D 129 - Depravated

From the "My Way or the Highway" series. This time I went for panoramic shot comprised of 7 stitched photos.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
Stitched in Canon Stitch Manager.

What I learned

I need some better stitching software, because despite exposure being locked throughout making all 7 photos there are visible stitching lines (or rather bands) particularly obvious in the sky areas.

Comments, please!

I just re-enabled Comments to the posts.

You are welcome to let me know what you think I do right or what I'd better work on some more.

Or you can just let me know that someone just pissed you off and you need to vent it on me and my photos.

D 128 - Lesser Deities

Traditional Polish wooden figurines of saints. They are a sound part of our folklore. They often don't depict any specific saint or even no saint at all, just a figure taken from everyday village life.

Their crude style suggest that their origin lies well before Christianity and it's saints.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442

What I learned

I learned that I've already shot 17 thousand shots with my E-510. Which means that the shutter life-span is a growing concern for me. It is not unheard of for those cameras to give up after 10k shutter actions but I suppose that 40-50k is mean average.

It is a bad news but potentially a lesson as well. Most successful photographers say that to make good photography you don't have to point-and-shoot at every scene which grabs your attention and fire a rapid series of shots at it. Masters of photography shoot few photos. What they do more is think, feel and look around themselves with analytic, not just enthusiastic, eye.

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 125 - Sitting idle

My son watching his favorite cartoons.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

I like portraits made with wide-angle lens. Generally I'm rather after surreal, impressionist quality of portraits than the nuances of classical portraits which are supposed to be favorable for the model. It's the surprising and unusual in people that I like to see.

Colors

I'm about in a third of the way with my 365 days Project.

I wanted to concentrate on the simplicity and beauty of monochrome photographs. I still do. But I've noticed that most of my recent photos were color.

I hope this is just the thing that Spring does to me with the sudden flood of extra sunlight hours and intensity. In a way its a result of not working out photography ideas but documenting beautiful sights and details.

That's nice but that is not why I started this 4 months ago. I wanted to improve my photography, not share snapshots of my surroundings.

I need to refocus on the original aims and get back to compose photos. Black and white photos which are better for composition and form studies.

Like this one:

D 124 - Infloration

The chestnut tree, which I have planted from a crooked twig dug out from underneath terrace stairs, blossoms for the first time this year.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

Series of shots which I took trying to portray this flower buds was (contrary to the shots of the motorway construction site) too focused on the subject and lacked a proper background or secondary subject contesting with the main one.

D 123 - Loader wanted

One of the favorite toys of my son.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

D 122 - Back-lit trunk

A trunk of an aspen with a stick pushed in from the top with the camera put low on the opposing side to the setting sun.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

Golden hour ftw.

At some point you begin to think that you don't even need a subject to get a nice photo at dusk or dawn. It may be even true. All in all, what your sensor registers is light, not the subject.

D 121 - Dead Dog

A dog. Asleep. Right in the middle of the busiest pass in the house.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
Developed from RAW in Lightroom: levels, color mix, sharpness and just a 1-2% of a frame cropped from the top.

What I learned

Coming back from the land of no editing I admit that many shots should be leaved as they come out of camera without any changes and only some need anything more than sharpening and a slight crop correction.

There is however no way I can imagine making b&w photos without playing around with the RAW file in Lightroom. Just to show my point, here is the same photo as it came out of E-510 in jpg format (click to enlarge):



With each level of zooming in the amount of detail lost becomes obvious. And remember, that in Lightroom I was working on the original 10 megapixel file, so I was able to witness 10x more details that this 768x1024 file.

D 120 - Where is T-Rex?

Shooting up the tree is one of those cliche but effective techniques. In this case the poplar has a long bare trunk with some branches (still leafless after the winter) at the top.

To me it looks like one of those prehistoric giant ferns.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
Saturation, levels and sharpness corrected in Lightroom.

What I learned

Cliche techniques and compositions are not to be avoided during the learning process.

D 119 - Birds

Bird tracks in a river mud. Part of "My Way or the Highway" series.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
Developed from RAW in Lightroom: saturation, levels, color mix and sharpness.

What I learned

After the time of posting straight out of camera shots I'm trying to assimilate the skills learned into my regular photography. I think the most important thing is acceptance of the original crop. Framing the scene properly is what I should expect myself to do before pressing the shutter.

D 118 - Ivy

Nature shots at sunset. These were taken on a shaded side of a large tree trunk.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

When avoiding direct sunlight golden hour is also very good for black and white shots.

