project 52 | week 19 - detail(s)

That's the closest distance those two fine gentleman let me in, so that's my best detail of theirs. Both shots taken at Grant's farm, STL.

project 52 | week 21 - black and white

Black and white theme in a bit unusual way. Pictures are in full color. It's just my models, who are BLACK AND WHITE! That's what I call quality time spent at the Farm. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Blade, Rodeo, Chill and Pancake!

Blade

Rodeo

project 52 | week 16 - street photography

How to effectively and enjoyably utilize the lunch break downtown in St. Louis? Bring your photo gear and go out for a short walk! :) Harsh, very sunny mid part of the day gave me the opportunity to try again my very very dark 10 f stops Neutral density filter. So in the middle of the day I was able to have my shutter opened for 30 sec and get so beautiful velvet/creamy look of white moving clouds. Is it "street-ish" enough?

project 52 | week 15 - yellow

Yellow is a bright color and is the most favorite color of my daughter. And it also happen to be a color of the week in our project 52. I didn't have to go far away to spot a nice yellow(ish) subject. During our trip to a newly discovered beautiful Lone Elk Park, tens of very curious water turtles approach us and let me take a few peeking portraits. With a significant yellow details ;)

12 days difference

The very same spot, but only 12 days later - and so naively hoping, that sun will be still in a highway proximity. No way! Miles away!! ;) As I've already mentioned in my original post, such a spectacular combination is available only twice a year!
Happy commuting.

Photo taken on 2nd of April 2012. As you can compare below, sun is rising really really far away of THE desired spot.

The very same location on 21st of March 2012.

project 52 | week 14 - circles

Week 14 is here - CIRCLE one. Last week I had a pleasure to meet again my friend from Death Valley - Jennifer Wu, she was presenting in St. Louis. And we had manage to have une petite rendez-vous in Missouri Botanical garden. To be very honest, we've spent more time chatting than shooting, but at least I kept my eyes opened for a circles around me. And this bamboo pipeline with a juicy background just got my attention!

Happy Easter everyone!

project 52 | week 13 - pets/animals

My last 52 assignment covered several topics (windows, green, asymmetry), so let's go right to the week 13, which is "pets/animals" focused. Well, being at the farm during last days gave me an opportunity to take a tons of animal pictures, so I'm just picking two of them. My favorites of the day ;)

sunny daily commute

Everyday commute can sometimes provide a breath-taking scenery. Driving highway 40 in St. Louis is my daily routine and sometimes I can go in almost autopilot mode, listening morning show @ Y98. But in last few days, thanks to a two specific conditions, I am rewarded with this stunning view (together with thousands of other commuters travelling from West County to downtown). Well, day is a bit brighter in the morning! Those two conditions creating this magic moment: a) time change from winter to summer time, when a typical commute time is during a sunrise - about 7.00-7.15am. b) only during a limited time of the year (twice a year, actually) you can have sun rising right in front of you, popping up from the highway at the hill where Hwy 40 meets Hwy 270. You must admit this definitely looks like riding towards a very sunny day!



When I've noticed existing opportunity, I've spent next three mornings waking up at 5.40 to find a safe spot, where I was trying to capture with my camera what my eyes were seeing. Not an easy task! Let me tell you why...

project 52 | week 10 - symmetry / asymmetry

Last week assignment was symmetry or/and asymmetry. And this week is all about windows. So when I was actually searching for windows I've realized, that this is actually a great symmetry photo! So I'm filing this under "symmetry" and in case I won't find a nice window in coming days, I'll just extend this post for two weeks and I'll be covered with windows too. Am I smart or lazy man looking for shortcuts? ;)

i, rock (or size sometimes really doesn't matter)

It's exactly a year I've spent a fantastic photo 5 days in Death Valley with Scott and Jen and other fellow photographers and I still have to get back to my pictures. I just love them! ;)
My dear friend Andrea send me few months ago a nice snapshot of myself at the Racetrack and that reminded me favorite topic about the power of photography to mess with your size perceived vs the real size. One of the most common reaction when presenting "Moving rocks" from the Racetrack was: "Wow, those are HUGE rocks! How they can move?" Well. It's actually just a perspective trick when you use very wide angle lens and you get very close to you subject. With an aperture at f/13 and combination of wide angle I've got a pretty sharp background, but heeeey, that rock in front is enormous, right? ;)

Well, not really. You can compare here. All moving rocks are actually pretty small :) It's just again another evidence supporting our men's position - size really doesn't matter, right boys? :)
The best of my Death Valley is located here.

project 52 | week 9 - "two" (aka - background matters!)

