Wednesday, December 18, 2013

From Russia with Love: Urban Landscapes

Last weekend I was performing with bass player Kurt Holzkämper in St. Petersburg. It was a blast being on stage with our tap&bass show again. And St. Petersburg is truly a beautiful city.
Here are a few pics I shot in-between performing and teaching a workshop.
The photos were shot with an Fuji xpro 1 and an iphone 5s.

Enjoy....









Thursday, December 12, 2013

Urban Landscapes: Paris



Last week I was in Paris for the "Paris Tap Reunion". It was a wonderful gig and a great workshop.
Next stop: St. Petersburg with Kurt Holzkämper and our "Tap&Bass" Reunion.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Urban Landscapes: herbstlicht


Fine Art Prints at Society6

I decided to start selling some of my freelance photographs through Society6.com. All lot of those pictures are part of my Urban Landscape series and some street photography. I will continuously upload my work there, so please check it out.
You can find it here: www.society6.com/thomasmarek

Have a great day, Thomas


Monday, October 28, 2013

Wedding Picture Of The Week

This summer I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of my fellow tap dancer and friend Sebastian Weber. We both started our professional tap dance career at about the same time in the early 1990s and worked several times together. It is a joy to see that we are both still standing and pursuing our artistic life. 
It was a wonderful wedding and here are some of my favourite photos. Enjoy....






Monday, September 23, 2013

Tap Dance: New Promo Video Thomas Marek Band

For my new band project we finally got our new promo video edited. This is an awesome band and I am happy sharing the stage with Markus Voigt (trombone), Lorenz Boesche (piano), Oliver Karstens (bass) and Stefan Dahm (drums). 
The video was filmed live at Bluetap Studio in Berlin. 

Enjoy.....


Sunday, July 21, 2013

The wedding of Karolin and Till and more thoughts on the Fuji X system


I recently photographed the wedding of my very good friends Karolin and Till in Hamburg. Here are a few shots from that wonderful day.
It is now also been almost one year that I made the switch from my Nikon D3 equipment to the Fuji X system. For one year I only shot with those wonderful little gems and it is time for quick résumé.
My setup consists of one X100 and two XPro 1 bodies along with the 18mm, 35mm and 60 mm prime. And a little EFX20 flash ( which I love!)

First of all I am very much looking forward to the upcoming Firmware update in supposedly two days. Getting faster Af is always good and the idea of focus peaking is also quite interesting. Although I must say that I enjoy the cameras most in OVF mode and only occasionally make use of the EVF.
After one year I have really grown into the system and I like it more and more every day. Unfortunately my biggest priority on my firmware update wish list will most likely not be implemented: the ability to lock focus with a half pressed shutter button and being able to continue shooting while it is half pressed. This is standard for all SLRs since the mass introduction of autofocus and I can't understand why most mirrorless and the Fuji X cameras don't allow this. Because of lacking that feature you have to always engage autofocus again even when the distance to the object does not change or you have to lock focus with a second button. Either way it is not very convenient and time consuming and a little bit annoying.
Other than that I can hardly think of anything that I miss. Image and jpeg quality still astounds me every time I upload my pictures, white balance is very accurate and the lenses are a joy to use. I also find the cameras very reliable. In this year I never had any problem with the bodies. They seem very sturdy yet light and even occasional rain doesn't stop them, although full weather sealing would be nice.

My personal wish list for the next Xpro would be as followed:

- ability to lock af with a half pressed shutter button while continue to take pictures.

- full weather sealed body

- stronger battery

- a more resistant on off switch (it to easily turns on while being placed in the bag etc)

- a second SD card slot. And both slots placed somewhere in the side of the body.

- and of course always faster Af


Enjoy the pics...

//Thomas










Sunday, June 2, 2013

Wedding picture of the week #2

I photographed the wonderful wedding of Fariba and Boris yesterday. They are such a great couple and very nice people. Here is one shot I really like...


Friday, April 26, 2013

Tap Dance: Sarah Petronio in Hamburg

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of welcoming tap master Sarah Petronio as a guest teacher and performer here in Hamburg.
Together with my outstanding band and guest tap dancer Carson Murphy from New York, we sold out a wonderful show at Kampnagel, Hamburg.
The band members were Markus Voigt (tr), Matthäus Winnitzki (p), Oliver Karstens (b) & Stefan Dahm (dr).
I always admired Sarah's style of dancing and find it very inspiring. Subtle yet powerful, expressive and full of emotions. It was a joy dancing together and hosting a wonderful and inspiring workshop at my studio.

Here is a snapshot of Sarah and Carson dancing in my living room ...




Thursday, March 28, 2013

Best of weddings 2012

While getting reading for this year's wedding season I was going through my photos from 2012. Here is a collection of a few of my favorites. Some I have posted before, some others I haven't.
Enjoy...












Sunday, March 17, 2013

Swing Dancing!

Two days ago I was hired by my swing dancing friends and colleagues from swingwerkstatt in Hamburg to photograph their new promo shots. 
It was quite fun and for the first time I got to use the X Pro 1 with studio lights. I used two Profoto 600 Compacts with a 5" Octa Softbox. 
Unfortunately while setting up everything I ran into trouble because my X 1 Pro would not fire the strobes. Neither cable via the sync outlet nor radio triggered with my Pulsar radio triggers would work. It took me a while to realize that my camera was not properly working so luckily I had a second body which just worked fine. 
Once everything was up and running it was quite fun to shoot with the X Pro 1 in a studio setup and the results turned out quite nice. 

Please visit my friends at www.swingwerkstatt.de

So here are a few Lindy Hop pics....