How it all began

Summer 2017: I had my first job, earned a little money and wanted to go on my first big trip in 9 years. I wasn't familiar with cameras at the time. I therefore chose something simple that could be easily stowed in my luggage. After a lot of research, I chose the Sony RX100 I. A small compact camera that was perfectly adequate for my needs at the time.

In Greece as well as in other countries such as the Czech Republic, Portugal and Austria, I tried them out for potentially all subjects. I tested night photography, architecture, landscape, etc. However, I quickly realized that my photos somehow didn't look like those of real photographers. The pictures weren't necessarily bad. They were perfect for a "quick snapshot" and definitely enough of a souvenir. But evening shots looked noisy, landscapes looked like they had been photographed from too small an angle, I couldn't even capture large buildings and the zoom was nowhere near enough for close-ups of animals. And finally, one thing that I have only now come to appreciate was almost completely missing; the possibility of cropping or creating blurred foregrounds or backgrounds (bokeh).

At the beginning of 2018, I tested my first SLR camera, the NIKON D3100. The advantages of an old DSLR over a new small digital compact camera were actually too small for me. The screen of the D3100 was worse than that of the Sony, but there were the possibilities of image composition by using different lenses. The continuous shooting speed of the Sony was better... and so on and so forth. Finally, my father lent me the better D5100. At this point I realized that larger format cameras were clearly superior to small format cameras. But somehow that wasn't enough. So I researched for a few months. My choice finally fell on the NIKON D7500. Fast, accurate and packed with features. The camera accompanied me on many trips until the beginning of 2020 and, in my opinion, does a pretty good job.

Since the beginning of 2020, however, I have now switched to two other cameras. Firstly, I didn't like the low-light properties of the D7500 (evening shots, dark rooms, etc.). The D7500 wasn't suitable for that. When it came to animals or fast movements, the number of metering fields or the accuracy of the camera's focus was often not always guaranteed or I missed moments of movement because the internal memory was full. The continuous shooting speed also left something to be desired. Especially with birds, whale watching and observing insects, you quickly realize that the camera has to work quickly to freeze special moments.

This meant that two cameras were needed for two fundamentally different requirements. One for wide-angle shots and low light conditions and one for extremely fast situations. So I shot a lot with the D500 and the D750!

And just as I have chosen cameras for certain applications, my lenses have naturally also changed.

Concluding remark

Richtig viel Zeit fürs Fotografieren nehme ich mir seit 2020. Davor hatte ich nur sehr selten bzw. unregelmäßig die Möglichkeiten dafür. Durch die Arbeit am Alfred-Wegener-Insitut sind die Gelegenheiten wieder diverser geworden und umso intensiver.

Noch eine kleine Anmerkung zu Preisen in der Fotografie. Landschafts- und Tierfotografen sind von Wind und Wetter abhängig, genauso wie von den Lichtverhältnissen oder dem Verhalten der Tiere. Erst nach vielen Versuchen und Tagelanger Arbeit kommt das ein oder andere gute Foto zustande. Abgesehen davon ist die Ausrüstung sehr teuer.

Fotografie ist ein äußerst zeitintensiver Job und allein das Fotografieren ist nicht das Ende der Arbeit. Danach kommt das Auswählen gelungener Fotos, die Sortierung in der Datenbank, die Bearbeitung des Fotos, das Hochladen und das Anbieten auf verschiedenen Webseiten oder Plattformen. Da es viele Fotografen gibt und ständig neue Fotos entstehen, könnte als Außenstehender den Eindruck erlangen, ein Bild entsteht aus dem Nichts und ist schnell produziert. Ich kann aus meiner Erfahrung sagen, dass das mit Sicherheit nicht so ist! Leider führt der Einsatz von KI immer mehr zur Verwässerung des Marktes und der Übergang zwischen aufwendigen realisitischen fotografieren und künstlich erzeugten Bildern verschwimmt. Ich verwende KI lediglich zum Entrauschen. Bildinhalte verändere ich damit nicht.