Eye in the sky

This picture was taken at the rock pool near Los Gigantes on Tenerife. The pattern of clouds makes it as if there was a big eye in the sky. Lovely view and also great place to visit during travels!

Oh, and the land you see on the horizon is La Gomera, the other of the seven Canary Islands.

iPhone 5s, auto

Routine check

This picture showed on my Facebook today, as a reminder of what I posted a year or two years ago. In fact I was in Peru in 2013, but the picture had to wait over a year to actually be edited.

At the time of editing I was experimenting heavily with Nik Collection and the result was making a version with Analog Efex (see the second picture). However, seeing this picture today I thought it is a lot better than I initially thought and remade it using just Lightroom. I also (finally!) straighten it up :)

Nikon D5100, 52mm, 1/2500s @ f/2.5, iso 100

Same photo, old edit

Sur le Pont d'Avignon...

I am still travelling and taking photos, there is never enough time to develop them though. Too much happening outside the photo-bubble right now...

Just before the end of the year 2015, I have got a chance to visit Provence and one of the first places there was, naturally, Avignon. Too bad it was winter and the day was very cloudy in addition. Nevertheless, I am pretty happy with the end result.

The picture shows, of course, the famous Pont d'Avignon from the song. At the place I joked - as probably so many other tourists - that it was not worth visiting as it is not even whole. But it was. I just wish I could see Provence in spring, summer and autumn...

Nikon D7100, 105mm, 1/160s @ f/5.6, iso 200

Bretagne

For sure one of the top 5 pictures taken this year. Maybe even the best of them. Practically off-camera, (almost) without any global corrections and only local dust removal. White balance, contrast, unchanged. Very proud of this one.

We took a car for the weekend to visit few nice places around Nantes. The weather was better than the last time, even though it rained quite a bit during Sunday. Anyway, the sun was there when it mattered - towards the sunset. This shot was taken 1.5 hour before. But we also had a pleasure to watch the actual sunset on the beach of La Baule - no pictures there, eyes were enough. Really, an enchanting evening...

Nikon D7100, 270mm, 1/1000s @ f/5.6, iso 100

Spot the difference

When visiting Lake Placid on Easter weekend, I barely could recognize the lake I saw 2 years ago in the summer. However, even in its frozen state, you can still take a trip around the Mirror Lake!

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/3200s @ f/5.6, iso 100 (April 2015)

Samsung S2, auto (July 2013)

Pattern of pines

I went to Adirondacks for Easter, but this time not so much photographing.

However, just passing on the road, I managed to spot a nice, contrasting pattern of pine trees on the hill. Wintery landscape, hopefully one of the last opportunities this year!

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/640s @ f/5.6, iso 100

March 27th :|

The same morning, different place. Unlike the picture from the previous post, this one really captures the feelings of every person in Montreal right now. Which are: will it ever stop?? And - believe it or not - this photo looks even sadder in colour...

No matter. This weekend showed signs of spring. And yes, I've already went to buy coffee wearing only a t-shirt. Because I can! :D

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/200s @ f/10, iso 3200

Let it snow?

This is probably the most frustrating thing about Montreal in March: after a few days of sunshine and (relative) warmth there comes a morning like this... BAM!

The world is suddenly dark, the sky is cloudy, and the dreaded frozen flakes are falling from up there... It is nice in November, exciting in December, normal in January, already depressing in February, but March??

However, a beauty can be found in this, too. What I like about the picture below is how great the bokeh looks in ISO 3200. Usually I would shoot this kind of picture with ISO 100-200, but I may experiment with that high ISO grain a bit more.

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/1600s @ f/5.6, iso 3200

Through the Looking-Glass

This picture reminds of Fringe, the science-fiction TV show (mostly) about parallel worlds. Granted, there are no zeppelins anywhere in sight. Another easy to find parallel (sic!) would be that with Alice in Wonderland (Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There).

Mirrors are very special. Everything looks almost the same, but is not. And - even if it's only a moment of distraction - one can sometimes see something that can be only seen in the parallel world. Or at least I'd like to think so... :D

iPhone 5s, VSCOCam

Lights of McGill

And again, having the heavier camera in my backpack paid off (too bad I did not pack a tripod too)! I've been just returning home from a meet-up when this sight caught my attention. It was almost dark, only the sky was a bit lighter with one of those cloud formations that make pictures interesting.

