Fade to Black

Today's Picture:

This is one of the pictures that I really love - the ones that come out of the box the way I want them, and need no further editing. There's little more to do with them than just sit and enjoy.

Sapphire

Today's Picture:

Blue, with dark blue and pale blue. What is it? This is the answer. :P

Mirror

Today's Picture:

There's nothing more pleasing than a windless day when you're out hunting water reflections. Thanks to the slight fog, the opposite end of the river is invisible, which makes the whole scene look as though it's floating in the air.

Just Another Blue Mountain

Today's Picture:

If you wanna know where exactly was I when shooting this picture, do the following:
1) Open Google
2) Open Google Maps
3) In the search field, copy and paste the following:

42.919995,23.811953

4) See the green arrow? That's where I stood when taking this picture :)

Fairytale

Today's Picture:

Big as it was, the previous panorama couldn't catch all that was visible that morning. And this piece of the frame could not be missed, so I decided to give it a post of its own. I think it was worth it.

Morning Light

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The night is over and the sun is beginning to emerge from its nocturnal dwelling, preparing to manifest once again across the sky's azure dome. That statement was neat!

Night

Today's Picture:

Night mode is up one last time before the sun shows on the horizon.
I really love this building even though I don't know what it is or what is its purpose. But the fact is, it looks nice. It is even better when there's heavy mist surrounding it, but it usually happens just before sunrise, when I'm asleep. But this ain't bad either.

Dark Sun

Today's Picture:

This picture surely is hot! All it required though, was just turning the lights off. And a decent amount of space between the camera and the flame - we don't want our Olympus melting, right preciousss?

Resurrection

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It's alive! Yeah, the blog is up again and ready for action, packed with promising new photos for you to enjoy. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. :P

Reminiscence

Remember this?
If you liked it, you'll love what it became when autumn touched it. Also, this is my first step in tone mapping - not very successful but I proved to be a good learner.

Today's Picture:

Gold

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I really love this one.

Pine

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This one is specially made - a true puzzle from several shots, all blended together to create this frame, where everything is crystal clear and in focus. By the way, the actual "model" is only 2 inches tall.

Mushroom Week: The End

Today's Picture:

This is the seventh, and last of the "theme week" posts. Ironically, this was the last picture I took that day.
However, autumn has already started and is approaching it's full beauty, so expect more pictures through the rest of the week.

Mushroom Week: Leaning Tower

Today's Picture:

This isn't set up - the mushroom did grow in that direction, for reasons I shall never be able to unveil (how literary, lol).
Anyway, I like the composition - the pine-cones, even the hawthorn seed/fruit on the cap's edge - all worked together to make this shot the way it is.

Mushroom Week: Fairytale

Today's Picture:

This photo turned out to be quite a challenge. The cap of the mushroom got overexposed all the times I tried to capture the area around it, and if I got the cap correct, the rest of the photo turned out almost black. Thanks to Photoshop and some multiple image editing, everything in this picture became clear and properly lit (except for the stem, but it was almost impossible to fix, so I "sacrificed" it for the greater good).

Mushroom Week: Think Pink

Today's Picture:

I have no idea what is the exact scientific name of this mushroom. I don't even have a guess what it is. But it's whatever, since the color is one of the rarest among mushrooms - and among biological species at all - think up 2 more pink things except a flamingo and this mushroom - can you?

Mushroom Week: Lycoperdon echinatum

Today's Picture:

The spiny puffball is one of the strangest mushrooms I've seen. Easily mistaken for a spiky seed coating, most people wouldn't even notice it among the fallen rotting leaves where it grows. Even if you see it, you'll probably approach it with some caution - these spines look quite real - but are in fact soft as the rest of the mushroom.
The one on the picture is still young, when they mature enough they grow a 2-3 cm long "stalk".

