9/12/2008 - Japan 2010

An uncommon tourist in Japan or a short pilgrimage


Breaking up the trip from Slovakia (the country of my birth) to my homecountry (Australia) is highly recommended, cutting the jetlag into half and experiencing new world for a brief period.

Many asked me, where is your camera, all your equipment; how is it possible you are not snapping away your life? Being an uncommon tourist and a professional full time photographer changes the approach to new places. Considerably.


Equipment on the trip: Canon EOS 5D Mk2 with 50mm F1.8 Canon EF lens. That's all. No fancy lenses, no backup cameras, not even a lens cap as it got lost some time ago. The question arises: is that really enough? I have to point out, that there are very few things that are worth taking photographs of (for myself) and unless there is no purpose for the photograph, even the best photograph is worthless. And of course, unless I am not able to create photograph that I like with the 50mm lens, should I have all other focal lenghts with me? As you all know, 50mm lens is the closest to our human sight and it makes you think before you take the photograph. It's light, sharp and cost almost nothing to replace. And if you make up your mind, there is virtualy no need for any other lenses unless you are looking (inside your mind) for something very specific.


Japan on the other note is amazing country. The people are different to any other nation on the world on a scale that is unimaginable before you encounter it in person. So is the history and culture. Medieval castles from the EU translate into Shogunate castles in Japan, extremely large fortresses that have few similarities with the european culture, but once you walk through, you can feel the power of the place, the indominable feeling of smallness and still most castles in Japan were defeated by other warlord masters.


One of the best possible places to feel the original power of the fortresses is Himeji Castle. Unlike the Imperial Palace in Tokyo that has fantastic walls around an empty courtyard with few buildings to lead through the past, unlike the Osaka Castle looking amazingly authentic from distance but close inspection shows a concrete museum that only resembles the feeling from the distance, Himeji Castle is as authentic as it gets. It has been reconstructed, but in a special way - taken apart piece by piece, fully documenting purpose of the smallest parts, replacing the rotten and destroyed pieces of wood and then rebuilding it into it's original state. You have to take off your shoes (carrying them consequently in plastic bag with you) and start your journey through the castle, wooden fortress and it's 7 storeys full of power, history, feelings and on the top of the castle, great views. Views, that can be only accessed today, where the most powerfull people used to reside and rule.


Fantastic view on world from different angle is Japanese religion. You'll ask them and the answer is "atheist". But when you are born, you belong to "Shinto", original native Japanese religion. When you get married, most people use the services of christian churches and once your days are ending, you have a buddhist funeral to lead you to your next life. There are no fights, no religious struggle, just peace with three rather different philosophical views. Admirable indeed.



Thanks to Kazuko, Aki, Ondrej and other great people I met in Japan that lead me through my journey.

  9/12/2008 - The morning without sleep

How does really the landscape photographer's life work?


A good friend with the same quest as one of my projects: "Coastal Magic" - the Coastal beauty of NSW - is enough to plan, equip, think and photograph one of the most beautiful places around NSW out of normal planing for this project.

It all started that early afternoon, when my friend (Thomas) picked me up - and we left together for Bateau Bay. It was easy to find the hotel to get very important few hours sleep, it was more difficult to find a place to buy a good bottle of wine but luckily not too difficult. After a tasteful dinner, I needed to scout the black night bay which would be photographed next morning at an unholy hour. The walk lasted for good two hours and although I didn't see much with the torch being the only light source, I have acquired a feeling for few good places.

Why to look at night and not just walk straight to the photoshoot in the morning? The reason is simple. Although I prefer (and highly recommend) more scouting time, even through the darkness I was able to select 3 different and very important places where I wanted to photograph the sunrise - if the conditions were right and the tide was low enough to get there without being washed out into the ocean with the equipment.

After that refreshing walk, we both got good 4 hours of sleep. Why so little? I had to wake up at 4am in the morning and get to the selected spot before there was any light in the sky - the sunrise was set to 4.45am just before the sunrise the light is beautifuly soft. When the sun started rising out of the ocean, I was already on another place that was better for the sunrise than the spot before, which was better for the dusk light.

The sunrise is always shorter than the sunset. I was lucky that it was low tide that morning and thanks to my friend, who was carying my equipment when necessary and running away when I didn't want him around in my photographs, I could concentrate only on capturing the sunrise. The first place was on the plateau that is usually under the water, then moving straight to the ocean - and being lucky with waves that didn't take me with the cameras into the ocean to get second set of shots. Few sets of photographs, twice, three times - the sun is coming up so fast that by the time I turn the camera back to the first spot, the light has changed so dramatically that the photograph will be very difficult and sometimes impossible to produce the photograph.

