Stockholm at Night

The gamla stan (old town) of Stockholm is a very interesting place, especially at night. The old cobblestone streets are narrow, cold yet cosy, and deserted. A few confused backpackers like myself, some Swedes hard at work navigating to the right place to party, and... well, solitude. It was just me and my camera, and a whole lot of freedom, as I was sitting on a bench in front of the royal palace, pondering anything and everything, and smoking a fine cigar.




The moment I've entered the departure hall at Bratislava airport, a terrifying finding dawned upon me: I have forgotten the tripod packed in my room. It may have been a good thing, partly, because my experience is that lugging a tripod on board of a plane is often a huge problem with the security. Perhaps you could use it to beat someone to death and then mount your camera over their body to get the perfectly stable shot!

So yeah, in case you noticed that there is some noise and blur in the photos, this is the reason. These are certainly not praiseworthy from technical point of view, but I think they capture the scene pretty well and I like them anyway. :-)







Swedes are very kind and enjoyable fellas, and never hesitate to share a story and a drink. This is the reason why I, merely few hours after landing outside the city, managed to find a bunch of nice guys who I could spend some time with. I found them trying to get over a fence from their party place to the old town, and my paparazzi side took over for a while, so I was photographing them secretly, not to spoil the moment.


Then we talked and had a great laugh - although I was worried for a second that they would not appreciate it, they were amused, and invited me to come with them. I really enjoy meeting foreigners... there is always something special about those moments, especially the part of me that misses Erasmus in Trondheim, or even Chicago, got really sated that night. If you guys are reading this, here's one huge thanks, it was really lovely and you're welcome in Bratislava or Brno anytime. :-)



And a little toy photo to conclude. :-)

Vigelandsparken

Sunday in Oslo was all you would expect from a day of such name, the weather was completely different from the boring clouds of the day before, and our first part of the day was spent on a beautiful autumn walk around Vigelandsparken, a lovely sculpture park, part of (my very own ;-)) Frognerparken, where all the famous and, admittedly, somewhat crazy statues (made) of naked people are. :-)








Monolitten is a breathtaking creation that took no less than twenty years to design and build. I really appreciate how dozens and dozens of bodies entwine together. According to wikipedia, they are rising towards heaven and represent man’s desire to become closer with the spiritual and divine. It portrays a feeling of togetherness as the human figures embrace one another as they are carried toward salvation. Whatever, it's just a massive phallus built of naked people. ;-P

The panorama is created in hugin, a very handy and powerful open source tool I've decided to try thanks to the love it gets from Linux.com and Yenya.



What a gang. :-D


And finally, the old man who looked down on us for Eva and Zdeněk climbing on one of the statue pedestals. There are a lot more photos of them on my Facebook album for the trip, give it a click. :-)

Los Oslosos (HDR)

I haven't been to Scandinavia for a month and, well, I missed that place enough to get back there. This time it was Oslo, made easier and cheaper by the fact that all it took to persuade Zdeněk to let us stay at his place, were twelve bottles of booze. The weather on Saturday was as Scandinavian as it gets, so all I could do to prevent my shots from being dull and boring was resorting to HDR yet again...






I had little time to prepare or compose the shots, as the others were impatient and restless, and I'm not very satisfied with the results. Then again, Oslo is not a very photogenic city, definitely not as nice and cosy as Stockholm or Trondheim. Eva, however, was enchanted, so if I don't post anymore, she'd probably strangled me. :-)




It was a wonderful experience overall, I saw a lot of things I always wanted to see, got to eat a lovely dish of whale meat, relaxed a little and spent some time with my dearest. Can't wait for another trip such as this!

Stockholm in HDR

The light was mostly so good there wasn't much need for experimenting, but I still couldn't resist firing off a few bracketed shots for HDR... I like a few, you judge for yourself. I admit the feel is somewhat unrealistic, which anyone may or may not appreciate.





And, although not exactly HDR, a bird. :-)

Stay tuned for Stockholm night shots! :-)

Weekend in Stockholm

It was late at night, months ago, me and my buddies were enjoying some quality male-only time and laughing our asses off at some distant place better left unspecified, when my phone rang. I grinned at the screen as it was my dearest, and ran out to answer it... "Tee hee," she giggled, "we just had [censored amount of ;-)] tequila shots and decided that we wanted to go to Sweden!" All I managed was a general sound of amused surprise. "Seriously! RyanAir offers plane tickets for €10 including all the taxes. It's ending tomorrow, you need to decide now." Well, she needn't say more, as I'm always all for any mischief like this.

