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The bobby hat

Feb/28/10 23:05 Filed in: Photo shoots

Sometimes a photographer is just SOL ...


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London bobby hat on mannequin head in a tourist shop
London. The scenario: a tourist one place has it all stop-shop. A bobby hat for tourists on a mannequin head. Perfect. All it had to be was a quick shot. With my 55-200 mm, from the corner. The camera set to program mode since there was not time to fiddle around with settings. Store owners don't like photographers taking images of stuff so much. Experience - no need to ask. So, camera out. Zoom. Shot. And failed.

There are a few factors that work against making this a nice shot worthy the "other side" section of my gallery. Let me explain why.... Read More...

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Going 520p

Feb/10/10 21:46 Filed in: Technicalities

adjusting my fixed height site to my visitors needs.


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I have been listening to my critics and to Google: A significant amount of my visitors is browsing the web with a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 pixel or less. And, with the rise of netbooks with even less screen real estate is available to the average internet user. Considering that a large amount of the screen real estate is lost to (very often unecessary) browser toolbars and the likes, my old site layout fit less visitors screens properly than I hoped. And that number was shrinking. With a fixed site layout as you experience here, that is a real disadvantage and no fun for the visitor.
So I went through an entire site overhaul and limited the page height to 520 pixel. This did require to downsize the thumbnai images - which is not only a bad thing: that will make browsing the photographs on this site quite a bit faster.
I hope you enjoy the new gallery and site layout and spend some time browsing my photographs.

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One year of experience using the NIKON D60 dSLR

Feb/04/10 00:13 Filed in: Technicalities

the good, the bad and the ugly - a photographer's experience report.

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D60-Camera_body
So, as pomised here are my thoughts on the (now almost outdated) Nikon D60. I have been using this camera now for just over a year and a pretty good feeling for what it is capable of and what not.
I wanted to share those thoughts with you without writing an extensive review about this camera. Technical reviews can be found here at dpreview.com and at plenty of other places around the internet. What I wanted to share with you is more in the realms of an experience report with the Nikon D60. And this post has no claim of being complete: I simply want to mention a few facts about this camera which stuck out to me while using it over the past twelve months....
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The best camera is the one you have with you...

Jan/25/10 11:57 Filed in: Technicalities

or dealing with selective seeing.

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A recent trip brought me back to my old home town: Boston, Massachusetts. Well, Boston was not really my home town, but it is close enough. Anyhow, the point is that after two months not being there, I was glad to be back. And, as it is very often, once one has not been at one place for a while, I tend to look at it the next time we are there with different eyes. Read More...

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The wonders of indirect light

Dec/03/09 10:47 Filed in: Photo shoots

The art of photographing kitchen utensils.

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DSC23148-spoon2
On my current mission to photograph things around the house (and make them look interesting) I decided to finally utilize the wonderful indirect light coming trough the back kitchen window in the early morning hours.
If you are a photographer like me and you don't own a closet full of lighting equipment (and does not want even wan to own a closet full of lighting equipment), utilizing indirect light coming through any window in your house is absolutely fantastic for photographing... well,things. Have you ever seen those dreamy type flower portraits? The rose for example with the water drops on it, with the blossom being kind of underexposed and only partially visible? This mystic looking pile of coffee beans? If this is something you like, than indirect light is something for you. Read More...

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On this world, a shadow falls...

Nov/20/09 16:33 Filed in: Art on the web

African fine art wildlife photography by Nick Brandt.

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nickbrandt
Reading a photography magazine, I stumbled across a report about photographer Nick Brandt. Nick found a passion for east African wildlife photography in the mid 1990's, during his time as a director in the music video world. He was shooting the "Earth Song" video for Michael Jackson when he discovered the east African animal paradise. Nick Brandt realized that this paradise is short of its extinction. Taking trips from Nairobi through southern Kenya to Arusha in northern Tanzaniaa few years apart, he saw that the free roaming animals became significantly less in between his journeys. So he decided to capture this paradise to be soon lost on black and white film. Read More...

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Legal matters with photography in public - II

Oct/13/09 23:37 Filed in: Technicalities

A brilliant resource for legal issues with photography.


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Browsing through the internet today, I found this absolutely great blog page which I wanted to share with you.Photography_not_crime It is run by Carlos Miller, a photojournalist in Miami, Florida. He was arrested in February of 2007 for photographing them against their wishes. Read More...

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God is a DJ

Oct/11/09 06:14 Filed in: Art on the web

The art of photography in a brilliant short movie.


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A long time ago I discovered this great video on youtube. It is the short movie Spin from Double Edge Films.

cinematic_rule_of_thirds

The storyline is told by a great short film underlayed by fantastic beats. And the photography in this film stroke me. There is great photography in every great movie, however, this was aboslutely down my alley. Read More...

