the Zen of Photography
The first secret of a photographer lies
in what he sees in what he sees.
And the second one is understanding
the difference between what he sees
...and what the camera sees.
The rest is… technical know-how.
There are pictures you “make” and pictures you “take”
Studio-photography is always “made”, whereas street
photography is almost aways “taken”. But what about
landscape photography? Here it is “make” and “take”,
and not seldom it's both in one and the same picture.
Let’s look at a few examples…
The picture above is a typical example of a made picture. On a crystal clear night, I chose a vantage point that included the north star, so that the star lines would rotate around it. I kept the shutter open for 55 minutes. The foreground only showed up as an outline. Then I positioned my car to point towards the foreground and for half a second shun my headlights onto it. That brought in all the details of the foreground without affecting the sky.
The picture above is an example of the take modus...I was hiking in the mountains and came past a little opening in the rocks. Three things lined up...the sun behind me, my body and the circular rainbow below that was only visible for a few seconds. I know the peek in the center of the rainbow is my head, because when I bent down, it was gone.
A never ending love affair
Photography…it has kept me spellbound since my childhood, but only recently was I able to fully grasp the answer to a deeper question…why?
When I won a prize in a competition at eleven, I was infected with the photography bug. Even in those early days, it was all about discovering the secrets of composition, whenever I pushed the release button.
I don’t know why, but it mattered a great deal to me and that became the start of an endless learning curve that soon broadened to include all technical aspects of photography.
And along with that came a plethora of cameras over the years: point-and-shoot, range finder cameras, bridge cameras, SLRs and later DSLRS, mirrorless, middle format and large format techincal cameras.
At some stage on that journey, it dawned on me that I was always trying to paint with light. Could it be that my Flemish genes are linked to schools of famous painters from centuries ago?
What I do know is that for me photography was never about recording a scene, but rather about capturing how the scene appeared under a certain light. And that required planning… and sometimes a huge amount of patience too.
I’m fanatic about achieving the highest technical quality in my pictures, yet for all those gear freaks who are into pixel peeping, just remember…“cameras don’t take pictures!“
They are but tools…what matters is how you use them and that’s why I started also teaching photography. It can be just a simple click…but it may take you twenty years to get to that click.
As a descendant of generations of teachers, passing on knowledge is in my blood and here it’s all about unravelling and sharing the secrets behind beautiful images.
And many of those secrets aren’t on the capturing side…especially in the digital era, processing is equally important. Long gone are the sins of the early days, luckily. For me the golden rule is never, „did the scene look like that?“ but rather…“could it have looked like that?“
Light fascinates me and the pursuit of it is a thrilling journey of consciousness – a spiritual journey. It is my way of becoming one with nature…always in the present moment.
For years, one thing always intrigued me…and that is how lucky I seemed, whenever I was out with the camera. Very often the beauty of the light was so striking that I asked myself…could there be something out there arranging this for me?
Be it as it may, I captured it – the moral duty of a photographer, so that others can enjoy it too.
And that I did again and again…until one day, I could put my finger on the profound spiritual truth behind this:
„What is within, manifests without.“
In this sense, I will always continue my pursuit for what I call…the zen of photography.
Gib hier deinen Absatz ein
Hi-Res Panoramas
Below are a few examples of high resolution panoramas. All of these panoramas are shot with Perspective Control lenses and can consist of up to thirty images. There are therefore ideally suited for large mural enlargements.
Original Size: 31718 x 10771 (341 MP)
Original Size: 14955 x 6651 (99MP)
Original Size: 31721 x 13433 (426 MP)
Original Size: 20535 x 9395 (192 MP)
Original Size: 16168 x 8937 (144 MP)
Original Size: 20423 x 6549 (144 MP)
Original Size: 21127 x 8116 (171 MP)
Original Size: 16749 x 5583 (93 MP)
Courses
I teach and have taught different types of photography courses:
1. Fascination Photography:
This course is for you if you own a camera and great pictures are important to you, yet up until now you have mainly photographed in automatic mode. In this course you will learn what the difference is between what you see and what your camera sees and from there we will explore all the different settings your camera offers and when and how you should use them to make your pictures stand out, including the secrets of good composition. An added bonus of this course is that it will forever after add value to every trip you take. Contact me below for dates.
2. Perfect Panorama:
This course is for people who already have acquired basic photography skills, who own a high resolving camera and one or more PC lenses. You will learn all the intricacies of shooting tack sharp big composite panoramas that take full advantage of the tilting and shifting capabilities of your lenses. These will yield high resolution panoramas with commercial value that are ideal for big mural enlargements. Contact me below for dates.
3. Huawei mobile phone photography course:
Huawei is the king of mobile phone photography. Even if you are an accomplished photographer there are lots of specific features and characteristics that are unique to these phones. Mastering them will give you results that rival the quality of DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, yet for a fraction of the weight. Contact me below for dates.