio but also on dedicated project.

His work has recently been featured in the Netflix series "Tales by Light" which shows behind the scenes how Richard is taking his images.

In order to get an impression of his work visit the image galleries at: https://richardianson.com/slide-show-home-page/

Richards images are well capturing the light and color of life around the globe. Part of his style is to be right in the middle where life happens. This gives the audience the feeling of being part of the scene and not only watching from far outside.

Such for example the praying women at Chinese New Year.

And at the market in Tunis. Where tea is right being served.

Many of these images give inspiration for my upcoming trips to interesting destinations. And as seen from the documentary at Netflix. Equipment wise the most touching images were taken out of the moment with very simple camera setup.

Underwater Videography: Milne Bay

Rolling in the Deep #6 - Milne Bay from Dustin Adamson on Vimeo.

Black and White - Drone Photography

The Light Below - Fred Gramoso (500px)

The tree - Michael B. Rasmussen (500px)

black vs white - Marat Alihmanov (500px)

Look Down Below - Laurie Rubin (500px)

Black wave.05 - Takahiro Taguchi (500px)

Expert Talk - Astro Photography by David Malin

Film Photography - Monobath Developer

Developing film on your own requires usually a number of chemicals, keeping an eye on temperature, processing times, esoteric agitation of the development tank and many more. Overall an easy process which, however, needs some knowledge.

For black and white development it is possible to use a mono bath developer.

"It’s a new monobath developer called R3 that lets you develop, stop, and fix black-and-white photographic film with a single bath!"

Maybe worth a try.

Underwater Photography - Strobe Techniques

One of the most difficult aspects of underwater photography is using the right lighting technique. Using strobes is more difficult underwater than on land given the reduced reach of the flash and the narrower angle of illumination.

Seacam offers a very good training in their underwater photography academy: link

Another source is the tutorial on strobe positions by Scott Gietler at http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/underwater-photography-strobe-positioning

In the end all theory is helpful but the only thing to good results is practice and patience.

As you can see in the following video from our last underwater photography expedition to the Maldives, positioning of strobes as well as using the right settings can be subject to discussion.

Coral Bleaching Around The World

Beginning of this year again the El Niño climatic phenomenon lead to massive coral bleaching all around the globe.

More than 90% of climate heat change is absorbed by the ocean. Corals in shallow water are not able to cope with these changing conditions. (refere to link)



As experienced myself on my last underwater photography trip to the Maldives down to approximately 10 meters corals have been bleached this year again. Formerly beautiful coral gardens are basically dead.

The effect is massive and impressive. Places where coral gardens full of reef life would be present in the past are nothing more but deserts of left over coral skeletons.

Influential Photographers - Darren Jew

Daren Jew is one of the most innovative underwater photographers. In his portfolio he shares some iconic pictures of whales taken using available light only, as well as some underwater longtime exposures using light painting.

Applying the latter technique to underwater photography is not so easy. The camera in underwater housing mounted on a tripod which needs to be fixed in one way or the other in the reef. This is a lot of gear to take under water. And currents might make the whole setup unstable.

The most impressive of these images is the one from Raboul in Papua New Guniea. It shows an airplane wreck - airplane "Pete" - which sunk in world war II.

The image has been taken using an exposure of several minutes and a torch to light paint the wreck of the plane at night. Using this technique gives the scenery a mystic look.

Underwater Videography: Verzasca - Amslerbecken

Amslerbecken in der Verzasca from Markus Inglin on Vimeo.

Black and White: Hat Photography

silhouette - Kristina Stas (500px)

Fiona - Laurens Kaldeway (500px)

03 - stefano nardone (500px)

Mary - Svetlana Surkhorukova (500px)

asian girl - Yuliya Kocheshkova (500px)