Tom's Top Ten

It's that time of year again.
Everyone is looking back and producing lists for the year's end. Whether it's the top gadgets or the most purchased records, you'll find ranking lists everywhere.
So, in keeping with this trend, I proudly present my favourite (own) images of the year. I can remember each one so vividly .


In no particular order, they are as follows:

London. January 2011

EOS 5d 17 - 40 zoom

1/20th @ f4 with Speedlite set at -1 stop

This was taken at the beginning of the year when I was over in London. My son Nicholas was with me and we were doing the touristy things. As we were heading home I came across this scene with the red phone box and a pub in the background. I racked the zoom out to 17 mm and stood close to the phone box to make it large in the frame. The ambient light measure 1|20sec at f4 with the ISO set at 500. I stuck a 420 EX flash in the hotshoe and set it to underexpose by one F stop.

o0o

Diegten April  2011

EOS 7d 28 - 135 zoom at 65 mm

1/50th @f13

This is near my home and I mentioned it in a previous blog post. I had often seen the blossom on the trees but had previously never had enough time to get around to recording it. Again, I was with Nicholas. I used my Benbo tripod for this image. This is an HDR of three images.

o0o

Grossmünster Church

EOS 5d 17 - 40 zoom

1/3rd sec at f13

The only "work" image in this list. This was taken at the Grossmünster church in Zürich for my friend, the Swiss Lighting designer Renato De Toffol. He has installed a mood lighting programme in the church and I spent several hours there. Again, this is an HDR image. The ISO was set at 320.

o0o

Bench in the forest

Canon G9

1/60 @F2.8

Nothing much really to write about this one. I was walking with the family through the forest near my home and saw this bench amongst the foliage. As I was travelling light. I used the G9 to record it. I always set the ISO manually and this time it was set at 125.

o0o

Through the arrow slits.

EOS 5d 17 - 40 zoom

1/200 sec @ F11

Taken from the Castel Grande in Bellinzona, Switzerland when I was on holiday earlier in the year. This was a slight variation on my sunny day exposure and the ISO was set to 200.

o0o

Italian Deli. Lugano, Switzerland

EOS 5d 17 - 40 zoom

1/50th @F5

We spent a few hours in Lugano and I found it really hard to find anything remotely interesting to photograph. my wife went to do some shopping and I wandered around for a while until I came across this popular delicatessen. I took several images of the customers buying food but had to wait about fifteen minutes until the area in front of the deli was clear. the light was fading fast as a storm was approaching so I bumped the ISO up to 320 and shot this one

o0o

Boats docked at Gandria, Switzerland

EOS 5d 17 - 40 zoom

1/200 sec @F13

A typical "postcard" type image but I still enjoy this picture very much because of the memories it invokes. I remember the warm sunshine here. The olive trees and the narrow cobbled streets.

o0o

Ancient church near Sonvico, Switzerland

EOS 5d 17 - 40 zoom

1/125 @ F18

This is the ancient church of San Martino (Chiesa di San Martino) near Sonvico, Switzerland. I saw this church in a guide book and decided to go and take a look. We found the town of Sonvico quite easily but couldn't locate the church. Sonvico itself seemed to be closed for dinner and there wasn't a soul on the streets. Finally a bank opened its doors and I enquired inside. The bank manager was very helpful and drew me a map. We got in the car and drove several kilometers until the road forked off left and went through a forest. I was beginning to wonder if I'd be able to turn the car around when we came to a clearing and there it was. Beautifully situated in a clearing with the charmingly named "Denti della vecchia" (Old person's teeth) mountain range in the background.

o0o

WW1 tank traps at Chichenzimmersattel

EOS 5d 17 - 40 zoom

1/125 @ F14

A couple of months ago, the Swiss organisation responsible for the upkeep of military monuments has a sort of open day. Two of the monuments were in my county so I decided to go and take a look. The first monument was a bunker which was well hidden up the side of a hill in the forest and didn't produce any satisfactory results. The second one was these tank traps which date back to the first world war. They are located on a mountain pass on what used to be the main road to Basel before the current motorway was built. It was extremely windy on that day and the storm clouds began forming. I had to brace myself against a wall to avoid camera shake.

o0o

Jetty. St Prex, Switzerland

EOS 5d 28 - 135

1/250 @ F10

This was taken during a stop in St Prex in the French part of Switzerland. I wanted the birds to fly off but they showed no signs of leaving at all as I walked towards them. Finally, I had to hold my camera to my eye as I waved my right arm around. The birds finally got the message.

