This was not my first visit to the refinery in Schwechat near Vienna . This time I experimented with the HDR ( High Dynamic Range ) technique to control the highlights while getting good exposures in the shadows. The technique is based on a method of mapping several exposures with different exposure values into one picture by mapping the different tones, i.e. tone mapping. After that, the HDR picture is reduced into a Low Dynamic Range Picture to make it visible on normal screen. It is mandatory that for optimal results the different exposures, which will be mapped later on, have no moving objects which will move between the different exposures. Otherwise, the program cannot map each pixel of the picture relative o the other exposures. Taking pictures of a refinery always involves a lot of smoke from exhaust pipes which will vary from exposure to exposure. It is therefore required to experiment a little bit and to accept tat not all pictures will result in a optimal mapped LDR. Have a look at my new gallery.
My first print folio in Black and White is finally finnished: Snowscapes.
With winter on the footstep its time to present some pictures of the cols seasons. These panoramas were taken on our last visit to finnish Lapland, to Saariselkä.
From a wealth of photos I took recently of utility poles (one of my ongoing projects), I put together a new collection called Utility Poles 2.
Another collection from our visit to Sweden is online. This time we'll visit the eastcoast:Källvik.
Some impressions from our summer trip to the west coast of Sweden are shown in Bohuslän placed in the travel section.
After a rather lengthy summer break I finally found some times to upload some of my new photographs.
The new print-folio about the Wildstrubel landscapes in the Swiss Alps is now online and ready for order. I have also extended the Refinery portfolio to 15 photographs about the Refinery in Schwechat close to Vienna .
In the portfolio section I added a collection of pictures about the Aareschlucht, a river canyon of the River Aare in the heart of the Swiss Alps. The new titel photograph is from this portfolio.
In the projects section a collection of my photographs of various types of bus-stations around Europe is now online.
The new titel-photograph is from my water portfoio which will be online shortly.
The new water folio is now online and can be ordered.
There are new photographs of the last storm over Vienna in the lightning gallery.
The new titel picture above is from my new print portfoilio which will be online soon.
Within the last weeks I programmed the new layout for photographs around phenomena within our atmosphere. This includes atmospheric effects based on refraction, diffraction and reflection on ice crystals (halos, coronas, sun dogs, ), water droplets (rainbows) and reflections based on temperature effects. There is also a section about Clouds. I added my portfolios of auroras to this section, as auroras take place in the upper atmosphere between 100 and 200km above sea level. This section of the atmosphere is called thermosphere. Most of the other effects take place in the lowest part of our atmosphere called the troposphere which reaches up 10 and even 16km above sea level.
My weatherstation is online finally. It took me quite a while to get everything done. Even though I own this stations for now almost 10 years I never succeeded in putting the measurement data online. The station operates now at its third location and the data is valid since May 2008. Everything is in German at the moment but I think the measurement data can be read anyway and is probably only of interest for people in the region of Vienna , where the station is placed right now. The first section shows the most actual measurements, the ´Tage´ button brings you to the measurements of the last seven days. The ´Wochen´ button opens up a page with all week graphics since May 2008 and the ´Monate´ button does the same with the month graphics. The last section ´Station´ shows a description of the whole station and describes all the adaptations I carried out throughout the ear to either modify the measurement units for a more rel iable operation or to make the measurement more accurate. If you're interested in some details but do not speak German just write me an E-Mail.
There is a new galery about birds around the Neusiedlersee and a new Collection of Photography about Water.
The whole book site is no new and covers more than 30 titles. I also reworked the link site.
The article no startrails is about taking pictures of the night sky without having trail of the stars but with the goal to have sharply pictured constellations. It also includes a discussion about the problem of dark frame subtraction on RAW pictures.
The translation of my article about photobags is now online. It covers my 20 year old search for the ideal photobag. Perhaps it makes your search easier.
Wildelife Photography in South Africa describes the technical challenges in wildlife photography. Even though my experiences are based on South African parks they are valid for any kind of wildlife photography, either from the car, out of a camouflage tent or from a hide. The equipment use and the technique is in all cases not identical but similar. There are two galleries about my South Africa Photography: Birds of South Africa and Mammals of South Africa.
I updated the Links page and added many new links about technical photography, celestial phenomena and auroras
The importance of a good tripod is often underestimated. Oftentimes its much more flexible and fast way to take pictures without a tripod. If the light allows it and your creativity is increased by working with the camera handhold that’s OK. As long as you use a lens with relatively small and medium focal length you will seldom getting in trouble if the light levels support short enough exposure time to reduce the handshake effect making pictures unsharp. But the dimmer it gets and the longer the focal length of the lens you are using, the higher the demand for a solid platform to mount your camera.
