Baden Christmas Lights

The Christmas lights have been up in Baden for a few weeks now. I finally had a chance to get out last night and takes a few photographs. My wife was brave enough to grab a tripod and come with me. I was surprised she wanted to head out into the cold. For me the evening was a great opportunity to be a little artistic and try out some of my HDR capture techniques.

The image above was created from 3 images over-layed using the picturenaut tool. Final edits were done in Photoshop CS3.

I am not completely happy with the color tint of the image. I have to play with it a bit more but I think overall the picture turned out pretty cool.

For those that are interested the image was made of a -2, 0 and +2 exposure biased images.

Digital Photo Event In Baden

A few weekends ago I had noticed a sign for a digital photography event coming up at a local conference center in Baden. The conference hall is small, and I couldn't imagine what kind of event it would be but I made a mental note that I wanted to stop by and see it when the day arrived.

Last Saturday the appointed hour came. I almost forgot about it but after a morning run to Waldshut for a little shopping we headed over to the Trafo hall to take in the Digital photography show. It ended up being sponsored by a local school (I believe an art school or something) and the hall had three distinct things going on. A photography exhibit and contest, a senimar area, and a few vendor booths.

When we arrived a swiss outdoor photographer was giving a slide show and talking about taking outdoor pictures of rock climbing. Although the pictures were good, the presentation was a bit hard to follow because it was all in Swiss German. After about 10 minutes of listening and watching slides I just couldn't take it. Without understanding the commentary it was a little boring.

I saw a co-worker there as well. He had stopped in to get hte sensor in his Camera cleaned. Canon had a booth there and was offering free sensor cleaning if you brought your camera in. I probably should have brought mine but I just didn't feel like lugging it around.

Some of the photos in the exhibit were good, others were a bit of a strech to be in a juried show but regardless I like to see such shows because they always give me some new ideas and inspiration.

Got a Flame Today, 100 Images Sold

I have been selling some of my photography through a web based stock photo agency for several years now. I do it not for the money but more as an excuse to keep me actively using my camera.

Today I reached a mile stone. One of my images just hit 100 sales. On the site when an image sells over 100 times the website displays a flame next to the image. In the photography community on the site getting your first flame is almost like a right of passage.

I guess I'll have to post on the photographer community discussion board and formally announce 'my coming of age.'

Sking in the Alps, Zurich Airport, Apenzeller Villages All At Swissminiatur

Waiting for a Train At the Swissminiatur Museum

When we were in Ticino last weekend we made a stop at the Swissminiatur museum. Swissminiatur is an outside exhibit of small models of the most famous buildings in Switzerland built at a 1:25 scale. The park also includes over 3500 meters (2.1 miles) of model railroad track.

I had not known quite what to expect when my wife announced she wanted to visit the park. I told a Swiss co-worker from work before we left that we were going to visit and he explained that a visit to Swissminiatur was a right of passage for Swiss children. It is a popular school field trip destination for those in the region.


With that in mind I was expecting something that was aimed towards children. In that sense the park was targeted towards a younger audience with train rides, bumperboats, and a few other activites for children. However, the models did manage to capture my attention and were interesting to see first hand.

As a photographer the park was a great opportunity to practice my skills. Depending on the angles and distances from the models I was able to get some facinating images that in some cases look almost as good as the real thing.

Exhibits featured boats cruising on miniature lakes, working trains that stopped at varios stations throughout the park and even several functioning model cable cars. There was even a model of a popular highway rest stop overpass in our region of Switzerland with a working 4 lane highway of cars passing underneath.

The park was opened in 1959 and the care takers are in a constant cycle of reparing and updating their models. Despite the revitalization efforts some models are clearly in better shape than others. We spent about an hour and a half wondering the grounds and getting lunch.

If you are in the area I would consider it worth a visit. It is good fun for both kids and adults and you'll go home with some great snap shots as well.

HDRI with Picturenaut

Zürich at Night

A friend introduced me to a freeware application used for creating HDR images. HRD High Dynamic Range images are a neat way to enable a photographer to combine a series of pictures to expose more details in the shadows while also brining back highlights that are often blown out in overexposed areas.

The premise is that you shoot multiple images at different exposures and then use a software tool to reassemble the series. Above is my first example uisng the picturenaut software. I found a short tutorial on youtube that gives you a 5 minute intro to develop an image.



The software lets you quickly select a series of images and with a few clicks puts them together. To make this work well, you must shoot the original images using a tripod.

Just to demonstrate how the concept works its wonders I am also posting the three images that I used to create the HDR image. The images were taken with the -2 EV, 0EV and +2 EV exposure settings.

