D 57 - Winter boots

Still sharing stuff from the weekend. Hope you find it's worth it as much as I do.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

Only few posts ago I found out that I can change the contents of http code with link so that click on the photo shows it in the full browser window instead of redirecting to Picasa album.
Now you can easily access higher resolution view of my following photos.

D 56 - And when you see a tunnel, don't follow the light.

A passage out of Jurassic/Fairy Tale theme park. Yes, that means dinosaurs and Cinderella standing shoulder to shoulder.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

The aperture...
I left it at 1/3.5.
And it shows.

I usually worship the rule of thirds. The only repetitive exception I notice in my work are photographs of alleys and portals of various kinds, when I see the central composition to be the only fitting.
I should try this conviction one day and put such object in a golden mean composition for example.

D 55 - House on a hill

It was at the begining of evening golden hour. Go figure. With those clouds above, it could be midday as well.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442 on a tripod.

What I learned

Tripod can be used as a monopod as well. Just keep the three legs of the tripod together.

D 54 - They once stood proud

Orchards must be revitalized every few years, to keep the fruit harvest optimal. How corporate.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

Snow with heavy clouds flattening down the sunlight need strong contrasted subjects to be interesting. There are barely any shadows. The World seems like one big photography tent on such day.

D 53 - Charming the Spring

Another photo that sort of came out in green-yellow hue. Looks like someone here is looking forward to the snow melting away.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios lens. Longer exposure in place of flash.

What I learned

In body stabilization of Olympus as compared to better high ISO performance of Nikons and Canons is a double-edged thing. It's a pain in the back when you want to catch your kid running around or other scenes with people in motion, because it allows you to shoot at longer exposures but it doesn't compensate in any way for the motion within the frame.

However in such cases as my today's photograph it is great to have an old manual lens stabilized and shoot just slightly softened picture at 1/6 second shot from hand.

D 52 - Mistletoe's Log

Today I tried and tried again to catch an interesting triangular composition. Not entirely without successes but while I was doing so I encountered another fantastic frame just waiting for me a hand reach away from my front door.

A mistletoe hanging on here since Christmas with a part of poplar branch which it fell down with.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios 58mm lens. Flash with softbox.

What I learned

My triangle shaped compositions are getting better and better.

Prime lenses force you into seeing the world through their focal length. I shot for last 3 weeks almost exclusively inside my apartment but I did it with 30mm Pentacon (60mm after 2x crop factor) and few times with my Zuiko 14 - 42mm zoom.

Once I put on the 58mm lens (116mm after crop) I found new photos in the very same places which I exhausted with shorter focal length(s).

This forced perspective limitation provokes creativity and exploration. This makes photography fun and even adventurous in a way.

D 51 - Cheesy moon with strings attached

Today I was trying to catch a triangular composition.
But I failed. It was quite ironic that I suddenly saw interesting compositions in all but triangle shapes.

I can't complain, I got at least two nice photos from the other shapes that exposed themselves to me so aggressively.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 30mm.

What I learned

I'm not sure why couldn't I get the tonal range in the background, which I saw on the camera's LCD, from the RAW file in Lightroom. It came out almost uniformly black.

Vintage lenses with their lomo effects should not be shunned but embraced and explored. And getting special effects from your lens isn't the same as editing the photo in Photoshop, really.

My Pentacon does pretty poorly against the light when counting objectively. But with the photos I'm making it doesn't bother me a single bit.

D 50 - The World, spinning around

Big day today.
We cut our son's hair... and he ain't like it a little bit.
Fortunately he quickly forgot about it and went on having fun all around our apartment.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442, flash on slow synchro, softbox.

What I learned

Slow synchronization of the flash is a fun technique. It works great with panning. The thing is to make a good balance between natural light coming on the sensor and the flash strength.

D 49 - The air is thick

Another thing I had on my mind for some time. Because of photography and because of that I need to clean it, of course.
I joined it with horizontal rhythm theme I was looking for today.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

Another photo left for the 5 mins after I intended to go to sleep.
When will I learn?...

