hello all.
it's been a while. well guess what. it was christmas. say hello to me and my sisters present. i'm the kind of candies.


on the 23rd i was buying some food for a dinner. i came across this car. a lovely old mercedes, in red, with red leather seats and everything you need. some sort of early christmas present. i hope you're insuranced mister, or miss ?



a mother left her baby, well not really, just went inside a tobacconist for a short moment. i could hear her telling the baby, she's going to be back in a moment. this could have been the start of a christmas - drama film, you know, but movies and the real world aren't often the same..

i took my time to take a photo of the baby, holding this letter. i liked this moment. children are such patient models.


this lady was having a phone call in the tram. some people avoid having a chat on the cellphone in public areas that are more or less silent. others do the opposite, like her. it seemed like she was talking to her granddaughter. it was obvious that they had an argument. you always heard her saying "oh nicolette, nicolettchen".. the dog somehow looked so pissed, it made me chuckle.








i'm really using the 50mm for some shots. it's good to have one.


order cheap strong alcohol. like rum. sugar and coffe (beans). first chew the beans, then the sugar, drink the alcohol (rum is best) and continue chewing the beans and sugar. we call it "cocks".. it's a quick way to "warm up".

loving the new possibility for close focus with the 50/2 DR summi.




she's back in vienna. for 3 weeks.


like always. i was meeting family again at christmas. more than once. parents are divorced, so are grandparents. i often "celebrate" christmas 3 times or more.


it's still a deja vu every year.


my grandpa. he's freaky. but funny.


my sister. she's got some sticker on her skin that works like the pill. it's better to remove them quickly to avoid small pain. seems like my sister didn't know that ;)


the family photo. i shot on 3200 asa f2.0 and cought the flash of my grandfathers camera who took the photo at the same moment.. kinda "flashy" ;)


the other family. my fathers.








they have a dog. who eats some cheese from time to time..

and here we are again in our usual pub.



we got seriously drunk.. i think the last photo represents the evening best.

been to graz with my class a while ago. it's the second biggest city in austria. if you can call that "big".

it was the last day i remember when the sun was shining.



as always, matthias was obsessed with photos of our class.. well, i'm not different, ain't i ;)




peter dressler, the featured artist of the gallery "camera austria" was talking about his work and life. he is a really awesome character. one of the good vienniese ones ;)


i always wondered why the "kunsthaus" graz has so many toilets, but it's better than having too few.


and their washroom is huge too ! ;)



anatoli. soon a leica owner.. and it's all my fault ;)


caroline discovered some, how to say, personal funny photos on her 350d.. i think we all know that situation ;)

she didn't show us.. unfortunately :P




i don't take photos of artworks usually.. but this one, i just couldn't resist.. i just want to know what it looks like on a print.. won't make it public though and if, i'll have to give credit.


sometimes, the only reason for a photo is a situation and here it is just a black and white situation.


discussing with our professor about the concept of modern art, now you can imagine how far this can go. i love the architecture of this building (kunsthaus graz) it is INCREDIBLE.. i tell you.



i had to stop here. i love having a closer look on these photo-studios at the corner. it feels like browsing DA's artistic nude or classic portrait... :D







back home. testing the 50/2 for a portrait. i think it's very useful for spontanious portraits. i'm more satisfied than expected with that lens. i've planned to sell it again before i bought it for a good price, but now i will keep it.


something technical. i must say, i'm very impressed of the tonal range of a trix pushed 3!! steps. there was much contrast difference in this frame but the film managed to keep it all together even pushed so much ! this film is just ace !



the new 50/2 is very useful for still lifes, because of the new closer focus possibility.



have a closer look! the baby above is checking me out ;) that's one of my current fav photos i must say.


just like this one:

he smiled after i took the photo. i should have captured his smile too.. shooting with 28/1.9 here, testing it for linus who bought one just a few days ago.


