Let it snow...

Snow is most certainly the photographer's good friend. Especially when it's fresh and forming pretty patterns, it's a great pleasure to just observe it wandering through the woods. Which is, by itself, quite a powerful experience, especially after having lived in the jungle of concrete, that is Chicago, for quite some time.
It was a lovely walk and one of the nicer family moments, and the dog was crazy and excited as well. The raspberry plant above obviously didn't get rid of its leaves in time.
One of the weaker points of my 70-20omm lens is the macro capabilities. With Canon 500D close-up lens it improves moderately, but the depth of field becomes extremely shallow. In
the following photo I tried to increase it by setting the aperture f number to 20, but even so, at 200mm focal length and close distance, the acceptable depth of field was only around one milimeter! Not only is this a problem when composing the picture, it is also extremely difficult to hold the camera so still that it doesn't move while you focus and take the shot. Other than that, I really like this photo.
At times, the snowy forest was offering really spectacular things to see.
I was also trying to shoot extreme macro, and this is about as close as I was able to get, pretty good for a non-macro lens, I would say, but the quality suffers:
And that's it for today, unless you want to see little Filip posing... oh, what a heart-breaker, who could resist? :-)

Superstition: Wrong Edition

I haven't made fun of people with original beliefs in quite a while, so I have two pearls to share. Obviously, there is a very peculiar verse in the Bible that has foreseen what was to come:

"A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness."
Isaiah Chapter 35, Verse 8

Well, naturally, it was meant to be that when you deterministically take I and 35, what you get is the Interstate 35. After someone figured this utterholy message, it didn't take long for others to take notice of this unmistakable proof of God's word being alive, and now CNN reports:

[...]
Some of the faithful believe that in order to fulfill the prophecy of I-35 being the "holy" highway, it needs some intensive prayer first. So we watched as about 25 fervent and enthusiastic Christians prayed on the the interstate's shoulder in Dallas.

They chanted loudly and vibrantly, making many people in the neighborhood wonder what was going on. They prayed that adult businesses along the corridor would "see the light" and perhaps close down.

[...]

Jacobs also points out that perhaps there is a link between the area near this highway and tragedies that have happened in history, such as the bridge collapse on I-35 in Minneapolis last August and the assassination of JFK 44 years ago near I-35 in Dallas. That's why prayer certainly can't hurt, she adds.

Oh wow. :-) I am speechless. Only, I wonder what will come next. A holy submarine?

--------------------

That's not all, though! Indian Reuters reports:
RAIPUR, India - A Hindu priest in Chhattisgarh killed himself with the promise he would come back to life after two days, police said on Monday.

Manoj Baghel, described as an intensely religious man, poisoned himself in front of a small crowd on Saturday at a temple in Raigarh in Chhattisgarh, police said.

He was taken to hospital, and died soon after.

Police have registered a case of suicide, but have been unable to take the 25-year-old's body for an autopsy because supporters have insisted on returning the body to the temple and waiting to see what happens.

LOL. I am very excited to hear the end of his story to know whether he comes back to life... But for now, the only thing I can say is "good riddance", and a Darwin award is surely coming his way. :-)

Merry gothic Christmas of Steel!

Long time no post! Well, worry not, there has been a lot of Világos going on and I will be writing about it quite soon. But for tonight, I will only share my gothic uber-favourite christmas song - hopefully you had a great one! :-)



Also worth noticing is the Christmas Song of Steel by Nanowar, thanks, VÚ!
And partial lyrics of GC for your convenience. :-)

[...]
Santa's going to wear a black dress
Just for me and you
Santa's going to grunt in Latin
And slay a dragon or two

Rudolph, he will change his name
Cuz Rudolph just sounds really lame
Now we'll call him Ragnagord
The evil reindeer overlord

His nose it shall be red no more
It will be blackened to the core
His eyes will glow an evil glow
To guide the chariot through the snow
[...]

Cityscape climbing

Very likely the most disappointing thing about photography in a big, flat city, is the lack of good views for landscape shots. Even though you can sometimes get to a high building, only very rarely are you able to open a window enough to get a good, clear shot of what you want. Even windows in high floors of dorms have metal grates on them, because people in the wrong places are "worried about our safety".

