Puzzlewood is a 14 acre ancient woodland in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. It has experienced opencast iron ore mining dating from the Roman period, and probably earlier during the Iron Age. Since the 19th century its strange rock formations, lush growth and unusual appearance has attracted the curious, and it’s been used as a location for film-makers in recent times.
I have two hobbies: Cameras and Photography. I’ve warbled on about this before, but recently experienced a situation where the difference between the two felt really quite tangible.
In the run up to Christmas, almost invariably, I begin to find myself feeling a little burned out. I have two holidays in a year, one in the summer and one in the winter, and even though the winter one comes sooner after the summer one than the other way round, I always feel like I need the Christmas break more.
My name, is Markus Hofstätter, I am a collodion wet plate artist from Austria with my main focus on portraits.I shoot digital too, but the last two years my main business went to wet plate workshops, wet plate events and portraits. I won some awards (World Photographic cup nation award for example) and had a title page on the international Silvergrain Classics magazine with a wet plate.
You remember that time we were able to go and do what we wanted? Yeah, I know it was only a few weeks ago… well, just before things got really weird, we had some really significant flooding in Worcester. The river burst its banks, and for weeks it didn’t return to normal levels. Of course, this isn’t the first time the river has flooded, and it won’t be the last. I’ve photographed it before too. But never with a full spectrum modified and Fuji X100 and Kolari IRChrome filter.
Infrared photography has long been a subject of fascination for me. Last year, I wrote about my experience shooting and developing Rollei Infrared 400 film, and concluded that while interesting, infrared film is too much of a hassle for me to pursue infrared film photography routinely. Since then, I have not bothered buying any more rolls of infrared film. Digital infrared is another story, however.
