El Ivis Olympus Photo Blog

We have moved!!!!.

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:03:00 +0000

From today.. find us on the new blog at square space!!!

http://ivan-gomez.squarespace.com/

Photoshoot in Wexford, Ireland

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:22:00 +0000

Despite of poor weather, bad lighting, being pooped on and almost being sucked into the sea, I managed to get a couple of good pictures in Co. Wexford in Ireland.

More to come…

del.icio.us Tags: Ireland,Olympus,Wexford,Photo,Photography

Portugal Photowalk..

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:42:00 +0000

This is a quick summary of a recent trip to Portugal, my plan was to visit Lisbon, and while Lisbon seem to present great photo opportunities, I actually ended up spending most of my time driving around the little towns within 2 hrs around Lisbon. This is a quick summary of what to see and some tips if you are planning to take some pictures. While I didnt take pictures within Lisbon, I would recommend this place for a great view of the city at night including St George’s Castle, the park itself is quite safe and nice to walk and photograph.

See the entire set here…

The park in the street called Sao Pedro de Alcantara offers great views of the city and the castle..

Here is the route followed..

Sintra

Sintra is a very little town on the outskirts of Lisbon, is a 30 min drive, but there are also train service in 45 mins. If you go by train, make sure to take a taxi all the way up to the Pena and Moor castles, they are worth it. If you decide to walk, you will be rewarded with great views of the ruins of the old castle, trough wooded areas and expensive houses.

Palacio Nacional

OK inside, not too much to see, however views trough the windows are quite nice for both shots of the city as well as shot of the hills, framed by the windows.

Photography allowed in some areas, not in thight quarters. Nice view of the castle above, specially when is foggy,

The Moor castle (Old Castle in the park)

While I didnt take the steps, the driving road is worth walking. Towards the top of the castle, there are amazing views walking up trough the woods of both the old castle ruins as well as the houses and pathways. Very picturesque, specially at dawn, when foggy.

Pena Castle

By far, one of the best places to take pictures in Portugal., lots of opportunities, but make sure that you go very early, during low season as I am sure it must get really crowded. In January there was very few people, so I just had to wait a couple of minutes to get clear shots. The hike up the hill is pretty steep so I recommended you take the little bus if you are hauling equipment.

Fatima

This is the location of the Virgin Mary’s apparitions, its been said that millions of people flock there during the anniversary of the apparitions around May and October. There is a church, a very big square and an atrium where the apparitions took place.

As a place, to me didn't represent a lot of opportunities for pictures, it must be nice with a clear square and with a fish eye capture the sheer size of the place, but other than that, didn't offer anything interesting.

If you venture on going during the festival, try a vintage point as I think a picture with the plaza full of people must be quite interesting

Batalha

While the town of Batalha does not offer lots of things, the monastery there its quite impressive with a lot of Gothic details that can be very well photographed with a nice zoom lens.

But probably the best feature of it all is, towards the end of the walk you can go where the tombs of the kings are, there is no roof, so stop in the middle of the square and take a shot like this with a wide angle lens. (This was taken with an Olympus Zuiko at 8mm)

Nazaret

Nazaret is a sleepy fishing town that while in the Summer must be packed with tourist, during the month of January is practically dead. Not much to see during this month, but is a nice place for a break. Only interesting feature is how the old women dress with traditional clothing.

Obidos

This is the last town we visited, and by far the most interesting. Its a very small town on a small hill with a castle on top. I recommend the view of the west of the castle as it offers a better view of the walls of the city. The picture below was taken from the roundabout on the right corner of the map, good view, but I missed the road on the west of the city which presents better views.

The little cobbled streets present great opportunities for pics, there a lot of places to take great pictures and I would recommend you actually try and spend the night there. At night it must be a great site for pictures.

del.icio.us Tags: lisbon,portugal,lisboa,olympus,photography,photowalk,tips,tour

A little preview of Portugal shoot..

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:40:00 +0000

A little preview of my recent trip to Portugal, drove around little towns outside of Lisbon…this is the town of Obidos 2 hrs outside of Lisbon…

Worth a trip if you are close…

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noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:49:00 +0000

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Wicklow Workshop October..

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:04:00 +0000

Here is my set of pictures taken on my first photo workshop with the guys from explorelight (Peter and Ed Gordon). Find out more about their upcoming workshops here, I will try and see to sign up for the ones at the West of Ireland.

They take care of pretty much everything, drive you around different sites, depending on the quality of the light for that day. For this specific workshop we followed this route..

del.icio.us Tags: olympus,ep-1,Pen,Wicklow,Photography

Haarlem, Netherlands

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:03:00 +0000

As part of a quick business trip decided to do a morning side trip to Haarlem just between Schipol and Amsterdam.

