Panoramas from Greece

Holiday panorama photos from Zakynthos, Greece.

View of Zante from the castle

Laganas bay

Agios Sostis island

Gerakas beach

Marathonisi island

near Keri

View from Kakavaki

View from Marathia

View from Katastari

Timelapse video of Dublin

I took a day off and went to Dublin city centre to make a timelapse video. It was great fun and took me few hours to take the pictures. Here is the result:

Timelapse video - Dollymount & Bull Island

One of my favourite bits of Dublin: Dollymount and Bull Island in a timelapse video:

TimeLapse video at Grand Central Station, NYC

16th March, back to New York City from Philadelphia and it was quite chilly and rainy outside. Another day in Manhattan, the last thing I wanted to carry was my tripod. I had a little one with flexible legs in my bag, but if I mount the 10-22mm wide angle lens it will fall over under the weight of the camera and the lens.

Whatever, it was kind of planned to take some photos at the Grand Central Station. Tried few long exposure photos with my fave B+W ND1000 filter, but I wasn't 100% happy with the result. I put my camera on to the banister, so it was steady enough but no option to tilt it. I felt sorry for leaving my tripod at home. :-( I could do a time lapse video here!

Then I thought what the heck, let's give it a go! I took something like 480 photos from six different locations. I used my filter bag to support the camera and it was the perfect occasion to test my new intervalometer!

Check out the result here:

My first timelapse video

When I created my very first time lapse video, I had to use my laptop to take the shots, because I did not have an intervalometer.
It worked, it was OK, but there was a limitation from the Canon software. The minimum interval was 5 seconds.
My Canon shutter release cable did not have this function either.
I tried to use an application, which was great, had a lot of functions and features, but the price was astronomical.
See my first TimeLapse Video on YouTube:

So, I was looking for a shutter release cable with built-in intervalometer and I think I found a pretty good one.
It's the Shutterboss from Vello. Self-timer, interval timer, long exposure timer, quite flexible and it runs on two AAA batteries. It was around 60 USD, kinda reasonable.

Check out the timelapse video I made with it!

Unplanned upgrades

When I drove up to Wicklow Mountains last weekend and tried to keep my balance on a slippery rock while taking a shot, I had a flashback. A major, painful flashback...
Let's go back 1 year in time. I live in Dublin which is on the east coast of Ireland. One fine day I decided to visit my favorite place, Loop Head in county Clare. Yep, that's on the west coast, roughly 3-3.5 hours drive. I was almost there but stopped at Kilbaha to take few photos at the seafront. I set up my tripod, my Canon 450D with my favorite Sigma lens, and turned away to get a filter from the bag. In that 1 second the tripod fell over and everything landed in the sea. I quickly grabbed it but it was too late. The camera instantly died.
Ever since then my Sigma lens only needs 1 hour to kill the battery completely. It's continuously switching between Auto Focus and Manual Focus mode. I still use it, but I have to detach it all the time to save the battery.

After that incident I bought my new camera, a Canon 550D. My new ultra wide angle Canon 10-22mm lens is on its way to Ireland.
So in 1 second I lost roughly €1300.

Few months later I went up to Glendalough with Sylwia and Tom. We were taking pictures on the river bank, when I checked my phone and wanted to put it back into my pocket. Well, I missed it, and my only-few-months-old mobile fell into the river. Guess what? It died. Yep, I know, I am such a plonker. But you know what? I had insurance on my phone, so it was only a tenner to get a replacement.

Few more months later I had another scary moment... Wicklow mountains, Glenmacnass river again. I was balancing on top of a rock in the middle of the river. After taking my shot I realised where I was. The next rock seemed to be way too far and let's admit, I didn't have the courage to move. All my stuff was either in my pocket or in the bag: camera, every single lens I own, memory cards, mobile phone, GPS, wallet. I was standing on the rock for couple of minutes and nobody came to the rescue. I  took a leap of faith and stepped. Or rather jumped. I got away with it.

So, I was at Glenmacnass river last weekend having the above flashback. I am very careful these days, when I take long exposure shots or seascape photos, I always make sure that no tide, wind, seagull or anything else can risk my camera.
Instead of whining about my own stupidity I see these as "unplanned upgrades".

Though, a voice in my head keep saying "GET AN INSURANCE!"

Do you guys have any?

Do you always get the shot you want?

More and more often I know exactly what kind of shot I want, so I go out to take photos with that in my mind. Sometimes, just like this Monday, I do not get the result I am after.
I wanted to take a photo of a ring bouy with an island in the background. You could get it at Howth harbor! Unfortunately, because of the lights, the lens I have, the distracting rocks and pier, I could not get what I had imagined. And getting "something" just wasn't satisfying me.

On the other side of the pier, you can see the Howth Lighthouse, which is a nice building with flower pots hanging on the wall outside and a bright red door. It was shortly after sunset with dark clouds in the sky and strong wind. (Gosh, it was cold!)
I set up the tripod and my camera with the ultra wide angle Sigma 10-20mm lens.

I thought it was a good opportunity to take a long exposure shot with the B+W ND1000 filter. I love this filter, my best ever! It was getting darker and darker, at ISO100 and f8 and 4 minutes of shutter speed I was still getting underexposed, way too dark photos.
I tried with an ND4 filter and higher ISO, wider aperture as well, but I just wasn't happy.

So, I decided to go for a HDR image. I took one of the same building years ago, when I only had a hybrid camera which only could shot to JPG. That HDR image was processed from 3 JPGs from the very same file.
But this time I did a better job! I set up my camera (without filters), composed the image. Then changed my camera to Continuous shooting mode and bracketing of +- 2 stops. Then I walked home with 3 RAW files in my bag. Here is the result:

I have been to this place thousand times but I never realised that there was a spot, where I could see the building from a completely different angle.
I used the Canon 18-55mm kit lens @ 24mm with an ND4 filter to get this shot. At ISO100 and f9, the sutter speed was 18 seconds, thus the blurred clouds. I converted the image to mono afterwards.

On my way home I had two thoughts on my mind.
1) It is very annoying when people walk into your photo, even though you leave room for them to bypass.
2) You might not get what you wanted, but there must be another opportunity to get something nice instead.