There were six of us supposed to come, but as the departure date approaches, I ended up alone. The excuses others had varied from "we have no money" to "I broke both my arms while riding a bike," and at the last minute, not having any mates, or even place to stay, not even I was decided whether to go. Then I woke up on Saturday around noon, and said hey, what kind of a fool would I be to waste a trip such as this? The plane is leaving in three hours, plenty of time to book a hostel, pack, and go for it! And just in case you care, I paid less than €70 for the entire trip, including food... fantastic.




This guy was really crazy, jumping off a molo that was almost 2 metres high in his kayak. Not the kind of stunt you see half-drunk city boys pull off when rafting on Vltava river. :-D



The weather was really wonderful, especially considering it was autumn in Scandinavia; I was used to seeing several rainbows a day in Trondheim. :-) Great to be lucky once in a while.


Not an uncommon sight. Not a surprise either, Swedish girls have been making British girls look ugly for centuries, after all. ;-)






I didn't know Sweden was an Islamic country... :-)



This street is renowned as the very fanciest boulevard in Scandinavia. Great shopping, too!

Dear children, sorting your trash greatly helps the environment!

Yeah, well, fine! I'm gonna go build my own park! With booze... And hookers! In fact, forget the park. ;-)

They must have anticipated my arrival in advance, I really didn't expect to stumble upon a statue of me and Jana!

Enough for today, stay tuned for night and hdr shots, coming (relatively) soon! ;-D

Last dose of London...

...at least this year. Although there will be some random people shots up later. :-) Enjoy!

The Tower of the London of Steel

And there's another batch coming your way. No blah blah today, whatever, most of you don't read my rants anyway. ;-) These are all from the Tower and around. We didn't go in, as it was crowded and expensive, and I'd been there before, but it was a nice walk nonetheless.

These photos have a bit colder colours, and look good on my display. Please let me know if I overdid it and it looks too blueish on yours. Also, I wish to register a complaint, as shooting when it's as cloudy as this is a bitch, original photos were all hazy and boring.

Spying at LSE

For those very few hard-core enough to venture beyond LSD, there is a special treat in London. Posing as one of the world's most überbest universities, only its name suggests that there's more to LSE than they would like us to know. ;-)

The preliminary results of my espionage mission on this target were pretty confusing, as it seemed that they managed to hide this secret very well, while at the same time exhibiting rather lax security allowing me to sneak into their enormous library, or freely eat at their cantina. :-)

This post is mostly here for my dearest, to whom I've promised to take a few shots of the campus, as well as for our friends from the LSE Summer School 2008. So go ahead and shed a tear of nostalgy, or perhaps two. Miss the place?




PS: I haven't forgotten about the post I've promised about my post-processing techniques, but I just can't afford the time to write it right now. A realistic expectation is that it will be here within several weeks. :-)

Squirrels!

This one is for the kids mostly, although there is one photo here that I especially like: The squirrel with the old woman's hand. She was a real deranged hermit :-), the squirrels had some strange affinity towards her. Kulida will kindly forgive that there are only two squirrels, yet several photos. :-P All shot in St. James park.






And I'll also add the hermit for Filip. :-) And a little bird also on her hand. It was a nice and entertaining shoot overall, and I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail and magnification I was able to squeeze from the lens.

God Must be a Hippie

This post is long overdue, because I just couldn't get myself to process the photos. As for the post-processing, I know these look unreal. But that's not my fault! There is no HDR applied, and color is not edited at all! Seriously, I have deliberately left all the Hue, Saturation, Luminosity, Vibrance, and other similar sliders alone. The colors are exactly as shot, and much less crazy than they were in reality. On the second thought, perhaps I should have made them more vibrant. :-)

So, being unrealistic enough on their own, that is sort of their selling point, because the sky was INSANE that evening. I went out and was like "WTF? The end is at hand, Sabaton has finally met Amon Amarth in the Final Battle." Seriously, whatever deity involved must have been stoned.

