Neuron tree

If you squint your eyes, or go stand away from the screen, it may look like neurons. Well anyway that's how it looks to me :P

Graffiti 2

Old photo of an even older graffiti that just got covered up by someone so i though i'd post it here.
To those not able to read greek: "Happyness is spelled with an E not €". And then someone corrected the spelling mistake in happiness, "Learn how to spell happiness first."

Flashing your subjects

Sorry for the wall of text, there are 2 photo examples in there, i promise.
Also, someone mentioned that the images are not loading sometimes. Try refreshing the page, i've already contacted support for this. We'll see what they say.

Most people understand that it's for the best to have lots of light when taking a picture. After all - photography basically means to draw with light. What you actually need to do with light is to control it as much as possible, not just to have lots of it. Too much light may in fact ruin a picture if it is coming from the wrong angle. Ways of controlling the angle of light is your subject’s location, a reflector of sorts or to add a light source of your own, your camera’s flash. The flash is not just for adding light in low light situations, sometimes it may even ruin a night time photo while a daytime photo might be in need of a flash. Yeap, a daytime photo that most people wouldn’t think of using a flash (because you have the sun), may need some extra light coming from the right place. Camera sensors are not even close in behaviour when compared to our eyes. What you see, is not what the camera sees. Once someone realizes that, it will be easier to get the desired effect. And no, i won’t be going into serious flash photography where you use one or more flash units to light your subject and then another flash to light the background in a way you want. (It is though a really interesting subject, but that is not the point of this post.)

The first and most important use for a flash is of course fill flash, meaning to use the flash to add light to shadowy areas. That could very well be that friend of yours that you want to take a picture of, but is standing with the sun behind his back leaving you facing the sun. Sun blinds people but it blinds camera’s even more. That auto exposure and “limited” digital sensor kick in to lower the overall brightness of the scene to manageable levels and so the image ends up with a nice sky, but with everything else really really dark. What will you do if you can’t change your location? Use your flash of course. That’s why it’s there, it will try to fill in and brighten up the dark areas.

The fill flash can be done with any camera, compacts and dSLRs alike, it just needs a flash. The next two uses are easier with an external flash like the ones for dSLR cameras.

You can also use flash to simulate a softer, more natural light source. Swivel that head. Its got joints for a reason. As humans we are used for natural light to come from a big light source located far away, and the light hitting us from above, remember the cliche scenes from movies where they tell ghost stories with a flashlight shining from below? There's a reason some find it unsettling, the light is coming from an unnatural source. (Meaning we are used to seeing the shadows in a certain way.)
So turn that light source upwards and to the left or right and bounce the light on the ceiling and walls. The reason to do this is to give light a chance to diffuse and soften up a bit. Depending on the paint, the light may come down with a slightly different color and may even make the photo look warmer. (You can also use special gels to make the light coming from the flash match the ambient lighting more closely, but if you knew that, you wouldn’t be reading this anyway...) An added bonus for bouncing light on a wall is that your friends won’t want to hurt you for making their eyes bleed. A nice trick for nice results is to let light to come in from lets say a window from the left and then bounce light from a wall to your right to try and balance things out a bit. You may even play with the power of the flash to make things interesting with shadows. (Don’t forget, shadows are one of the things our brain uses to get info about a scene, especially if it is in 2D like a photo.) If you are using a compact camera and want to test bounce your flash, just use a piece of glossy photopaper in front of the flash, tilted 45 degrees towards the ceiling.

Just compare the two examples. On the first one the flash is aimed directly at the souvenirs, notice the harsh light and shadows. On the second one the flash head was aimed upwards. Light is softer and warmer because of the ceiling's paint. To make it seem as if the sun is at 45 degrees instead of noon, all one has to do is aim the flash head upwards and to the left or right. (Settings on both snaps are the same. Only the head's orientation was changed)

