As you probably know, we have many “Americanized” holidays. Therefore we have an All Souls’ Day this weekend, I would like to raise this subject in the context of Halloween :)
I’m not supporter of copying the habits from USA, but unfortunately I cannot stop it. As we know, we have capitalism, and where there are opportunities there are also money. And Halloween is the best example of “opportunity”.
I never had a pumpkin in my house. Never until now. Several days ago I got a pumpkin from my parents – it grown in the garden. I took this pumpkin and I didn’t know what to do with it. I don’t like to eat pumpkins so only solution was to prepare a Halloween pumpkin. And I must admit, that it was very fun :) Together with my girlfriend, we cut an eyes, nose and mouth. Next we insert into pumpkin (like SQL query :P – my perversion) a small candle which looks like…How? Like small pumpkin! :)
I must say that the effect is very cool :) You can see 4 photos below:
And (like Alien – small head in big head) small pumpkin in the big pumpkin :)
Maybe I stay with this habit, we’ll see :)
Do you celebrate Halloween?
Maybe you celebrate some other holidays or habits? If yes, what kind of holiday/habits?
Everybody known that when you start an adventure with photography, earlier or later you start to travel. It was the same with me. When I had full “photo set” i.e. camera, 4 lenses, bag and tripod, I could go on a trip through Poland :) It was a great time for such adventures, because I didn’t have many responsibilities at work, this wasn’t season and there was loosely on university. Oh, I forgot to add…this was turn of March and April 2008.
So, every weekend I spent elsewhere. I went to different cities in Poland and I did photos. Of course, I didn’t go specially to take photos ;) Every trip has a higher purpose (for example: my birthday, Easter, visit friends, etc.).
My first trip was to Torun.
Torun is really nice city, especially for take photos ;)
There is a very interesting prison – is still active! I know about that, because one of the prisoners shouted to me when I was doing photos of this prison :)
In Torun is a lot of monuments, but there are also few scratched tenements.
My second trip was to Olsztyn. Honestly? It not impressed me. But I had several photos from Olsztyn:
On my birthday, I went to the seaside. Although it was already April, the weather was great! Do you believe that I walked on the beach in a T-shirt? :) Anyway, here you can see several photos:
I was in Jastarnia and around, but I also went to Hel. There was a nice abandoned factory:
When I came back, I come in to Gdańsk and Gdynia. I haven’t photos from Gdańsk, because I walked through the shops ;) But I have one photo from Gdynia. I like them:
OK, next I went to the seaside again, but this time for Easter. I was in Brusno – small town near Kołobrzeg (circa 40km).
Of course I was then in Kołobrzeg and I couldn’t miss photos:
All pictures of birds I made by Tamron 70-300mm. Then I got to know the charms of sport mode in my camera :)
In the meantime I also went to Kutno (my girlfriend is from there). There is closed, old engine house (I hope that this is the correct translation). So I went there:
And my favorite:
I also photograph Warsaw. At last I live here. Last I was on the old town and around:
I really like to discover new places. Mainly I like to photograph the abandoned buildings and people. But travel is an integral part of my “photo adventure”.
And what do you like to photograph?
Do you like to travel? What are your best places where you like to visit?
Since I remember, I always liked photography. This, how somebody can “freeze a moment” always delight me. I wanted to have a camera but there was a one big problem – good equipment costs a lot. I never liked to buy “anything”, so I haven’t got camera (exactly digital SLR camera, not compact camera).
But that was a long time ago. Last year I bought my first digital SLR – Pentax k200d. I sought it a very long time, because – as I wrote above – I don’t like to buy anything. So I read whole Internet ;) and I thought that there is the best choice for value for money – and I wasn’t wrong :)
This is my camera :)
It was a standard set – body (camera without lens) and kit lens 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 (kit lens is a starter lens). Of course I must buy also a set of good batteries. A moment later I read the instructions to know where are the basic settings and how to take a pictures. And this was how I began my adventure with photography.
