Comprehensive NOLA

blog closure and moving

2009-09-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

The time came to move this blog somewhere else. The only reason is unsatisfactory quality of this application in publishing pictures.

From now onwards you can find all what I post on soldjem4nola.wordpress.com

link: http://soldjem4nola.wordpress.com

sidenote: blogger is still, I think, the most versatile free web based blog application for the kind of posts I do. I did not choose wordpress because of its popularity but because it is closest to what blogger can do in its functions (but still not equal though).

ok, see you on the new platform

Lukas

Polaroid automatic 100 and 776 film (BW, 3000 iso)

2009-09-20T13:44:00.001-07:00

I bought a Polaroid automatic 100 camera and some film to use with. Instant photography is much fun I have to say. Prints themselves are of very good quality. I tried to make scans as close to them as possible but it is never the same. The first pack was more or less for testing and to get to know the camera well.

it was pouring like hell. unfortunately, it is not that obvious from the picture.

Pontchartrain beach

and some...ehm....

Pontchartrain beach (nikon F3hp, 28/2.8, 50/1.8 and arista premium)

2009-09-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

One of the days when Zuzana is not working, we decided to make an late afternoon/evening walk on the Pontchartrain beach (used to be an amusement park but is destroyed by huricanes by now).

first shot is editorial pick.

when loading. again, I didn't want to waste those two shots I can take before number 1. So I guesstimated the aperture of 5.6 for 1/80 shutter speed and it came a bit overexposed. Hence, i corrected it while scanning.

what was supposed to be a nice walk turned into not so nice walk because of millions of mosquitos over there. they were so f...ing offensive that they landed on you and bit you even when walking fast. idiots. I still have like hundreds bites. anyway, it did not destroy the afternoon as a whole and we kinda enjoyed it over there.

some people were fishing with cages and nets in the lake. there were jumping fish making rainbow jumps all the time. funny. don't know why but I guess they were "hunting" those f...ing mosquitos above the water level.

some mexicans. they were pretty cautious when we approached them. I had that feeling like they thought they are fishing illegally and/or were illegally in the us. dunno but they stopped, looked at us and when we passed they started again.

there were two guys with dogs. one mexican and one black. both dogs were cute.

especially the black guy's dog. funny little creature.

small dead crab

you can guess what my lovely wife is doing. yes collecting f...ing shells again.

ok, the purpose of this picture is the dragon-fly sitting on the branch. if you can find it, you win :-)

some US garbage

and some Czech treasures :-)

roxy

double portrait

double portrait with sunset :-)

it's not visible well but the guy had kayak and was fishing from it. I'm curious what would happen if some bigger fish got caught. that would be a ride :-)

regret that I did not have a color film.

old grill

the sun was no more tanning.

some sunset shots

well, it is obvious that i did not take this one. hmmm, interesting composition :-)

some more lovely legs and feet

Downtown walk (continuation... , the same gear + canon 50/1.8 on some shots and legacy 400 film)

2009-09-19T23:05:00.000-07:00

so when I finished the arista roll, I loaded legacy 400 and just continued.

so many asses :-). Would love it if real :-).

follow me

modern and a bit archaic transportation. what's funny though is that those cops had earplugs and ipods to listen some cool music :-).

shit, shit for breakfast.

waldorf-astoria

she saw me shooting her and she got frozen. before, she was navigating her hubby (or whoever he was) to park correctly.

nice bavarian socks

taken from waist level - kinda off

fedex

she was a bit old but looked gorgeous for her age (and had nice dress).

even he appreciated it.

one more

and the last one. I tried to capture them together but "gorgeous" suddenly turned and I missed the shot. You can still see her but the contrast is gone.

looked good

weirdo's area on jackson square

new kind of turism. guide, helmet and segway

he looked more interesting from the front but I wasn't able to shoot quickly.

I (and my wife) love this and the next shot a lot. Even though, the camera and lens got pretty wet while shooting this.

the bud - one of the better from bad US beers

shot with 50/1.8. love it too.

and the ever present "hotel monteleone". Once, I'll have to buy a night over there :-)

oops

he looked friendly and did not mind to be photographed. wish, more people would be that way.

siesta

back on campus. some am football training

harley guy, but then he sat on some super trooper suzuki or whatever japanese bike.

Say good night to birds (canon a2e, sigma 24/2.8, arista edu 400)

2009-09-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

we went out one evening to exercise our bodies and since I did not use my canon a2e for some time, I loaded it with arista edu and took it with us. We brought some old bread for geese and ducks as well, so most of this roll is in the bird domain :-). some people are included though :-)

just a chair thrown away.

on that particular spot, there's hundreds of birds of various species...

...and the reason is that hundreds of people feed them over there (sometimes, us included) :-)

they were cute little kids. Zuzana was especially touched by the small hairy girl.

they have very little fear of people. I'd say they are only cautious, not afraid of...

...since food is such a strong drug.

it took me a while to find the leg stepping down. the leg is "the thing" that makes it interesting. What's also interesting is how difficult for them is to step down one leg at a time. Very inefficient bipeds.

food, food, food...

maybe more food...

