Matthias Haltenhof Photography Blog

Exhibition Preparation HS-Anhalt

Matthias Haltenhof — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:04:29 +0000

Yesterday I prepared the prints for another exhibition at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences. When I started photography, this was one of the first places where I could show my works. Since then, I’ve done quite a few exhibitions in these rooms. Some weeks ago, I found it was time to put in new images. The last ones were works from 2007, so it was time. I’ve chosen the images from Scotland to be shown. Here are some shots of the old prints, the new prints and the new exhibition.

Exhibition opening VHS Dessau-Rosslau

Matthias Haltenhof — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:43:49 +0000

In April, I opened a new group exhibition with some local friendly nature photographers at an edult education center Dessau-Rosslau. Manfred and Regina Wecke showed impressive animal, makro insect and plant shots, while Andreas Rößler presented fantastic bird photography. I showed landscape images from the Harz uplands. It was one of those days when I walked out with a smile on my face and recognized how much I like photography. Here are a few images of the opening.

Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition

Matthias Haltenhof — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:59:30 +0000

Take the time, it’s worth it.

Small Town Stories

Matthias Haltenhof — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:00:57 +0000

Finally I had the time to get under the surface of my film scans. I didn’t find any photo that touched me in the 35mm images. I also didn’t like any of the middle format color images. The black and white mf stuff was more interesting. The scans didn’t offer much room for postprocessing, but I wasn’t necessary anyway. I made exactly the images that I wanted. In the end I decided to put the ones I like into a series. Everyone tells its own story.

I also made the decision not to remove the light leaks, so these works have a kind of imperfectness.

Instagram

Matthias Haltenhof — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:22:51 +0000

Instagram has finally been released for Android, so I’m currently having a lot of fun with this new photo application. The best thing about it is the community, which has quite high standards. You can find my images here, or follow me directly on Instgram. My username is “matthiashaltenhof”.

Film scans ready

Matthias Haltenhof — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:30:45 +0000

I was very happy when I called the local photo store yesterday and they told be that my film scans were ready to be picked up. After work I went to the store, got a CD and the negatives as well. To make a long story short: Here are the scans.

Image 1: MF Fuji Reala 100 – Color
Image 2: MF Kodak TMAX 400 – Black&White
Image 3: MF Kodak TMAX 400 - Black&White
Image 4: 35mm Kodak Tri-X 400 – Black&White

My first thoughts: Film is a lot more forgiving with exposure and has more dynamic range. The Pentacon Six TL that I used has a problem with light leaks, even taped. I wonder why some of the BW MF Images have colors or color casts. When I have more time in the next few days, I will take a deeper look.

Right Back

Matthias Haltenhof — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:55:27 +0000

I feel my photography is currently changing. I’m drawn away from landscapes, more towards civilization and the things that surround me every day. Part of that is working with black and white. When talking to people about my images during last year, I recognized that I see colors differently than many other persons. I see them more muted. This may be a reason why I over processed some images in the past. One thing that I know for a lot of years is that I have red-green blindness. Not that useful for a color landscape photographer. These are only two reasons why I’m moving into black and white photography more and more. It’s a very challenging travel, but this hard work gets rewarded from time to time. I’m also constantly thinking about my subjects and the stories behind them. When I started photography, it was about feelings and stories for me. In landscape photography, it is about showing the beauty of nature. So in a way, I’m getting back to the roots a little bit.
My first image this year is about architecture. It also includes a thing I love in photography: simplicity. In february, I took trips to my former hometown Magdeburg and did a lot of long exposures. I also bought a heavy tripod to be able to shoot during strong winds and to slow down my way of working even more. After three travels to this place, the light and the clouds finally showed up like I wanted.

“Right Back”
Canon EOS 450D, 17mm, Iso 100, F11, 60s

Portrait Workshop with Carsten Stolze

Matthias Haltenhof — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:33:35 +0000

Last Friday I attended a portrait workshop. When I started photography, I tried out all kinds of photographic directions, but as you know I quickly made my way into landscape and architecture. I thought it would be a nice idea to get out of my comfort zone and try something else. So I booked this portrait workshop, held by Carsten Stolze. He is also the author of the german Bildbezogen Blog. Carsten showed how to used natural light in an easy way and gave general tips to work together with the model succesfully. In the second part we started to use flashes. We also did indoor and outdoor shooting and lit up the model in street scenes to make her stand out more. A big thank you to Carsten, our model Janine Fränzel and all the participants!

About social networks

Matthias Haltenhof — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:00:35 +0000

I’m into social networking since 2006. It all started with StudiVZ, I heard of Twitter and Myspace, and later on everyone went to Facebook. It has always been a way to connect myself to my friends and post stuff, that I found on the web. Nowadays I’m on Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter. I was pretty enthusiastic about Facebook when it exploded in early 2010 in Germany. In the past few month I changed my mind about it. Facebook is wasting way too much time, but this depends on how you are using it. The thing that really bothers me: all the communication is very superficial. You see links to other websites, find funny pics and hear about something that happened today. But if you really want to know how your friends are doing, you might want to visit them or give them a call. Next thing I dislike is the fact, that I need to post my photography stuff on all of these three platforms to reach as many people as possible. When I post a blog, it appears on all platforms and I get comments not only on these platforms, but also this website. So the real discussion is split apart, which makes it less interesting for everyone. If I have bad luck, it doesn’t even appear in your timeline, for whatever the reason is. In the end, I keep asking myself if it’s all worth it.

Nova Eventis
Canon EOS 300D, 18mm, F8

ADAC GT Masters Oschersleben

Matthias Haltenhof — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:41:21 +0000

Today I visited the ADAC GT Masters. The first stop of this racing series was in Oschersleben, not very far from my home. It still gives me goosebumps when these GT3 cars put the pedal to the metal. The sound is so loud, something you will never experience in a tv broadcast. Had a good time with my mate and brother-in-law Christian!