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 47 - High

I'm glad. It looks like I start to like my own photos. Another afternoon walk with the son.

Equipment

Samsung S-630.

What I learned

"Be careful!"
As I reached for the camera to my inside pocket of the jacket, kept there to keep the batteries warm, I was following my son with my eyes. I took the camera out in my woolen gloves and as I shifted it to my right hand I accidentally caught the short line attached with one of my left hand fingers and dropped the camera into the snow.
Nothing happened, lucky as I was, and I could go on making photographs after I cleaned it with a tissue. Still the lesson learned is to be careful with the camera.

D 46 - Bad news

No staged shots on this day again.
So this is true story: bad news on the phone.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 30m, flash with softbox.

What I learned

There is a fine line between catching real emotions and being a voyeur with a camera. This is particularly sensitive issue when you are shooting your own family. What can you show and what you mustn't?

The problem isn't that simple because people photographed would feel offended not by the way they look in the picture but by how they felt at that moment. And that isn't always easy to judge for the person behind the camera.

This is just a thought. Actually this news, reception of which I photographed, was bad but not like a surprising tragedy.

D 45 - Blue as a boy can be (in January)

Today I was having some more practice with shooting without looking through the viewfinder or on LCD. Some shots were quite nice but I'm posting this one from my walk with son simply because it was shot with point-and-shoot camera. I like to think of a p&s as my handy second camera. It is no worse than my DSLR for taking pictures because it isn't the gear but the man behind camera who makes a photograph good or bad.

Equipment

Samsung S-630, "Program" mode with disabled flash and exposure corrected by +1 EV.

What I learned

I wasted about 30% of the shots while trying to find out what this Samsung can and what it can't do in the snow. I was lucky (as a photographer, not as a father) that the harsh sun became overcast about 15 minutes before we got out. Otherwise some more shots would be wasted by burned highlights probably.
Anyway the camera didn't do as bad as I might think.

D 44 - 'Banana'

"Banana!" This is just how my son over there demands to get some fruit.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442, flash with softbox.

What I learned

Sometimes there isn't just time to sit to work it out properly and any photo must make do.

Another thing is this funny effect that I get when making a photo with exposure time around 1/20 - 1/5 of a second with flash. I wonder how to use it creatively.

D 43 - Oh, it's snowing! again...

Oh boy!
I learned today that not only you can go outside, you can also go somewhere by a car. Even to another town (or in my case - village). You may not have time to shoot anything when you are there but a snapshot or two, while in traffic can be fun.

Equipment
E-510 with ZD1442, handheld from a car which was almost stopped.

What I learned

Always have the camera on you and always look out for opportunities. In this case at first I thought that the photo would be horrible if shot through a snow-stained window in a moving car without any way to stabilize the camera body. But I gave it a try and proved myself wrong.
Maybe not entirely, because two out of three shots were blurred. But it was worth it for the sake of that remaining photo.

D 42 - The Doors

Oh man, is it good to break on through to the outside. After so much time at home I was finally able to get out to some daylight even if it was just being 'devided by the night'.
I never even had to get any further than half a mile from home to get some great photos.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 30 lens.

What I learned

There is no one thing more important in photography than health. If I weren't stuck home for the last two weeks I'd be able to get out with a camera at least three or four times a week.

D 41 - Happy Birthday, Gosia!

For she's a jolly good fellow (or 'gal' I should say)!

As requested by today's birthday celebrator I present: Toucan contrasted with something soft.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios lens, flash with a softbox.

What I learned

The pleasures of contracted work. Perhaps this contract was quite peculiar but still I was asked to do specific photo in limited time. I was surprised with how tough it is to create something satisfying in such conditions.
I wasn't at all surprised however that I started doing it after 10 p.m. That's just me.

D 40 - Fragile

A tulip just before falling apart.

Equipment

Samsung S630 camera, macro setting. Delayed shutter release and on a tripod. Aluminum foil sheet as a reflector.

What I learned

No reflector - no indoor shots with natural light.

I was sloppy with clearing the background. Once again I was too focused on the camera and 'getting it right' that I forgot to actually "look".