The Canon Range of Semi-professional Single Reflex Cameras, SLRs (i.e. XXD cameras) offer very high power efficiency and thus the intern al battery offers enough power for the daily work with this camera type. However, applications such as lengthy serial captures (for example for star trail composites) or the recording of time lapse movies requiring hundredths of exposure can sometimes overcome the power requirements from the standard power source. An External Power Supply is oftentimes the optimal solution.
Like every winter in recent years we will spend our winter holiday in Finnish Lapland. This year we headed for Saariselkä, a relatively large skiing resort approximately 30km south of Ivalo close to the Russian border. Saariselkä lies around 68° North and 27° East, i.e. slightly north of the polar circle, 300m above sea level. Experiences from this trip will tell you what worked and what needs to be considered for the next trip, increasing your success rate in shooting aurora displays.
This article describes the technical approach to aurora photography and includes many details on the equipment to be used to increase the success rate. In addition to that, details about the best place to shoot, how to watch out for aurora displays and how to fight the cold will give you a good introduction and will prepare you for the next aurora shoot.
Geotagging allows the user to add geographical data to your digital photographs. The geographical positioning where the picture was recorded is written into the EXIF file of the photo-file. The EXIF also contains all the other technical data of your photograph such as exposure value, aperture, ISO setting and so on. The coordinates are either recorded using a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver or using an electronic map such as Google maps later on your PC. This article describes the first approach using a GPS receiver during the capture shoot.
Without light there would be no photography. Taking an exposure of infinite length in a totally dark room will never result in a photograph. Even though the quantity of the light will enable photography, the quality of it will heavily influence the result. While the quantity of light is influenced by choosing the right aperture, time and sensitivity (ISO value), the quality itself is almost not influenceable by the photographer (at least in outdoor photography) and needs to be closely observed in nature. The colour of light will introduce you to this highly interesting subject.
I reworked the water project. There are now two Collections. The water project is an open project which means that I'm still working on it and keep adding photographs.Other open projects are the telegraph masts, the trees and the celestial phenomenas.
I also added a new galery in the travel segment about the city of Genove in Italy.
The Galery about Celestial Phenomenas was updated and includes now photos of reflection-phenomenas on hovering ice crystals in cold air. Have a look: Celestial Phenomenas.
After a very successful travel to Finland I extracted some photos from several nights aurora watching into a new portfolio: Polarlights 2. Fascinating shadows on snowfields can be seen in Snowscapes.
The Title picture changed to a photograph from a new portfolio about the OMV Refinery in Schwechat, Austria. Other photos from this series are available as a print folio.
After being approached by many people concerning print sale I decided to complete my home page with ordering possibilities for fine art prints. Please have a look at the Print Sales and Folio Sales pages. The Prints/Files page will gibe you more details about the quality of the prints and the material used. The prices for the prints are quite low based on the idea that Edward Weston once charged only 20 Dollars for a print! I plan to expand the number of folios in the near future.
All the time lapse movies are now also available in Flash Player Format, which is he most widespread format supported by most browsers. If you do not have the flash plug in yet, I recommend installing it.
The industrial plant of the OMV refinery close to the Vienna airport is a very impressive location. Being there feels like on another planet.
The harbour area of Hamburg is one of the biggest of its kind in Europe. The huge area can be explored on tours being offered by many different tour operators: Highly recommended.
My technical article about panorama photography is now online. This article describes methods and techniques used to create panoramas from several digital images. I will cover the hardware and software that work best for me. I will not cover panoramas from analogue cameras; however, scanning the analogue negatives/positives will give you a very similar approach.
In autumn 2004 I visited the Gornergrat, a high alpine station in the Swiss Alps, for several days. The station lies opposite the Matterhorn, the mast famous Mountain in the central European Alps well known for its prominent shape. During the day the place is quite busy, many tourists are visiting. But after the last mountain railway has left the place is calming and there is time to relax and to observe the weather sceneries.
Many changes took place within the last days. There is a new Time Lapse section where you'll find a collaction of time laps movies. The technical article that goes with this section is still only available in German. I also added a panorama section that includes only panoramas, most of which are stitched digitally. Some panoramas have been in the travel section and were simply moved to their new location but there are also a handful of new galleries. In the portfolio section you'll find a new gallery about reflections. Finally, the main picture on this page has changed. It was recording during a holiday in northern Finnish Lapland. The whole gallery about this stay is found here.
