I have a bit of an obsession with camera’s in general and have quite a few ranging from the cheapest plastic piece of junk to pinhole guess-takers to high end digital to medium format and 35mm film cameras new, old and older. I just recently got another Miranda G in amazing condition with such a great bunch of accessories and I am really excited to shoot with her a lot more on personal projects.

Anyway, I loaded a roll of film quick just to get some shots through to test if she has any light leaks and that all is working. I don’t have a battery for the lightmeter yet because it’s still on the way but I used the sunny 16 rule along with some guessing and I’m very happy with how she shoots.

Unfortunately the lab scanned them in the worst quality ever so I am definitely going to need to invest in my own scanner soon and then I don’t have to worry about inconsistencies every time I send a roll for processing.

These are a few of the ones I liked from the roll I shot these last few days. I loaded a PocketWizard on and have been experimenting a bit more so will post a few of those soon. They looking awesome.

You’ve got to love film … think and shoot and if you do it right then no processing.

I have been really busy with work for a while now and today was one of the first days where I just had some alone time and my girl was having a really lazy one sleeping on the couch so I decided to take my camera and Diana+ 38mm Plastic Lens for a walk to shoot some photos of the sky by the river. These are those.

On my recent trip back to South Africa, I was lucky enough to spend the day with my good friend Brad (also known as Ballnut). He is busy finishing off his commercial pilots license so we spend the morning flying around the beautiful sky from Rand Airport in Germiston to Sun City for a good breakfast at a place full of special memories. Brad and I always have a super time hanging out and normally act like “mullets” so I thought that I had to be nervous flying with him but he was super focused and it really was one of the nicest flights I have ever had.

The sky was amazing and it was the perfect day to be up and after our breakfast I decided to shoot a quick portrait or two with him in front of our mini aircraft just before taking off again. The sun at this time was now super harsh and it was hot like hell but I made a plan and really like the way these came out. The first is my favourite because it reminds me exactly of how Brad is.

Good times.

Today I woke up early to fly to Sun City for Breakfast and to shoot some photos in the sky. These are a few that I shot during the time. Love the sky.

Ok, so I feel really bad that I haven’t updated this blog in a LONG while but things have just been really crazy here and I have spent all my spare time updating / upgrading my actual photography website as well as sorting out Myspace‘s and then trying to live and enjoy some time with my beautiful misses.

Anyway, I haven’t forgotten about this and I haven’t not been shooting, it’s just how it goes some times but now that I get closer to the final stages of personal website updating, I am making it a listed thing to make sure to spend time on here so look out for a bunch of catch up posts REAL soon as well as a bunch of new posts. I have put together a list of personal assignment shoots that I want to do in the next few months and these will obviously all go on here as I go along.

Other than that, I hope you are all well and that you will enjoy these two photographs that I shot while working in the last week. Both of them were taken around 21h00 / 21h30 during sunset. It’s so cool that the days last so long.

Keep well and thanks for all the mails supporting me while all these big changes go through. It’s an exciting time for me for sure and I am REALLY starting to push myself more than I ever have.

Thanks also for reading. Marcus

So, my site is still not completely finished which really is getting me down but that is how life goes some times and although I really want to update it with content and save my latest images for that, I have decided to post some personal experimental images that I have been shooting in my free time that isn’t part of the commissioned work that I do but definitely still as fun for me.

I have a lot that needs to be processed (physically and not digitally) and will post more as they come but for now here are 5 images that I shot with my Holga 35mm plastic lens camera that my wife bought me for this passed Christmas. It’s super cool looking and really has a fun feel to it but I really battle to shoot with something that doesn’t allow me to control exposure so instead I find myself using other means to get by this. These photos are mostly of the sky on a cloudy / rainy day about 2 weeks back and then a portrait of my good friends and wife that I shot in a tiny road off of Brick Lane.

We were driving back from the store a few minutes ago and the sunset is amazing so I had to shoot a photograph of it from our bedroom window as soon as we got back. I love the streams that the aircrafts leave in the sky.

I hope that everyone reading this is well.

