Showing posts with label Olympus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympus. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Vienna photowalk

A couple of weeks ago had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Vienna and brought my equipment with me. Here is a list of my equipment for this occasion:

  • Olympus E3
  • Olympus E30
  • Olympus Flash FL-50R (Very useful while inside a Barn)
  • Sigma 30mm 1.4
  • Zuiko 8mm 3.5 (great for cow and calf close-ups)
  • Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8
  • Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20
  • Zuiko 11-22mm 2.8
  • ND Filters
  • Small Table top tripod
  • Hoya Polarizer Filters

    Most of the sites worth visiting in Vienna are contained within the city center and easy to get around either by walking or tram.

    Here is an overview of the walk by using my AMOD GPS tracker as well as GeoSetter for attaching  GPS coordinates for my Olympus Raw Files. One thing I have found out while traveling on old cities with narrow streets is that it will be common for the GPS to lose connection with the satellites, so make sure you adjust your settings to your Software accordingly to ensure that you tag the picture to the closest available tracking point.

  • Vienna Photowalk

    A good way to track the main sites to photograph is by using the Rick Steves guides for Europe, I always travel with one as the contain easy to follow maps as well as tips for avoiding crowds, using public transportation, etc.

    Some of the highlights of the city are:

    NaschtMarket:

    Located between the left and right Wienzeile, the Naschmarkt extends from the Kettenbrückengasse to the Getreidemark, on an elevation to the Secession.

    Differently to as the name implies, there aren’t only sweets to buy at the Naschmarkt: Fresh fruit and vegetables from around the world, exotic spices, meat, fish and ecological foods are offered for sale on the colorful market stands. Early in the morning cooks and chefs already crowd around the market looking for fresh specialties. Later, after a Viennese breakfast in one of the numerous cafes, bars or delis located around the Naschmarkt, the "laymen" start their search for culinary treats. Delicacies from the Naschmarkt make a favorite gift with Vienna holiday-makers.

    Spices Sale on....????  

    On Saturdays you'll not only find delicious treats at the food market but also curiosities, old and beautiful things on the street market stalls adjacent to the Naschmarkt. The wares offered are completely mixed, for beautiful souvenirs it helps to be a skillful bargainer.

    There are great opportunities for those that also want to take candid pictures of people haggling (specially on the antiquities area at the end of the market), friends having breakfast and the intellectual crowd.

    A tiger in the Naschmarkt The dude and the DJ Lady @ the market

    Opera House and Concert Hall

    Try to attend a music concert either on the Opera or the Music Concert Hall. Its allowed to bring your camera but not a tripod. You can see people dressed as in the times of Mozart. As well a both buildings have great architectural detail. Make sure to boost the ISO and bring a sharp lens

    CandelabrosOpera and Tram

    City Center

    Within the Opernring there are lots of opportunities to take advantage of the city architecture. Some examples are St Stephens Cathedral, Rathaus, State Opera, among others. It gets very crowded, what I ended up doing was getup at sunrise to take full advantage of the buildings without any crowds. You can check the sunrise and sunset times throughout the year for most cities in the world here.

     

    Pointy little hats A prayer
    P5019241 Golden Mozart
    Entrance to Vienna Austria

    Sunday, April 26, 2009

    Photoshoot near Quirianopolis, Goias, Brasil

    I managed to take a week off while in Sao Paulo to go visit the Fazenda Engenho São Francisco near Quirianopolis. Here are my tips and mistakes made while shooting pictures in a farm.

    Here is the equipment taken

    Here was my journey:

    image Ireland to Brasil
    Map picture
    then to Goiania and Quirinopolis in Goias State
     image



    Fazenda Engenho São Francisco  (click on the link and zoom in you can actually see the cattle)

    BTW for Olympus RAW file usage with GPS I recently discovered GeoSetter, great tool that can work with the .ORF files, write the .xmp card or directly into the file to accommodate GPS data. Highly recommended.

     

    Most Important tip…

    Always talk to the person that runs the place day in and day out. They will give you good tips around the behavior of some of animals, which ones are approachable, and which ones to be careful (I managed to piss off a cow with her calf and it wasn't pretty)

    Bola and cattle

    Learn beforehand what kind of animals will you get to see (in my case was mostly cattle but managed a nice surprise to see exotic animals.