I only made a few documentary shots, nothing really artistic, so don't grumble about the composition, or stuff, I was being chased around by dad who wanted me to mow the lawn and his patience was getting thin. :-) Needless to say, I was moving it so that I was always facing the sunset. It turned even better later, but I couldn't go get the camera and reshoot, because he would probably break my lens with a spade. :-D

London Revisited (HDR)

My little treasure obviously got addicted to schoolwork after getting her degree, so she decided to attend the LSE summer school in London. As I would have probably died of sorrow back here alone, I had to come visit her for at least a while. Besides, it was a great opportunity to get back to my beloved London, stay at her place for cheap, and breathe in international student's life for one more time.

I booked the flight with SkyEurope, only to have to argue with who had to be the most annoying airline employer ever, because those lousy crooks made me pay 1280,- for the privilege to check-in my case. I will think several times before I fly with them again.

As a related experience from the airport, here's a transcript of my dialogue with a security officer in Bratislava.

Him: (Making me show him my 0.5 l mineral water bottle.) "Don't you know you can't take liquids past the security checkpoint? Throw it away at once!"
Me: (Playing perplexed.) "Really? And why would that be? It's only mineral water, after all."
Him: (Annoyed.) "It could be an explosive."
Me: (Taking a sip from the bottle.) "I see. It tastes pretty damn good for an explosive, wanna try?"
Him: "I told you to throw it into the bin."
Me: (Thoughtful.) "Wait a minute... what if it really is an explosive?"
Him: "What?"
Me: "Wow, you guys are just precious. You take a suspected explosive from most of people who pass the security checkpoint, and then just put them all together into the same plastic bin right in the middle of a crowded airport? Have you got a death wish?"
Him: (Stares blankly.)
Me: (Still drinking from the bottle.) "Seriously now. It's as dangerous here as it would be in the air. If you are taking my water away because you suspect it's an explosive, I demand it to be treated as such! Why don't you call for a bomb disposal unit?"
Other officer: (Loses his face and starts laughing.)
Him: "Throw it away if you want to fly today."
Me: (Laughing as well. Having finished the bottle, I pack it back into the backpack to refill it later...) "Sorry, I don't have any water anymore. Have a god day, officer! And take care..."

We stayed at Rosebery hall, an LSE dormitory some 30 minutes from central London with most of the sights readily accessible on foot, including the LSE main campus.

As Jana had to attend classes daily and later got sick, I had a lot of time to enjoy on my own, accompanied only by my trusty camera. It's not that I don't love walking around with anyone else, but I hate to spoil shots because I am hurried, and don't want to keep them waiting... so sometimes I find solitude rather enjoyable.

When I was about to build my DSLR setup, I was a little worried that after a while I won't enjoy the shooting anymore, that I'll be bored and the camera will idly sit on a shelf, begging to be at least dusted once in a few months. Well, more than 20000 photos later (that's a little under hundred photos everyday, on average) I have to say that I'm still as satisfied as when it was new, and still learning new stuff every time I go out. :-D

The light conditions were often rather photo-unfriendly, with either harsh direct light, or heavy clouds, so I decided it was high time to start experimenting with techniques I've had in my cross-hairs for quite some time now. Multiple exposures, HDR, tone-mapping, exposure blending, relighting.

It was easier than I thought to get it "somehow", but it will be pretty difficult to get it right - the tools are rather complex and I am far from having mastered them properly. There will definitely be a post coming soon explaining how to create photos such as these.

The post-processing of photos in this post varies, you will find photos that are fairly similar to a normal exposure (with a polarizing filter) but also photos that don't look realistic anymore and even resemble paintings more.

I would really like you to comment whether you like this, or if there is anything here that is too "avantgarde" for you, or you think the post-processing was screwed up. I went pretty far sometimes, so I don't really expect someone to like them all. Just please, pretty please, more feedback this time.







And this is just from the first day... there will be more coming. Sadly, it takes ages to process them in this fashion. :-) Overall, I have to say I'm pleased with the results.

