Airbus A380 in Munich, Germany

Airbus A380 (Registration F-WWJB)
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

Airbus A380 touchdown in Munich
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

The biggest plane on Earth, the Airbus A380, visited Munich today. The five hour stopover ended Lufthansa's real life testing phase of the plane, joined by the press and thousands of spectators around the Munich airport who tried to catch a glimpse at the new plane. Lufthansa plans to take up the first scheduled flights with the A380 in 2009, so it will be some time until the plane will come to Munich again.

My take on it? Yes, it is an impressing airplane, but at the end of the day, it is just a big airplane. It remains to be seen whether comfort for those traveling in Economy Class will be improved and tickets on the A380 will be cheaper. If not, I probably will not care whether I am flying Airbus, Boeing, or any other plane.

More photos of the A380 in Munich

Why I do not like Flickr and Wikipedia

On Saturday I found myself reading a newspaper at the airport. I knew them - I had been selling images to them over the past couple of years. Mind you, it was never a big business, just a photo now and then appearing in their travel section. And when I came to the travel section of the current issue I saw the photos: one huge photo, 10.8" x 6.5", and three smaller shots, all of them not particularly nice shots, but not ugly either. I'd say average photos, well almost. The by-lines read "Photo: flickr by Joe-Artur"*, "Photo: flickr by Christopher Halworth"*, "Photo: Wikipedia by Markus Schmitt"*, and finally "Photo: Wikipedia by Hannes Grosse"*. Gosh - are Flickr and Wikipedia in the photo agency business now?

Of course not. The photos were -as far as I can tell- licenced as "Creative Commons" content on Flickr and Wikipedia, i.e. the authors are explicitly allowing to use the photos for any use. Nothing wrong with that, but seeing a commercial newspaper dedicating huge space to FREE photos, that makes me just sick. And I wonder why? Sure, the newspapers could not care less about the photographers. Give free stuff to newspapers to fill their pages, the more the merrier, and they'll happily take all of it, giving just a by-line and a good laugh to the photographers, before they continue to count the money from the ads surrounding the photos.

But why are the photographers giving their photos away for free? Is it just to see their work in print? Are they so desparate to get their stuff published that they just click "creative commons" when uploading photos to Flickr and Wikipedia? Or careless? Don't they know that they could earn money with their photos? Or do they think they are doing something "good" by giving the photos away for free? Don't they know that they are actually hurting (professional) photographers around the world by publishing photos expecting nothing more than a by-line in return?

Honestly, I don't get it. But it makes me sick. Really sick.

* Name changed to protect the photographers.

A Dark Man: Jeffrey Deaver

Jeffrey Deaver
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

Jeffrey Deaver listens to his German voice, Peter Lohmeyer
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

Recently I did a number of photoshoots at readings: Nicci French, William Boyd, Santo Cilauro, John Katzenbach. All came to Munich, and all seemed to have a good time here - some more, like the always funny Cilauro, some less, but all-in-all writers are friendly and quiet people. And they do not behave like celebrities (even if they are celebrities): no big gestures, no shouting, and virtually no interaction with the camera. Writers are quite normal people, and the tone of their writings is usually mirrored by their real life appearence. If you meet them, you realize - "yes, that makes sense. This must be the guy who wrote that book."

The same applies to bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver. Now, he writes the darkest thrillers you can imagine, and this is part of his success. His books are all about violence, dark obsessions, and cruel fantasies. Sometimes you start to wonder, how does an author look like who writes such dark texts? Can you see any parallels between his texts and his outer appearance? For Deaver, you certainly can.

Deaver seems to be a dark man with dark fantasies. I tried to capture that during the reading. The dark background of the stage at Munich's America House added to the mystery, and I needed some time to get the photos right. But I think the resulting photos reflect his inner self and his books perfectly.

He read from his thriller "The Cold Moon" ("Der gehetzte Uhrmacher" in German, read by German actor Peter Lohmeyer). From those few pages I can honestly say that if you want to have a few sleepless nights, go get this real page turner!

More photos of Jeffrey Deaver in Munich

Another Night Shot in Munich

Mercedes-Benz Munich
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

After the exciting photos of the nightly Allianz Arena in Munich, I had immediately another shot in mind that I wanted to do for a long time: the Mercedes-Benz Dealer in Munich (Arnulfstr. 91), seen from Nymphenburger Str. towards South - for your reference, here is a Google Map of the camera position.

The location is just around the corner of our home, so I packed my tripod (again) at 5.30 pm, and walked up there. And after a few boring shots that were still too bright, the magical moment happened at 6.45pm. I used the 1ds mark II with the EF 70-200 2.8L at 200 mm. ISO 100, f32, 25 seconds, and voila - a very good shot, with breathtaking sharpness in the building and trees. The traffic, however, was completely blurred as numerous cars rushed by during the 25 seconds.

As I switched to pure RAW shooting a few weeks ago, I could easily develop the already very good shot into a perfect photo using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Exposure -1/3, Color Temp 2700K, Vibrance +10, Saturation +20).

I like the shot. How about you?

See all the photos at Zettpress

St. Patrick's Day Munich

St. Patrick marches down Munich's Leopoldstreet
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

St. Patrick's Day Flag with Munich's Lord Mayor Ude (in the back)
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

Claymore Pipes and Drums joined forces
with Ehingen Donau Pipe Band
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

Father and Son Enjoying the Parade
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

A Photographer Wearing a Perfectly Matching Outfit
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

It has been a beautiful St. Patrick's Day Parade 2007 in Munich. Blue sky and warm sun attracted thousands of Irish and Non-Irish people to the long march from Schwabing (Münchner Freiheit) to Odeonsplatz. St. Patrick and his parade was joined by Munich's Lord Mayor Christian Ude who had a bad cold today but nonetheless greeted the people and held a good speech at the Odeonsplatz.

I took several excellent shots - the photos above are just the first impressions for the Blogosphere, more to follow tomorrow at Zettpress. Please stay tuned. :-)

St. Patrick's Day Munich (official site)
Claymore Pipes and Drums, Munich
Ehingen Donau Pipe Band
See all St. Patrick's Day Parade photos at Zettpress

William Boyd

William Boyd presents his novel "Restless"
Photo © 2007 by Mark Zanzig/zettpress

One of the leading contemporary writers was visiting Munich to present his latest novel "Restless" at the English Hugendubel Bookshop. Guess what? I was the only photographer that evening, and right before the reading started, I asked Boyd to do a quick shooting in one of the corners of the bookstore, where they keep the old books. At first, he looked very serious (if not grim), but after a few shots he warmed up and finally - smiled! :-)

When Boyd introduced himself to the audience, he explained how and why he started to write: "I realized that I just could not do a proper job", he said, and so he started to write. And he pointed out that it takes "a lot of hard work" to make a living as a writer, and that he reached his achievements evolutionary, taking one step at a time.

At least there is some hope for me. :-)

Wikipedia Entry for William Boyd
Writer's lives: William Boyd (Telegraph.co.uk)
Hugendubel English Language Bookshops in Munich and Frankfurt
All William Boyd Photos at Zettpress