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An eventful year

Oct/10/09 22:33 Filed in: Technicalities
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The Cape Neddick Light house in Maine
Well, there they were - the changes in life.
First and foremost, this site went through a significant change in appearance. I changed the gallery layout and find the photo book type look rather pleasing. Second the blog became more readable using larger fonts and wider line spacing and tags have been reorganized to let you find your way around better.
Second were the photography changes. Read More...

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The "San Francisco Gallery" at the Applefest in Northborough, Mass.

Sep/27/09 20:27 Filed in: Technicalities
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The San Francisco Gallery and Framing, Northborough, Mass
My friend, the owner of the "San Francisco Gallery", Kristin Young called me up to help her to exhibit her gallery and framing store at the apple fest in Northborough, Massachusetts. Well, it sounded like a promising day and of course I was there to help her out. The night before the event we loaded a van and two SUV's full of magnificent artwork and custom framed pieces to be ready to set up her booth at the Applefest. Read More...

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Is the 2009 Mac mini fast enough for photo editing ?

May/22/09 03:55 Filed in: Technicalities

A photographers experience with Apple's small desktop computer.


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Apple_Mac_Mini_2009
When the new Mac mini was released in early April of 2009 I was certainly happy about that. Until then I was using the maxed out version of the 2005 G4 mini - 1 GB of RAM and the 1.42 GHz processor. I bought that computer just before my interest in photography and image editing surfaced. A funny coincidence. So, it all started with a 15" screen and Photoshop Elements 2. And this machine was doing its job just fine. Over time I upgraded to PSE 3 and a full HD 23" wide gamut display. Now, I started to run out of hard drive space, used my main drive as a Photoshop scratch disk, more and more tools were open at the same time and finally demanding to run this high screen resolution was a bit to much for the G4. But I think, the main reason why this machine became so slow was, that I was just constantly running out of RAM. So it was time for an update. And along came the 2009 version of the Mac mini. Read More...

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Legal matters with photography in public.

Mar/08/09 03:37 Filed in: Technicalities

A collection of resources about photographers rights


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Legal matters in photography are a sticky issue
Recent projects I am working on made me question the legality of taking photographs in various questionable places, publishing those and the possible consequences of my actions.

It is very sad to begin with that photo enthusiasts, amateurs or professional photographers that simply want to express their point of view of the world in an artistic way have to worry about such banal matters. But, we live in a society and not in an agglomeration of individuals - or so wee'd like to think or make ourselves believe. Hence there are certain and thoughts and aspects that may concern the uninvolved individual in a complete different way than the photographer and vice versa. So consequently some rules and regulations have been put into place and it's worth it to have at least an overview over the basics. Read More...

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The old baptist church

Feb/22/09 16:16 Filed in: Photo shoots

Another visit to the old stone baptist church in Boylston


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The old stone baptist church, Boyston, Massachusetts
On a Sunday afternoon cruise I drove by one of my favorite locations, the old stone baptist church in Boylston, Massachusetts. This church sits aside the reservoir and is the the last reminder of an old town, which was located in the valley below the church before the reservoir was flooded in the early nineteen hundreds...

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Days of my aging father

Feb/06/09 03:07 Filed in: Art on the web

Philip Toledano's photography


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The other day I found an email from my dear friend from Singapore in my inbox. She knows about my love to photography and decided to share this link. A link from an astonishing photographer who manages to capture an amount of soul in his images as I have rarely seen before. Maybe it is the story behind his images what makes them so brilliant, maybe it is the story inside the image itself. It is probably a combination of both. Read More...

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Good bye to an old friend...

Jan/17/09 02:11 Filed in: Technicalities

Switching from a Sony Cybershot DSC H2 to a NIKON D60


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After almost three years of learning and growing with and close to each other, I decided that it is time to move on. Well, I actually decided that a while ago. Although one could not call it a decision perse - it was more of a mutually growing apart which was ironically a part of growing close. But that how the flow of life takes sometimes it very own turns... Foreseeable, exciting and yet painful at the same time.
But back from the philosophical paths to the real deal: I ordered and received my all spankin' new NIKON D60, as a kit with the NIKKOR 18-55 mm kit lens and the 55-200 mm VR lens on top of it (AF-S DX VR 55-200mm F/4-5.6G IF-ED - holy marketing!). This is one big step up from where I am coming from. The previously owned and used SONY Cybershot DSC-H2 sparked the interest in photography in me and this camera was a great learning tool, which I have been using since early 2006.

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A cold morning

Dec/01/08 00:03 Filed in: Photo shoots
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DSC09290-FraminghamFactory_
With the thanksgiving turkey flavor still in my mouth, I was all energized to face the elements on this cold and beautiful November morning. For a long time I had in mind to shoot this old factory building in Saxonville, Framingham, Massachusetts. I drive by there on a fairly regular basis. And although there is nothing really special about this building, for some reason it always showed a certain beauty sitting next to the lake. Read More...

