Reverend's Rambling

Paris Deserves Another Post

2009-06-28T11:59:00.009+02:00

It is well known that photographer's best friend is the [Delete] key. Unless they have a Mac, that is, in which case they are screwed. ;-) But if you can't force yourself to delete enough of them, that's when you have to resort to writing multiple posts from a single shoot... still, it's very true that most of my pictures suck, as do everyone else's, so let's hope I didn't overdo it. :-)

Louvre is a magnificent place at night. Majestic and calm, inspiring and breathing history ‒ you can almost hear the walls whisper their memories. It's also a nice place for a romantic walk with a sweetheart, as ‒ unlike rest of the town ‒ it's not too crowded.

Notre Dame, despite being too famous for its own good, is still my favourite Paris landmark. There just is something about its Gothic architecture contrasting with rest of the cityscape, and the gargoyles on the roof hungrily observing the streets for easy prey, that makes it very special to me. The simple fact that such cool creatures dwell on the roof of a Christian monument is awesome. :-D In the previous post there are two similar ones - the main difference is the photo processing technique used ‒ HDR in once case and Exposure Blending in the other. But still - this one is my favourite, although it seems to be more amused and mischievous than dangerous. :-)

From all the weird and wannabe artistic shots I took, this simple "point straight up and shoot" still works best for me. :-)

This is a high contrast non-HDR version of this photo. Which one is better?

Here you can yet again see the dark interior difference between Exposure Blending and HDR. I have a HDR shot similar to the first photo here. The organ photo was a bitch to take without a tripod, because I had to zoom in a lot, especially the over-exposed bracketed one. So I overdid it and made it look like a painting. :-) And this statue is a single-exposure photo that favours play of light and shadow, made possible by the fact that there isn't any overwhelming source of light present.

Noticed the CCTV cam watching you from the middle flower? :-D

Either I wasn't exactly in the centre, or the masonship isn't completely accurate. Probably both. :-D

What's better than one TGV train? Four of them, of course. Notice that the last one is a different type, with maximum recorded speed of no less than 574.8 km/h.

This last one is just playing with perspective, most relevant to those who know where the statues are relatively to the tower. :-) I don't think I've ever seen this take on the Eiffel tower, anyway.

Thanks for watching. As always, constructive criticism is most welcome. :-)

A day on Île-de-France

2009-06-27T14:04:00.010+02:00

When the Rock'n'Roll train arrived at Gare de l'Est Friday around noon, we only had two and a half days to get back home. Even though, fortunately, I've been to Paris before, it was so little it was intimidating. To make things even worse, we lost all of Friday to organisational issues, due to problems with the tickets and difficulties with accommodation, and as we wanted to spend most of Sunday in Strasbourg, all we had left was not much ‒ a single day.

The city was just as I remembered it ‒ French. For me, it means a feeling of disorganisation, chaotic traffic, strikes and protests, an ever-present feeling of negligence... but on the other hand great food, attractive women, a lot of glamour, art, and history, all mangled up to form a society that somehow miraculously manages not to fall apart. :-)

Although this is not the line, I like it how elevated "rail" in Paris drives on rubber wheels instead of tracks... makes it a lot more survivable than Chicago. Trust me, I had a track right under my window.

Needless to say, you can't see much in a single day. It was almost a sacrilege to leave so soon, after only seeing a few major landmarks. As I knew the city pretty well already, including the streets of Montmartre, I wasn't too worried about it, but I imagine my friends would have really loved to stay. :-)

What would a city shoot be without at least a little HDR? :-) Dunno, I haven't tried that in quite a while. Also, this time, I'm premiering a new image-processing technique called Exposure Blending. It has basically the same principle as HDR, but achieves the effect much less intrusively, or if you want, without the painting-like effect. See if you can spot those shots. :-)

Notre Dame is very classy, and unlike those posh priests in London with grand robes up their asses, no one was fretting about photography there. The bad thing about this were the myriads of random people discharging one flash after another into the domes... the good thing was that I was able to shoot photos like these without being bothered.

This is the HDR version on this shot, in the next post, I will also upload a more contrasty non-hdr sub-exposed version.

As my camera is still being serviced cause of its shutter failure, I borrowed a generation younger EOS 50D from a friend. I was very satisfied with the camera. It was a nice evolutionary step, especially from the usability/ergonomic point of view... and it never hurts to have more megapixels to crop.

This is a pretty rare photo... those of you familiar with traffic around the Arc surely know why. :-)

To sum things up, it was a wonderful, albeit somewhat costly weekend trip, and I'm looking forward to have more of those. :-) And a good trip needs a good company, so if you'd someday like to join me, leave me a note...

Story of the Rock'n'Roll Train

2009-06-27T09:04:00.008+02:00

"The tickets to the show sold out in 11 minutes," ZZ told me sadly on the phone. "If we really want to see them, we need to travel somewhere else..."

And so the idea was born. When a legend such as AC/DC go on a tour, there's a good chance that it's their last one - and one you really don't want to miss. So the decision was made - it doesn't matter where in Europe we get the tickets, we go there...