....ahh, well, probably not.

localized food

alpha male (or female, have no idea) :-)

you did not hear it, but when she saw the shot, she appreciated herself as not looking like an idiot :-)

flip flops vs. DC - who is cooler?

yes, that little girl was cute (be glad that you also did not hear Zuzana's words about adopting her :-) ).

I like this "action" shot much. the small guy on the right was chasing some poor birds. but fortunately they are not as slow as the look like. also, light was diminishing and the influence of bigger aperture is noticeable.

ye, screw yourself with that fucking camera.....

...I have to write emails.

well, some frames left, so the next day I took a walk around the city when my classes ended (at 3pm btw, starting at 8am, fucking exhausted).

GMC - garbage in and out (literally)

and some fleurs-de-lis

Repaired nikon f3 with legacy 400 - nice shooting and lovely results

2009-09-13T20:36:00.001-07:00

I repaired my nikon f3' shutter with liquid electrical tape and then loaded with legacy 400 film (rebranded neopan 400). I love what came out of this roll from several reasons. Film quality, subjects and objects shot etc.

As an editors pick, I chose 2 shots today even though I would choose even more if I could. The first one is a still life I created with 3 things I enjoy a lot. Pizza, beer and "the new erotic photography book" I'm reading through. Observe model's pose - she really wants my pizza, I know :-).

And the second shot is from the levee, probably shot several times before but this time, the shot is as it came from the camera. no straightening, no contrast correction (even though I don't do this often anyway). I think the shot simply speaks for itself.

Most shots taken with 28/2.8 nikon lens or with 50/1.8.

it is just the way it is, I often shoot myself with the first shot :-). But this time, it was not mere self-admiration but since nikon f3 can't measure until the frame counter is on number 1 and I hate wasting frames, I used a hand held meter to find the aperture for 1/80 speed that auto mode selects automaticly for shots before number 1. It's also the reason why you see me twice in a row :-).

fleur de lis (lily, louisiana's main sign) abused by that awful, wasteful company whose name won't be pronounced here :-) (I mean it seriously).

I just walked around and when I saw it, I had to take a shot. Keep out - that car was like 15m long.

mention the "love life" sign. that's what new orleans is really about and why I love this shot.

vans being loaded by french market sellers

on the french market

I went to the levee to take few shots.....

....did not shoot them but they thought I did, so I asked if I can and they said yes but the guy on left kept asking if I have a dollar for beer. He kept asking and asking. Fortunately, the lady in front of him, while having a lot of fun with others, kept saying not to give him anything. So I took a shot and went away......

....took some more shots there......

....while I've been watched.....

.....and then asked what I'm shooting with by Jimmy from Houston (now living in NOLA). He was a nice guy. I sat and we talked for like 20 minutes. He was waiting with his camera for one of those huge transoceanic ships carrying hundreds of containers of various colors and for sunset. The ship did not come and while we talked he missed sunset as well.....

....then I took some more shots on the way back....

....and finished the roll on my "cicik" after persuading her that nude and erotic photography can be real fun with great results :-). enjoy :-) (sorry cicik, that's a joke).

"see, I enjoy the shooting"

I call the hand "adams family" hand :-).

I had two more shots after that but they will be posted somewhere else (http://soldjem.deviantart.com/) cause they are little bit more nude than these :-).

hope you enjoyed this roll as I did.

Chinon gaf 35ee + kodak 200

2009-09-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

I got a Gaf 35ee (rebranded Chinon 35ee) in the thrift store for 5 bucks. It kinda worked but some work was needed to get it into the full operation. I replaced the seals, cleaned badly corroded battery compartment and had to solder the battery wire again since it was disconnected. Then, the camera worked perfectly. Nice little shooter and I have to say I like it a lot. It has a big viewfinder, precise rangefinder, is very quiet, and has shutter speed/aperture indication in the viewfinder. And most importantly, takes very sharp and nice pics.

I love the one that I chose as editorial pick today. I ran across this in the carrell lounge and it is funny and serious at the same time. Especially for us, anthropologists. The white man coming to the Americas and forming its history. Natives would love it :-)

well, again and again :-)

underexposed due to the change in iso settings to test how 1.5V battery works in a camera for 1.3V. This was 160 iso, 125 was right.

again 160 iso (on 200 film). other shots are correct with 125.

after a while, Brian's Homo erectus

Trent's 3D digitizer

I think this was on 160 too, but not sure.

yes, my t-shirt from portugal is funny. sometimes, I feel weird in it with people around though. Far are the days when I was 18 and such t-shirts would be more appropriate for me :-)

some bathroom roll wasting

that's all. nikon is coming.

Truly loving camera - exakta exa and the test of new spiratone 35/2.8 (+neopan ss)

2009-08-30T21:36:00.001-07:00

I possess this camera for a while but was looking for a wide angle lens. Surprisingly, all exakta lenses are rather expensive and I did not want to spend a lot on a lens for my lovely exa that has only shutter speeds up to 1/150s. Found a spiratone 35/2.8 and gave it a try for 17 bucks, I guess. Lens is nicely built, made in japan from someone (?) for spiratone. Tried it and the results are, well ok. Some shots came out very nice, some bad. The lens has pretty long focusing for wide angle lens and hence, it is not easy to focus with it (unfortunately). I'll comment more with shots below.

