19 Oct 2009
Another new Slideshow [BLACKBOX SERIES],
showing the journey from Reggio Calabria to Rome, as
well walking around in the city during thunderstorms
and having a good time, except for the 5 minutes i was
pissed off in the taxi (who cheated us) and the café (cappuccino).
Otherwise, it was simply awesome, and none of us was
late to take in the joy instead:-D
16 Oct 2009
A new Slideshow, available in the BLACK
BOX DIARY, which shows you our journey, the flights from
Stockholm - Praque - Rome - Reggio Calabria - Stromboli
(hydrofoil), with the impressions along the way.
Note:
The music is imbedded into the slideshow
16 Oct 2009
Daytime photos of the Volcano top and
surroundings, as well impressions from the night with
lots of light form the moon - which put Daniel into an
experimental (photo) mood, and then next morning sensual
impressions from Daniel while he was taking a nap
Note:
The music is imbedded into the slideshow
14 Oct 2009
Finally,
a major Slideshow is ready, the highlight of the Year
on my homepage - the FIRESTORMS AT STROMBOLI VOLCANO,
with is about the climbing onto the volcano up to 420
meter height to see the eruptions, as well the surprizing
arrival of wonderful thunderstorms - all captures with
the light from the (almost) full moon.
Note:
The music is imbedded into the slideshow
ENJOY !
And tell me that Daniel did a great job. I think he
made most stunning photos, with the eruptions combined
with the rapidly moving, puffy clouds over the top of
the Volcano.
8 October 2009
Another Gallery with Daniel's best friend
Jack, although this time more mixed with photos Daniel
and I made, since I met him that afternoon, too. Most
photos are taken with the brand new Canon EOS 7D, a 1.6x
cropfactor camera with 18 million pixels and ISO up to
12800. We took the babe for a spin that afternoon.
Note:
The music is imbedded into the
slideshow itself
6
October 2009
And so - finally - the first impressions
(slideshow) from the awesome Stromboli Volcano, based
on the photos from the first day/night of 5-6 September
2009 with photos Daniel and I made. Enjoy !
NOTE (8 Oct):
6 photos has been added in the
end of the slideshow
NOTE II (9 Oct):
Another 4 slides have been added with maps of Europe /
Italy / Stromboli, in order to visualize for you, where
Stromboli is located.
Note (9 Oct)
The music is imbedded into the slideshow itself, so it will play right from the
beginning.
4
October 2009
Entirely based on photos Daniel made
with the Canon EOS D1 Mark II and the EF 50 mm ƒ1.2
L, when he meets Jack again for the first time after
12 years. They where once best friends, while still living
in the US.
Another gallery will be added a little
later - but the photos where made with
the brand new Canon EOS 7D, which both
Daniel and I used on Jack :-D
Note:
The music is imbedded into the
slideshow itself
3
October 2009
Written Diary: Say
hello to EOS 7D
Daniel bought himself the new Canon flagship among 1.6x
crop factor cameras; the EOS 7D with 18 MP. It's reliable
in the autofocus department, gorgeous to hold/grip,
somewhat noisy but at the same time with so high resolution
that it's good for ISO 3200 and 6400 photos afterall.
But better then the high ISO files from the EOS D1
Mark II [8
MP] as well
EOS 1000D [10 MP]. Simply crispy
sharp photos - and awesome to use in many ways. Here
are my very first impressions, totally not objective
or leading in any way.
I think the EOS 7D is the best camera
for Daniel, with lots and lots of headroom to grow into.
A serious semi-pro camera with lots of potential for
him and the next 4-5 years.
NOTE:
The Written Diary; Iconviews for JULY
- AUGUST & OCTOBER are NOT installed yet.
1
October 2009
Finally some Updates
in the Written Diary
The last entry in my written Diary was 11 June. Now i
have added those i had written but never put out, from
June, July and August, as well an entry from 1 October
09, (today) with some impression from Stromboli Volcano
and Rome.
I will write more entries, on a more
regular basis for the time to come (because I feel it's
fun to do so, after the long time of absence)
Note: for future entries
in the Written Diary, you will see much more PHOTOS in
the text (long pages but fewer in general).
It's more fun to me to focus on text & photo, without
having to code several new pages for a single day. Also,
with more photos you get a better relationto the text
(if there is a connection in between, I mean)
25
September 2009
Bugs & Ghosts
A new Slideshow is available in the BLACK BOX DIARY.
The theme is more of a metaphor, and less of "reality".
I started to create the slideshow back in April 2009
but never finished it. Back then things where very
happy, at the same time also very unsettled. However,
nowadays my style of photography doesn't contain depressed
or melancholic elements - so i could never really finish
up the gallery. I guess i had/have to re-think in several
ways.
I do like making melancholic slideshows
/ photography - but i usually only do then when i am
down. But what do you do, when you are not really down
?! So, i am not really used to make a gallery that doesn't
reflect my mood (only in the past).
So, i guess you have to see melancholic
galleries more as a "metaphor" of my imagination / rather
then being a fingerprint from the present reality.
*
Daniel and I work wonderful together
in many ways - and share - what is for me - an unusual
amount of same interests - like making photography at
night, being fascinated of the night sky an milky way,
watching the volcano rumble and shoot lava into the sky,
and feel electrified from the view of wonderful thunderstorms.
Perhaps in not far distance, Daniel
may jump onto a Canon EOS 7D, which is more similair
to a professional D1 camera then any other model so far.