Flowers are finally starting to peek out from the ground everywhere and after a mild, but still long winter I could not resist to photograph them too. Very first (and very small ones) appeared in front of my neighbor house, so I didn't want to grab a bunch and I've "borrowed" just a one. To deliver on this week assignment - "two", I've used our small mirror and played with it for a while to get TWO flowers to the frame.

project 52 | week 8 - reflections

This is 2 x 2 reflection post. Well, reflection itself is about having one subject presented twice (usually). And as both my kids gave me this week a great opportunity to photograph them in a reflection, I have no other choice just to share both great shots. First picture is Vi riding her orange bike around our private garden lake.

OK, you got it probably now. No, it's not a lake, just our small mirror, laying down at the ground. Following picture (in the article) can describe it better, "how I did it".

do not touch

Have no fear!

A lot of fun in the abandoned/forbidden chamber of old castle with flash off the camera. Simple set up, with Monika's hand in front of the flash. It took a while to find a right angle, so fingers would create a proper scary effect. But we had to hurry up, as ground was freaking cold and some delicate parts of the model's body didn't really enjoy this part of the session...

NIKON D90 with lens 24-70mm, 1/200 sec at f/18, ISO 200, slightly enhanced in ACR only.

project 52 | week 7 - love

I've got mail! It has arrived on 14th of February, well hidden in my laptop! And it was a beautiful Valentine's card from my beloved one. So finding an object for this week's theme wasn't an issue. It was more a question of finding THE right angle...

Thank you sweetheart! I love you too!

All pics taken with 105mm macro Nikkor and "who cares" appertures between f/8 - f/11.

less is more...

As often it is a case - to show less is more.

Would you agree? What is your imagination seeing?
PS: And yes, I do have also a front shot too...

red hot chilli ... shoes

My winter shoes, dark room, long shutter speed for 30sec... and laser pointer. Voila! Try walking in my shoes ;)

PS: Credit goes to Monika as well, as we played together. So co-authoring as usual...

ladies in red (aka tokyo's cemetery)

One of my "deviation" is that I really like visiting cemeteries... In my opinion it's a very very quiet place, where man will be remembered, how many things in life are really not not important (Memento, Homo, Quia Pulvis Es, Et In Pulverem Reverteris...). I love just a walk there, roam, read the tombstones, think of beloved ones who are not with us anymore - and it doesn't matter they might be resting somewhere else... Once actually I did jogging at a cemetery, as it was the nearest park with nice tracks near my hotel. I know, a bit sick, right? :) Anyway, during my November's trip in Tokyo when I've spent a half day walking with a camera, I was pretty tired, looking for a place to chill out and just by an accident I found a small tiny cemetery in the middle of the Shinjuku district.

 

project 52 | week 6 - lines

And here we go with another assignment! This week is is all about the lines. I was pretty sure to meet some nice line elements. And voilá - I didn't have to wait too long. It came actually at the nice and quite unexpected place, when we went last Sunday with kids to Magic house. (if you are not familiar with St. Louis Magic House - it's THE coolest place to go with kids, where I'm playing with them all the time!). 

And there, next to giant Lego blocks and tiny mouse family house, right after a mirror maze was the board, where my kids played for an about 15 minutes and myself for another 30 minutes (but with the camera only;)

Going out to "playground" only we didn't fetch any serious camera equipment, but thankfully our little pocket size Leica was with us.

That's why all shots have been taken (again) with "point and shoot", in RAW, handheld only. Mostly in full manual mode, especially those with motion. So much fun!!! ;)

PS: At the end of the post I've enclosed a picture how this playing board really looks like, so you can get a perspective of the size and what the heck those colorful spots really are.

project 52 | week 5 - opposites (2/2)

I can't thank enough Monika for involving me into a project 52! I've kicked myself out twice this week - just to go shooting for fun and pleasure. I've tried live models - Chocco and Willis and I got quite decent result, but I still had one more good "opposite" idea, so Friday afternoon I've grabbed my son's toys and went few blocks away, where our city is reconstructing Baxter road. And I've just played. HDR, single shots, with flash, without flash... Coool! Just a time for myself ;) And this is my the most favorite one... Few more are inside the article.

BTW - Two neighbors stopped by questioning me, if I'm from union (I was in orange hoody ;) or what the heck I'm doing in the construction area on Friday afternoon with tripod! ;) Don't you love being photographers?

prague - city of 100 towers

Do you also wonder why Prague is called city of 100 towers? Well, do not anymore. Browsing through my summer pictures I found one which is a clear proof of it ;)

Shot early morning at Petrin hill, few moments before sunrise. f/16 @ 1/60 seconds. How many towers you see? ;) Let me know...

