Don’t you feel these questions are quite ridiculous?
Don’t you agree they add nothing to understanding the body of work of these (or other) artists, and more they prove the asking person has no clue whatsoever of the work of the artist in question?

Yet we professional photographers are confronted with it every time we dare to add a whatever “off-topic photo” to your photography portfolio. Art-buyers and editors don’t fail to prompt that picture with
THE MOST EVIL QUESTION SINCE DAGUERRE.

Back in the early 90s (my personal experience is about Germany, so maybe in the US it happened at a different time) I had the chance to get a look at a lot of photographers portfolios. Usually they where full of pictures from what today we call “people”, “portrait”, “nude”, “nature”, “travel”, “architecture” and “wildlife”. You could not only see the personal style of a photographer, the broad band of subjects photographed (or not!) showed an almost intimate portrait of the photographer himself. ‘Clients’ liked you (or not), your “eye”, your style and gave you an assignment relying on your craftsmanship and artistry. Then the system changed when in the need to spend ever less, magazines replaced experienced editors with a journalistic background with hire-and-fire youngsters from the ‘street’. People that had never had a look at a photo (from a professional point of view) came to be ‘editors’ or ‘art-buyers’. They couldn’t “read” the pictures anymore. I’m not blaming THEM – it would be the same for me having to choose from whyskies – I don’t like the taste of alcohol and hence couldn’t appreciate or judge it’s qualities. They got confused with all the pictures, so they asked the most evil question since Daguerre: “What do you REALLY do?” While I was so bewildered with the question that I almost choked every time on the thousands of words that came up in the blink of a shutter, I still had to face the fact that they were lost and that I needed to be clear about what service I provided when I wanted them to trust me.

So we “cleared the mess”, narrowed the portfolios to the one thing we believed was the most promising (not the most interesting or artistic – it often was the LEAST artistic). But your existence shapes your conscience: There was no more reason for taking pictures that your commercially calibrated mind (that you were forcing on your art) labelled as useless. We stopped shooting in the first place what couldn’t make it into our portfolios anyway.

While from there on it took very few time to make photography fun-free to me, it took me almost 15 years to become aware of this and to allow myself to photograph as I did when I started out, enthusiastic and with an open mind and not categorizing what I had in front of my eyes as sellable or not. This was when I finally rediscovered the joy photography had given me from the beginning and what had made it become so important in my life.

The truth is, I am a photographer, not because I chose that tool to make an easy buck, taking pictures of half-naked girls under California sunsets – if you have a look at my work you will note I am quite far from the sandy beaches – nor because I didn’t know what else to do with my time,  but because I perceive the world through pictures, I relate to it in my personal way through my viewfinder, too, I strive to learn from it when I focus at it’s smallest details, I celebrate it when sharing my work with others. Ultimately I remember and I hope in pictures.

What is it that you really do?
I am a photographer – period.
There is no ‘Off-topic’ in photography.

What a great moment to share: A couple standing on the beach and looking out to the sparkling reflexes of a late afternoon sun setting to the Atlantic Ocean.

An ocean of violet bougainvillea blossoms 'outshine' a stop sign

Can these picture make a lot of money? Should I not have taken them?
Did you have similar experiences and did it take so long for you to “wake up”?
Do you NOT know what I’m talking about? (very keen on knowing your thoughts on this!)

Cheers,
Phil

So while we’re preparing for the big event, the Carnevale di Venezia, (Venice Carnival),
some 10.000 are making the last fixes to their hand-made costumes,
some other 10.000 are putting their photo-gear together, I like to get
the best of both worlds: I’ll be shooting in disguise.

To get into the mood, I’d like to share last years’ pictures with you.

I would really love to get in touch with a writer/journalist – I’m certain we can put a beautiful story together. So please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or phone. We can meet in Venice or Milan. Just drop a line.

So finally, here are some of last years’ shots:

A classic Carnival disguise (Casanova or simply anonymous Nobleman) with tricorne and bauta mask.

Batman's mother? A very beautifully hand-made dark blue and black Satin and Velvet Carnival Costume

Two persons in matched carnival costumes posing - a photographer crawling on the ground to get the 'right angle'.

Venice Carnival: A Viking ship on Canal Grande under famous landmark Rialto bridge.

