Shame on me, more than a year without a new post...

It’s clear that the job demands a lot of attention an energy, but that sounds like a bad excuse. I am simply more active on 500px.com and Instagram. So if you want to see my latest work please follow the links provided on the “About” page.

I have had some shoots in the past 15 months, though not as many as I wanted. Rebecca and Saskia were here twice, Josi once and with Julia Stroh and Judit I had shoots with two models who are new in my portfolio. As mentioned, if you wanted to see the pics early please follow me in the social networks.

Good start into 2018

In photographic terms I had a really pleasant start into the new year! It started in January with Rebecca. I think it was our 7th shoot overall, but the 1st time I went to her home near Rüdesheim am Rhein. We also had the Fashion Designer Sabrina Vogel and Make-Up Artist Hanna Nikolayenko (who is a beautiful model too...) joining the crew. A long, exhausting day (300 km drive in the morning and back in the evening), but the results justify every effort! We went from Portrait to Fashion to Beauty to Lingerie, indoors, outdoors, available light and flash, incredible range, great pictures!

Later in January Anna visited me again (one of the several Annas :-), and we did some great window portraits as well as some lingerie, her first time ever! Job well done, I'd say!

And just recently, mid of February, I visited Martina in Berlin for a Home and Hotel Shoot, which was great! She's a beautiful person and mind, great expression, just lovely!

Oh... and not to forget my first ever baby belly shoot with enchanting Julia! More a private thing, but I am grateful for her trust in me! If I get permission, I'll show a pic or two, most likely in the Lingerie-gallery.

As usual, there are some models waiting for appointments, new ones and beloved known friends. I am looking forward to each of them!

2017 comes to its end

I didn't shoot that much in total this year, as usual. 15 own shootings with models, plus one workshop held by Boris Bethge, to widen my horizon. But in photography as in other arts, it is not quantity that matters! I am really glad many of "my" models came again to shoot with me, and I really enjoy the results that we produced. It was getting a little bit more sensual over time, though I still don't do real nude pictures for family reasons.

I am now looking forward to 2018. the first 3 shootings are already planned in January and February, with Rebecca one more time and two models I haven't worked with yet. That's gonna be a good start into the photography year. 

Here's one of those "Best 9" that have become popular on Instagram, mine for 2017.

I Rather Take Photos...

...than writing blog posts, that's obvious. But time for my passion is limited currently, as I changed company last November, and the new job now requires focusing time on business. However, every now and then a can do a shooting, and I was very happy about some of my favorite models calling me again for another session. Therefore you see some more pictures in the galleries from Joyce, Anna and Rebecca. In addition, I have worked with 2 newcomers too, Muriel and Josi. So far I am very happy with the photography year, and looking forward to the next shootings to come.

2016 comes to its end

This year was, in photography terms, a real joy and privilege. I had the pleasure of working with some stunningly beautiful women. Together with "my" make-up artist Julia we have produced many of those pictures that I love photography for. Which is, of course, only my personal view and perception :-) Below I haven't picked "Best 9", but put together some pictures of the models whom I found most fascinating. I'd like to thank all of them for their trust and friendship!

I Am Not A Real Blogger...

However, I will keep giving an update here from time to time for the occasional visitors. I am much more regularly posting pictures in the social networks like Facebook or in communities like Model-Kartei.de
What has happened since my last post in March?

I went to Leipzig and had a shoot with Anne, a 22 years old student. We got permission to use her parent's house, and afterwards we went to a nearby lake. Anne was actively doing athletics (if I remember correctly), and I find that sportive look absolutely amazing! Plus a pretty face with some sweet freckles make a really beautiful model!

Anne

Also in April, I had the great pleasure to shoot with a student from Jena, Joyce. Do you remember what I said about Anne doing athletics for many years? Joyce did gymnastics for 10 years or so! Both girls actually share the same scars at one of their ankles, signs of the hard work and not all being fun...
Joyce is just a gift to the world! Beautiful in every sense, intelligent and kind, spreading good mood all the time. Can't wait for a next time!

Joyce

What's coming next?
I'll shoot another time with some of my models - Johanna (Schmidt), Rebecca, Anna & Anja and Sina. A friend is planning a big outdoor event with models and wolfhounds on July 3rd, where I will be the second photographer, and where I will meet with Joyce again. Two new models are on my list - Lyschka and Jennifer. All these shoots will bring me to September, with our summer holidays in-between. It seems as I will have a great summer, and I will share the results with you here and at the other places where I publish my work.

March Went By...

But not without at least one great shoot in my home. I discovered a beautiful newcomer model on Facebook, Anna, and as we both wanted to take pictures together it didn't take long until it happened. I did one more time engage my favourite make-up artist Julia Deckert, and as usual she did a great job!

