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 😉 Anybody guessed mud ground in Death Valley? OK, OK, not really … 😉 Why would I ask “who”, right?Please meet his (or her?) majesty Lazy Hippo from St. Louis Zoo.
Author Archive: Patrik Banas
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) Have FUN! (nikon d-90, tokina 11-16mm with polarizer to bring exposure 2 stops down, , f/8, 1/13 sec, ISO 200) (nikon d-90, tokina 11-16mm with polarizer to bring exposure 2 stops down , f/22, 1/8 sec, ISO 200)
go low and go wide
You might know that not only photography, but also pets are my passion. So my dream opportunity is to take a picture of pets, right? Right! I didn’t hesitate a moment when I’ve got an invitation to shoot cool and fun pet event! Apart a great photo journalist job I was proud to take few shots, which I’ve found interesting from the photography point of view.I’ll share more later on (maybe ;), but today let me show you this beauty. Taken with my favorite very wide angle lens Tokina 11-16mm, set at 16mm I’ve literally put the camera on the ground and did few “blind shots”. You can call it luck, or a purposefully trying to get those legs into a frame, but hey – one of them worked out! 😉Very wide and very low perspective – and instead of apx 30-40cm (12-16 inch) buddy you’ll get on your screen Irish Wolfhound of its typical 80cm (or an about 32 inch for my twelve fingers friends 😉Cool, huh?! 🙂
ghost in red
So here I am, shooting at one beautiful castle, very intrigued by an old carriage. Cool shot with a nice background. Everything is OK. But then in the evening when I’ve dumped pictures from my memory card to a laptop – THERE SHE WAS! Abandoned, blood-thirsty lady, lost 2 centuries ago while hunting for a young and innocent men. She just popped up on my picture! OK. OK, ok… Drama is over. 😉 But the point is, that this picture is NOT a Photoshop multi-layer, hours intensive output. Again – believe or not – this is a direct shot, made in the camera. (I can say almost) without any editing, as the only post processing was a color correction to make the red dress really pop. But hey, that’s it. Transparent, ghosty, “blood thirsty” duchess was exposed in old good, classical way… (more inside the article). Old good, classical photographic way is to play with your shutter speed and setting up your exposure properly.You just set your exposure to have 8 seconds exposure. Inside a dark castle it’s actually an easy part. Following magic exposure triangle I’ve got with ISO 200 my desired 8 seconds with an aperture set at f/14.Then you ask your model to stand rock solid and you count your seconds loudly (so called mississippi-ly ;). After 5 seconds model have to run away from the scene (OK, with those heels to call it run is a bit overstatement). And that’s it. 5 seconds in, 3 seconds out. And on the top of it a tons of fun with my other workshop mates, Monika and Bryan at one anonymous castle. Whoooo whoooooo! Halloween is coming !!!
no post processing (aka FLW makes miracle)
Believe or not, but the picture below has not been edited at all. This is “from the camera” shot. No Photoshop, no editing, no playing with sliders of white balance and contrast, no HDR… I’m dead serious. Formula is actually pretty simple.1) wonderful panorama of always photogenic Prague’s castle2) right timing, just a few minutes before the sunset3) and a little miracle called FLW filter Bryan had push me already several times to try to shoot sunset with FLW filter so I knew, that difference would come, but again I was surprised to compare with and without shots. Below you can see the very same composition done just a 5 minutes earlier with completely same set up and difference is so obvious! OK, a picture below is missing those wonderful arch lights below the Charles’s bridge, as they just turned them later on… but you must admit, that the mood, colors and mainly that beautiful sky and structure of the clouds is incomparable. And again – NO, none of the pictures has been altered in any way.So, get yourself one FLW filter, and keep it in your bag. You’ll maybe use it twice a year, but than the result will worth it! 😉 PS: And yes, of course, you can get the “same” effect later in Photoshop playing with white balance and contrast. But why bother, when you can get it almost perfectly right in the camera? And what does the FLW stands for? Its original purpose was a bit different, and started back in the film era… FL-W filter is used to balance daylight film under Warm white or white type Fluorescent Lamps. And here comes FLW…
young clowns @ old square
When was the last time you’ve met a clown? Well, we were so lucky with Monika to meet a couple at 7am while walking in Prague 😉 Now tell me something about unusual models at unusual places…What a splash of colors! And couple of more clowns you can find inside the article! Have a happy smiling day… 😉
no tripod? no problem!
