General information about me is available on my web site (in German, English and French).

(Photo by Fuad Ibrahimov)

Preliminary note: As of September 2009, the following profile text is horribly outdated and should thus not be taken too literally. I’ll be working on it when I find an occasion to do so.

I shoot film. My main camera since 1990 is an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic II that I inherited from my grandfather, recently complemented by two Cosina-built Porst Reflex cameras (one borrowed from my brother, one of my own) and an “odd-looking” Exa 1b. All of these cameras have the M42 lens mount which was very popular during the 60s and 70s; my arsenal of compatible lenses consists mainly of prime lenses: an Auto Revuenon 28/2.8, an Auto Exaktar 35/2.8, two Meyer Domiplan 50/2.8 (one broken, one functioning), a Cosinon Auto 50/1.8, an Super-Takumar 55/1.8, an Auto Rikenon 55/1.4 an Auto Exaktar 135/2.8, and an Auto-Revuenon 70–205/3.5 (no photos from it available yet). The Cosinon lens belongs to my brother, the other lenses are my own. In addition to this (still growing) SLR system, I also own two rangefinder cameras (an Olympus XA and a Voigtländer Vitoret LR), and I have three viewfinder cameras that belong to my father (a Kodak Retina I, a Kodak Retinette I b, and a Minox 35 PL). My first camera was a red Hanimex 110 DFTele that my aunt had given to me as a present and which I in turn gave to my little brother when I got the Spotmatic. I have lost track of this camera since. There are no photos of or from this camera here on Flickr.

Most of my film photos since around 1999 are taken on normal film, then developed industrially, scanned on an Agfa SnapScan 1212, slightly adjusted with the GIMP, and EXIF-tagged with Phil Harvey’s excellent ExifTool.

I also shoot digital. I have a Fuji Finepix F30 that I carry almost everywhere I go. Before I bought this camera, I already used my cameraphone from time to time to capture things that caught my eye. I also use other people’s digital cameras sometimes, and I am lucky enough to know the people behind Germany’s first online camera rental service, who let me try some very interesting equipment from time to time.

I am interested in improving my photography, so feel free to leave critical comments (though, of course, I am also happy if you do like my photos). I dislike the various “great photo” groups here and their mostly tasteless trophy pics, so please don’t put these in the comments you add to my photos.

Of course, all of my photos are protected by copyright law. You may view them as often as you like. You may download them to your computer for strictly private use (i.e. viewing, printing, and manipulating, but not republishing). You may even include them in Flickr comments or on other web sites as long as the photo files are referenced directly from the Flickr servers and a click on the photo leads directly back to the photo page (the easiest way to make sure that these requirements are met is to use Flickr’s “blog this” button visible on each photo page, or to use the “Share This” button in the upper right corner of each photo page and then select the “Embed it” option). You may not copy my photo files to republish them anywhere without my prior permission—not even if you add your own modification or use them as a part of a work like a collage. On the other hand, asking for a permission is just a click away and is very likely to yield a positive answer. (By the way, I also appreciate getting feedback when you use my photos in any of the “permission-free” ways).

There is one exception to this: A few of my photos are published under a Creative Commons license, recognizable by the “Some rights reserved” note in the “Additional Information” area of the photo page. These photos can be freely used according to their respective license (just click “Some rights reserved” to see the details).