Dave's Photo & Travelblogue

Tenerife Sunsets

Dave — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Here are a few sunset timelapses and other scenes from Tenerife’s west and north coasts. Tenerife is a beautiful island if you avoid the super-touristy parts. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Taken with a Nikon D7000 using the built-in intervalometer, and an 18-200mm VR lens.

Las Vegas Nights

Dave — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:20:25 +0000

These are not the lights of Las Vegas, Nevada… but rather a different kind of lights in the tiny town of Las Vegas, Tenerife. I set up my Nikon D7000 and tried out some Milky Way star trail timelapse sequences. By pure chance, one of the nights happened to be the 2011 Geminids meteor shower! Lots of Sternschnuppe made it onto my 30s-exposure photos.

See how many shooting stars you can count. Can you find Venus, the Pleiades, and the Andromeda galaxy? I recommend 1080 full HD on Youtube to give your peepers the best resolution possible!

Click here to view the embedded video.

As I’ve been doing a lot of timelapse stuff lately, here are

Dave’s TOP 10 Night Timelapse Tips

Make sure nothing annoying is moving in your photo, like trees that cover a large portion of the frame.
Avoid super bright lights being in the shot, they can create lens flare at long exposure.
Beware of battery life. Even my D7000 (one of the longest battery-life cameras) lasts under 400 shots at ISO 2000 and 30s exposure.
If possible, choose a location without motion detector lights. Unfortunately I couldn’t do that in this video, so I minimized the amount of scenery that was hit by the light.
Watch out for the moon. If it comes up during a night timelapse it will wash out all the stars.
Use a steady tripod and put it somewhere it won’t be disturbed by wind gusts, pets, or other people while you (hopefully) sleep.
Make sure to set a fixed (manual) focus, and don’t let the camera autofocus during the shoot. I use Live View on a bright star or very distant house light for the initial focus.
Keep the aperture constant to avoid changes in depth of field during the shoot.
Use manual exposure mode and fine-tune the ISO and shutter open time with some test shots. Of course you’ll want to set the widest aperture of your lens.
Last but not least: Check the weather report and pick a day free of clouds! Forecast should be 0% chance of rain unless you want a wet camera.

Santa Missing after Accident

Dave — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:25:48 +0000

Due to the graphic nature of the following story and photos, it is recommended that children under the age of 12 are shielded from this information.

Reports indicate that Santa fell out of his sleigh during a Nov. 24th practice run for Christmas 2011. Recent photos taken from a passing 747 confirm this tragedy:

These are the last known images of Santa.

Note that Santa’s beard appears to be a freefall hazard:

A final image (where Santa’s hat appears to be coming off) reveals that old Saint Nick may actually be bald.

At this time it is unknown if Santa was equipped with any emergency safety equipment, such as a jet pack or parachute. However, based on a prior skydiving trip in 2010 (file photo below), there is still hope that Santa will be found alive.

Our thoughts go out to Mrs. Claus. At her request, donations to the Elves’ Fund can be made through Traveldave.com.

Photographs by Eric Babcock.

Street Buys and Santa Condom

Mount Olympus Timelapse

Dave — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:04:09 +0000

In my post about hiking Mount Olympus in Greece, I promised a short timelapse & documentary video (Nikon D7000 + Canon pocket cam, try to guess which clips are which camera). Here it is…

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’d love to go back to Olympus and spend more time there. Lots of other trails, huts, and peaks looked good. Unfortunately we had quite a limited amount of time – so we just headed for the highest peaks, Mytikas and Skolio!

Timelapse Sunsets in Greece

Dave — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:53:06 +0000

On a recent trip to Greece, I tried out timelapse photography on my Nikon D7000 D-SLR. With about 500 photos you can get a great 20 second sunset sequence in 24p! Taken in Athens and on Aegina island. Here’s a shot of the setup I used:

Click here to view the embedded video.

With my Intel-Atom-powered Asus Eee PC along, I was able to check out the results directly after each timelapse shoot. I used free software (Virtualdub with the deflicker plugin) to compile the single shots into a video. This quick feedback enabled me to fine-tune my techniques on the fly and get increasingly better timelapse videos each day.

I foresee a lot of changes in cameras during the next 5-10 years. Higher-end models will have (real, quality) HDR functions integrated. The sequential photo setting now used for timelapses will integrate the photos automatically into a video in the camera, including exposure adjustment to avoid flicker. This is going to need a more powerful, yet still low-power processor built into the camera.

Let’s see what happens as cameras + processors improve. One thing is for sure, technology isn’t slowing down yet!

Oktoberfest Nights

Dave — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:31:00 +0000

What better time that Oktoberfest for a Guided Munich photo tour. I took some clients around the city on the first night of Oktoberfest 2011, and we were lucky enough to get this beautiful sunset.

A nice longer exposure shot:

Then off for a few really long-exposure nighttime shots before a thunderstorm brought our evening to an end. Yeah, I was too lazy to perspective-correct these in Photoshop (hehe).

I love the stationary car in front of the archway!

