Fireshow

May 18, 2010 in Photo | Permalink

Sanja Vatra asked me to take some pictures of her fire show during the Uferlos Festival last week. I was more than happy to oblige.

The weather was horrible, it was raining cats and dogs. Despite this, a nice crowd gathered to see a great show.

Sanja Vatra Poi Fireshow

In order to get the fire swirling and some of the background, I dragged the shutter at 1/3s. The auto-focus of the Canon 5D decidedly did not feel up to the task, so I used f/8 for a good depth-of field and focused manually. These choices left me to use ISO 400 in order to expose the fire right.

I then fired the flash on ETTL with -1EV compensation to Sanja properly. Judging by the recycle time, the flash was firing full pop.

Looking at the pictures on the camera LCD after the show, I thought the whole effort was wasted. After I got home, warm, and dry, I had another look on the computer and felt much better. 🙂

Have a look at my Flickr! photostream for some more pictures.

Bleeding Heart Flowers

May 1, 2010 in Photo | Permalink

The windflowers in the last post are wilting away, unfortunately before I had a chance to re-visit them. Instead, the bleeding heart flowers are in full bloom – such is the cycle of life.

The bleeding heart, also known as Venus’s car, Dutchman’s trousers, lyre flower or by their latin name lamprocapnos spectabilis is originally from Korea and north and western China, but it seems to do very well in almost any temperate climate, so it is a very popular garden plant.

We simply let it grow and cut the wilted stalks short in the fall and they come back year after year.

Bleeding Heart Flowers in a Row

Bleeding Heart Flowers

In order to take the photo, I mounted the camera on a tripod and used an insane amount of extension (over 50 mm for a 70-200 mm lens). Despite an aperture of f/16, the depth of field is extremely shallow, about 2-3 mm in my estimate. That, combined with the light wind that moves the flowers like swings on a playground, made it challenging to get sharp images.

What really amazes me is how the lower white parts of the blossoms are textured. I had never noticed this with the real flowers before taking these pictures. Which just goes to show how photography can expand your awareness of the world. 🙂

White Windflowers

April 25, 2010 in Photo | Permalink

The weather has finally turned sunny and warm, spring is definitely here. In fact, it’s almost warm enough to be early summer.

These beautiful white flowers grow in my garden under a rose bush. They are windflowers, also known as wood anemone, windflower, (European) thimbleweed, smell fox, or by their latin name anemone nemorosa.

White Windflowers

White Windflowers

The flower is quite small (about 2 cm across), so I had to get very close using an extension ring between the lens and the camera. A tripod was required, of course. 😉

Rehearsal of the “Joseph”

March 18, 2010 in Photo | Permalink

Last weekend I had a really fun assignment shooting a rehearsal of the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It will be performed May 13th and 14th in Freising by a cast of almost 300 people.

What I saw was breathtaking – a stunning performance. Even though the performers are all laymen and -women, the choreographer, director, voice coaches, etc. are all pros working pro bono – and it shows.

Here are some impressions, you can find more on my Flickr! page in the Joseph set.

Grim Brothers

Grim looking brothers - not all of which are male.

Angry brothers shout at the Narrator

Brothers crowding around and shouting their anger at the narrator.

Josephs brothers and the narrator practice dance moves.

Narrator and brothers practicing dance moves.

Colorful children.

Children practicing their color swirl dance.

In case you have been looking carefully and feel confused: there are two different narrators to cover all four performances. 🙂

Nightfall Construction

February 18, 2010 in Photo | Permalink

Walking the streets, I came upon a fascinating construction site. An older concrete building was being torn down to make room for some modern apartment buildings.

As I watched, the last glow of sunlight disappeared and the moon became the brightest object in the sky. The rubble and the construction equipment turned into silhouettes, giving them a strange quality.

Nightfall Construction

Nightfall Construction

The times when the sun appears and disappears from the sky are often the best times for photography because light is most interesting then. Nightfall certainly is the most convenient of these times – I don’t have to get up early. 😉

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