I spent sunset today walking over the Waterloo Bridge and taking it all in. I love the London skylines and this is definitely one of my favourite, with the view of the London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and the River. I have always wanted to shoot some good photographs but my time has always been limited so I have promised myself that I will be pulling finger from now on. I shot this photo today and am quite happy with it, it isn’t what I had in mind but I will make sure to keep scouting for that perfect day.

I hope that you are all well and that 2009 is treating you well so far. M

Today I spent the day walking around Camden Town with my lady and as always, it was a fun time with her. The weather was good and there was a lot of people out. I shot this photo, just because it makes me so excited every time I see that from the road and I know we are walking in the right direction. Haha.

There is a photograph that I have been wanting to shoot for months now but every single time that I go to shoot it, there are a bunch of drunk trouble makers that really do not want me to be there so I end up leaving with no photo at all (one of the joys of living in South Africa). Yesterday I tried to go back and the same thing happened so I ended up driving to a construction site nearby to shoot some photographs of the sunset because it really was so beautiful and weird.

I have 4 sunsets left in South Africa before we make our move to the UK and I am really hoping that I will be able to get the shot before I leave so hold thumbs.

Other than that, I hope that all of you have had a good Christmas with your loved ones and that you are all getting some rest.

Chat soon, Marcus

I said earlier today that I would try and post the panoramic I shot during sunset so here it is. I photographed it with my 50mm and the total picture is stitched from 42 still photographs.

Please click it to view the image larger because that is the only way to appreciate it.

As anyone who follows my work will know, I have a thing for sunsets and they sky and clouds. I nag my poor wife everyday to look at the sky and I can see her expression everytime. Today though, I felt like I should really make sure she looks and she agreed, it really was one of the best skies I have ever seen before. If only we were in the bush or something. Anyway, I shot these 4 photographs of the sunset as well as a super cool panoramic which I will post when I have stitched it.

Have a super week, Marcus

I have been shooting quite a few photographs with my lomo cameras to play around and really love the way that they come out. I had a bunch processed yesterday and thought that I should post these three of us driving because they are my favourite. Explore lomo photography if you haven’t, it’s really fun and anyone will love the results.

I shot these with a Lomo Supersampler.

Man o man, I am loving the sunsets lately. They are SO strong and so beautiful. This is from tonight. Love it love it. Apologies for shooting so many sunsets lately, hope I am not boring you.

I was driving with Rudi this afternoon and the sunset was really amazing. I was so upset because I never had my camera with me which is always the case when there is an amazing sunset or something worth taking a photo of. Rudi had his with him in the car so I convinced him to let me shoot a photo with it so that I could update my blog because I really want the updates on here to become a lot more consistant.

I promised that I would say that this picture was taken with a Canon Eos 30D with a Sigma 10-20mm lens. I was really interested to see how the Canon Raw images come out and how it is to work with them and I can honestly say that I like this a lot.

Anyway, that is my boring story for the day. A few of us are going to do some offroading tomorrow and I am hoping to shoot a bunch of photographs which I will post if I do.

Hope you are all well as always, Marcus

I shot this photo today of Alan playing his acoustic guitar on a roof. My company, Melon Graphics South Africa, just finished his online website blog so check it out at www.alanshenton.co.za

Uncle Rudi finally upgraded from the old Lada and his new car rips. I tried to shoot a photograph of it yesterday after I killed myself skating but the light changed so the photo is not nearly as cool as I wanted it to be but with the little gear I had there, this will have to do. I thought I would post it just because I haven’t blogged in a while and to wish Rudi good journeys with his new baby.

Have a good weekend all. M

My new wife and I are moving to the UK at the end of this year and we had to find a place to live for the next two months. We made a super cool little home and are loving living there together. This is the sunset from yesterday.

This passed weekend I flew down to Cape Town to shoot a wedding at the 12 Apostles Hotel. The wedding was really awesome and although the weather seemed super rubbish the whole day, we were lucky to be given a bit of sun just after the service to shoot some photos together and just let the couple enjoy the fact that they were now married.