Not having a tripod I improvised by resting my tele lens against the fence. With high ISO and VR mode active I managed to get a pretty decent shot at 70mm (105mm in 35mm terms) and f/10. I tried 85mm too (the second photo), but I like the framing in the first one better. On afterthought, I could have tried to step up the aperture a bit.

Nikon 7100, 105mm, 1/6s @ f/10, iso 3200

Nikon 7100, 127mm, 1/6s @ f/10, iso 3200

Dark Hedges of Mont-Royal

North Ireland has got its Dark Hedges, in Montreal - at least for me - that would be the park alley, an extension of Rue Rachel, that leads to the Monument of Sir George-Étienne Cartier. I pass this place almost every morning on my way to work. Today was a very sunny day, so I took my tele lens to make the most of it.

I tried two different versions - the original picture was the darker one. Then I tried the overexposed settings of the Silver Efex software. And I have to admit, the lighter variant looks better, more along the spirit of the season, which in Montreal - unfortunately - is still winter.

Nikon 7100, 255mm, 1/200s @ f/9, iso 100 (overexposed)

Nikon 7100, 255mm, 1/200s @ f/9, iso 100 (dark variant)

Stop winter!

A snowy Montreal Sunday morning - from a week ago. Not that this weekend was any different.

This time I tried a tele-zoom. Has a nice way of bringing the object on the picture closer.

Nikon 7100, 105mm, 1/100s @ f/9, iso 1000

In passing...

Almost leaving the Rosemont subway station, rushing to see a prospective apartment to rent, I was faced with this scene. Lucky for me it was a day when I took my camera to take some nice winter pictures. Unlucky that the settings were still in the "landscape mode".

But, considering it all, it is a pretty nice "still life" kind of picture.

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/8s @ f/16, iso 3200

Lost in winter

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/60s @ f/14, iso 125

Choices, choices... 

The moment I imported the photo into Lightroom I knew it has to be black-and-white with a colour accent. Few adjustments later I ended up with the picture #1 (below). The problem was, even though the red is strong, it wasn't enough to make the subject stand out from the background.

I thought blurring with a radial filter was the answer (picture #2). But the blur was looking very artificial, like I tried to fake a DOF very clumsily, as some of the critics noticed. Oh, I posted those two photos to the Street Photography group on 500px looking for tips.

After a bit more pondering, I finally toned down the background a bit, but without blurring it too much. A bit of shadows brightening, a tad of contrast and voila! The end result is exactly, what I was trying to show.

I had two good titles actually three) for this photo:

1. Lost in winter
2. Looking for summer
3. Which way to summer?

Ended up using the first one. What do you think?

Sharp (#1)

Blurred (#2)

Urquhart Castle

Nikon 5100, 82mm, 1/50s @ f/5.6, iso 140

Re-edit of the picture taken this winter at the Loch Ness. More summer-like version.

Superman

Nikon D5100 35mm f/1.8, 1/40s @ f/5.6, iso 200

Do your job, and do it well. This little man on streets of Lima certainly didn't mind his physique, when advertising a restaurant in Superman's costume. And great job he did.

The Lonely Mountain

Nikon D5100 35mm f/1.8, 1/160s @ f/22, iso 100

Still in the "process all the photos!!" phase :)

You have to be very brave (or insane) to leave in a city with a volcano near by. And Arequipa has three! Granted, they are not active (right now) and they look amazing with their snowy peaks hoovering over the warmth of the city.

On the picture: Misty, the second highest (5822 m) of the three sisters. But the one most beautiful!

The picture was shot with no AE bracketing and it needed some heavy editing with Nik Collection to get all the details in the background pop.

Some things never change (much)

Fujifilm X100s, f/5.6, iso 800, HDR

This holidays I finally visited my hometown after almost 2 years. And it feels like I were off for only few days. Same buildings, same people, same birds, same events (people are waiting for "just married" to emerge from city hall). Only the christmas tree is new/different.
And however boring Zielona Góra may be long term, still it was nice to wander the streets of my childhood. See also Nostalgic Zielona Góra 2013.

The winter is... staying

Nikon 5100, 18mm, 1/1600s @ f/3.5, iso 200

Snow falling on the St-Michael Church

Nikon 5100, 55mm, 1/2000s @ f/5.6, iso 400