Innocent Blue

Natural light coming from the right direction on a cloudy day is hard to beat. It creates almost shadowless portraits like the one on the image posted today. My model Marietta provided this very strong look with innocent but determined accent. It was my favourite photo from the shoot. I hope you will enjoy it too, just make sure to click on the photo to see it in larger format. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II at 155mm, F4.5 @ 1/160, ISO 200.

Waiting and Waiting ...

Here is a portrait of Lucie that I pulled out a few days ago nearby a small village Ludikov in the Czech Republic. As usual, I used my off-camera 580EX flash to camera right with a shoot-through umbrella. I like the shallow depth of field and the look of Lucie. It feels like she is waiting for somebody, being little bit impatient which is symbolized with the moving fingers of her right hand. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II at 110mm, F3.2 @ 1/100, ISO 400.

Soft and Dreamy

Today is coming another of my favourite photographs of Marketa. I noticed the nice dramatic wall and when making the picture I planned to allow for lots of negative space on the left. I used short lighting to give a nice shape to her face; the light was provided by my shoot-through umbrella with Canon 580EX II to camera left. I also like the curved body-shape of my model. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II at 70mm, F5.6 @ 1/160, ISO 100.

Such Pretty Eyes

While trying to extend my portrait portfolio, I was happy to spend couple of photography hours with a new model Marketa. Among the number of great pictures, the one I present today kept popping out for me. I like the look over the shoulder, with a little bit shy expression in her face. It is a pure natural light portrait where simplicity was the keyword. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II at 80mm, F5.6 @ 1/160, ISO 200.

Rocky Confident

Today I would like to present another of my recent favourite shots. I saw the nice rocky surface and immediately thought that it would make a good background for my model Barbora. The problem was that it was exposed on a direct sun and I imagined a soft light on her face when composing the photo. The problem was solved by holding a silver reflector above her head in order to block the direct sun light and at the same time providing a nice soft light with my shoot-through umbrella with Canon 580EX II positioned slightly to camera left and casting a butterfly light pattern. I had only one assistant holding both the reflector and umbrella on a monopod at the same time, which was little bit tricky but we managed. The result was definitely worth the effort. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II at 70mm, F8 @ 1/200, ISO 100.

Summer Beauty

While enjoying my holidays in the Czech Republic I arranged yesterday a photo session with a young model Barbora. We had plenty of time to visit several locations and this shot was one of my favourites. There are a few things that I like here, of course apart from my pretty model. First of all I enjoy the colors where the background nicely complements the model. I applied some vignette to bring the attention more to the center. Second point I like is the pose where I tried to arrange her legs and arms so that there are virtually no vertical or diagonal lines. This adds more drama to otherwise a very harmonic photo. Last but not least the lighting adds the last bits to form this portrait. It was provided through my shoot-through umbrella with Speedlite 580EX II fired remotely through pocket wizards. Enjoy! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II at 200mm, F5.0 @ 1/160, ISO 100.

Psss ... Listen

Being on my holidays in the Czech Republic, I have been taking some photos of kids. This one I enjoyed most from the yesterday's shoot. I like how the baby and the dog look at the same direction and carefully listen. I was lying on the ground to get a good angle and the light in the face of the baby was enhanced with a silver reflector placed to the camera right. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II at 115mm, F5.6 @ 1/160, ISO 400.

Kicker Light

This is another photo from the belly dance meeting in Aalborg a few months ago. I placed a small Speedlite 430EX at the back left corner of the stage, equipped with Pocket Wizard FlexTT5. The main light was ambient with a kicker light emphasizing the line of the body and separating it from the background. I also like how the position of the dancer fills nicely the whole frame. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 135mm, F5.6 @ 1/200, ISO 400.

Belly Dance Shapes

The scene at the belly dance meeting was lit very well so I took most of my photos this time with ambient light only. This was one of my favorites, showing nice body shape and flow of the arms. The background was black with only little bit of ambient hitting it, so pulling the Black slider in Lightroom little bit to the right increased the contrast in the photo and erased completely all details at the background. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 118mm, F4.5 @ 1/250, ISO 1600.

Isis Wings

Couple of months ago I photographed a yearly belly dance meeting here in Aalborg and would like to share couple of photos with you. Let me start with this photos of Isis Wings. These wings are fun to photograph and I like the composition of the photos and the colors. I was using only the light from the halogen spots on the stage as the whole scene was very nicely lit. One should be careful because these wings reflect lots of light back to the camera and can confuse the exposition readings. The best is probably to shoot in manual, given that the light situation is not changing much across the scene. Alternatively, one can try to compensate to +1EV up to +2EV on the camera in the AV mode. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 35mm, F4.5 @ 1/320, ISO 3200.

