photography – Raphael Kruczkowski's Blog

Morning Walk

Going for a walk around the house and exploring the city before getting started with work. I enjoy mornings the best in a city when you can watch the sunrise and the streets are empty.

What does the Vietnam war have to do with German Photography?

That’s one of the topics for my class presentation next week. The answer is quite simple. German and other European camera manufacturers made cameras that were complex and often with leaf shutters. Zeiss has been making optics for over 100 years now and the quality to this day is very good.

But Japanese camera companies started making modular and simple cameras with a focal plane shutter that allowed the parts to be mass produced and the parts interchangeable. During and after the Vietnam war, US servicemen would take their vacations in Japan and buy these cameras, flooding the market.

After that, many people grew up using Canon, Nikon and forgetting to use the complex German systems. Exception has been Leica, but they were and still are expensive, costing many times over what a comparable Japanese camera costs.

San Francisco Noir

Browsing through my books and finding this article in a NYT travel book I learned about the San Francisco Noir style. I’ve heard of it in passing but never gave it much thought until I thought that it’s a perfect setting for my photography, film and trying out Black and White photos.

Liverpool

Went to Liverpool for a few days. Was a nice city to visit and was happy that there was a few days of nice winter weather.

Filming at Somerset House

This weekend we went to check out the art collection at the Somerset house in London. We were surprised that the courtyard was blocked off for a filming of some new movie. The limo had Washington DC plates and a US and UK flag, along with “CIA” looking security guards with big guns. All very impressive.

In the back we saw a Land Rover that was shot up and had the window broken, guess that was the bad guys in the movie.