— CHOOSE A TAXI —

New York is an amazing city. No doubt about that. Coming from a non city lover, this statement could sound really strange, and it is… but in terms of my objections against the cities, it’s definitely over average. Let me explain myself: People don’t seem stressed, and are really friendly; mixed cultures are the norm, not the exception; traffic is not that bad and far more bike friendly than Barcelona; central park; the high line… But not everything is great: I was living in Germany and I couldn’t live all my life in a similar weather, really, no way. Food is also a problem for me, or at least it was a problem the 10 days we were there. I suppose that once you live there you get to know places where to buy my diet essential products. Oh! And where to take a real coffee and not this Starbucks crap.

Location: NYC
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/25”  — ISO: 100

Bonus pictures:

— ON QUEUE —

Location: NYC
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/40”  — ISO: 640

— NYPD —

Location: NYC
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/60”  — ISO: 640

— NIAGARA FALLS I —

It’s time to recover from the lost time during my vacations… This post is from our quick visit to Niagara Falls during our stay in Buffalo. The falls are really shocking! I can’t imagine something similar in Catalonia, where saving water is in our culture’s ADN, but that’s the point of traveling, isn’t it? You can compare this pictures with the ones from Namib Desert some days ago.

Beside the falls, nature stays on a second term: High buildings, casinos and concrete, lots of concrete. After having seen Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, I missed a little bit more natural surrounds.

Location: Niagara Falls, Canada
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/4000”  — ISO: 100

Bonus pictures:

— NIAGARA FALLS II —

Location: Niagara Falls, Canada
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 16.0f — Speed: 1/100”  — ISO: 100

— NIAGARA FALLS III —

Location: Niagara Falls, Canada
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm 1:2.8 — Focal length: 14mm (21mm equivalent)
Aperture: 6.3f — Speed: 1/800”  — ISO: 100

— MOIXIGANGUERS I —

I am posting those pictures from my mobile phone, so I won’t extend the explanation much longer. The pictures are from Vilanova’s big party. Hope you will enjoy it!
By the way, sorry for this two weeks delay, I am currently on vacation but stay tuned because a lot of pictures are on the way ;-)

Location: Vilanova del Camí
Camera: Nikon D80 + Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 16.0f — Speed: 1/500”  — ISO: 640

Bonus picture:

— MOIXIGANGUERS II —

Location: Vilanova del Camí
Camera: Nikon D80 + Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 16.0f — Speed: 1/400”  — ISO: 640

— DAYDREAM I —

Nice concert of Daydream in Jorba. This time with a little bit more light than the last one… ;-)

Location: Jorba
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/15”  — ISO: 640

Bonus pictures:

— DAYDREAM II —

Location: Jorba
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 1.4f — Speed: 1/25”  — ISO: 320

— DAYDREAM III —

Location: Jorba
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 1.4f — Speed: 1/60”  — ISO: 640

— DUNE 45 —

Namib Desert is, no doubt at all about that, the most amazing place I’ve ever been. If you have the opportunity to go there, don’t loose it! It is really that amazing. Watching the sunrise at Dune 45, flying across the desert until the Atlantic Ocean or visiting Sossusvlei and the Dead Vlei are some of of the must do.

Location: Dune 45, Namib Desert, Namibia
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm 1:2.8 — Focal length: 14mm (21mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/160”  — ISO: 400

Bonus pictures:

— DEAD VLEI —

Location: Dead Vlei, Namib Desert, Namibia
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 8.0f — Speed: 1/640”  — ISO: 100

— NAMIB DUNES I —

Location: Namib Desert, Namibia
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6G — Focal length: 70mm (105mm equivalent)
Aperture: 5.6f — Speed: 1/320”  — ISO: 100

— NAMIB DUNES II —

Location: Namib Desert, Namibia
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm 1:2.8 — Focal length: 24mm (36mm equivalent)
Aperture: 5.6f — Speed: 1/640”  — ISO: 100

— NAMIBRAND NATURE RESERVE —

Location: Namib Desert, Namibia
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm 1:2.8 — Focal length: 24mm (36mm equivalent)
Aperture: 5.6f — Speed: 1/500”  — ISO: 100

— RURAL LIGHT PAINTING —

Some of you probably know that I work as a software engineer, and that since some time I’m really interested in mobile development. Well, one of the cool things about the mobile development is that it can always surprise me with a small, ingenious and useful piece of software, which most of the times comes from small teams or startups.

Last week I discovered one of this little gems: PhotoIRmote (For Android). I was looking for a remote trigger for some time but, apart from being quite expensive for what they do, those devices just work for a group of camera models. This app does the same for almost all DSLR brands and models which have an IR sensor. You only need to weld two IR LEDs to an audio jack cable, that’s all, and it’s well explained in their website.

