Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega
Originally uploaded by Szczur

I was lucky enough to catch a free concert whilst on a week long visit to Kolobrzeg on the Polish coast. The headline performer was Suzanne Vega and the concert was great. The only problem was a power cut that affected much of the town and, sadly, shut down the show during "Tom's Diner". Luckily this was the last planned song (at least according to the technicians) so there wasn't much lost.

I thought it was about time I posted another of Frodo's travel pictures. As you will recall, Frodo is not a Hobbit in this instance but my Mother-in-Law's dog. He has a knack for turning up in odd places and a still odder manner of finding someone around to document it.

This time, ol' Frodo has been to the Antarctic, to Weddell Sea to be exact. The penguins are, he says, all very friendly though they all seem to be called Horace which only serves to compound his confusion at their unvarying appearance.

A couple of days ago, a Polish plane crashed in Russia killing the Polish President, his wife, 86 other functionaries including all the military chiefs (Chief of Staff and Commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force) various politicians and clergymen and aides of all kinds, besides all that, 8 crew members. 96 folks in all, a real tragedy. According to the local newspapers, folks on the internet are cashing in - selling black t-shirts with tasteless slogans, or odd internet domain names. OK, I know that's all in poor taste but wait.... what about the journalists who spent time looking for such things in order to complain about them loudly in the pages of their respective publications? Who stands to make more money? The guy selling shirts or the guy selling papers about guys selling shirts? Hmm? Who is the lowest slime? The guy cashing in on other folks' misfortune or the guy drawing everyone's attention to him when normally nobody would even notice him? Hmm? Come on journo's.... get in touch with the warm and sensitive human being lurking somewhere deep inside your tattered and bloodied souls and give everyone a break. At times like this, the least the victims' families are going to want is you, dragging their hardships around the market square and yelling "Read all about it" through your tabloid megaphones.

I bet none of you are called Horace.

So, as promised, here is another of Frodo's travel
photos. Frodo tells me that this was taken
in the Bahamas. Apparently its a place called Taino Beach. It isn't always so quiet he says, but as a rule dogs are not allowed to run around without a leash.

Frodo is my mother-in-law's dog. He's a small brown creature known as a Bavarian Hound. You can see him in the foreground of this photo of the Taj Mahal. Frodo, you see, has become a traveller. Being 9 years old, Frodo has decided to retire and travel the world. He has promised me photos from all his exploits. His aim is to run around the entire world and to post as many photos to me as he can. I have agreed to re-post some of these pictures here, along with the junk I occassionally include here.
Returning to this photo: Frodo tells me that his visit to India introduced him to various interesting things and a great many beautiful places. He also tells me that Hindu shrines are of great interest, and some confusion. Frodo tells me that dogs recognise no gods and that he'd only just got used to the idea of a single god, as recognized by religions such as Christianity and Islam. Hinduism, it seems, threw him completely as he'd not imagined there could be a whole pantheon of gods. From a purely doggy point of view, Frodo tells me that all the gods and goddesses he encountered had completely unique smells (very important to a dog) but, I think I'll leave that particular point open to interpretation.

Portrait

Portrait
Originally uploaded by Szczur

A May Bug... The Melolontha species are beetles of the scarab family. From May until early to mid July these beasties take to the air every evening at dusk - sometimes in dozens, hundreds or even thousands - searching for mates. The buzzing of their wings is like the hum of high voltage power lines. Having mated, many times, the beetles die off, but not until they have laid eggs in the ground. The eggs hatch into larvae which spend years in development, usually between 20 cm and 1 m below the surface and feeding on plant roots. When they mature, the beetles surface and feed on leafy trees such as birch. When the beetles get tired, nearby amateur photographers set up their tripods and set nice long exposure times (1.8 seconds in this case) in order to catch as much detail as they can before the critter crawls off to die.

Lednogora

Lednogora
Originally uploaded by Szczur

The HDR thing can get a little crazy. It's addictive I think. This started off as a simple view across a lake with a few hazy reflections on the water but.... as you see, they're not hazy any more and the sky is terrifying! Still, I think it worked out quite well. :) My missus disagrees and says the sky is too dark. How am I to help it if it started raining seconds after the photos were taken??? Weather wise, in fact, we're having a miserable summer so far.

Galleon

Galleon
Originally uploaded by Szczur

Well, I've had another long break from this but I'm back. :)

I couldn't get my head round the whole HDR thing in photography. In case there's anyone reading this who still hasn't heard about it, HDR is High Dynamic Range imaging. The idea is that monitors and printers aren't able to reproduce a scene as it really appears - they work with a very low dynamic range. To capture more of a scene, it is necessary to shoot at least 3 images with different exposure settings and then merge them to make an HDR file. The problem is that your HDR looks rubbish on-screen and you can't print it. This is where I came unstuck. I got some program to sort it for me, but, unless you know what to do with it, it really doesn't help much.

Earlier this year my father bought me a book on the subject, for my birthday, he'd seen it on Amazon and decided I might like it. He didn't know how I'd been tearing my hair out with this. Anyhoo, the book explained the process of tone mapping, which is what you have to do with your HDR file so that you can view a representation of it on your monitor, or print a copy. It explains how to make an extremely realistic looking scene or how to make more surreal views. What you see here is one of my attempts at putting theory into practice.

The galleon pictured sails from Gdansk in Poland to .... Gdansk in Poland, for the amusement of tourists. Sometimes though, like the day I shot the source images for this picture, the sky looks suitably pirate-y.