Simple Harley Portrait Session Quickly Escalates Into High Art
A 100-year-old camera helps turn a simple Harley portrait session into a full blown work of art.
Like things often do, Austrian photographer Markus Hofstaetter watched a simple Harley portrait request turn into a complicated endeavor. His friend Leo had just purchased a new Harley-Davidson, and he just wanted a cool picture of it.
“As I walked for lunch, I met Leo and he talked with me about my tintype photography,” Hofstaetter said. “He told me about his new Harley-Davidson and that he wanted me to take his photo with the Harley. Of course, I should use my 100-year-old camera and capture the light on a collodion wet plate. I just thought cool, let’s do it.”
But then a local TV station contacted him with a desire to do a documentary on his work. So, of course, that led to a long and overly-complicated day of shooting, testing, and shooting again.
“On the shooting day, it starts raining in the morning,” said Hofstaetter about some unforeseen complications. However, destiny would intervene: “…Scheduled start was 1 p.m., and believe it or not, it stopped raining at noon.”
“After that, I had the first exposure test with a 4 × 5 inch plate. I used the same camera for that. The plate is a little too bright for my taste. So I changed the aperture from 5 to about 7.”
Despite all the complex planning, it’s hard to argue with the awesome end result. Be sure and check out all of Hofstaetter’s amazing work on his blog.