Penguin Again

I could not resist to post a photo of this penguin from Aalborg ZOO. Whenever I take photos in the ZOO I always try to find an angle so that the picture does not reveal that the animal lives in captivity. Usually going down to the ground and finding a simple neutral background works. In this case I zoomed all the way to 200mm and used the aperture 4 (the largest hole on my lens) to blur the background. The depth of field is just a few inches as you can see on the ground. I like the moment and the negative space adding to the feeling of loneliness. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 200mm, F4 @ 1/500, ISO 100.

Hi Stranger!

Here is a photo from our local ZOO in Aalborg. I like the direct look of the giraffe and the simple background. The photo was exposed for the animal and the clouds provided a nice high-key look. No flash, just natural light. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 163mm, F5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 200.

Sofia Sunset

Here is another photo from my recent trip to Sofia. It was taken from the window of Rodina Hotel on the 12th floor. I was getting back to my hotel room and saw the beautiful play of sun behind the clouds. Grabbed my camera and took a few shots. A few minutes later the show was over. One has to stay alert all the time ... Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon EF-S 60mm 2.8, F8 @ 1/60, ISO 200.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

While visiting Sofia in Bulgaria, I went to see the famous Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. There were some clouds in the sky and I moved little bit to the side to make a more dramatic photo of this impressive building. The wide 11mm Tokina lens helped with the impression. The final touches were done in Lightroom 3.0. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Tokina 11-16 2.8 at 11mm, F9 @ 1/250, ISO 100.

Carnival Beuaty

I took this photo during the Aalborg Carnival and I decided to post it today. First of all, the dancer is very pretty but there are a few other elements that make this photo to pop up for me. The composition follows the golden rule of third and she is presented on the light background and the negative space on the right is darker which adds some balance to the scene. The dancer's face is in almost a perfect classical 2/3 view (she is photographed so often so I guess that she knows how to pose without any thinking :-) and my on-camera fill-in flash is used to add some catch-lights to her eyes. Because I was close to her at the telephoto end of my lens, F5.6 was enough to provide a pleasing blur of the background. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 159mm, F5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 400.

Carnival Parade

As promised here comes another photo from the carnival parade in Aalborg this year. What I like on this photo is the expression and engagement of the dancer as well as the composition. When I photograph such events I always try to hide the surrounding buildings, street signs etc. This time I used the opportunity that the outfit of the dancer covered the whole frame in my camera. I simply don't like the corners on my photos to be empty ... Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 70mm, F5.6 @ 1/500, ISO 400.

A Guitar Hero

Yes, there was again the great Aalborg Carnival this weekend and I have plenty of photos that I have to edit at some point ... Today let me just post one of them from a concert of the group called Superstition that took place on Saturday afternoon. There was still lots of natural light and this mixed with strong tungsten spots added a nice warm tone to the guitarist, contrasting nicely with the somewhat cooler tones at the huge LCD background. This is essentially how the shot came out of the camera. There was no flash used and the trick was really the composition and timing. I was waiting for the rotating background screen to show the player in order to use the repetition. That had to synchronize with a good expression of the guitarist. During one song I was able to get about 4-5 great shots and this was one of the best. Hope you will like it too. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 91mm, F5.6 @ 1/640, ISO 400.

Grease Style

Not a long time ago I was asked by our friends to photograph their daughter. There was a nice, old car standing in front of their house and I was thinking about how can I create something special for them. It was a sunny day, everybody was relaxed and the famous musicals Grease and Saturday Night Fever came to my mind. I opened the front door of the car, ask the girl to sit with her legs crossed over and suggested the position of her hands to make the photo look natural. Then it was a question of finding the right angle so that the leading lines point to her (there are really many of them on this photo) and press the shutter. The main light was provided by my off-camera speedlite 580EX II with 1/4 CTO gel to camera left and the accent light at her hair is thanks to the sun. Normally I would shoot with an umbrella but the sun was very strong so I fired a bare flash to create the butterfly lighting pattern. The picture also took a deal of postprocessing in Lightroom but it never saw Photoshop. I followed a great Lightroom tutorial by Scott Kelby here to create the effect I wanted. I might write little bit more about this in some future post. But now let's return to the sixties and seventies and enjoy the photo! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 82mm, F13 @ 1/250, ISO 200.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Let me post a third picture that I took on my S90 compact camera recently. I was impressed by the light at the end of the tunnel on one morning couple of days ago. Lucky enough, I had my S90 with me that day. The photo was taken in JPG so that highlights at the end of the tunnel are completely blown out but I really don't mind it in this kind of situation. The ceiling and the ground were full of dark green which was very easy to selectively desaturate in Lightroom. After cleaning a few color spots with a brush and adding some vibrance and vignetting, the photo was ready just in a few minutes. Camera spec: Canon Powershot S90 at 6mm, F4 @ 1/25, ISO 80.

