D 96 - Watch the weather change

It would be an awful waste not to take a few shots of this gorgeous clear sky we were having this week. Even more since a storm front is headed our way from Germany due to visit us on the weekend.

Equipment

S630, program mode with +1/2 EV bias.
Some highlight recovery (in the bottom left corner) and sharpening done in Lightroom.

What I learned

I got into a habit of saving photos in RAW files. Subsequently I learned to adjust the camera settings not for directly optimal effect but so that there is maximum information in RAW file for further digital development in Lightroom.

I want some change now. I'm not making any large prints of my photos recently, so I don't need all that 100% zoom clarity. I'm publishing my photos on-line with no more than 1200x900 output resolution. I can afford to go SooC: Straight out of Camera. I'm gonna make photos the old way - only what I set in camera and on scene determines how my photos look, not the (digital) lightroom mambo-jumbo.

D 95 - Cone

A spruce cone, one of the treasures gathered while walking in a park with a two year-old.

Equipment

E-510 with 6+15mm extension tubes and Pentacon 30. On a tripod.
Changed to monochrome with selective color mix, adjusted levels and sharpened in Lightroom.

What I learned

I was considering publishing this photo in color, it had such a nice warm colors:

But all in all I decided that colors are stronger in the background than the cone and divert attention from main focal point.

I was surprised when while taking this photograph my camera refused to turn on the long exposure noise reduction. I was changing modes back and forth and it was the same everywhere. I knew this option was active when I was doing the same kind of shots before. Only later I realized that I'd changed shooting mode into a series of shots and that (go figure) blocked noise reduction.

D 94 - Foggy morning outside

A shot through my kitchen window.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

I have to keep the spherical distortion more in mind when making photographs of architecture or as in this case through architecture.

D 93 - Geometry

I'm trying to make photos on this blog at least remotely relevant to what happens to and around me. This is a daily blog after all, so why not make it work as a sort of diary, right?

The relevance in this case comes from the fact that since last evening I've been jetting my guts out in a strike of what we call here a stomach flu (and wikipedia tells me that so do you). This beautiful geometry is a ceiling in my bathroom.

Enjoy.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

Keep your hands clean, don't share your utensils and cups, avoid elevators and public transport when possible. I dropped 3 kilos since Sunday and I almost lost my consciousness over the sink, or rather I did but just for a second and I kept on my feet.

The horror...

D 92 - The Factory

This is an old factory being adapted to a modern tenement house with lofts.

Equipment

S630 shot through a car window.
Saturation, sharpness and levels in Lightroom.

What I learned

I had never been a fan of HDR or high sharpness and saturation photos. But when I get a sort of dull colored photo I can either push the contrast and make it a monochrome photo or like today, artificially increase the saturation.

D 91 - Father to son

Taking repose on the park bench, father and son.

Equipment

S630.

What I learned

Portraits do not need to show faces to be meaningful.