Then, I used again my Carl Zeiss Jena sonnar 135/4. My late love for 135mm lenses has fairly solid grounds. I simply love their sharpness, bokeh etc. And the CZJ lens is really astonishing, even when shooting it with maximum speed of 1/150 on exa (which is really not ideal for telephoto lens).

The first shot with spiratone - that's how it should ideally perform all the time.

the same lens but really bad result. I don't know why.

spiratone - not good, but rainy

spiratone - this is good and nice

first hint of one of its biggest problems - the flare

example that the focusing can be difficult. but I like this shot anyway (and a lot). some contrast added.

CZJ - not blurry buy camera shake but because of "duck" shake :-)

CZJ and its nice bokeh

CZJ, I guess. not sure

spiratone

spiratone - added a little bit of contrast

CZJ - blurry but like it too. they were interesting couple.

spiratone - quite ok

spiratone - not quite ok

CZJ

CZJ - "the showtime" of its sharpness

CZJ

CZJ - in the library. too long (for both, the shutter time and focal length of the lens).

spiratone - quick shot without much fiddling. I'm glad the exposure is all right at least.

spiratone

spiratone - bad flare. this is really not acceptable.

again

the rest of shots is with CZJ - I love them all

my wife says this shot is new orleanian in nature. well, if she says.

some geometry.

again, quick shooting without exposure reading. unfortunately, I did not catch it right.

again, just shooting from the waist.

love the ability of CZJ to give resolution like this.

fridge traveling

nature vs. nurture at the end of the roll.

Nikon F3HP, Cambron 18-28mm and Nikkor 55/2.8 test (+outdated kodak 200)

2009-08-30T18:46:00.000-07:00

I was so lucky that I acquired very nice looking Nikon F3HP together with nikkor 55/2.8 micro lens, cambron 18-28mm, vivitar 28-105mm zoom lenses, and a lot of other accessories (filters, another focusing screen for F3, leather lens cases etc.) from one of my professors who retired unbelievably cheap - for 100 bucks. He was so nice to me. The only problem with the camera was a hole in one of the shutter curtains. He said it never showed on his pictures but the hole was rather big and I had doubts it will show up. So I tried an outdated roll and here are the resutls. It showed up only when I didn't wind immediately after taking a shot and let the light to go into the camera.

I have followed advices on the net about using the liquid electrical tape for repairing cloth shutters and have to say it worked well even on the titanium shutter of the nikon camera. Put 2 layers with proper drying and now, the camera is perfect.

Regarding the lenses tested, nikkor is perfect as expected and the cambron is ok - sharp in the middle but soft towards corners regardless of the apperture or focal length. But I'll keep it anyway cause any other lens of such focal length would cost me hundreds. All shots taken with cambron lens if not stated otherwise.

first example of the light leak due to the hole. lower mid portion of the frame.

taken with nikkor 55/2.8 micro

nikkor again

this is the most prominent evidence of that light leak

another day with oly xa (+kodak 200)

2009-08-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

I loaded my oly xa with film couple of weeks ago and was just randomly shooting on the way.

some IDs while waiting for a shuttle

in marshalls - the so called "money hole"

we had PBL (problem based learning) in the morning and it was a great opportunity to take some shots from high above the ground

around louisiana superdome

they "deconstruct" the whole building

waist level shot. surprisingly sharp

nice geese

usual med school day (lomo + kodak 200)

2009-08-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

one of my days going downtown to med school (class, library etc.), then going back uptown and finally biking home from campus.

in the morning shuttle

staircase in the med school building

Matas library (medical one)

uploading stuff on this blog while pretending studying anatomy :-)

restroom id. I bought this shirt in Leiria, Portugal. they had a lot of funny t-shirts.

this and following shots are from the shuttle, so one more glass in front. but does not seem to be recognizable

when biking home. I took a slightly longer route just to waste this roll :-). I know... but I love it.

I'm not fat, it's just that weird posture I took while taking the shot (had to be 0.8m away from the lens to get myself into focus). but came out nice and funny :-) oh, and btw, I was riding my bicycle. fortunatelly, I did not crash into anything.

quick through the city story - olympus 35 ec + kodak 200

2009-08-20T20:27:00.001-07:00

I took a quick tour through the city today because I was looking for some parts for the car and since I had my olympus 35 ec loaded I took it with me and the roll got wasted :-)

Then, I decided to try another walgreens and its lab. this one is little bit farrer than the others but guess, they did not ruin my film. they actually did it quite ok. I really hope they won't go worse since I really don't want to pay 5 bucks for developing 24 frame color negs if I can pay just 2.30. I know, there is still the question of quality but I shoot mostly snapshots in color so it's not a big problem.

anyway, this roll came out actually really good and I like it. Olympus does not have any significant optical flaws (as lomo or olympus xa) so the pics look "normal". the lens is sharp and I even almost mastered zone focusing :-).

the first pic from med school.

on the way home, biking

to the city, driving and stoping for shots

really like this one

that is funny.