My first photos wasn’t good, but when I like something I very fast learn this, so my skills are still better. Some examples of my beginnings:
Gdański Bridge
Gdański Bridge once again
Traffic lights and lanterns
I photographed almost everything! But standard lens was no longer sufficient because I had a newer and newer ideas. I put a few hundred ziz and went to a little photo shop (funny combination of words ;) ) near Sobieski Hotel in Warsaw and I bought my first tele lens – Tamron 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro.
Tamron 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro
This lens is amazing! At the beginning I had some problem with normal using, but then…I fell in love when I went with this lens over the sea and I knew its advantages. Some sample photos taken with this lens:
Jastarnia
Hel
Jastarnia
Brusno
Brusno
Meantime I found two analog lens from my father cameras. They were Pentacon 50 mm f/1.8 (very bright!) and Carl-Zeiss Sonnar 135 mm f/3.5.
Pentacon 50mm f/1.8
great brightness, idealy for portraits with beauty focus depth
Carl-Zeiss Sonnar 135mm f/3.5
very good lens, with good brightness for this focal
Both lens are great, especially Pentacon – because of brightness. I really like to take the photos using this lens. It have a beautiful bokeh (Bokeh). Several sample photos:
Plant
Very original spider's web (it's similar to bird ;) )
Abandoned factory
I really love this, but lately I don’t have enough time to photograph :( I still try to find a spare moment but without success.
Anyway, if you would like you can view and rate some of my photos on my blog.
Do you like photography?
Maybe you are amateur photographer too? Maybe a professional?
What is the your opinion about photography as an art?
PS. All camera and lens photos are taken from optyczne.pl and google. The others (shown as examples) are pictures taken by me. All right reserved ;)
Hello Guys:) I've got an extra task for you, for extra points. Have you heard of PechaKucha ??? I took part in such an event the previous week. Your task is to check what it is and present your point of view.Give links to interesting sites that present it. What do you think of this new trend? I liked it a lot? Have Fun!
It is downhill along carefully prepared routes with the use of "hard" equipment. Alpine snowboarding in the beginning was the major trendhowever, it has been relegated to the margins.
Competitions held under the alpin are giant slalom and parallel giant slalom, whereas slalom and downhill run are no longer in the FIS’s official classification.
Snowboarding entered for the first time the Olympic Games in 1998 inNagano. This perfectly illustrates the very rapid and expansive growth of snowboarding in the world. How many other disciplines entered the Olympic program after only 30 years of existence? The presence of giant slalom (and parallel giant slalom since The Olimpic Games in Salt Lake City in 2002) and halfpipe among the Olympic disciplines can be regarded as an expression of compromise on the choice made from the numerous snowboarding events. The lobbying of alpine events by the FIS has likewise played an important role here. The introduction of another snowboarding discipline, snowboard cross, to the Olimpic Games in Turin 2006 proves that snowboarding is still giving new opportunities and developing gaining crowds of new enthusiasts.
Boardercross (BX)
According to the FIS, snowboard cross (boardercross - ISF) is considered a downhill discipline (alpin). However, there are reasonable grounds to consider it as a mixed discipline. Firstly, it allows competitors on both, soft and hard sets. Secondly, the BX course, is composed of different landforms and is dotted with numerous obstacles, such as moguls, curves, ridges, single, double and triple jumps, rails, spiral ramps (curves of 540 °), or even swimming pools with water. This requires of the player the skills learned from freestyle (the ability to control a jump and to land properly).
What counts in this competition is, effectiveness and speed; the style is not evaluated.