How to get there..

From Schipol take the 300 Red Bus just outside of the airport terminal, and go until the very end of the route. You can find more information here. The bus service is perfect as it runs on its own road, so there is never traffic.

The bus will drop you at Haarlem rail station.

Walk towards the city center, see attached my route. I actually got lost coming back from the city center back the bus station but bumped into this housing area perfect for shots.

The main photographic areas for Haarlem are definitely the

Windmill (The Aadrian)
Grote Mark In the center of town
Cathedral in the Center
And the little neighborhood area along the Pieter Kieestraat.

Here is a quick video of the things you can hope to find in Haarlem…

The Aadrian…

Is better if you get to the Aadrian before dawn, as you can still use some of the street lighting to help you with the exposure. After 6 am then, the lights will go off making it significantly darker and at Fall the sun will be coming down right behind it, making it lose quite a bit of detail.

The cathedral is quite nice, but on a Sunday there is a market and if you dont get there earlier than 7am you will be fighting for space with the street vendors, so better go during the week or on a Saturday.

The market provides lots of opportunities for people and food shots such as this… Eel on a stick..

Once you make your way back, try and see the neighborrhood along Pieter Kieestraat, lots of little white houses with flower pots perfect for postcards.

If you can once you ge the bus back, there is housing community with very interesting architecture 3 stops before Haarlem.

Here is the equipment used for this session

ND Filters

Thinktank Street Walker Pro

GPS AMOD

Hoya Polarizer Filters

del.icio.us Tags: Haarlem,Netherlands,Photography,Olympus,Shooting,Dawn,Golden Hour

Rock of Cashel

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:56:00 +0000

The Rock of Cashel is a landmark in Ireland for most tourists and is one of the oldest pre-Norman castles in Ireland. The Rock of Cashel served as the traditional seat of the kings of Munster for several hundred years prior to the Norman invasion. Few remnants if any of the early structures survive; the majority of buildings on the current site date from the 12th and 13th centuries. Cashel is reputed to be the site of the conversion of the King of Munster by St. Patrick in the 5th century AD.

Here is the equipment used for this session

ND Filters

Thinktank Street Walker Pro

GPS AMOD

Hoya Polarizer Filters

I decided to take a different approach to the pictures using Hore Abbey on the foreground at dawn. Here is a view of the Abbey from the Rock of Cashel.

Here is the location on the map where I positioned myself in the morning, which is right behind the stone wall on the left.

I drove from Thurles which is a 30 minute drive coming from the North, but is actually a 2hr drive from Dublin. You can come from the R505 and make a right on St Patricksrock. The abbey is on a field with some cows (careful with the poop) . Looks like a private field but people camp there, and on the same day at least 3 groups of photographers on the same area so get there early to claim a spot.

During summer time the sun will come out directly behind the castle creating silhouettes, fog will be there almost for sure so it could create pretty nice effects, this will give you more time to drive around and take some shots of the castle from the other side, then you can go back to the Abbey once its lighted.

Here is a video on how the place looks at dawn during the summer:

If you want to use some farm animals on the foreground, just make sure you are aware of the sun position, as animals tend to move to look for the first sun rays to warm up.

As you drive back to Dublin or leaving Cashel take the back roads as there are great opportunities for pictures of farmland, houses, churches and landscapes, I took advantage of this cemetery outside of Thurles

del.icio.us Tags: Photography,Olympus,EP-1,PEN,Ireland,Cashel,Dublin

Olympus EP-1 Walk about Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:53:00 +0000

I just shot my first video with the recently released Olympus EP-1 camera. I purchased it in the US trough Amazon.com, visit the link to see the kit that includes the 17mm f/2.8 and the Olympus Optical Viewfinder.

I decided to go for the 17mm lens as I already own several wide angle and telephoto lenses for other Olympus cameras so I am eagerly awaiting the 4/3 converter in pre-order also in Amazon. Not sure if all sw functionality will be available trough the converter but we will see.

I am looking at this camera as a way to have a high-quality point and shoot when I don't want to haul all my equipment and long lenses for a few quick and dirty shots, so downgrading from SLR to this is a though proposition but I can see how somebody trying to upgrade from a regular point and shoot can be more than pleased with the high quality shots u can get out of this baby.

