Tomasz Slota Photography

Home Darkroom

tomslot — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:47:53 +0000

Some of my regular readers might be wondering why I am updating my blog so seldom in the middle of the wedding season in Europe.

Well, apart from being extremely busy taking pictures, I have a new time-taking hobby: the darkroom. I decided to fully enjoy the analog photography while its still possible.

Unlike my digital setup, which is top-notch and completed without compromises, the equipment I am using for making black and white photography is fairly spartan. This is because I do realize that the future of photography is fully digital, I am making analog prints only for a special and unique experience. Darkroom skills these days can hardly be monetized or even appreciated by most people. It is hell lot of fun though and it reminds me that I was fortunate to be born in very interesting times of technological revolution.

I would like to thank my friends: Petr Chytil, Anna Kazanova and others, who provided me with equipment and technical advice during my beginnings as well as my flatmates for their patience and understanding when I was occupying the bathroom.

The picture being enlarged above was taken by Gleb Kolobov, whom I am also trying to “infect” with the passion for analog printing.

Lucie-Anne and Cleber Wedding

tomslot — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:32:21 +0000

Lucie-Anne grew up in New York, Cleber is from Brazil. They live in Paris, but they decided to get married in Prague, the city of Lucie-Anne’s ancestors.

The ceremony took place in the catholic church of St. Joseph in Mala Strana, just next to the Charles Bridge. What made this wedding very special from my point of view was a fabulous Brazilian music played by a band that accompanied the couple during the ceremony in the church, on the way to the reception site (Restaurant Konírna) and then all over the evening.

Saneesh Sukumaran was my assistant/second photographer during this assignment.

Jana & Matt: Pre-Wedding session

tomslot — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:22:14 +0000

Jana and Matt just came to Prague from Australia to get married in the picturesque country of Jana’s ancestors. I will be documenting their wedding this weekend. Here is a few snapshots from a quick warm-up photo session last Sunday:

The purpose of setting up a small photo session before the wedding is to build more confidence with the couple and make my work smoother on the actual wedding day, knowing clients’ temperament I can better plan the wedding shoot.

I was assisted by Saneesh Sukumaran during this assignement.

More pictures taken with Leica M6

tomslot — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:45:13 +0000

Earlier this year I got a Leica M6 with two lenses: Summicron 50/2 and Nokton 30/1.2 because I wanted to see what all the “Leica buzz” is about.

I’ve already published the results of my first experiments with it some weeks ago. Encouraged by positive response and fact that the new camera actually seemed to help me to take different pictures (more on that later) I continued to use it for photographing my friends, family and some street scenes.

Here is a new collection of pictures I took with the M6 this spring:

PS. I recently replaced the Summicron 50/2 with Zeiss C-Sonnar 50/1.5 and many of these pictures were already taken with it.

Angela & Hok – Newlywed Portrait in Prague

tomslot — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:32:12 +0000

Angela and Hok got married a week ago in Hong Kong. They flew to Europe for their honeymoon trip and chose my services to create their wedding portrait with the backdrop of Prague.

Unfortunately they had little luck with the weather. It was just the beginning of the heavy rains that caused serious floods around Central Europe. I took some unusual steps to prepare to deliver memorable pictures in spite of such weather: the lighting equipment was waterproofed with a plastic wrap and we had 3 extra voluntary assistants.

Luckily after a short shower the skies started to clear out and we also managed to get some shots without umbrellas.

I would like to give a special credit to my main assistant on this assignment – Saneesh Sukumaran. He actually took some of the pictures from the gallery below:

Big thanks to Raifa, Florin, Lucian and anonymous group of Malaysian tourists, their help was also substantial!

Anna: Pregnancy Portrait

tomslot — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:25:34 +0000

Yesterday I had the luck to document one of Anna’s last days before giving birth. We organized the the session at the comfort of her house, which has a spectacular view over snowy Prague.

The last few frames were shot on black and white film (Ilford HP5) and manually developed in Rodinal. I think the classical, timeless and grainy look of genuine film is very suitable for recording the memories of such important moments.

I would like to give special thanks to Anna Kazanova for helping me during this assignement.

Back to Film

tomslot — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:22:17 +0000

Many photographers, who moved to digital from time to time feel a need to prove themselves that their basic photography skills are still relevant and they can still shoot on film with all its constraints (limited number of frames, low and fixed ISO, etc).

Here is my take: a series shot with Leica M6 + Nokton 35/1.2, Kodak Porta 400NC. The models are my Kyrgyz friends: Alima and Azamat.

For some pictures I used a video light with umbrella for a fill (Lowell Id-Light).

Narinder in Prague

tomslot — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:40:21 +0000

Narinder will be getting married in Wolverhampton, UK in April. I will have the honor of acting as a photographer during his wedding. Here is a small teaser: a couple of shots I took at the club Cathedrale, while Narider was visiting Prague with his family and friends and enjoying his last bachelor days.

Shooting an Indian wedding has been my long time dream, ever since I saw one in Singapore. I am really looking forward to April!

Starting cooperation with Caroline

tomslot — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:08:33 +0000

Caroline is a popular French fashion blogger. She shares her time between Paris and Prague. In the next couple of months we will have several photo sessions in Prague and other European cities to provide fresh content for her website.

Here is the link to her first blog entry illustrated with my pictures.

On a TV Show

tomslot — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:19:07 +0000

Today my photography was featured in “A Gusto”: a popular morning TV show produced by Canal 21 in Panama. I hope be able to publish the whole recording in the future, for now I am just showing a few backstage pictures (courtesy of Efrain Alvarez)