50/2. it's charming.


look at it. that's the last photo of this camera. he is now a M-user. congratulations, well.. i knew it from the start ;)


28/1.9 again:

..
..




a friend and i went to school after 3 years again. was fun to meet old teachers again.. damn how i do NOT miss high school.


the mentioned friend. i told him a story of one of our former class mates, who made a salto.. or just tried and failed and lost some teeth... well that's his reaction, the only fitting reaction:


this clock has been there for years. it's quite popular, since it's close to my former high school.. everyone knows it. someone should frame it, before they rebuild the pavement ;)



a lady, getting a phone call, in all between her shopping. hipshot.




people trying to get your money for WWF.


please give me your money, please !


last shot with linus 28/1.9. this is a test of possibilities. 0.7m minimal focus distance, f1.9, 28mm, trix 1/60th. this lens does a very good job for it's price.

found this roll of superia 1600 today and brought it to the lab. i tell you, never shoot colour when there is no light, no matter if it's a 1600 roll or not.. better stick to b/w. i don't see much reason for shooting street in colour.



the moment i saw the hot mr.ryan on my roll, i knew it was shot in october this year. (to the girls: he's not taken yet !!)


we had some very vienniese hot dog. yeah it's not toxic, they say...


they have fancy toilets.



one of these i wish i had taken in b/w.



back to recent stuff. as you probably know, bernhard and linus are having problems with cameras, lenses and their dicks probably, but let's pretend they are allright..

so like half of the recent photo material is just focus testing all the time. like this one. i turned his hat 90° to make him look much fancier. unfortunatley the NEW 28/1.9 does not focus correctly. god bless cosina..


austria was currently attacked by the al-quaida, this time it was a one-family house. the difference to 9/11 is that our buldings did not melt but resisted the attack.


i'm soon having a series of these.


was going home by bike and finished the roll. it's obviously christmas time.. these lights don't make it better though.


why not try a panning shot while riding a bike.. oh, dude.


vienna seems a bit more green these days. little woods pop out everywhere.


i was curious about the effect of the window that is covert by some advert. he was looking at me for a few seconds, then i took the photo.


i love it when mothers or parents or grandparents buy stuff for their kids and grandchilds. it often seems so complicated to chose the correct thing. one day there was a woman that bought a 30d for her son. she wasn't sure at first if she'd take the alpha though.. i find that kinda funny.



it seemd like 50y ago.


shots like these are kinda tricky for me. i always walk too fast for focusing ..



first time testing my new 50/2 cron outside. i must say, the cron opens new opportunities for me now. especialy the close-up glasses for focsing below 0.9m until 0.45m !


bernhard is kinda getting tired of all his strangely not working equipement.


he still insists on shooting.. even if it's kinda like playing roulette.




i love how the baby reacted on my first photo:


look where i am ! in the LEICASHOP.. <3.. onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://mm.cpluv.com/media_library/medias/smkwoomp/thumbs/XL01_b201744b53f36.jpg">
you see that shot i took of bernhard ? you see that next shot ?

i got a little story with it.

this man, who was checking out some leica R bodies, was somehow a strange appearance for me. he told me that i should better not have taken a photo of him, because if i did without asking for permission, he would sue me. he was talking about the photo i took of bernhard who was OUTSIDE the fucking store in the OPPOSITE direction of this lovely man.

i told him who i have REALLY photographed.. but felt a bit pissed, because who the fuck does he think he is !?

so i continued with "even if, it wouldn't have been the end of the world, right ?"..

then he repeated that he'd sue me for taking a photo of him without asking beforehand. it was against the law to take a photo of someone without having permission.. i just said that it's not true, since it depends on where and how you make it public. he insisted on his opinion.. whatever.

i then asked him what kind of photos HE takes if not of human beings. (i thought, if someone is a photographer, then he/she should really not be too picky about being photographed, that'd be kind of wrong)..

he told me that he is shooting landscape. (i was not surprised)

i asked him why he isn't using large format if he is only shooting landscape. (you should know that a good 4x5 set-up is probably much cheaper than a leica R set !! and for landscape, you got plenty of time and need lots of resolution.. why the hell would you go for a leica R system !?)

