rimpl.photo

a warm welcome

I am pleased to see that you have found my website.

As you came here we probably share one passion together: photography.

about me and photography

I began taking pictures with a pocket camera when I was still a young boy. My second camera was a Konica Pop and at the age of eleven my dad gifted me a Leica M2 (which was not a well-thought gift: He had bought this camera body for the friend of his sister-in-law who then wanted to discuss the price below what my dad has paid... I still remember him saying "Frank, do you want to have a Leica?" I answered "Yes", not having the slightest idea that this would forever mark my way of photography).

During my teenager years I took lots of pictures with a Minolta SLR. And in the 20's of my life I used more and more my Leica M2. Manual focusing and metering and the conscient choice of the aperture was the way of taking pictures. And my M2 travelled with me in my backpack or the tank bag on my motorbike.

And then, in the early 2000's years I was caught in between: digital or film? Digital cameras did not offer me a satisfying image quality and so it took quite long time until I purchased a DSLR in 2011. But the feeling of taking pictures was not the same. Some years later I picked up my Leica R4 and was astonished by the clear, big and undisturbed view through the viewfinder. This was a key moment to me and things began to stir inside me. I knew that no DSLR could give me some of the analogue feeling. Why was it so difficult only to replace a film by a sensor, without adding a bunch of functions and menu levels?

In 2014 I finally bought my first digital Leica: a M9. Immediately the familiar feeling returned. And I could use my old M-lenses. again.

From this moment on I began to re-discover photography.

thoughts about photography

I do not have to earn my money with photography. On the one hand this allows me to to do exclusively what I want to. On the other hand this limits my potentially available time that I can spend for taking pictures and developing/processing them. Things are never perfect in life (smile)...

For me photography primary is a visual journal of my life. I try to capture moments, people, or objects that attract my attention.

I mostly try to transfer my mood of the moment into the final picture. 

This means of course that post-processing sometimes passes beyond fine tuning.

But for all those who remember film photography this is a normal part of the process.

In silver halogenic times the capture of moment was the first step, followed by the development of the film (which can deliver so many different results depending on the developer used) and the printing of the positive which is again subject to several choices e.g. about paper gradation and developer.

The raw file that I get out of my camera is like the film negative: a base for further creative steps until the final result.

Do I have a preference between film and digital? No, both are different and complementary. My BW shots are mostly made on film while the digital medium dominates colour pictures.

Depending on what is my intention or mood I grab the one or the other (or the third or fourth) camera body.

But there is one thing that a digital camera can  not give me: The feeling of cocking the camera and the magic of the moment when a I open the film development tank.

...