After taking the camera to its first trip, here is what I have to say…

The good:

It shots on RAW (there are still no converters for Lightroom but Adobe has come up with a beta version of camera RAW that can convert the EP-1 files into DNG so then you can manipulate anywhere. Follow this thread to get the download of Adobe Raw RC 5.5 which will allow the conversion of .ORF from the EP-1 to DNG to be used anywhere including LightRoom.
Feels very sturdy with the metallic body
Viewfinder is great where the sun is out (not very common in Ireland) and you need to take a shot
Fast autofocus
The 17mm 2.8 lens is pretty fast
Good video quality, even in low light
Art filters are fun to use both with video and stills
Very original, retro look
Is fun to use the same concepts of still cameras to video such as f-stop, ISO, etc.
iAUTO mode pretty accurate on the settings
Large, nice big display on the back. Wish my E-3 had something similar
Level is very useful when shooting trough the LCD, gives you a good idea how straight your shot will be
Very impressive quality on high-ISO (for an Olympus) I think it has better quality shots at ISO3200 than my E-3 or E-30
Using the SanDisk 32GB memory card the writing of both RAW and Video happens very smoothly and quick. I can record video, switch to camera without even noticing
The feature to take a still at the end of the video comes pretty handy
Can control aperture when recording video

I have never shot video (as you can see on the quality of the footage, but this will give you an idea of the quality of both stills as well as video).

Things to improve on 2nd release:

When using art filters autofocus takes quite a while
Video with some art filters can be a little jerky (slow motion kind of look)
For a small camera it feels heavy, heavier than the Oly E-420 if comparing just bodies
Strap seem a little heavier and gets in the way of shots
Would it have been nice to have a wrist strap as well
Small lens cap for the 17mm is too small without any attachment to the camera, I am sure I am bound to lose it
SW takes a little bit to get used to even if you use Olympus cameras, the dial on the top and on the back to access and manipulate various controls can be confusing or not very intuitive at times.
For the price, they should have included some screen or camera pouch!
Not having on the screen or the viewfinder the focus points being displayed can be very challenging when trying to use autofocus or MF.
Video sound is OK, as soon as the lens needs to autofocus the sound of it can overtake ambience sound, very bad issue I think

del.icio.us Tags: olympus ep-1 EP-1 Pen new camera raw lightroom Dublin

Photowalk around Morocco

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:51:00 +0000

Morocco route

We flew from Dublin into Malaga, Spain and via coach crossed the ferry to Ceuta Northern Africa (which is still Spain) and then cross the border into Morocco.

In general Morocco feels safe, however large equipment and lenses do call attention. I would feel comfortable walking with my equipment at night on touristy places such as Marrakech, but on some other places like downtown Rabat some of the streets can be scary. Leave some of the equipment at the hotel safe and take only with you what you are going to use.

Equipment

If you bring anything to Morocco, bring a polarizer filter :)

Olympus E3

Olympus E30

Olympus Flash FL-50R (Very useful for alleys at the Medina)

Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8

Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20

Zuiko 11-22mm 2.8

ND Filters

Small Table top tripod (Gorillapod)

Hoya Polarizer Filters

Fes

The most important thing about Fes is the Medina (old city) is almost like being in India (Varanasi) where you will walk around food stalls, people selling clothes, artifacts and more. If you use a GPS, don't be surprise if you lose connection on the narrow alley ways.

At the medina there are great opportunities to take colorful pictures of food, donkeys and more.

Important thing to notice is that in Morocco other than in Marrakech’s Djemaa el Fna square, people don't like their picture taken. Be very mindful as picture of women (alone and accompanied) can be very offensive for them. I managed to get a couple of candid pictures, and as always no matter the culture is, kids are always very open to having their picture taken.

This kid kept following our tour group, so while waiting to enter the tannery I asked him if I could take his picture, very seriously he said OK, but after I showed him his portrait on the LCD screen he smiled and ran away. I would recommend bring small trinkets for the kids (pens, candy, cheap small school supplies, or money from other countries) be careful on how and when to give them as you can quickly have a huge amount of kids surrounding you and that can get dangerous.

While walking in the Medina, is hard to manage removing and puting back on the polarizer, you will lose at least 1 f-stop on what are very narrow and dark streets. I suggest you leave it on, and either compensate +1 steps or bump your ISO to 200-400.

In Fes as in all of Morocco the harsh light is present from very early in the morning 7am for the whole day, clouds are rare, so rather than wait for the most optimal light, live with it and make the best of your shot

Marrakech

The most impressive place in Marrakech is without a doubt Djemaa el Fna just the sheer size and amount of people can be very intimidating. This is definitely one of the places I would go back for picture opportunities. I believed I lost a lot of great pics because of the hour we got there, the heat and the fear you can feel mixing with strange people, heat, snakes, monkeys and food.

