D 12 - Late Hands

Od Dark Light Back

It's a yesterday photo, I admit. But I like it and the photos I of sleeping dog which tried to make today didn't work out because the dog is a wreck after yesterday's fireworks and he won't lie steady and let me click around him with the camera and tripod.

Equipment

Canon A570IS with built-in flash.

What I learned

Built-in flash is not a useless gadget and you can use it to make good photos. Just not very often.
Trying to make some good photos of a living (although barely) dog while babysitting is not a good idea. Maybe I'll still have a chance to shoot the dog later today.
I'm beginning to understand what kind of commitment this Project and active photography is. I'm not bored or tired of this at all but I see that I sacrifice other entertainment options on a regular basis.

D 11 - Y2K+10

Od Dark Light Back

Od Dark Light Back

Happy New Year!
The photos are too straightforward to write anything about them. This is simply a happy time!

Equipment

Both: E-510 with ZD1442, no flash.

What I learned

In 2009 I learned that... Hahaha! Forget it, I'm on booze.

D 10 - Garlic, garlic on the wall

Od Dark Light Back

Od Dark Light Back

Still loving to carry the A570 IS compact Powershot with me (and composing photos with 2,5 inch LCD). Today I made a ride on the kitchen. I started with shooting this bunch of garlic from a distance to show how the stalks cross to form a star shape. It didn't look bad, but things started to become more interesting when I got close to them.

Equipment

Canon Powershot A570 IS, one lamp close on a wall and a stronger one further on the ceiling.

What I learned

Compacts are handy, cheap and toy-like and that makes me much more playful than with DSLR (even as small as E-510). And that keeps my mind open for more weird photos. And in photography on the web, where people can access more good photos than they can perceive, weird is better than sublime.
Still I wouldn't swap my Olympus for high-end compact camera. A DSLR and a small compact as a complement work just fine.

Internal stabilization and ability to focus just a centimeter or so from the front lens makes A570 IS a great tool (or was it "toy"?).

D 9 - Urban Horror

Od Dark Light Back

Urban Horror.

I got back my Canon A570IS from my sister and this is a huge relief to have a camera in your pocket instead of a bag being a regular drag.

This is a snapshot I took while coming home from a walk downtown. It was made at 1 sec exposure so no wonder it got all blurred but I really like imperfect photos, mine or others. Since the composition was fine and the mood as well I decided to spice it up with some textures and give it a go.

Equipment

Canon Powershot A570 IS and a pair of gloves.

I changed exposure levels, noise and sharpening (go figure) in Lightroom and added layers in GIMP. One was a worn floor tile and the other a wooden surface with some editing (both textures downloaded from Deviantart). I used Overlay mode for texture layers visibility, added some noise and gaussian blur and adjusted brightness and contrast on both of them.

What I learned

Textures are for people to use so it was the first time I used them but - as with tone splitting - not the last time for sure.

I saw an ad of new Olumpus Pen camera with Kevin Spacey. The bottom line was that he didn't want to feel like a tourist but have childlike fun with photography, so he wanted the new compact camera not a new DSLR. I heard another ad like that on some Polish radio for a different company.
I totally agree with this guy: "The best camera is the one you have with you." And the more handy your camera is the more likely you are to use it frequently.
So maybe it is this year's marketing idea of the major camera producers but I have give them a big thumbs-up for finally dropping the Megapixel Race and giving people small cameras with big (in physical size) sensors. About time they did!

D 8

Od Dark Light Back

Ho-ho-ho!
My plans got changed and I couldn't get to the cathedral to shoot the crib. So I thought about some studio/macro photos. First I took some big Lego bricks, put them on a white towel and arrange some lights, but I wasn't too happy with results. Suddenly I noticed this spooky looking roots of the orchid on my widow. The light was ready so I only had to do some acrobatics with a tripod to get it close enough to the plant to hide the pot... Which reminds me that I still have to remove a CD box from underneath it.

Equipment

E-510, ZD1442, cheap chinese tripod, CD pie-box, two regular lamps with shades.

What I learned

One trivial thing - I would use a good background screen or a way to make one.
One general thing - plan your shoot ahead by stay alert for unexpected opportunities.
General remark - macro and frog perspective photos are the most cost-effective ways to put some interest into trivial subjects.

D 7

Od Dark Light Back

Exit our Santa through the front door...
This Christmas is a sticky subject. I would like to tell you that this is the last photo about it but I planned to visit a crib by our cathedral tomorrow, so I suppose the next entry will be in the holiday mood as well.
I came up with this shot while watching a late night rerun of some CIA-supercomputer-plans-to-kill-the-president movie. With the lights far in the background I put the camera on a gorilla tripod and Santa near the other edge.

Equipment

E-510 on a gorilla-pod with Helios 44-4 for its long focal length. No flash, only Christmas lights and two dim lamps: one at the wall by the tree and the other right from Santa figure.

What I learned

Helios gives a nice bokeh... but wait! This aren't exactly pretty background lights! They are sharply cut hexagons. I didn't notice that after stopping down to f 1:8 the bokeh changes shape. On the other hand I moved from larger apertures to increase the sharpness and decrease the level of background blur. Now it seems that I should have moved the figure and the camera closer to the background instead.

Gorilla-Pod is not as stable or precise as a regular tripod but it is small, light and flexible. It was a good buy.