I could write epic novels about the French, who went to great lengths to reinforce all the stereotypes - including but not limited to going on strikes just for the sake of it when it's least convenient, not being able (or willing) to speak or even understand English (with all honours to the few exceptions), or their many organisational blunders that cost us four hours of precious time in Paris... but no one's interested in such a rant anyway. :-)

As we couldn't make our minds up in time, plane tickets were already unavailable for a decent price, so we chose to take a train to the show. I didn't realise how symbolic it was until the show started and the real Rock'n'Roll train appeared at the stage. The best way to go were Interrail <26 tickets, five days for €159. As there was a reservation or some unidentifiable surcharge to be paid on almost every train, the price for transport alone was over two hundred, easily making it the most expensive show I've ever been to.

On the other hand, the German ICE and French TGV trains are really cool, and as far as land-based transportation is concerned, easily preferable to cars when it comes to speed and perhaps even convenience. Sadly, new Czech Pendolino trains are really just a joke compared to these.

Just to clarify, the only photos in this set that are mine are the few from before the show... as I didn't dare bring my camera to the mosh pit. There were people queuing at every entrance for over six hours before the show... and the venue, Stade de France, was awesome. With 80 000 seats on the triple-tier tribunes alone, the feeling was very majestic and inspiring, especially for the few of us right below the stage. :-D The crowd was really powerful, making Mexican waves around and around.

As for the show itself... let me just say it was freakin' awesome. I tried not to have exceeding expectations, but that's hard to avoid when you travel by train through half of the continent, and pay a small fortune for the trip. But oh my, this was an experience that is definitely going to give me shivers when I remember it for years to come. The venue was great, the performance was breathtaking, the crowd was fantastic, the sound was brilliant, and overall I think this was the best show I've ever been to, possibly rivalled by Therion's Miskolc classical show - and that's saying something.

So to AC/DC I award the glorious amount of 100 goshu points, making it a supreme világos. :-) It's understandable why only the three of us went there, but if the rest of you get another chance, don't let it slip. Definitely worth paying as much as you can afford. :-)

And finally, for a weak teaser of what it was, here's a video.

Stay tuned for more of Paris coming soon!

Hamsters and terrorists everywhere, rejoice!

2009-04-20T13:09:00.012+02:00

Municipality police of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, has come forth with yet another breathtaking initiative to keep us all safe and free from the evil oppression.

This time, it's a campaign educating the public on how to spot a terrorist, urging them to report people who would seek to destroy our liberties.

Have you ever noticed someone, for example, using a computer? Yes? Bloody hell! How about taking photographs, traveling somewhere, or even calling someone on their cell phone? Then it's your duty to report them, so that proper action to save us all can be taken. Seriously, I'm not making this up:

I don't think this poster is very good and thorough, though - they should have thought it through more. I am certain beyond a degree of reasonable doubt that it lacks several other important things... I will try to mention a few that could really make it easier for people to spot terrorists.

TERRORISTS NEED TO EAT AND DRINK
Have you seen anyone buying food or beverages for other people than themselves? Has it made you suspicious?

TERRORISTS NEED TO WALK ON THE STREETS
Their dark meetings of pure evil can take place anywhere and anytime. Have you ever seen anyone downtown who didn't tell you where they were going?

TERRORISTS NEED TO REST
Make sure you are extra vigilant in vicinity of hostels and dormitories, and pay special attention to people suspiciously sitting on benches in public spaces.

TERRORISTS NEED TO TALK TO EACH OTHER
Did you ever notice people talking discretely to each other? They could be planning the next 9/11 as they speak, and every second you hesitate to report them to special police units could cost thousands of innocent lives!

TERRORISTS NEED TO REPORT TERRORISTS
In the times of worldwide crisis that reflects into today's highly competitive terror market, have you ever seen anyone report other terrorists to get rid of their rivals? (...okay, maybe not. :-P)

Umm... and have you seen anyone lately ridiculing counter-terrorist measures? ...oops. ;-)

Internet Without Borders + HowTo

2009-04-03T11:13:00.011+02:00

In my not so humble opinion, the Internet is an open, international medium. It shouldn't matter where you come from - once you're online, you should be able to access all public information and services. Yet it tends to happen increasingly often that some resource just tells you something like [Access denied. You are not in an approved area. Now please go have an intercourse with yourself.] which is a thing that irritates me.

It's a long day at work and I wanted to refresh myself with some music. Blast, I had no music on my new laptop (ThinkPad T500, wee!) yet, so I tried to use Pandora, which I remember as a very clever, customizable and enjoyable streaming music service. To much disappointment, I was greeted with the message "We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S." I wonder who's behind this - my guess is RIAA and their cronies... No matter; my patience was gone, and my cyber artillery armed and ready for a devastating barrage.

A simple message for everyone who would impose borders upon the Internet:
I fart in the general direction of your futile and annoying restriction attempts.
And I can teach everyone else and their granny how to do it, too.

Fortunately, there is a bane of all network censors, overseers, or other control freaks, and it goes by the name of Tor. For you non-geeks, it's a magical black box that gives you privacy on the internet - feel free to skip the next paragraph.

Tor is a free, open-source onion routing network - to put it simply, your network traffic goes to its destination through several steps, making it practically untracable. The entry node knows who you are but not what you're doing. The exit node knows what you are doing but not who you are. And each of the transit nodes knows two other nodes you are using, but not who you are, nor what you're doing. Your internet service provider sees an encrypted stream of data going from you to the entry node, and has no way to know who you're really communicating with, and finally, the service you are really accessing only sees the last Tor layer (the exit node), and has no idea it's actually serving someone else. Someone, maybe, in a different country...