I guess you’ve experienced many times situation, that you see the super cool sunset and you would love to capture it – but you tripod is not nearby. Well, do not hesitate and help yourself and you’ll be rewarded by a cool shots. Same happen to me few weeks ago in Moscow, I didn’t give up and – I was rewarded 🙂 I had a drink and light dinner with my colleagues in the panoramic City Space Bar located at the top of my hotel when I’ve noticed sun going down. Literally. You could see sun sliding down. Perfect hyper modern skyscrapers in the background… Unfortunately I didn’t have my tripod, neither my camera, as I was travelling just with borrowed Nikon D7000 with only one available telephoto lens – thanks god for 18-200mm.So using available coffee table and napkins to stuff space under the lens (see picture below), I’ve found the most appealing composition without any inside light glares – I was shooting 140m high, but still through the window. And then the rest was easy. Reading exposure properly from the sky and waiting for the perfect moment – first when sun touched the cranes at the top of the building… and few moments later, when magic moment of the sunset light appeared.Looks more like Chicago or Tokyo… not really typical Moscow’s landscape/silhouette, right? And this is “behind the scenes” shot made with my phone. Thanks Mirka and Lubomir for their D7000 and – “dasvidanya!” 😉 PS: BTW, that was a very remarkable trip to Moscow. I’ve spent 11 hours at the airport upon arrival, have been charged with a penalty and had a serious immigration issue due to the “trial to illegally crossing borders of Russian federations”. !?!Well, I’m also on the US Homeland security watch list for a trial to take a […]
fill the frame… see the face
I’m still getting back to pictures from a great session with Russian model Elena. Some of them I’ve already shared, but can’t resist to keep few others just for myself. Taking into a consideration that Elena was in US just for a few weeks and was a bit shy during her first model session in States, I was glad to see, that later on during a day, she “warmed up” and was acting more and more naturally. Here I have to note, that my few very basic Russian sentences and a cup of green tea helped a lot with warming 🙂 Enjoy! (Yes, cup of green tea too 🙂 Patrik
singapore’s colorful flyer
Even this picture has been shot two years ago, it’s still one of my the most favorite. For a several reasons. First of all, I felt in love with Singapore. If there would be an offer coming tomorrow to move there, I would be packing my whole family following day 😉Secondly, this picture is a prove, that with a patience and determination, you can get what you want. And the last, but not least – a bit of luck always helps. In my case it was a navy brass band coming right into my exposure with all their shiny trumpets, tubas, trombones… OK, I owe you a bit of explanation… Follow me here. So, I’m first time in Singapore, totally fascinated. Concierge recommends me as the must see Singapore Flyer (kinda London’s Eye). It is actually located right in the middle of Singapore’s F1 circle. OK. Looks nice, view from the top is fantastic, but picture of the Eye is still pretty poor, flat, dull. So, right after my fellow Italian (he looks like Russian 😉 arrived we’ve got back and I’m determined to wait for the ideal light. Meanwhile – to our surprise – thousands of people are marching on the F1 circle (as we found out, it was a preparation for a Singapore’s National day parade). So couple of cool shots there, right in the middle of them. And then, my patience with sun going down started to get paid off. Beautiful colors of the sky, clouds and slightly implied motion of the Flyer – I knew I’ve nailed it 😉 But only then my monthly portion of the photography luck arrived. Right at the beginning of my 13 seconds exposure (motion of the slow moving Flyer wasn’t still […]