Author name: Daniel Sigg

Daniel is a Swiss photographer (from Basel) living in Minneapolis / Saint Paul.

Overcoming Creative Block – A Few Tips – By Daniel Sigg

By / September 30, 2020 / Philosophy & Reflections / 14 Comments

Creative block has been defined as the mind’s inability to access its own creativity. So while creative block is a phenomenon of the mind, it is nevertheless real and plagues many of us pursuing creative endeavors (visual arts, writing, music, etc. ).  A fellow photographer is going through a phase of creative block right now, Hamish has posted about his struggles in the past, and I personally have certainly  struggled through many similar barriers of inspiration.  I think nobody is “immune” from it.

Photographing An American Road Trip – By Daniel Sigg

By / July 3, 2021 / Photos & Projects / 20 Comments

Our daughter moved to Scottsdale Arizona, and my partner Amy and I helped her move her belongings with a large U-haul trailer from the Twin Cities. All this happened in middle of June, with COVID-19 cases still being reported across the country. We planned for a three day (two nights)  drive to Scottsdale (about 1600 miles), and spent most of those days on the road and the rest in hotels sleeping.

Architectural photography with a 50mm lens (and some thoughts on minimalism) – By Daniel Sigg

By / May 26, 2020 / Gear Theory, Philosophy & Reflections, Photos & Projects / 39 Comments

I love modern design, and in particular also interior and exterior architectural design. Most recently, I have been focusing on architectural subjects in my photography. It turned out to be a good subject as I live in a bigger city and was still able to take photographs during the “lockdown”.

I also love minimalism. Minimalism as an art form, minimalist design and minimalist architecture. When I was younger, I studied the works of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and still own some “minimalist” furniture from the Bauhaus area.  Minimalistic design has been highly influenced by Japanese traditional design and architecture, and I personally always loved the Japanese design aesthetic.

40 Year Old Black and White Film: experiments with three German Film Stocks (and a 1955 Leica M3) – By Daniel Sigg

By / May 19, 2020 / Film / 17 Comments

It is fun to experiment, and to learn. I think one of the (many) exciting things about film photography, at least to me, is the anticipation just after developing the film and looking at the negatives for the first time.

These particular experiments were not necessarily planned. Wendell Cheek, also a reader of this blog, contacted me after reading one of my recent blogs on Rollei films via Instagram. Wendell asked me if I would be interested in comparing some of her expired 35mm film stocks and write a blog post about it. She said the film has been bulk loaded, and stored in her freezer for the last 40 years! Of course, I was intrigued, and a week later I received several rolls of 135 film from Wendell. It was perfect timing as the next day I was leaving for a short trip to the Minnesota North Shore.

Rollei 135 Film – Experiments with Three Stocks – by Daniel Sigg

By / May 14, 2020 / Film / 18 Comments

Rolleiflex is a brand that is associated with photography cameras, in particular medium frame film cameras. Rolleiflex has a fairly complicated corporate history (see wikipedia). Interestingly, Rolleiflex was never a film manufacturer. In recent history, Maco (Hans O. Mahn GmbH & Co. KG, Maco Photo Products), a German based supplier of film started selling films under the Rollei label. (The Rollei brand was licensed from RCP Technik Verwaltungs GmbH / RCP-Technik GmbH & Co. KG / Rollei GmbH & Co. KG.).

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