Beware of the heat as well as your equipment, Marrakech is the entry to the Sahara and in August it can get up to 54C, 135F. I swear my E-3 stopped focusing when it reached 55C on the sun, weird.

The plaza has a different feel at different times, at evenings is a great place to take picture of people, food stalls, etc. Beware, there are hundreds of tourist here getting hooked by locals in trying to get their picture taken with their animals. Dont agree to anything until a price has been reached. First negotiate with them for the pictures, then allow them to put the monkey, snake or other on you. They will begin at 300 dirham (around 30 EUROS) but you can take them down to 50 dirham. If aggressive just tell them you will go get the local tourist police and they will back off, they are truly afraid of them.

Another good things to do at night or day is take a seat on one of the cafes above the stores surrounding the square, this have balconies that can make for great photo ops, with a long lense you might get away with some great shots.

During the rest of the day the plaza is full of street performers, orange juice stalls (don't be afraid of trying it, best frozen orange juice I have ever had) and cafes.

If you go into the Medina, its not nearly as impressive as the one in Fes, it might be worth a stroll, but other than that, not much.

Rabat

I didn't get to see much of Rabat, the capital of Morocco, we stayed in a central hotel which was not very nice. The central streets of Morocco are going a lot of renovation and can seem scary at night. You can tell is not a town used to tourism as people will stare right at you. Also notice how in the French style cafes, only men no women or couples sit down outside to look at the bystanders.

In Rabat there are some famous Roman ruins, Its not a very nice neighborhood so it should be safe to walk there at sunrise. It should make for a very nice shoot, (I didnt get to do this). The place is called Chellah or Sala Colonia.

We walked to city for a little bit as there were some celebrations due to the King’s ascension to the throne. This is July 30th, unfortunately the king wasnt in Rabat so the celebrations were OK, if you can be on the same day and the same city where the king will be, there is a very nice parade and fair as I saw on TV later that night. We just managed to see an open air concert

Impressive about Rabat is its mausoleum of Mohammed V. Bring a long lense and wide lenses to capture details as well as the size of the place.

Guards are allowed to have their picture taken with tourists, for some reason this guard was pissed off at me for using such a long lense to take his portrait. He argued with a tourist police (brown uniform) but there was nothing that he could do.

Another site is the Royal Palace where the king lives, a little bit disappointing as even though nice, you are only allowed to stand 100 meters from the royal palace entrance. The palace kind of looks like an expense California style house in my opinion. Bring a long lense (200mm) and have fun trying to take pictures of the guards and other servants.

By far the best site in Rabat is the Kasbah of the Udayas, great for people shots (if you pay in advance, $1 or $2 EUR) beautiful architecture that reminds of you of Oia, Santorini in Greece. Spend as long as you can as the sun, and shadows make every street look different.

There is also a spot that I didn't visit which is the River Marina, North of the Roman ruins, this reminds you of a French village with its fishing boats and people swimming.

Casablanca

Not much to see in Casablanca, nice little city, more famous from the movie than for anything worth visiting, however walk around the marina and on a hot summer day try to count the people bathing in the sun.

Tanger

Not much to see in Tanger, its a good stop before taking the long drive back to Ceuta, if you want stroll around the beach and see how people walk and bathe on the sea.

There is much more to see in Morocco, that is a place worth visiting several times with a personal guide. Marrkech is considered to be the entrance to the Sahara desert, as well as spending more time in places like Fes and Marrakech would be worth another visit.

del.icio.us Tags: photowalk,Morocco,Marrakech,Fes,Fez,North Africa,travel blog,travel photography,photography,travel

Bull Island Seals Dublin Photo shoot

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:54:00 +0000

Bull Island is located just south of Howth, around a 10 min drive from Howth harbor. It is a nature reserve, so make sure to follow the rules listed there. In order to find the seals you need to park on the northern part of the Island (Second bridge if you are coming from Dublin)

Park your car in the sand parking lot, and get ready for a 20-30 min walk. Here is a quick map on where you will find the seals my location is marked with the purple marker.

For Olympus RAW file usage with GPS I recently discovered GeoSetter, great tool that can work with the .ORF files, write the .xmp card or directly into the file to accommodate GPS data. Highly recommended.

Funny enough this map shows the exact GPS location where I was located, but bear in mind that the tide changes, so that area could be covered with water any other day, but I have been there 3 times and the seals are always located on the northernmost corner of the island, but not all the time laying on the sand, which was the shot I was looking for. After a couple of tries, here is what I managed to get prior to this day..just a few head shots.

