Paris Deserves Another Post

It is well known that photographer's best friend is the [Delete] key. Unless they have a Mac, that is, in which case they are screwed. ;-) But if you can't force yourself to delete enough of them, that's when you have to resort to writing multiple posts from a single shoot... still, it's very true that most of my pictures suck, as do everyone else's, so let's hope I didn't overdo it. :-)

Louvre is a magnificent place at night. Majestic and calm, inspiring and breathing history ‒ you can almost hear the walls whisper their memories. It's also a nice place for a romantic walk with a sweetheart, as ‒ unlike rest of the town ‒ it's not too crowded.

Notre Dame, despite being too famous for its own good, is still my favourite Paris landmark. There just is something about its Gothic architecture contrasting with rest of the cityscape, and the gargoyles on the roof hungrily observing the streets for easy prey, that makes it very special to me. The simple fact that such cool creatures dwell on the roof of a Christian monument is awesome. :-D In the previous post there are two similar ones - the main difference is the photo processing technique used ‒ HDR in once case and Exposure Blending in the other. But still - this one is my favourite, although it seems to be more amused and mischievous than dangerous. :-)

From all the weird and wannabe artistic shots I took, this simple "point straight up and shoot" still works best for me. :-)

This is a high contrast non-HDR version of this photo. Which one is better?

Here you can yet again see the dark interior difference between Exposure Blending and HDR. I have a HDR shot similar to the first photo here. The organ photo was a bitch to take without a tripod, because I had to zoom in a lot, especially the over-exposed bracketed one. So I overdid it and made it look like a painting. :-) And this statue is a single-exposure photo that favours play of light and shadow, made possible by the fact that there isn't any overwhelming source of light present.

Noticed the CCTV cam watching you from the middle flower? :-D

Either I wasn't exactly in the centre, or the masonship isn't completely accurate. Probably both. :-D


What's better than one TGV train? Four of them, of course. Notice that the last one is a different type, with maximum recorded speed of no less than 574.8 km/h.


This last one is just playing with perspective, most relevant to those who know where the statues are relatively to the tower. :-) I don't think I've ever seen this take on the Eiffel tower, anyway.

Thanks for watching. As always, constructive criticism is most welcome. :-)

A day on Île-de-France

When the Rock'n'Roll train arrived at Gare de l'Est Friday around noon, we only had two and a half days to get back home. Even though, fortunately, I've been to Paris before, it was so little it was intimidating. To make things even worse, we lost all of Friday to organisational issues, due to problems with the tickets and difficulties with accommodation, and as we wanted to spend most of Sunday in Strasbourg, all we had left was not much ‒ a single day.

The city was just as I remembered it ‒ French. For me, it means a feeling of disorganisation, chaotic traffic, strikes and protests, an ever-present feeling of negligence... but on the other hand great food, attractive women, a lot of glamour, art, and history, all mangled up to form a society that somehow miraculously manages not to fall apart. :-)


Although this is not the line, I like it how elevated "rail" in Paris drives on rubber wheels instead of tracks... makes it a lot more survivable than Chicago. Trust me, I had a track right under my window.


Needless to say, you can't see much in a single day. It was almost a sacrilege to leave so soon, after only seeing a few major landmarks. As I knew the city pretty well already, including the streets of Montmartre, I wasn't too worried about it, but I imagine my friends would have really loved to stay. :-)

What would a city shoot be without at least a little HDR? :-) Dunno, I haven't tried that in quite a while. Also, this time, I'm premiering a new image-processing technique called Exposure Blending. It has basically the same principle as HDR, but achieves the effect much less intrusively, or if you want, without the painting-like effect. See if you can spot those shots. :-)


Notre Dame is very classy, and unlike those posh priests in London with grand robes up their asses, no one was fretting about photography there. The bad thing about this were the myriads of random people discharging one flash after another into the domes... the good thing was that I was able to shoot photos like these without being bothered.


This is the HDR version on this shot, in the next post, I will also upload a more contrasty non-hdr sub-exposed version.

As my camera is still being serviced cause of its shutter failure, I borrowed a generation younger EOS 50D from a friend. I was very satisfied with the camera. It was a nice evolutionary step, especially from the usability/ergonomic point of view... and it never hurts to have more megapixels to crop.

This is a pretty rare photo... those of you familiar with traffic around the Arc surely know why. :-)

To sum things up, it was a wonderful, albeit somewhat costly weekend trip, and I'm looking forward to have more of those. :-) And a good trip needs a good company, so if you'd someday like to join me, leave me a note...

Story of the Rock'n'Roll Train

"The tickets to the show sold out in 11 minutes," ZZ told me sadly on the phone. "If we really want to see them, we need to travel somewhere else..."

And so the idea was born. When a legend such as AC/DC go on a tour, there's a good chance that it's their last one - and one you really don't want to miss. So the decision was made - it doesn't matter where in Europe we get the tickets, we go there...

I could write epic novels about the French, who went to great lengths to reinforce all the stereotypes - including but not limited to going on strikes just for the sake of it when it's least convenient, not being able (or willing) to speak or even understand English (with all honours to the few exceptions), or their many organisational blunders that cost us four hours of precious time in Paris... but no one's interested in such a rant anyway. :-)



As we couldn't make our minds up in time, plane tickets were already unavailable for a decent price, so we chose to take a train to the show. I didn't realise how symbolic it was until the show started and the real Rock'n'Roll train appeared at the stage. The best way to go were Interrail <26 tickets, five days for €159. As there was a reservation or some unidentifiable surcharge to be paid on almost every train, the price for transport alone was over two hundred, easily making it the most expensive show I've ever been to.


On the other hand, the German ICE and French TGV trains are really cool, and as far as land-based transportation is concerned, easily preferable to cars when it comes to speed and perhaps even convenience. Sadly, new Czech Pendolino trains are really just a joke compared to these.

Just to clarify, the only photos in this set that are mine are the few from before the show... as I didn't dare bring my camera to the mosh pit. There were people queuing at every entrance for over six hours before the show... and the venue, Stade de France, was awesome. With 80 000 seats on the triple-tier tribunes alone, the feeling was very majestic and inspiring, especially for the few of us right below the stage. :-D The crowd was really powerful, making Mexican waves around and around.



As for the show itself... let me just say it was freakin' awesome. I tried not to have exceeding expectations, but that's hard to avoid when you travel by train through half of the continent, and pay a small fortune for the trip. But oh my, this was an experience that is definitely going to give me shivers when I remember it for years to come. The venue was great, the performance was breathtaking, the crowd was fantastic, the sound was brilliant, and overall I think this was the best show I've ever been to, possibly rivalled by Therion's Miskolc classical show - and that's saying something.



So to AC/DC I award the glorious amount of 100 goshu points, making it a supreme világos. :-) It's understandable why only the three of us went there, but if the rest of you get another chance, don't let it slip. Definitely worth paying as much as you can afford. :-)

And finally, for a weak teaser of what it was, here's a video.



Stay tuned for more of Paris coming soon!

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... (HDR)

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

The Tower of the London of Steel (HDR)

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 (HDR)

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. :-)

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.