well he didn't answer from then and kept being silent.

bernhard entered the store and i asked him if he'd also go for large format if he was shooting landscape.. (he was not involved in the story, since being outside all the time, but kinda felt there was something in the air.)

to make it short now. i took the photo right before we left. i cought this moment where this man was sure i was just pretending to take a photo but not really taking one.. so he pointed at me with a smile like "you don't dare" but at that time i had my photo already.

so he asked me to stay here and wanted to call the police.. i wished him good luck and fun and left the store. bernhard told me that he talked to some shop keepers and they tried to calm him down.



so what do we think about all that ? :


(bern burping) 50/2.0 o.45m

started this roll in october.. found it today and finished it. nothing specatacular, really.

125 plus-x. great film. definately.






i like cars with messages


especially such subtile ones


didn't know we had an austrian version of mel gibson. i'm being mean again, i know.


kinda odd this boy. i've seen him for the second time. he looks so introvert.. but who knows, everything is subtile.. right. kinda cool, the odlschool gameboy.. ha.


i just like that frame. it's just a small thing.. that says so much somehow.


this baby came straigh out of resident evil !


will scan some prints tomorrow probably. the new material. i'm satisfied again. maybe it lasts for a few days. just threw away almost 300 prints. what else can you do ? it's all crap.

cheers

i wasn't planing to post a blog right now.. since i have only one film (also only half shot).. but it's something to show off.. technicaly.

i have to react a bit on chris (weeks) latest quote "i hate to say this (sorry, Sev and others) ... leica's b/w mode is abso-fucking-lutely ... brilliant"..

i believe him. i'm sure this camera makes nice looking b/w for a "mode" on a digital "camera".. i'm sure this is the best digital camera on the market in that pocket size...

but i guarante you (you all), that a correctly exposed photo on a good developed negative, printed on a nice fiber fix gradation will make you wanna flush that m8 down with all you other digital shit.

i can say that, because i know enough about it. i can also only roll my eyes about the reactions on chris' m8 submission..

"damn! I really thought it was one of your film scans.."

"I am inbarased thst I thought this was film"

"btw....hard to believe its digital!"

"I only realised it was digital after I read the comment."

...

you know what. i can make you believe that a shot with my cellphone is a fiber print on the screen.. why ? because it's A: on a fucking screen.. B: you don't fucking know shit about b/w at all..

why ? because you don't work with film, b/w, paper, chemicals, time, temperature, redlight, no light, good lenses.. whatever..

you know nothing. i know a bit. i know enough to say something like that at least but i'm not a fine printer, not yet, who knows...

i love it to print a great negative.. and i hate it to print a bad one but i love it when i compare negscan to print and i know it was worth wasting paper, time, chemicals, water....

i'm throwing away hundreds of prints you'd find great and keep a handful i like somehow, and you talk about b/w.. dude.


i wonder how many of you know how important the absolute correct exposure is ? i wonder if you care about half-f stops and shit.. i really do. no wonder that mr.gilads photos look like catpuke when he exposes everything afterwards in photoshop. most of you do that i assume..

please, try to print. try to develop yourself. are you intrested in learning to take photos ? well, do it all yourself. the moment you suffer hours on a print because of a horribly exposed photo or blowzy developed negative, you know what i'm speaking of.


so now to the last bit of photos:


he just crashed a few moments ago. he was strangely happy though, even if it was his fault.


more or less a hipshot.. just not at the hip but a bit higher ... i dunno, nothing spectacular but i find it funny how straight it is.


she was kinda evanessance-like.. don't beat me for misspelling.. i'm no big evanessance fan.





zhenya from russia has been in vienna. just a few days. i showed her some rather ugly places in vienna.. why not, hehe. been to the prater here.. strange place in december.

i was on the phone with linus and took two shots of her.



