My Photography

My Photography (99) — Meerkat Squirrel, Warsaw, Poland, 2007

July 29, 2020 · 12:18

This shot is not only has terrible composition, but it’s also very soft and underexposed (thank you RAW!), however this squirrel is much too adorable to not post it. I did have only a second or so to take the photo, so there’s that, but I have to admit, the quality difference in DSLR sensors has come a long way in recent years.

Shot with Canon 10D + EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS: 185mm, f/2.8, 1/250s, ISO 400.

My Photography (98) — Missed Focus, Warsaw, Poland, 2007

July 28, 2020 · 09:14

The shot above (as well as the one below) were both shot on the same day as “Looking On” from yesterday, but these are an example of two failures on my part. The squirrels in Warsaw’s Royal Łazienki Park often take on the funniest of poses, but they only hold them for a second or less. This means that there’s barely any time to focus, let alone manually correct. I managed to take these two shots and they were separated by only 0.04 seconds (not a typo; 4 hundredths of a second; the shot above was taken at 14:03:44 and the one below at 14:03:48, which you can check in the EXIF). This is a prime example of why the Canon 10D never cut it for fast-paced shots — it’s AF just couldn’t keep up, back-focusing on the first shot and front-focusing on the second.

Shot with Canon 10D + EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS: 200mm, f/2.8, 1/320s, ISO 400.

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My Photography (96) — Barcelona, Spain, 2007

July 23, 2020 · 09:04

I have been to Barcelona a few times but have yet to understand why so many people love this city. Sure, there are some pretty amazing things to see, but as a whole, it has nothing that attracts my interest, which is strange, since I usually find something to love about a place. And yes, this includes the Basílica de la Sagrada Família, from which I took this photo.

Shot with Canon 10D + EF 24-70 mm f/2.8L: 30mm, f/8, 1/400s, ISO 100.

My Photography (93) — Neuschwanstein Castle, Schwangau, Germany, 2006

July 20, 2020 · 09:01

Built in the 19th century, this was the most “technologically” advanced castle of its time, with toilets on every floor, equipped with automatic flushing systems, a central heating system, and many more amenities. It also inspired the castle you often see in Disney’s title card. It is much more impressive in person and I consider it a must-see.

Shot with Canon 10D + EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS: 200mm, f/8, 1/320s, ISO 100.

My Photography (88) — Auschwitz-Birkenau, Memorial and Museum, Oświęcim, Poland, 2005

July 3, 2020 · 11:12

This was probably the saddest and most tragic place that I have ever been in — it changed my perspective on so many things. I can still remember exactly what I felt back then, even though 15 years have passed.

This is a place everyone should visit at least once in their lifetime, especially as current political events unfold worldwide.

Shot with Canon 10D + EF 24-70 mm f/2.8L: 46mm, f/8, 1/500s, ISO 100.

My Photography (83) — Eye, Wrocław, Poland, 2004

June 8, 2020 · 13:26

I don’t recall why I entered this particular building in the older part of Wrocław’s city centre, but I’m glad I did, because this old staircase was truly stunning. It was pretty dark inside and I barely saw that the underside of the stairs was painted, and only after exposing the shot for a few seconds, I realised what my naked eye had missed.

Shot with Canon 10D + EF 16-35 mm f/2.8L: 29mm, f/8, 4s, ISO 100.

My Photography (81) — A Pigeon Visiting The Zoo’s Bengal Tiger, Wrocław, Poland, 2003

May 21, 2020 · 09:02

Wrocław’s zoo is one of the most beautiful ones in Europe, assuming you don’t mind seeing animals in captivity. Going there in late Autumn wasn’t a good idea, but I did want to test my new telephoto lens, so naturally, my best shot was of a pigeon, which was there looking for food.

Shot with Canon 300D + EF 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS: 130mm, f/4, 1/250s, ISO 400.

Wrocław’s zoo also has Bengal tigers→

My Photography (80) — The Train from Kandy to Ella, Sri Lanka, 2020

May 11, 2020 · 10:06

We took the morning train from Kandy to Ella and it wasn’t an easy journey — the train was full packed with people. I regret that we didn’t take the night train, which arrives in Ella in the morning and is supposedly close to empty. This is the train that I wrote about earlier. If we were to do this route again, I would definitely get on the train in Nanuoya and get off in Ella, to shorten the journey and still get to see all the wonderful views.

Shot with Sony A7R II + FE 28 mm f/2: f/5.6, 1/60 s, ISO 100.

My Photography (78) — Paneláks, Wałbrzych, Poland, 2003

April 2, 2020 · 13:04

Now that I’m looking through all of my older DSLR photos, I can see how much work I put into experimenting with long exposures at various times of day — something which I avoided doing on film (I was too impatient to wait for the film to be developed and it wasn’t exactly cheap back then either, to just throw away 24 or 36 shots on a simple cityscape).

This shot above was taken in Wałbrzych, in southwestern Poland, presenting the wonderful architecture of paneláks1 (a word which I just learned today) and that white monstrosity, called a church by some.

Shot with Canon 300D + EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6: 18mm, f/3.5, 5s, ISO 100.

  1. In Poland, they are called “bloki” (blocks) or “wielka płyta” (the great panel). ↩

My Photography (77) — University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland, 2003

April 1, 2020 · 14:24

This was one of my first proper long exposure shots ever. A DSLR made this so much easier, especially since small exposure corrections were so easy to do, at practically no cost — all I needed was some more space on my CF card. I was so proud of this photo at the time, that I actually went to a lab and had it transferred onto a slide. I later presented it to our local photography group and they couldn’t believe it was a digital photo. And it has only 6 MP at that, from a JPG (I hadn’t yet switch to RAW at this time)!

Shot with Canon 300D + EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6: 21mm, f/8, 5s, ISO 100.