New Phototrip - Norway!

At the beginning of the year I assumed three trips in 2009. First was KidsTrip USA 2009 and now it's history. Second was Norway Phototrip and it's gonna start on Saturday! And the last one planned was for autumn and we still don't know if it will be somewhere in South America or North America. We'll see.
So let's write few words about Norway. I would like to make a driving trip around Baltic Sea. It means I will head to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia then use ferry to get to Helsinki and next will drive north up to Senja Island in Norway. Then I plan to go south down to Oslo and cross the channels between Malmo and Copenhagen. It should take two weeks leaving some time for photography and I want to make no more than 7.500 km.

Fireworks

Yesterday we had a great holiday in Warsaw. Every year near the day of spring/summer turn of we have nice evening events and fireworks in the old town. It's good opportunity to learn something about shooting fireworks. Now I know that the optimal options for the next time are complete manual settings, like aperture 8 or 11 and times like 1/4s or 1/8s at ISO 200. You can try to set auto focus, because it's always better option, but if you have nice equipment you can even dare to set focus manually to some point. I left my camera on auto focus and it was good idea. Unfortunately I learned all this afterward so my pictures are not perfect. Nevertheless I hope you enjoy them :)

1. Warsaw by night

2. Gdański bridge

3. UFO over Warsaw

4. Fireworks!

5. Fireworks set

Photo gadgets

Browsing the internet I came across interesting device called loupe and made by Hoodman. It allows you glare free viewing of you just taken picture on LCD display. Even in bright sun. Seems to be useful, but the price killed me - almost 80 USD for such a gadget? Too much...

picture comes from the official Hoodman web page

Another interesting gadget I saw on the location recently is waterproof lens hood. I don't know how it is exactly called and how to find it, but it was some plastic/glass stuff that you put on the lens and can put the lens into the water to take immersed model picture. If you have any information where I can find such device, please drop me an e-mail. Thanks.

Mikolajki

Yesterday I went to Mikolajki to take one picture. It was my vision and I just had to get there and take this picture. Hope it will allow me to get to Santa Claus (Mikolajki probably originate from polish word Mikolaj - Santa Claus) house in Finland during my ongoing trip to Scandinavia...

Havasupai is now open!

Eventually we have good news! After few months of unavailability, we can head to Havasu now! It's open again. Of course as you can read over the internet, it's a little bit changed - Navajo Falls disappeared, another waterfall has taken a different course and new ones have formed after summer flood waters swept through the area. But I believe it's still worth going there. And I wish I were there... and I have hope to be there this autumn...but sometimes hope is too little. I need money. If you can sponsor my trip, please drop me an e-mail. Every amount counts! I can promise to bring you nice pictures in return :)
You can read more about current situation here:
azcentral.com
Indian Country News
But what's sad, this movie shows everything about recovering. On the other hand what gives me more hope is this clip recorded in June 2009! At least you can get to Mooney and it seems to looks great!
Besides you can find some informations about new falls here. Everything seems to be a little bit different and therefore creating new photo opportunities. I must be there soon!

Góraszka 2009 #2

Please find more pics from Góraszka below... hope they're worth watching :)

Góraszka 2009 #1

This year was my first time at the annual Góraszka Air Show. It was possible only because my friend Sylwek arranged some VIP passes, so we had a chance to have the best places. And I must agree that seats were really great - we had a chance to take nice pictures. You can see part one of them below...

Models #3

It's time to show the last entry from the series "Models". At the party we had just only three models and last location was set in the swimming pool, so is probably most interesting to readers of this crappy blog, am I right? Please remember that pictures below are published here only as my portfolio and copying them is strictly prohibited. Please enjoy the pics!
Ahh...and this model's name is Maika and you can find her professional portfolio there: maika.

Krzyztopor - International Knight's Tournament

After the party I headed to Krzyztopor to see famous castle. Accidentally on that day International Knight's Tournament was held in that castle, so I had additional attractions and have taken plenty of pictures. So I don't think further explanation is needed - just enjoy the pictures...

Part I - Special Parade

Part 2 - Medieval Dance show


Part 3 - Fights show

Part 4 - Horses


Part 5 - misc pictures...