.. did you ?

everytime i hit the "submit art" button, i've to smirk a little. this button gets clicked a thousand times a day and probably one time there might be art submitted.

i also wonder why there is no option to hide the amount of views, favs and comments of a deviation. it'd solve the whole stupid challenge thing on DA. i'd hide it immediately. people automatically judge by the amount of attention the deviation has - which is nonsense.

if you want to see how many ignorant people are out there, just check the comments at ^Gonzale's DDs. if there was a block button for these users, so that they can't unload their unqualified shit noone asked for anymore, i'd use it immediately.

i'm not asking or demanding any comments when i post something, but i'm still wondering why some works get hundreds of comments and favs and others less than 5. i'm just wondering what makes the difference. maybe i'm the only one who sees what the photo is about and anyone else is too ignorant or i see something that isn't really there and it's boring shit.. or it just lacks funny colours.. whatever - i'm not using DA as a evaluation of my work.

also DA puts a submission into scraps when you put it into photorgaphy>snapshots. it's funny, i think snapshots is one of the most interesting genre. i think there is some misunderstanding. also why is there no fashion category on its own ? why must it be under portraits ? and how can glamour portrait be an own category ?

weird stuff.

fighting against getting a cold.

i'm a sucker for paracetamol/sugar/ascorbic-acid combo. best before sleep.

for the day there is the paracetamol/caffeine/ascorbic-acid combo which are waiting tomorrow for the cementery. yeah, i'm shooting a sorta fashion shoot at the cementery.. i have no clue what's waiting for me there.. but i've never done something like that before - something else for a change.

i'll have another premiere soon - shooting a music video. it's all about organisation and improvisation when it comes to no-budged productions. i'll still try my best and i'm looking forward to use the 5dMKII with a bunch of neat glass to shoot that vid.

ordered some foma 131 warmtone 12x16 and 16x20. the shop owner told me that i was probably the first ordering it at that size. i know it's a difficult paper to print because it doesn't look good untoned but when you tone you make it darker (pushing the shadows). still when you finish it right, it looks great - even prefer it to the ilford warmtone - which isn't really a warmtone... but looks ace - still.

shooting some factories again - staying in austira this time though.

thinking about getting a rolleiflex 2.8 for portraits and streetshots. maybe a D/E version.. but the F and G sound great too..

..about the print quality control at DA.



i'm really curious what a 30x45in (75x110cm) would look like.
it's just an evidence of incapacity to publish an image like that (taken with a canon 5d MKII) that looks like taken with an Iphone.

critique was off - no wonder - otherwise i'd not have chosen the journal way, but where is the difference anyway - this pops up in the message centre just like the critiques.

ps: i got a littlebit curious so i pushed the shadows and squeezed down the highlights just to see how much information was left and changed image size to 200%

[link] (canon 5dMKII at 125iso at daylight)

and because i'm fair i just did that with one of my deviations:

[link] (canon 5d MKI at 640 iso avaiable light)

original can be found here: [link]

call me a freak - i think it's interesting. i do this all the time, just not publish it.

I look at every 10th DD probably... this was one of them - mainly because the thumb loooked interesting to me. No naked woman, no canon ixus macro or super HDR sunset... it was a straight photo without much to it that simply worked.

When i started to read some comments, i saw something like an attempt of criticism. People wondered if the face was shopped in (WTF!?!?!). Seems like some out there are so brainwashed that they don't even believe in reflections anymore or don't know what they look like.

Others said that the photo was better without the face. Oh yeah, definitely a view on berlin from the TV tower would be much more interesting than a portrait in a reflection WITH the view on berlin... i agree to the fullest !

Others said that the face even ruined the picture... HELLO ? what the fuck is wrong with you people ?

Those people who "criticise" (in this case just talk unqualified shit) that photo are the same who praise the mainstream pretty-colours nice boobs photos and keep the machine of favs running...

I personally think that's a nice photo. It is not mind-blowing - because it doesn't need to be. It's sometimes the hardest to take a simple photo that documents life.
I know professional photographers - personally, who have shot advertising and press for their lifetime and now they wish they had captured their own life. They want to shoot b/w film again and they want to shoot what they want to not what they are told to shoot.

Some even don't know how to take these simple photos of their friends, family, travels or streetshots anymore.. because they got used to models, studio, lights, photoshop, lightroom, press converences, red carpet.... all this machinery makes you work like an ant in a system. Those professional photographers can't take such simple photographs anymore - and some of them regret that.

All these adverts, magazine, press or red carpet photos (if not epic or artistically), all these photos that pay your rent - won't make you happy in the end. It's nothing personal about it. All the studio portraits, that have only purpose but no character to them... what do with it ? That bunch of naked women you have in your portfolio - nobody will be interested in this except those who like to look at naked women, that's almost a fact. You're not going to impress with photos but with naked women.

Ever thought about if your photos will still live longer than yourself ? Ever thought about if anyone even bothers to look at your work in a few years when the digital techniques reached new levels again and another 10 billion photos got published in the internet and elsewhere..

Shoot for content. Document life. Shape your skills for that. You won't regret it when you can look at some decent b/w negatives in 20 years, because the millions of digital frames will either be lost in chaos or un-readable harddisks and simply won't have any character anymore.

today was one of those mornings when you wish you never woke up. the 11 beer of last night were still floating in my brain and stomache.. i found my way into the bed at 5:30am and had a meeting at 11am.

so i went out at ~10:30 to go there.. and there was something missing... i forgot the leica. i was thinking "should i take it with me or not..." so i went back to my apartement to take the leica with me. i still felt horrible - not motivated to take any photos at all.

left the house. f4 1/250th - 500th at 400iso. typical grey day. not a 1/125th day though - those are the worst.. i went to the supermarked to buy a red bull to get my eyes open, an orange juice (hohes C) to fight an eventually upcoming cold and a strong chewing gum - so that the poor lady at the agency doesn't smell the kebap from 5am that was still rotting in my stomache.

attached with those things to survive the first hours of the day, i went to the agency. the meeting went well, i also announced that i was still hangover and apologized for my bumlike look.. but as often i was glad to be behind the camera and not in front.

i left the agency - feeling better, two more asignments for the next 2 weeks. still my mood wasn't good enough to shoot street. so i just wanted to walk home to get some sleep - but things completely changed.

walking towards the street (from the courtyard) a rather small women passed the door from left to right with a medium sized dog in her arms. this little moment got me running, running towards the exit to catch her up to take a shot.

so i followed her a few steps to take the shot, first from behind, then walked faster to take one facing her. i didn't take a photo though. instead we started talking. her dog (natalie), 16 years old, 3 legs had a stroke and couldn't really walk anymore. so she had to carry her. she, gandhi, was a very nice soft appearance. we had a nice chat of about 10 minutes or even longer about her dog and life in vienna. i asked for a photo before i left. so she took up her dog and i took a photo.

it was almost the first of that roll - and i was really curious how it'd turned out - so i thought i'll expose this roll quickly - but i only had about 10 minutes walk home and the weather was crap for photos... so i could only waste that roll on random things... but things came different once again. several interesting moments happened on my short walk home.. and i have almost finished the whole roll with some pretty promising material.

and last but not least i found this strap for my hand - very oldschool but handy.. took a photo of it:



hope to share that roll soon!

have a nice one!