Author Archive
Wednesday, July 12th, 2023
It’s time to say goodbye – a story about an end and a new start
Many years ago I renovated the house of my grandma and with that came also a big garden full of trees. Every year I am lucky to harvest fresh raspberries, apples, pears, cherries and many other fruits. It’s so wonderful to wake up in the morning and get yourself some fresh breakfast from the garden.
The biggest and probably oldest tree of all is my cherry tree. I remember climbing it when I was little. It brings a wonderful big shade during the hot days and it’s fruits are so delicious.
I always thought this giant beauty will outlive me for sure. But after the last visit from a gardner I learned that the tree is probably completely hollow already and it it will be soon not save anymore to walk under it. That really made me sad, because I have so many memories with this tree. That was the moment, when I realised, that I want to capture a last memory on an ultra large format ambrotype. I captured already a tintype of some cherry blossoms of this tree many years ago. and I am really glad that I did.
I did a similar plate with the same setup last year, when I captured the rebirth of one of my apple trees.
The tree looked like It was dying, but it grew out of it self again. When I thought it was dying, I gave it another year. And exactly in this year it grew new branches. And yesterday I had the first of its apples again for breakfast.
But for the cherry tree I wanted to do things a bit differently. Thats why I used a very old collodion, old developer and a stronger fixer. With overexposing again, this should give me a warmer look with again lots of solarization.
Maybe you ask yourself why I exposed for the tree trunk on both of these images. If I would have exposed for the green leaves or thin branches, the ambrotypes would have been much more contrasty you may think. My thoughts are, that the trunk is one of the most important parts of the tree. If it gets hollow, there is a great chance, that the tree will die.
I chose these portrait of me here, because it fits in perfectly into this story. Some time ago I booked a portrait session with Michael Liebert. He knew that I am connected to my garden and to this tree, thats why he choose to take my portrait there. And now this portrait is the prefect fit for my story today.
Tuesday, October 26th, 2021
Wet Plate Talk and on location shooting at Fomo Graz
Fomo Graz stands for Fotomonat Graz and translates to month of photography in Graz. The Fomo team invited me to do a talk and also shoot collodion wet plate portraits on location there. Thanks a lot for the invite it was such a great event and also thanks a lot to https://www.atelierjungwirth.com for letting me use your location to work on my portraits there. We had a blast, so many interested people during my talk. I really enjoyed explaining my favourite process to you guys. Also the wet plate portrait shoot was great, so many people wanted their portrait done. I think I shot 22 portraits on that day. Check out the video underneath for more impressions from this event. You an enjoy the video on a 4K screen with HDR support!
Check out these instagram pages from the people in the video: Fomo Graz , Ana, Luke, Julia
Wednesday, April 8th, 2020
My Wet Plate on the Cover of an International Magazine
click or scroll down for the English version
Unterstützt mich hier: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria
Mein Kollodium Nassplattenporträt von Gabriel Baharlia wurde jetzt auch als Titelseite beim internationalen Silvergrain Classics Magazin veröffentlicht. Ich denke ihr könnt euch vorstellen wie sehr ich mich darüber freue.
Fine Art Shop: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/front_store/
Nächste Nassplattenworkshops: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/
Wollt ihr immer auf Letztstand sein, benutzt einfach meinen Newsletter ein Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
English version
become a Patron and support me: https://www.patreon.com/mhaustria
My collodion wet plate of Gabriel Baharlia was now published as cover image at Silvergrain Classics Magazine. I guess you can imagine how happy I am.
Upcoming workshops: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/workshops/
privat workshops in English contact me here: http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/kontakt/
Fine Art Shop http://www.markus-hofstaetter.at/pages/front_store/
If you guys want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website http://wetplate.art
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Newsletter: https://blog.markus-hofstaetter.at/Newsletter/
Friday, December 10th, 2010
Mosconi Cup first day to the advantage of USA
The long awaited first session of the Mosconi Cup has been played today.
Surely the Europe`s advantage in fan base was well heard throughout the crowd…. The venue was nearly sold out, only few seats remained empty.
Tournament started by a match with all members of both teams, one taking a turn after another’s each shot. Somewhat nervous start has been witnessed, and it seems most players were out of rythm… Europe took 2:0 lead, maintained their lead until 4:2 but then USA was the first one on the hill at 5:4. It seems like the USA will take the first point away from Europe, until Dennis Hatch overdrawn a cueball behind the nine, and a kick at the 8ball was necessary. The kick did not result in safety and Europe snatched this game to bring the match to hill – hill. Last game is taken by Europe, thus marking a first point on their scoresheet.
For the second match, the doubles, were selected Dennis Hatch with Rodney Morriss for the USA team and Van Den Berg and Ralf Souquet for Europe. Europe was having a hard time until trailing 0:5 behind USA, but then came back to 4:5. Next game USA made a closure to this match with a 6:4 win.
Now leveled at 1:1, first match of singles came into play with Mika Immonen representing Europe and Corey Deuel representing USA. Match started well for Mika as he gained a 3:0 lead. Corey answers with a come back to 3:3. Next game is taken by Mika. Corey takes the next two games to be on the hill. Last game Corey plays a very good safe on two ball, Mika opts to play intentional faul and hooks the three ball with the eight. Corey takes ball in hand and pots a very tough two nine combination for a 6:4
USA will have slightly lighter sleep tonight with 2:1 lead… But the pressure is on and the crowd will be heard……
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