Today:

Haven't posted anything here in ages, but at least I'm writing now.

I find it too time consuming to switch back and forth from Flickr and here, so I'm just going to say that if you want to see parts of my shoots, just go to my Flickr account and view there.

Today's shoot was near Mt. Prospect, and was - well, similar to some of the shots I took around my place!
They came out magnificent, and I finally got the chance to understand what a CPL (Circular Polarizing Filter) does!

It's amazing, except that Nikon made ones run anywhere from $120 - $ 220 + depending on filter size.. *sigh*

In other news, I need myself an MB-D10 Grip, asap.

Adventures, Adventures!

As I'm writing this, 210+ shots are being converted from .Raw to .Jpeg. Wow, can you say lots of shooting?
Well, as I've said in my last posts, Monday would bring about something new, somewhere new that I have never been before.

I can't tell much about the location, just that it was one hell of an experience, from getting in, to getting out.
Here's the story.

Monday woke up to an abrupt message asking if I was still up for the task; in fact, I couldn't wait any longer. I had a chance to shoot with someone who knows photography just as well as I do, as well learn something from him as well. The location: Chicago. Everyone knows the best way to get to Chicago is by Metra, so I hopped on  the closest 10 A.M. train to Chicago, not having to pay anything on the way there, and got news by my friend that his train was running a little late. No problem, I'll just wait for him at my station. He arrived shortly, and after what seemed a quick ten seconds, we moved out.

The weather: Let's say it wasn't anything spectacular for a day at the beach; however, for a photographic opportunity, well, that blended in quite well. Chicago had thunder all over it, and the lightning struck so hard and so often, that you'd be mad to go in the middle of an open field. Luckily though, just skyscrapers.. This comes in later.. because as we were heading towards our location, lightning literally struck two feet behind us. It was a terrifying experience, seeing as how you could just hear and feel the "shock" and the heat; made your heart beat faster than it ever has before.

The Location: First thing my friend said was that 20 or so people got shot there last weekend; isn't that a nice piece of advice? After much thought, dedication, and effort, we decided: hell, it's worth it and hopped on the Green Line. After receiving word from a fellow commuter that the place wasn't that bad seeing how the weather was horrid, we put our fears behind us.

By this time, outside was drizzling, a cool breeze but annoying to get on our equipment. There were many "inconvenient" confrontations with Chicago bums, who I honestly despise and believe need to get a job rather than to ask me every time for 'money to feed their children.' I've had enough of such bullshit, but that's for another time.

The place was one of the hardest places to get into, just because of the climbing, barbed wires, and stairs which had actually no stairs.. just a massive drop to the ground where you'd be sure to die. After getting inside, we saw the vibrant colors of graffiti, swear words, and the whole bunch. The day started off with cautious glances, and talking to a whisper. The whole location was explored from bottom up, and each floor had its own limitations, possibilities, and dangers. Dangers and limitations go here for a number of reasons. The floors were so old, they could collapse any second. There were dangerous man-holes in the middle of nowhere, and an elevator shaft that would go down five floors - fall in one of these, and there you go. Now you MIGHT think: "psh, climbing stairs, so easy." - But do it with a camera body on your side, bag of gear on your back, and looking down and seeing a massive 10 foot drop below you. Think again.

It all seemed so easy to get to, except that some places had stairs - without stairs. It required the use of strength to lean onto bars, carefully placing feet on the sides of the stairs not even three inches out, and getting back down when you were done with the area wasn't as easy as you might think. Now you MIGHT say: "psh, climbing stairs, so easy." - But do it with a camera body on your side, bag of gear on your back, and looking down and seeing a massive 10 foot drop below you. I guarantee you'll think again.

The Area: Some places smelled as if they were inhabited with an aroma of beer, unexplainable aromas, and one office room smelled... well, decent! All over the place, there were dark rooms, where you'd dare not enter with only a party of two - even if you had flashes to light up the places, the fear of somebody killing you was always possible.

The walls were lined up with graffiti, and the raindrops against the glass windows, as well as raindrops from leaky rooftops didn't help the setting either. Everywhere you went, you stepped in glass, shit that looked like cocaine, and the whole bunch. While exploring the upper areas, I stepped full force into a board that had nails, making an old-rusty nail enter my foot; luckily, wasn't bleeding - however, didn't want to take any chances so I used some cologne to disinfect any bacteria in there.

The whole scene was incredible. It felt as if you were the only ones there (which we were) - the rooftops looked magnificent, and outwards you could see the CTA lines, the buses, the cars - everything. Look up and you had the whole sky, everything - to yourself.

It turned out that the place wasn't as half bad as we believed or maybe, just maybe, we got lucky this time. I'm sure we'll finish exploring next time, but for now, my feet are killing me, I've walked the whole day, and I just need rest.