Mushroom Week: Russula atropurpurea

Today's picture:

Also known as purple brittlegill, this brightly colored mushroom is not one of these you'd pick on sight to cook a nice soup. It is easily confusable with poisonous species (and I am not sure I've guessed it correctly myself) so it's tricky to anyone who isn't a pro. The other one, wrapped around the brittlegill is beyond my identifying skills (which are Wikipedia + Google combo) but the overall composition was all that mattered when deciding if it was worth the shot.

Mushroom Week: Amanita Muscaria

Today's Picture:

Today is the beginning of the musrhoom week, starting with the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). This is the most common mushroom you'd ever encounter in magazines, fairytale books, postcards and many more. It looks incredible and is quite poisonous, too - if taken in large quantities. A funny fact is that small pieces of this mushroom (when dried out, raw fly agaric causes nausea) are a powerful hallucinogenic drug, approximating the effect of lysergic acid diethylamine (known as LSD). I don't know anyone who has tried this "shroomy" dope but if something shows up I'll surely post an update.
And another surprising thing : Today there will be more than one picture - all of them about the most beautiful toadstool.

A small fly agaric:

Another one:

Twice as nice:

The favorite place for these mushrooms is just under a pine:

Autumn

Today's Picture:

Autumn's coming and it's time for lots of beautiful photos. This is gonna be a "mushroom" week, because this season is just the right time for these ... no they're not plants... let's say things.
Expect major blog activity the following two weeks cause I've got a pocketful of exciting new frames.

Sea

Today's Picture:

A seaside scenery in the middle of your apartment? Why not, I say. Just grab a platter, empty seashell and few pearls and you're ready. Good things come in small packages, don't they?
Well, if you don't like my way of near-sea-experiences, you can always pack away to the nearest beach, but before you go, just a tip - it's winter coming to this side of the globe :P

Puffball

Today's Picture:

Let's face it: this is an unique picture, no matter what. You won't see any like this - or may never see another anywhere else - not even on National Geographic.
Why is that? Because they don't take pictures of dead spiders. And this is exactly what it is - a spider's corpse hung on it's own web. And the white fluffy thing? Mould. The picture was taken in an almost wet basement - dark and humid, perfect for these creepy fungi. They were eating the spider from inside out, emerging on the surface near the joints of the legs and over the entire body - quite a spectacular view. Tiny, but amazing.

Fire

Today's Picture:

One of the last blooming flowers and a memento of a hot summer. Autumn coming in this part of the Earth - and it brings another year at school, but also 1002 new things to do, see, and photograph.

Ghost

Today's Picture:

OMG! A ghost?! In my room!?
Can't believe it, can you? And you're right, this ain't no ghost. Just a camera trick, but still a good one - just me, my E-520 and NO Photoshop made this photo possible.

Scenery

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Day 4:
The last day of my photo trip, and time for departure. When I remembered that this will be one of the last visits here till the end of the year, I decided to take an expanded shot of the scenery that's visible from the house. And by the way, the original image is 20 megapixels.
P.S.: You better have a veeery long screen when you click on it or the effect won't be the same.

Waterfall

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Day three:
I'm out hunting for waterfalls - surprisingly found many along the road following the nearby river. But most of them weren't reachable - the gap between rocks wouldn't allow walking and the water was 5°C so swimming wasn't an option either. But this waterfall almost invited me to take a picture of it - the river was easily accessible and there was even a rock that could be used as support for the camera - almost as if it was set up.

Sunset

Today's Picture:

The end of photo day two - it was a sunset not to be missed.

The photo is done according to all photography standards - the main object if off-center, and there's a close branch on the left to enhance the perception of depth. Also, by using AEL, the pine trees appeared as silhouettes, but since the original image was in RAW details in the shadows were preserved too - if EV compensation is set to +9. The photo is slightly underexposed due to the high HDR of the composition which would've caused severe loss of details in the image center.

Wait, did you just read all this? Well you shouldn't have :P

Sky

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This is a bit of a "landscape" theme starting from today. No more macro shots for now, but I'll continue posting more close-ups later this week.