I knew this one will be out of focus so I shot it once again.....

...however, the green light just turned on and I, unfortunately, composed badly.

ok, not a lot of comments but as I said, it was quick and easy ride through the city.

the return of lomo - lomo lc-a + kodak 200

2009-08-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

after some time, the lomo lc-a is back. unfortunately, they f..k up every roll I give them in walgreens with resulting red stripes across the frames. I came up with an idea how to "cure" it but it involves some changes in color etc. so some shots are naturally looking, some are more "lomographic" (those tune up a bit to get rid of the red stripe). but anyway, I like them all even if they are underexposed (which was caused by the wrong iso settings on the camera).

I especially love that first shot. book and hat, nice colors, vigneting etc.

extraordinary sky

hot shots - the lomography's guide to creative photography. bought mainly because of the visual content, not so much because of the literary one.

very long exposure. would be nice to set a tripod but it was not possible.

id while waiting for a bus.

NOLA downtown walk rounds - nikon fm2n, 28/2.8 and 3.5 with arista.edu

2009-08-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

we started to have regular friday's walk rounds around the downtown and french quarter. and since I always have some camera with me, it is a good oportunity to shoot. this time nikon loaded with arista.edu 400 and 28mm nikon lenses. more than a half of the roll is shot with 28/3.5 the rest with newly acquired 28/2.8 series E. the pic above is from the place I like very much. it is a one block with a lot of people around and roughly looking buildings.

few more shots from the chicago airport on the way from Czech back to US.

audubon zoo acquarium

Conor and Zuzana

in front of med school

some experiments with mirrors

this is not my work. Zuza wanted to shoot it but she did not master the focusing issue :-)

home

in the community coffee

from this point, the shots are on 28/2.8 lens

not much comments but it is all downtown and french quarter, shot million time before btw.

Portugal 8 (oly om-pc+xtra 400) the last entry from Portugal

2009-08-18T14:47:00.001-07:00

there were really nice sunsets in santa eufemia

on the trip to that volcano. this was some small city close to it

that gorgeous restaurant we had a lunch.

elen dancing afterwards. probably being high from the food :-)

this is it. the volcano opens towards us.

nice and wide

some grooming. bacne (as girls taught me backne=back acne). then, I came up with the word fuckne as facial acne :-)

we hiked up towards the cave

joanna regreted that she was wearing jeans. I would die in jeans. honestly

val and elen at the cave entrance

on the way back to Leiria

plaza. we were waiting for Chiko to come from Lisbon

zuiko 135. really like it

and at paissagem for a coffee and some food

the other day we went to meet jonathan haws and to go to the site he's excavating

it was a pretty good hike to the cave (the cave was almost on the top of the hill).

and some views from the level of the cave

yes, there it is, just in the middle of the bushes

some olive trees

siesta after the hike up

jonathan, trent and a lot of wind power generators

jonathan (far back), trent, joanna, and chiko. the entrance to the cave was small and there were millions of tiny flies that got interrupted by us and started to swarm. when we were entering the cave, we literally had to shut the mouth, cover ears and breath slowly not to inhale any of them. it was really bad.

hunter's hiding place. there was a mattrace in the car so they can sleep over night. and btw, they usually hunt for boars.

santa eufemia. I loved that peugeot

and last few pics from lagar velho

our cars and the roof over the site. you can nicely see how far the rock shelter goes based on the debris on the roof

my last sunset in santa eufemia

and that's all folks from Portugal. hope to get back next year.

Portugal 7 (oly om2+neopan 1600)

2009-08-18T14:21:00.001-07:00

Joao giving a talk about the cave

the whole area where the people are was filled with sediments and even higher. this is the work of 20 years. it was really fascinating how much of a sediment they got out of the cave.

at the cave of rabbits

Chiko down there giving a talk to girls

diego, chiko, elen, and val

in between, Joao brought another guys to see the cave. it was actually the last day of their field season in almonda.

southerner :-)

toilette paper factory

the old guy was lying, head resting on one of those ladies and legs on the other. what a wonderful life he had.

sunset in santa eufemia

on a trip to a some old volcano (don't remember the name now). this was a very nice restaurant with wonderful food. all done on open fire. really delicious.

in the volcano, cova de velha (cave of the old woman, I guess).

just a bottle

one shot from Leiria

and this is another cave where we went with Jonathan Haws. will see more in color in the next entry.

Chiko was always reading a newspaper during the lunch.

back at lagar velho

sara

focused on denisse at the back

Telmo, archeology student from Lisbon

the shelter above the site

view from it

santa eufemia

I bought this wonderful camping mat in the same chinese store as trent bought his Lily Ws. It was crap too but served well when folded three times. don't know what happened with it after I left. It was funny how they all were amazed by that chinese store. all that super cheap crap in there.

