Anatomy of Podersdorf Lighthouse

3 vertical merged @
24mm shots @0.6s, f/11, ISO 50

The moment I looked through the window in the morning (around noon...) I knew today would be good photo session day. Patchy clouds, some clear sky and changing light conditions. No time to waste! Just to touch base about noon morning..., I am not so lazy, I simply live in different time zone, shoot at crazy hours i.e. concerts till 1 a.m. then scroll through pictures till 3-4 a.m. and still need some sleep. Next week will be opposite, I will be more on sunrise side, however now in winter it is not such an issue.

Anyway, having seen the sky, I knew I had to head for Neusiedlersee to get some stunning shots. Now in December and for few more weeks sun sets right behind 'famous' Podersdorf lighthouse  This spot is probably the most photographed scene in Austria, if not in Austria, definitely in Burgendland. In any case, I love the place, and every time I go there, I always try to find something new.

Today's challenge or exercise was to practice tilt shift functionality at relatively narrow pier. I was after really wide shot with good expected sunsetting light.

It was about half an hour before sunset, I knew up front what sort of frame and shot I was after, ver low angle and wide utilizing shift and tilt functionality and wanted the lighthouse right im the middle. Piers' wooden planks should lead viewer's deep into the frame. This part was quite simple know the place inside out. New part was new tilt shift lens. Up to now I used to photograph the place with 16mm wide angle having to fight massive distortion in order to get similar effect. 

Good idea to have second camera... framing with reds enhancer

Every Year Is the Same, December and Christmas Pass By So Fast...

Paul Chuey playing Sax
300mm, f/2.8, 1/400, ISO 3200

It happened again this year....

I have completely no idea when whole December simply passed by. I still have a feeling we are the very beginning of the month, and now all of a sudden I realized I was in the middle of Christmas shopping madness and actually now we are already celebrating Christmas. Beginning of the month seems like yesterday, I had to travel to Poland for a week or so to take care of certain business matters, and today is almost end of the month... and I am already preparing myself for next trip. This time to UK purely for shooting landscapes... 

will say few more words in a moment.

In general I have been learning new camera and lenses. After those few weeks I feel already way more comfortable with new buttons' layout and start to use them more comfortably and intuitively.

Another thing has been to find camera's limits in low light situation. Last few concerts I shot, I used unimaginable ISO levels 12'800, 25'600 and in few cases 50'200!

Images shot at 12'800 are really usable, and I can shoot concerts with shutter speeds of 1/500 or even faster. This of course depends on the venue and its light setup, and also band. Over all I am really happy with new gear and its capabilities. Here's a picture of Paul Chuey playing sax with Mojo Blues Band in Metropol, where typically light is very good and consistent. I can shoot totally clear and crisp picture even at ISO 3200 while having shutter speed of 1/400s which in most cases is enough to freeze the motion, well at least Blues players. 

600mm, f/5.6, 1/320s, ISO 12'800

With Metal guys it becomes more complicated. Mojo Blues Band Show at Metropol, Vienna.

Here's an example of 12'800 image taken at ((Szene)) during Dime Bash event.

I stand behind audience and above, on the gallery with light and sound consoles, about 30-40 meteres away from the stage. I used 2x extender on top of 300mm lens to get 600mm focal length. This pictures is full frame, and not cropped. Unfortunately 2 times extender takes two stops of light thus minimum aperture I can get is f/5.6. Compromise must always be found.

Guitarist is frozen but beer drops not fully. Because light situation was not so brilliant I had to step down to 1/320s which was really minimum, but to have even this speed I had to pump ISO to 12'800. And the pictures is absolutely usable. 

I had to hand hold camera with lens. I tried monopod but hanging gallery vibrated too much together with heavy bass tunes. (good workout to hand hold about 5kg gear for 1-2 hours...)

What a Crazy Weather, Keep on Shooting Against the Odds

Weather has been crazy recently and looking at it from this angle, we can say it is quite constant. Generally it got quite cold and during one day it can be sunny, cloudy, raining and snowing and again sunny. Great photography opportunities and I tried to take my chances and visited places I know quite well and wanted to see them under those changing light conditions.

The other day I got up for "sunrise", which is not so problematic now in winter. I placed word sunrise in quotes because I was not really after rising sun light, I knew there would not be any. Forecast was clouds and rain. But I wanted to witness dawn by Danube river and shoot some birds. Thick clouds in this case can really help. OK, you do not get great colours, but birds do not care about this, they stick to their business and I just wanted to be there. 

Sleeping Swans, 600mm, 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 6400

When I arrived to Haslau an der Donau (Donau Auen National Park), it was still pitch dark. With dawn approaching it started to rain, tens of swans kept on sleeping. When they heard me coming, some of them raised their heads, scanned environment, seeing no threat, simply went to sleep again.

I looked around for a good spot where to sit and setup my gear and waited enjoying the silence, fresh cold air and simply nature.

One behind was way more in playing mode
600mm, 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 6400

New day has come and swans started slowly waking up and carried on with morning cosmetics so to speak. Some were more active and some still in waking up mode. There were two or three young ones more energetic than other and I concentrated on following them with the lens, at the same time still keeping an eye on others.

Testing New Gear. Very Shallow Depth of Field

ValSans' Drummer
85mm, 1/1250s, f/1.2, ISO 12800
(Insane values! His hand is already way out of focus!)

For a week or so I have been testing new equipment. Some new lenses and especially new camera. I took a deep breath and leap and went for 1Dx. This camera is insane, not to mention that after two days of using it I got error 80 message on LCD screen, hehe. Was suspecting perhaps slower memory cards, but then reading through posts on internet I got some more details. Still have no idea what error 80 means, probably Canon will never reveal it but found links to new firmware and upgraded camera's software. Body out of the box had 1.0.2, quite fresh, now I am on 1.1.1, so quite a big jump. In any case I have sent a message to Canon support. On the other hand I was not really surprised about the error. It is new piece of gear and, having been in IT for over 20 years, I know shit can happen. 

Just came back from really low light situation, chosen on purpose, and have not faced error issue any more. Touch wood, firmware upgrade did the trick.

Assuming all issues are solved for now, at least for the time being, I am going through heavy learning curve with new buttons and functions. I got through the manual few times already, but every now and again when read some other topic, I keep finding new great features. The biggest changes are around auto focus system, for me at least. It is completely new world, especially when you switch from 5DMKII, which was (and is) a great camera but has had well known auto-focus issues, especially in low light situation.