Drop

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Now this is one of my favorites. The actual image (what you see here is 0,1 megapixel, and if you click it'll be 2MP) is 10MP and can be cropped down to make an amazing postcard (which is what I'm going to do). A little camera settings and a pinch of flash involved here :)

Glow

Today's Picture:

Just decided that the flower itself should have it's own 15 minutes of fame. The glow effect is accidental, but beautiful.

Bee Hunt

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Day Two:
Rise and Shine! The day was beautiful, no clouds at all. There was only one problem - the wind! It always started blowing just when the bee was on focus and these little buggers don't stay still even for a second. It took me around 70-80 photos total and waiting for the flowers to stop swaying to get this one.
Notice the bee on the background - there's no editing here. These two just happened to be synchronized - what a lucky shot :)

Viewfinder

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Day one of the journey:
Arrival at evening, almost no light at all. The backdoor hadn't been opened for around two weeks since my last visit - just a perfect place for a spider to spin its web. With the aid of an improvised tripod the dusky sky provided all of the desired light - not enough to catch colors but still great for a silhouette.

Black & Red

Today's Picture:

I love Photoshop. This reminds me of a black and white photo of a blonde, with only her lips vividly red. Well, this is a flower but the effect is the same. I'll post some more flowers since it turned out I can't buy any compatible macro adapter and I'll have to wait until I get rich enough to buy a true macro lens - which is indeed, 500$ - but with it the only thing I won't be able to photograph are atoms (and bacteria of course).

Mantis

Today's Picture:

This one is a bit set up to be honest. You can't expect a brownish ambushing predator like this mantis to live on a green bush - it's "food" will spot it from a mile away - and birds will do too. As a result it wouldn't survive more than a minute outside in the wild.
It was twilight when I took the photo and adjusting the settings made it possible not to use the flash, which would've spoiled it all (as it usually does).

Butterfly

Today's Picture:

Whee, my first butterfly! It's damn hard to catch one of these shy insects with an ordinary point-and-shoot. But equipped with a powerful DSLR they didn't have a chance. I took a lot of other photos, most of them required hard work and planning, but I'll post the results later on. When I'm in the mood I'll probably post my "review" of the camera (what I expected and what I got), but for now I'll stick to posting pictures.

DSLR

Today is a great day for my photography "career". I finally managed to upgrade my optical inventory, and got my hands on the most sophisticated device I've ever owned... or touched.

I bought a DSLR.

Take a look at this beauty: (this will be the only picture posted here that I didn't actually make)

Olympus E-520

It's 10 megapixel. It's blazing fast. It's adjustable in every aspect. And it has a manual comparable to that of a interplanetary spaceship.
Seriously, the amount of information is crushing for a self-thought amateur. I'll have to learn every bit of the manual to fully understand how to take the best photos possible with this camera. That's why I'll take a little holiday to get used to the camera and will post any results when I'm back.

Emerald

Today's Picture:

Today I have two pictures, actually. But it's OK since the post is about editing images. You have to see the original, right?

Today almost all of the photos which purpose is to be published are edited. And it's not about using Photoshop to create a picture of you having tea with the Pope. Image attributes like exposure, saturation, contrast, and more are touched (sometimes slightly, sometimes not) to give that photo the extra bit it needs to become a piece of art.

Take a look at this stone:

This isn't a fascinating view, is it? But with some help from the in-built "Photoshop" on my mobile, this chunk of quartz became this:

Two Spiders

Today's Picture:

The creepy spider theme continues today with this picture of an unfortunate honeybee captured by a white crab spider. Although the lunch is already being digested by enzymes, injected with the venom (that's how spiders eat, cruel huh?), this isn't going to be an easy meal - a "cousin" of this white predator is trying to grab a snack too. Now it's time to choose - drop the bee and kill the intruder, or hold it and hope he'll get scared ( the white spider is almost as twice bigger and that matters, really).

I stayed there and saw what happened. What do you think was it's choice?

