Going home

As it is Christmas tomorrow, I will be visiting my parents for the next few days. That just means that if you send me a message and I don’t reply, don’t be surprised :) I will get to all of it once I’m back. And don’t worry, the blog will have a new post everyday, as usually.

The Green pod – review

The Green pod is a small addition to any photographers gear, that can help you get stable shots in areas where you can’t use a tripod. It helped me many times. Check out my full review of the Green pod here.

Lost in a reflection

It’s quite hard to make a week worth of posts in two days. But somehow I never get to have a big enough photo reserve, so I can leave for a week without having to do a lot of preparation before hand. Maybe if I traveled more. Will have to try it next year. More travels and more photos, that is my current goal :)

But for now, here is another photo taken at the Kuchajda lake in Bratislava. This is a HDR created from 5 shots in Oloneo Photoengine (you can see my review of it here) and finished in Photoshop.

Giving credit

It really great to see that so many people liked my photo. But it’s sad that the people who posted it haven’t given a proper credit to me. It’s even more sad that they posted such a low quality version of the photo. Too bad admins of this page (and other like this) never respond to messages. They probably know that what they are doing it not completely correct. Facebook should really do a cleanup one day.

To see all the rules of sharing my photos, please check out the Licensing page.

Manfrotto Clamp Review

This was one of this years additions to my gear, after I seen my friends in Paris using it all the time. So check out my review of the Manfrotto Super clamp 035 with the 155RC head review to find out more about it.

You can also head over to my Reviews page for all my reviews on this blog.

Secret place

This is one of my favorite places to shoot in Bratislava. And I never seen anyone else there. Of course you can’t get there all the time, as the Danube is to high sometimes and also the stairs are not so visible. But once you get down here you get a great view, and you can have it for yourself. One just has to be careful, so one does not break a leg on the stones :).

This is a HDR created from 7 exposures in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Stumbleupon

Anyone from you using Stumbleupon? I’ve been using it for many years now, always when I’m in a mood for something funny, or when I need some inspiration. I recently also added a stumble button to all my posts, so it’s easier to also add my site to their database. So feel free to stumble :) And you can also find me on Stumbleupon here under my profile.

Free eBook

For those who missed it, I made an E-book for all my newsletter subscribers. You can find it very useful, especially with the upcoming new years fireworks :) So head over to the newsletter page for more information. A lot of you already downloaded it, and I hope you find the information useful. And here is a little quote about the book, I really liked :)

What a gorgeous eBook! Comprehensive and informative! The photos are so amazingly shot and processed, as is the text that frames them. The best eBook that is ever written on fireworks. Good for : Beginners and Intermediates – Vineet Suthan

Sparkling Christmas tree

I did a little photo-shooting in the Central Shopping center in Bratislava on Tuesday. It was very nice of them to give me a permit to use a tripod there. Of course I could shoot it only during their opening hours, which is not so easy. Especially before christmas, it is full of people all the time. But with a lot of photos, and long exposures, I managed to have my photos quite people free :)

This is a HDR created in Oloneo Photoengine and then finished in Photoshop.

My very first HDR

You probably can imagine how horrible it was :) And you can see it here. I found it some time ago on my hard-drive, so I thought I share it. I’m not even sure when I took it, but it was around 5-6 years ago, even before I bought my first camera (I had to borrow one to try it out). I just wanted to try it out, and I haven’t started taking photos for over a year after that. You can see in it all the classic mistakes one can do with HDR. I’m glad that my photos no longer look like that :)

Imagenomic Noiseware review

I added quite a few reviews recently, and today there will be another one. This time its Imagenomic Noiseware, currently my preferred plugin for noise reduction in Photoshop. Head over to the Noiseware review to find out more.

Cold evening with cool clouds

Sometimes even ugly weather can create an interesting sky. Same with this one from Sunday. It was cold, foggy, with a mostly clear sky. But exactly around sunset it became more interesting, and I got few shots. I was standing on one of the piers by the Eurovea Shopping center, and as it’s above the Danube, it was freaking cold there. And even bigger problem was, that the pier shakes like crazy when someone walks onto it. Luckily, it was already dark, so not many people around. But of course, once people saw me on the pier, they had to go there, even if they just got to the end and turned around. They haven’t even looked at the nice view. I always say that I don’t understand people, and I probably never will :)

This is a HDR created in Oloneo Photoengine from 5 shots and finished in Photoshop.

2 000 000 views

I just checked the statistics on my Smugmug portfolio site, and it show that I just passed 2 000 000 photo views for this year. I want to say a big thanks to all of you who visit my blog and portfolio, and I hope you all like the photos :)

Oloneo Photoengine – review

Continuing with my reviews, for today I have for you a review of a program I mentioned a lot of times recently, mostly due to the contest :) Head over to the review to find out what I like about Oloneo Photoengine, and how it can be useful in your post-processing.

Sparkling lights

The weather recently is not that great in Bratislava, and as there also is no snow, I haven’t been taking many photos. But I wanted some with the Christmas decorations, as they are quite a few around the city. I particularly like the ones by the Eurovea Shopping center, as they are made all from lights. It was a little challenge not to have any people in the shot, but with a little timing, bracketing and cloning out, I got it empty :)

This is a HDR created in Oloneo Photoengine from 5 exposures and then finished in Photoshop. I had to recover the bright lights, as I wanted them to really shine.