linus talked about the bessa. the one he bought NEW! in summer at the leica shop (write some hatemails!).. that camera and lens was new and never worked properly. also the camera collected dust inside like shit !! so he brought it a few times back to the shop. they sent it to germany once. nothing happened. they cleaned it and "fixed" the focus at the shop later. a week later it was dusty like hell again and the focus was correct on 0.7m but not useable at 1,5m and above... so they finaly sent it to cosina, japan. now after 1 month and a half, it came back from the island and NOTHING has happened. they won't repair anything.. and so does the leica shop... now that's what i call a bunch of ASSHOLES.

this fucking leicashop should burn down with all the cameras.. wait, i want a MP, 28/2, 50/1.0 and 12/5.6 .. everything else should burn down !!


back to the photos.

this is my favourite. now chris. i doubt, no i KNOW, that my trix looks 10x better than your m8 b/w mode.. look at that scan, a dream for a print.. will fiber it soon.



bye, burn, b/w.

trix+3 what else.

new darkroom. new people. johannes checking his apx100 (lab-developed... eek)


13a action.



berns new love.


plutzer crew.


shit happens.


we went in the kitchen and had some fun. they softly kicked us out though.


bern shot a portrait of that guy with the rolleiflex. we got a few beer for free (against our will.. ) so we've been pissdrunk once again.. like everyday this week.


nightline. going back home. i like the framing here:


next day.


creepy


she noticed me but looked away immediately. i knew she was going to give me another face contact. so i waited and took the photo.


look who we met ! ;)


schef listening to some stephen king book summary of tobias.. cool story i must say.


he felt hot afterwards.. schef is a little pussy ;)


he's definatly one of my "brightest" buds.


next bar.. plutzer was closed, centimeter was closed.. so we went to an old drinking hole.. met this guy.


someone took a photo of me there :O. by the way f2.0 1/4th 3200iso.. kinda dark there :D


in the nightline back home. some very hip and styled girls sat beside me and started to read in the penthouse.. i had to listen to their really "intresting" stories of one of their friends who has gained weight since she was 19.. what a horrible little story.. and then the blonde one talked about the other girl's make up and if they do it their own and that she hopes it still looks okay after they have been to the club for the night.. and much more intresting stories that made me regret having a kebap a few moments before..



it's intresting how you can have influence on someone's expression. it's also intresting that it's also about the gender and their sexual attitude how you influence it if you smile to them. one good example is this shot

but it worked here too..


collecting these:


met him at 4am. we talked for half an hour. he's homeless and divorced, has a son, has had "staatsurlaub".. he told me to write about him and his story, but i replied that i'm no journalist, i'm just shooting for myself.

this is a present of his ex-wife. it's a lighter saying "i love you". i only had one frame left for him. i'm really satisfied about this frame.. like i said, i only had one chance for a photo.

he always insisted on that he never wants to sleep on the street.. so he is going from hotel to hotel to find some place to sleep. he had some money left. he didn't get a bed this night.. so he preferred to wait all the night instead of sleeping. so i shared some time with him but i didn't want to share the joint.

for these 30min he was a cool man.. i mean who knows what he has done in his life and why he has been to prison.. i didn't ask... but it's good to talk with these people too some time.

trix:

last frames in germany. cute. trying a little different developement of the trix. i'm liking it !!




back home again. first frame. welcome back.



b for bored, for bike, for bokeh




BIPA (austrian drugstore). they sell and develope a few films. check the camera.. awesome.. haha


have been with my class to salzburg. got there by train.


seemed like matthias, our prof, found something intresting to read..


my fav frame from that trip. didn't take many photos.. should have taken more.. but the wheater was crap.. glad i added contrast in the developement !



this is salzburg:


couldn't resist.


neither here...


matthias was obsessed with taking photos of our class in all kind of exhibitions and discussions...




again. AF-light of the sony cybershot looks like a flash here.




how old ? 8 weeks she said.



club pago: it was fun. nonsense.