D 39 - 90 Degrees

I wasn't particularly inspired for some few days, but I'm trying to be regular with the Project 365 and I made myself take the camera, tripod and make a photo which I thought about yesterday. So this is a square composition.
I can't say it knocks me off my feet. But I can't remember any square based composition which really impressed me.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 30 lens, on tripod.

What I learned

I was wandering if I had to take longer focal length lens to make this square look right-angled and flat but it was o.k. with Pentacon's 30mm.

Unfortunately I noticed again how vulnerable to front light this lens is. I had a strong light source at about 45 degrees right from the optical axis of the lens but the contrast on that side was dramatically reduced. I admit, that I don't have a lens hood for Pentacon yet.

I'm still not happy with this composition. Again it isn't really a square.

D 38 - Not a square

Today I was looking for a square compositions to continue the geometric theme.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios 44-4 lens.

What I learned

Squares never quite worked out for me. The box was rectangular, yes. Yet the first shots I made proved to consist of triangles as far as composition was concerned. The later photos which I made straight from the front of the box were not anything that I would like to share, so I posted the triangular one.
It could be worse, I could be stuck with only square compositions unable to come up anything more dynamic.

Anyway tomorrow I'm back to square (one).

I've been looking for usable range of applications the highest ISO setting in my Olympus but without any firm success.

D 37 - Teatime

Oval composition. I was already thinking about it yesterday but only today I found something that could work out fine.
I treated the photo with split toning for tea-like colors.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon lens.

What I learned

Why on earth didn't I change ISO to 100-200?
I thought I've learned to check the settings before I start making photos. Apparently I can't take any knowledge for granted.

There is something about standard focal length. If I could have only one non-zoom lens it would be something between 40 and 50mm.

D 36 - Viewfinder off

Just another sweet baby photo but the point is that I was practicing framing without the viewfinder. The book told me to do so. It suggested that it helps in getting a sense of composition.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon.

What I learned

It is weird to shoot like that. The book which I took this suggestion from is quite old and I sure wasn't written in the world of live-view and barely acknowledges the appearance of digital cameras but the exercise is strangely appealing.
It makes you look at the scene not at the camera. You must set all parameters beforehand and then think only about the scene which you want make into a photograph.
In addition it feels vintage. You hold your camera at the chest or waist level and try to aim it at the right direction. It's a useful skill on its own to learn.

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 34 - Milk Monster

This is why I'm still so excited with my new Pentacon lens.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 3.5 30. Flash with softbox, window on sunny day on the right hand side of the frame.

What I learned

I'm getting better at using automatic metering for fill flash. But it still is instinctive guessing not sound knowledge.
Any ideas about something to read about that?

D 33 - Crouching tiger

"Nysa" van half buried under the snow on a monitored parking lot. It haunted me for a week or so, because I can see it from my window lit at night.
The guard there told me that it is actually up and running and even has LPG installation. The owner wants some thousand polish zloty (about €200) for it.

This post is late, because yesterday my connection was down and I forgot to reset the router afterwards until today morning.

Equipment

E-510 with my new shiny and pretty Pentacon 3.5 30.

What I learned

At night I'd probably have to get f:1/1.4 lens to shoot sharp photos at ISO 800 hand-held. My E-510 has ISO 1600 setting but the level of noise makes it next to useless. I must take a tripod with me every time I plan to soot after dark.
I might on the other hand buy a monopod and use it also as a walking crane. I'd kill people with brutal remarks concerning their life and death and pretend I'm House MD.

Talking to people while you are out there making photos can get you a long way. This was always somewhat hard for me. I preferred to concentrate on the camera and stay invisible.
But some time ago I realized that a good photograph of a scene involving people should make the camera (and the man behind it) not a spectator but a participant of the scene. Just like when we watch a scene through our own eyes, we are a part of the scene as well. And other people around instinctively react to us, get out of the way, briefly look at the cameraman and such.
That is the right way to go. This makes the photographed scenes authentic.

D 32 - Where are you DDR?

