I shoot people

this week´s "Blogstöckchen" is all about my favourite hobby, photography - thanks Miss Winkelmann

do you like to post your own pictures?
I like doing that but sometimes I simply don't have anything suitable in my archives or am too lazy to search through all of them.

your favourite subject to shoot?
weddings, flowers, coasts, urban decay and general weirdness

who is your favourite photo model?
Tiger, my beloved cat...and Ela, one of my closest friends, who has the most amazing way of looking happy, relaxed and genuine in every single picture. Definitely the easiest bride a photographer can wish for...and great that I am allowed to shoot their church wedding this year again.

how did your interest in photography start?
I grew up as a plane spotters daughter, so some of my earliest memories are connected to sitting on my father's solid silver camera case on various airfields in the 80's (unfortunately as well on that fateful day when the planes crashed in Ramstein).
I always owned a camera and was eager to document my life and holidays but the real passion started when I was searching for a wedding photographer for our big day. I found so many wonderful examples and so many simply horrible ones that I wanted to find out more. I took two classes in 2009, experimented with some old analog cameras and finally bought my first DSLR. Since then I'm hooked, trying out a lot and always eager to learn more.

which cameras do you use?
a Nikon D40 as my main one, a boring Fuji compact camera I lost interest in completely, my iPod touch with the Hipstamatic App for playful moments and some retro fun, a Nikon FE and a Nikon F2 - both unfortunately slightly faulty and waiting to be brought back to their former glory. And I'm thinking about a major update and buying the Nikon D700, if only it wouldn't be so damn expensive...

do you edit your photos on the computer?
a bit and only with programmes that already came with the laptop. And only for changing contrast, turning them b/w and cropping. I don't believe in the over-use of photoshop - try and get it right straightaway and there will be hardly any need for editing (gosh, I sound smug).

what inspires you?
in terms of photography: the yearly exhibition of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Always leaves me stunned, touched and inpired.

www.npg.org.co.uk