The third spot was aiming towards the beach. The reason was simple, in that short half hour after sunrise, the sun has risen high into the sky and it was too bright and the rest of the beautiful view too dark considering the available camera's dynamic range. But the light is still beautifully warm and pointing the camera away from the sun allowed me to capture the beach in it's full lenght lit by the golden rays.

Although I was already happy with how things went, Thomas asked me to re-take a beach view as he showed it to me on computer screen before. That was an interesting task as recreating is not impossible but you always get different result. For this we had to wait until the sun was up in the sky. I spotted a good place - a wooden stairs and walkway to the beach that was elevated with almost unobstructed views. There were people walking to and from the beach but except that, an excellent spot. The sun was already high in the blue sky, as it gets during the lunch time and I was there, blocking all traffic creating couple of more good looking 360 degree panoramas.

This was the end of the photoshoot but you might ask, how is it possible that I create many photographs, turn the camera multiple times on one spot. The reason is simple. This is very, very important step, but a second (after the scouting) and not any more important that the post-production, creation of the photographs and finalizing the end products that are ready for printing (which is actually the last real step before a photograph is ready). Many created photographs don't cut, it's hard to imagine 360 degree view as we humans don't see that wide, fitting the photographs together considering the changes in light and final retouching and color correcting - an amazing amount of work that produces very few useable and excellent photographs. But those are worth all the time. And those I enjoy sharing with you.

This photographs are part of a set "Coastal Magic" capturing the NSW coast sunrises. It might take few years to finish and will be available as fine art prints.

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  23/09/2008 - The ultimate photographer's backpack

Notes and experience on the choice of the most essential support equipment in photography


Choosing my ultimate backpack was as difficult as buying a lens, tripod or any other part of equipment.

I went through virtually hundreds of web-sites, ranging from companies, that make the backpacks, webs that discuss the quality and usability of backpacks and many forums. The forums on the web are most of the time hard to understand as people tend to slip from the main topic or just tell you their conclusions, not necessarily telling you both sides of the deal.

At that time after reading all this material, which took me well over a month to do, I ended up with a selection of options, all from Lowepro. Every photographer knows them and most of us have one or two pieces of their amazing stuff. That choice was Lowepro Photo Trekker II AW.

It's a big backpack, carrying almost everything I ever needed in terrain. It has got all the adjustable belts, deep pockets and bells and whistles as we expect and of course, the built quality is suberb.

Actually, this was my third Lowepro backpack, first one was just a smaller shoulder bag, replaced by Dryzone Rover. That was great backpack, verstatile and the space on top for anything you need was great but later it was just too small for the cameras and other equipment that I deemed required for everyday jobs.

Now you would think that that was it and I have found my ultimate backpack. I actually thought so for a moment and it was a great feeling. But like anything in photography, not everything is good for all possibilities. It is a great backpack, I still own it and I will not get rid of it in any case as for some specific situations it's just the best choice, but I noticed that it is little bid too big and heavy for everyday's life.

That's a little problem, when you notice this as I did my homework and I didn't find any other really useable options.

Time changes things and brings new technologies. Good thing is that within photography there are not many "spunky" thinks, most of the equipment is to the point. Professionals don't need pink cameras. Actually, I never saw one but I am sure there will be at least one in USA.

Researching again for almost two weeks I stumbled upon an interesting option, that I disregarded before. Tamrac. Company, that makes photographic backpacks... differently.

Looking at their products range for a small backpack, smaller than my daily Lowepro Photo Trekker II, there were actually few and comparing again to similar sizes in Lowepro products, I found one that could just do better than any other. First thought was that it's just too small, but reading the specifications, that it fits camera with long telephoto lens fitted, another camrera body and few smaller lenses, plenty of pockets for additional accessories (that Lowepro actually doesn't offer at all) I thought that althugh I never used one or saw one in my whole life, might give it a shot. It wasn't expensive, at some $175 AUD it was an easy thing but still, unknown waters..

It is Tamrac Expedition 4 model.

