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! I have to say it was above my expectations. First reactions were coming within a few hours. My cousin’s Biba friend Lubor was the first one to give me a bit of guidance and after a quick reassurance “no, this is not any kind of vendetta” he got me in a contact with Slv, who knew one of the guys on a group photo. And at the top of it, he added his own picture sitting at the very same chair in Topla! So our story wasn’t made up! 😉Musím priznať, že to prekročilo všetky moje očakávania. Prvé rekacie začali prichádzať v priebehu pár hodín. Kamarát mojej sesternice Biby – Lubor – mi dal prvé vodítko a po uistení, že sa nejedná o žiadne vybavovanie účtov ma nakontaktoval so Slv, ktorý poznal jedného z chalanov z fotky. A navyše pridal svoju vlastnú fotku z toho istého inkriminovaného kresla v Topli – dôkaz, že sme si fakt náš príbeh len tak nevymysleli 😉 Some girls got interested to know our model personally (thanks Petra!) so they helped us spread the news and I’ve got a surprising 19 re-shares of this story. And then it was pretty […]

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. Story is quite simple, but beautiful at the same time… Summer 2010 we were spending our holidays  in my hometown Bardejov, northeast part of Slovakia. During our evening walk with Monika near the Topla creek we find out that somebody (really stupid) just dumped this blue leather chair to the river! No arrangements whatsoever on our side. Obviously, this called for an immediate photo opportunity and I’ve run home to grab a camera and tripod. Je to vcelku jednoduchý príbeh. V lete 2010 sme trávili našu dovolenku v mojom rodnom Bardejove. Počas podvečernej prechádzky okolo Tople sme zrazu zbadali že niekto (fakt “intelygentní”) vyhodil staré kožené kreslo do Tople. Toto sme v žiadnom prípade nenastrojili my. Samozrejme, ani chvíľu som neváhal a utekal domov pre foťák a statív. So we took a few stunning pictures of a static chair frozen in the dreamy flow of Topla. Tak sme za pár chvíľ nacvakali niekoľko príjemných záberov kresla zaseknutého v […]

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! 😉 Oh, BTW – all pictures in this post have been processed with HDR enhancement, so if HDR is not your cup of tea… well, wait for something else (yes Branok, I mean you! 😉 Picture below has been taken with my mobile phone camera in the other hand – and is meant as an example to my “how-to” collection. Just to illustrate how can you take steady shots even without a tripod. This tree and the bottom-up view fascinated me, but in a given strong contrast difference of the dark tree and too bright sky, it become clear I would need to take at least three pictures to create HDR shot. While I had my tripod with me, even after few minutes of the manipulation I wasn’t able to set up an angle I envisioned to have – so my super wide 11-16mm lens would be “laying” on the tree and all the details and texture of its beautiful “skin” would be leading into an image. Handholding wasn’t option either: overcast, late sunset time and “story-telling aperture of f/16” to get the details of the foremost skin and the branches in the background itself required shutter speed between half to two […]

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? This panorama I would recommend to click through and enjoy in a full view. And are you also one of those out of St. Louis asking, what is so beautiful about bunch of skyscrapers, ugly industrial zone and a highway going through? Well, I would agree, not really “the most inspiring downtown”, as I always say. But all those FROM St. Louis would tell you that two major landmarks at the picture above make the difference. The Arch and home of the recent World champions (world? really?! ;), Cardinal’s Busch stadium. _________________________________________________________________________________ And few others, meant more for a documentation purpose and enriching my “high connection” story.    At the first picture this “red something” on the right side is actually an iconic checkerboard logo – as seen on the second picture with a building itself in its full beauty, surrounded by the lakes and parks. Looks like a pretty neat place to work, huh? Opened, but not so opened roof itself, with a photographer in a very complicated position being able to take pictures. Credit goes […]

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. Unfortunately, Gyeongbok Royal Palace was just closing when I’ve arrived, so I don’t have a lot of shots from the inside. But this has been well balanced with the outdoor ones, where I’ve spent next two hours, just playing. And a photo below is my favorite one from that evening, as I really love the combination of several different sources of the light here. Blueish sunset sky, already lit front gate, street lamp, few traffic lights, strikes of the passing cars and my remotely fired flash hidden in the flowers at the bottom. And at the top of it – so peaceful and empty street, which is a nonsense, as this is one of the busiest roads in the north part of the city… This is quite a mystification, as Seoul is not such a colorful at all. Orange car is actually a taxi, in a very, very rare color. About 95% cars in Seoul are black, grey or white (and I bet 4% of the remaining 5% are foreigners living there 😉

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. This is a classical example of “working the scene”. All shots were made within a radius of few meters… and almost two hours of playing 😉 And this is the main object of the majority of the shots. Cocoon Tower, skyscraper of the year 2008, pretty photogenic, isn’t it?