Portugal 6 (oly om-pc + 2 rolls of xtra 400)

2009-08-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

some colors from Leiria

and that's the trip to the ocean.

the coast looked very much like california coast around monterey where we were in the winter. it was a nice remiscence.

Elen, Val, Sara, and Trent with his Lily Ws

I got terrible sunburnt on my back exactly on those spots where i couldn't put a sunscreen by myself. It hurted me for several days. have to mention that it took only a less than an hour. the sun is really powerful.

Sara in my digging spot. As an experienced excavater, I chose a square with a hole just next to it for easier access. You should hear all those complaints of others to have to lie heads down to excavate while I could afford the comfort of sitting upright :-).

yeh, that is exactly the spot where the kid was found

again, in color though

there were more accesible shelters above the site

wet screening place

"our" school

this was on the trip to almonda cave system with Joao Zilhao and collegues. there is a spring used by the toilette paper factory as an ocassional energy source. nice clear water, cold like hell.

and this gigantic poster fascinated (and is still fascinating) me. it was placed on the wall turned towards the rock where probably only like 5 archeologists come regularly. we even did not know what is on the poster (in terms whether it is an advertisement or what).

those cranky steps led to the other cave (cave of rabbits) in the whole system. it is a small cave excavated by Chiko himself.

Joao Zilhao

again

going up to almonda cave

the guy in blue jeans is diego angeluci

when rocking up to Chiko's cave

see, waste of money.

afterwards, girls decided to swim but they didn't have swimming suits. it was funny watching sara trying to hide her underwear.

back in santa eufemia for a meal

Portugal 5 (oly om2+neopan 1600)

2009-08-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

that was the classroom where we slept.

again in Leiria

and again the disappointment with neopan 1600. there was an overcast, so I really started to think either about the developing process or the film being slightly outdated. Also, the problem can be that the lens can't draw the detail when focused to infinity or so because some other shots with objects in proximity are quite fine. really don't know.

I did not have enough time to change to tele lens but the lady was feeding pigeons and there were hundreds. I wouldn't do that.

plaza with the free internet that we used sometimes

siam cats were everywhere in that region

rooster in santa eufemia

we went to the sea one day. it was beuatiful (you'll see more). This is trent with his stylish swimming outfit and lily W (which were flip flops bought in a chinese store - real crap but they became famous for that).

these guys cut all the vegetation around the site for us. the mayor of santa eufemia did all what we asked for us. great guy buy the way, always laughing.

we had a drawing contest one day

visit of Joao Zilhao, Diego Angeluci and some other guys at the site.

Portugal 4 (oly om2+tri-x 400)

2009-08-18T12:31:00.001-07:00

super bock - light beer, little bit like most US beers but at least with better taste.

Chiko and his friend (forgot her name)

and finally the lagar velho site

Chiko: "what should we do now? :-)

a story of lagar velho child discovery. it was buried just below the limestone wall in front of Chiko

trent with his summer haircut. Elen and Val

lapedo valley

at the school we stayed

local kids. I was shooting that little girl standing behind that idiot who jumped in front of her and started doing stupid poses.

denisse picking her plants

our rentals. I was driving the small fiesta. In two and a half weeks of my stay we drove around 1100 kilometers.

yehh, the school

in Leiria

Val and Joanna

lapedo interpretive center. Chiko's work. basically it tells the story of valley's history and all about lagar velho. they have Brian's (my school buddy, formerly working as a special effects creator in hollywood) facial reconstruction of the kid.

chiko at one of those newly discovered rock shelters

so called "feet rubing dog". he was so dirty that he got used to people rubing him with feet. if you left your feet above the ground, he came, leant against your foot and expected you to start moving your it. funny but he was cute.

Portugal 3 (oly om-pc + velvia 100)

2009-08-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

this the one roll of velvia I got from Jakub when back home. we don't regularly shoot slides but we were always curious about it. so jakub bought some rolls and gave me one. I waisted it in Portugal and when scanned, it was a huge disappointment. Soft pics, underexposed, very warm color tones etc. But then, I looked at the film itself and all shots were perfect when looking through the film. Finally, I realized that the problem must be in the scanner. It somehow can't handle slides as well as color negatives. I even tried to rescan the film and correct exposure etc. but it came out bad too (a lot of noise due to narrow latitude and again imbalance between lights and shadows). The most probable reason is that the scanner has much smaller dynamic range than the film and is not capable of handling wide range of light situations in the picture.

as a result, some shots look better than the others and you'll se that in this stream. the softness of some of the shots maybe be caused by lens that was in use (zuiko 35-70 f4, however I have shot with it before with perfect results on negatives and I always close the aperture down since it is soft at f4 - f5.6 and up is usually quite good).

this was the school where we stayed in Santa Eufemia. will see it better later on the negative material scans.

castle in Leiria

Leiria

looking from Paissagem restaurant into the lapedo valley

on a trip to one of newly discovered rock shelters in lapedo

at the football stadium where we took a shower every day.

val did (do?) gymnastics

in Leiria

that's the velvia. bad!!!