After I paid for it, I started to adjust it straight on the counter and I managed to fit in (with difficulties) what they said I will be able to. Now that didn't make me happy. It felt.. different. The good news are that after I started using it, the backpack actually stretched. Somehow it did but not on the outside. It really looks like I am shooting with some compact camera, it's so small. But after more time, I was able to fit inside not only a Canon 5D with battery pack, 70-200mm F2.8 IS lens, two 580EX II flashes, 16-35mm F2.8 Canon lens, another 50mm F1.8 Canon lens, two extra batteries, another batteries for the flashes, ST-E2 flash remote control and STILL there is some space left - and wait! That's only the main compartment. Then I have reflector, a warm vest for the evenings, that's the big compartment at the back but wait! There is more. There are another two extra small zip pockets for cards, batteries and whatever small you can fit in there. And; bigger pocket down the bottom. They say that it's for tripod although I can't really imagine sticking any tripod in there, but it's big enough for a small diary, pens and quite few other things. Now that's a lot of things in a backpack that looks very, very small - you wouldn't really consider me a professional on the first glance.

The cherry on the top of the cake is, that the zipper is just.. smooth. It's almost flying. I understand that Lowepro is protecting the inside of the backpack by putting weather sealed zipper, but as the Tamrac realized, you need fast, and I mean fast access to your equipment at all times and then some extra protection - what Tamrac solved by piece of overlapping weatherproof fabric that goes over the top of the zipper - in case you require it.

This seems to be the ultimate everyday's backpack for me. And the Lowepro Photo Trekker II AW is the ultimate for longer treks.

Ah, and the Tamrac Expedition 4 also carries well.

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  23/09/2008 - The Prints in Photography

A reaction to article that appeared on my favorite photography website www.luminous-landscape.com and a reflection on the state of photography.


The technology in our world is better, newer and enables us to do things faster - this all changes our lives. To good, to bad, or just towards the new.

When the internet became a worldwide affair, many said that there won't be any need for books and there won't be anyone reading the books because everything would be on-line. As we all know, this never happened, the internet articles are there and you know that everyday there are many new great books published - and bought.

Digital cameras were ment to change the world - and they did. In a way. They did take away that specific aura of photographers as today everyone thinks they are photographers. Still, they are not. Not until they spend years and years of doing photography and from those that choose this path only few are talented enough but first and most, have business-like mind to become The Photographer. The question remains, considering how many other cash opportunities are there in front of us, is it really worh it? Answer is simple. Not, if you do not LOVE photography.

Some of us, that do photography, are overexcited with new technology. Gadgets, marvels, masterpieces.. And they also lose the very important connection with reality, which is very simple. It doesn't matter what kind of camera you have. It doesn't matter what kind of software you use or if you use film or digital. It never did.

What matters is what is inside you as a human being, as a photographer. What do you want to show? What do you want to achieve? Do you really need that $3K lens to do that job? Or is a pinhole camera actually just everything you need for this current job or session? I sort of doubt that many will ask this question (although many professionals do).

Back to the future.

A photographer said that there will be no more prints in the world and there will be only electronical displays. The best ones, that will show true colors, the best screens in the world.

I can only disagree.

There is only one way of presenting your photographs to the people that you want to share your work with. The print. You as a photographer already know, that you have to select only the best photographs otherwise you will bore the onlooking audience to death. That's a good start, but.. can you present your photographs in electronic form? Is the answer yes? In a way. Even if you had the best screens displaying true AdobeRGB gamut, displays that will be as large as you want the public to see your photographs, it's not enough. Let's get to the point.

Imagine a great photograph. You know it's great, you took it. It has great colors, amazing contrast and all important factors just worked for you. Next step is processing the photograph. Raw is the fist and basic step with amazing amount of options. Photoshop or any alternative is step two, masking, layers, retouching, you can do it all. At this point the photograph looks 40% better than the original, and you said it yourself, the original was good. Now for some this is the end step, upload it on-line and please, everyone, go and have a look.

Consider that every single screen shows different colors, different size and suddenly some photographers will start thinking, is this really the way I want to share the inside of myself, this photograph with others? No!

Calibrating your own screen for the most truthfull (and still only approximate) display of the colors brings you to the last and actually most important part, the print. There are many options and questions that you have to answer before you start printing, all regarding the printers, papers, alternative media, profiles etc. But when you pass all this difficult although very often times exciting options, you can start sharing. Sharing in the way you want to share, the way you want the public to see what you have to show. It doesn't matter what kind of printer, paper, ink you choose (considering the professional options as you don't want your prints to fade within a week). What matters is that you have expressed yourself fully and that what you hold in your hands is the final yourself captured in time.

Can it be the electronic screen to show your print, here, where you are reading this text from?

I don't think so.

PS: It looks somewhat darker on my sister's computer screen. And it's way overexposed on my bosses mac at work.

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