In other notes: I finally was able to try out an L lens of Canon's, and I must say, the thing looks beastly. I'm not a fan of Canon's layouts, but for lenses, I'm all for them. A hard earned $700-1000 lens that looks and performs well is on my list. Using two bodies, a 30D and T1i, we recorded most of our adventure throughout that God-forsaken place to remember.

When I got back on the train home, I finally knew what it meant to be civilized once again. Coming from an abandoned location, where I was able to shatter glass, throw windows out broken windows, throw tubes against walls, and even spray paint the place with left over bottles, it was great. I'm sure this is enough writing, for now I'll post what I saw, SOOC - although the place looked so much more, well - magnificient, in my eyes than how the camera portrays it.

I loved it, and I'll post as many SOOC shots that I enjoy - the rest will be on Flickr.
Definitely going to more places like this over my summer break. Hope you enjoy.

The lighting on the last one was especially perfect.

What A Surprise!

After doing some quick conversions from .Raw to .Jpeg, I have to say that Irfanview is by far, the best batch converter of .Raw to .Jpeg files; use it and love it, definitely give it a try.

Today's weather was perfect, actually, this whole week's has been, and it's all better for me. Tomorrow should apparently be in the high 85's, something to look forward to!

Almost all of today's shots don't come from me, except for one. Klaudia had the camera, took around 70 or so pictures in less than half an hours time.. so I really wanted to see how many shutter actuations the old Nikon has. After being somewhat, stupid, and sticking my fingers in the shutter, I bent the shutter enough to well... you know, break it. After a hefty $150+ for such a discontinued camera, (the shutter that was damaged had over 8K + actuations and was working fine until I had to.. "clean-it" in my "early days" of photography. Well that was then, and as I finished uploading it to Flickr to see exactly how many actuations I have now, it turns out that I have exactly 8,410 shutter actuations! Seeing how 50,000 is the "specified" limit, I should continue shooting without problems :D! If my other one didn't fail, I don't see why this one is.

Well, on to the surprise. The surprise will be just a little bit below - the top pictures are mostly from earlier today.

Daisy's are finally in bloom, and what a pretty sight it is. A pretty sight indeed.

Well, Monday is right around the corner, and I hope all works well. The first two shots were taken by me, while the credit for the remaining images goes to Klaudia.

For any edited work, visit my Photostream

Here you'll be able to see what I consider to be the better shots of the group, almost always edited - with titles, descriptions, and all. 

Tonight:

After a long day of laughter, eating, passing by a Ferrari and having a close friend of mine poke fun of the driver for going 25 in a 35 because of harsh road conditions, we decided to head on back somewhere closer to home for some simple shots.


Haven't had the chance to take any long exposure shots in a while, really only because I don't like them. You have to be way too patient, and I have to say, I despise taking flash pictures. It's either daylight, or nothing. Shooting at f/1.8 doesn't really help, maybe if I had some VR lenses, but that's not part of the equation..


Nothing big here, nothing's edited, just the way some people like it. I've relied too heavily on editing lately, and Lightroom's Beta is about to expire any day now. [Please don't release the real version.. apparently when they do, the trial beta will become obsolete, although I don't understand how they could prevent you from accessing it]


View the images below, couple fire shots of tonight. Tried doing all sorts of fire shots, but for some reason they wouldn't come out well. Taken with a 35mm f/1.8G lens, $200 - and the kit 18-55mm for some (even though I don't like it -- feels too 'plasticy' in my hands)

These are nothing special, just some trial runs, because unlike everyone else that I know, I still haven't taken any real fire pictures. Wish more than anything I had a macro, these would have turned out superb.

Highlight of the weekend still has to be Monday though, and hopefully it won't get canceled.  I'll see what happens then, expect lots of images.

What's Up For This Weekend:

Here's the start to the Blog, and a start to my weekend:

So, Monday should be a fascinating day, traveling somewhere out of Chicago for some actual photography shots of abandoned buildings, model-work (hopefully!), etc.

Shooting with a friend, Canon guy. I'll get to try out his main and back-up, and tell you how the switch from a D40 to his model feels like. Having already tested the Xsi, I can tell that Canon has a strong line-up of well able cameras; except there's one problem for me. As Ken Rockwell says, Canon's have one major problem. Their button placement is all messed up. You can't delete pictures with only one finger - but hopefully it'll prove me wrong.

Being a loyal Nikon fan, I know that Nikon's button placement feels exceptional compared to Canon's.. 

Monday's pictures will be up, untouched, unedited and SOOC.

- For edited shots, in all their full glory of Adobe's Lightroom 3 Beta 2, check my flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/raresmdutu