D 237 - Fog at 40 meters above ground

Lousy weather but a glorious morning view from the window.

D 176 - Pretty far, dude...

Some guys were filming capoeira on the roof. It was raining most of the time and they stayed there for hours. Those two took a cigarette break.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD4015.
RAW edited in Lightroom.

D 162 - Crane

Long tele-lens shot from my window.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
RAW developed in Lightroom.

D 160 - A Cell

Part of a corridor in my house.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

D 154 - Trailer / Park

Another kindergarten shot. I spotted this lonely trailer on a desolate lot behind a new house from D 149. Then I found a satisfactory angle to shoot it from the kindergarten window.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
RAW edited in Lightroom.

What I learned

I'm more and more happy with my new, critical attitude toward making photos.
I don't take quick snapshots. I respect every shot like if I had a film with limited capacity loaded into the camera body.

As a result I come home with three to eight shots, each of them workable, some half of them interesting to my eye even after the first enthusiasm passes.

I don't get the nasty feeling I used to, when I look at my photos on PC and wonder: 'What the hell did I see in this frame when I pressed the shutter?'.

D 145 - Sunset +

Sunset on an overcast day.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
RAW file edited in Lightroom (levels and split toning with bright parts reinforced with purple.

D 140 - Canine Communicating

Village raised dog is trying to get his way with the city guys.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 30mm.
RAW file developed in Lightroom.

What I learned

I have a constant problem with standard focal length lens. The ones I can afford to own are manual prime lens or kit zoom lens. The first group needs to be focused very precisely if it is to be used at largest apertures, because of small depth of field and the kit zoom is too dark - having maximal aperture about f/5 at standard focal lengths.

D 137 - Leaning out

Another forced perspective from my balcony.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
In Lightroom: levels, blue filter, sharpness, noise, little crop to remove some distractions at the bottom and left edges of the frame.

What I learned

Photos don't have to be straight to be O.K.

D 134 - Generation Again

My son loves to climb on the desk under this window and watch the cars, clouds or planes. I'll be anti-climatic to inform that he usually laughs and shouts to me about whatever he sees down there. He was not even sad when I took this photo.

Equipment

w810i
In Lightroom corrected: levels (strengthening blacks), decreased saturation, split toning, sharpness and noise.

What I learned

Again the same conclusion: it isn't the lens or matrix that makes good photos.

D 127 - Cont'd

Another photo from my modernist concrete building shots.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442

D 126 - Bird's view on raw concrete

Finally I get to shoot my block before it is insulated and repainted. The works already begun and by this Winter it will not look as I remember it since childhood any more.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

Converging vertical lines of tall buildings when shot with wide angle lens are supposed to be avoided for classical, balanced photographs. I like them crooked and seemingly folding within, like they were on a brink of collapsing.

D 112 - Spider curtains

Equipment

E-510 with Helios 44-4.

What I learned

Apparently back-lit photos must be taken with some positive exposure bias. Without it this one came out to be about one EV stop too dark.

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 48 - The Grays

I promised myself to photograph this perspective of the block already some time ago. I missed an opportunity to catch it with some streaks of snow being blown out of the roof by high winds this for a few days week. I don't know why I was always figuring out how to set up my tripod in on my desk to reach up to this slim window just under the ceiling (a dictionary suggest to call it a 'ventilator' but I resist). This was done from hand.

Why the title? It looks the same in color as in black and white.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 30 mm at f/11, ISO 200.

What I learned

Don't get stuck at initial assumptions about technical requirements for a photograph. Give it a try instead.

Never walk by a frame you just discovered or imagined because 'you could always shoot it later'.

D 35 - Down the wells

Typical yards from the city Łódź.
Deep, tight and neglected. Yet still full of life despite their inhospitality.

Equipment

E-510, Pentacon lens.

What I learned

Pentacon seems to have some notable barrel distortion. It is only 30mm wide and a prime lens so I didn't expect any.

I wonder how much can I explore my apartment and the view from the window before I can't find interesting frames anymore?
It seems a little inert but keeps me going. What does it say about myself?

D 30 - Misty

Foggy day outside, ill child inside. I'll have to postpone my decision to go out with the camera more.

I noticed that I always use contrast adjustments on my RAW files to increase the output contrast. So I tried to go for something different this time.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios 44-4.

What I learned

This photo was done hand-held with window glass as a support but the ISO had to be high. It comes out that perhaps even more than with high contrast, low contrast photographs must be done with low ISO to minimize the noise.

I was kindly instructed how to upload larger photos to Picasa and then shrink them when embedding in blog. So now you can click the photo to see four times bigger photo in Picasa.

D 24 - The Star

Od Dark Light Back

Od Dark Light Back

High in the sky or just within reach? The star - symbol of hope and things we are looking forward to. This are my two takes on another random topic.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442 and in case of my son's photo built-in flash with softbox.

What I learned

This self imposed random challenges are a very inspiring concept. It almost seems to easy to just pop up with some more or less universal symbol and work around it. At least it is so for me.

D20 - Dug in

Od Dark Light Back

We have some serious snowfall this weekend. Shooting outside seems a bit to hard on my equipment so I stayed on a warm side of the window (again) and captured this snow climbing up the balcony door.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442 on a gorilla-pod.

What I learned

The shapes of snow layers were quite elusive with the natural backlight, although they were quite clear to see with a naked eye.

Clean the window before you shoot through it!

D 14 - The Same River

Od Dark Light Back

The same snow, the same cold, the same limitation. After taking shower i noticed how the vapor condensed on a window created interesting vignettes and worked from there. Then when I review first photos I saw that the bar dividing the window pane looks a bit like a lake shore.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD4015. Natural light.

What I learned

Hangover does increase my creativity. Conclusions are dreadful.