Well that's it for now. I hope you found this 2011 list of interest. It will be interesting to see what my favourites will be next year. Please feel free to leave a comment.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous new year.

Tom

How did I do that? Part 2

Banishing reflections

I work a great deal with reflective surfaces in my job. It could be a highly reflective silver grid on a light or even just the inside surface of a light reflector. Either way, these surfaces produce reflections which detract from the image.

Add to the fact that these surfaces are sometimes concave or convex then the problem gets worse as the curved surface takes in the whole room!

For small surfaces it's relatively simple to place the object in a white light tent. For larger objects it can get problematic and the images may have to be extensively retouched.

I had this problem recently when I was photographing one of a new range of LED lights produced by the company for which I work.

I had done all the catalogue standard shots and wanted to finish with a shot showing the light source itself.

When I looked into the reflector through my viewfinder, I could see myself! The light was just a bit too big to place in a light tent so I came up with another solution.

Here's what I did:

 

Camera is mounted on the FOBA stand. There's also a spirit level in the hot-shoe.

First result: 

That's me reflected in the silver reflector.

A large piece of white card with a lens sized hole in the middle is called for:

I used the self timer function on the camera to give me ten seconds of time to position the board correctly

 

This was the final result.

I make no apologies if you already know of this technique, but I simply like to share my knowledge.

Thanks for reading

Test drive

My old EOS 5 has been replaced with its successor, the EOS 5d Mark II.

I've also replaced my old 50 f1.8 with the new 1.4 version. Last Sunday I decided to test both out on a walk.

Fresh out of the box

A friend told me about a popular trail called the "1000 Steps" in the nearby Kanton (county) of Aargau. which leads up the side of a hill. I thought to myself that one thousand steps is only a name. It's probably a couple of hundred at most....

 First image with the new combo. 

1/400 sec Av Mode at f2.8

 1000 Steps (in local dialect)

1/250 sec at f2.5

 Big mistake. 

 One thousand steps is actually 1140 steps which go up an incline of about thirty degrees.

 The steps are thoughtfully labelled.

The first one hundred were OK. Perhaps because I had the rucksack on my back and was leaning forward. This adjusted my centre of gravity forwards and "helped" (maybe only psychologically) to keep up an even pace.

Another 600 to go.

Or so I thought.....

I was really pleased that I had the rucksack with me. I would really have considered giving up if I'd had my shoulder bag with me. With the rucksack, I had both hands free to steady and guide myself.

The Hama Katoomba 190RL

Over the halfway mark but still 

another 400 to go.

It's a bit of a let down when you reach the 1000 steps mark and there's still more steps to go!! Another one hundred and forty to be exact.

Steps as far as you can see.

Heart pounding and completely out of breath, I reached the top forty five minutes after setting off. "So what was at the top?" I hear you ask. Nothing much. Just a forest trail and a vantage point about three minutes walk from the top of the steps.

A place to rest and gaze out over the county.

1/200 at f13 (see here)

This is one of my favourite images taken on that day with the 50mm lens. There is no Photoshop jiggery-Pokery involved. I processed the RAW file in DPP, sharpened it a bit and added some saturation. All in all I am well pleased with the camera.

 1/80 sec at f2.8


Thanks for reading. BTW All images were taken with the 200 ISO speed set on the camera.

I't's nice to see them so big.... Part 2

You may remember I wrote a post back in June about my images being enlarged for an exhibition stand at which the company I work for was participating?

We are currently exhibiting at the Basel based Ineltec technology exhibition and the stand designer Marcel Brodbeck has again made good use of my images. He has selected several of them to be enlarged to  two meters thirty. That's about seven and a half feet!

My favourite image (below) was made with the EOS 5d and my 50mm standard lens. I shot it hand-held on a ladder in RAW format. I then processed it in Canon's own DPP software and outputted it as a TIFF at 350 dpi.

That's me standing beside the EOS 5d enlargement

 This one was made with a Hasselblad

He's also made use of my images, although not on as big a scale elsewhere on the stand. There are fifteen enlargements of various sizes adorning the shelves which showcase the company's products.