Bob doesn't know who Alice is, and no one knows Alice is communicating with Bob.

So, I will provide a brief guide to make an unsuspecting service think you are in a country of your choice, and also to make it practically unfeasible for someone to spy on your traffic. Let's suppose you want to fool the Pandora service that you are a good honest average US citizen, to get some great music streaming your way.

First, download and install Tor. Most of you will want the first stable Windows version.

Second, need to make Tor use only the exit nodes located in your country of choice, in this case, the USA. Tor uses the torrc file for configuration, and it must be edited. On Windows, there's a quick link to do it under Tor Start menu folder. On the end of this file, append these two lines:

StrictExitNodes 1
exitnodes exitnode1, exitnode2, ...

The tricky part is to get a list of nodes in the country of your choice. Here are a few from the USA: jalopy, nixnix, AoF, torxmission, mirnaloy, uday, logs, server4, peter0294218d7, tiberius, thesmokeroom, yamarit, MackDaddy, TorVille, ArulSelvan, linquist1, Doodles123, Blackmage, blackbag, sweetYellow, infogtor, tonkator

For other countries, or when these cease to be valid, another list has to be created. Fortunately, Vidalia (a part of the Tor bundle) lets us get an overview of the Tor network and find the nodes manually:

And finally, the application you are using needs to be configured to use Tor to route its traffic, at least for the destination required. Tor creates a proxy server on localhost:9050 which needs to be used. There are various means of doing this, a .pac (proxy autoconfig) file with this content can be used to configure your browser to use Tor for www.pandora.com site - just replace it with a different domain name for another service.

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
if (shExpMatch(host, "www.pandora.com"))return "SOCKS 127.0.0.1:9050";
return "DIRECT";
}

Check your browser documentation or ask Google to see how to configure its proxy.

Done? Congratulations! Now you are ready to browse around the dumb restriction. Using Tor may slow the service down a little, but I find it really sufficient to seamlessly stream music at ~200 kbps. And this all was just an example - Tor is immensely useful for overcoming all kinds of network limitations, while keeping you anonymous. But about that maybe later.

Hehe, it really feels great to do a little hacking, doesn't it? Enjoy!

Geek's birthday

2008-12-08T11:39:00.008+01:00

Every once in approximately 31 556 926 seconds the Earth completes its orbit around the only star around for almost 1.29 parsecs. Apparently, the fact that Earth is yet again located in the same relative angular position from the Sun as the day you were born, is a reason to celebrate. And there's more. As Sheldon has eloquently put it, some people even participate in the mass cultural delusion that the sun's apparent position relevant to arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of your birth somehow affects your personality.

Be that as it may, I'd like to share with you some of the greatest and most witty birthday wishes I ever got, and treasure them so much that it would be a pity for them not to be shared... I won't be explaining the mechanics behind these in detail, because this could spoil the fun for the geeks reading this, and the rest of you don't care, anyway, or probably have stopped reading by now. :-D

All of those were created two years ago, when Fox started this on our discussion forum, although his wish is so otherworldly, that I'll keep it for the end. ZZ used unix shell to write a clever pipe of two commands, which looks very cryptic at the first glance, but is in fact very simple.

echo pTaalqbirtARTlqtoqloyhqATaalqbirtARTlqto\
qloyhqATaalqbirtARTlqRXTrqfXvXrXzRhqATaalqbir\
tARTlqtoqloy.qsqIonqxXqzTIqzXoDXr\!|tr fTaplb\
iqMthRtoyhDAmXsInxzr RapHybi\ rthdtou,zhDeAmcsnr

It translates into Happy Birthday song lyrics, along with a suggestion that I shouldn't get too wasted partying that night. Nick immediately created a very smart contra in C programming language:

#include<stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
long long int L = 729987139091064141LL;
while (L) { putchar(L&0xFF); L >>= 8; }
return 0;
}

If compiled, this gem prints out nothing more than "Me too!". And finally, Fox, who started all this, used Brainfuck language for this jewel of code:

>+++++++++[<++++++++>-]<.>++++++[<++++>-]<+.>+++[<+++++>-]<..
>++[<++++>-]<+.[-]>++++++++[<++++>-]<.>+++++++[<+++++++++>-]<+++.
+++++++.>++[<++++>-]<+.++.>+++[<---->-]<.----.---.>++++++[<++++>-]<.
[-]>++++++++[<++++>- ]<+.[-]++++++++++.

Lovely. It even made me code a simple Brainfuck compiler, to sate the curiosity. One of my friends adorably described this piece of code as: a dead fish without a head, followed by a dead fish without head and a tail, followed by random chopped pieces of dead fish.

So that's it. :-D Thanks a lot guys, it was a load of fun... Have any more clever geek birthday wishes to share?

Letting go...

2008-12-07T10:12:00.013+01:00

Thanks for everything.

Stockholm at Night

2008-11-18T13:07:00.003+01:00

The gamla stan (old town) of Stockholm is a very interesting place, especially at night. The old cobblestone streets are narrow, cold yet cosy, and deserted. A few confused backpackers like myself, some Swedes hard at work navigating to the right place to party, and... well, solitude. It was just me and my camera, and a whole lot of freedom, as I was sitting on a bench in front of the royal palace, pondering anything and everything, and smoking a fine cigar.