Anna

Start into 2016

2016 started like 2015 ended - with Rebecca!  One afternoon in January we decided spontaneously to use the great winter evening light and took a few very beautiful sunset pictures. That was a great start into 2016 and it seems to continue like this!

Just recently, in mid-February, I had a home-shoot with Christine, a beautiful model from Weimar. It was a great Saturday afternoon, and once our Makeup Artist Julia had prepared Christine, we went from portraiture to home/lifestyle to lingerie. The sun was shining through the windows, I couldn't wish for anything more!

Rebecca

Christine

No excuse...

...for not posting here for more than six months!

Fortunately that doesn't mean I didn't have photo shoots in the meanwhile. Though, like in the past years, on average I only did one shoot per month. Positively seen, rare things become precious, and the shoots I could manage in second half of 2015 belong to the best I did so far in photography! I had the pleasure of working with really gorgeous models, and two times a professional make-up artist joined me. The picture is a summary of my photographic 2015, and I hope you like it as much as I do. Some of the models/pictures you can also see here in the galleries. The "rest of the best" is available on Facebook or Model-Kartei.de (links under "Contacts").

It's June now...

Some months have passed by, busy both in private and business. Lot's of travelling including the US and Japan have left little room for photography.

But, a few shootings I could manage, and here I'd like to share some of the pretty outcome with you. It starts with Jana, a young lady from Eisenach. We've had a very nice outdoor shooting there in late March, on a sunny but rather cold day.

The next one actually was an underwater-shooting organized by a friend. We are both scuba-divers, and had a chance to shoot in a big, public swimming pool on a very, very early Sunday morning in late April. As I only have uw-housing and flash for my old Powershot G11, and it was the first uw-model-shooting for all of us, I am not publishing a lot of these pictures. It was more for practising than anything else. But here's Julia for you to get an idea...

The next shooting happened on May 4th, when I was able to combine a business trip with shooting my favourite model Tamara. We met in Düsseldorf on a Monday evening in the "Medienhafen" (Media Harbour), and it was as exciting as always when I have her in front of my camera :-) She's cut her beautiful long hair in the meanwhile, but she's beautiful no matter what the hair cut is. Here's an example:

And, the last shooting until today was with Kathleen again, the long-legged blonde you may have already seen in my portfolio. Last time we were shooting at her home, but on 25th of May we took a walk through my home town Erfurt.

Now, what's next? One more shooting in June, I'll go to Hamburg with one of my first models (Julia) to shoot in a hotel and in the harbour area. A young girl from Erfurt in early July, and then we go on summer vacation. But two shootings and a workshop are already in the pipeline for August, so stay tuned for more pictures.

Finally, there's no news on the equipment side, though I have more or less decided to buy the Canon 24-70 f2.8 L II asap :-)

Yesterday's Home-Shooting With Kathleen

You know the difference between women and girls? Here's a woman!

January Update

The festive season is over... a lot of exiting things have happened! I had the pregnancy shooting with Eva and Sascha, which was a unique experience with a lot of fun!

The wedding in our family has also happened on Dec 27th. As I don't have serious wide-angle lens options in my kit, I rented a 24/1.4 L II from a dealer and borrowed a 17-40/4 L from a friend. Finally I used my 70-200/2.8 L II on the 5D3 and the 17-40/4 L on the 7D2, where it's corner weakness is less of an issue due to the crop sensor. That combo worked really fine, and as as far as bride and groom say they do like the pictures.

Finally, I had a shooting with the sweet Lena Pauline on Dec 29th. That was a great day too, we had a lot to talk about as she also started digging into photography with a 60D. Great results, see one example below and 2 more in the Outdoor Portraits gallery.

Some changes in my kit are happening as well. Annoyed by the noisy images from my wife's Powershot SX200, I bought her a G7X with the 1"-sensor and a f1.8-2.8 lens. I was aware its not a race horse especially in RAW, but the image quality even in low light is amazing for such small pocket camera. Ordered but not yet shipped is the EF-S 10-18mm lens, as I finally concluded, despite the recent wedding, that I don't need an expensive wide-angle L-lens for my portraiture (wider than the Sigma 35/1.4 that I have). That cheap but sharp lens will work just fine in my travel kit and for occasional UWA-needs.

Next shooting is planned for 18th of January with Highlife-Kathleen (at her home), and I am really looking forward to it.

Update

It's been a while since my last post here... busy times. In the meanwhile I had a couple of very nice shootings. In case you follow me on e.g. Facebook you have seen outdoor pictures of two blonde beauties, Lisa & Tina, which I took in my hometown around our theatre (great spot). In the same week, on Sunday 28th of September, I had a Home/Lifestyle-Shooting with Mary in her apartment, assisted by her girlfriend Lisa. That was a funny afternoon and the results are great! 