Hahaha! My new 25-or-so-years old lens has just arrived today. East German Pentacon 35mm f:1/3.5. It may not be in mint condition but it was quite cheap and works just fine in my collection on 'standard prime' vacant position.
And just look what it can do!

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 3.5/30, flash with softbox and some "studio" lighting setup. I just love to work in my studio. Such a comfort and professional touch.

What I learned

They used to make such a good equipment in the old days. Not plastic-on-plastic like modern amateur class lenses or cameras. I'm glad they did. Autofocus is fun and useful and DSLRs have such a tiny viewfinders (especially Olympus) but still old manual lenses are a bergain for their picture and build quality.

D 31 - Better in square

I'm still finding new subjects in my apartment.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442, built in flash.

What I learned

I always took pride in how I always use manual or at worst aperture priority, in how I know my camera and it's functions and so I can use them for creative purposes. Today I was taught wrong. Not by the book I got, not by anyone in person or on the internet.

No. I just wanted to check how exposure compensation and flash exposure compensation work together depending on certain menu setting and accidentally saw a comment on how exposure compensation works with manual setting.

Nothing much, but I always used manual flash settings in manual shooting mode and it never crossed my mind that the camera can automatically compensate the strength to adjust to chosen aperture and shutter settings. I rarely managed to hit the right flash power to expose correctly. Going on automatic flash exposure will make my life a lot easier at most times. Although I know that occasionally I will still want to make sure that the flash goes of at minimum power for example.

Bottom line: Read your manuals and then go back to them wherever you have a chance. Maybe my Olympus E-510 is no EOS-1D but it still was regarded as having by far the best customization options and additional functions for its class. And an unclear menu to add to that.

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 29 - The art of maroon

I got this e-book that says my photography can be better, see. It says that I need to work on making my eye see and by brain compose. It says that there are points, lines, areas and edges that really count in photography. It's got Don't panic! written on the cover exercises to put the theoretical concepts into practice.
It told me to photograph stones or rocks. I don't have any! I got walnuts and chestnuts.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios 44-4 hand-held, softbox for built in flash, sheet of white A4 paper and smaller sheet of aluminum foil as reflectors, LED light in my mobile phone.
I set the whole thing up in a corner of a sill with paper sheet on the right and aluminum on the left. I had to edit out some of the aluminum foil in Lightroom, because it was partially visible as a darker area (what a precision of reflecting surface setup!) in the upper right corner.

What I learned

Reflected light is a treasure to be deeply studied. Composition is the basic building brick of photography. To the point that having mastered it one can make great photos without much of an interesting subject.
You'll likely to hear me complaining for those exercises some more. I plan to improve my workshop with the book: Photography the art of composition.

D 28 - Just make it quick

Today I wanted to do something fun and witty. I came up with this idea for stylizing an egg for a kamikaze with a nasty grin and putting it into my microwave. But my skills of egg-decoration failed and the photos were just stupid. Nevertheless the inside of a typical oven presents itself quite interesting if you don't listen to the mistress of the house yelling at you, how dare you show people that her oven is not squeaky clean.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

Trying to make a planned photo is just as fun as achieving a satisfying result.

D 27 - Orb

This is a goodbye photo for this years Christmas Tree. I'm taking it down tomorrow.

Equipment

Samsung S630, mobile phone flashlight.

What I learned

I need to get out with the camera more. I'll start this week.

D 26 - It's in the eye of the beholder

Od Dark Light Back

The Devil - instinctive, animal part of us.
Always tempting us to let go of anything deeper than what we can see with our eyes and what our minds can understand and to revel in the passions of our senses.
But if we subject to it, we become prisoners of the mundane. Space and time become our chains. We grow old and scared in our hearts.

I was struggling with this topic and I wasn't sure if a photo of clock can sincerely fit it. But to me this clock with a creeping plant is a symbol of constraints of our inner animal.
I guess it's just in the eye of the beholder.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442 (Helios was too narrow, I tried), flash with softbox, tripod, aluminum sheet reflector and a mirror to see what's on the lcd.