Portugal 2 (oly om2+arista edu 400)

2009-08-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

staying the first night in Belém. Hotel room I shared with Trent (my advisor) and of course, the mirror ID had to be taken.

the view from hotel's entrance

national history museum (or something like that). in fact, here, the lapedo child (paleolithic skeleton from the site we were excavating) is housed.

all around Belém

the whole bunch of fish feeding from the canal

"fisherman's boat" :-)

nicely looking restaurant

hanged pigeon

the Belém tower

turists, but of course, not the same as me :-)

fisherman's bike

zeitgeist - the spirit of time, I guess (don't speak german)

our hotel

Belém is a place where most ambassies and a presidential palace are. don't know what building was that but guards signify probably some important one.

behind the walls of IPA (instituto portugese de archeologia - hopefully not misspelled :-) ).

this is the place where Chiko (Dr. Francesco Almeida) works

in Santa Eufemia, where we stayed. this was the restaurant we enjoyed really great and huge meals twice a day :)

Valerie, Joanna and Denise already in lapedo valley and lagar velho

sara and denisse

this house belongs to a guy who owns the land in lagar velho site. nice house, as said by Chiko also a nice guy, but who the hell knows how much archeology got destroyed when he built that house (without a permission)

Praha-Zbůch-Lisbon (oly om2 + neopan 1600)

2009-08-18T09:40:00.001-07:00

some rests from our stay in Prague, then we had a wonderfull afternoon in Zbůch with our friends and finally, first shots from Portugal.

that was a wonderful cake even if it looks like a shit :-). my wife has cravings for it every day.

Lenka and Luboš

Miloš

Jakub and Charlie (oh, and Charlie is the dog if you can't differentiate which one is it :-) ).

Katka at the left

we had georgous food

another shot of jakub in our favorite restaurant "u soudku"

prague airport - waiting

and finally Lisbon, specifically Belém (a part of Lisbon)

that was a monument reminding times when Portugese were a dominant naval nation

the quality is really bad, a lot of grain etc. I blame the neopan 1600 in combination with sharp light and my 28/3.5 zuiko. I guess some combinations don't produce good results.

because if you compare previous pic with this one shot with 135mm zuiko, this one is a lot better (not the best though, probably because of the light and sensitive film).

these pics got really bad

some beautiful portugese women :-)

Exakta exa 1a with tessar 50/2.8 + neopan ss: testing and another roll from Plzen

2009-08-15T22:40:00.001-07:00

I bought an exakta exa 1a back home with tessar 50/2.8 and 135/4 lenses. it is very nicely built camera with very interesting shutter mechanism that is linked to the mirror, resp. the mirror has a shutter on the reverse side. nice concept and in fact it was "it" what convinced me to buy the camera. the bad part of it is that the maximum speed is only 1/175 s. you can't do much with it especially with fast film. but I put neopan ss in it (now I have use for this film since otherwise it is too slow for me) and all worked out well. later, I found that the 50 tessar lens is probably a bit out of adjustment since I had a lot of shots out of focus. It might be by me focusing badly but i doubt. What I really love about this camera is a waist level finder which is the best thing for taking action portraits since you don't distract people by looking into the camera and pointing towards them. I'd love to see much more slr cameras having interchangeable finders (except exaktas and nikons which had it).

when i got back to us, I bought the original exa with the same tessar. It is even nicer, a lot smaller and with a lot bigger viewfinder. really a superior machine. the downside is that the fastest speed is only 1/150 s. but anyway, I love it. now, I'm in search for some wide-angle lens on it. this roll is shot with exa 1a, most pics with 50mm tessar and at the end, with 135mm lens. btw, this 135mm lens is again very good, almost as my zuiko. there must be something on the 135mm lenses general design and in fact, there is. I've read somewhere they are easy to construct with superb optical quality. well, I can just confirm that and hopefully will confirm again when I take small exa with this telephoto lens out to waste a roll on sneaky portraits.

I love the first shot. it is out of focus and it gives the shot nice dreamy feeling and underlines the theme of E.T. going back to his spaceship and home :-)

focused on that awful religious stuff

out of focus again

infinity shots were fine

out

out

yes, in

again in

that was the intention to focus on the needles

looks like ordinary shot but since all exa shots are measured with hand held meter i corrected the exposure down for two stops to get the fake butterfly properly exposed since the background is a windown with a lot of light potentially making the butterfly only a dark spot on the curtain.

jakub, well, without a correction :-)

since I'm a hockey fan, this was my only chance to see at least a pre-seasonal training of pilsen's team. I'm going to miss the whole season again. I cry :-(

and these shots came out of 135 mm lens. really satisfying.

the same two cities again - family and public gatherings (oly om2 + tri-x 400)

2009-08-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not using my zuiko 135/3.5 much but when I use it, it is always perfectly satifying to see the resutls. it is simply stunning lens and I love it a lot. This is Zuza's dad and the shot could be called "one for all, all for one" since he looks like a musketeer.

besides some other shots from prague (mainly the family gathering), there are others from Pilsen, from bogeymen's day.

in the national museum depository in Horni Pocernice

our friend Erika. she is a huge francophile and was just prepairing to spend more than a month in france for a research.

zuzana's (and my in-laws) family (nieces, sister, mum, grandmum)

my lovely wife....