Converging Lines

This is why I love my new Powershot S90, it is always with me! A few days ago I was delivering my daughter to the kinder garden and it was very early in the morning. On the way back I noticed the beautiful shadows of the trees and the converging lines giving a nice feeling of depth of the scene. Picked up the S90 camera, went to the AV mode with -2/3 EV and took the shot. Enjoy! Camera spec: Canon Powershot S90 at 6mm, F8 @ 1/80, ISO 80.

Aalborg in Colors

Two days ago I had a nice walk in downtown of Aalborg with my new Powershot S90 in my pocket. The weather was still little bit chilly for this time of the year but the sky was beautifully blue. I used the FART method and realized that I like the contrast among the green grass, blue sky and red/white building. After finding the right angle and framing with the tree in foreground I got this shot which I truly like. The colors from S90 came out really great (I used the vivid setting and shot in JPG). Seems like that this small compact camera will become my good companion! Camera spec: Canon Powershot S90, F5.6 @ 1/800, ISO 80.

Leading Lines

Today I would like to share with you a photo of this young pretty lady that I took a couple of weeks ago. In all my recent work I try to focus on composition and I have become a big fan of negative space, as seen on the right of the photo. Moreover, the subtle lines in the bricks at the background all lead towards her, which makes the photo dramatic but soft at the same time (if you don't see the lines, you have to adjust the contrast and brightness of your monitor). I have to thank to David Ziser and his blog DigitalProTalk.com for teaching me to see the lines in his numerous video tutorials. The lighting was also done ala David with a shoot-through umbrella on a monopod at camera left. I opted for a broad lighting on this photo as it, first of all, suits my model very well and second it provides a very nice high-key background effect right behind her which is slowly disappearing as we progress to the right where the leading lines become visible. The on-camera flash was bounced to the wall on the right to fill-in the shadows just a bit. The colors of the final photo were only slightly improved in Lightroom to achieve a more fashion-like look. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 90mm, F5.6 @ 1/125, ISO 400.

Tulips Again

Well, I could not resist to post this photo. What is so special about it? I took it on my brand new camera, Canon Powershot S90. Yes, I know ... it is a compact camera but there are a few things I quite like about it. First of all, it is as portable as it can get, which means I can always have it with me. Second, the quality of the photos (especially in a good light) is very good. The lens is sharp and the colors are reproduced very nicely (I used the vivid mode for this photo). Take a look at the 100% crop on the right. Third, it has all the Av, Tv and Manual modes I am used to from my SLR cameras. The ISO performance is ok up to ISO 400, which feels like ISO 3200 on my 5D mark ii (which is actually not bad at all). Further on it get quite noisy, but this was to be expected. A nice feature is that the lens at its wide end is F2.0, which is really good. So far I try to shoot at ISO 80 (the lowest possible) as often as I can and the results look very good. I somehow thing that more photos taken with S90 will follow in the future on this blog. If you want to read more about this nice little camera, take a look here. Camera spec: Canon Powershot S90 at 10.7mm, F3.2 @ 1/60, ISO 80.

A Flower for Daddy

A few weeks ago I have received a nice tulip-flower from my three years old daughter at the occasion of my name day. It was such a beautiful flower that it deserved to be published on my blog. I though how to make the flower stand out and decided to do a purely natural light high-key photo with lots of negative space around. I very much like the result. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L IS at 200mm, F5.6 @ 1/40, ISO 400.

Everything in Harmony

Here comes another portrait. There are three things I like about this photo. First, it is the lighting which provides a very soft light quality with no shadows on the walls behind. It was achieved by Speedlite 580EXII on a stand to camera left with Walimex Magic Square Softbox 60x60cm as the key light. The fill was provided by my on-camera flash bouncing off the wall and ceiling to the right. Second, I think that the overall composition is quite pleasing. There are many leading lines pointing towards my subject who is placed pretty much in the center. Then I tried to fill each corner of the photo with something to create a balanced atmosphere. The lamps, sofa, table with a flowerpot and the hint of a picture frame create this overall harmony which is enhanced by the relaxed look of the lady. Third, the blue colors on her dress nicely complement the other overall warm colors. I was very happy about this photo. Enjoy! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 35mm, F8 @ 1/60, ISO 200.