Pin It

project 52 | week 5 - opposites (1/2)

I should probably rename this post to "I will never become a pro pet photographer!" ;)
Silly me! I've asked my two colleagues in our pet friendly office (thanks again Sarah and David!) if I can photograph their lovely dogs Willis (bigger one) and Chocco (smaller one) for my Opposite theme. It shouldn't take more than half an hour... Ha! You bet!!! At the beginning, I've started with fixed 85mm lens and tried to give instructions to the owners, how I envision to get dogs posed! Ha ha! I quickly replaced lens for 24-70 zoom trying to get any snapshots... And after an hour spent with patient owners and their pets, which din't care about taking nice pictures, neither my 52 photo project, I was glad to take at least few panning shots towards the end... But hey, this one worth the effort, huh? ;)

Well, mission accomplished. They are opposites, right? ;) Thanks again Sarah and David. And of course Willis and Chocco!

project 52 | week 4 - letters

Ok, first weekly assignment on time! This week theme are "letters". And here are mines.

Actually still within my "being in love" theme of our anniversary week ;)
This romantic word is made same way as my favorite "light through" technique, but doesn't look so shiny as some other flowers - rose leaves are quite thick. Anyway, it still counts as "letters" and I still like to play with it. Here's how flowers with thin skin and thinner leaves look like:

project 52 | week 3 - eye

Still catching up with week three of my new weekly duty - project 52. Actually a new theme for week 4 has been already announced, but there is a "week" of time, so let's focus on a current one - "eye".

I can search around the world and I won't find a nicer, deeper, more sensitive and prettier eye with a spark, which is winking just at me. I'm falling in love with this eye already for 16 years and I still can't get enough. Thank you for keeping an eye on me, sweetheart! I love you! Happy anniversary ;)

project 52 | week 2 - blue

Catching up quickly with previous weeks. Theme of the week is BLUE and I actually have taken this picture around that week.

Fight of the blue vs red. Blues vs Detroit. Hell vs heaven. Calm vs energetic.... My kids (and their toothbrushes).
Under macro 105mm and a tiny (1/128) little help of flash.

project 52 | week 1 - happy, new or 12

In order to not become mentally dwarfed, or should I say photographically dwarfed -  I've accepted a challenge of my fellow photographer and I'm joining her Project 52. What is it? Similar to project 365, where you have to take one picture every day, but logically here you are supposed to take one picture per week. And BTW, there is a theme for every given week, which I may or I may not adhere every week. Let's see ;)
Oh yeah, and that fellow photographer is my dear better half of myself, my Monika and actually her idea inspired about 70 other photographers who joined her already. So I'll be sharing same theme every week with a pretty sizable community!
So here it comes, theme of the first week is: "HAPPY, NEW or 12". I go with "new" and picture is here.

Well, while it might look as a new galaxy has been born, don't get fooled ;) It's just Monika's new nail polish...
Together with my 105mm macro on tripod and side directed flash...
PS: Monika's approach to Project 52 can be found here.

model found | chalan z tople sa našiel!

My social media experiment worked! I found him! In my previous blog I was looking for an unknown model from Topla creek, reaching out via social media - and I was able to get in contact with him in less than 18 hours!! YOU ALL were awesome! So I need to thank you all as well.
Môj experiment so sociálnym sieťami zabral! Našiel som ho! Ako som písal v predchádzajúcom blogu, hľadal som neznámeho modela z Tople a skúšal som ho nakontaktovať cez sociálne siete - a podarilo sa mi ho nájsť za menej ako 18 hodín!! Boli ste všetci perfektní, preto sa vám chcem tiež všetkým poďakovať!

model wanted | hľadá sa tento chalan - topľa bardejov

I've decided to try the power of the social media. I'm looking for the name and contact to this guy. If you know him - let me or him know. If the face isn't familiar please share this on your blog/wall and pass it further! Thanks. And why I'm looking for him? Because he (and his friends) were so great and genuine models (for about 3 minutes) and I hadn't thank them enough!
Rozhodol som sa, že otestujem silu sociálnych sietí. Hľadám totiž meno a kontakt na tohto chalana. Ak ho poznáte, dajte mi prosím - alebo jemu vedieť, že ho hľadám. Ak vám nie je povedomý, tak prosím zdieľajte tento príspevok na svojej Stene alebo blogu a pošlite správu ďalej. A prečo ho hľadám? Pretože mi (aj so svojimi kamarátmi) robil perfektného modela (asi tak na 3 minúty) a dodnes som im za to poriadne nepoďakoval.

life's just a carousel

I've really enjoyed Christmas time with my family! With kids we've tried to have every day one little activity. Pictures below were taken during our rides at historic Carousel @ Faust Park. And it is again a small but firm evidence, that to carry on my point and shoot with me everywhere is priceless! While I've taken several documentary shots of our kids for a family album - I also had a time to switch my Leica also to manual mode and play few seconds with my favorite shutter speed. Would you like to have a ride with us? ;)

Both pictures handheld with Leica D-Lux 4 @  f/3.2 and 1/5 second.