The Ineltec exhibition runs from the 13th until the 16th of September 2011.

Thanks for reading.

Make use of what's available

Last week I was making close-up images of various lighting products. It was a baking hot day and I carried all my gear over to the building where the lights are located. After getting everything ready I discovered that I'd left my Benbo tripod back in my studio.

I couldn't be bothered to go all the way back to fetch it so I scouted around and found a stepladder which did the job (together with a couple of books) perfectly.

 The setup

The image will now be used over a double page spread in a brochure.

The result

Thanks for reading.

Not so disappointing this year.

After last years lacklustre Streetparade, I decided to give the event one more chance.

Beautiful sunny weather with temperatures in the low thirties (Celsius) ensured that party goers were in a great mood. The costumes were imaginative (and often very skimpy) and the atmosphere was generally very good.

 Skimpy is good

One thing that struck me though,  was how even more commercial it was this year. There were stalls everywhere and even "pay to use" toilets. I know that the Parade must try and recoup some of their costs but it seems a shame to me that it's getting too money oriented. My son Nicholas who came with me also commented that there seemed to be almost no youngsters his age. (he's sixteen).

Eos 7d with 70 - 200 f4

 Cooling off in the mist shower

One minus point. I was walking through a very crowded group of people. I noticed in my peripheral vision an elder gentleman eyeing the Eos 5d that I had around my neck. I thought to myself that he will surely approach me and ask me a question about it (as folks often do). He didn't approach me so I kept walking through the crush of people. About two minutes later I looked down and saw a hand trying to make its way into my camera bag. I grabbed the person's wrist and turned around. It was the old guy.

"If I catch your hand in my bag again, I'll cut your throat". I told him whilst staring into his eyes.

I realised later that I'd spoken in English but he seemed to get my message. He pulled his hand away, mumbled something and slunk into the crowd.

One small minus point on an otherwise enjoyable day. If the weather's good, I'll go back next year for the 21st.

 

Sunny outlook

To see more of the images that i took, please go to my homepage here.

Thanks for reading

Tom

Preparing for the Streetparade

This Saturday sees the 20th annual Streetparade in Zürich.

I've been quite a few times although lately I seem to be getting a little jaded by it all. Last year's effort really disappointed me.

The weather this year promises to be a scorcher so apart from my two camera bodies and maybe three lenses plus ear-plugs, I'll also be packing some water and sun cream.

I've decided to travel light because I really can't be bothered to be weighed down with gear. I was originally going to take my stuff in a camera rucksack that I'd ordered online a week ago but it hasn't arrived yet. It would also have given me a chance to write about testing it "in the field".

I decided to buy a rucksack because my back was really aching whilst on holiday this year from carrying my stuff in a Tamrac bag. I ended up leaving most stuff in the back of the car and venturing forth with one body, one lens (a 17 - 40). Actually, I could have taken just the 17 - 40 with me and I wouldn't have missed all the other stuff.

I'll be posting some pics from the southern (Italian) region of Switzerland some time soon but it the meantime there's a selection of them over at Panoramio.

Bye for now.

Google Earth sometimes gets it wrong...

I recently came across information regarding ruins of a 14th century castle about ten minutres drive from where I live.

Google Earth also informed me that there were indeed ruins to be found in this Area.

Further searches informed me that the ruins of Witwald were in a hazardous state and that there would be no responsibility for any injuries suffered.

I decided to venture forth on a Saturday morning with fellow Brit and hobby photographer, Stephan. We began our search at 10:30 in the morning and, using info from the Swiss castles website, we set off through the forest to try and locate them.

Stephan has lived in the area for fifteen years but had never heard of these ruins so we had to largely guess where they might be.


We walked and walked and we walked. It was mostly uphill and the forest was quite dense. We had to stop several times just to catch our breath. The picture I had saved was used to try and identify the ruins under a rocky outcrop and a few times, we thought that we had found them but it always turned out to be a false alarm.


I didn't want to go home empty handed so I took some HDR images in the forest. 

Finally after three hours of walking and finding nothing but trees, we decided to head back home.


When we reached our starting point, I saw a Land-rover coming towards us with "Forestry service" emblazoned on it's side. Stephan flagged the driver down and asked him if he knew where the ruins were. 