D 117 - Tracks

A photo from a series of shots of a nice spot that will be run over by a major East-West trans-European motorway in a few months. Some terrain bulldozing has already taken place.

I plan to call this series "My Way or the Highway".

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

I'll make a comment to the entire series of shots I made, after I reviewed it on a PC. I made too much similar general shots and panoramas. In a series there must be more shots showing details and single objects.

D 116 - In the Fountain

I liked the reflection of staircase, people and lights in the orb but wasn't sure how to show it. Besides it was a bit dark and my point-and-shoot limited my possibilities.

Equipment

S630.

What I learned

Always take a walk around the subject and check the frame edges before shooting.

D 115 - Growing

One of my favorite objects (and subjects) for photography: free standing tenement house.

Equipment

S630 with a +2/3 EV bias.

D 114 - Rain filter

Some more exploration of natural filters. Entrance to cemetery shot through wet windshield.

Equipment

w810i

D 113 - Flowers interwined

A pair of spring flowers.

Equipment

E-510 with Helios 44-4.

What I learned

I gave into the temptation to edit the photo. I took it in JPG but I didn't like a distracting fragment of another flower at the edge. While I was at it, I also improved the tonal curve and noise/sharpness settings.

It feels that after 2 weeks of posting only Straight out of Camera photos I learned to look at my photos critically first and only then when it's necessary edit them in Lightroom. Before I knew I would edit every photo anyway so I didn't really care how the photo looks like before I "develop" it digitally. I only cared to capture as much tonal information on the sensor as possible without clipping.

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 111 - Warm light

A lamp lit in the night.

Equipment
E-510 with ZD1442.

D 110 - Half-lit grapes

Night shooting of grapes on a dish.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

I tried some back lighting with a flashlight from underneath but the results weren't better than this photo.

D 109 - Dog couchant

Another snapshot made with mobile phone camera.

Equipment

Sony-Ericsson W810i.

D 108 - Road stop

A parking lot with barbecue next to some gas station North of Czestochowa, Poland.

Equipment

W810i Sony-Ericsson phone.

D 107 - Metal box

I'm reaching a breaking point as far as Straight out of Camera photo posting is concerned. I will either move on to give more thought to every photo before I take it or return to shooting RAW and editing in Lightroom.

I'm dissatisfied with the quality of my photographs which haven't been optimized with editing software.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

D 106 - Self check

Easter can be quite straining for the organism.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

D 105 - Too close

Macro and lighting experiments.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442 on tripod, white-sheet reflector.

D 104 - And now we have... EGG!

Happy Easter! Hang on to the Spring power!

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned
I'll just skip this section for remaining overdue posts.

D 103 - Spring sprout

First signs of spring sprouting from under the grass.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

I must always keep some photos ready to upload for sake of contingency. Like this time when I had to devote all my time to my family and the Easter festivities. If I even had a few photos ready I could just prepare posts to publish in advance.

D 102 - Mustang

I know I promised no more photos made by my son, but this one I actually like. A matchbox car on a town street-like carpet.

Equipment

S630 on macro setting.

What I learned

I think that it is the pedestrian crossing stripes and fence that make this photo dynamic.

D 101 - Was Andy sober?

I had a great idea for a photo after puring myself some of this fine stout with an exceptional foam.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442 and Pentacon 30 + 21mm extension tube.

What I learned

Combined photos have never been my strong side. I always seem to be missing something important after I combine the elements.

D 100 - Cute...

First of all I'd like to state that "I know" and "it won't happen again, I promise".

This is one of the first photos that I've taken together with my 2 year old son. We were pointing the camera together, than I held it steady and he pushed the shutter release button. And then we reviewed the photos together. There was much rejoice.

Equipment

S630 in Auto mode.

What I learned

As much as the aim of this Project was to make better photographs in the end, isn't it really just about the fun of photography? It well should be. This therefore makes it at great photo for day 100 of my Project.

D 99 - A grain of pine

Macro shot of a well dried log.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442 on a gorilla pod.

What I learned

Sidelight is a blessing for black and white photography. Enhanced textures won't hurt in color photos either but they are crucial for monochrome.

D 98 - Disturbing branch

Shooting against the light on an overcast day.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.

What I learned

When shooting for Straight out of Camera publishing, I have to learn how to adjust white balance. This time I had to choose between better colors and better crop. The good crop won, but the photo certainly suffers from brownish hue.