The moment I've entered the departure hall at Bratislava airport, a terrifying finding dawned upon me: I have forgotten the tripod packed in my room. It may have been a good thing, partly, because my experience is that lugging a tripod on board of a plane is often a huge problem with the security. Perhaps you could use it to beat someone to death and then mount your camera over their body to get the perfectly stable shot!

So yeah, in case you noticed that there is some noise and blur in the photos, this is the reason. These are certainly not praiseworthy from technical point of view, but I think they capture the scene pretty well and I like them anyway. :-)

Swedes are very kind and enjoyable fellas, and never hesitate to share a story and a drink. This is the reason why I, merely few hours after landing outside the city, managed to find a bunch of nice guys who I could spend some time with. I found them trying to get over a fence from their party place to the old town, and my paparazzi side took over for a while, so I was photographing them secretly, not to spoil the moment.

Then we talked and had a great laugh - although I was worried for a second that they would not appreciate it, they were amused, and invited me to come with them. I really enjoy meeting foreigners... there is always something special about those moments, especially the part of me that misses Erasmus in Trondheim, or even Chicago, got really sated that night. If you guys are reading this, here's one huge thanks, it was really lovely and you're welcome in Bratislava or Brno anytime. :-)

And a little toy photo to conclude. :-)

Vigelandsparken

2008-11-09T15:03:00.008+01:00

Sunday in Oslo was all you would expect from a day of such name, the weather was completely different from the boring clouds of the day before, and our first part of the day was spent on a beautiful autumn walk around Vigelandsparken, a lovely sculpture park, part of (my very own ;-)) Frognerparken, where all the famous and, admittedly, somewhat crazy statues (made) of naked people are. :-)

Monolitten is a breathtaking creation that took no less than twenty years to design and build. I really appreciate how dozens and dozens of bodies entwine together. According to wikipedia, they are rising towards heaven and represent man’s desire to become closer with the spiritual and divine. It portrays a feeling of togetherness as the human figures embrace one another as they are carried toward salvation. Whatever, it's just a massive phallus built of naked people. ;-P

The panorama is created in hugin, a very handy and powerful open source tool I've decided to try thanks to the love it gets from Linux.com and Yenya.

What a gang. :-D

And finally, the old man who looked down on us for Eva and Zdeněk climbing on one of the statue pedestals. There are a lot more photos of them on my Facebook album for the trip, give it a click. :-)

Los Oslosos (HDR)

2008-11-08T14:44:00.005+01:00

I haven't been to Scandinavia for a month and, well, I missed that place enough to get back there. This time it was Oslo, made easier and cheaper by the fact that all it took to persuade Zdeněk to let us stay at his place, were twelve bottles of booze. The weather on Saturday was as Scandinavian as it gets, so all I could do to prevent my shots from being dull and boring was resorting to HDR yet again...

I had little time to prepare or compose the shots, as the others were impatient and restless, and I'm not very satisfied with the results. Then again, Oslo is not a very photogenic city, definitely not as nice and cosy as Stockholm or Trondheim. Eva, however, was enchanted, so if I don't post anymore, she'd probably strangled me. :-)

It was a wonderful experience overall, I saw a lot of things I always wanted to see, got to eat a lovely dish of whale meat, relaxed a little and spent some time with my dearest. Can't wait for another trip such as this!

Stockholm in HDR

2008-10-23T11:11:00.003+02:00

The light was mostly so good there wasn't much need for experimenting, but I still couldn't resist firing off a few bracketed shots for HDR... I like a few, you judge for yourself. I admit the feel is somewhat unrealistic, which anyone may or may not appreciate.

And, although not exactly HDR, a bird. :-)

Stay tuned for Stockholm night shots! :-)

Weekend in Stockholm

2008-10-22T18:04:00.010+02:00

It was late at night, months ago, me and my buddies were enjoying some quality male-only time and laughing our asses off at some distant place better left unspecified, when my phone rang. I grinned at the screen as it was my dearest, and ran out to answer it... "Tee hee," she giggled, "we just had [censored amount of ;-)] tequila shots and decided that we wanted to go to Sweden!" All I managed was a general sound of amused surprise. "Seriously! RyanAir offers plane tickets for €10 including all the taxes. It's ending tomorrow, you need to decide now." Well, she needn't say more, as I'm always all for any mischief like this.

There were six of us supposed to come, but as the departure date approaches, I ended up alone. The excuses others had varied from "we have no money" to "I broke both my arms while riding a bike," and at the last minute, not having any mates, or even place to stay, not even I was decided whether to go. Then I woke up on Saturday around noon, and said hey, what kind of a fool would I be to waste a trip such as this? The plane is leaving in three hours, plenty of time to book a hostel, pack, and go for it! And just in case you care, I paid less than €70 for the entire trip, including food... fantastic.

This guy was really crazy, jumping off a molo that was almost 2 metres high in his kayak. Not the kind of stunt you see half-drunk city boys pull off when rafting on Vltava river. :-D

The weather was really wonderful, especially considering it was autumn in Scandinavia; I was used to seeing several rainbows a day in Trondheim. :-) Great to be lucky once in a while.