First Spring Sun

A few weeks ago I was asked by my wife's friend to come for a visit and to take a few portraits. The weather was very nice, in fact I would say it was the first really sunny day this year, so I looked around her house for a nice location to capture the first sun beams of the year. I really like the yellow wall contrasting with the blue dress. There is quite some negative space to her left with an interesting red door to balance the composition of the photo. The sun was too strong, so I simply asked her to close the eyes and enjoy the sun. A little bit of on-camera fill flash (probably -2 EV) was used to lift the shadows. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 67mm, F9 @ 1/400, ISO 100.

Two Presidents Meet

When the presidents of China and USA meet, everybody wants to take the best shot, right? This time I was thinking differently. While all other photographers were crowded behind the wall on the right side, I slipped through the secret secvice in order to get a less ordinary photo of the two presidents and the result was worth it, what do you think? Well, right ..., nobody will believe me this, I know. The fact is that the photo was taken while visiting the exhibition of international affairs in Macao last autumn. I was working on a photo marathon assignment where one of the tasks was called "Obama Look A Like". I saw the big poster with both presidents and immediately thought what a lucky coincidence. But only for a while because it was obvious that taking just an ordinary snapshot of the poster would be way too easy to fulfill my homework. So I was thinking how differently I can photograph this scene and noticed the nice wooden wall at the entrance. I found it interesting and tried to bring a political dimension to my photo by placing the two presidents into different frames. I like how the warm welcome contrasts with this framing, indicating perhaps two contradictory faces of the relationships between China and USA these days. Camera spec: Canon 20D with Canon 28-105, 3.5-4.5 USM at 30mm, F3.5 @ 1/40, ISO 1600.

Robinson Crusoe

Well, yesterday we took a trip to the local ZOO in Aalborg. Many animals were still hidden because of the relatively cold weather this year, but the penguins were quite happy about the conditions. It took a long time to wait for this photo because I wanted only one penguin to be featured here. The elements in the composition do not allow the viewer's eyes to escape and since I first saw the photo I liked it. Black and white conversion in Lightroom helped to emphasize the small penguin in the picture. Taking the atmosphere and the surroundings into account, I decided to call it Robinson Crusoe. Does not it look like a lonely penguin on a deserted island? Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 200mm, F4.5 @ 1/500, ISO 100.

Dancers in the Parade

Let me present another photo from the last weekend's street parade in Aalborg downtown. I like the movement in the photo and the engagement of the dances. It was a great show and a pleasure to watch. Let's see what the main carnival and the battle of carnival bands will look like in May! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 98mm, F4 @ 1/640, ISO 400.

Parade and Drums

Here is a photo I took during the parade at Aalborg last week. I like the dedication and engagement of the drum players; it is literally impossible to take an uninteresting photo of them. The overcast day of the parade was perfect for shooting, so I didn't have to use my on-camera flash for fill. The only limitation was the focusing of my Canon 5D mark ii. Normally, I am not that much into action photography so I never complained about it, but on this parade I could feel the limitations. Maybe I need to get the new 1D mark iv :-) Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 140mm, F4 @ 1/640, ISO 400.

Carrus Navalis 2010

YouTube version:



Vimeo version:


I visited the downtown of Aalborg today to watch a street parade called Carrus Navalis. Apart from taking photos, I decided to test the video capabilities of my Canon 5D mark ii. Unfortunately, I didn't have any external microphone, so the sound quality is rather poor. The footage is ok for the first try, however, the video quality after the encoding degraded little bit but I think that it is acceptable. Unfortunately, when watching on Vimeo in HD, the video is jerky from time to time. So I used also YouTube to see if there is any difference and it seems that it plays smoother via YouTube on my computer. I would appreciate if you could leave a comment on this blog and let me know whether YouTube and Vimeo played smoothly on your computer in full screen and whether you saw any difference in quality. Thanks! On Vimeo, be sure to watch it in HD (possible only from the Vimeo page). Enjoy! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L USM, build-in microphone, hand-held.

Stained Glass Window

A few days ago I took a walk to downtown of Aalborg and payed a visit to Budolfi Church. The church is really worth visiting and what drew my eyes when walking inside the church was this beautiful stained glass window full of colors. In some way I think that this is quite an interesting photo. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon EF-S 60mm macro 2.8, F5.6 @ 1.125, ISO 400.

