Climbers at last light

This sort of fits the moment - I've just come from Italy, where we spent an awesome day climbing. This photo is from last November, from Vipava (I've already posted one photo from this trip). We were already by our car when we noticed one guy still on the wall - we were already in shadow, while the last rays of sunlight were shinning on the wall. Only after taking this photo did we see that there are actually three people still climbing. You might have to click on the photo to see a larger version, because all three are pretty small - one is in the middle (shirtless), one to the right of him in a blue shirt, and the third person is on the left side of the photo in a red shirt.

Sea of clouds

When we go skiing, most of the time we go to the ski resort Krvavec, because it is very close to Ljubljana - about 30 minutes away. There is often fog and low clouds over Ljubljana, but the mountains stick out high enough to bask in the sunshine. Such was the case here - I spent most of the day skiing and only took a few photos, this one down towards the villages between the mountains and Ljubljana itself. Some of the hills are peeking through the clouds, and the sun was already starting to get low - giving beautiful, golden-yellow light.

Anti social

These are my friends Nina and Gregor taking a nap on the wall at the end of the pier in Umag. We had a great time at the end of September there, the weather was a little chilly, but those last days of summer are priceless. Taken on Kodak color 200 film, this picture is originally in colors, but I wanted the text on the wall to be a little more noticeable. I see the picture with feelings as well, but I think they look great, also for someone that can't hear the wind that was blowing there at the time. Nina's knees breaking the horizon just bring the picture an interesting defect as I see it. The scan is a little poor, especially as seen on the sky, but that's what we get from the photo studio, almost impossible to do anything with it.

Sunset from Šmarna Gora

This is from the top of Ljubljana's 'mountain', Šmarna Gora. It's not very high, the record to the top is around 13-14 minutes (my record is around 22 or so), but it's still nice when you don't have time to go farther. And it's perfect for photography - towards the south-east you have a great view of Ljubljana, and towards the north are the alps. This was taken around sunset, it's straight out of the camera (no photoshop, except for resizing). It was dark by the time we got back to the car.

Party to the limit

This picture was taken at a party next to the river Kolpa, near the Croatian border. My flash was pointed to the wall (so the light from it bouced off the wall) and I took it at a wide angle with my old 18-55 kit lens. The only change I made to this picture was turning it to black & white with some yellow tint added.
And now a short story about this party animal: about an our after this picture was taken, the party animal went to sleep on the roof of his car. The next day the car's roof was shaped a little different :-)

Poker face

Playing poker one night, my friend Nejc put on some sunglasses to be more 'bad-ass'. The reflection was really cool, and I happened to have my camera with me, so I told him to hold still while I took this photo.

Star trails

Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

This was taken on Velvia film one night at Rašica, which is a village on a hill overlooking Ljubljana. The bright light behind the tree on the right is light pollution from the city. The camera was on a tripod and the exposure time is a few minutes (six, if I remember correctly, this is why the stars are streaks instead of being points of light). It was pretty cold so I was waiting in my car. When I opened this up in Photoshop to resize it for the web, the first thing that came to mind is the rhyme above, even though these are not the first stars of the night. As always, you can click it for a larger picture.

Links in a chain

This is from a trip to Budapest (not the same trip as in the previous post), these workers were on the castle hill, renovating the large church. For fun, I used Photoshop to make everything but the workers black and white, so they stand out more.

Overtaking

I've already posted two photos from a race weekend in Barcelona, but no cars. This should fix things. These are both from the DTM race series, and these cars are LOUD. Unlike with most racing series, there are no rules as to how loud the cars can be (or can't be). This is to make the sport more interesting for the spectators. Standing as close to the race track as I could get, it was actually painful whenever one of these thundered by. The Audis are actually more painful to hear than the Mercedes, even though they are not louder or anything, they just have a different sound.

When photographing cars, it's often hard to show speed - if you just point the camera and click, the chances are that the car will look like it's standing still. The trick is to have a long shutter speed and to follow the car with the camera, this way the car is sharp while the background is blurred. It's not as easy as it sounds, especially since I started out with too slow shutter speeds - around 1/30th of a second. I played around for a while, going up to 1/100th, though I later learned that most people shoot even faster - up to 1/200th.

Breaking out

Taken in a parking lot somewhere. Kids are so cool, just think about the last time you had fun with a fence. Yes, exactly. Why is it that we tend to have less and less fun as time goes by? In fact, you should do something crazy right now. Yes, now ;-)

Through the door

Taken in a hostel in Budapest two years ago with a cheap Sony pocket camera. This is a good friend, Nermina, with Grega in the back (barelly visible). We were in Budapest for just a weekend, and we first wanted a hostel which is on a river boat on the Danube river. It happened to be full, so we called a friend who had been to Budapest not long before us. We found this hostel in a large, old building, which was actually quite scary. Walking up the large staircase, we were half expecting vampires and such to jump out of the shadows (in fact, much of the movie Underworld from the year 2003 was filmed in Budapest - I mention the year because there have been at least 4 other movies with the same name). This photo was taken from a balcony looking back at the staircase, which is behind Nermina.

Trnovo bridge

Like the church in Trnovo, this was done on velvia film on a tripod at night. It's actually from almost the exact same spot as the church, only in the opposite direction. This bridge is very new, and I like it quite a lot, though I've heard it is responsible for quite a bit of light pollution. This year is the international year of astronomy, and this is one of the things which astronomers are fighting, since it makes star gazing much harder. From a photographic point of view, I agree completely. It's nearly impossible to take photos of the night sky anywhere near Ljubljana (or most other cities), since the sky is just way too bright.

