Markus Hofstaetter Has a Fun and Entirely Analog Day of Photography
Photographer Markus Hofstaetter is well known for his excellent analog photography and fun do-it-yourself projects. The Austrian photographer is spoiled with opportunities to get new gear, including at Joe Geier’s Mint and Rare Store, which organizes a biannual analog flea market called Wiener Fotoboersë.
Hofstaetter visited the most recent edition and has shared his experience on his blog. The photographer notes that the event has gotten so popular that it has morphed from a way for people to find new (used) gear to add to their collection into a larger celebration of analog photography. Hofstaetter had a booth at the market where he put some gear up for sale and shared information about his photography and workshops.
Before heading to the market, Hofstaetter loaded a dry plate into his large format camera, “just in case” he spotted an interesting subject on the way home. Sure enough, he did.
What made Hofstaetter’s photo opportunity all the more challenging is that his Zebra dry plate has an ISO sensitivity of just 2, meaning that he needed a very long exposure, even during the day. Further, the plate is only sensitive to blue wavelengths. “Because It was late afternoon and it was already getting darker and that means less blue light,” Hofstaetter explains, making the exposure even longer.
“A lot of cars were passing by, while I was standing there and looking at the image I wanted to capture. So I came up with the idea to use the lights of the cars to light my scene. Now I had another problem, I did not know when cars will pass me, so I just trusted my ears and before a car arrived I put the lens cap of for the exposure. You can see how I did it in the video,” the photographer adds.
Ultimately, Hofstaetter’s latest blog post and accompanying video showcase a thoroughly lovely day of analog photography, from seeing unique gear to capturing a photo on a dry plate.
Markus Hofstaetter offers many more interesting posts on his blog, including a recent one that shows people how to do a DIY UV exposure build, complete with a dimmer and timer.
Image credits: Markus Hofstaetter