Another use for that rush of light is stopping action. It’s not as easy as putting the flash on 100% power and a fast shutter speed. Most probably your camera won’t be able to sync the flash with the shutter fast enough! Most consumer grade cameras have a flash sync of 200. Meaning it won’t be able to do its thing fast enough. The trick is in the flash. You see that bulb always flashes at the same exact power. What changes is the duration that the bulb fires. When you put the flash at 50% it is going to leave the bulb on longer than when putting it at 25% of output. That is what it really means. So if you put your flash at 100%, it is going to stay on longer, and so your moving subject will appear as if it has a trail. You could play with that setting and have a long or short trail from your subject, but if you want to freeze the action, then what you need to do is a bit opposite than what most people would think about. Up your ISO, select a slow shutter speed and for the flash’s power output, put it at around 1/32 of its power. Not half, not one eight. That 1/32 (or even 1/64 power) is going to be fast, making your effective shutter speed so fast that your camera can’t even think of reaching normally. Of course, with this trick, don’t expect to light up the whole scene. Just aim the flash head at what you want to “freeze”.

This snap was taken with a shutter as slow as 1.6secs. That's so slow you need a tripod. Yet, even with having the shutter open for more than a whole second, and just by holding the flash and manually triggering it when the cherries hit the water, the drops are clearly captured. Nothing blurred. (Yes i was throwing cherries in a glass of water. I know its not classy enough :P)

P.S. click the pic for a bigger view.
Oh and the f stop was f8, with the flash manually triggered at 1/32 of its power.

Growing old doesn't mean growing up :P.

Small detail drawn on the side of a bigger graffiti piece.

I find this tiny one to be a lot stronger and powerful than the bigger piece. (Shows a face with a hand placed over its mouth) 

So its time for some shameless self promotion!!!
Just made an old design of mine into an iPhone/iPod case (3-4 days ago if not more. That's just how "just" it is...) Fully custom design so no stolen copyrights or images of course. Every design element hand made... using a PC.
You know what i mean.

This one is about rock, haaaard rock.
(So if you want one, click on the image to go to its redbubble.com entry. Or click here)

Sometimes people ask me about which camera I think is the best (No, i'm not an expert). Well, the way I see it, there’s really no such thing. Yes, there are cameras that can put out good or bad images, but that is in image quality terms. Give a bad camera to someone that knows photography and has a clear idea of what he/she wants to show and then you are going to get some great photos. They will even use the camera's shortcoming to make an even stronger image. Give the best camera you can to someone that just knows how to push the buttons and you won't be getting anything more than what you would've get if you've given your run-of-the-mill compact, set on full auto.

So my answer can go two ways. First, the best camera is the one that you'd feel most comfortable holding and using, the one you'd actually want to bring with you everywhere you go and want to use. Some like the grip from a Nikon, others like the menu of a Canon. It doesn't really matter what you have if you don't feel like taking it with you. It won't be of any use even if it is one of those €5000 cameras and you don't have it along.

The second thing I say to people is “The camera closer to you. Physically...”
Ideally the camera you are most comfortable using (meaning that you know your way around the menu and settings) should be the one closer to you. You are bringing it along with you, aren't you? Even to the toilet... Anyway, chances are that a picture taking device is close to you. Your phone, a friend's phone (ask for permission!!), a tablet (though you'd look a bit funny)... If there is a scene you want to snap and you already know how to frame it, then all you need is a device to make it into a photo. Just set it on auto if you are not familiar with the device and if the outcome is not exactly what you want you can tweak it later (colour/brightness. If you screw the perspective, that's it :P) . The current generation of smart phones usually utilizes some nice camera sensors. Sure they are not as good as the ones in a dedicated camera (be it compact or DSLR or what-ever-camera) but they are more than enough. There are even people making money by having exhibitions with photographs taken with phones.

An expensive camera like a 5D MkIII or a D800, has a lot of potential and “power”, but the ones making money out of photos buy them because they know how to use all that fine control it gives them, they know how to use that tool box to their advantage. If someone - that has an idea in their head - doesn't know how to use all that extra control then the camera gets in the way.

So what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter if you don't have fastest DSLR or the most expensive compact. It’s you that is making the scene; the camera is just taking it. Sure I’d love a 5D MKIII, but the results will be the same for the most part with what I’m getting now with my 450D. Megapixels don't play a big role anymore as you could print 8MP photos into A4 paper and they would still look good. Instead, find a suitable camera for you by testing them in the store (and that doesn't mean that it’s going to be the best and most expensive) and try to make interesting photos by framing, colours, angles... but that is a story for another time.

Poor guy... Someone threw him out :P