As I mentioned yesterday, in the Pyramidenkogel Lookout Tower you can take a slide to get down from it. And here you have a photo of the slide. It’s quite crazy :)

This is a HDR from 5 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

While at the Worthersee in Austria, I also visited the Pyramidenkogel Lookout Tower that is on top of the hill over the lake. The whole tower is quite crazy, as there is a slide, where one can slide down from the top. I of course have not tried that, as I had my camera gear with me :). To bad I was there in not the best time, it was very sunny, with few clouds, which created very strong shadows. But I hope you like the photo anyway. I of course also have photos of the slide, which I will share later on :)

This is a HDR form 4 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Last weekend I visited a tuning car gathering with some new friends at the Worthersee in Austria. I took a lot of photos, but mostly only handheld. I did this mostly because the weather was not really photo friendly, with a very strong sun with only very few clouds the whole day. And one know, that not that great for any photography.

But still I thought I share with you few (and maybe few more sometime later :)). All single exposures, taken handheld, edited mostly in LIghtroom and a little in Photoshop.

There are many things one can do to improve ones photography skills. One can read books, watch tutorials, get new equipment and much more. But the thing that helps the most, is taking and editing photos. The much the better. The more you do something, the better you get.

Now the question is, how to get oneself to shoot and edit as much as possible, when it isn’t ones main job. A lot of people try so called 365 projects, also called a photo a day project. The goal there is to take a photo every day. But I thing, having a daily blog is a more crazier version of this.

This blog passed it’s 4th year of existence some time ago, and it hasn’t been always easy to keep up with it. As every photographer knows, there are days when one really is not in the mood to touch the camera, or when every result just looks ugly. Of course there are also days when one is busy, one is traveling and there is absolutely not time.

It actually happened a lot of times, that I just arrived late at night home from a trip, and first thing was to copy the photos to the PC and edit one, so I can update the blog :)

To every photographer, I would suggest to try it out for a while. Not many can stick with it, as it just takes too much time and commitment. I have thought many times to switching to a less regular posting, but as I’m a very stubborn person, I never did it :)

But do I think that it’s crazy to do a daily photo blog? Yes I do. It helps one get better, helps one to try to do more with photography. But it also makes one more nervous. Once you get used to a daily post, and one is late, it aggravating. Or when one had no time to shoot for a while, or no good photo opportunities, and one want something new for the blog.

As everything, it’s usually goes up and down. It’s great after a trip, when one has a huge amount of new photos, and it’s horrible after a month without a new one :)

It’s also a great pleasure to look through ones old posts, and see how the skill evolved (of course when one gets over how horrible the old photos are :)). I started posting to Flickr right when I started with photography, and to the blog soon after that, so I have a history of all my photos.

I seen photographers who started with blogging and ended quite quickly, because the haven’t seen the response/ visits/ comments/ fame there were hoping for. But in all cases, one has to do this for oneself. Actually blogging is the only platform, where you can do what you want. On social networks it is easier to get followers and views, but there one is always at the mercy of Google/ Facebook/ whoever, who can change anything from day to day. On ones own blog, one is the own master. Also blog posts don’t get lost in time so easily :)

So if you are a photographer, I really suggest you start a blog. I just would not do a daily one :)

A little later than planed, but here are the winners of the 4th round of my contest, this time sponsored by Oloneo.

But first few stat. This time 179 people entered the contest, with everyone submitting their own version. The voting album recieved 29 200 clicks and over 2800 likes were given to the entries.

And for those who didn’t win, you can find all the information on Oloneo and their products here: http://www.oloneo.com/en/page/home.html
and you can find a trial version you can try right away here: http://www.oloneo.com/en/page/download_form.html?product_id=pe1&type=trial
(there is no Mac version available, but you can run it in a virtual machine)

Also big thanks to the judgest Elia Locardi from BlameTheMonkey, Beboy from BeboyPhotography and Dave Morrow from DaveMorrowPhotography

Judges selection

The photo selected for the first spot by the judges was the one by Jerome Obille, who receives a copy of the Oloneo Photoengine software.

In the second place was the photo by David Bouscarle, who receives a copy of my video tutorial series Master exposure Blending

I would like to also mention Alin Grigore and Valentin Nesta who were not far behind.

Voting winners

The person with the most likes on his photo, winning a copy of the Oloneo PhotoEngine software is Vineet Suthan

In the second place, with the second most number of likes is Raymond Viloria, who recieves a copy of my video tutorial series Master Exposure Blending.

Thank you everyone who joined, and I hope you all enjoyed the contest. And I also hope there will be another one soon :) :)