The final outcome is amazing. Seeing as this is only my first attempt I can't wait to see what happens if I actually experiment a bit with the tool. Looks like I have a new photo toy to keep me busy for a while.

Night of Photography in Zürich

Downtown Zürich at Night

Last night I went with a friend down to Zürich for a photography outing. We where there before the sun went down, took some pictures, had dinner, and then headed out into the evening darkness to see what other low light images we could capture.

The one above was one of my favorites from first glance. I still need to go through all of the images in more detail. That might be a task for this weekend. My friend was also telling me of how he works with HDR. This is a method of combining 3 images, a underexposure, and neutral exposure, and an overexposure. The concept is that by combining these three images you can achieve greater tonal range in your photograph.

He explained how I need to bracket a few shots, and he would send me a link to the software that I can use to experiment. I have a feeling I'll be playing with the rest of the photos this weekend.

5 Lake Ramble, Pizol Switzerland

Schottensee, Pizol Switzerland

I mentioned before that we had been to the Pizol ski area for a little weekend hiking. The hike we took was the 5 lake ramble known to the locals as the 5-Seen Wanderung. The hike was long, hot and packed but the views were unbelievable.

Although my camera bag was heavily loaded with all my gear and made the hike a challenge I am glad I brought everything. Some of the vistas were breathtaking. One of my favorites is a picture I took of the Schottensee. The lake was a sureal shade of blue. And with the peaks of the gray horns in the background the picture almost looks more like a oil painting than a photograph.

The hike took us just about 5 hours to make the loop at a pretty good clip including a 20 minute lunch break. I was definately glad we packed a lunch and plenty of water for the trip.

The peaks and the high altitudes make a polarizing filter a nice tool to take along if you have one. I shot most images with the filter and it really brought out the deep blue skies and water.

All along the hike there were spots where there was still a hint of snow from last winter. The small dirty gray remains looked like they wouldn't last much longer. It was a surpise to see the snow from last season this time of year.

Rant About Adobe Software Pricing

I have been a fan of Adobe software products. Over the years I have used several of their software packages from Photoshop Elements, to Acrobate Professional, to Lightroom. I have also really liked their software distribution method. Immediate and fast download from their website.

Unfortunately for me I am living overseas. I have been sitting on the fence about wether or not I should upgrade to Lightroom version 2.0. I really like version 1 and after reading some reviews I think version 2 would be worth it. Since I already own version 1 the upgrade is under $100 and I don't think that is unreasonably priced.

So last night I tried to login to the US webstore to get the upgrade. No such luck. I got a message stating that I should call the customer service line. I tried to call them today and found out that they will be happy to ship me a boxed version within the US, but they will not let me buy the download version that I can get off of the web because I am overseas. I was a little ticked, not at the sales associate but at Adobe. I told the woman thanks but no thanks.

Afterwords, I started looking on the web and I found out I can get exactly the same piece of software from the Adobe store in Europe for $175 dollars. Why on Gods earth would I pay that price. Sorry, but its not worth it. Especailly when I can get the same thing for $99 in the US.

Looking on the internet a little more I see that Adobe is notorious for 'screwing' its customers in Europe, often taking the same numbers but replacing the dollar sign with a Euro sign for its European customers.

For now I think I am going to wait. I don't really think it's worth the extra cash, and I'm just a little bitter.

Reichstag Dome

Dome At the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany

I was working on some of my photographs this week and came across a picture that I really liked from the dome of the Riechstag. I liked the composition but when viewed in color it just didn't seem to really stand out.

I spent a bit of time to crop it and convert to a high contrast black and white. I think in turned out much better this way.

Just for comparison, below is the original, as shot image.

Erste August Party

Fireworks Over the Castle in Baden Switzerland

I mentioned before that we had our traditional first of August party this year. We have been having the party for a couple of years now. Since the fireworks are right across the street there is always a good show.

This year we had a smaller group, but a more diverse group. The conversation was switching constantly from English, to French to German. It seemed like just about everyone spoke at least 2 languages so people were only periodically left out of conversations. If there was someone who wasn't following, somebody would usually step in and do a quick translation as needed

As the group was a little smaller I really felt like I got to spend some time speaking to all of the guests. I often time feel like I don't get to spend enough time speaking with everyone, but this time I really felt like I got to speak with everyone.

The party had a bit of a slow start as compared to last year but by about 9:00 everything was in full swing.


At one point the doorbell rang and I went to answer it through our PA system that guests can use from the front door. I said hello, and the response I got was 'Das ist Polezi'. For a second I panicked, but then I thought why the heck would the police be here, we aren't making any noise. About 3 seconds into my stunned silence, I heard a friendly voice break in and say, 'hey it's me'. I have to admit, my friend really had me for a second.