there was no light.. still i tried. 1/8th f2.0 3200asa.

for olympus shooters !

selling this at ebay. the best OM glas i had...

if you have questions ask me via ebay please.

cheers.

the party. well.. it was cool. maybe the reason why the photos aren't the shit, because i wanted to party and not to shoot.. but i did a few photos, because i was asked to "document" a little..

i have had the lomo fish(shit)eye with me.. what a piece of crap camera.. damn it.. but still it works for these kind of shots... next time i'll get myself a 12mm/5.6 voigtlander on the M and a flash and will make much better photos..

nuff said.

trix+3

shortly before the party started, there was a lecture and .. whatever. they had lights on. i liked how this man was wearing sunglasses inside.. kinda lagerfeld-style but who knows maybe his doctor told him to, let's be fair ;)



we somehow managed to build up a bar in our class with some nice lighting. congrats !


she did most of the organistion. looking happy that the party finaly started.. or maybe the projected flea-market slide on the wall made her laugh.. dunno..


holy 16er-blech hüsn. right ?


the lomo shots: we had 300liters of beer that got consumed in a few hours only. we never have had expected that.. it's kinda a funny thought to imagine 300 liters of beer floating around in the room in everyones stomache..


did i mention our cool DJs ? \m/


familiar face



our professor was cutting a dash behind the bar..



shake it baby





ps: everyone could chose his/her colour of the flash beforehand.. just to be fair, right..

tmax3200:

developed a bit differently this time. better results but still not as nice as a trix+3




i told her that she needs to focus before she takes a shot.. but it was too late :D. i love it when i give my camera to others and they just release the shutter without changing anything..


may fav shot from that party.. we collected and counted all the money. it was fun.


party's over. sorry. well.. at least i finaly had enough light to shoot some useful frames.



we went to the next bar that was still open.. i kinda felt like him, since i was sick and drank 8 cold beer.. my voice was GONE.. and the next morning i didn't want to move out of the bed anymore.


the leftovers from that roll:

we organized a students party in our class on saturday.. that's the flyer we/they made.. kinda straigh.. i don't care, i enjoy the tones of that shot more than the actual flyer haha.. it was a great party though. photos from there tomorrow.


a very unique and special place in my academy. just needed to document it once.


walking home. trix+3 = w00t


found that a nice coincidence that the lighting from a glas door from the house made such a nice shadow on that car



switched to tmax3200.. just was curious about that film. scanwise, it doesn't keep up with a trix+3.. kinda weird. more mids, yeah, maybe a little better tonal range but contrast wise it's not close to the look of a trix+3. also grain seems much stronger. i will print the negs to make up my mind about that film fully, since i have only scanned the negs yet and that doesn't mean a lot sometimes..




ph yeah. ghosting fucked up my photo.. next time i'll screw off my filter first.



good ol' 1 second :D



been to an exhibition. was the only person for a while. tried to capture that mood i had.




two images where the strong grain of the tmax and the good tonal range worked well:





cheerio

street contest.

it's funny and sad that some of the better entries aren't from DA members..

tru-la-la.deviantart.com

emil5372.deviantart.com

irsy.deviantart.com

lesavanchets.deviantart.com

imp51rus.deviantart.com

alpauk.deviantart.com

chaplinsky.deviantart.com

...

if you just join to win the contest with your selfchosen "winning streetshot", at least pretend to be a member of this site... but by joining a few days before the deadline and submitting one deviation for the contest and leaving again, you embarras yourself.

i myself have chosen my winnerphoto of the contest already. it's a da-member one.. haha.

i'm curious about the winner though.. i'm not in the contest, since my work was deleted, even if i was i didn't have good chances to win anything on deviantart anymore ;)

another intresting fact is that this contest might have been one of the smalles on DA i've seen. Not many people joined there.. that shows that DA has unfortunately has not much street potential at all, not even if the price is 1000$... but if the price is a mention by larafairy in her journal and the topic was shoot your kitten or yourself, billions would have joined.