I believe that in order to get shots from the seals outside of the water there must be a reasonable amount of sun and a low tide, this last time I went was around 9AM, so I dont think the hour in the day matters that much.

My Gear:

Olympus E3

Olympus E30

Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8

Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20

Hoya Polarizer Filters

Lowepro FastPack 250

Wind resistant pants and jacket

Wellies

After a good 30 minute walk, and depending on the tide you will find the seals at the northeast corner, approach very slowly and be very careful of the sand. I misjudged some weed and sand banks and went right in all the way to my knees covered with weed,sand and I am sure smell liked shit. Once you are 50-75 meters away from the seals lay down on the sand, take your gear out and start approaching them by dragging yourself trough the sand, if the seals see something taller or something similar to a human shape they will dive right into the water.

Take a few shots and get closer, make the seals comfortable, and then get closer again, if some of them get scared and dive into the water stop immediately, stay still for a few minutes and move again. I saw a group of 15-20 seals but as I got closer and the tide rose few and few seals remained.

Use your bag as a bean bag and start shooting, I used Shutter and Aperture Priority Mode, low ISO (100) and a polarizer filter. I tried some shots with the tele-converter but I thought I was sacrificing too much sharpness, so decided to get closer and also crop some of the images to close-in the seals.

Being gray seals, the metering system will struggle with the light measuring of both the harsh light reflecting on the sea and the dark features on the seals faces, so compensated with EV+1 to bring some details on the face, or try and fix on post processing.

Puppies are very curious so they are the ones that will be the most active and will get closer to you, but be careful in never getting between the puppy and the mom, as they will feel threatened. Also as some seals go in the water be aware always of where they are, they can come out behind you and you dont want to be too close, a seal bite can be very nasty and have lots of bacteria in their mouths that can cause a big infection.

I lost a very good shot of a fight between 2 adult seals. If you see a seal approaching another one, and their heads are close to each other, one of them will open its mouth that’s the beggining, put your camera on burst mode and do some manual focusing as you will see a fight that will only last for a few seconds.

Always be mindful of the tide, if you think that the waves are getting closer and closer you are right. Usually the seals are on a spot higher than the tide, that means that if you are not careful you will end up on a little sand island surrounded by water that is rising, believe me I was stuck once and had to walk with water up to my knees hauling my gear, hence the wellies. Once you get home, clean your equipment right away, there will be sand between the extension part of your lenses and all around the buttons, even though the E-3 is weather sealed, clean this with an air brush as you dont want corrosion. For your bag, wait for the sand to dry and then shake all the sand off, there will be a lot of sand accumulated on the back area of the backpack that you wont see but once it dries it will come off rather easily. If you want to see the whole set of pictures visit my site at flickr here..

del.icio.us Tags: seals,Dublin,photo,photography,Bull Island,Nature,Olympus,E-30,E-3. sea lions,wildlife,Howth,Ireland

AIB Street Performance World Championship

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:15:00 +0000

During the month of June (18th to 21st) there is an event in Dublin at Merrion Square sponsored by AIB that brings together street performance from all over the world. You can visit their website here, and follow them on facebook as well.

I didn't manage to get many shots but was able to get a couple of good pictures, here are some tips on the event if you want to try it next year .

First of all bring a telephoto lens, unless you are looking for a specific shot a wide angle lense might not do you much help as the crowds, sun might make it hard to get a good photo.

Plan in advance what you want to see, as for location, here is a good tip: get there early, is very crowded and not much space to move. Here is a piece of good advice, locate yourself in the corner of the park marked below, it has a grassy hill that people use as a seating area, if you get there early you will be able to get clear shots of the show. The green arrow shows the corner of Marrion square where you should be position yourself. Download the schedule and wait for the show you are interested to arrive there, across the 4 days all shows would have hit that single stage.

I was able to get clear shots of a couple of acts such as these:

As always in Dublin, be prepare for the rain, the organizers will provide ponchos for the crowds to use as seat covers for the wet grass, but bring something for the camera.

Once the shows starts, crowds start to gather, pay attention not only to the performer but people’s reactions make for great candid shots.

If you are interested on the whole photo set visit my site at flickr…

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:52:00 +0000

Vienna photowalk

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:33:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Vienna and brought my equipment with me. Here is a list of my equipment for this occasion:

Olympus E3

Olympus E30

Olympus Flash FL-50R (Very useful while inside a Barn)

Sigma 30mm 1.4

Zuiko 8mm 3.5 (great for cow and calf close-ups)

Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8

Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20

Zuiko 11-22mm 2.8

ND Filters

Small Table top tripod

Hoya Polarizer Filters

Most of the sites worth visiting in Vienna are contained within the city center and easy to get around either by walking or tram.

