Category: Photography

Finally, after waiting for almost a month my order had arrived. It has been through all possible problems. At first, there was a long timeout until Digital Photo Club realised that they are out of stock and that they need to backorder the circular polarizer. Somehow we managed to substitute the Canon PL-C with B&W alternative. After they’ve shipped the package, Cyprus joined the EU. That caused a change of custom regulations and noone knew how to proceed with clearance. Today, after laying in customs office for more then a week, the package finally got delivered to Limassol. Luckily, local FedEx doesn’t care about personnal identity and anyone who is ready to pay the tax for the package can claim it. I’ve paid 73 CYP in cash (roughly $150 USD) and ran home. :)

I’ve made few shot around and I am looking at results while I’m writing this. Belicimo! :) When the lens is in 300mm zoom it is about twice as long compared to 75mm (the one on the picture). I can finally shoot subjects without stepping on their toes. I’ve made a picture of an old woman from across the road and she didn’t even see me. :) Finally, I can focus on one particular subject leaving everything else out of the frame, which is rather difficult with a wide angle lens. I’ll be posting some pictures pretty soon, I guess. :)

Both lens hoods that I’ve got now are plastic and light. B&W polarizer has metal base and is rather heavy. It has a sign on the side saying “Made in Germany”. Not China. Germany. By “ze Germans”.

I’ll stop here, since I am a little bit overwhelmed and overexcited. :)

Today Olga, Vladimir and I went to Omodos village to warm up our summer travelling habbits. It’s the second time I’ve been to this village. First time was together with Lev about 3 month ago when it was cold and dark. This time around it was rather warm (+25C). It was also very sunny. The village itself is small and there is nothing particularly interesting about it except for a church being in the middle of it and a number of narrow streets going up and down in every possible direction.

Omodos appears to be very attractive for tourists since we’ve met few crowded buses leaving the village while we were entering it. And there were still a lot of people. Some of the tourists prefer to live there in rented apartments. There are few caffeterias, but I haven’t seen any tavernas.

It took us about 1 hour to drive there from Limassol, we’ve spent another hour walking around and one hour driving back to Limassol. If you have about three hours to spend on a sunny weekend day, you might as well like to go there. ;)

I’ve made a number of photos while walking around. I was rather surprised to find some harsh shadows, although it was about 5:00pm. The colors and contrast are good though. Check them out here.

Yet another interesting site about photography – PhotoZone.de. Despite the .de domain it’s mostly in English. There are a lot of articles about usual subjects – equipment, techniques, digital, etc. There is also a forum for those who’d like to stay and ask questions. Most stuff is basic, but it’s rather useful anyway.

If you don’t know where to start, go to Techniques section and see how easy it is to calculate “The Golden Mean”. There is a bit more to it than just sticking your finger in the middle of the frame. :)

Here are a couple of useful links that passed by in the mailing lists recently.

• Tips for Portrait Photography – few nice suggestions on how to improve the light, positioning and few other aspects while shooting portrait photographs.

• Digital Photography For What It’s Worth – a collection of articles on different subjects related to photography by a recent digital convert.

In the other news: my latest order from Digital Photo Discount Club has been delayed due to a number of backorders. Now they’ve got everything except for Canon circular polarizing filter, so I’ve asked them to replace it with a slightly more expensive one made by B&W. They confirmed everything and promised to ship the order within the next 24-48 hours. Hopefully it will make it before the Cyprus stage of World Rally Championship. :)