Couple in Rain

I got this rain cape for my camera. It's basically not much more than an oddly shaped plastic bag that's open on both ends. It has a string on one end so you can tighten it where the lens sticks out, and a little hole for the viewfinder. It's probably the most overpriced product after movie theater popcorn, but just as the popcorn, it seems very valuable when you are in the mood for it :)

I'm probably not the only one who thinks that there is something romantic about heavy rain on a warm night. The old city of Philadelphia works perfectly for me to fit this mood.

Prison Chess Portrait ("Leo" Kimpton)

New Series: Princeton Campus

OK, this is now going to sound a little like a moving sale.
I'll put all my favorite images into several series soon, as I'm going to leave the Princeton area in a couple of weeks. Does that sentence make any sense at all? Yes, I wanted those series to be finished with the certainty that I won't have more pictures to add over time.

My gallery (consisting of 16 series right now) does what in my understanding an amateur photography gallery does. It reflects on the photographers life and shows some sort of progression. For you, I just hope you like the colors and perspectives. For me, each image comes with a set of intense memories. Not necessarily of the subject itself, but I remember many many details from the day it was taken.

There will be a new New York series, as well as a Philadelphia series, and a black and white street series. Everything must go as I'm going, too. But for now, let's put the Princeton campus pictures out there. If you followed my blog over the last year, you know them all, sorry for the boredom, but that's all I got.

During almost all my 6 years here in the area I used to need a 20 minutes drive to reach the campus. I visited this place quite often and enjoyed walking around and taking pictures. Last spring I moved very close to the campus, and for some reason I stopped visiting it right at that point. Weird but anyway, here are the results:

First Wedding Attempt

I had the opportunity to take some wedding pictures for a friend.

Only recently I noticed that there is wedding photography out there that I actually find interesting. Not that I don't like wedding pics, but photography wise, I often find them a little dull after a while.

When I saw a friends wedding pictures taken by Alison Mayfield (who belongs to the Christian Oth Studio), I noticed how nicely it can be combined with street photography. So I had the chance to try, Steffi and I accompanied freshly married Tim and Emilia on the streets for what I think was an hour. Luckily, when you are in New York City, scenery almost always looks kind of OK, perfect for some spontaneous shooting - here are my favorites.

"Good morning, Mr. Connor. Ready for work?"

"I sure am, Steve. Why are you asking?"

Leica S2 - What do you think?

A new camera with a DSLR look and feel, but with a larger sensor, and thus with more pixels (37.5). It's built by Leica and has a price tag of $22,995. This is for the body only. Lenses start at $4,495.

What do you think about this? When I first heard about it I couldn't imagine anybody paying this kind of money for a photo camera.
Having not much of an idea about medium format, I later on noticed that there is quite some excitement about having medium format in such a body with such a "high" frame rate (1.5 fps).

I think it's still an unbelievable amount of money for a cam. Can someone enlighten me about medium format? How superior can it be to let's say a 5D Mark II?

Arranging Things

Volleyball / Moonlight

Sometimes night images work much better without HDR.

Philadelphia

Prison Chess Portrait (Phillip A. Dixon)

This is the 9th portrait with text.

Carrying a Box

Harry's Smoke Shop

Dark Blue

Comes in dark...



...and blue:


I couldn't decide how I want it, so here are both versions.
Which one do you like better? I have a slight tendency to the "dark side".