Not an uncommon sight. Not a surprise either, Swedish girls have been making British girls look ugly for centuries, after all. ;-)

I didn't know Sweden was an Islamic country... :-)

This street is renowned as the very fanciest boulevard in Scandinavia. Great shopping, too!

Dear children, sorting your trash greatly helps the environment!

Yeah, well, fine! I'm gonna go build my own park! With booze... And hookers! In fact, forget the park. ;-)

They must have anticipated my arrival in advance, I really didn't expect to stumble upon a statue of me and Jana!

Enough for today, stay tuned for night and hdr shots, coming (relatively) soon! ;-D

Last dose of London... (HDR)

2008-09-15T22:59:00.004+02:00

...at least this year. Although there will be some random people shots up later. :-) Enjoy!

The Tower of the London of Steel (HDR)

2008-09-09T00:01:00.005+02:00

And there's another batch coming your way. No blah blah today, whatever, most of you don't read my rants anyway. ;-) These are all from the Tower and around. We didn't go in, as it was crowded and expensive, and I'd been there before, but it was a nice walk nonetheless.

These photos have a bit colder colours, and look good on my display. Please let me know if I overdid it and it looks too blueish on yours. Also, I wish to register a complaint, as shooting when it's as cloudy as this is a bitch, original photos were all hazy and boring.

Spying at LSE (HDR)

2008-09-08T18:19:00.011+02:00

For those very few hard-core enough to venture beyond LSD, there is a special treat in London. Posing as one of the world's most überbest universities, only its name suggests that there's more to LSE than they would like us to know. ;-)

The preliminary results of my espionage mission on this target were pretty confusing, as it seemed that they managed to hide this secret very well, while at the same time exhibiting rather lax security allowing me to sneak into their enormous library, or freely eat at their cantina. :-)

This post is mostly here for my dearest, to whom I've promised to take a few shots of the campus, as well as for our friends from the LSE Summer School 2008. So go ahead and shed a tear of nostalgy, or perhaps two. Miss the place?

PS: I haven't forgotten about the post I've promised about my post-processing techniques, but I just can't afford the time to write it right now. A realistic expectation is that it will be here within several weeks. :-)

Happy anniversary!

2008-08-25T14:33:00.006+02:00

It is by accident that I've noticed this exactly today, because it certainly doesn't feel that way, but I've been exhibiting my obviously unsurpassed graphomaniacal phase here for a whole year exactly today. :-) I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised, because I didn't think I would post often after a month or two, nor did I think that people would still be actually reading this after such a time.

A little statistic is in order to summarise: on average I've written more than one new post each week (58), received over 28 hits each day (10500!) produced three and a half megabytes of hypertext, linked hundreds of images... and thanks to this blog (and having a fairly uncommon surname, of course :-D) I am now officially #1 Hinca on the web. ;-)

And while, naturally, creating something and having my thoughts and photos online in one place is a sort of motivation for me in itself, it wouldn't be worth it without all of you participating, and maybe appreciating it with an occasional word of praise. :-) So thank you all, and I hope that the coming year is going to be just as good!

Squirrels!

2008-08-13T16:47:00.011+02:00

This one is for the kids mostly, although there is one photo here that I especially like: The squirrel with the old woman's hand. She was a real deranged hermit :-), the squirrels had some strange affinity towards her. Kulida will kindly forgive that there are only two squirrels, yet several photos. :-P All shot in St. James park.

And I'll also add the hermit for Filip. :-) And a little bird also on her hand. It was a nice and entertaining shoot overall, and I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail and magnification I was able to squeeze from the lens.

God Must be a Hippie

2008-07-23T22:31:00.006+02:00

This post is long overdue, because I just couldn't get myself to process the photos. As for the post-processing, I know these look unreal. But that's not my fault! There is no HDR applied, and color is not edited at all! Seriously, I have deliberately left all the Hue, Saturation, Luminosity, Vibrance, and other similar sliders alone. The colors are exactly as shot, and much less crazy than they were in reality. On the second thought, perhaps I should have made them more vibrant. :-)

So, being unrealistic enough on their own, that is sort of their selling point, because the sky was INSANE that evening. I went out and was like "WTF? The end is at hand, Sabaton has finally met Amon Amarth in the Final Battle." Seriously, whatever deity involved must have been stoned.

I only made a few documentary shots, nothing really artistic, so don't grumble about the composition, or stuff, I was being chased around by dad who wanted me to mow the lawn and his patience was getting thin. :-) Needless to say, I was moving it so that I was always facing the sunset. It turned even better later, but I couldn't go get the camera and reshoot, because he would probably break my lens with a spade. :-D

London Revisited (HDR)

2008-07-22T10:40:00.012+02:00

My little treasure obviously got addicted to schoolwork after getting her degree, so she decided to attend the LSE summer school in London. As I would have probably died of sorrow back here alone, I had to come visit her for at least a while. Besides, it was a great opportunity to get back to my beloved London, stay at her place for cheap, and breathe in international student's life for one more time.

I booked the flight with SkyEurope, only to have to argue with who had to be the most annoying airline employer ever, because those lousy crooks made me pay 1280,- for the privilege to check-in my case. I will think several times before I fly with them again.

As a related experience from the airport, here's a transcript of my dialogue with a security officer in Bratislava.