With the minimum requirements for night photography reached, Alba & me went to “Les Maioles” to take pictures of the Perseids. Unluckily we had two problems: On the one hand, the moon light and, on the other hand, the fog that covered the whole place.

Finally, on the way back, I saw a straw bale in a field in front of the electrical substation. The picture itself has not much sense, but it was fun to play with light painting. For the lighting I used a LED torch and color cellophane paper.

Location: Les Maioles
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 11.0f — Speed: 60”  — ISO: 100

No bonus pictures…

— DIABLES DE LA LLACUNA —

@fbalague: Diable soc d’aquest ball, diable soc i seré. Visca la diablessa i les banyes del Llucifer #FMllac

Still trying to put some order in my posts. Those pictures are from the big party in my home town, La Llacuna, during the “correfocs” party. All the pictures are taken using a 50mm lens, mostly to avoid the dust getting on the sensor but also to give them some “bouque”.

Location: La Llacuna
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 1.4f — Speed: 1/2500”  — ISO: 250

Bonus pictures:

— DIABLES DE LA LLACUNA II —

Location: La Llacuna
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 1.4f — Speed: 1/125”  — ISO: 640

— DIABLES DE LA LLACUNA III —

Location: La Llacuna
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 1.4f — Speed: 1/250”  — ISO: 640

— DEAD SEA —

Two stock pictures to save the last week… this time from my trip to Jordan and Israel. I strongly recommend visiting Petra, Wady Rum (I love deserts!) and Jerusalem (such a crazy place). Curiously, none of both pictures are from none of those places, but maybe after the Project 52 I will start some trip series and post some from those great places.

That’s it. I hope to post this week pictures before the weekend, so stay tuned!

Location: Dead Sea from the Jordan border
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/4000”  — ISO: 100

Bonus picture:

— AMMAN BY NIGHT —

Location: Amman, Jordan
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6G — Focal length: 90mm (144mm equivalent)
Aperture: 4.8f — Speed: 1”  — ISO: 400

— MAHOGO I —

Definitely, the most difficult week of all. Taking concert pictures is not the easiest job… at least for me. There were two concerts I had to take pictures from, and in both I had the same problem: Having to deal with high ISO. I remembered in some testings that shooting at more than 640ISO with a D80 was not really desirable, so I tried to stay at maximum ISO 640, or ISO1250 if the light conditions forced it. If you look at all the picture details you will notice that the lenses are set up at their maximum aperture: 1.4f for the 50mm and 2.8 for the 10.5mm and the 70-200mm. So shooting at people that is constantly moving, at a slower speed than would be necessary, and at the maximum aperture is the ideal combination to get moved and out of focus pictures, and that’s what happened.

Conclusion: I need a masterclass on concert and outdoor events photography. Even so, here are the pictures. (Not 100% proud of them, but the aim of the project is to learn, and I’m learning a lot from the errors ;-)).

Location: Igualada
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/100”  — ISO: 1250

Bonus pictures:

— MAHOGO II —

Location: Igualada
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 1.4f — Speed: 1/15”  — ISO: 640

— MAHOGO III —

Location: Igualada
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/10”  — ISO: 1250

— DAYDREAM I —

Location: Sta. Margarida de Montbui
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 1.4f — Speed: 1/200”  — ISO: 640

— DAYDREAM II —

Location: Sta. Margarida de Montbui
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/13”  — ISO: 640

— ON THE ROAD —

Last weekend took place the European Balloon Festival in Igualada. This balloon festival ends up with a night show where a huge amount of balloons are inflated and lighten the place like light bulbs. The place was crowded of people and it was not easy for me to focus on a detail, so I decided to switch between the 50mm lens and the 10.5 fisheye and try to get close to the people like in street photography but with very low light. This is the result, nothing extraordinary, but for sure a good learning experience. A big mistake was not to use a soft flash on the third picture. For this reason I’ve had to play hard on the post-processing to avoid the noise on the back of the girl.

I also decided to walk from my home to the festival and it was indeed a great idea, because I could take the first picture in a place where one would never stop for a picture. It’s taken with the camera on the floor and a long exposure.

That’s all, one more week though! ;-)

Location: On the way to the European Balloon Festival, Igualada
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 5.6f — Speed: 6.0”  — ISO: 100

Bonus pictures:

— EBF I —

Location: European Balloon Festival, Igualada
Camera: Nikon D80 + AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4G — Focal length: 50mm (75mm equivalent)
Aperture: 3.2f — Speed: 1/100”  — ISO: 640

— EBF II —

Location: European Balloon Festival, Igualada
Camera: Nikon D80 + DX AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED — Focal length: 10.5mm (15mm equivalent)
Aperture: 2.8f — Speed: 1/40”  — ISO: 250