A pregnancy shooting  planned for 23rd of November had to be postponed, but I made the best of it and went shooting with my usual assistant Mia.
And - though she's only 15 years old and more or less new to modelling - we've taken some gorgeous pictures like the one below in downtown Erfurt!

Finally the pregnancy shooting happened on last Saturday in my house, and it was an awesome experience! Eva is a beautiful, experienced model, and her boyfriend Sascha is nothing less but a great male model. No doubt he's spending a lot of time in the gym... unlike me :-)

As you see, I've had my challenges in the meanwhile, actually I am still not completely done with processing the pictures from September... shame on me! Last but not least, I have sold some unused gear on eBay, the "Nifty-Fifty" Canon EF 50/1.4, my Tamron 24-70 2.8VC and the EOS 7D which I bought last year used on eBay. But of course the money was re-invested (with little uplift) - a brand-new EOS 7D Mark II found its place in my kit. That's now an even better companion to the 5D Mark III than the old 7D, and with the EF-S 18-135 STM it is now my "travel light" kit, together with one of the 600-RT flashes and maybe the Sigma Art 35/1.4.
All together fits in a hiking waist bag.

Next to come? Processing pictures from the recent shootings, a family wedding on 27th of December, and the next shooting on January 18th. Btw, in case you are interested in looking at more pictures of my models or want to see the EXIFs of my photographs, please follow the links on the "Contact" page to Facebook, Model-Kartei.de or Fotocommunity.de (here are the EXIFs shown). In those other communities I usually place links to my model's pages in the social networks.

New Printer

I had to replace my old A4 photo printer (HP Photosmart 7960), because the first ink cartridges became unavailable. After some investigation I finally decided to buy something bigger, the A3+ printer Canon Pixma Pro-1. On the right paper, the print size and quality is totally amazing, no matter if colour or b/w. Resolution-wise it is a perfect fit to my 5D Mark III, an un-cropped picture exactly matches the 33x48 cm of A3+ at 300 dpi. From now on I will offer to my models one large print of their choice after shootings.

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/printers/desktop_printers/photo_inkjet_printers/pixma_pro_1

Heather Flower (erica) Shooting

No activity here for a while, but that doesn't mean I wasn't shooting! I had a wonderful Heather Flower shooting with Johanna on 25th of August. She's unbelievably lovely, and I've posted some pictures of her in the Outdoor Pictures gallery. I hope you like them.

New Gear

A new (lens) baby has arrived... the Canon EF 300/2.8L IS II ! My first experience with one of the "big whites", and after first use I can tell you it's an amazing piece of glass! Incredible sharpness, colours and AF-speed. I'll use it for portraits, sports, wildlife and whatever needs such focal length, bearing in mind that with the two extenders and the 7D-body it gives me up to a 960 mm f5.6 lens! At the moment I could pet it all day :-)

"Beach & Sports" Shooting with Janine

I have had a very exciting shooting on June 14th with my model Janine. Some stretching/warm-up, beach volleyball and swimming at a local, small lake here in Erfurt. I have uploaded the best pictures to Fotocommunity and Model-Kartei (links under "Contact"), and one I have added to the Outdoor Portraits section here. I hope you enjoy them.

Model-Sharing on last Saturday

I had the pleasure of attending a model-sharing with one of my favourite models - Tamara Figura - on last Saturday in Düsseldorf. You can see the first picture I selected for publishing as the cover-picture of my "Outdoor Portraits" Gallery. Tamara is one of the cutest and most professional models I have met so far. It therefore is no coincidence that you see her beautiful face multiple times when you scroll through my pictures in the German communities or on Facebook. I'll post more Pictures of this Shooting in the coming days.

Portfolio Review by Tony & Chelsea Northrup

Tony and Chelsea have reviewed my new Portfolio page, and whilst it is always hard to take criticism on something that you've put a lot of passion in, I agree on the points they made and have already adjusted this or that. Of course I am still building my Portfolio, and I keep working on it. But I am grateful to Tony & Chelsea for their analysis and advice.

Btw, I do recommend to visit their homepage www.sdpcommunity.com and check out their Youtube-channel "Tony Northrup". Great tutorial videos on gear and technique.

Here's the link to their review of my Portfolio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0nX07p0KQ8

Yours, Thomas

First Shooting in 2014

Due to health reasons I had other priorities in the past two months than taking photographs. The more I was keen now on using the sunny days in March to do a first shooting out in the sun. Thanks to my pretty model Sophia this has happened yesterday. A sample of this shooting is attached to this post. Another one you can see in the "Outdoor Portraits" gallery, with the forsythia in the background. I will post more pictures of this shooting in the coming days in Model-Kartei.de and Fotocommunity.de (see the links under "Contact" if you are interested).