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Time fusion tulips
Inspired by a photography of german photographer Michael Wesely, I tried to superimpose the movements of orange tulips in a white vase to create an equivalent to a longtime exposure image. A longtime exposure with 3 or 4 days exposure time was unfortunately not possible for me. Therefore I took 35 pictures with my camera at irregular intervals dictated by occupational requirements whose pixels were to be averaged. Here 4 examples of the highly active flowers in a vase:
Each RAW image has a file size of 125 MB, after RAW conversion this was 580 MB per image as TIF. The entire stack had a size of 21,5 GB. The image of the average then becomes 580 MB again. The pure mean value image was interesting to me but not exciting. Therefore I took this image and layered in parts of original images. The result became convincing:
Time fusion tulips © Julian Köpke -
X-ray Xmas floral arrangement
Today was a day of dense work and many technical problems. The day before I had made some flower arrangements for Christmas from my preferred flower dealer. A technician took me some X-rays so I could study the exposure values when my wirk was finished.
The following two I liked most.
X-ray Xmas floral arrangement photo © Julian Köpke The vase on the right side seems to hover over the ground.
X-ray Xmas floral arrangement photo © Julian Köpke -
Calendar 2020
Harold says: 9 out of ten attempts fail. That’s a good consolation. What happened ?
A company and I could not agree on the fee for an annual calendar 2020. I liked the selection of the proposed pictures, consisting of flower macros and fusion images with X-ray. „Don’t call us, we call you !“
I’m not a merchant and I don’t live on sales. But how many have to listen to such sentences every day.
With a little help from my elder daughter I did the calendar on my own.
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X-ray photos of grapes and sunflowers
Grapes as an object of X-raying have been inspiring me for a long time. Their structure remind the doctor of the azini of a gland or lung. The phycisist likes very much the partial and complete overlays alternating with free positions. As an artist I get an unbelievable freedom of image design.
My first X-ray imaging attempts with grapes were carried aout in October 2017. I’d forgotten !
Can something succesful be repeated ? Can it be deepened ? What is the power of the composition ?
Grapes picture in Hologic calendar September 2019 © Julian Köpke 
Grapes - creative representation of an X-ray with Lab color © Julian Köpke 
Grape X-ray photo © Julian Köpke 
Two days ago I tried toput my creativity into the composition. Two pictures were taken from grapes which differ only slightly. Their X-ray view on our monitor had a clearly different effect.
Grapes X-ray photo X-ray mammography photo © Julian Köpke 
Grapes composition II X-ray mammography photo © Julian Köpke My colleague by chance showed up with a bouquet of small sunflowers with long stalks. Amazing opportunity !
I dedicate this X-ray of a bouquet of sunflowers to my colleague Dr. Arendt. © Julian Köpke 
Bouquet of Sunflowers X-ray photo © Julian Köpke -
After the rain
Since days with an unsafe walk afflicted after an impact trauma with the head against a sloping roof in a Black Forest hotel last weekend I walk today after the first rain for weeks through our garden. Everything’s shines in rich colors under raindrops.
My first image is an attempt to capture two colors.
Physalis after the rain © Julian Köpke Warm and cold colors combined in these heucheria leaves.
Conflowers like stars within two colors.
Coneflower or Rudbeckia triloba © Julian Köpke -
Heucheria leaves
Backgrounds create a new image impression. Sometimes you need a background to add to the picture some more pizzazz. In these pictures I use the background to simulate a photographic base as I saw it in Karl Blossfeldt’s pictures.
The starting point is always a color image. With a background named „Aged Board“ the color image already shows an attractiveness of its own.
Heucheria leaf © Julian Köpke The Black & White conversion enhances the contrast a bit which is why I’m adding a little glow.
Heucheria leaf © Julian Köpke From another Heucheria leaf, which shone in a wonderful red, I show here only the black and white conversion with background. This makes the reproduction of its structure much better.
Heucheria leaf © Julian Köpke -
A rose is a rose is a rose
Just photograph a rose and show its beauty – how wonderful that would be. Is the light right ? Do false shadows emerge ? Is the structure correctly reproduced ?
Again and again I have to go through our garden and look at the flowers. Yesterday was it again. The sun had just set and the full moon should have decreased a little later.
I tried it with all f-stops the camera and lens gave to me. To my surprise the aperture 32 at ISO 50 with 45s exposure speed was my favorite. Only at the edge the picture had to be darkened and desaturated. Post-processing can be as simple as that.
Rose during Golden Hour © Julian Köpke -
Heucheria leaf on a light box
So often I tried to image a Heucheria leaf. It doesn’t seem complicated. With less saturation the impression of a water color image emerges of a single leaf.
Heucheria leaf © Julian Köpke Going on with my Blossfeldt studies I need a background for this image. An image with background exerts a special charm. A paper structure fits well.
Heucheria leaf © Julian Köpke Only the conversion to black and white comes closer to the impression of a Blossfeldt macro.
Heucheria leaf © Julian Köpke -
Do you like Karl Blossfeldt ?
Karl Blossfeldt was a German photographer who lived from 1865 to 1932. He didn’t think himself a photographer. With his studies of plant forms he made an enormous contribution to plant photography. Here is a nice wikipedia article about him.
He started to do photograms. Plants or parts of plants were placed directly on film or paper suitable for exposure. Exposure then takes place without any optics. Later he built himself a wooden camera, which reminds me of Andreas Feininger.
Black and white backlit macro images with a background can be similar to Blossfeldt’s images.
Silver leaf © Julian Köpke 
Heucheria in bloom © Julian Köpke 
Vetch © Julian Köpke 
Day lily © Julian Köpke -
Orchid X-ray fusion photo
It feels like very long ago. Harold and I were taking the shots and X-rays of new compositions last week of April this year. Our first try was an orchid with two stems. The transparency effect is very much augmented using an X-ray. A stem behind petals doesn’t show easily in HDR light box photography.
With a Phase One camera at my disposal a strong crop of the composition shows the tenderness of our orchid much better. With a resolution still sufficient.
Orchid fusion X-ray photo © Julian Köpke
