Oceanviewstudio Photography

[laughingbear]

Greetings,

My name is Georg" laughing bear" Baumann, I was born 1961 in cologne/germany.

I am located on the NW Atlantic cost in Ireland. Originally I am edcuated in chemistry and classical music. I worked as a consultant in R&D as well as IT and retired from that line of business in 2001.

After I read Alain Briots book, Mastering Landscape Photography,  (ISBN 1-933952-06-7) I chose to write an artist statement, work on portfolios and generate a business plan for the near future.

I currently have 26 books on photography and photoshop (I just counted them   ), and there are 3 that stand out and are most influencing on me. In no particular order:

1. Alain Briot, Mastering Landscape Photography
2. Katrin Eismann, Masking and Compositing
3. Dan Margulis Photoshop LAB Color

I am in the position to work fulltime on photography. My goal is to become a better landscape photographer within the current limitations of my gear and knowledge, the latter I constantly try to improve.

I will post some of my work on an ongoing basis in this thread, and please do feel free to post your comments, they are much valued in deed!

Best whishes from County Donegal
~^..^~
Bear

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

These first two are very nice. I look forward to more of your work.

[pobrien3]

Georg, I was looking at the photos you posted in the "I'll show you mine..." thread - outstanding work, very inspirational indeed.  I'm curious to know; are you shooting with a wide-format camera or cropping to the panoramic format?  I see on another thread you're stitching some images too.

Peter

[laughingbear]

Georg, I was looking at the photos you posted in the "I'll show you mine..." thread - outstanding work, very inspirational indeed.  I'm curious to know; are you shooting with a wide-format camera or cropping to the panoramic format?  I see on another thread you're stitching some images too.

Peter
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=111724\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hi Eric,
Hi Peter,

Thank you for your kind words!

As for my equipment, at the moment I shoot exclusively with Olympus E-1  4/3 system. I have 2 lenses, Zuiko Digital 14-54mm 2.8-3.5 and Zuiko Digital 50-200mm 2.8-3.5, as well as a 1.4 extender. I  shoot also with a panorama head and crop the result to my liking, something I just started last week, but I find this a particulary interesting approach.

As for inspiration, I live in Ireland and especially the NW atlantic coast where I am provides 1st class soulfood for any artist, writers, sculpters,painters, musicians etc.

I made my first attempt today to shoot rocks, the reason I did that was that I wanted to have my own material available to study the possibilities that LAB Color provides.

Here it goes, first baby steps....  

Best whishes
~^..^~
Bear

[laughingbear]

I was pondering ....

Why should I only show results that I personally find pleasing to some degree?

Well, here is an example from today. I would say, the netto time spend on this project was roughly 6 hours, shooting and computer work that is.

I am also pondering what the best way is to showcase larger panorama scenes on the web as mainstream screensize has to be taken into consideration.

While the shot might look not too bad at a glance, I resized it to 1024x768, and there you can clearly see the problem area on the left hand side. However, I find this format quite amusing in deed.

I wonder whether it is a software problem and I plan to speak to the developer, a guy in germany who is fortunately very approchable.

Best whishes
~^..^~
Bear

Bummer:

[Mike Louw]

Hello Bear. I love your work. Must confess I'm envious of your location and especially of your situation, being able to devote yourself fulltime to photography. I'm very much a part-time amateur, being a wage-slave here in Dublin.....
I agree with your choice of books!

[laughingbear]

Hello Bear. I love your work. Must confess I'm envious of your location and especially of your situation, being able to devote yourself fulltime to photography. I'm very much a part-time amateur, being a wage-slave here in Dublin.....
I agree with your choice of books!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=111775\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hello and thank you mikelouw!  

Well, it is a matter of how you look at things, Dublin has a wealth of motivs on offer, and the surrounding outskirts such as Glendalough, or even Howth are simply stunning for exploration and just a short drive away. We went to Glendalough National Park nearly every week, and be it just for a hike and some food. But I know what you mean about living in Dublin, it is a challenge....

Best whishes
~^..^~
Bear

[pobrien3]

Another envious person here! I would love to be able to devote myself to photography in such a beautifiul location (I love Western Ireland), but I have to make do with snatching the odd couple of hours during business trips.  I've lived in Hong Kong for many years now and can honestly say I've never even managed to do a decent photo study of this place.  Time is my enemy.

I too have been experimenting with HDR, but I'm finding that the end result in colour looks somewhat stylised - you can usually spot a sky that's been rendered in HDR / Photomatix!  I find though that once converted to B&W the images can look far less 'artificial' and are quite striking - almost a hybid infra-red effect.

Peter

[laughingbear]

breaking all photographic rules can be interesting I guess...