What I learned

This was quite a trick to frame properly with the back of the camera body just 5 cm away from cupboards. I turned on live view and used small mirror to see what it shows. Framing wasn't perfect but I didn't need to correct it by more than 10-15%.

I am more and more concerned by the loss of detail caused by small size of this blog frames. Sometimes it is a shame that you can't see the fine details of those shots.
Maybe I should double up those photos on some photo sharing site and post links? I sure can't do it on Picasa because it doesn't allow to link precisely required size of photo. So if I uploaded 2MP photo the closest size I could link to would be 400 pixels instead of 440 as I do now by already uploading exactly that size.

D 25 - ... or lack thereof

Od Dark Light Back

Today the keyphrase is... Taking final decision. Which gave me quite a challenge. I even gave up and went for anything around that could be used for a photograph. It wasn't that bad because I came up with quite a nice shot:



But when I visited my general storage closet (Anybody know the proper word for this little separate room for tools and all the things you need to keep out of sight?) I realized that this completely messy place fits the topic by contradiction. Most of things are there because I can't find any immediate use for them and don't want to get rid of. On top of that I can't make myself look through those stuff and clean up the place. I bet you know how it works with those closets. Only psychopaths and accountants keep them orderly.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442 and flash with softbox for the main photo.
Samsung S630 on a tripod for the one with crystal shell. It was additionally lightened from beneath by a built in flashlight in my Sony Ericsson mobile phone.

What I learned

All things can (and should) be also considered by reversals and photos made just by the way of working on some other idea can be mostly interesting.

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.

D 23 - Work suspended

Od Dark Light Back

Today I gave myself a random topic and then I tried to catch it on film memory card. The topic was 'Suspended work' and I formulated it at 6 p.m. so it wasn't that easy to do. Fortunately there is work to be done at home too.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442, flash with softbox.

What I learned

I'm still trying to master the use of flash with a softbox and again it seems to work best as a fill light complimenting some external light source and since I have to set the flash to small output power I have to go high ISO which is tricky with Olympus DSLRs.

Working with a set topic in mind helps to focus my mind on the theme and sharpen my eyes to find it around me. I think that this is something that can be used any time when there I have no specific idea for a photograph (which is quite often).

D 22 - Bottoms Up

Od Dark Light Back

Od Dark Light Back

I got the idea for this from some old DPS assignment "Filters". People used all kind of weird stuff as photographic filters, including glasses caught from various angles.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD4015, pop-up flash with diffuser and a blue coke glass.

Od Dark Light Back

What I learned

Once again giving a twist to your photography, however wild one brings the fun back into the experience and is a playful and rewarding in a surprising way mean of growing your skill.

D 21 - Three weeks is the time of biggest crisis

Od Dark Light Back

Three weeks is the time of biggest crisis when running Project365 or so I was told. I'm not the guy to paddle against the current so I gave myself a break today.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD4015 lens, built-in flash with DIY softbox. A tongue.

What I learned

Sometimes you just can't push it. Sleep it through. Goodnight.

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 19 - Magic components

Od Dark Light Back

RGB - the components of color TV magic. Tiny colored light spots that fool our eyes and minds to see illusions.

Equipment

A570 IS on a tripod about 5 cm from the CRT TV screen surface.

What I learned

Capturing the right moment isn't that easy with live television broadcast. I should have used a still frame from my DVD with more colors in it. Here the red dots are barely visible.

I chose compact camera for this, because they are pretty good with macro having small optics and matrices. The magnification factor didn't seem to be enough. For this shot I should have used E-510 with reversed Helios 44-4 lens mounted in front of ZD4015. They give a very good magnification factor but extremely shallow depth of field.

D 18 - Stainless

Od Dark Light Back

I had a good idea to use my DIY softbox with a compact camera built-in flash as a makeshift off-camera flash for my E-510. The immediate results weren't too great, but technically it worked, as long as I gave myself some time for manually releasing the compact camera flash by using delayed shutter release and longer exposure time - in this case 4 seconds.

