This is the time of the year when I take a break from my daily job and head somewhere cold to do a bit of landscape shooting. The situation forced me to revise my original plans - instead, I decided to take the trip back to Iceland lying deep inside my hard disk. As I went through my long forgotten files, I recalled this absolutely amazing morning I had at Vestrahorn (Stokksnes).
Read more6 Days of Iceland
Iceland left me spellbound when I first visited in 2009. I have been coming every year since, up until 2013. Don’t get me wrong here, my passion for the simple, moon-like design of its landscape has not faded at all. To me, it is somewhat less of a traditional landscape and more of a workspace that can be perfectly decomposed into shapes, structures, lines, patterns and tones. The reason I stopped returning was the enormous hype for photographing the country and its famous spots, apparently fuelled by spectacular images on every social media around. See the stats - in 2009, only 493,000 tourists visited the country. The number grew to almost 800,000 in 2013 and it has banged to over 2 million in 2017.
Read moreLarge Format Photography with Ebony SW 45
I purchased my first large format camera Ebony RSW 45 in 2011, and I have been using it with more or less success for my landscape photography since then. I even traveled with this camera to Iceland, to discover that it is not so difficult to use this cumbersome equipment in rather challenging weather conditions. I regularly take it with me to the mountains and also around the lake here in Geneva. At the end it is not so heavy, so I can carry it everywhere I want. However, to set up camera properly can be sometimes quite challenging. Especially when it is windy or cold, but it is getting easier with practice.
Read moreGood News from Bergger
I have not been participating to many photo competitions last year, But when i saw invitation from Bergger (which is French manufacturer of black and white negatives and high quality photo papers) to submit photographs for their new baryta papers packaging, i decided to take my chance. I prepared three photos and send them just before the deadline expired without any hopes and expectations.
Read morePrint for Nepal
If you would like to get yourself a fine art photograph and help to support people in Nepal in the same time, you can help artist from Art Upfront to rise funds by buying their fine art photographs. A lot of artist, including me, decided to be part of this big effort and donate entire profit from sale to charity. You can see all available photographs here.
Read moreSmall World - Photographs Added to The Gallery
I did mention my latest project “Small World” here some time ago, and I have been continuously working on it since than. This week I went to see my friend Jorg Brockmann who is a photographer and gallery owner here in Geneva. I did ask him for his opinion about this project and It was really nice and productive discussion and I was positively surprised by his comments and suggestions he made to me at the end.
Read morePhoto Exhibition in Prague
I would like to let you know, that I am going to have small photo exhibition in Prague. I will be shoving my silver prints from Iceland in Cafe Pražírna in Prague 2. Exhibition starts this week on Thursday February 26, 2015, and I will be present there from 6:00 pm until 10:00 pm, just in case you will be around and would like to see the photographs and me:) In case you will not be able to make it this week, do not worry, the photographs will be there until April 17, 2015.
Read moreMamiya RB 67
Marek recently wrote reviews on Phase One medium format digital system, therefore I thought I should add short review or rather to say my opinion about fully analog Mamiya RB 67 medium format camera. Analog photography has become very marginal over the years and a lot of cameras and lenses had been discontinued, but I can say that new wave of interest in film photography has been emerging recently. If you are thinking about experimenting with film or moving one step higher from 35 mm camera system, this might help you.
Read morePhotographic Process: I'm Only Happy When It Moves
Breidamerkursandur is the black sand beach near Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon. I'm brave to say it's one of the most incredible places to photograph that is furthermore easily accessible. It is the contrast between the volcanic black sand and crystal-clear to turquoise colors of icebergs that makes it feel otherworldly and extraordinary. In this post, you will find the detailed description of my photographic process - from content considerations all the way to the post-processing workflow.
Read moreNew Images in Iceland Gallery
I'm slowly (very slowly actually) processing my images from the trip to Iceland this November. While doing so, I'm looking back at my older work wondering if I see any creative and conceptual progress.
Except for plenty of unprocessed scans and raw files, what I see is a very different quality of light during each of our trips. And this essentially defines everything else.
Read morePhotographic Process: From Snapshot To Snapshot
Iceland, widely known as the land of fire and ice, has recently became a buzz place that everybody and his brother with a camera visits. So here I was as well, with my bro Ota walking the picturesque and breathtaking black beach of Jokulsarlon. Just imagine - I could nourish my love for the outdoors only few meters from where we parked the car. We were experiencing the beauty of loads of magnificent icebergs, the greatest creations of the Mother Nature.