...with such a nice face expression :-)

eleonora

in prague

elfa

andělína

afternoon walk in lysolaje

Praha - random post-museum bone measuring stuff (oly om2 + arista premium 400)

2009-08-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

on the film topic. Arista premium bought with some other off-branded films (arista.edu and legacy) proved to be very good film (as expected - it should be rebranded tri-x). all these shots from prague on iso 400 films came out so that I like them a lot. as I wrote in an earlier post, some dissatisfaction came from neopan 1600 shots on bright light and you'll see that later.

there were some shots from Plzen as well since we went for a weekend back home.

my dad and niece

ex sister-in-law (on left)

my lovely wife not willing to pose.

mum and adela (niece)

cerny most

I love these two shots

and this one

st. nicola's magic bar

and I love especially these three shots :-)

yes, I wanted it like this. not a focus failure

Flexaret IVa - test with brutal results

2009-08-15T20:11:00.001-07:00

this roll was photographic disaster. I was trying my newly acquired flexaret with 35mm film with an adapter and hence there is a bit complicated frame counter where you have to manually set tens exactly after the first shot from that decade, it happened to me twice that the camera got stuck and I had to take film out, reload the camera, progress to the original shot and continue. However, i did it once under the thick blanket and second time in the closet. when developed, it came obvious that the light sneaked in and ruined the roll. it does not bother too much since I always expect nothing serious from test rolls and moreover, all my color rolls were partially fucked up even in the lab, leaving dried out crystals on it showing as white dots when scanning. I could you ICE technology but I don't do it since it leaves traces of processing. Rather, i much prefer manual retouching even if it is very time consumptive. I went through retouching with my other color rolls from Czech (already posted or will be) but not with this one. the only picture I did is the first one since it was not fucked with the light and I somehow like it. Because of the above mentioned problems, I'm including only 6 shots as a preview to what should not happen again :-)

anthropology lab

triple expo, not cropped

Praha - Plzen (oly xa, xtra 400) another roll

2009-08-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

Vodičkova st. in Prague. it was pouring and I was waiting for Zac and Jana's brother to have with them Zac's bachalor's party before he got married with Jana. It was fun but since I had to wait for them almost 2 hours I was shooting around with oly xa. the other stuff is from Plzen - just random shots.

traditionally, after roll insertion. always expected that the shot will be waisted by the lab and it almost always is :-) (usually they destroy more than just this one though)

he played in the subway, probably went to have an performance and was going through the stuff.

national museum

kostka ledu = ice cube

my occasional problem with oly xa - finger stuck into the shot

plzen

Praha - Plzen (oly xa, xtra 400)

2009-08-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

this is Konstantin (http://nerdsinparties.wordpress.com/). we've met when he was shooting me shooting with my newly acquired flexaret 4a. we had a chance to talk a bit in a bar and it was a pleasure.

in Prague. late afternoon walk.

I cought that plane. was waiting till it flies around for a bit.

oly xa and the sharpness it can deliver.

back in Plzen

silky smooth barley (as I were corrected by Zuza :-) )

back in Prague again. my sister-in-law previous housing.

and Plzen again

friend and colleague Daniel

Plzen - Decin (canon, sigma 24, neopan 1600)

2009-08-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

this roll's favorite. my grandparents.

jakub in the restaurant discussing with me....well, what else than cameras....

a shop

Pilsen's synagoge

theatre

nice guy :-)

my parents neighbor's kids with my niece (below)

grilling - let there be a fire

the main fireman (my dad)

Decin, Plzen, Praha

2009-08-08T22:24:00.001-07:00

Jakub in the "editor's pick" section.

this roll was shot with olympus Om2n with Arista premium 400 ("redressed" tri-x 400).

on the way to visit grandparents in Decin

back in Plzen. in the coffeshop.

and in Praha, Horni Pocernice where we spent 2 weeks in the museum depository measuring bones.

Praha - downtown

with Jakub in the restaurant. I shot him (editors pick), he shot me back with my camera.

Lysolaje - Praha. we stayed with my sister-in-law.

back in Horni Pocernice. the museum depository is on the land that used to serve for circuses as a winter stationary.

Lysolaje

back home - the whole summer story

2009-08-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

I finally got back to NOLA (mainly because of the gross anatomy course I have to take in the fall semester) with a lot of film material from back home and then from Portugal where we went for a field excavations. I'll comment more throughout the posts I will make.

Regarding this roll, I have a found a lab (small one person lab) in Pilsen and so far I was satisfied with the work he did for me (developing mostly) even though the prices are a bit higher. However, within past 2 months I gave like 7 rolls (3 BW, 3 color 35mm and one 120) and was very disappointed with the work. BW 35mm rolls came fine but 120 is a disaster. He probably did not do the fixing process well and the emulsion is just sliding off of the film. I shot my grandparents and would love the pictures if not damaged. I scanned them anyway and it looks like a "serious art" (or at least some) :-). In case of 35mm color negatives, I got them back with a lot of dried crystals stuck on the film and as a result I had to spend 2 days retouching the scans (what a boring work). I left one roll unretouched, so you'll see. I'll comment on it later when I get to that roll.

my grandparents

as I said: "serious art" of flowing emulsion. F...