With my wedding just 2 weeks away, I want to congratulate Jackie and Jason Lundberg and wish them best on their new adventure together. I also want to say thanks for getting me so excited for my wedding.

It was an awesome day, thank you for trusting me with this shoot. These are just a five of the pics from the day so people stop asking me for them. I don’t want to give away too much before the couple sees them first.

Have a good weekend, Marcus

There is just something about winter that I like. Ok, don’t get me wrong, winter in Johannesburg has it’s downers especially because it becomes so dry and brown and it looks kind of sad. I am talking about thing like how good it feels when you sleep and get all warm in the pile of blankets, drinking warm hot chocolate, cuddling with Anja and the sky. I love the way the sky is SO blue at this time of the year. Alet Pretorius actually blogged about this same thing a few weeks back and finally I shot a photo that I wanted to put up for this. Winter sunset …. amazing.

Ok, I have to admit that I have been slack and that these photographs should have been up ages ago. It’s just been ridiculously busy here and I am trying to save for a wedding so please excuse me. Haha.

I am still busy but just missing this getaway so much so took a bit of time to do this post. Basically, Anja and I hit the Kruger Park last month for my birthday and it was one of the most super holidays I have ever had. I loved it. I loved the bush. I loved the animals. I loved where we stayed. I loved shooting photos. I loved relaxing. I loved being with my girl. I loved that she got to relax and I loved being werry werry quite. Haha.

These aren’t the best ones cause I don’t really have time so I randomly selected some from the 2500ish photos that I shot. Either way, seeing them just makes me want to be back there right now.

Hope you are all well.

This passed Sunday Rudi and I went to Newtown to drink some coffee, eat some breakfast and just walk around and enjoy the streets of Joburg. It was super cool and such a rad day outside, felt good to leave the office.

Ok, this is the last photograph I am going to post from the weekend. During the shoot at Top Star yesterday, Alan and I decided to climb to the top of the Driving Screen which we did. It was SUPER dodgy and I cannot believe we are still alive and un-injured but we did it and I had to shoot a photograph at the top. I had an experimental weekend where I tried to basically break my camera gear by changing all the settings even more than I normally do and this was another result of that. The skyline was quite boring because of the time of day it was so I white balanced way off and then underexposed a bit as well as change a few otehr settings on camera. I have to go back and shoot a sunset there one day. I will, you’ll see. Haha

I have already posted a photograph of this street light before and I think that photograph worked well, but when I was shooting there again on saturday, the sky was super cloudy but so boring and grey. I decided to try something different and I shot this photograph with the white balance WAY off so that it would result in the entire photograph being blue. I like it.

Yesterday was yet another amazing sunset while driving in traffic. I was behind buildings and it too me forever to pass a spot where I could actually see it properly and sadly it was a little too late to get the actual sun before it said goodnight but I really like this a lot anyway.

I have this obsession with the sky, clouds and the sun so any sunset or sunrise is always exciting for me. I was stuck in traffic, like every other person always is I am sure, and have finally decided to try an chill out and rather shoot photographs while I putt along at 10km/h. I shot a bunch of this sunset but this is my favourite.

I also want to say that my actual photography portfolio site is starting to look like something. It is taking ages to get it done right but I am really liking it so far. Please head over to www.marcusmaschwitz.com if you get a gap and please comment on my photographs and let me know what you think. There is still a lot to be added and a lot to be worked out but it would definitely give me more reason to get it done if you like it.

Hope you’re all well and having a good week. Chat soon, m

Ok, I think I have blogged enough now so this will be my last post for today even though this has been fun. This is just a photograph I shot last night of a storm brewing during sunset from my house. Clouds are amazing.

These shots are of Nelson Mandela Bridge. The sun was already higher than I had wanted to shoot these at so I am not really that happy with them. I definitely will be going back soon to try these again.

I shot these two photographs on Easter sunday. It was super good to spend it with the family and just relax it for a bit. Hope you all had some sort of a break.

Sunset yesterday was super cool. Hasn’t been like that in a while. I shot these while I was driving. Can you get a fine for shooting photographs while driving a car? Haha