Eventually I made this shot without any flash. The light came from Christmas-tree and dimmed lamp at the other wall of the room.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios 44-4 lens on a tripod without built-in flash. A570 IS stuck in the softbox working as external flash was not used in the above photo.

What I learned

Unusual light and angle can change ordinary home tool into a strange object. Macro ftw.

D 17 - Time to go, Starboy

Od Dark Light Back

I have been playing around with my new softbox today. It works quite nice as a main light source but also makes a great fill light, which is something I have been looking for a while. I like to use the natural light (sunlight or indoor lights) and now I can use it without having to use a tripod.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios 44-4 and my new DIY softbox on pop-up flash. ISO 800 and 1/90 sec exposure time.

What I learned

I had today a primal fun taking shots of everything around with my new gadget, because it opened new opportunities for me. Still I have to compromise by going high ISO and getting grain (which I learned that is mostly chroma noise which can be easily dealt with in Lightroom with minimum loss to sharpness).

For now I'm ignoring the differences between tungsten or sunlight and the flashlight in color temperature because I like doing b&w photos. But it is a problem to be faced in the future.

D 16 - Positivism

Od Dark Light Back

Od Dark Light Back

Today my work on photography was more a groundwork. Since my tight budget keeps me safely away from an external flash then I had to go DIY.
I sadly don't remember the exact website which gave me an idea of making a softbox for pop-up flash from cigarette box, aluminum foil and a napkin. It goes much as H E R E except it is slightly more... MacGyver.

The photo is example of how the softbox works in a candid portrait. I like it. And my favorite model at least smiles this time when she punches me with her wool mittens.

Equipment

E-510 with pop-up flash popped up, perfume box, aluminum tape, a sheet of lignin and some scotch tape.

What I learned

It works! I should make some time another one from stronger materials and giving more light upwards to get some reflected light from low ceilings.

D 15 - Brutalism

Od Dark Light Back

For thirty years I keep wondering who designed this? and why? The building was completed in the end of 70s so I thought that it must be some misunderstood application of modernist concepts.

Wikipedia says:

"Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and where concrete is used, often revealing the texture of the wooden forms used for the in-situ casting. Although concrete is the material most widely associated with Brutalist architecture, not all Brutalist buildings are formed from concrete. Instead, a building may achieve its Brutalist quality through a rough, blocky appearance, and the expression of its structural materials, forms, and (in some cases) services on its exterior. (...)

Brutalism as an architectural philosophy, rather than a style, was often also associated with a socialist utopian ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers, especially Alison and Peter Smithson, near the height of the style. Critics argue that this abstract nature of Brutalism makes the style unfriendly and uncommunicative, instead of being integrating and protective, as its proponents intended. Brutalism also is criticised as disregarding the social, historic, and architectural environment of its surroundings, making the introduction of such structures in existing developed areas appear starkly out of place and alien."

Equipment

Canon Powershot A570 IS. Natural light from city lights and a series of lamps just below the frame.

What I learned

I must plan ahead for what will I shoot on a given day. Otherwise my photos will become more and more boring and I will gradually lose interest in this project.

Raw ugliness of this building (which I happen to live in) does hold a strange aesthetics which can be re-discovered by a willing eye. I should hurry with appreciating the geometries and textures while it is still left unchanged. The other 3 buildings in this condominium project have been insulated with polystyrene foam and repainted loosing their brutalist character.

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.

D 13 - The Dog

Od Dark Light Back

The snow has arrived in large amounts. And so did my cold. Therefore I was working on how to make photos of the snow from the inside.

You probably don't want to know. This photo is another proof for the fact that good ideas often come to us while we are on a toilet seat. This was the case for the photo above and this is exactly the vintage point from a toilet seat. You definitely didn't want to know. Anyway...

Equipment

E-510 with ZD4015 (the longer kit lens of Olympus DSLRs giving 35mm film equivalent range of 80-300mm). Natural light only.

What I learned

Nothing is more important than health. If I were not sick I would have taken a "photowalk" and get some truly Winter landscape photos from the fields and orchards.

Snow outside gives a very pleasant light indoors. Particularly for black and white photos where it doesn't matter that the light is cold in color.