The fireworks show was pretty good this year. Before the display started I took a look at my photos from last year to determine the best camera settings. I started out with f/4, ISO 400, and 1/4 second exposure. From there I made some minor adjustments as the night went on. The end results were that I got a larger number of good shots since I took the opportunity to learn from last year.

Royal Castle, Warsaw Poland

Royal Castle, Warsaw Poland

In all of Warsaw I think one of my favorite spots to photograph is the plaza in front on the Royal Castle. This last trip I had my first chance to try photographing there at night. I love the colors in the buildings and the people that are milling around. It is really a fun spot to setup up a tripod and just hang out taking pictures.

This is one of the better ones from my evening. The square is usually very crowded as it was when I took this picture. However if you use shutter speeds greater than a few seconds, the people walking around disappear in the image. This image was shot with a 4 second exposure at f/14 ISO 200.

Photography: Warsaw Poland, My New Favorite Place

This week I am doing some traveling to Warsaw. I brought my photo gear with me as I usually do. Last night after all of my work was done I headed out to the old town to for a small photography outing. I setup shop right in front of the royal palace where to my surpise about a dozen other photographers were also honing their trade. It appeared that it might have been a photography class from the local university.

The more time I spend in Warsaw, the more it becomes one of my favorite locations to photograph. There is such a neat collection of things to photograph here. The people are interesting, the history is interesting, and the colors are really amazing.

I hope I have some treasures on my memory card, but I won't know for sure until I get back home and load everything into lightroom. Until then. I will just have to wait, and so will you. I'll post some images when I get home.

Water Lily

I have been in a bit of a creative slump lately. I think it has to do with the weather. The last couple of weekends have been gray and colder than it should be for mid summer. That means I haven't been very inspired to take out the camera.

I finally had a brief moment of motivation when I spotted some water lilies not far from our apartment in a small pond.

I went home, packed up the camera gear including tripod and headed back to the spot. I didn't spend too much time. Maybe twenty minutes taking about 40 pictures. I think the above is the best of the lot.

The Power Of Baden

A Storm Rolls Through Baden

We had a huge storm roll through Baden on Thursday evening. In the part of Switzerland where we are living such storms are rare. The entire apartment was shaking from the lightning and thunder. It was so loud we actually unplugged our computers for fear that there was a possibility of a power surge if something was struck. Of course all the commotion didn't stop me from taking out the camera and setting up shop in the living room.

We have a covered section of balcony right outside our balcony door so I opened up the door and setup my camera and tripod just inside the door to keep myself and my camera gear dry.

Lighting can be a tricky thing to capture on film if you aren't using a lighting trigger. The lightning itself also needs to be clear and unobstructed by clouds to get a nice crisp defined edge. Although camera settings are one thing, I think it is more luck than anything to get a good shot.

For my attempts I had dialed in the settings as follows

• Exposure: 20 sec at f/10
• ISO Speed: ISO 100
• Exposure Compensation -2 EV

I think the trick to getting a decent exposure in a situation like the one I was shooting with the castle in the foreground is setting the exposure compensation to -2 stops. By setting for -2 you are telling the camera to underexpose, meaning that the picture will turn out a little too dark if this were a normal exposure. However, with lightning and clouds the bright light and clouds act light a huge light box flash, lighting the entire scene.

If you leave your exposure compensation at 0.0 the foreground will be washed out by the flash of the lightning. Getting it right takes a few test shots and a lot of luck.

The shot above of the lightning over the Stein Castle in Baden was just 1 of about 60 exposures I made all between 10 seconds and 30 seconds while I tried to find the best settings for the evening. Its also a question of pressing the shutter and hoping that sometime during the exposure a bolt of lightning will strike. It is really a guessing game. To get such a great picture takes patience and perseverance. And a little help from above.

American Car Buffs in Switerland

Final Version of Plymouth Grill

When I was out on a bike ride near Schaffhausen this weekend I came across a car buff with a garage. At the time he was pulling out is fleet for display. He had what looked like an ancient Volvo, a strange looking tractor, and to my surprise a Plymouth. With the vehicles all lined up and Swiss clean it looked like a photo opportunity in the making.

I hopped of the bike and got out my gear for a couple of shots. Once I got home the shots didn't really look that great but I had just gotten the full version of Photoshop and had read a recent article about a couple of good tricks to bring out polished metal on layersmagazine.com. The photos and a couple of minutes of play time seemed like an opportunity not to be wasted.

A few minutes in Photoshop really made the difference. I have also posted the original picture here for comparison. The original is straight out of the camera with no correction.