    Emu look

    For cattle, learn what type of cattle it is you will be seeing, behavior will change depending on the breed and how is managed by the ranch.

    The gang

    If you want cattle to get close to you, as I wanted a very low close-up shot of some grown cows or bulls you need to get into the containment area, get down or sit down on the floor and wait. Cattle can be very curious and only takes one to come closer, for the other ones to follow. Be very careful once they are close, sudden moves can make them jump (very high) and you don't want to get stomped or worse your equipment be crushed

    Courious calf

    Clothes: depending on where you are going, will vary your clothing, but regardless of weather bring very old dirty jeans. If you can manage some cheap boots do as well, as you have to be ready to step, kneel and sit on cow dong, piss and milk and dirt. Same goes for your camera bag, be ready for it to get dirty and gnawed by curious calves

    Spilled milk

    Bring your equipment for landscape photography, either on hills or flat land ranches tend to be in open spaces and you can capture great sunsets, sunrises and cloud formations.

    Storm in Sta Cecilia

    Get up early, not only because of the great light during that time, farm work starts at 5am the animals are quite awake and is the time before a lot of the cattle is being driven to eat at the grass lands. Also in the case of Brasil is when you can manage best to carry all your equipment with the sun.

    Sunrise

    If you get to ride a horse: Taking pictures on top of a horse is not so hard if you: a) Have IS on your lense or the camera 2) Shoot either using manual or at least shutter priority mode. The faster the horse, the faster the shutter speed if you want sharp images.

    Find out what other ranches around the area you are visiting. We managed to visit a neighboring ranch that sells and raises exotic animals and manage to get great shots. They were very nice and let us walk inside the containment area and take our time on getting to know the animals and wait for the best shots.(So here is a free commercial  :) )

    Also depending on where you are you might manage to view animals not very common to your area, I was very intrigued by Pipoca a cateto pork which tend to be very mean, except him.

    Amigo Pipoca

    Missed opportunities:

    Some of the shots or things missed:

    Not all the cattle behaves the same, while buying and marking some recently purchased cattle, a bull wouldn't come into the containment area, 4 workers chase after him but he managed to jump a fence of at least 1.5 meters, it would have been a great shot.

    I should have brought my Manfrotto tripod I missed some good sunset and late opportunities because of not bring it. I have the 190X which is not too heavy but maybe I should invest on a gorillapod or at the very least a smaller tripod I can travel easier

    I was so concentrated on the cattle, that I missed some good opportunities for portraits with the workers at the ranches. Brasilians tend to be very open on getting their picture taken and the clothes they wear are very distinct and interesting and could make great portrait subjects.

    Fazenda hands

    Same as above, make sure to take pictures for remembering the trip, take pictures with family and friends, not everything is about getting the best shot.

    See the rest of the shots here

    Friday, August 22, 2008

    Finalmente!.. Olympus 8mm Fish Eye..

    Por fin llego mi nueva adqusición en cuanto a lentes. Aunque no lo he probado completamente, aqui esta la ceremonia de apertura de la caja y unas primeras fotos comparativas con algunos otros lentes.

    Compre el lente en B&H en línea ya que por lo general los precios ahí son mas bajos, si alguna vez visitan la ciudad de New York, debe de ser prioridad una visita a la tienda.

    He aqui lo que viene en la caja del lente...

    IMGP1087 IMGP1089 IMGP1090
    La Caja4/3 YES!!!Garantía mundial
    IMGP1091 IMGP1095 IMGP1097
    El LenteConcavoJunto al 11-22mm

    Lo puse a prueba para tener una referencia de los grados con los que se puede tomar con el lente, Aqui unas pequeñas muestras...

    P8233284-1 P8233282-3 P8233280-5
    50 mm macro11 mm8 mm

    Y obviamente no sería un test completo sin probar

    las capacidades de distorción.. el único modelo disponible.. Lulú

    P8233288-1 P8233291-1

    Voy a planear un proyecto para poner el lente a prueba probablemente al centro de la ciudad de Seattle para tomar buenas fotos de edificios...

    Places I've shot in