Hi all, in preparation for Christmas I need to shed some space in the inventory. Therefore, all canvas prints in my shop are available with a 40% discount. 

And if you order until the end of the week, it is likely that the print will arrive just in time for Christmas.

So order right now!

Just name the image and take 40% off the price you see in the shop.

PayPal

Happy to announce that you will be receiving a 35% discount on all articles on the Formatt-Hitech website through December 1st.
Just use the following promo-code at checkout:
CHRISTIAN35

Formate Hitech offers great ND-filters made from optical glass, that shows almost no color shift and allows you to get creative with your photography.
I am currently using their Circular Polarizer (CPL) in combination with a GND0.9, ND1.2 and a big stopper (ND3.0). I am super happy with their products and the support, any problems are resolved quickly.
In the following you see a gallery with images that I shot using their filters.

I have eventually selected all the images for next years calendar. ​Test prints have arrived and I have decided to go with a 28x21cm size on matte 220g/m3 paper.

​This year it will be images from Rostock and surroundings with the focus being on water in all its forms. Quite a change from the mountain landscapes of the last year.

The calendars will ship starting November 30th and will be with you in time for Christmas.
-They come at a price of 1 5 € + shipping.
-Like last year the quantity is limited to 50, so get your while they last.

To secure yours just click here!
​ORDER

Recently, I got contacted by zor.com, a Belgian print lab, that offers great prices for large prints on Alu-DiBond, Acrylic Glass and Forex. At first I was skeptical if they could provide a quality print with the low rates, they are putting out there. Hence, I moved ahead and went to get a 90x60cm image on Alu-DiBond (which they provided for free). 
I am pleasantly surprised with the result!

The packaging is rather basic and not the most stable, yet it was enough to get the image to me undamaged.

I ordered the print one week ago, with the production time being ten days I was happy to have it at home after 6 work days. Shipping through DPD was quick and delivery to a local pickup-shop comes without added cost (so does door-to-door shipping). The packing is not as sophisticated and stable as you would hope for, bit still the image was undamaged, only a little bending, which could be flattened out easily.

Great color retention, a matte finish and a fair share of details, over all a great "bang-for-the-buck" product.

After unwrapping the print from air-foil, I was happy to hold in hand a really good print, that is just a little dark (well that is on me I guess), but offers dynamic colors and most importantly great detail. The plate itself is lightweight and the material can be easily bend, which in my eyes would necessity a better packaging, especially as DPD is not known for handling deliveries with great care. The colors are on point and match what I see on my monitor. (Note: They offer ICC profiles and disclaim to send files in AdobeRGB, which helps). You can only upload JPEGs, TIFF would be great, but most labs I printed with don't offer that and so far I cannot complain about results that have been off. Below you see a 100% close, giving you an idea how detailed this monster is, I am really happy with the sharpness. Also added to the package a pack of 3M strips to hang the print on a wall (you can order them from Amazon as well).

Fine details are rendered nicely and sharpness is on point.

Pros:
-competetive pricing
-good color retention
-AdobeRGB colorspace
-matte finish of the Alu-DiBond looks very valuable
-fast delivery

Cons:
-packaging
-Alu-DiBond plate very flexible, minimal bending detected after unboxing

Summary:
I can only recommend you to try the products of zor.com, which come at a highly competitive rate and offer great value for the price.

Here you find their offers in Alu-DiBond products.

Use promo-code: ZorAndChj to get 10% off your order until 11.23.2017

4/5 - I will order there again.

Disclaimer:
I have received a Coupon from zor.com to test their product. However, this has no influence on my judging.

The German online printing service „Saal-Digital“ had another round of testing advertised, this time for their photobook. I applied and got a 40 € voucher to design and put together my own photobook. I decided to go with a matte-standard paper and went for a book in size A4 in landscape orientation. Using the SaalDesignSoftware it was pretty easy to put together. It allows you to center pictures perfectly, you can align multiple images so that they are spread out evenly. You can choose between a lot of different fonts and if you like you could also use presets, which weren’t for me. I went for 38 pages, which is priced at 38.90€, quite a lot, but the quality you receive is really impressive. Colors are retained nicely, images look crisp and detailed. Also difficult pictures, such as aurora or milky way photographs turned out not too dark and colors were quite vibrant. Is there anything I didn’t particularly like. Well, I am totally happy with how it turned out. It is solid binding with a hard cover, which seems very durable. I am just not sure whether I would be willing to pay 40€ for a less than 40 page book if I wasn’t at it as a tester. Overall I can recommend the Saal-Digital photobook if you are looking for a great looking easy to design photo book product.

