About

about cahoonah

cahoonah is a name that just sounds right for me and has no particular meaning at all.

about this place

I have always been a curious person and was addicted to technology at an early age, so it was a logical step to try out the WWW. This website has been around since 2006 and has gone through a few revisions. At first everything ran on Pixelpost, then Typo 3 and for several years now on WordPress. As I get older I am becoming more and more of a pure user and I want things to work without a lot of effort and fiddling so that I have more time for the important things in life. So don’t be surprised if everything doesn’t run smoothly here – I have better things to do. 😉

update 2013

Pixelpost was a very neat software… free, easy to use and somehow easy to hack, as the 3000+ spam comments each week showed. Defensio did not work properly and with all this crap below my pictures and flags about testing how to inject some shit into my database I finally had to jump ships.
Most of the data I could move over with this PixelPost to WordPress Exporter but a lot of things need to be done manually… this will take some time. Sad part so far: the new blog has more space for the images and the old ones transferred over are not the highres… I would need to replace them all, one by one. If I find the time I will do this. So far you will find the old pictures somehow looking misplaced within this layout; the newer ones will hopefully look right. Some of the comments got swept away with me cleaning this mess by hand, but there weren’t much anyway.

update 2014

I did a shooting for a good friend of mine and was given a D800 and some lenses over the course of a weekend, two years ago and must admit that this was like going to a new dimension. 36! Megapixel… well, you can crop away two thrid of those images and just reach the 12mpix that my good old D90 had; the noisereduction is far the best, I have seen so far. Left me with a bitter feeling, when I returned to my D90. Now I find myself thinking about new equipment, but with my 1.5 year old daughter around and tons of other things on my mind I hardly find the time to go out an shoot nowadays. The iPhone becomes your best friend, as you have it right at your hand, when you kid does something new. I will return, promissed! The redesign and relaunch of this blog is the first step.

update 2023

As of now my trusty rusty D90 died at the beginning of last year and me and Santa decided it was time to do a little upgrade. Nikon D7200 is the new stallion. About everything has taken a big update. I love the new and faster focus mode, with more focus points, shutter speed and the feature that I did not have on my agenda but that completely changed the way I shoot is Auto-ISO. This is a real game changer, due to software within the cam as well as on computer are getting better and better and AI kicks in to take away the noise that goes with high ISO values. I do use AI for sharpening as well. Topaz Laps has just opened this box of Pandora. Shots that tend to end up in the trash bin because being too dark and noisy, turn out to be usable with those tools. Compared to a lens that would compensate this, the prices for the software are manageable and the results – at least for a hobbyist like me – are juste great. Yes, some say it is cheating, but I rather say: the tools got better, so why not use them? This off course renders me as bad photographer in parts. There is always room to improve, but not missing the shot or have to throw it away because of some limitations, gives me the feedback to cary on and improve on every aspect.

FYI: Even Ansel Adams did dodge and burn his images to get the most out of it. Big goal – off course – is to have the best shots straight out of camera and that’s what all photographers should aim for… so do I!

update 2025

Photography has become a huge part of my life again. After my heart attack at the beginning of 2023 it was my saviour. While others in my rehab laid around and where in bad mood due to what had happened to them, I decided to not sit down and accept my fate. I took my than new D7200 and went outside, strolling through the woods and meadows at any free minute I could spare. Getting out and getting in touch with nature made me become strong again and saved my should and mind from depression. So when two big waves caught me at eastern this year in La Palma and soaked my D7200 that it would not work anymore, I was shocked. I tried to dry it and clean it with Isopro what worked to some extend, but the back dial stayed without function, rendering me with the last settings I had (1/1000s) which was not bad for shooting animals, but this felt like going on a hunt with one arm tied to my back. Although I don’t have the money for such expensive things right now, I bought a Z6 ii to stay sane and happy. Luckily the FTZ works with my old Sigma and Tampon lenses although Sigma told me otherwise. So as I am writing this I did the first shots with it and they are on this very page. Sooo happy and once again it is one step up the ladder.

about equipment

Equipment seems to be the most important thing in many places today and the discussions about digital vs. analogue have slowly died down. For my part, I am happy about new technology, but I also see the advantage of a simpler, more analogue world. Many new devices are overdone! New cameras with new functions that – thanks to AI and fast processors – give people a good hand, or put them in the shade completely. I’m a little jealous here, because a modern camera with 60 fps and automatic eye tracking would be nice, but the budget is too small. 😉 I also think that you can learn much better with old, more limited resources. Goethe coined the term “velociferic” and yes, I’m sometimes very tired of all the updates, new features and constant maintenance that comes with this brave new world. The feature creature has modern corporations completely in its grip and it seems to me that things are getting faster and faster and a certain point each update makes your live a lot more complicated. That said I am still happy about the upgrade the Z6 ii gave me although I am struggling with some features that should help me, like the auto tracking of subjects. I still do it manually and often miss a shot and think: would that have worked with automatic turned on? Well… I am about to find out… some day. 

You learn that a certain degree of technical equipment gives you a benefit, or better results in the end. I switched to the all new D90 in Dezember 2008. This was a good descision, as I could  now crop the image more – giving me more freedom composition wise without loosing too much resolution.

So here’s what I got:

• Canon IXUS (the first one) – sand got into the the mechanics and the lens won’t come out anymore.
• Canon S50 + underwater body – still somewhere in a neat case covering dust
• Nikon D50 (wonder if I should turn this into a photograph) – my Kids start out with this one someday???
• Nikon D90
• Nikon D7200 – sadly lost its back dial due to two mighty waves that completely soaked everything
• Sigma 18-50mm 1:3-5.6 DC D
• Tamron 17-35 SP AF Di LD (IF) 1:2,8-4 – back its original packaging and waiting for something to happen, as time won’t autofocus on the FTZ
• Nikon AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-200 mm 1:3,5-5,6G IF-ED – still in my pocket although I understand now that this kept me a long time from doing great photos, as it is in the middle of everything but not good at anything specific.
• Nikon AF-S 70-300 1:45-5.6 G – where did I put this one? somewhere ein the closet and not used for ages
• Sigma EX 105 mm F/2.8 MF HSM DG EX OS AF
• Sigma 150-500mm F5,0-6,3 DG OS HSM – my primary lens that is kinda married to my D7200 body, but as this camera to some waves it is now lying around
• Nikon Nikkor Z 18-600mm f5.6-6.3 VR – the all new monster that is pin sharp at 600mm without extending – just love it!
• Manfrotto tripod with 3D head
  Slingshot AW 300 (third in a row, as they use to fall appart after one year. Lowepro always exchanged it on warranty basis, which is great!)
  LowePro Flipside
  Nation Geographic Rucksack midsize
• couple of Cokins ND and gradient filters. < one tiny grain of sand sneaked into the box and ruined them.

Bottom line is: Equipment is important but not as much as getting out, actually be there and try your best. There have been great images taken with cameras looong ago. 😉

about me

Falk Heinzelmann
Father of two wild kids º Communication Designer & Art Director º Founding member, second chairman and curator of Digital Retro Park º Member of several demo groups º Two hearts: one for all thing digital and the other beats for nature º Considering my surrounding as jungle. There will be very much to explore and very much to discover….

It’s a jungle out there…