Color Structure

I took this photo on my way to work several months ago. It is a very simple picture with no dynamic lines and the factory at the background adds a little bit of irregularity. Still, it was attracting my attention every time I saw it in my gallery, so I decided to post it. I believe that there is some interesting structure in the photo. And yes, I have boosted the colors little bit in Lightroom. I have also recently read an on-line article related to this issue called "What Makes a Great Photograph" at KenRockwell.com and it really speaks from my heart; a highly recommended to take a look at! Camera spec: Canon 20D with Canon EF-S 60mm Macro 2,8 at 60mm, F8 @ 1/500, ISO 200.

Ireland's Potato

This is a photo I took about a half year ago at my trip to Macao. It is one of the busy streets downtown and what drew my attention were the signs decorating the street. The only one I could understand were "Ireland's Potato", so this became the title of the post. The colors photo were modified little bit in Lightroom to add little bit of nostalgic feeling. This is the kind of photo that brings back my memories from the trip. Camera spec: Canon 20D with Canon 28-105 USM 3,5-4,5 at 72mm, F5,6 @ 1/125, ISO 800.

On the Air

I took this photo last year at a job fair. The squares at the backdrop were full of color and very bright, which allowed me to make the background behind the man with the phone very dark. The main subject was lit with my off-camera flash Canon 580EX II with Lumiquest Softbox III positioned to the left and slightly behind the subject, creating a more dramatic Rembrandt light pattern. An on-camera flash was used for a little bit of fill on the axis of the camera. The lighting diagram is outlined to the right (click on it for a larger view). And yes, this was not a candid shot, I simply asked him to stay at the place and pretend a phone call. I liked already the original photo but then decided to use the gradient tool in Lightroom to make the right third of the picture black and white and it turned into an even more interesting photo. For completeness let me say that I used the brush tool with exposure set to -4EV to clean up a few distracting objects behind my subject. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 47mm, F5,6 @ 1/100, ISO 200.

Abandoned Home

Today I am posting a photo from the city of Ruse in Bulgaria. The city has a sad history. First in 1980's the close by chemical factory located in Romania had been polluting the air to such a degree that many Ruse inhabitants were forced to leave and even more people left after the economical decline in the forthcoming decades. As a result, even though the city is growing again these days, one can find many abandoned houses and blocks of flats as on today's photo. The picture was taken with my favorite lens Tokina 11-16 2,8 at 11mm which allowed me to get quite close to the building and capture this unusual perspective adding to the impression that the building is about to collapse at any moment. Camera spec: Canon 20D with Tokina 11-16 2,8 at 11mm, F9 @ 1/60, ISO 100.

In the Rythm of Tango

This photo a took a few years ago at a ballroom dance competition in Brno in the Czech Republic. I really enjoy the diagonal lines of the legs and arms and the expressions in the dancer's face. Luckily the light at the ballroom was quite strong, so I used the on-camera flash just for a minor fill. And how can I tell they dance tango? Well, this is clear from the holding of the couple and most clearly from the position of woman's left hand. I was self a competitor in standard and latinamerican dances and this really helps me to estimate the right moments where a photograph shall be taken. I might post more dance photos in the future. Camera spec: Canon 20D with Canon 28-105 F3,5-4,5 USM at 93mm, F7,1 @ 1/250, ISO 800.

Close Together

I think it is time to finish the series of images from India and return back to Denmark. Today I have decided to present one of my favorite photos that I took in autumn last year. Whenever I take a look at this photo I recall the amazing connection between this young couple. I tried to analyze what attracts my eyes to this photo and I believe that these are the two diagonal lines. One is connecting their faces and the other one is the line of the man's shoulder continued by the horizon in the left upper corner. These lines meet in the center where the couple is looking too. The focus was on girl's eyes which happen to be in the same distance as the man's eyes; hence the photo looks so sharp even though the depth of field is quite narrow. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 4L at 149mm, F5.6 @ 1/320, ISO 100.

A Woman from Bangalore

I have one more photo from India to show you today. Again, it is from the time I was shooting on film. We were on a trip to natural preservation close to Bangalore and just before we were about to leave to our hotel, this older women showed up and was asking for some money. She kindly agreed to be photographed too. When I shot the photo, I knew it will be a strong one. Canon EOS 300 with Canon 28-105 F3,5-4,5 USM, film Fuji Superia ISO 200, scanned on Canon MP980.