Historic Carousel @ Faust Park is a great place by the way. Horses (and deer) are hand made carved and are almost hundred years old. Whole carousel was carefully restored in 80's and is maintained with love and care till today. If you are around, don't hesitate and go - see this link. $1 per ride...

inverted tunnel

There's a saying, which is becoming a cliché nowadays - the best camera is the one you have with you. Can't agree more! Three days ago I've packed my kids to go see Christmas wonderland to nearby Tilles Park. Thank god for not forgetting (just in case!) also my beloved point and shoot, which is is not "just point and shoot" ;) Leica is shooting to raw and is able to set up manual exposure...  It can become handy.
Right when I was entering with my car into an inverted tunnel made of hundreds of thousands little lights (inverted because light is inside and against a common believe you can see the dark at the end of the tunnel ;) I've realized - what a spectacle! First snap was "okay" (see below), but the one with shutter opened for one full second while driving looks cool, huh?

And yes, this has been taken through the windshield! ;)

peaceful tokyo

Couple of weeks ago I've posted few shots from Tokyo - full of architectural curves and lines...
The very same day and in the same Shinjuku district I've walked into a quiet oasis in the middle of hyper busy center of Tokyo - Shinjuku Gyoen Park.

You are required to pay (reasonable) entry fee to enter and chill out from the outside world - but it's definitely worth it. Then you can walk few miles, lay down on your own blanket or amazingly green grass, have a family picnic or - take a few shots. Landscape photography - here I come! ;)

frozen in motion

Wouldn't be great to have in one shot frozen action and motion at the same time? Well, I've tried that few weeks ago when I was around a photo session, where my dear Monika was shooting two cool boys, Dominik and Lukas. Session happened nearby local train station and despite natural teenager's hesitation to be photographed - she got amazing shots! (some pictures are here or inside the article). However, when I heard PA announcing train arrival, I've grabbed the camera and tripod and gave them instructions: Stay! and don't move!!

And with a simple 1/4 second at f/16 exposure I've got two super cool, unique and I dare to say quite unusual shots! Picture above was shot with a cargo train in the background - those beauty colorful smudges are just plain red and blue containers on a yellow platform (can you ask for a better color combination?!?)

high connections

As they say, good connections can get you really high. In my case, my very good connections (thanks Gene!) got me to a very unique place, through a very secret room and password protected access to the roof of 15th story high building in a downtown of St. Louis. What a panorama!

If you would expect a plain roof with a view everywhere, you would be surprised as myself. You can see at the bottom of this article, there is actually another 2 story high wall, and you really have to make an effort (and stay in a very uncomfortable position for more than an hour!) to get THE view. But as usual in such situations, it was worth it, would you agree?

s(e)oul

Don't get fooled by the man standing next to the rising sun. No, this is not a country of the rising sun, even though Japan is pretty nearby. This is South Korea, where everybody is pretty convinced, that a merge with North brothers is just a matter of timing, there's not doubt about the merge itself. And it's also a country of a FANTASTIC kitchen, and I'm becoming more and more fan of Korean food (kimchi or bibimpa? anyone?)

Anyway, I got again a exciting afternoon opportunity to see Seoul through my camera lenses.

BTW, did you knew, that Seoul is the second biggest metropolitan area in the world !?! Population wise. Number one is Tokyo, third one is New York.

architecture made in japan

Tokyo is the biggest metropolitan area on the Earth. With estimated 30 million people squeezed around. No wonder apartments and hotel rooms are super small and buildings are super high. In the Shinjuku area I've got amazed by a few of them.

bad weather outside

Still getting back to our session where we played a lot with lights, flashes and of course human curves.

And actually the bad weather outside didn't bother us at all - vice versa, it helped to create a fantastic background for Ema.

guess who?!

We had a family trip today and such a delicious composition appeared in front of my lens...
Guess who is it?

PS: Trip members are not allowed to guess ;)

after party

My beloved one, youngest one and the only boy has reached his first milestone. 

He has been invited to his first party!

It was a birthday party of his preschool mate Jacob, and group was wildly partying at Museum of Transportation. You cannot go wrong with 3 and 4 years old and a looooot of trains ;)
Leaving with a balloon (of course) and a goodies bag (thanks Jacob!) - I was so glad to have my point-and-shoot with me. Leica did a great job to capture this milestone, don't you think?

mower (e)motion

A plenty of leaves in the yard, high grass and not really in the raking/mowing mood?

Winning formula for fun afternoon includes camera with wide angle lens, tripod and "a hell a lot of duck tape" ;) Go straight, do a couple of S-curves, go slowly, go fast... Oh, and BTW, meanwhile don't forget to fire your shutter!

(nikon d-90, tokina 11-16mm with  polarizer to bring exposure 2 stops down,  f/14, 1/4 sec, ISO 200)