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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Girl with Balloons


During my whole stay at Burning Man I had these balloons in sight where ever I was. This thing reached so high there was no way not to see them. I thought I would come across the source at some point, just didn't know it would be a girl with a bike crossing my way at 7 in the morning.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Mysterious Shoe Tree


If you like standing around inside dust storms scratching your head, I know a place for you to go.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Beach Home


The only thing that seemed really photogenic last night. After taking the picture I got to talk to the guy living there. He turned out to be a pro skateboarder.

Creative Commons

I hope you are aware that you are invited to use any of my photography for your own art projects. As long as your project is non-commercial I'm just asking you to add a link to http://fluck.de. This is a new section of my website where I introduce you to some awesome things other people did with my pictures. Let me know in case you have something to show as well - I will add your work to this page here.



Walantis Giosis from Germany developed a cool iPhone app for slide show creation. By default, the app comes with a couple of my pictures.





Seen Loh from Malaysia sings and composes songs.





The beautiful writings of Annie Q Syed. Annie is a New York based writer who wrote eight works inspired by my photographs. The series is known among her fans as Fluck Tuesdays.





Aidan Fritz is a writer from San Francisco.





Mona from Germany builds montages. She created this one named Showdown 2010.





Javi Peláez from Spain introduces music to his readers on his blog named La Aldea Irreductible.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Beach Rock


Another spontaneous midnight shooting.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Along the Water


Hey everybody, I wanted to take the chance and thank you all for stopping by and enjoying my photography. I'm getting an increasing number of emails, tweets, Facebook messages, Flattr comments, etc. Every day there is something coming from you guys that surprises me and makes my day.

THANK YOU for being here!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Buying Guide: Canon 5D Mark II

I'm now starting to write little buying guide posts from time to time. I will basically be talking freely about the gear I'm using or have been using in the past.

This is the first article of this kind, and I will start off with the piece of equipment that is always involved when I'm out there taking pictures. Of course, I'm talking about the camera body. In my case that would be the Canon 5D II.

Here are my 5 top reasons why the Canon 5D Mark II is my body of choice.



1. No matter how much ice cream you eat, you will hear people saying that you have a great body

Happens to me all the time.

2. Because the image sensor is so large, your photographs won't show much noise even when shooting with higher ISO

Different from the most commonly used sensor size (known as APS-C size), full-frame sensors produce less image noise. Noise (or grain) can look nice and artsy in some images, but in general the camera that produces less noise gives you more freedom. It allows you to increase the sensitivity of your image sensor (by increasing the ISO in the camera settings) and take beautifully smooth images in low light situations.

Now why is that?
The image sensor is the part of your camera that actually captures the light coming through the lens. The sensor translates the captured light to electric signals so that it can be digitized and stored on your memory card. So far so good. Now why would one pay so much more money just for a larger sensor? Simply because each single pixel in your image is based on one electric signal. When all these signals are squeezed tightly together on a small sensor, the signals interfere with each other resulting in unsightly image noise.

Let's compare it to a daily life situation: when you sit in the economy class of an airplane squeezed between other passengers, you are affected by whatever your fellow travelers do. You smell the food they are eating, you hear the things they are talking and you notice every move they are making. Now you can imagine the arrangement on a full-frame sensor as the first-class section in an airplane. Everybody has plenty of room to stretch out and enjoy the trip. Now after the long journey is over, who do you think comes out looking better? The OJ zipping first-class passengers, or the squeezed-out people from the economy class?


3. With 21 Megapixels the resolution is high enough for producing large-scale prints of high quality


As discussed in (2) I wouldn't want 21 Megapixels on a APS-C sized sensor because of the interference mess. In case of the 5D II however, I thankfully take the 21 Megapixels and blow the images up to brilliant looking large-scale prints.


4. It is the most affordable (Canon) body with a full-frame image sensor


Now that you are aware of some great advantages of the sensor size, you might want to have a look at other full-frame cameras out there.
If you do some research and look at the different Canon lines, you will see that you would have to spend at least twice the money for other cameras housing the exact same sensor. If money is a concern, and you are not too specialized in what you are shooting, the 5D II seems to be the best choice.


5. It's weather sealed and built to last


I used my 5D II in the rain and in nasty dust storms and it is still working like it did on the first day*.

*results may vary.

Last but not least, two high-ISO example images taken with that body:

This is an example of a nightly street photograph taken with ISO 3200:



An HDR image from three exposures - each taken with ISO 400.



I know most of us don't order such a piece of equipment spontaneously. But if you at some point decide to purchase one, feel free to put a smile on my face by ordering through this link:


Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Giant Sequoias


These guys make you feel like midgets.

Monday, September 20, 2010

blissdance.org

Did you have a good weekend? I just came back from a trip to Sequoia National Park. I took a few pictures (really not many) and in case I got something nice looking, I'll post it here later.

By the way, it seems many of you really liked the Bliss Dance photograph. If you did, you might wanna check out blissdance.org. You can find many more great pictures from other photographers there and much more information about the artwork.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Couple on Polar Bear


What's better than enjoying a sunrise on a motorized polar bear?

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

"About me" Page & Burner Portrait II

You might have already noticed that my little website here was lacking of an "About" page. This has changed now. You find it right here.



Another portrait from Burning Man:
I met this guy inside an interesting three story Asian looking building.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Dawn-ish


I often get to see the most photogenic things coincidentally while driving by, usually while on a highway. The best way to deal with this is always having a camera with you. In most cases I find it to be the best procedure to take the very next exit once I spotted something and get to stop the car as soon as possible. Because I have such a terribly bad sense for orientation, I would use the iPhone to check what I just looked at and dig out the street names of an intersection that's around that spot. Then punch it in to my clumsy GPS and voila!

This sort of photography is a lot about opportunity. I guess the art is anticipating opportunities and become aware.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Black Rock City Street Scene


Just noticed how much I'm photographing straight into the sun these days.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

The Joy of Riding a Giant Fly

I believe only very few among us know what this is like.



Friday, September 10, 2010

OINK


During the whole time I didn't use any clock except an alarm clock to not miss sunrise. There are no dust storms in the mornings and people were usually still dancing when the sun came up - really beautiful.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Burner Portrait I


For this picture I used the truly fantastic Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lens.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Burning Man Self Portrait


A whole afternoon I dedicated to photographing things inside dust storms. The density of the dust kept changing continuously, which made it very interesting and fun. However, the dust is known for its high pH level, which is also interesting, but wasn't so much fun for my eyes and equipment.
This one is a reflection on an extra terrestrial looking sculpture.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Bliss Dance


I'm back from Burning Man. I still have goose bumps.