Das deutsche Online-Printportal Saal-Digital hatte vor kurzem eine Aktion in der Tester für ein Fotobuch gesucht wurden. Nach einer kurzen Bewerbung wurde ich ausgewählt und erhielt einen 40€ Gutschein um ein Fotobuch meiner Wahl zu gestalten. Ich entschied mich für ein A4-Buch im Querformat, wobei ich mattes Standard-Fotopapier für die Innenseiten und das matte Hartcover wählte. Mit Hilfe der SaalDesignSoftware war es sehr einfach das Buch zu gestalten, wobei man aber auch komplett eigene Design (z.B. aus Lightroom) hochladen kann. Beim Gestalten gibt es diverse Ausrichtungstools und eine Vielzahl an Schriften, so dass für jeden Geschmack etwas dabei ist. Ein wichtiges Feature wie ich finde ist die Qualitätsanzeige, welche anzeigt, ob das Bild eine ausreichende Qualität hat. Ich gestaltete ein 38 seitiges Fotobuch, welches einen Endpreis von 38,90€ bedeutete. Ein ziemlich stolzer Preis, aber die Qualität weiß zu überzeugen. Die Farben sind brillant beim Druck auf mattem Fotopapier, der Detailreichtum exzellent und auch schwierige Motive wie die Aurora oder die Milchstraße wurden in beeindruckender Qualität gedruckt. Alles in allem bin ich sehr zufrieden mit dem Produkt. Das stabile Hardcover und die gute Bindung verleihen dem Buch ein sehr wertiges Feeling. Jedoch weiß ich nicht ob ich normalerweise knapp 40€ für solch ein Buch bezahlt hätte, habe bereits von anderen Anbietern bestellt. Die wiesen eine ähnliche Qualität, jedoch ein besserer Preis-Leistungsverhältnis auf. Trotzdem ist das Fotobuch von SaalDigital eine klare Empfehlung für jeden, der ein hochwertiges Produkt sucht.

Last week I have been contacted by the British Filter manufacturer Formatt-Hitech that my application for their ambassador program was successful. In the future I will be constantly in touch with Formatt-Hitech and test some of their newest filters and write about my impressions here on this blog. 

I am particularly fond of testing their Firecrest line of glass ND filters, that promise to have no color cast, which is often found in ND Filters, especially in those made from resin instead of glass.
To celebrate this occasion with you, they have provided a promo code with which you get a 10% discount on every order on their website http://www.formatt-hitech.com :

10% if you use HERING10 at checkout.
​
So expect more images like this one here taken in Rostock recently with a ND0.9 in combination with a Formatt-Hitech Resin GND0.9 to balance the sky.

It has been sometime now since I last wrote a blog entry. The reason why that is? Life brings constant changes and we moved back to Germany at the beginning of February. As my postdoctoral term was set to end at the end of January and the opportunity to start my individual scientific career in Rostock was too good to forfeit, we were forced to leave Edmonton and the beautiful province of Alberta behind. That place has become a second home for us and we are still heavy hearted when looking back and sometimes wish we were still in Alberta's Capitol Region.

Our flight back took as through a night filled with aurora between Edmonton and Iceland. It was mesmerizing to see the lights dance one last time. It was a show that essentially was going for a full 6 hrs and yielded aurora to either side of the plane looking south and north, what a way to say good bye. After that we went to Copenhagen and then on to Hamburg, from we had to drive a mother 2 hrs to back home in Rostock. 
Moving in a new apartment and to get everything rolling at work has put photography a bit on the back burner, which is OK as time will come to get out and explore more. But in the following I'd like to show you our new home through some pictures. Rostock is on the Baltic Sea and has a major port where cruise ships start to explore the Baltic Sea. It is a city full of history that dates all the way back to the 11th century. We don't have mountains here anymore, but a lot of water, fields, sea cliffs and more water. So in the future my work will probably focus bit more on these subjects. Stay tuned and keep following along as explore our old/new home through the lens.

I haven’t been very active on my blog lately, so I apologize for that.But we have recently moved back to Germany and I will write a bit about that in my next post. But this one here is about a trip to the Bisti Badlands in New Mexico during our Christmas Holiday 2016. On Friday December 23rd we decided to head out to one of the hidden gems in New Mexicos northwest. Visiting our friends who live near Albuquerque I wanted to take at least one day trip to explore the area a bit. Searching for things to see in NM I was struck by the crazy rock formations on display in the Bisti Badlands, an area formed some 70 million years ago when this area was still a riverine delta. 

From Albuquerque you drive ca. 3 hrs to reach this remote part of New Mexico, the drive itself was beautiful with constantly changing weather conditions that day. Starting with snow, rain and plenty of sunshine as well. Arriving at the scene we realized that it had rained here quite a bit the other day and that moving forward on the slick and slippery ground would be challenging.

Water still running down some slopes after heavy rainfall in the area a day before we visited. The red hill in the background nicely shows how colorful this place is.

It didn’t take long for me to take the first fall, after that I used my tripod as a walking stick, which helped keeping my balance. The area is vast and stretches ca. 8 km east to west and another 4 km from north to south, with so many areas of interest that we had decided beforehand to take a closer look at the cracked eggs. On the way there we explored numerous hoodoos of different size.

One of the signature sightings here was the thin layers of coal that covered some of the rolling hills in the area. Particularly interesting were the ravines and little wash outs that had formed during the big rain the day before, the colors and patterns were amzing to see. Rigid sandstone and lush material alternate so that you find arches, hoodos and little slot canyons. The hoodos form when the rather loose sandstone gets washed away, while a more resistant top layer remains, forming the typical head on the hoodoo. The cracked eggs, stones that looked as if you crack an egg and boil it, were amazing. 

A "Cracked Egg", what an unreal geologic formation. In combination with the racing clouds (this here is a 120 sec exposure) an outstanding scenery unfolded.

All this happened from erosion and the extreme temperature gradients of the high desert in the San Juan Basin. Also we found rocks that were just perfectly split in two parts. But the most breath-taking view were the huge chunks of petrified wood, with intact outer crust and even the ring structure of the stump was still visible, except it was no wood but stone. The sun set around 5 pm and we headed back to the car after exploring for only 3 hrs, which is way too little, I would suggest to spend at least 3 days here and also to go during Milky Way season. I hope my images give you an impression what this place is like and that you will put it on your bucket list.