Here is an overview of the walk by using my AMOD GPS tracker as well as GeoSetter for attaching GPS coordinates for my Olympus Raw Files. One thing I have found out while traveling on old cities with narrow streets is that it will be common for the GPS to lose connection with the satellites, so make sure you adjust your settings to your Software accordingly to ensure that you tag the picture to the closest available tracking point.

A good way to track the main sites to photograph is by using the Rick Steves guides for Europe, I always travel with one as the contain easy to follow maps as well as tips for avoiding crowds, using public transportation, etc.

Some of the highlights of the city are:

NaschtMarket:

Located between the left and right Wienzeile, the Naschmarkt extends from the Kettenbrückengasse to the Getreidemark, on an elevation to the Secession.

del.icio.us Tags: Olympus,E-30,E-3,Photography,Vienna,Austria,Wein,Photowalk,Architecture,candids

Differently to as the name implies, there aren’t only sweets to buy at the Naschmarkt: Fresh fruit and vegetables from around the world, exotic spices, meat, fish and ecological foods are offered for sale on the colorful market stands. Early in the morning cooks and chefs already crowd around the market looking for fresh specialties. Later, after a Viennese breakfast in one of the numerous cafes, bars or delis located around the Naschmarkt, the "laymen" start their search for culinary treats. Delicacies from the Naschmarkt make a favorite gift with Vienna holiday-makers.

On Saturdays you'll not only find delicious treats at the food market but also curiosities, old and beautiful things on the street market stalls adjacent to the Naschmarkt. The wares offered are completely mixed, for beautiful souvenirs it helps to be a skillful bargainer.

There are great opportunities for those that also want to take candid pictures of people haggling (specially on the antiquities area at the end of the market), friends having breakfast and the intellectual crowd.

Opera House and Concert Hall

Try to attend a music concert either on the Opera or the Music Concert Hall. Its allowed to bring your camera but not a tripod. You can see people dressed as in the times of Mozart. As well a both buildings have great architectural detail. Make sure to boost the ISO and bring a sharp lens

City Center

Within the Opernring there are lots of opportunities to take advantage of the city architecture. Some examples are St Stephens Cathedral, Rathaus, State Opera, among others. It gets very crowded, what I ended up doing was getup at sunrise to take full advantage of the buildings without any crowds. You can check the sunrise and sunset times throughout the year for most cities in the world here.

Photoshoot near Quirianopolis, Goias, Brasil

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:04:00 +0000

I managed to take a week off while in Sao Paulo to go visit the Fazenda Engenho São Francisco near Quirianopolis. Here are my tips and mistakes made while shooting pictures in a farm.

Here is the equipment taken

Olympus E3
Olympus E30
Olympus Flash FL-50R (Very useful while inside a Barn)
Sigma 30mm 1.4
Zuiko 8mm 3.5 (great for cow and calf close-ups)
Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8
Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20
Zuiko 11-22mm 2.8
ND Filters
Small Table top tripod
Hoya Polarizer Filters

Here was my journey:

	Ireland to Brasil
	then to Goiania and Quirinopolis in Goias State
	Fazenda Engenho São Francisco (click on the link and zoom in you can actually see the cattle)

BTW for Olympus RAW file usage with GPS I recently discovered GeoSetter, great tool that can work with the .ORF files, write the .xmp card or directly into the file to accommodate GPS data. Highly recommended.

Most Important tip…

Always talk to the person that runs the place day in and day out. They will give you good tips around the behavior of some of animals, which ones are approachable, and which ones to be careful (I managed to piss off a cow with her calf and it wasn't pretty)

Learn beforehand what kind of animals will you get to see (in my case was mostly cattle but managed a nice surprise to see exotic animals.

For cattle, learn what type of cattle it is you will be seeing, behavior will change depending on the breed and how is managed by the ranch.

If you want cattle to get close to you, as I wanted a very low close-up shot of some grown cows or bulls you need to get into the containment area, get down or sit down on the floor and wait. Cattle can be very curious and only takes one to come closer, for the other ones to follow. Be very careful once they are close, sudden moves can make them jump (very high) and you don't want to get stomped or worse your equipment be crushed

Clothes: depending on where you are going, will vary your clothing, but regardless of weather bring very old dirty jeans. If you can manage some cheap boots do as well, as you have to be ready to step, kneel and sit on cow dong, piss and milk and dirt. Same goes for your camera bag, be ready for it to get dirty and gnawed by curious calves

Bring your equipment for landscape photography, either on hills or flat land ranches tend to be in open spaces and you can capture great sunsets, sunrises and cloud formations.