Beggar woman

I had a few photos left on my Superia 800 film and I went around the center to fill it up. I had the 16mm fisheye attached to the body, so I was standing really close to this woman, who was begging on Čopova ulica. I prepared all of the parameters before going to the "crime-scene", and when she wasn't looking I came up to her. After my old Practica said hello, she was a little confused :)

The machine that needs no man

I took a photo of this wild, wild Yugo in a small slovenian village called Osp. We were climbing the rocks above the village and at the end of the day, while walking back to our car, we saw this brutal machine. It had tractor tires and a german registration (license plate). Can anyone explain that? The village boys told us that they made it for the Carnival, and that this is only the beginning :)

The full moon

This photo was taken on Rakitna, a hill near Ljubljana, at -17 degrees. This is the limit of my telephoto lens, at 250mm (400mm equivalent). The shutter times were very fast, around 1/250, so the photos were also taken hand held. The moon was very bright, and my fingers were frozen. I can still feel the pain carrying the tripod back to the car.

I wonder who she is?

Last year, I photographed an event for a student association called AEGEE. It was a large event, some sort of congress, held in Ljubljana. Anyhow, this photograph is from the opening ceremony, held in Ljubljana's Križanke amphitheater. I had basically finished taking 'official' photos of the opening itself, and was just taking a few random photos when I noticed this girl standing alone on a small balcony which overlooks the main theater. No, I don't know who she is, or even where she's from.

Take a walk on the wild side

Something for Friday. Yes, he is an American tourist. And yes, he is so adventurous, he was there alone, taking a walk around the city. At the end of the day it is sometimes so relaxing to just walk around or sit down with a telephoto lens on your camera and observe the people around you. Careful though, some people might not like it. I suggest as tele as you can get!

Kenon fan :)

And yes, this is Neaples again. A city of huge arhitectural jumps and as we see, also a city of some serbian Canon fans slash bar owners :) Jure and I are now planning to change the name of this blog.

Is that thing gonna blow?

I am not an 'American' type of person who is afraid of every object with some wires sticking out of it. But I thought this bomb-like amplifier on wheels would really look cool to some American turist, especially on the Napoli subway where I took this photo. A few moments after I took this, the guy tried to entertain the passengers with this "bomb" and his harmonica. Very Neaples, very easy. I felt safe in that town, much more than in Lisbona which I visited last year. And yes of course, taken with my cheap and lovely 50 mm f1.8.

So close

Sometimes we forget how close to the alps our little capital Ljubljana stands. And I think most of people can't really imagine that. When I get some really clear weather and when SCT workers get their asses of the castle, I will be waiting in this positin for the best light. And then I am going to have a coffee up there.

Posing as me

This was taken a while ago at Canon's press event for the release of the EOS 40D (since then, the 50D has also been released). I checked the EXIF information, and this was taken with one of the 40D samples (for digital, I use the older EOS 30D).

Climber's fingers

This is Jure showing his damaged climbing fingers, covered with magnesium. This is one of the first photos taken with my wide lens at 10mm, so you can imagine that the hand was very close to the camera when taking this photo. This is one of those cool "shoot for no reason" shots, taken while we were resting under the climbing wall. In the back you can see where Jure, Gregor and I spent the evenings breaking our fingers.

Trnovo church

Another night shot done on film, this time the church in Trnovo.

Not afraid of the wave

This is the west Italian coast again. Here the waves can be very strong, even close to the shore. The locals took some really amazing pictures that show the power of the sea. I found it quite funny how the man who came from open seas with his small boat hadn't even noticed that the water wasn't completely horizontal. He was just smoking and enjoying his port of registry.

Shadow tunnel in heaven

The picture is completely overexposed, but I think it still looks very cool. This is only a scan, no photoshop involved. It was taken with my old Praktica L2, which has no exposure meter, through a fish-eye lens on Fujifilm Provia 400. The weather in Pompei, where the picture was taken, was more or less cloudy and I couldn't tell you why the shadow on the left side of the tunnel is so sharp all the way. Nevertheless, I find the dynamic range of the film very powerful.

The pantheon roof racer

A helium balloon was perfectly fitted beneath the roof of the pantheon of Rome. The thing was far away, almost at the top of the dome, so it was barely seen and the light was poor. I had to use an ISO sensitivity of 1600 at only 1/15 of a second and the aperture wide open on my 250 mm telefoto lens. Stretching my neck to the top, the picture isn't as sharp as it could be. But still, I am able to present to you: the pantheon roof racer.

Relaxing on the bench

This gentleman sits on a bench in Ljubljana's Tivoli park, yet few people even know of him. In fact, I just tried to find out on the Internet who he is, but with no success. Seems like I'll have to go and find out myself :)

Romantic :)

A romantic thing, sitting on the shore and watching seaguls floating around you. It's also a perfect time take a few nice shots of these lovely creatures. Such a nice place, Amalfi, a small town on the southwestern coast of Italy. But so impolite, the inhabitants flying above me :)

Tanngrisnir?

Tanngrisnir is one of the two goats which, in Norse mythology, pulled Thor's flying chariot. This fellow appears to be a bit too young for something like that. The photo was taken on Velvia color film.