WET-photo

Once again the full moon rises over Attnang and paints the city in a pale light. When the cats sit on the gables and the dogs bark at earth's ancient satellite, it's time. Time for me to grab my gear... I sneak through the night, position my camera and try to produce the picture that has been lurking around in my mind for too long.the idea:I wanted to capture the full moon framed by the leafs of the big walnut tree in our gardenthe problem:Getting the exposure right.large amount of light reflected by the moon small amount of light (coming from the flash) reflected by the leafsexposure problems due to small aperture (to get a wide D.O.F.) the experiment:Sadly, I was not able to achieve the effect I wanted with one picture. A aperture of ~f 25 produced a sharp moon and sharp leafs BUT either the moon was overexposed or the leafs were underexposed. After messing around about half an hour I decided to take the easy way ...the easy way:Since the moon and the leafs didn't want to cooperate I decided to separate them and crush their resistance one by one. The first one to surrender was the full moon. Here's a 100 % crop with the used settings ...Exposure time1/160sAperturef 13ISO speedISO 100The next step was taking a well-exposed shot of the branches and leafs that should surround the moon. Open aperture of f 5.6, ISO 400 and shutter speed of 1/125 second in combination with the Sony HVL-F42AM flash did a pretty good job.Now I just had to combine those two shots via Photoshop, adjust the brightness a bit and here comes the finished product ...the result: It's probably not that amazing and I feel like cheating so if you have any tips don't hesitate to post them as a comment!I'll quit night photography for a while now and focus on other types of photography ...Maybe we'll see some more portraits in the next posts?Or maybe it will be something completely different?I don't know yet ...So be sure to stay tuned and find out in the next episode of "WET-photography" :-D

So once again I've discovered a whole bunch of great photos in my archive (to be honest, just the first one is a bit older. The rest was taken 4 days ago :-D ). These photos portrait a crazy Croatian war machine ... Bojan!So here we go:The "look", 2008Exposure time1/80sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 800The "look", 2010Exposure time1/125sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400As you can see, hair may change but the "look" stays the same over the years. But Bojan has more than one look. For example the next one ...Exposure time1/125sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400As I said, he's a war machine. Nothing can stop him and he loves to attack his victims with this look. It's called "the screaming silverback". Eventually you already see why I called him "crazy" ... if not, just continue with the next photo (continue anyway!).Exposure time1/80sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400I think there is no need of further prove. Bojan IS crazy and we all love him. Now I'm going to pack my backpack and emigrate to Chile where he (hopefully) won't find me ...Wish me luck and stay tuned, maybe I'll be able to write some more posts before he's going to eat me :-D

give 'em nail polish and a tooth pick and they'll be occupied for at least an hour! So here are some results of about 5 hours of excessive nail polishing and photographing ...thinking ... ?Exposure time1/60sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400Here you can see the great "fingernail art". To be honest: I had to post-process this image because I used my yellow bouncer and the result didn't look that great. And of course I did not re-shoot the scene with a white bouncer -.-Anyway, Kathi looks great. The colors turned out quiet naturally and all in all I am satisfied with the photo!Let's continue with a close-up of these good looking nail polish art ...this stuff feels funnyExposure time1/80sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400There's not much to say. White nail polish + bored Kathi + bored Lisa + red/pink nail polish + bored me = this photo!Now there's just one thing left to do: saying good-bye. So here we go ...Stay tuned and here are Kathi's farewell greetings:bye!

Practice, practice, practice and sometimes messing around - that's what improves skills. Since messing around is somehow more fun I just jumped through the garden and tried to achieve some good macro shots. The results are not thaaat great but still, I think they're worth showing them ...Thorns ... obviouslyExposure time1/500sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400the single petalExposure time1/320sAperturef 4.5ISO speedISO 250This photo is a great example for the swallow DOF the Tamron 70-300 creates. The depth of field is just about 1 cm long/deep. Everything out of focus blurs just perfectly!web, sweet webExposure time1/400sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400 I love the light diffusion at the threads of the web ...buzz buzz, zoom zoom, click - Thanks!Exposure time1/500sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 200A very nice bee, it had the courtesy to sit still while I was zooming, focusing and crawling around to get the photo right. Thank you!damn, this turquoise bucket is distracting!Exposure time1/320sAperturef 6.3ISO speedISO 100Nero also had the courtesy to sit still after running around like a mad cow for almost an hour while I was trying to shoot some good pics of him -.- DAMN YOU, NERO! Anyway, a millisecond after "posing" he was already running around again ... the last one to fall Exposure time1/320sAperturef 5ISO speedISO 100... so I quit stalking the cat and decided to portray something that doesn't move around so quickly! It's the last delicious apple on the very top of the tree and looks pretty lonely up there.Once again, thanks for reading.Once again, stay tuned.Once again, leave some comments!And once again, the post ends right ...--HERE--PS: Ok, it doesn't end right there but WHAT THE F is wrong with blogger's editor?? Everytime I insert a photo into the post, the HTML is completely messed up. Somehow the links won't work. Now I've got to fix every image myself :-/

