patrik banas | photo blog

Tis the season to be jolly, enjoy and ... shoot all the colorful lights. Yes! Christmas markets are the perfect spots right now. So, make all your christmas shopping online and instead of being shopping frenzy, take your camera and go out there! There will be for sure plenty of colorful objects and actions to photograph. Plus - muled hot wine is a worthwhile bonus. And - if you arrive just in time to hit the blue hour after the sunset - beauty is guaranteed. Have a look around, get inspired and play. PS: And - do not forget that hot wine!! ;)

Nikon D800, Nikkor 16-35mm @19mm, f/5, 1 sec, ISO 1600

Sezóna krásnych predvianočných chvíľ je v plnom prúde, preto si ju užívajte a ... foťte všetky tie farebné svetlá okolo vás. Samozrejme! Vianočné trhy sú tie správne miesta, kde by ste mali byť. Vianočné darčeky objednajte online a namiesto zúfalého pobehovania po shopping centrách si vezmite foťák a vypadnite von. Určite nájde hromadu krásnych farebných objektov a aktivít, ktoré sa vyplatí fotiť. A ako bonus - môžte si dať teplé varené víno (alebo aj svařák ;). No a keď navyše dorazíte tak, aby ste stihli modrú hodinku po západe slnka, tak o krásne fotky nebude núdza. Pozrite sa, čo sa mne podarilo zachytiť, inšpirujte sa a bavte sa.
PS: A nezabudnite na to varené víno! :)

Nikon D800, Nikkor 16-35mm @16mm, f/5, 1 sec, ISO 1600

Nikon D800, Nikkor 16-35mm @16mm, f/5, 1 sec, ISO 1600

Nikon D800, Nikkor 16-35mm @16mm, f/10, 2 sec, ISO 200

Nikon D800, Nikkor 16-35mm @16mm, f/11, 2.5 sec, ISO 50

Nikon D800, Nikkor 16-35mm @16mm, f/11, 2.5 sec, ISO 50

PS: A keď vám chýba ľudský element, tak sa hoďte do záberu ;)

Nikon D800, Nikkor 16-35mm @16mm, f/10, 2 sec, ISO 200, flash fired with Rear sync curtain

So, here I am... In Palouse. With Scotty Stulberg. For those who do not know where it is exactly, it is in Washington. But no that one, where Obama lives, that's Washington DC. This is Washington state, on the other side of USA. Near Seattle. Pretty amazing country. They say, it is Tuscany of US... Well, I have been to Tuscany so let me see. For now I can definitely say, that coffee is better in Tuscany! :)
But, yes, Palouse is fantastic, photogenic, very hilly and had a great little farms with red barns and old american trucks just laying around - and I am sooo looking forward to explore it here in a next few days...
First night - just a warm up - starting and playing with light painting, as we got too much clouds. Beautiful old tree with barn in the middle of nowhere (see the video at the end how we were getting there!) But is is a great exercise for upcoming night for Milky way shooting. Forecast is very promising...
Stay tuned with me!


Tak som tu. V Palouse. So Scottym Stulbergom. Pre tých čo nevedia, kde to presne je, tak to je vo Washingtone. Ale nie v tom, kde žije Obama - to je Washington DC. Toto je Washington štát, na opačnej strane USA. Neďaleko Seattlu. Nádherná krajina. Hovorí sa jej aj americké Toskánsko. Nuž, bol som v Toskánsku nedávno, tak uvidím a dám vedieť... Nateraz môžem povedať len toľko, že káva je určite lepšia v Toskánsku! ;)
Ale áno, Palouse je nádherná, fotogenická, kopcovitá, nádherne sa vinúce pahorky a všade dookola krásne malé farmičky s tými červenými "humnami" a len tak ležiace hromady starých amerických burákov a traktorov - fakt sa teším, že sa tu porozhliadam po okolí v nasledujúcich pár dňoch.
Prvá noc - len tak na rozohriatie sme sa hrali s maľovaním so svetlom, lebo bolo príliš veľa mrakov. Nádherný starý strom s humnom uprostred ničoho (pozrite na video na konci ako sme tam išli). Ale je to skvelá príprava na fotenie Mliečnej cesty - predpoveď je pozitívna na nasledujúcich pár dní... Ostaňte naladení!

This week picture has been taken during my last "painting with light" session, and can frankly fall under the sport session as well. But conveniently I am going to file it under "Odd or even" theme.
Story is easy. It was the night after the birthday party of our kids and balloons where everywhere. Once I have finished painting the bike, I just wanted to see how it would looks like, if I would paint from behind the balloon with the same small source of light. And when I saw on my display first result of just a one balloon I was amazed with a colorful results! "Olympic rings idea" came to my mind immediately, so I was rotating with the little light source behind each of the baloon. Obviously, balloons had no intentions to stand on each other as I have envisioned it, so a little transparent tape came handy. Final image is just flipped, as you can see on the behind the scene shot ;) You gotta admit, that looks cool, huh? ;)

© Patrik Banas, Nikon D800, f/22, 101sec, ISO 100

  It has been a while I have "painted with a light", so I decided to take this week "sport" theme as a challenge. Unfortunately, my own painting skills are very bad, so I have used my kids' Strider bike as a template. In the middle of the night, when the rest of the family was sleeping already, I have created this lightning speed vehicle ;) Shot below has been made straight in the camera with a pretty easy set up. Camera on the tripod and shutter speed on Bulb mode. It took me exactly 111 seconds to paint it with a small, one single LED diode lamp. I have aimed the light into the lens and was trying my best to copy the shape of the bike. And voilá ;)
  Below is one more "rainbow" version (talking about Olympics, this is quite favorite color combination in Sochi right now ;) Even though, there are no bike disciplines during the Winter Olympics... )
PS: And that night playing brought me one more fantastic idea and shot, which I will share later on. It is about sport again, and I can just say, that it was the night after the kids' birthday party! ;)

© Patrik Banas, Nikon D800, f/22, 111sec, ISO 100

© Patrik Banas, Nikon D800, f/22, 111sec, ISO 100 enhanced with Photoshop CS5 using gradient overlay effect