Hi folks!

A little bit late I want to start the blog-year 2015 with this first post. At first I want to wish you all a great year 2015 ... I hope it will be a successful one and that you can accomplish what you want to. My start this year is late because of a number of reasons which I want to list and explain a little bit ... because a couple of announcements which I will make in the near future will result from that reasons ... ;-)

The simplest reason first: between christmas and new year's eve I've taken a little break from photography, just to clear my head and don't make a routine out of it. My adventure „photography" is – despite all the great moments and the joy – a lot of work and very time-consuming. As I do this whole thing parallel to my „real" fulltime job, sometimes there is not much free time left at the end of the day ... it was for this reason I've decided to take a break ... just to make sure that photography stays fun ... and will not be getting „work".

The second reason is, that just before Christmas I've taken some time to try a couple of things and test some equipment, as well learning some new photoshop-techniques and organize myself a little bit better. Very important stuff which too often falls short... especially because I'm some kind of chaotic and forget things that I haven't written down in a matter of minutes... :P

A really big reason was that I've further expanded my templates (contracts, invoices, model-releases, GTC, etc.) and translated most of them from German to English as well, because I'm getting more and more requests and chances from non-german-speaking clients and models ... great for me that I've gotten a big helping hand from my girlfriend (THANKS a lot!!!).

Another big step for me was that I've given my first workshop together with a friend in my photography-club (Website only in German - http://www.erster-fotoclub-lustenau.at/). It was a great experience for me as well as an acid test for my skills as workshop-instructor, because I want to give a couple of workshops in the near future. As this test had a really positive result for me, I'll continue to pursue this goal ... I just need some time to prepare it ... ;-)

By far the biggest reason – at least regarding the time it took – was the planing and preparing of coming shootings and projects, which I want to do this year. I have a couple of big projects in mind as well as some elaborate shootings which takes a great deal of organisation and preparation. I'll anounce the shootins from time to time, when they're ready to get promoted ... and/or show you the pics when I've completed them.

I've already started the first project this year a couple of days ago called „honest-dark-monochrome" (Invitation) which had an excellent start so far. If anyone is interrested to be part of this project please join!! And please spread the word and let others know that I'm doing this ... and invite some folks who you think would fit ... it would be great to get as many different faces as possible to join the project!!

Another „project" is the improvement of this website as well as the blog. I'm really pleased with how well-received this website is (the statistics speak for themselves) and how much you all like the idea and function of it. At this point I want to say a big THANK YOU to Tom (http://www.rettenbacher.cc/) who made everything, from the logo and the design as well as the layout and all the functions built into it!! I also want to thank those among you who critisized my website and even gave me feedback on how to make it better and/or which functions they'd like to have on the website ... I'm just trying to get them going (or should I say Tom?).

Now, enough for now ... I'll start this year full of enthusiasm, new ideas and enthusiastic zest for action ... I hope you'll stay interested and have fun with my work. I'm delighted every time I get feedback from you, in whatever form I get it!! It is really a great motivation for me to improve and push myself into „bigger" projects ... what the applause is for the musician, your feedback is for me!!!

If you have some additional questions for my, feel free to ask me. You can just comment here, write me an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or send me a message on facebook. I'll do my best to answer all your questions.

If you want me to write about a specific topic in the future please let me know. I'll be happy to write a little post about it.

And as allways: if you like this post (or not), please let me know ... spread the word, press „like", etc. I really appreciate your feedback!!!

Cheers,
Manuel