"editor's pick" and new bronica etrsi testing

2009-05-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

ok, some more news. From now onwards, I decided to introduce every entry (usually roll) with my own "editor's pick" shot. I usually put pics here in chronological order but will choose one that I consider best, most interesting etc. Even if I did it ocassionally before, I will do it rigorously from now.

another thing is that I have bought bronica etrsi in beautiful condition with 120 and 220 backs also in perfect state. I put a roll of neopan 400 in it and the results are superb for me. I just love medium format. The only exception is the first shot of the roll which got somehow damaged (either in lab or by me in the camera, but more probably in lab :-) ).

and the last thing is that I'm now off of my regular home (NOLA) for three months and importantly, without a scanner. So, it means this is probably the last roll untill late august (unless I'll find some more interesting stuff in my pc or will shoot also digital).

brian's Homo erectus reconstruction with the pencil added by me indicating they were pretty smart :-)

the place will be explained on the next frame

I shot some IDs as well :-)

toilette

it is really hard to stop the water dropping from that, believe me.

and also, I bought some more olympus gear for Jakub - Om2 and vivitar series 1 24-48mm

and something for myself - olympus om-pc. A backup body

my cicik posing

exp. 1999

2009-05-09T22:28:00.001-07:00

ok, today's story. two days back, I loaded a roll of neopan ss into the nikon fm2n with the intent to test 28mm lens on black and white. I took just few shots and decided to do a "whole roll" series with continuous shooting on canon A2e and wanted to reload the same roll onto the latter camera. However, one of our Czech friends here had a yard sale this morning and she had some photo items for sell. I picked plastic bag full of films. There were some kodaks, some unknown rebranded films of various speeds (100-400), all in color. As expected, they all were outdated. Have to say that a lot! But anyway, I gave her 5 bucks for like 15 rolls of film, so it was just worth to do it. I wanted to try film of that age. As a result, I decided to change my plans and loaded a Kodak gold 100 with expiration of 5/1999. Shot the roll with some help from my "kocur". And results?

have to say, pretty good. Don't have any feeling that the film would perform significantly worse than new. On the other side, I realized what are the problems of outdated film when I got it from the lab. First of all, it bends along its longitudinal axis making it difficult to scan. It is right now between pages of large book with hope it will stay flat. We'll see tomorrow. The second big problem is that it is prone to catch dust particles. It can be caused either by changed properties of the film with time or just simply by the old emulsion produced in 90'. I don't know but I spent much more time with cleaning the film before scanning than usual (which is pretty boring, especially if the dust is still coming back again and again).

special note for Jakub. I changed labs and now, I'm going back to that one on Tchoupitoulas where I started to go when we lived in our first place here in NOLA. And guess what? No red stripes - anywhere. Moreover, those people there still remember me which is nice. On the dark side, the lady who did the job today scratched the film more than usual and I had to retouch the scans (and it sucks).

ok, that's the story. BTW, all shot with sigma 24/2.8

ok, not the whole roll got wasted on "kocur". we switched and here are some more "funny" shots :-)

that's all folks, yadidadida.

experimenting with new nikon 28/3.5 and 24/2.8 sigma lenses

2009-05-05T22:15:00.001-07:00

I took fuji superia x-tra 400, loaded to nikon and took new 28/3.5 lens for testing. In the middle of the roll, I changed it to the canon A2e and shot with sigma 24mm lens. Multiple exposures come obviously from Nikon. This is my intentional triple ID exposure. Came out well, I guess. Color original below (in its original position on the roll).

some comments on films. the difference in color rendering between kodak and fuji has been mentioned by us before, however, this time I have even a feeling that especially the nikon lens renders very cold colors. On the other hand, it seems to be surprisingly sharp. Sigma test on color film revealed slighly more vivid colors and nice sharpness as well (on pictures that are focused well :-) ).

canadian club whiskey

this roll is overrated for IDs :-). non-traditional one.

traditional one

on campus sitting and drinking coke after some excercise in recreational center

perfect sharpness, cold colors. still nikon lens

I tried to play with multiple exposures

the car was loaded and at the same time "unloaded" internally

In all multiple exposures I tried to make correct exposure for the first pic and then underexpose the subsequent one(s) to get clear shot with double expo shadows. Obviously it did not work in this case well.

nikon's sharpness and fuji's (or nikon's) lack of color vividity

the original (cut though, because there was an overlap of frames from changing the film between cameras). from this point down it is on canon and sigma lens.

I'm really satisfied with it.

especially like it in this shot (and the shot itself).

some arm posing to make the boredom less bored

we had really good siesta in the afternoon.

I actually like those two shots of me and it does not happen too often. This one happened to be a little bit out of focus (don't know why) but still ok.

ok, that's all. evidence proved these two lenses are worth of having.