Daily Life in Bangalore

Here are a few more photos I took in Bangalore in India. I have to admit that India is one of my favorite travel destinations. It is colorful, contrasting and full of personal characters that simply ask to be captured on a camera. Camera spec: Canon EOS 300 with Canon 28-105 F3,5-4,5 USM, film Fuji Superia ISO 200, scanned on Canon MP980.

A Man with a Snake

This is one of the photos I liked most from my trip to Bangalore. As the photos before, it was taken with an analog camera and scanned but the colors and sharpness are quite nice. The reason I like this photo is because it is giving lots of information in one shot, a good story telling photo. The man is sitting on the ground and showing his snake in order to get some money. I assume that the woman sitting at the background is his wife. Guessing from the golden ring on man's finger, they probably have a decent life. I gave the man a few rupees and he kindly agreed to be photographed. This was the first shot I have taken. I wanted to take a few more pictures but the man proved to be a good businessman and kept asking for more and more money. So I was shooting as long as I had some coins left but this first photo remained the best of the series. Camera spec: Canon EOS 300 with Canon 28-105 F3,5-4,5 USM, film Fuji Superia ISO 200, scanned on Canon MP980.

On the Way Home

I captured this photo on one of my walking trips in Bangalore nine years ago. The woman was bringing some pieces of wood to her home, she turned when she saw me and I pressed the shutter at that moment. As a result I got a nice portrait of this woman with some auto rickshaw in the background as a bonus. The light was also coming from the right direction to provide a subtle illumination on her face. Camera spec: Canon EOS 300 with Canon 28-105 F3,5-4,5 USM, film Fuji Superia ISO 200, scanned on Canon MP980.

Mother and Child

Another photo from Bangalore which brings some memories. This is a nice story telling scene of a mother holding a child in her hand and walking up the hill. The colors of the sky didn't come up as expected during the scan but otherwise the photo is compositionally pleasing as both the main object of the mother and child and the secondary object up the hill are placed according to the rules of third. What makes the image pop up for me is its simplicity. Camera spec: Canon EOS 300 with Canon 28-105 F3,5-4,5 USM, film Fuji Superia ISO 200, scanned on Canon MP980.

People of India

Out of the many photos I took in India I was mostly fascinated by the different characters of people that one can meet in India. Most of the people gladly accepted to be photographed and today I am presenting a photo of two young ladies, most likely university students, because the picture was taken close at the university campus of Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. The colors are beautiful and the quality of the scan is surprisingly good. I have actually noticed that the dynamic range of a film is much higher than that of today's digital cameras. This photo was taken in a full sun and the exposition is fine both in highlights and shadows (except for sharpening and some basic color adjustments the scan was not improved in any other way). What a pity I don't own any film camera any more ... maybe I should get one :-) Camera spec: Canon EOS 300 with Canon 28-105 F3,5-4,5 USM, film Fuji Superia ISO 200, scanned on Canon MP980.

Incredible India

As I already mentioned, I have found some old films that I recently scanned on my Canon MP980 scanner. I was positively surprised of the quality of the scan and in particular the pictures from my trip to India from 2001 brought back many memories. Today I want to start with a photo of street life in the streets of Bangalore. It was taken from an auto rickshaw and shows a typical busy day in December. I will soon post more photos of people in India, so stay tuned. Camera spec: Canon EOS 300 with Canon 28-105 F3,5-4,5 USM, film Fuji Superia ISO 200 (most likely), scanned on Canon MP980 and converted to BW.

Bye, bye

Well, after presenting a few photos from the carnival, let me close this topic for a while with this detail photo. I like the expression in her eyes and the small catch lights created by the on-camera flash used as a fill in. I have also finished scanning some older films on which I captured my trip to India in 2001 and they came out quite nice. I will present a few of them in my next posts, so check out my blog soon again! Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 28-105 F3.5-4.5 USM at 83mm F7.1 @ 1/160, ISO 200.

Brazil, Brazil, ...

Indeed, you can see Brazilian samba danced in the streets of Aalborg once every year. I particularly like this photo because of the expression in the dancers face and the nice colors. As usual, I used an on-camera flash to soften the shadows. In these situations I normally put the flash compensation to -1 EV or more to make the flash "invisible". Too much flash would destroy the picture. I believe that I used the Lumiquest Mini Softbox as mentioned in the previous posts. Camera spec: Canon 40D with Canon 28-105 3,5-4,5 USM at 43mm, F5,6 @ 1/250, ISO 400.