Card Gear: Wonderful Mystical

Card Gear is our monthly feature dedicated to discovering new inventory, setup, and accessories used every day by card designers, cardists, magicians and collectors. The concept originated from the popular social media site, Instagram: #passthepockets. Whenever one of these hashtags come up on the social news feed, there's always something new to discover, no matter who that person is.

Ferdinand Göldner is a self-taught photographer from Ulm, Germany. He started photography about 10 years ago but lost interest somewhere along the way. When Ferdinand discovered Peter McKinnon and Chris Ramsay on Youtube a couple of months ago, He got interested in cards and couldn’t help himself but order a bunch of decks online. The design of High Victorian by Theory 11 and Blue Wheel by DKNG and Art of Play were so intriguing that he had to dig out his camera and take some shots of it. They landed so well on his Instagram (@wonderfulmystical) that he decided to dive deeper into the field. Since then, he has never stopped practicing with his my cards and camera.

For me, photography is a way to share what I value most, with the world, through my eyes. I am all about telling stories with my photography and creating compelling images. I don’t ever want to get hung up on the tools I’m using when creating. 

His focus is on creating and editing, not following the newest hype of software or devices.

I make sure my processes are streamlined, and I try to remove as much friction in the creation process as possible. Since I’m a computer science student, I love to automate many of the processes like importing and backing up files using custom scripts and other automation tools to make things run smoothly.

Ferdinand's Gear:

+ MacBook Pro 15“ Retina (This thing is my absolute MUST! I never leave home without it. It’s the greatest asset that I have)
+ Magic Mouse together with "Better Touch Tool“ Software (My key to streamlining many processes. I have touch gestures for everything!)
+ 2 TB External USB 3.0 Drive (I back everything that I shoot up. My worst nightmare is to lose any of my shots)
+ Apple Thunderbolt Adapter (A must if your backing up anywhere over a network)
+ Mint Drops  (I need these bad boys after coffee. 😉)
+ Sony a6000 (Yup, I don’t have anything fancy to shoot with. I focus on creating great environments, the technology comes second)
+ Sigma 30mm 1.4 Contemporary (The only lens that I use. Don’t know what the future will bring, but this is the only lens that I use so far)
+ Extra battery (Makes sure I never run out of battery)
+ Green Wheel playing cards (I’m in love with these! My absolute favorites. Apart from these, I use standard Bicycles for practice)

Software:
+ Better Touch Tool
+ Adobe Lightroom Classic CC
+ Custom AppleScripts for streamlining my process
+ Alfred
+ WordPress
+ Pagico

You can follow Ferdinand's work on Instagram (@wonderfulmystical). If you would like your card gears to be featured on Kardify, feel free to contact us.