Read moreIce and Sun, Long Journey to Final Print
I printed this photograph almost a year ago, and it is prime example of how “bad” negative can turn to a decent print. I guess I should rather say “technically bad” negative, because if content is bad there is not much we can do about it during the printing process. In this particular case I am quite happy with the content, but everything else went terribly wrong from picture taking to development.
Read more4 Things To Know About Iceland
Yesterday, I have returned from the brief trip to Iceland. Although I am allowed to complain about the weather this time, it is undoubtedly fascinating to travel back there now and again. Because I live in the highly urbanised landscape that is vivid in colours and wide in variety of designs, just being there is the ultimate experience that reminds me how Earth looked like it its very beginnings. This feeling always inspires a creative piece in my photography no matter the weather.
Read moreDarkroom Saga Continues
I have spent quite some time in darkroom during last few months. I have been printing photographs for our exhibition Marek and I will have in November this year here in Geneva. It has been quite interesting process full of surprises, positive and negative. Those negative were actually not so bad, since I was able to learn new things from them, and those positive they are always nice.
Read moreBusy days
I have been quite busy with my work, which is why I have not been active much here recently. To be honest it was not only work, which kept me away from writing blogs and sharing photos. I also spent very nice time with my parents who came to visit us to Geneva. Regarding photography, I have been mainly thinking about my current and future projects and of course I have spent some time in darkroom. I have almost finished my next silver print offer for November. This time it takes me bit longer than I expected, since I have to do some spotting in the final picture, nothing major just few small dots, but I have to say spotting is art on its own and I have already wasted few prints.
Read moreIcelandic Experience Rewinded
I am having an interesting evening with Ypahh and my Iceland photographs tonight. The initial idea was to finally finalize my Iceland gallery on this website so that everything I consider worth showing from all 4 trips over there is presented at one place. I processed the very most of the stuff by now, but shortlisting the right work turns out to be more difficult endeavor than I initially thought.
Read moreSilver Gelatin Prints
Today I would like to announce start of this new product. Until now we have been offering inject prints only in our shop section, but from today I would like to offer you unique chance to buy newsilver gelatin prints. My objective is to print a new print in archival quality every month and present it here. I am also planning to share all details about the printing process and the photograph itself. I have found this inspiration in LensWork magazine and I strongly believe in systematic work, so I am willing to put this kind of pressure on me from now on.
Read moreEmpty (Landscapes)
I took it very light with my blog (and imagery) lately. Partially because it’s low season for my kind of photography. And, the summer is definitely not my favorite part of the year in general. The sun rises way too early and it is moving way too fast for my Linhof (and my age) to catch up. Also, it’s been extremely hot over here in Prague so my basement workroom provided for a good (cold) place to sleep rather than servicing its usual duty as a landscape photography meditation center. Another reason behind the silence is my ‘civil’ life. Too many changes have been occurring around here; I’ve gone through one of the busiest period in my daily work that included lots of travel. I could not refrain from watching the political turmoil in Czech, which by the way is one of the weirdest thing I have seen ever since I remember following the scene – one of the cleanest prime ministers they (we) ever had got naively swept by his own efforts to make the politics less corrupted... What a world we live in.
Read morePrix de la Photographie Paris 2013
I just come back from my family vacation in south of France, so that is why our blog has been bit quiet recently. Today I would like to share one great news. My series of photographs of Northern Lights in Black and White was awarded First Price in this year's Prix de la Photographie Paris 2013 in category Fine Art. You can see the winning photographs here or in our gallery section. I am currently working very hard in darkroom to get them all printed on baryta paper. This unexpected success is huge motivation for my future work.
Read moreNew Photographs From Lake Geneva Added
Today just very briefly. The weather has been extremely hot here during last few days, so I am not able to write anything interesting nor meaningful. Therefore I just want to let you know, that I added few new black and white photographs from Lake Geneva area to our gallery section here. Lac Leman has been my ongoing project for several years and I am now getting to know the lake little bit more. I have discovered few new places recently, which I would like to revisit, when the conditions get ready. Summer time is usually very busy around the lake, so I will wait until late September, when holiday season is over, and I will be able to enjoy again those very special quiet mornings, which I like so much. My plans for summer are quite simple, I would like to spent as much time as possible in darkroom and also to do some mountain hiking. I hope you enjoy those new photographs and survive this heat wave:)
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