Change to Wordpress - end of this blog

Bokeh Princess, originally uploaded by topfloor.

Hello my dear reader,
it is time to move forward to a Wordpress Blog. It is hosted at my long term URL photosfromthetopfloor.com. Please reset your Bookmark and redirect your RSS feed reader.
Thx for following, Carsten

Leaving for Brighton (UK)

Santander Pirat, originally uploaded by topfloor.

Tonight, I'll travel to Brighton (UK) to participate in a workshop by L.A. based Street Photographer Eric Kim.
Following Eric's Blog for quite some time, it was a clear decision to go there when he twittered about his first european workshop.
His Blog is definitely worth reading if you have an interest in streetphotography.
Packing gear was a breeze as I just had to reconfigure (read: leave things at home) from my Italy trip some weeks ago. I hope to bring home some nice shots as Brighton is a very interesting place to shoot (been there in Aug 2009 last time).
Have fun,
Carsten

Film selbst entwickeln - welcher Entwickler?

unboxed - TRIX - HCD new - SOOS, originally uploaded by topfloor.

Einen etwas aufwendigeren Versuch habe ich in Braunschweig mit dem Team von der Firma Spürsinn und den Absolut Analog Leuten gestartet.





Mit mehr als 10 verschiedenen Entwicklern ging die Gruppe an den Start.

Die von mir eingesetzten Filme waren TRIX und efke 25 /50, die Entwickler waren Agfa Rodinal R09, Tetenal Neofin blau, Spur SD2525, MixTour MT134 sowie der neue HCD Entwickler.




Eine Auswahl meiner Ergebnisse habe ich mit dem Flickr-Tag 'Analog Developer Check' in jeweils einer unbearbeiteten Fassung (Straight out of Scanner SOOS, Scan mit mind. 3200 dpi, 16-bit Graustufen als TIFF, ohne Schärfung im Scanner) und einer in Lightroom mit geringem Zeitaufwand optimierten Fassung versehen.

In den jeweiligen Tags der Bilder gibt Details (Entwicklungszeiten und Temperaturen usw.).




Als vorläufiges Resumee für mich (der Vergleich ist noch nicht zu Ende): TRIX und efke 25 / 50 rocken mit Spur SD2525, ganz besonders mit dem FeinkornV2 der MixTour. An den neuen HCD laß ich auch nichts kommen, ob er in meiner Geschmackswelt mit dem FeinkornV2 / MixTour mithalten kann, werde ich noch austesten.

Ich freue mich auf Feedback. Falls Ihr von Flickr-Gruppen oder -Threads wißt, in denen solchen Beispiele auch gezeigt werden, freue ich mich auf Eure Flickr Mail - denn das Lernen geht weiter.

Carsten

just a short bye bye for the week

City Icon - Ellis Island, originally uploaded by topfloor.

I will be heading to a small european island tomorrow for a short business trip, so I'll be offline for the week. have fun and continue to shoot and share, please!
Carsten

Streets in Color

riding, originally uploaded by topfloor.

The flickr group 'Streets in Color' selected this picture among the 'Featured Photos of the Week' of March 25, 2011.

Head dover to this group and have a look at their pool.



Happy Shooting!

Large Format - First Steps

Central Tram station, originally uploaded by topfloor.

After meeting the local New York Streetphotographer Louis Mendez



in New York last year, his Graflex large format camera inspired me to get hold of one on eBay as well. After visiting a really cool large format workshop in Braunschweig at Spürsinn some weeks ago, I found time to use my Graflex for the first time alone in the urban environment.

As large format camera‘s work great, but not fast, I choose some architecture at Kassel for my first venture. I had loaded my 4x5“ large format filmmagazines with Fomapan 400 film (with 26 sheets / pictures) and went out to have some fun.


Detail of the first picture

For metering I used my trusty Gossen Digisix. After I had visited the castle, the new and the old train station, my given timeframe was over and I headed home.

Today I developed the film(s) - and was at my first point of confusion. I have Rodinal, XTOL and HC-110 developer in my fridge, but in the massive dev chart App on my Pad I could not find any information for the Fomapan 400 film I had used. Now Google is my friend, and in an large format forum someone had asked this question just 5 weeks ago and shared his experiences. So I went for 12 minutes at 20 degr. with XTOL 1:1, and the results turned out well. Then I googled how to loead the special 4x5 Inch JoBo Filmreel with the sheets, practised with one sheet in plain sight, and then ,shaked the soup‘.

Some examples can be found here . . .


shooting shooters


City Icon

Lessons learned this time: I need a larger development tank, as only 6 sheets of film fit in mine. Framing is still a little bit on the trial and error side. And I have to slow down even more :-)

Next time I‘ll be shooting the Graflex will probably be in Venice, where I hope to capture urban landscape as well as some street with this cam.

City Icon - New York's Lady Liberty

City Icon - New York's Lady Liberty, originally uploaded by topfloor.

This photo was really fun to take. It was shot on a very cold, sunny winter day in january. Revisiting Lady Liberty for the 2nd time, after 27 years of absence, was one of my highlights of this NYC trip.

Walking around the island, looking for a pleasing angle and an acceptable background, operating the camera with gloves and enjoying the view of Manhattan was challenging.

This picture is one of those I like, converted to bw in NIK Silver Efex Pro 1.

Have fun,
Carsten