There was a person, though, who, following a suggestion by one of his friends, decided that too significant concerns for our safety can be twisted and abused for actions unintended by the building administration. After gearing up with warm clothes, a backpack with a bottle of Gatorade and equipment, and of course the trusty black camera with its short lens mounted, he got past the maintenance workers to the designated place.

Campus floor belonging to musicians was the perfect place with deserted corridors, and two ways to get to the roof. With all the astonishing grace of a well-fed hippo, he sneaked outside through a fire escape window. The rusty iron bars, weary with age, moaned under his majestic weight, but seemed sturdy enough to be trusted. The wind was strong, as expected, and air blown from the lakeside much fresher, than that of the street level.

He wasn't sure whether he was allowed to be there at all, and slightly worried that in the country of such freedom, presence of a man on the roof could be easily considered a terrorist attack, but pushed forward nonetheless. After passing several windows with office workers who couldn't care less, and a room with several girls who noticed him and squealed, he finally got to his vantage point.

Fear of heights was never one of his problems. Quite a few times he has been hiking in an alpine terrain where a gruesome fate hundreds of meters below was just a slip away. Though in reality this was much safer, being able to see right through the thin bars didn't really add to the overall feeling of comfort. Just for comparison, the street down there is around 16 regular floors below the white roof.

Maybe it was the open space all around, after living in a downtown area for a few months, the height with the wind, the possibility of violating quite a few regulations, mischievous and slightly dangerous nature of his little adventure, the interesting view, someone greedy and powerful inside his brain having bought stock in adrenaline production, or very probably the combination of these elements, he felt very excited and alive.

Chicago is called the Windy City for a good reason - the city is situated on a plain by the lake, so there is nothing except the buildings to brake the air currents. Perhaps also for this reason, his fingers were really uncomfortably freezing. Cold and wind are much more pronounced when one's unprotected fingers are holding a cold metal object for a long time. At the end of the shoot it got rather difficult to use the control buttons. Oh, and he found it rather curious to see two flags, so close to each other, indicate wind blowing from two opposite directions.

Suburbs to the south-west of the Loop are home of many people, and spread as far as the eye can see. From here they don't look too glossy, it is somewhat better when you actually get there. Imagine a typical outdoor city scene from an American movie, and you have a perfect idea. It is also said about Chicago, that there are only two seasons - winter and a construction season. Looking at those cranes, I keep wondering when, and if, the winter is going to come.

Hooray, I can finally present a clear picture of the two main landmarks, from almost the same angle as I see them, when I look out of my window. This view is undoubtedly the best Roosevelt housing can provide, and can easily hold its own against million dollar apartments you see in the movies, especially at night with all the pretty lights on. But back to the story. :-)

The clouds looked rather promising, so he decided to wait for the sunset. It wasn't very comfortable, but certainly worth it. Leaning over the railing to get a good angle and unobscured shot probably wasn't the safest thing to do, but with his attention to the camera, it was doable. He decided to stop experimenting with picture settings, and set the picture style to landscape. Whole time he was shooting on manual settings, though, because he wasn't satisfied with how camera handled the light metering automatically. He would look at the advanced settings later, but this was not the right time.

This one is my personal favourite. I can imagine that the strongly tilted horison may be too avantgarde for some people, so I've also uploaded an earlier shot with significantly different, high contrast image setting, and one more conventional, with a plane passing.

In the end, drained but happy, he climbed back down to the window, where the office workers were still busy beating their personal high-score in Solitaire, and with legendary stealth only comparable to a medieval knight in full plate armour, he stomped back into the corridor. Grateful to the camera for motivating him to spend an afternoon in such a satisfying way, and eager to browse the photos on a larger screen, he rushed to his room.

This is the last picture taken in the shoot, and probably my most favourite one. I just like the colours, lights, and especially the train. :-) It only keeps me wishing for more dynamic range, because it was impossible to make the highlights in the top right corner lower, without sacrificing light in the darker parts of the photo.