With photos that are sharp ! (Canon's entry models aren't
good in the autofocus department, and it's often a hit
or miss... which can be pretty frustrating - and i understand
him).
I'll go on with my D1 Mark II and Leica
M8 for another 3 years. But then we will se some serious
changes... with tools like the 18 MP EOS D1 Mark IV (rumour)
and the 18 MP Leica M9 fullframe camera - the camera
that the M8 should have been right from the beginning.
Enjoy the photos
and music in the BlackBox Gallery. The photos
streach over a period of time between March 2009 and
September 2009.
Raffe
20
September 2009
Back from Stromboli Volcano, Reggio Calabria and Rome
I only made a very small preview of some photos we made
on the Stromboli Volcano recently - a journey from
which we have returned. It was AWESOME - and most of
the time we spend awake - was at night. So... not exactly
the average type of vacation photos. (The little
photo preview you find on the main front-page, by simply
clicking on it)
Organizing ALL photos (around 3000)
took several days, also because Daniel and I now are
two people who make A LOT of photos, and i am maintaining
all the backups, indexfiles (so we find the photos),
and that is a lot of info that needs to be crunched though
the computer. Previews need to be read in and rebuilt...,
and anonymous files require the extraction of the EXIF
dates from the photos - to become the filename. Yes,
in all - it took almost a week. We now decided not to
separate our photos, to make it one step easier to maintain
a huge index of 30.000 files (a year), but also cleaning
up so that backups are easier to be made.
Daniel maybe is an amateur photographer,
still learning the technical aspects of photography,
the relationship between the emotional and technical
aspects in photography, simply in order to make better
photos. And he is good. Especially Stromboli marks an
era, which shows that Daniel can make simply stunning
photos, even i have to take off my hat. (I have no problems
with that). In fact, he made most of the ACTIVE VOLCANO
photos, not me ;-)
A new powerhorse
We are still waiting for our new MacPro
computer, which will replace my 5.5 y.o. PowerMac G5
Dual. This will certainly give welcome speed, especially
when it comes to working with photos, because Photoshops
CAMERA RAW plugin, has reached a point, where it is so
slow, that when i create galleries - it consumes more
time then what it did 3 years ago. It actually slows
down quite a lot, especially when you like me, work with
4 apps at the same time including photoshop, crunching
lots of photos.
So, my hope is to speed things up. On
the contrary, i also know that working on a brand new
computer usually first slows things down (I'll have to
shuffle many Terrabytes (!) from various disk back and
forth (the photo archive last time took 30 hours for
me to shuffle from one disk to another disk.... well,
though USB 2.0 i have to add. Hopefully I don't have
to do that, this time.
Regardless, after a month or so, things
should settle down and the real work begins. In the mean
time, i am working slowly on new galleries - which on
my old computer take time. I will focus on ONE GALLERY
at the time, because otherwise it grows over my head
on this old machine.
Oh and one more thing...
We go back to STROMBOLI VOLCANO in September
2010 for a whole of two weeks. We skip Rome entirely.
It's an amazing city - buy boy so expensive. Have you
ever bumped into a situation where you on a pretty normal
place - get a bill that says 9.20 EURO for ONE Cappuccino
? Made it 18.40 Euro or 27 US Dollar for two Cappuccinos.
I was SO PISSED, that i actually forgot
to go away and simply leaving the coffee behind without
paying it but it never came into my mind, simply to refuse
to dink a coffee for that price (since we hadn't touched
it yet when the bill came) Not even the expensive Hotel
Sheraton Rome had such prices. (3.5 Euro for a Cappuccino)
And i have never in my entire life been or seen a place
with that price.
And the incident with the black Taxi
- trying to cheat us - and on top, my entire equipment
fell out of the Taxi when they started to roll out of
the airport in Rome. Dude, that was hot... i mean, i
got really funny in my stomach.
Overexposed Rome...
So, Rome - while most beautiful and
fascinating - i also felt like a living number measured
in US Dollar and Euro, for most people that you come
in contact with. That didn't feel good, and once again,
my heart lies with the smaller cities like Reggio Calabria,
or Bologna, Lisbon, and places who are not capitols or
major cities with price levels where you have to ask
you... have we reached a limit of greediness ? Are prices
so high really motivated or human ? Why can't we make
prices, that favors both the seller and the tourist ?
A middle way, you know. Instead of pushing it over the
limits over and over again.
So, for me - no Paris, London, Milan,
Rome or other metropoles. It's crowded, and i am a living
wallet for most people you get in touch with. I accept
it the way it is - but that doesn't mean i have to walk
the same way.
Welcome BOLOGNA. Daniel and I go there
in the end of march 2010, over the weekend. Welcome LISSABON,
although no date has been set. Welcome.... Stromboli.
OK, stromboli is expensive, like Stockholm and a little
bit more. But an amazing island. Welcome ZADAR in Croatia.
(I read an article about it today. Daniel and I intend
to go to Croatia next year, or 2011. This would put me
into the situation of having to fresh up my croatian
language (which isn't much, but still more words then
i can do in Portuguese. I can count in croatian language,
as well order things and ask for the price *LOL* And
i can swear in croatian language, like an angry seabull.
(What is that anyway ?!) I couldn't find any other word
for the moment. Have to rush. Coffee with daniel in town,
and then going to work though the night at the train
depot.
muá (spanish kiss)
Raffe
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