Get up early, not only because of the great light during that time, farm work starts at 5am the animals are quite awake and is the time before a lot of the cattle is being driven to eat at the grass lands. Also in the case of Brasil is when you can manage best to carry all your equipment with the sun.

If you get to ride a horse: Taking pictures on top of a horse is not so hard if you: a) Have IS on your lense or the camera 2) Shoot either using manual or at least shutter priority mode. The faster the horse, the faster the shutter speed if you want sharp images.

Find out what other ranches around the area you are visiting. We managed to visit a neighboring ranch that sells and raises exotic animals and manage to get great shots. They were very nice and let us walk inside the containment area and take our time on getting to know the animals and wait for the best shots.(So here is a free commercial :) )

Also depending on where you are you might manage to view animals not very common to your area, I was very intrigued by Pipoca a cateto pork which tend to be very mean, except him.

Missed opportunities:

Some of the shots or things missed:

Not all the cattle behaves the same, while buying and marking some recently purchased cattle, a bull wouldn't come into the containment area, 4 workers chase after him but he managed to jump a fence of at least 1.5 meters, it would have been a great shot.

I should have brought my Manfrotto tripod I missed some good sunset and late opportunities because of not bring it. I have the 190X which is not too heavy but maybe I should invest on a gorillapod or at the very least a smaller tripod I can travel easier

I was so concentrated on the cattle, that I missed some good opportunities for portraits with the workers at the ranches. Brasilians tend to be very open on getting their picture taken and the clothes they wear are very distinct and interesting and could make great portrait subjects.

Same as above, make sure to take pictures for remembering the trip, take pictures with family and friends, not everything is about getting the best shot.

See the rest of the shots here

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 01:15:00 +0000

New E-30.. First posting since November!!..

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:52:00 +0000

Apologies for not posting since November. As some of you might now I have relocated to Dublin, Ireland from Seattle in the United States, with challenges on getting broadband, pains of the relocation its been hard to keep it updated. But I will be doing this now again regularly and my next posting will be about my recent acquisition of an E-30. I will be posting some test shots and impressions on the camera.

Tips on

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:19:00 +0000

Is not so hard to choose when a scene might be better suited for B&W or a color composition. Scenes where animals have colorful characteristics, or the entire scene has very saturated colors are better snapped in color, on the other hand, moody skies, harsh sunlight or interesting textures might be better suited for B&W

*Its easy to select when to leave color*	*Textures and abstracts can make interesting B&W shots*

When the weather takes a turn for the “worse”, low light, moody cloudy skies are usually the best opportunities to go for B&W. Remember you are trying to convey a mood, not any specific details of the animal or subject you are shooting.

Because of their color and textures, elephants, rhinos, gorillas and chimpanzees make for great portraits in B&W

Another trip to remember is that the more contrast the better so don't be afraid to shoot on harsh conditions which will accentuate this contrast.

Visit my pictures at http://www.flickr.com/a207001392

del.icio.us Tags: animals,photography,B&W,Black and White,tips,tutorial

My next purchase is announced! Olympus E-30

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:05:00 +0000

Tips on

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:34:00 +0000

Using reflections can add a new dimension of creativity to your photography. From Mirror, glass buildings, puddles, there is always a possibility to leverage them both in and outdoors. They can be used on any type of photography from landscapes (reflections on lakes), urban (glass windows, puddles)

Puddles

In urban settings, after a storm puddles will be created on the pavement, that can be leveraged to create great pictures of reflections. Dont worry about how clean the water is, sometimes all you need is an outline,

Unusual forms

Certain objects with interesting and complicated shapes will create a great shot if standing next to the reflective surface, as if they were join together. Framing is important in this kind of shot

Refractions

Using water droplets, make sure you get glycerin and either use it instead of water or mix it up half and half. This will allow the droplets to keep their shape for much longer, use a pipette if you want to make sure you get even shape droplets.

For this type of shot a close up macro lens is essential, you will also need a study tripod. Focusing is the most tricky part of this type of shot, focus in a single droplet, and focus on the image reflected not on the water itself. Around f/11 is recommended, this will you a sharp refraction.