The driver parked his car and talked a while to Stephan. 


"They're one hundred meters over there" he said pointing into the bush over our shoulders.


We couldn't believe it. Barely visible through the foliage, were the ruins. We had spent three hours walking with rucksacks, water and camera gear in a totally different direction. Google Earth had placed the ruins in a totally different area.


On this screenshot, you can see where Google Earth has placed the ruins (Ruine Witwald) and where they actually are (blue rectangle)

Five minutes later, after another uphill climb, we were at the entrance to the ruins. Exhausted, tired and gasping for breath.

After we caught our breath (even Stephan's dog Leila was exhausted), I set up my tripod and camera to take some HDR's. Ten minutes later we were finished and making our way home.


Here are two of the images from the ruins.

The entrance to the ruins.

HDR was used to bring out the background details

On another note. I took the above video using the very small Sony Bloggie camera. It shoots three different HD video formats and still images as well at 5 Megapixels. I'm going to carry it around with me more and post videos from time to time. Feedback would be appreciated.

Spring is in the air

Well I know that technically, Spring hasn't yet begun but the countryside around where I live is at long last, starting to look attractive again.

The skies have been a fetching shade of blue lately, buds are starting to show on the trees and snowdrops have made a welcome appearance.

Today, Oksana (the missus) and I went for a drive to the countryside. I took my light weight benbo tripod, my EOS 5d and a 17-40 zoom lens.

I found a nice location by looking in "Google Earth". It was called Schöntal. A little village in Baselland.

We arrived and went for a walk. There is a "sculpture park" near the village but that costs Fr 10 for entry. I hadn't bought my wallet with me so we explored the village itself.

A five minute walk outside the village revealed a piece of "artwork" on a hill so we went there and I recorded it for posterity (and this blog) .

As I've mentioned in a previous blog post, I don't pretend to understand modern art but this was interesting to photograph with the village in the background. It was an extremely hazy day but shooting HDR helped to minimise it.

Shot into the sun

The same image in Monochrome

Different viewpoint

From there, we took a walk back to the village and I took a few more HDR's. I wanted to take a picture of the former Cloister, which is now a modern art gallery, but the sun was shining directly into my lens so I've made a note to return when Spring is fully underway.

This was the only image that I took of the former monastery.

Thanks for visiting.

The Hermitage. Verenaschlucht Einsiedelei

North of the city of Solothurn, in the silence of Verena gorge, is a hermitage. There is still today, a recluse who carries out his religious duties

 I've been in Switzerland for 15 years and only heard about this place about two weeks ago. The weather today was lovely with bright sunshine and deep blue skies so we decided to venture out for some fresh air. naturally I took some photo gear with me. namely my EOS 5d, a 17 - 40 zoom and my Benbo tripod.

I actually didn't hold out much hope for good photos because it was in a gorge (shadows) and the sky was bright. I therefore decided to take only HDR images direct from RAW files.

I wasn't too inspired with the scenery on the way to the hermitage as it was typical February weather. No leaves on the trees and a bit muddy.

 The first exposure I made.

Memorial candles

 

Plenty of small waterfalls

Then I caught my first glimpse of the religious buildings.

 In the distance

A hollowed out cave and the church loom into view

 This was looking promising. I was in photo heaven. I didn't actually see the hermit but after all that is the nature of being a hermit isn't it?

I spent about forty-five minutes or so recording images. It would have been quicker but there were lots of hikers and I was using the self timer feature on my camera to reduce as much as possible, my touching the camera. This meant that I'd compose the shot and then look around to see if anyone might walk into my field of view in the next ten seconds (which was the self timer setting.)

Most of the images were converted to HDR from my normal three exposures but when I thought that there was too much "clipping" (i.e. no details at all in the highlights), I took six images.

 This was the first one using six images

 Another HDR using six images

 This one as well, use six images

 Inside the chapel which is carved into the rock.

The last image of the day

also using six images.

All in all, we had a great walk through some lovely countryside and discovered a hidden (from me anyway) gem.

The HDR process certainly saved these pictures and I'll definitely go back in summer or autumn when the colours will be fantastic.

Thanks for reading. Your comments are as always, welcomed.

Further details about the hermitage (Einsiedeln in German) can be found (in German) on the Solothurn tourist site