Bratislava under Siege

In early 19th century that frog-eating midget Napoleon thought it was a great idea to lay siege to Bratislava and bombard it and destroy a lot of valuable cultural heritage and whatsnot... well, some people obviously feel that is a reason for celebration and reenactment, and as little Filip wanted to go and see some of that, so went I and my camera. Sadly, we didn't get to see most of the program, so I only have a bunch of random shots. On the positive side, I feel like I've really improved my flash technique. :-)

Walrus on the Lawn

Although not technically a member of the odobenidae, I believe that this speciman has much in common with the marine mammal. Thus, although Janka likes to call him Blesk (Flash), I usually call him Mrož (Walrus). There's just something about his personality and phonic demonstration that makes me sure he should have been born somewhere in the Arctics with giant tusks. :-D

Perhaps his most favourite source of nutrition are tennis balls, which he pops effortlessly and devours with great passion. ;-) Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a wee bit.

When confronted with a stray tennis ball, Walrus darts after it furiously and although sometimes he gets disoriented, usually he manages to prevail.

Lately we've been having some quality time together no less than three times a day, so in case the next time I see you I act like a marine mammal, you know that Walrus has won the battle of wits against me as well. Then again, I might offer more resistance than a drooled-over tennis ball.

Notice the strong difference between shadow and direct sunlight on the photos. Sometimes it can be a real pain to compensate for this. :-(

Also, as some of you may have noticed, it is most unjust that I blog about Walrus sooner than I do about Freya. I plead guilty and declare that this will have to be corrected sometime soon.

PS: You have to admit... the similarity is just uncanny. :-D

War on Photography

I've been planning to blog about this topic for ages, and now the mighty security guru Bruce Schneier did that for me in a Guardian newspaper essay:

What is it with photographers these days? Are they really all terrorists, or does everyone just think they are?

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We've been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Just look at this bastard. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate to kill a kitten. :-P

Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography.

Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don't seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets? Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer?

Because it's a movie-plot threat.

A movie-plot threat is a specific threat, vivid in our minds like the plot of a movie. You remember them from the months after the 9/11 attacks: anthrax spread from crop dusters, a contaminated milk supply, terrorist scuba divers armed with almanacs. Our imaginations run wild with detailed and specific threats, from the news, and from actual movies and television shows. These movie plots resonate in our minds and in the minds of others we talk to. And many of us get scared.

Terrorists taking pictures is a quintessential detail in any good movie. Of course it makes sense that terrorists will take pictures of their targets. They have to do reconnaissance, don't they? We need 45 minutes of television action before the actual terrorist attack -- 90 minutes if it's a movie -- and a photography scene is just perfect. It's our movie-plot terrorists that are photographers, even if the real-world ones are not.

The old town of Bratislava clearly promotes terrorism without any qualms...

The problem with movie-plot security is it only works if we guess the plot correctly. If we spend a zillion dollars defending Wimbledon and terrorists blow up a different sporting event, that's money wasted. If we post guards all over the Underground and terrorists bomb a crowded shopping area, that's also a waste. If we teach everyone to be alert for photographers, and terrorists don't take photographs, we've wasted money and effort, and taught people to fear something they shouldn't.

And even if terrorists did photograph their targets, the math doesn't make sense. Billions of photographs are taken by honest people every year, 50 billion by amateurs alone in the US And the national monuments you imagine terrorists taking photographs of are the same ones tourists like to take pictures of. If you see someone taking one of those photographs, the odds are infinitesimal that he's a terrorist.

Of course, it's far easier to explain the problem than it is to fix it. Because we're a species of storytellers, we find movie-plot threats uniquely compelling. A single vivid scenario will do more to convince people that photographers might be terrorists than all the data I can muster to demonstrate that they're not.

Fear aside, there aren't many legal restrictions on what you can photograph from a public place that's already in public view. If you're harassed, it's almost certainly a law enforcement official, public or private, acting way beyond his authority. There's nothing in any post-9/11 law that restricts your right to photograph.

This is worth fighting. Search "photographer rights" on Google and download one of the several wallet documents that can help you if you get harassed; I found one for the UK, US, and Australia. Don't cede your right to photograph in public. Don't propagate the terrorist photographer story. Remind them that prohibiting photography was something we used to ridicule about the USSR. Eventually sanity will be restored, but it may take a while.