Many 'disguises' are rented by tourists who come to Venice just for the Carnival. But just as many are made by the persons themselves in many hours of enormous work as are these two. These costumes are unique and handcrafted with often surprising ability and taste. (Philipp S. Soheili)

All pictures are the copyright of Philipp Soheili and can licensed here: EuroPhoto.us

As a professional photographer I am often asked to give advice to friends or even clients when they need to buy a camera for their next holidays. Questions are mostly something like “Nikon or Canon?”, “What do megapixels really mean?”, “Wich brand produces the better lenses?”, “SLR or not?” a.s.o. and I am usually happy to help even if the answers are anything but one-liners.

Today, it will be a little different,  I’ll give unsollicited advice because I feel terrible if I won’t.

“It” happens when I am in a place with a lot of tourists and some people have the “better” SLR cameras…

It's not a bumper, it's a sunshade! - Ce n'est pas un pare-choc, c'est un parasol !

Now, I don’t know what people really think this thing on their lens is, though one thought must come very early on, and that could be: it cannot be there to make your photographer’s life harder – because that’s surely what it does, “using” it this way!

If you are one of the “victims”, there’s help in sight; it’s easy, it’s fast, it has tremendous effect at once!

Let’s assume, your lens is at the wide end of it’s focal length (the low numbers on the zoom ring) then this strange plastic thing covers the zoom ring almost entirely so that, should you dare and try to change your field of view you actually cannot turn the ring. At best, you would have to take the camera from your eye, press two fingers in the gaps and mini-step-fumble your lens to a higher focal length where then it’s freed from the hands-off-shield.

Now really how is it, that none of you ever get upset by this? They buy a 1,5 – 2,5 k$  camera and don’t get upset with that kind of major construction flaw? Really if that was my camera – and every other attempt to resolve the problem had failed – at least I would have tried to CUT IT OFF !!!

But, there is a better way:

Put your fingers around that crown-shaped thing, as if you’ld wanted to protect your lens (just be sure not to actually touch the lens with your hand), get hold of the crown and gently (with a little pressure to get over the “safe-click”) turn it right (looking down on the camera, hanging from your neck) until it comes off completely. Phew* – that wasn’t hard! – and you’re almost done!

Now turn the thing (it still is only a “thing”) 180 degrees around its’ center (don’t panic, you cannot get that wrong – either direction is perfect – just make it half a circle – like turning over a postcard) and now put it back on the lens where it came off turning this sunshade (YES, now it has a name and it’s pretty useful, too) to the left – be sure to get over “safe-click” this time as well, so it won’t fall off by accident.

What should I say more…

Enjoy your camera!

p.s.: it is an even better bumper this way round! (ça vaut beaucoup plus même comme parchoc maintenant!)

Cheers

Come and see my own photo gallery here…

Photographers are continuously striving for

quality (focus, lenses, CRI, a.s.o.)
artistry (modelling through light, composition a.s.o. ),
professionalism (continuous results, workflow, repeatability a.s.o.)

using our trained eye and experience to achieve the best possible result…

But maybe we shouldn’t.

Using twitter or facebook you must have come across those snapshots taken with the iPhone app “Hipstamatic” or “Instagram”. Did you catch yourself thinking: Wow, I didn’t know what good a photographer he or she was! And as you went along with the slideshow, you burst out in some kind of a nervous laughter because they kept coming one better than the other? And yet, you have been to that place and it wasn’t all that fantastic when you where there, and as you’re looking closer there’s really nothing special in the picture; in fact, if you had made these pix yourself they would have probably landed in the pre-trash folder…

Since I had a suspicion but wasn’t sure yet, I downloaded (bought) the app and during the last weekend took some random shots no matter where I was. Now I want to invite you to take a look at the result.

This evidence leads to a terrible conclusion..

I took pictures with iPhone’s built-in camera and right after that, one more shot of the same subject in the same angle, light, etc with the “hipstamatic” app. Please compare the resulting images for yourself:

Palazzo Reale (the Royal Palace)

The Vespa

I think by now we have had all the evidence neccessary to come to the conclusion:

It’s not your subject, it’s not your tools, it’s not your technique but  …

THIS:

I don’t know what to make of this insight. Should I sell my Nikons and switch to the iPhone instead?