D 97 - Nightime sneaking

The moon was close to full, the sky was almost to clear. The night was bright and inviting without being overwhelming.

Equipment

E-510 with Pentacon 30. Mounted on gorilla-pod.

What I learned

I was using a manual lens at night with very little ability to precisely focus the lens and with a need to have large depth of field. I ended up with exposures from 30 to 60 seconds and ISO boosted up to 200-400.

I'd decided to start shooting SooC (Straight out of Camera). So no editing here, although I had to fight myself not to correct the exposure with Lightroom sliders. I broke at noise removal and did some.

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.

D 90 - Not all that glitters is gold

Macro close-up on a hand sharpened pencil.

I'm trying to make some improvements to the visual side of the blog every once in a while. I think that the dark borders around photos help to frame the compositions within them.

Equipment

E-510, 6-15-27mm extension tubes and Helios 44-4. Flash with a soft-box, aluminum sheet reflector.

What I learned

Not every macro proves to be as fascinating as those of thorny chestnut skin. Perhaps most man-made objects are just a very poor imitation of mother nature.

If you look at natural objects you will find them showing new fascinating textures from naked eye view all the way to atomic structure. At every level there is an organization of elements because the nature "made" them as a bottom-up designs - the characteristics of the smallest particles forces specific arrangements at higher levels.

When man designs and produces an item, he thinks top-down. He knows what he wants in the end and then works out what materials and arrangements to use at smaller scales. And there is no particle in this universe that would naturally form itself into a blender, bicycle or a Zuiko Digital lens. So at some structural level man-made things have to be clumsy, simplified, dull and ugly.

Or so says Zarathustra.

D 89 - Master Frodo?

Taking advantage of the warm lamplight in my living room.

Equipment

E-510 with ZD1442.
Tone levels and color mix in Lightroom.

What I learned

With relatively slow shutter speed (1/10 - 1/20 sec) making shots in a series greatly increased my chance to capture a any sharp photo.

D 88 - Incarnate

Limitations fuel creation. Again.

I was thinking about a nice close-up shot with my palms spread around an eye for a Pan's Labyrinth like effect. But since I had a macro rings with Helios lens on, I decided to keep this magnification factor and work something out within it.

Equipment

E-510 with all three extension tubes (yeah, now I remember - that's the name) and Helios 44-4 on a tripod.

Cropped and changed to greyscale in Lightroom.

What I learned

This is the mode of work I like not only with photography. It is more like a philosophy for me. I try to approach a subject with some idea in mind and then react to the insights I have while working on it, experiment and come up with something different than what I planned but exciting and satisfying.

D 87 - Does not apply to trams

Just a scene as seen from a car.

Equipment

Samsung s630.

What I learned

Any dirt stains on the windshield can be made irrelevant by putting the lens very close to the glass. Reflections however are a big concern and difficult to avoid when the shot must be done quickly.

D 86 - Chestnuts

Macro festival goes on.
These are some dried chestnuts skins from the Fall. I never thought that they had so much texture and color in them.

Equipment

E-510 with 15mm (the 1st photo) and 48mm (the 2nd one) macro distance rings between the body and the Pentacon 30 3.5. Tripod
Aperture f/22, exposure 30+ seconds. Mirror lock-up.

What I learned

Distance rings are excellent but they severely decrease the amount of light reaching the sensor. So do very small apertures, which are necessary to get some depth of field.

I had some wild ideas today, one was to put the distance rings between the camera body and the Tair 300mm lens. I got a 1:2 magnification factor from a distance of about 2m from the sensor. But the lens is so heavy that I can't hold it steady enough for macro.

D 85 - You smoke?

An older photo, from February. But it matches today's weather perfectly.

Equipment

Nokia 6233 phone 2MPix camera.
Selective color saturation and sharpness in Lightroom.

What I learned

If you know how to use yours, the mobile phone camera is your best friend.

I love the reflections from convex surfaces. They are even better than fish-eye lens shots.

D 84 - Red Hole

I got myself a new toy!
Three macro distance rings for m42 lens mount. This allows me to use my Helios and Pentacon lens as excellent macro equipment.

With all three rings attached Pentacon 30 3.5 focuses from about 1-2 cm from the lens surface and the Pentacon a maximum f/22 aperture. I must measure what magnification factor it has effectively. But this looks like about 1:1 or even larger.

Equipment

E-510 with 3 macro rings and Pentacon 30 3.5 at the end.

What I learned

Gadgets are a fuel for inspiration. I myself regret to conclude this but this is a verified fact.