About

"I am just a hobby photographer. Really!"


The RAW is my canvas

Although i often also give away jpgs out of cam i usually see the RAW file as my canvas and use Photoshop and several plug-ins as tools to alter the original images. Very often this includes composing, i.e. replacing the back- and sometimes also the foreground of the image.


Bio:

I have a day time job as a system / software architect and usually work in large long time projects. Photography and creating pictures with Photoshop is not only a hobby but also gives me instant results, something i am often missing in my job.

Although i always loved to take pictures, got my first camera with 6 years and later upgraded to a Minox 35 GT and then a Minolta SLR system, i always was just a casual shooter. But things changed when i started scuba diving and wanted to share my impressions of the underwater world with my non diving family and friends. Tired of scanning slides, in 2001 i went digital with an Olympus C3030 which was mainly used underwater and soon replaced by a C7070. At that time i also learned how to post process my uw images using photoshop, was appointed moderator and even published several articles about scuba image post processing on digital diver.

After a diving accident i changed my focus to land based wildlife photography, fell in love with the Masai Mara and bought my first DSLR, a Sony Alpha 100. The images shot with my Minolta lenses were disappointing and soon i exchanged the Sony for a Nikon D200. But Nikon didn't deliver my ordered telezoom lenses in time for a safari, and so i went back to Olympus and fell in love with the quality glass of the Olympus FT system, small enough to carry on walking safaris or to shoot from the bottom of a safari car through the open door. When at home or traveling i was taking pictures of more or less everything except people because i (still) hate myself on photos.

In 2008 i booked a workshop at Stefan Gesell's studio and learned that taking pictures of nude people isn't embarrassing at all but actually a lot of fun with the right teacher. I also added composing techniques to my Photoshop portfolio and visited photoshop trainings with Xômi and Brownz.

Today i still take pictures of everything that turns up in front of my camera but my focus is mainly on travel and creative images based on studio photography and lots of Photoshop. Since the FT sensor often wasn't good enough for my photoshop work, i added a Nikon D700 for studio work but sold it when Olympus finally switched to the then much more competitive Sony sensors. Right now i only use Olympus mFT cameras but this may change again.


Gear:

Due to back and shoulder problems my gear is now reduced to Olympus mFT cameras and mFT lenses from Olympus and Panasonic plus a few old FT lenses. But i love to try other models, rent 35mm or medium format cameras if i need more than 20 MP resolution and i generally think that people are discussing too much about camera makers, models and technical image quality instead of concentrating on image content. Canon, Fuji, Leica, Nikon, Panasonic, Pentax, Olympus, Samsung and Sony all offer good cameras and good lenses and if i could afford and carry i'd probably own at least one cam and a couple of lenses from every brand and sensor size.

Olympus:

Although most of my digital gear is from Olympus since back in 2001 i am in no way connected to the company, i am not sponsored and i have no special connections. I cannot even show most of my images on the German Olympus forum because it is limited to family friendly images ;-)