Him: (Making me show him my 0.5 l mineral water bottle.) "Don't you know you can't take liquids past the security checkpoint? Throw it away at once!"
Me: (Playing perplexed.) "Really? And why would that be? It's only mineral water, after all."
Him: (Annoyed.) "It could be an explosive."
Me: (Taking a sip from the bottle.) "I see. It tastes pretty damn good for an explosive, wanna try?"
Him: "I told you to throw it into the bin."
Me: (Thoughtful.) "Wait a minute... what if it really is an explosive?"
Him: "What?"
Me: "Wow, you guys are just precious. You take a suspected explosive from most of people who pass the security checkpoint, and then just put them all together into the same plastic bin right in the middle of a crowded airport? Have you got a death wish?"
Him: (Stares blankly.)
Me: (Still drinking from the bottle.) "Seriously now. It's as dangerous here as it would be in the air. If you are taking my water away because you suspect it's an explosive, I demand it to be treated as such! Why don't you call for a bomb disposal unit?"
Other officer: (Loses his face and starts laughing.)
Him: "Throw it away if you want to fly today."
Me: (Laughing as well. Having finished the bottle, I pack it back into the backpack to refill it later...) "Sorry, I don't have any water anymore. Have a god day, officer! And take care..."

We stayed at Rosebery hall, an LSE dormitory some 30 minutes from central London with most of the sights readily accessible on foot, including the LSE main campus.

As Jana had to attend classes daily and later got sick, I had a lot of time to enjoy on my own, accompanied only by my trusty camera. It's not that I don't love walking around with anyone else, but I hate to spoil shots because I am hurried, and don't want to keep them waiting... so sometimes I find solitude rather enjoyable.

When I was about to build my DSLR setup, I was a little worried that after a while I won't enjoy the shooting anymore, that I'll be bored and the camera will idly sit on a shelf, begging to be at least dusted once in a few months. Well, more than 20000 photos later (that's a little under hundred photos everyday, on average) I have to say that I'm still as satisfied as when it was new, and still learning new stuff every time I go out. :-D

The light conditions were often rather photo-unfriendly, with either harsh direct light, or heavy clouds, so I decided it was high time to start experimenting with techniques I've had in my cross-hairs for quite some time now. Multiple exposures, HDR, tone-mapping, exposure blending, relighting.

It was easier than I thought to get it "somehow", but it will be pretty difficult to get it right - the tools are rather complex and I am far from having mastered them properly. There will definitely be a post coming soon explaining how to create photos such as these.

The post-processing of photos in this post varies, you will find photos that are fairly similar to a normal exposure (with a polarizing filter) but also photos that don't look realistic anymore and even resemble paintings more.

I would really like you to comment whether you like this, or if there is anything here that is too "avantgarde" for you, or you think the post-processing was screwed up. I went pretty far sometimes, so I don't really expect someone to like them all. Just please, pretty please, more feedback this time.

And this is just from the first day... there will be more coming. Sadly, it takes ages to process them in this fashion. :-) Overall, I have to say I'm pleased with the results.

Bratislava under Siege

2008-06-29T23:53:00.006+02:00

In early 19th century that frog-eating midget Napoleon thought it was a great idea to lay siege to Bratislava and bombard it and destroy a lot of valuable cultural heritage and whatsnot... well, some people obviously feel that is a reason for celebration and reenactment, and as little Filip wanted to go and see some of that, so went I and my camera. Sadly, we didn't get to see most of the program, so I only have a bunch of random shots. On the positive side, I feel like I've really improved my flash technique. :-)

Big Brother's long fingers

2008-06-28T22:16:00.007+02:00

It is perhaps due to my ignorance that I am noticing this now, or maybe I just dismissed it as impossible, but I was pretty shocked by a finding that struck me tonight

Especially after 9/11, it is a common occurrence that Europeans pity citizens of the United States, because their privacy is invaded at every corner, and all that newspeak and fear-mongering really remind us of Orwell's 1984. My father is even so concerned about his privacy and personal information, that he turned down an opportunity to go to the post-2001 USA several times.

In fact, when I was about to leave for the Land of Freedom to spend a semester there last fall, I even had to pay for being watched and tracked. My visa request would not be granted unless I paid a $100 fee to SEVIS, an organization whose very purpose is to spy on foreign students and visitors.

I always thought that compassion is all that we had to offer in this context, but it turns out I was wrong: Obviously, an agreement between US and EU [NY Times] is about to happen, that will give the US government access to personal data of EU citizens. Am I the only one who feels this is an outrage? Any reason we should trust Team America with this?

Of course, they claim they will only "look for suspicious activity", but just consider how the FBI abuses the Patriot Act. Do you remember that sweet pot of honey they were feeding everyone prior to the Patriot Act vote? This is a binding agreement, and indeed is a big deal. If the EU will have to turn over any such information US would ask for, I think I have yet another reason to move to Norway.

Fortunately, there are some respectable voices speaking out against this. “I am very worried that once this will be adopted, it will serve as a pretext to freely share our personal data with anyone, so I want it to be very clear about exactly what it means and how it will work,” said Sophia in ’t Veld, a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands who has been an outspoken advocate of privacy rights.

Of course, “the fight against transnational crime and terrorism requires the ability to share personal data for law enforcement.” Naturally, I am going to feel safer immediately, knowing that Ahmed ibn Muhammad, who sells Gyros in Frankfurt, has his credit report resting safe within the hands of the DHS, right next to mine.