Coca-Cola Spider

Today's Picture:

Now this was a tough one. This spider is not one of these creepy ambushing insects which build nets to trap a hapless fly. This is an active, hunting, and jumping creepy insect, and it doesn't stay still very much. I was lucky to see it crawling on a Coca-Cola vending machine in Japan. It was a cold morning because of the heavy rain last night and the spider was still slow and sleepy. It was the perfect opportunity.

Wing

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Sometimes getting up early can be rewarding, especially if you can take such a great photo as a spider's web gently covered with morning's dew. Well, an insect's wing covered with dew is as good as this, don't you think?

Colors

Today's Picture:

I post this one just because it turned beautiful. Nothing troubling in the environment, no problems with the 'model' either. No crappy autofocus, no image editing. Nature at its best (ain't that a cliché?).
Enjoy :)

Flower

Today's Picture:

Shooting flowers must be easy, right? They don't move, do they? Well they DO, to be honest, and the reason is the wind. It always starts blowing when the incredibly slow mobile camera is about to take the picture and the result is almost always a blurry photo. No image stabilization can solve this because it helps with shaky hands, not with moving things.

Orange

Today's Picture:

This photo is 100% "natural" - the grasshopper was exactly the color you see it. It was incredible sight - the first of that color I've ever came across - and I roam the country a lot. It was a must-take shot.

Macroscopic Problem №3:
While using a custom "macro lens" greatly enhances the "macro" capabilities of a mobile camera (as well as any other camera) it has a major drawback - it often gets you too close to the object of interest. It's OK with flowers, but with cowardly insects - or even worse - dangerous ones (bees, spiders etc.) it's almost impossible to take a clear shot without tele macro lens - which are ~500$ and up. At least grasshoppers aren't that shy if you are careful enough and you don't make any jerky moves - in fact you can almost touch one before it jumps away.

Lollipop

Today's Picture:

This picture is made in Japan too. I bought the lollipop in Tokyo, from a street seller. Shocking but true, most of the people in Japan don't speak English as good as I thought - not even close to what I expected. At least they're so helpful and nice that most of the time I communicated by using sign language and we understood each other quite well. This is how I bought this confectionary marvel too. It's a fresh strawberry covered in melted sugar, without even the slightest trace of burn - the sweet, but hot paste was crystal clear.

Macroscopic Problem №2:
Another problem with "mobile" macro is the autofocusing system. Most of the phone cameras don't even have the option to focus manually or even turn autofocus off. As a result, when trying to photograph a shiny reflecting object like this lollipop, the camera might suddenly decide that it must focus on the reflection instead of the object. Luckily my phone has the option to focus manually. Problem solved? Not really. In manual focus mode even the slightest move towards or away from the object makes the picture out of focus and blurry (because of the small depth of field). While in "normal" mode it wouldn't be such a problem, when trying macro every detail has to be perfectly focused - so you need super steady hands, or as in my case - several shots until the best one shows up.

Beginning

Almost anything on this planet has the potential to perform way beyond its capabilities - if given the opportunity and a little help. This happened to be the case with the flimsy 5MP camera of my LG Arena. With a simple hand-made macro lens (any magnifying glass would do, but it'd be nice to be as powerful as possible) I was able to take closeup photos which are impossible to make with a standart point-and-shoot camera's "macro" mode.

Within the next two weeks I'll post some of the best shots I took with the mobile phone's camera and I'll spice them with background details, including the major challenges which every noob photographer has to overcome.

Today's picture:

This is a delicate fern (it was originally green, i changed the colors using the in-build image editing tool) is only 1cm long. I took the photo when I visited Nikko's Toshogu Shrine in Japan. It was growing on bare stone probably because of the intense moisture.

Macroscopic Problem №1:
One of the biggest problems with "mobile" macro (as I'll call it from now on) is the depth of field (the area in front of and behind the point of focus in which things look clear). It can't be changed and that makes photographing non-flat objects a hard task.