The format of the competition makes it more spectacular and exciting. Four competitors go down shoulder to shoulder along the same track, the one that reaches the finishing line first wins. It is the most contact discipline within snowboarding. Competitors often collide with each other and are frequently injured. Boardercross is a bit like motocross games. Apart from the official competitions held according to the FIS’s principles, there are a number of extreme types of BX held during the year, such as the one in Bansko in Bulgaria. It is the competition in wild ride, where the route is the whole slope and the, skiers and telemark skiers take part as well.
winner is the person who gets to the bottom of the hill first, irrespective of the rout he or she has chosen. The formula is simple: competitors set off from the hilltop with a joint start and through the natural elimination the one that gets to the finishing line at the bottom of the hill is the winner. natural method, which is the first rolling off the bottom is the winner. In this competition, apart from snowboarders
Freeride (FR)
It is sometimes presented as a discipline in between alpin and freestyle, which is not true. Freeride, from a philosophical point of view, was the discipline, which set the direction for snowboarding. The notion of "Back To The Roots" - back to the roots of snowboarding, has recently become fashionable. It is the philosophy for which snowboarding was born - a sense of liberty and freedom, the direct contact with nature, the search for the "flow".
In the mountains there is no policy, no rules except those that serve our safety. Freeride is connected with high risk. This is the discipline of snowboarding with most fatal cases. The most extreme type of FR is going down with avalanches. For this purpose, an avalanche is purposely released and a snowboarder tries to swim with it on its surface. It frequently happens that inexperienced snowboarders, trying to slide beyond mark routs, accidentally trigger avalanches. Such cases often end tragically. Communing with the mountains requires experience, the ability to recognize weather and snow conditions and an adequate assessment of the situation and its possibilities. In Poland, because of lack of suitable terrain conditions (lack of steep mountains above 1500 meters), it is difficult to go in for FR. The conditions proper for freeride are virtually narrowed to the Tatra Mountains, and even there the practice of FR is strictly prohibited.
Freestyle (FS)
Freestyle is what it literally means. It was spread by Americans on skateboarding, BMX (bicycle motocross), and snowboarding. It is also present in music, rhyming, breakdance and fashion. FS’s ideology boils down to the rejection of restrictions, and its main elements are spontaneity and naturalness, and being in agreement with one’s inner beliefs. Snowboarding subculture has developed its own unique vocabulary - the type of slang which emphasizes the snowboarder’s identity and facilitates communication in the international sports arena.
In snowboarding freestyle riders run on everything, because as they claim, what counts is the idea itself. However, the most popular, and the ones which offer the greatest opportunities, are snowparks. At the fenced off part of the slope there are numerous obstacles of different sizes and shapes: jumps and rails (S - Rail, C - Rail, rainbows, broken and sloping rails, and others), pipes, quarterpips, boxes, benches, etc.
A snowboard is the most important element of snowboarding equipment. It is a board designed in such a way so that it can be strapped to the feet and it is used for sliding down the snow-capped slopes.
This is my board :)
Most snowboards are made from wood laminated with fiberglass. The front part of the board is slightly turned upwards (a so-called nose), so that it would not bury in the soft snow.
The back of the board, depending on the structure and purpose of the board, is sometimes also turned up, but a lot of boards have it flat. Boards with the upturned backs are used by people who, doing tricks on the slope, sometimes slide backwards.
This is me on my board :)
The ”runner” of the board (the area which is in contact with the snow) is covered with a light porous plastic, polyethylene p-tex, which allows the absorption of lubricants that reduce friction between the board and the snow. The side edges of the board are usually equipped with thin metal surfaces which facilitate the performance of evolutions and turns. A typical angle between the edge of the board, and the runner is 90 °, but for the aggressive, fast riding more acute angles are used. For jibbing, or riding on rails, the edges are blunted.
The upper surface of the board is usually covered with patterns and drawings, whose projects are part of the marketing process of the snowboarding industry. Many of the zealous snowboarders smarten up their boards on their own, which is one of the ways they manifest the belonging to the snowboarding subculture.
What do you think about snowboarding? Or maybe you ski? Tell me something about your preferences…
In the next part of my presentation I am going to write about snoboarding styles.. :)