---

Yeah. I soo can't wait. :-) But I can't really blame those poor people, my 77 mm diameter lens could easily fire even a large RPG. So beware, for next time you find yourself on the wrong end of my viewfinder, it may be more than just a bird that flies out! :-D

As related information from nycphotorights.com, which has some pretty interesting posts as well, if you can chew through all the excessive exclamation marks and immature posting, (the admin must be like 15, not more ;-)), there is one about Fox reporter doing a story on photographer harassment on the Union station in Washington D.C.

While he is interviewing the Amtrak spokesman, who says that photography is perfectly alright in the Amtrak part of the station, they both get assaulted by a security guard who makes a big speech about how photography is illegal and not allowed at the station.

Priceless. You just can't make this stuff up, it's way too unbelievable. :-D I wonder if anyone gets fired for this... See the video here.

Brno at night

I've posted a photo topic everyday since Monday, and today will be no different. (Although tomorrow probably will, I can't afford to spoil you like this. :-P I'm just emptying my photo buffer.)

This was one fine evening out with Jana, though she probably wouldn't agree -- although I was planning to explain everything to her, and make her as involved as possible, it turned out that I had a lot on my plate as it were. Perhaps because it was my first time out with a tripod, I kept tweaking it all the time, while trying to find optimal manual settings for each shot, including the white balance and other pleasantries, so I paid too much attention to all that stuff which likely bored her to death. :-/ Not to mention the timed triggers and repeating some shots multiple times. Sadly, I am a mere man, and real multitasking is something I have yet to learn.



Petrov is as fine as churches in minor cities get, I like it much more than St. Martin's Dome in Bratislava. At least some fine architecture came out of the dark ages, when secularity meant heresy and heresy, in turn, meant that you could expect the Spanish Inquisition... if only it wasn't entirely unexpectable. :-P



It's a true landmark in Brno, and some of the alleys around it are pretty nice, especially at night. Not quite as nice as the ones in old town of Bratislava, though.


Eerie. :-) And this one is pretty rare, as this tower is only cleanly visible from a little spot and is usually lighted during the night -- not this night for some reason.





I really do like this city. :-)

Shooting my friends...

...would be pretty gory, so instead this post is about capturing the light they reflect. :-)

Most of you have probably already seen these, but they never made a blogpost, and as it's the exam period, I have way too much time on my hands, so now's the time. :-D

These photos are from three rather nice sessions -- the Bryndza session, SlavCon, and Grill session. Many thanks to Kubo for organizing the two, they were most enjoyable.

I took a lot of photos those days, so they each made a separate gallery:

• Bryndza
• Slavcon
• Grill

And here comes a handful of rather random picks, that link to the galleries as well...











Stay tuned for Brno night shots, coming tomorrow. :-)

Stormshooting

Just a few snapshots from my balcony one fine day...





It was a magical moment indeed.

Fireworks... yeee!

Long time, no photos! Well, I didn't have too many excuses to go out and shoot recently. However, Ignis Brunensis changed that, so I borrowed a tripod and tried to give it my best shot. As I never photographed fireworks before, and lacked a remote trigger, I am not entirely satisfied, but hey, they are not entirely bad and at least I have learned some lessons for next time.






As for the last one - I have ruined many pictures because of blur, like this one. I was pretty far from the scene and had to use long focal length. The tripod was fairly small and unstable for my huge lens, and whenever I pressed the shutter the camera started to shake. All of the shutter times were over a second long, too - there's no way image stabilization can compensate for that.

Some other photos from the night are here.

More beasties from Vienna

Quite a few weeks ago we spent a lovely Sunday in Vienna with the kids, and one of the main Sehenswürdigkeiten on the program was Haus des Meeres, an equivalent of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, mentioned in a post few months ago. These photos are slightly worse than the ones from over there, as the light conditions were much, much less photography-friendly. Still, I was not as idiotic as some people who were using direct flash to photograph bats. At that moment I felt slightly sorry for not bringing my external flash, as I really felt like discharging a formidable blast at 100 % of power right into their Ungesicht.

The range of animals they have over there is quite impressive, especially considering that their premises are nothing more than a house of average size in downtown Vienna.
And turtles. Oh, turtles. I love turtles. Turtle, also known as korytnačka, želva, skilpadde, tortue, Schildkröte, tortuga, skjaldbaka, черепаха, kurakura, χελώνα, bruņurupucis, سُلْحَفاه,