So here's the story: I used to organize my photos with ACDSee Pro 3 (excellent software, I like it more than Adobe Bridge or Lightroom). Recently my external HDD crashed, gladly I was able to restore almost all of my data (just ~12 photos are lost).Anyway! Now I've got to reorganize my whole archive and stumbled upon some older photos from 2008 to early 2010 and now I feel like sharing them :-) ...grim FrankieExposure time1/80 sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400So this is actually one of the first photos I ever took with a DSLR. Back in the days (2008) I sometimes borrowed the Sony a100 from my father's girlfriend and this shot was produced! I really like Frankie's grim, serious and pissed-off expression ... mainly because it's the complete opposite of his usual personality :-DHere's the next shot ..."till death do us apart ..."Exposure time1/125 sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 4002008, I was a newbie to DSLR photography. I had no idea what exposure time, aperture, ISO and so on are but still: I somehow managed to get a good and cheesy shot of Mr. and Mrs. Newly-wed!Let's leave them alone and move to the small upper-Austrian town Hagenberg ...knowledge, design & silenceExposure time1/125 sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400This is the campus of the university for applied sciences Hagenberg. I visited this university during their open house day 2009. Eventually I decided not to attend this uni after my A-levels. Too much coding and not the education I am looking for. Still, they have a very beautiful campus!We're leaving Hagenberg and continue with the next photo ..."Good thing 'bout music: when it hits you feel no pain"Exposure time1/125 sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400She was standing at the front row @ this year's Pfingstspektakel. This festival is taking place every year around Pentecost (that's the reason why it's called "Pfingstspektakel" which means "Pentecost rumpus") in my hometown. Over the years, this festival has grown from a small local drinking bout to a big party with international top acts from all different kinds of genres. Irish Folk Punk, Hardcore, Dancehall, Rockabilly, Swing and beatboxing. You want it? They're likely to have it!Well, back to the photo: It was taken during the performance of a great Austrian Reggae/Dancehall group called "Millions of Dreads". This brings us to the next photo:Ladies & gentlemen: Millions of Dreads, live on stage!!!Exposure time1/125 sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400If you like good reggae (plus you can understand Styrian slang) be sure to check them out!Finally we've arrived at the bottom of the post and here you'll find the photo that is the reason why I write this post. A little sparrow sitting on a branch right in front of my office window. This little fella was sitting there for almost 10 minutes but don't think he even BOTHERED looking in my direction (maybe he was camera shy? ... or I just missed it every time he looked at me ...).cocky but still shyExposure time1/125 sAperturef 5.6ISO speedISO 400That's it, thanks for reading (if anybody's out there reading this)! Stay tuned, more photos will follow! :-)PS: You're invited to leave a comment

The beneficial festival "Bock Ma's" (named after Austria's good soul & charity lady Ute Bock) in Timelkam started this year into the final round. Of course I was there to photograph most of the festival and its freaky, colourful and unique atmosphere & visitors. There were a whole load of international and local bands, many alternative projects like the anarchia mailorder, anti-sexism campaigns or fresh vegan food, etc.All in all, a very diverse festival!Ok, here are 4 photos for you to enjoy!Viva l'Anarchia!The first thing you want to do as an anarchist @ Bock Ma's: Hoist the colours! march of the tartansOne great part of this festival's atmosphere are the spontaneous actions of some visitors. You're part of a bagpipe-army? Gather your pals and start a little spontaneous concert ...kilt concert... wander around on the camping area and finally stop in front of the Bosna (hot-dog bun, sausages, curry and tons of mustard & onions) stand.German journeyman@ Bock Ma's, you could find ANYTHING and ANYBODY: Punks, Skinheads (no Nazis!), Hippies, "normal people", Raver,  Indie-Fans and even a German journeyman!For those about to BOCK - we salute youThanks for reading, stay tuned for more photos!