For all that haven’t understood why Lomo and similars made such a success… (I’m one of those)

My theory is that (apart the lousy look that reminds us of our own childhood imagery) people like the look so much because the automated technical flaws hide those of the photographer, and it’s exactly those flaws again that make these pictures seem to having been taken without commercial interest wich makes them sympathetic to begin with, then the subject is of no interest to anybody, wich means that someone has taken the picture because it was important to THEM – you can’t get more “reality” than that.

The formula is quite simple:

   Reality
- Interest
- Quality
———–
= Authenticity

What’s next? Daguerrotypes?

All pictures are copyright of Philipp S. Soheili and can be licensed here.

Peonia or Peony.

There’s not much that I could say, that would add to the beauty of these flowers. What I can say, is that I prefer those growing casually in a bush on the sidewalk or in a private garden to those you find in gardencenters or worse on fairs.

What I really like about these pictures of flowers is that I made them in our garden or on our terrace. The Hydrangea is actually on the terrace floor. The peony is all the joy of my wife and the ‘Rose with sisters’ is my favourite.

But the party was special because the gave costumes to every single visitor, and there was a big feast and everybody was sitting on wooden stools at an enormous horse-shoe-shaped redwood table and in the pictures (that I did NOT take) nobody was seen with blue-jeans or t-shirts or ties a.s.o.

Naturally I prefer the ones where you can be part of the scenery itself and one particular event in 2010 in Emilia Romagna comes to mind where they built a huge campsite with enormous tents and chariots, horses and musicians in the perfect look and the local merchants and bartenders were part of it as well, so you could have a beer in a wooden beaker or have a dish of tasty grilled boar.. (I really should have some pictures, too – I will look them up)

Now the Monastery of Torba of Gornate Olona near Varese in northern Italy makes a suggestive backdrop for a medieval reenactment. It seems only few people knew about it and other only fews of them came so the ‘player’ were kind of demotivated and did little to no performance at all, but tried to enjoy it as a BBQ for themselves. Who’s gonna blame them? Here are some pictures.

Hundreds of visitors of the Euroflora 2011 under the glass roof dome of the Genoa Fair Building.

I should admit, I am NOT an expert on the matter, neither a lover of flowers, as my heart beats for (edible) fruit plants and trees, but after my wife had convinced my to come with her (it didn’t take her that much of wizardry, or was that the real wizardry ??) I was full of anticipation to see the most exotic flowers, the most vivid colors, the tiniest bonsai a.s.o. and all the other things my wife remembered were there 10 years ago.

The event takes place every 5 years only, so you really can’t miss one; maybe the next time it will be around you have already lost 10% of your eyesight and color rendition will definitely will suffer from it :)

I will not talk around it, but say it straight out. I was badly disappointed (and so was my wife) !
We went the last day of the show and maybe that was a mistake already, but if it lasts to a given date, you might expect…
I’ll just let you get an idea for yourself with some of my pictures:

The other thing that I really didn’t understand was their idea of lighting the place. Now if you take another look at the picture at the top of the article you will notice that the translucent roof has a yellow stain. (I suppose a man with a brush would have made a huge difference here, but anyway..).

How you light is of course a question of taste, but i.m.h.o. the light in the dome is far from being gentle on the flowers. It’s so terribly flat that your eyes are having trouble focusing on a single blossom and it takes away all shape and character from the plants. The whole show has a feeling of sadness to it, like on a autumn day with a heavily overcast sky.

I don’t know if they are not aware of the fact that almost every single visitor has a camera with them. And I am not talking about cell phone cams. I’m talking Nikon or Canon DSLR, and I haven’t seen as many classic SLRs 70ies bodies in the last 10 years together as I have seen on this single day at the Genoa Fiera dome. It all just left us with the felling they just didn’t care about anything once they got your 20 (!) Euro at the gates.

Their most common customer is a well equipped photographer.

What really killed my enthusiasm was when we went to the annex building where there was supposed to be some kind of a plant and flower supermarket. And HERE were all the magnificent flowers, crazy colors, smallest bonsai etceterae you could imagine. No ambiance of course, just flat discounter feel and taste.

I almost forgot.. THE BONSAIs !!

Here’s how they treated the “matter”…

The loneliness of the Bonsai…

And I must say the trees were really beautiful and would have deserved a little more attention and detail loving in the creation of their ambiente.

So: “highly spectacular” ? – No way. “biodiversity” – No way !
I’m aware this post is a rant, but no, no, no … I was not satisfied and 20 Euros is way out for such a small-time neighborhood garden show.