But wait, it gets better...! “The Europeans have agreed that the American government’s internal oversight system may be good enough to provide accountability for how Europeans’ data is used.” Yeah right. I wouldn't trust the American government's internal oversight system to oversee berries-picking in my backyard. They would probably lose an unencrypted laptop with full recordings of everything I said and did during the past 18 months.

Duh. Can someone please tell me that everything is going to be okay...?

Walrus on the Lawn

2008-06-11T18:50:00.008+02:00

Although not technically a member of the odobenidae, I believe that this speciman has much in common with the marine mammal. Thus, although Janka likes to call him Blesk (Flash), I usually call him Mrož (Walrus). There's just something about his personality and phonic demonstration that makes me sure he should have been born somewhere in the Arctics with giant tusks. :-D

Perhaps his most favourite source of nutrition are tennis balls, which he pops effortlessly and devours with great passion. ;-) Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a wee bit.

When confronted with a stray tennis ball, Walrus darts after it furiously and although sometimes he gets disoriented, usually he manages to prevail.

Lately we've been having some quality time together no less than three times a day, so in case the next time I see you I act like a marine mammal, you know that Walrus has won the battle of wits against me as well. Then again, I might offer more resistance than a drooled-over tennis ball.

Notice the strong difference between shadow and direct sunlight on the photos. Sometimes it can be a real pain to compensate for this. :-(

Also, as some of you may have noticed, it is most unjust that I blog about Walrus sooner than I do about Freya. I plead guilty and declare that this will have to be corrected sometime soon.

PS: You have to admit... the similarity is just uncanny. :-D

We wanted the best...

2008-06-08T20:23:00.007+02:00

...and we got the best! The hottest band in the world, KISS!!

It was with mixed feelings that I've decided to pay twelve hundred crowns for a show of a band I hadn't been quite that huge a fan of... at least until now. But hey, I said to myself, they indeed are a legend, an aging one, actually, and they might not come here again. You better go and see them now that you've got the chance. Well, that may just have been my best decision recently. :-D

I have been preparing diligently for this, feeding my last.fm account a hundred or more KISS songs a week lately. The show was happening at O₂ Arena in Prague, so we left Brno before noon. As Zdeněk and Jenda are really hard-core fans, make-ups were a must, and I have to admit that a bit of their enthusiasm brushed off on me as well. Speaking of which, I am very grateful to ZZ for making this happen for me.

It took us well over an hour to paint our faces, and we were pretty satisfied with the results. :-) I have to say it was rather enjoyable to roam streets of Prague like this, especially at night. Some confused tourists even asked us for autographs. :-D Sadly, Jana has little understanding or appreciation for this delicate modern art... and there I was sooo hoping she would join us next time. ;-)

The venue is really nice. Right size for a great show, well built, with working air-conditioning (it really was a bliss, I am still surprised) it might just be the finest place I've ever been to see a concert. As always, I have to praise the security... obviously, their main concern was to keep people from bringing their own water in, it really made me feel safer than ever before. To beef it up, when you bought a small bottle of soda, they would refuse to give you the bottlecap and throw it away. Maybe they were preparing for Fallout already, but it was really annoying to be unable to close the bottle. Even more so, you weren't allowed to bring the drink you bought inside to the stage itself -- which was again the guards' main concern. As it was shortly after six and we didn't expect the show to end before eleven, this was even more annoying.

To everyone's vast surprise, the security didn't work well, and soon I had a full bottle of Fanta right before the stage. With a bottlecap on it, of course -- no one can keep my post-apocalyptic loot from me. It made me feel like a sly and cunning criminal, but then again, it really wasn't that much of a challenge to outsmart those plantlike goons. :-P

It was quite a long wait until eight, when the forerunners appeared on stage. Cinder Road, they call themselves. They are pretty weird, you can't really decide whether they are rockers or just a boy band, but in retrospect the latter seems more likely. I've seen much worse bands and their songs were not too demanding, but overall I was unimpressed. Also, their frontman must be the most feminine guy I've ever seen.

And finally, what we've all been waiting for. The best! The four old men (don't frown, this was the 35^th anniversary of the band, after all, although they really don't look like they're pushing their sixties) descended from the sky in their fancy costumes, and the utter világos started. The sound and lights were impeccable, show professional, and the band was playing one legendary hit right after another... it was sweet. It's difficult to emphasize just how spectacular the show was, and how well the music sounded, but it was earning goshu points every minute.

We managed to get pretty close and get an okay (though not fantastic) view as well, so all the flying and blood-spitting and effects were pretty impressive, even better than Iron Maiden we saw exactly a year ago.

Edited to add: The one thing that surprised me mightily was the crowd. Not only were they slightly less enthusiastic than I expected, but no one moved. During the whole three hours, not a single person bumped into me, nobody around me jumped, nobody swapped their places -- people were completely static. I haven't seen this happen (or not happen, more accurately) right in front of the stage on any concert before, let alone show this huge.

Overall, it was a very pleasant surprise, KISS managed to exceed my expectations more than just a little. For that, I award them 91 goshu points and dub them supreme világos, the second greatest of all time, surpassed by none but the classic Therion show in Miškolc. I am deeply saddened to realise that the list of meganoobs and criminals has grown yet more this week. :-(

Finally, for a little taste of what you missed, you may want to check out these vids:
I Love it Loud, Rock'n'Roll All Nite, Detroit Rock City!