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Fall Impressions in New England

Nov/10/08 01:59 Filed in: Photo shoots
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DSC09198-hill-birch-thumb
Throughout of the month of October I went out on various occasions and tried to capture the mood of this years fall. The result is a collection of reds, yellows, greens and browns. Some of these images make me understand when I heard someone years ago say that late fall produces a warm brown tone, no matter whether the sun shines or it rains. This is a nice summary showing the different moods light at different times of the day can create. And daylight is just so much more workable in fall than it is in the summer or even spring. Read More...

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An all new homepage

Oct/23/08 01:18 Filed in: Technicalities
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After a while of thinking and pondering, I came finally up with a home(front) page design that I really like. For those of of you that did not see the old front page - well, you did not miss much. I will try and keep the slideshow there somewhat up to date and will exchange the pictures over time. I hope you like it. Let me know if you don't.

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It's fall outside

Oct/11/08 10:44 Filed in: Technicalities
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the colors of fall in Marlborough, Massachusetts
This morning, well, the late morning I stepped outside my house and saw this. I simply wanted to share this absolutely stunning view - I guess I can enjoy this for a couple of more weeks before this grim winter is moving in.... The farmers almanac says it is going to be one - and if you can not believe those guys, who can you trust?

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The Folia-O-Meter

Oct/10/08 10:45 Filed in: Technicalities
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Colored maple leaves in New England
The foliage is, or actually can be, quite a feast for the eyes. Hence the annual foliage in New England is followed and well documented on the net. I hope I will make it to some cool spots this fall - depending on how this evening goes, I actually might head out down Rt. 2 towards southern Vermont, where the foliage is about to peak. Waiting for it to happen is Massachusetts can go both ways: it either gets really gorgeous, or it simply never really makes here leaving the trees in an average brown. Not very desirable.... So, off to Vermont I guess...

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An overdue portfolio facelift

Oct/06/08 10:50 Filed in: Technicalities
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A hip hop sign next to chinese lanterns
Since this site opened in July 2008, there has not much been going on in the portfolios. Despite the fact that I have quite a few portfolio worthy images uploaded in the fotocommunity, they never made it to my site here. There are also plenty of photos to be worked on from last years trip to Southeast Asia. I just hope that one day in the near future, I will be able to get an album together, similar to the Hong Kong Experience.
The Boston Police on Bikes in full force
Changes have been made to the Citiyside and Flea Market portfolios. I am very happy about finally adding some street photography pictures to the Cityside since this does loosen up the collection of mainly architectural photos that have been in there so far. I am also very fond of the photograph of the stage practice of the Necessary Stage in Singapore while visiting a dear friend of mine. I had a chance of observing the preparations of a rather interesting play called "Good People".
preparation of a play at the little stage in Singapore
The play was set in a hospice and dealt with the relationship of three people, the medical director, a nurse and the ill patient consuming marijuana for pain relieve. I think the setting was in a country were marijuana is as illegal as in Singapore itself. I never had a chance to watch the actual play, but observing the preparations was a lot of fun....

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The Fitchburg Shootout

Oct/06/08 04:11 Filed in: Photo shoots
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old industral building at sunrise
The perfect Fall weekend. The foliage not being at its peak, but warm enough to to have a fall BBQ: Lamb wrapped in steak, grilled to perfection. Came with a delicious, significant amount of red wine. Well, later that night, the phone rang and I agreed to a photo shoot with Ian the next morning. Shortly after the alarm clock went off and, after meeting at the Mall, we were to off lovely Fitchburg, Massachusetts. We drove around the downtown area until we found something that caught our interest. Read More...

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The Hong Kong experience

Sep/27/08 09:57 Filed in: Away from home
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Hongkong_chinese2
The need of leaving it all behind and a spontaneous idea brought us to the magnificent city of Hong Kong. With one week of planning I was not quite sure what to expect: Chinese tradition? Millions of bikes? Cars? Rikshas? Well, I figured I just go and see.... Read More...

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Boston Caribbean Carnival.

Aug/25/08 11:35 Filed in: Photo shoots
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This was indeed an event I am always looking forward to. The carnival happens always on the last weekend in August, which is the weekend before Labour Day weekend. That made it complicated this year since Labour Day weekend was the last one in August.So what do do? The website was not very informative - they archive but don't announce there. Thank good I got a phone call just in time as a reminder - thanks Chicken. :D. Read More...

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The final overhaul?

Aug/23/08 01:27 Filed in: Technicalities
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I most certainly doubt it. But since its launch in early July 2008 this site finally grew out of its infanty. The overall appearance, as well as the photo viewer and the picture organization have changed. So that would be pretty much everything, correct? Well, welcome and enjoy the show...

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