I’m really interested in how other people and companies work. I like reading about their workflows and processes and am always looking to optimize my own workflow. In the last few weeks it became clear to me that what we are doing here at QUOTE.fm is actually building a company from the ground up, we’re not longer just individuals doing their own thing. We are in the position to define how we want to work as a team. That’s a great opportunity and also a great responsibility. It means trying things and always improving them.

I just finished reading a series of articles about how GitHub works. While I found that we here at QUOTE.fm innately are working a lot like the guys from San Francisco, I also got new input how we can improve.
So I encourage you to take some time and read the following stories.

So in the last few weeks some rumors about the Leica M10 came up, which might be presented at Photokina next month. At the moment I don’t plan to go to Cologone, but this camera is making it a hard decision. I’d love to have a look at and through the finder of this camera.

The last part is especially interesting, because the Leica M10 is rumored to sport an electronic viewfinder. As you might know I don’t like EVFs. My distaste for these kind of viewfinders has lessen in the last year but I still have a problem with them.
But my personal preference aside, I don’t think this is going to happen and if, I think this will hurt Leica and the sales of the M10 in a big way. I can’t imagine how an EVF will fit into the Leica philosophy of simple and robust products.
But maybe they revolutionized the EVF, who knows…

Since I tested the M9 last year I want to have one. I’m sure I’m not the only one and a lot of people are looking forward to the release of the M10, not because of the M10 itself, but because they hope the used prices drop. If the M10 has an EVF I predict that this won’t happen because it’s the last true (digital) Leica M camera. Sorry guys.

The M10 could be available in March next year. I’m really curious to see what Leica has in store for us in September at Photokina.

Last week I ordered a copy of the Vivian Maier – Street Photographer photo book. Yesterday I got it and it’s great. Really. Vivian shot most or maybe even all her images with a Rolleiflex on black and white film. But I don’t know which ones specifically. It’s great because obviously she didn’t care too much about equipment but about moments, about capturing life as it happens. At that she did a lot.

In most of her photographs there is much to discover and the moments she captured are often centered around more than one person. So it happens that there often is someone in the picture who discovered her taking the photo. I don’t mean that in a negative way. It just caught my eye and since then I look for that person in every image.

The pages are made from very solid, matte, somehow rough paper. I like it very much.

The book puts a spell on the viewer, not literally of course, but I wasn’t able to put it aside. I was always curious which story was waiting on the next page. After seeing about half of the photos I forced myself to stop and keep the rest for later.

If you are interested in black and white street photography you definitely should buy Vivian Maier – Street Photographer. You won’t regret it.

Yesterday I discovered the work of David Chancellor, especially his project on „the complex relationship that man has with animal in sub Saharan Africa, seen through the eyes of the tourist trophy hunter“. The documentary work is amazing and the topic very interesting.
So far the project was completely self funded by David. To print a limited edition of 2000 copies in cooperation with an dutch fine art publisher he needs the support of the photographic community. So I pledged $75 what will get me a signed 1st edition book as soon as it’s published. What hopefully will be in October.

Go on, watch the video below and support this great project.

Last week Panasonic invited me and a bunch of others to Sylt to test the new Panasonic Lumix G5. In on it were Stefan Groenveld, Torsten Muehlbacher, Michael Kirchner, Felix Meyer, Marcel Wichmann, Manfred Huszar and Christoph Boecken.

As last year on Mallorca, where we layed our hands on the G3, it was a lot of fun and perfectly organized by JDB – thanks to Catie.
We had two days packed with sun, rain, wind and a lot of activities. Thank you Panasonic!

I have to say I like Sylt and would like to go back there to photograph more of the landscape and the people. It’s an interesting mix.

Short review of the Lumix G5

The Lumix G5 is a really good camera in it’s market. It sits perfectly in my rather small hands and after knowing the Lumix G3 I was really quickly comfortable using it. The AF is fast and the electronic shutter is completely silent. That makes this camera perfect for shooting completely unnoticed. Combined with the brilliant 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens it’s a small, light and very fast camera.
I can’t say much about the image quality because I’m not able to process the RAW files, yet. The JPGs look good, though.

If you are in the game of buying a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, definitely have a closer look at this one.

Shooting square format right out of the camera is what I really like and what my X100 isn’t able to do. So I took the opportunity and only shot squares on Sylt.

But now let’s look at some images I shot with it on the first day. I will post photos from day two in a separate entry. As I said these are JPGs, processed in Lightroom.

Just signed up for the Fotomarathon Hamburg in September. I’m really looking forward to it, but I think it’ll be a really big challenge to shoot 24 good photos of a defined topic in just twelve hours. Let’s see how this turns out.

If you follow my blog for some time you should know that I’m friends with Stefan and Stefan from Heimplanet. Those two guys build an inflatable tent that’s called „The Cave“. Felix Meyer had the opportunity to try it out last weekend and he made some brilliant photos. You should really head over to him and see the full series.

I really think the Heimplanet guys should talk to Felix to either buy some of his shots or commission him to do some more. They are the perfect ad pictures. Maybe some more images with people in it to show the lifestyle of the people who would buy it.

Last year while Stefan and Stefan did some tests on how much wind the tent can stand, I also did some shots, but not nearly as great as the ones from Felix. But for my defense I have to say that my job that day was to make a lot of detail shots.

As a photography enthusiast you might have heard of the Fotomarathon in Berlin. The event was a great success last year and will be happening this year, too. In addition to the original event there will also be a Fotomarathon in Munich this year on July, 21st.

The goal is to make twelve photos of predefined topics in eight hours. At the end of the day you have to deliver your SD/CF card with just twelve photos, which were only processed in camera.
It’s a big challenge but will also be a lot of fun, I imagine.

Everyone can join the Fotomarathon, regardless of which gear you use. So if you are interested, you can find more infos as well as the prices on fotomarathonmuenchen.de.

Today I’ve two remote controls at home and with every device that I buy I get one more and everything gets more complicated.

Sure, there are remote controls that can control all of your devices, but you need to program them and always have it near you.
What would the future look like? Right, controlling your TV with motion and/or voice control.

The future is here now. Samsung’s new flagship Smart TV offers next-generation interactive features such as Motion Control, Voice Control and Face Recognition.

Yoonjung Lee:

Smart Interaction technology offers an immersive entertainment experience that can truly bring people together around the central screen of the home—Samsung Smart TV

You’ll feel like you are in a science fiction movie controling your battle ships fighting aliens. Or something like that. Whatever happens: You are in control.

This article is sponsored by Samsung.

Four weeks ago I decided to try one month of blogging in English. It started out as an experiment and ended as the normality. I’ve to say, I really enjoyed it.
I know that my English is far from being perfect, but even after one month of writing and therefore thinking in English, I noticed that I got better.

Writing in English opened up so many more opportunities. I did an interview with Rinzi Ruiz and there will be an interview with Harry Roberts very very soon. Both were possible because of me switching to English. Because of the interview with Rinzi I got backlinks from outside of Germany and I saw tweets from English speaking people. It’s really nice to finally be able to reach a broader audience. Most of my visitors are still from Germany, but I got a foretaste how it could change in the future.
I think it’s really cool to know that everybody whom I write about and link to can read what I’ve to say and can respond to it. I hope this will happen more often in the future.

So you probably already got it: I will continue writing in English. I enjoy it and I’m very curious what can and will happen.

On thing left: I ask myself how important the domain is and if I should change it to martinwolf.org or something like visual-thoughts.com. (All the visualthought.* are already gone, I think.) But I will figure that out in the next few weeks or months.

So I hope you will continue to read what I have to say. And if not, just look at my photos.