Every flower dealer on the streets of Milan has this (if not a more spectacular) selection and no one pushes you around or sticks their 100-300mm lens in your stomach…

Milan Flower Box

This one is at: Via Giovanni Battista Morgagni / Via Plinio, Milan

To put it in one line: if it wasn’t for the gentle moroccan china dealer where I found a beautiful deep green salad dish and two most beautiful metal lamps – these alone were worth the trip (apart from the fact that Genoa always merits a trip) – I would have called it a total flop.

beautiful metal lanterns by bazarorientale.com

While the Forum Romanum and the other excavation sites in the center of today’s Rome are buildings mostly  for representation public services, the streets of Ostia Antica have a completely different feel to them. We are looking at a small town some 30 km away from the capital, that ows it’s prosperity and consequently it’s growth to the fact that it simply was the closest harbour on the sea. It is due to the falling of the sea level that Ostia is today 3 kms from the sea.

Above is a picture of an apartment block (a so called insula) from the early 2nd century AD near the center. It looks amazingly familiar to todays buildings and I have no difficluties imagining the grocery store in the shop in the basement.

Or try the Traian Market. Only recently reopened to the public it’s a terribly suggestive place only a few hundred yards from the Coliseum and just across the street of the so-called “typewriter” Monument for King Vittorio Emanuele II on Piazza Venezia.

If you have 4 to 5 hours left, take a 30 minute ride with Rome’s underground to “Piramide” station, walk the few meters to the trainstation (don’t leave the building as your ticket will lose it’s validity – and you can actually see the pyramid from the train station) and take the train to Ostia Antica. Since it has partially sunk into the ground and Italy’s handling of it’s cultural heritage does the other part (nature is trying to get the land back) you’re almost in the countryside and it’s a very pleasing walk through the archeological site even if you wounldn’t read a single line of explanation – wich of course I urge you to not do. You need to know what you are looking at if you want to experience the thrill of “them being so close to us”.

Some pieces of useful information might be:
http://www.ostia-antica.org/
Their tourist guide PDF is a nice read while you are in the train and a perfect appetizer.

http://www.ostiaantica.info/excavations.php
Both website seem written by italian authorities in english language.

I’m not only delighted by them playing at all, but look at their style, their clothing, their spirit.
In my hometown (Munich) people above 60 years and older wore some kind of a old-age-uniform: Brown shirt, brown pullover, brown pants, grey Mephisto shoes.

I’m sure things have changed or are about to do so, as people get older healthier. (And being discovered by the market as the only one that actually have to spend on pure pleasure, they are being taken care of in a different way.) But I am enchanted all the same. It’s what I love about life in Italy.

These pictures were shot yesterday in Milan. Watch for later posts. I’ll return to shoot the bowls, too. ;)

Buraco card players counting the score

Card players on a public square in Milan

'All mine, thanks guys..'

'Scopa' sure is a serious business

Keeping record of the score

The steel and glass construction is specially suggestive at night when the two sharp-edged shafts are lit by lines of blue position lights of an imaginary spacecraft runway.

There has been some lively debate about whether or not highrise buildings should be banned from the inner city area. Helmut Jahn’s twin towers construction unfortunately coincided with the building of the ‘Uptown’ Office complex, 2 miles further down the ‘Mittlerer Ring‘ (a dual carriage ring road around the inner city) that due to it’s poor esthetic (it’s 150 meters being the only quality of the otherwise square shaft building) came to be known as the “disgrace mark”.

Shocked by how these two sky-scrapers changed the Munich skyline from a human-size small-town feel to a such-perceived soulless business ghetto (the ‘Uptown’ with it’s bully-arrogant O2 Logo dominating the sky even over the romantic Royal Castle Nymphenburg) Munich’s citizens fully supported a referendum launched by a former mayor Dr. Georg Kronawitter ”unser München” (‘Our Munich / Munich is ours’) in November 2004 and the construction of highrise buildings in Munich was generally limited to not exceed 300ft (the height of it’s famous Frauenkirche (Church of Our Dear Lady)

Check the entire Highlight Business Tower Picture Gallery

Location: Munich, Germany
Gross square footage: 800.000 sqft.
Total construction cost: € 160 million
Owner: Bürozentrum Parkstadt München-Schwabing KG
Architect: Murphy/Jahn, Chicago, IL
www.murphyjahn.com