So get out your tripods and let’s see some long-exposure car trails! (All photos here with a Nikon D7000 and 18-200mm VR lens)

Extreme Hiking on Mount Olympus

Dave — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:55:56 +0000

There’s limited information (in English) on climbing Mount Olympus in Greece, the home of the ancient Greek gods. Here’s my Mount Olympus advice.

Dave’s tips for climbing Mount Olympus:

Fly into Thessaloniki. Relax for a night and drink some (not too much) Ouzo.
The next morning, take a bus to the main bus transfer station in Thessaloniki.
At the transfer station, take the bus to Litochoro – the town at the base of Mount Olympus.
The bus to Litochoro goes to another town first (you may have to transfer, or your bus may go directly like ours did).
In Litochoro, take a taxi to the Prionia parking lot (25 euro each way!) and get the driver’s number for the way back in case you can’t hitch a ride down after the hike.
From Prionia (1100m), hike up trail E4 to the hut called Refuge A (2100m), Spilios Agapitos. The hike takes about 2 ½ to 3 hours, 6.4km long gaining 1000m with very little downhill.
Refuge A is a great hut with food, (bottled) water, and blankets. You will want a sleeping bag or camping sheet. There are no showers or potable running water, but you can buy bottled water relatively cheaply. Sleep overnight and start rested the next morning.
Leave heavy items in the hut if you plan to come down by this same trail. After a breakfast of bread and coffee (yes, the €4.50 breakfast isn’t too impressive), start up to Skala. It’s a relatively short hike of under 3 hours, but the path is very steep.
From the peak of Skala at over 2800m, you have the choice of Mytikas (2917m) or Skolio (2911m). Mytikas, the highest point in Greece, is a difficult scramble with potentially fatal consequences if you slip and fall the wrong way. Don’t attempt Mytikas unless the peak is free of high winds, rain, snow, and fog. The alternative of Skolio is not the highest point in Greece, but it’s a safer walk to get there. And it’s still a peak on Mount Olympus.
The way down is tough because of loose sand and rocks on the steep trail. Here you really want some good hiking boots. Walking poles wouldn’t hurt either.

Another possibility to make life easier would be to rent a car for the 2 days in Thessaloniki. I think this would be cheaper, because we paid €15 each for bus tickets and €25×2 for taxis. Renting a small car for 2d should be less than 80 euro. There is ample parking at Prionia (though it might get full on summer weekends). It would be a lot faster by car as well, without having to wait for so many taxis, buses, etc.

My impressions: this is a serious hike. It isn’t quite as technical as climbing Zugspitze in Germany (because no climbing gear is needed as it is on Zugspitze’s Hoellental route), but the overall energy needed is similar. The vistas are phenomenal! I shot several timelapse sequences with my Nikon D7000 during the climb… those will be in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!

Beauty around Buda Castle

Dave — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:41:00 +0000

Buda Castle sits high atop a hill overlooking both sides of the city, Buda and Pest. In the evening you can find stunning nighttime panoramas. But under the castle is yet another world of caves and tunnels, used by man since prehistoric times. Unfortunately the Labyrinth of Buda Castle was misused during the Cold War, turned into a concrete-lined bunker. Since then it has been converted into an interesting artistic display of history.

In some caves are reproductions of prehistoric art, mostly copied from Lascaux in France.

With a mini-tripod and a bit of patience you can get a nice naturally-lit shot like this without needing flash. You’ll need low ISO for a clean photo, and custom white balance. The hardest part was staying still for 15s…

My favorite display was about a newly-discovered extinct race of hominids found in Hungary. You’ll have to visit the Labyrinth to learn more about Homo consumes.

Outside Buda Castle it’s spring!

I’ll leave you with this lovely sunset shot taken from near the castle.

If you’re headed to Eastern Europe I highly recommend to make Budapest a priority on your itinerary. It’s well worth the trip!

Getting dirty in Pest

Dave — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:09:00 +0000

Buda, Pest, and Old Buda merged in 1873 to form the modern Budapest. I took these shots while wandering around the streets of Pest.

Bus seat graffiti

Here’s the nostalgia tram, where (for 400 Forints) you can ride in style like they used to. Note: I don’t recommend trying to stand while this thing is moving – it’s not exactly as smooth as Munich’s S-Bahn. But it was free of graffiti, unlike the Pest buses.

This was floating in a small carnival by a children’s park for a few minutes before some thoughtful old man took it down. On the side, in Hungarian, it reads “Size does matter.”

This statue cracked me up. So regal in the last golden rays of the setting sun… except for his cap.

Next post, back to the beautiful side of Budapest.

Budapest Streets

Dave — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:42:21 +0000

Those long familiar with the blog might remember some prior posts about street photography. Candid photos of city denizens and visitors tell you a lot about what the place is like! Take this woman agonizing over what to buy in the farmers’ market:

From afar it really looked like we were about to enter a field in the middle of the city. I guess a few hundred years ago this might have been the view.

The couple and the single… who is happier?

We must have watched this dog playing in and around the fountain pool for half an hour. Finally I got the shot I’d been waiting for!

No comment required on this last one. All in all, it was a beautiful day of sun, photos, sights, and frisbee on the streets and in the parks of Budapest.