--
Edited to add: Zdeněk has posted a blogpost of his own today, and it's pretty good. The photos over there are better than the ones I have here, and it's definitely worth a look.

War on Photography

2008-06-05T00:10:00.014+02:00

I've been planning to blog about this topic for ages, and now the mighty security guru Bruce Schneier did that for me in a Guardian newspaper essay:

What is it with photographers these days? Are they really all terrorists, or does everyone just think they are?

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We've been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Just look at this bastard. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate to kill a kitten. :-P

Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography.

Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don't seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets? Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer?

Because it's a movie-plot threat.

A movie-plot threat is a specific threat, vivid in our minds like the plot of a movie. You remember them from the months after the 9/11 attacks: anthrax spread from crop dusters, a contaminated milk supply, terrorist scuba divers armed with almanacs. Our imaginations run wild with detailed and specific threats, from the news, and from actual movies and television shows. These movie plots resonate in our minds and in the minds of others we talk to. And many of us get scared.

Terrorists taking pictures is a quintessential detail in any good movie. Of course it makes sense that terrorists will take pictures of their targets. They have to do reconnaissance, don't they? We need 45 minutes of television action before the actual terrorist attack -- 90 minutes if it's a movie -- and a photography scene is just perfect. It's our movie-plot terrorists that are photographers, even if the real-world ones are not.

The old town of Bratislava clearly promotes terrorism without any qualms...

The problem with movie-plot security is it only works if we guess the plot correctly. If we spend a zillion dollars defending Wimbledon and terrorists blow up a different sporting event, that's money wasted. If we post guards all over the Underground and terrorists bomb a crowded shopping area, that's also a waste. If we teach everyone to be alert for photographers, and terrorists don't take photographs, we've wasted money and effort, and taught people to fear something they shouldn't.

And even if terrorists did photograph their targets, the math doesn't make sense. Billions of photographs are taken by honest people every year, 50 billion by amateurs alone in the US And the national monuments you imagine terrorists taking photographs of are the same ones tourists like to take pictures of. If you see someone taking one of those photographs, the odds are infinitesimal that he's a terrorist.

Of course, it's far easier to explain the problem than it is to fix it. Because we're a species of storytellers, we find movie-plot threats uniquely compelling. A single vivid scenario will do more to convince people that photographers might be terrorists than all the data I can muster to demonstrate that they're not.

Fear aside, there aren't many legal restrictions on what you can photograph from a public place that's already in public view. If you're harassed, it's almost certainly a law enforcement official, public or private, acting way beyond his authority. There's nothing in any post-9/11 law that restricts your right to photograph.

This is worth fighting. Search "photographer rights" on Google and download one of the several wallet documents that can help you if you get harassed; I found one for the UK, US, and Australia. Don't cede your right to photograph in public. Don't propagate the terrorist photographer story. Remind them that prohibiting photography was something we used to ridicule about the USSR. Eventually sanity will be restored, but it may take a while.

---

Yeah. I soo can't wait. :-) But I can't really blame those poor people, my 77 mm diameter lens could easily fire even a large RPG. So beware, for next time you find yourself on the wrong end of my viewfinder, it may be more than just a bird that flies out! :-D

As related information from nycphotorights.com, which has some pretty interesting posts as well, if you can chew through all the excessive exclamation marks and immature posting, (the admin must be like 15, not more ;-)), there is one about Fox reporter doing a story on photographer harassment on the Union station in Washington D.C.

While he is interviewing the Amtrak spokesman, who says that photography is perfectly alright in the Amtrak part of the station, they both get assaulted by a security guard who makes a big speech about how photography is illegal and not allowed at the station.

Priceless. You just can't make this stuff up, it's way too unbelievable. :-D I wonder if anyone gets fired for this... See the video here.

Brno at night

2008-05-29T00:01:00.002+02:00

I've posted a photo topic everyday since Monday, and today will be no different. (Although tomorrow probably will, I can't afford to spoil you like this. :-P I'm just emptying my photo buffer.)

This was one fine evening out with Jana, though she probably wouldn't agree -- although I was planning to explain everything to her, and make her as involved as possible, it turned out that I had a lot on my plate as it were. Perhaps because it was my first time out with a tripod, I kept tweaking it all the time, while trying to find optimal manual settings for each shot, including the white balance and other pleasantries, so I paid too much attention to all that stuff which likely bored her to death. :-/ Not to mention the timed triggers and repeating some shots multiple times. Sadly, I am a mere man, and real multitasking is something I have yet to learn.

Petrov is as fine as churches in minor cities get, I like it much more than St. Martin's Dome in Bratislava. At least some fine architecture came out of the dark ages, when secularity meant heresy and heresy, in turn, meant that you could expect the Spanish Inquisition... if only it wasn't entirely unexpectable. :-P

It's a true landmark in Brno, and some of the alleys around it are pretty nice, especially at night. Not quite as nice as the ones in old town of Bratislava, though.

Eerie. :-) And this one is pretty rare, as this tower is only cleanly visible from a little spot and is usually lighted during the night -- not this night for some reason.

I really do like this city. :-)