	*Use tranquil waters to reflect the scene*
*Glass buildings and puddles are great for creating a composition with reflections*
visit my pics at http://www.flickr.com/a207001392	*Using glycerin and an interesting background can make for a very interesting composition.*

del.icio.us Tags: reflection,photography,tips,assignment,strobist,urban,water

Tips on

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:27:00 +0000

These are some tips from professional photographers if you want a better chance to get your landscape shots published:

1) Shot Vertical and Horizontals.

Most of the magazines print vertical shots and most calendars use horizontal pictures. For maximizing each scene and if the scene can work both ways ensure you take both.

2) Compose with text in mind

Most of the photos on printed media will include text one way or another, it is wise when composing leave ample space so that editors can build a message or a magazine cover around it

3) Concentrate on the details

Shooting landscape photography is not always about wide angle lenses or huge vistas, focus on the details around you, sand ripples, waves, shells, .

focus on interesting items on the skyline

4) Work with the light

Usually is better to focus on your landscape when is being light sideways, rather than with the sun behind you. This will bring up interesting details

5) Leverage places of interest

While nature shots are very common, focusing on common places of interest like castles, buildings, markets will increase the possibility of editors using your pictures. Try to be creative and capture the building on a different light

6) Use a remote

Minimize camera shake as much as you can, if you dont have one, use the camera timer for this

7) Develop a system

Some people use landscape in manual that way you have full range of settings. A common aperture would be f/16 as a smaller aperture sometimes sacrifice sharpness on some lenses. Focus a third of the way into the shoot, and dial a shutter speed as recommended from the metering system. Take a shot and check your histogram, remember to keep checking your settings as light can change in a matter of minutes specially at dawn and dusk.

Use a wide aperture, dont go all the way to f/22 and focus a third on the shot

8) Include people in the shot.

As a matter of sense, sometimes a pure shot of the landscape would be more pleasant, however the great majority of shots that get published on magazines include a “living” creature, people, pets, animals, insects, etc.

Tips on

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:30:00 +0000

I saw this great tip for creating Jack-O-Lanters thanks to the friends of Photojojo.They are basically using Photography to come up with a very cool way to create a design that you can carve on your pumpkin. Here is the summary in their own words:

carving your own scary photos onto that pumpkin instead of the usual triangle eyes and pointy teeth. All you need is a scary picture and a little know-how. Read on for the full details on how to make your own photo pumpkins.

Enjoy

Vote for the 1st Mostly Lisa Photog Contest Winner | MostlyLisa.com

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Hi…vote for my picture on the contest featured below. There are lots of good pictures, but if you like mine, why dont you drop a vote for me?… :)

Vote for the 1st Mostly Lisa Photog Contest Winner | MostlyLisa.com

Here is the picture and a link to the photostream:

Another great Lightroom preset…

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:05:00 +0000

A few days ago I wrote here on some useful presets I have used before. One of my favorite blogs (Photoshop Lightroom Killer tips) has added a new presets which I found is great for portraits.

Here is the link. It includes a great set of tools to enhance white eyes, red lips, and enhance the iris.

Here is an example of what it can do. I have exaggerated some of the effects on the eyes (iris and white) as well as the lips

	Before
	After

Here is the final shot

del.icio.us Tags: tips,Lightroom,preset,enhance

Soccer Matches

noreply@blogger.com (Ivan Gomez) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Shooting soccer matches at the professional level, will prove difficult due to the permits required, so is better to start with your kids little league

You will need a good DSLR with a good AF system, and at least a good camera with 4 frames per second. A good lense such as a 70-300 mm should be enough.
In some countries there are some local adult teams, is best to request their permissions, most of the time a phone all is all that's needed.
Is basic you need to understand the rules of the game, need to know when certain positions will be moving up or down the field
In most games, the action happens in midfield, so find yourself a good spot on the center of the field.
Your speed should be around 1/640 secs if you want to freeze the action. Ensure you are using AF and use continuous shooting mode.
If you have a lens shorter than 250mm then think of staying midfield, if you have longer than 300mm then it might be worth spending some time behind one of the goals, this will allow you to capture action midfield, and great opportunities for goals.
Ensure you are filling the entire frame, if you are going for an entire body shoot then ensure you are not cutting arms or legs, and make sure you are capturing the ball on the shot.
Try to predict the action, for example start shooting when the players jump for the ball, so you will capture right at the moment they hit it. Pictures that denote contact are the most dramatic ones.
Don't forget to keep an eye on the coach or the crowd to capture reactions to any referee calls.
Once you have the shots, it might be a good idea to contact the local club to share some of them, for promotional material, display on the local bar this is a good way to say thanks to the club.
Another place to promote your shots is contacting the local newspaper.

del.icio.us Tags: photo,tips,soccer,footbal,match