Wedding pics of the week #2

Last week I photographed two weddings.  I had great fun on both occasions and here are some of my favorite shots. Once I am done editing all the photos I will post more.
Again I used the Fuji X-100 along my trusty Nikon D3. As much as I like the Fuji for it's weight, size and output I would never want to miss the Nikon. It is such a reliable workhorse. Maybe it is time to look into the D4..... Enjoy!

Wedding of Tobias and Nicole

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Tobias and Nicole in Hamburg.
I did a full reportage of 10h, covering the preps, ceremony and party. It was a great wedding and for the first time I used the Fuji X100 along with my Nikons. So how did that work.
Well from all my final final pictures around 30% were done with the Fuji. I really liked using it during the preps, in the church and at the reception. For real low light action I found it too slow. Also the Nikon D3 is just hard to beat for low ISO shots. But I really like the lightweight body and traditional camera layout. So I will use it for sure again next week when 2 more weddings come up.
I am also considering getting a X1 Pro with the 35mm 1,4. The idea of having small and unobtrusive cameras is quite intriguing. And seriously after a couple of hours the Nikon just gets real heavy on my back.....

Anyways here are a couple of photos from that wedding. Most of those are done with the x100.

Wedding pic of the week #1

Here is one of my favorites from this weekend's wedding shoot. I am still editing the rest of the photos and once I am done I will post a selection on this blog.
For the first time I also used the Fuji x100 on a job and I liked it quite a lot. I probably used it for 70% of the photos. But like I said I will post more of it later.
This shot was done with a Nikon D3.

Friends

Himmel über Hamburg

street photography

i just love walking around with my camera and taking pictures of my environment. roaming the streets and trying to find good stories in everyday life.
i haven't been able to do so as much as i would like but i managed to get around a bit. so here are a few pictures from last week in hamburg. enjoy...

tap dance artist brenda bufalino

yesterday i had the pleasure of performing together with tap dance legend brenda bufalino in hamburg.
together with an outstanding jazz quintet  we played at the "sprechwerk" and we truly had a lot of fun.
to me brenda bufalino is one of the most inspiring tap dance artists ever. her work has an artistic depth that is hardly found in tap. she really brings this dance form to another level.
the band members were markus voigt (tr), lorenz bösche (p), oliver karstens (b) & stefan dahm (dr).

so here are a few pictures from the rehearsals. all pictures were taken with the fuji x100. and btw anybody who thinks that this camera is too slow for moving subjects.... i don't think so. it is perfect to capture dance. anticipate!

spring #3

DRAMA - love songs and other jazz / Video

finally i got a chance to edit some of the footage of my last dance production "drama - love songs & other jazz" that was produced at kampnagel, hamburg. the show was a huge success and i am very pleased with the outcome. i had a wonderful ensemble and some of the finest dancers around. i truly hope we get another chance to perform it again. 

the dancers in this short clip are ellen murray, laura mogalle, thomas kolczewski and myself. on bass is kurt holzkämper. text edits were done by miriam mandelkow.  the show was funded by the city of hamburg. 

If feet can talk, their language is tap dance. And if DRAMA is to take its queue from them, it goes one step further to claim that words can actually dance.
DRAMA explores the creative possibilities of dance and diction, seeking to discover both the peculiarities and the shared qualities of text and dance.
Tap and jazz will counterpoint linguistic rhythm, form polyphonic layers and a collage of sound and image. Texts will be spoken, projected, sung und translated into other languages. Where dance, language and jazz meet, that´s where a powerful, rhythmic, visionary dance show will take place.

KÜNSTLERISCHE LEITUNG & CHOREOGRAFIE Thomas Marek
REGIE & PRODUKTIONSASSISTENZ Johanna Bock

TEXTBEARBEITUNGEN Miriam Mandelkow
TÄNZER Thomas Kolczewski, Laura Mogalle, Ellen Murray, Thomas Marek
BASS Kurt Holzkämper

hamburg on a sunny day

hamburg is a wonderful city. especially on a sunny day. i guess the hamburg port is one of my favorite places in the city.
both photos were taken with the amazing fuji x100.

weddings 2011 #2

while editing and printing pictures for a client i came across this picture.

jazz

my friend and great pianist patrick bebelaar warming up before a gig.

taken with ricoh grd3

a personal fuji x100 review/opinion

back in the film days one of my favorite cameras was the konica hexar. it was an autofocus rangefinder style camera with an excellent viewfinder and 35mm f2 lens build in. for me,  it was the perfect travel and documentary camera.
since i went digital with my photography i was always looking for a camera like that. great viewfinder, compact, fixed fast lens. and i bought a lot of cameras that could possible fill that gap. i used the grd1 and 3 (which i still love), the gxr, some canon gs, a nikon p7...., the leica x1 but nothing really got close to the hexar experience.
so now after some hesitating i got myself the x100 and i must say that it is quite perfect to me. it has a great viewfinder, a sharp lens and it produces amazing files. it is the closest it could be to a hexar.
some people say that the fuji copies the leica m but i don't think so.  to me it is much closer to the hexar or the legendary contax g series. that is were it is coming from not the leica.
 
the autofocus is fairly fast, maybe not the fastest when compared to other state of the art cameras, but fast enough for anything i shoot. and that is mostly street photography and people.
the menu and software setup is a mess and it has some quirks, mostly relating to firmware. but overall the tactile feel of it and the simple straight forward control layout is a joy to use. set the aperture (on the lens), focus, frame and shoot. perfect. that's how a camera should feel and i guess that why the fuji x series gets so much recognition among photographers.

it is my only camera that i shoot in jpeg mode. simply because i get better and faster results from it then adjusting the raws. the jpeg engine is really great. the only other camera i trusted with jpegs was the olympus e-1.

i am looking very much forward using it at my next wedding assignments and i believe that it could replace my nikon d3 (which i also mostly use with primes) for most of the time. if that turns out to be true i will consider getting the x1 pro with the 3 primes and make it my main wedding setup.

here are a few examples from shooting the x100. all shot as jpegs and then converted with silver efex pro and color efex pro.

fashion victim #1

back in 2007 i shot a series called "fashion victims" for a designer in hamburg. i really liked the story telling of those pictures. this particular shot won 2nd prize at the canon professional fashion award 2007. enjoy...

solitude

elevator

spring #2

spring #1

nola 11/12

earlier this year i spent an awesome 4 weeks in new orleans visiting friends. i had a fantastic time in this great city. naturally with all its jazz new orleans speaks to my soul. here are some of my favorite pictures during that time.....

most of the pictures were done with the ricoh grd3 or the gxr and the 50mm lens.