It's alive!!!

Swapped the batteries in my ancient iPod, replacement battery ordered from DealExtreme for hardly any money at all. Totally worth it! :)

Still sounds great and the user interface is exemplary!

-Created on Desire

Trial dream team in STHLM...

"Dreams come true! POC brings Team Athletes Daniel Dhers, Martin Söderström and Danny MacAskill together to explore and ride the unique surroundings of the POC HQ, based right in between the exotic Archipelago and Stockholm city. Here are some random behind-the-scenes shots from the first day of filming."





Looking forward to see the final result! :)

Dude got skillz!

Not usually amused by this sort of bike videos but Danny MacAskill:s latest is crazy! :)

Brenzier attempt.

Testing something that apparently called "The Brenzier method". It's to shoot a lot of shots with a large aperture lens (preferably a tele lens) and then stitch the images to create a complete photo.

To mimic the look of medium format or large format photography, the method is widely known by the work of Ryan Brenizer.

I made a try with my Nikon D90 and the 180mm Tamron macro set to f3.5:



I used 47 photos to cover the whole car, stitched to one image in Photoshop. A lot of strange perspective errors in the photos but it's just for test. Wish I'd had camera dolly too keep everything in plane. =)

Casio EX-FH100, HDR-test.

Brought my month old Casio EX-FH100 with me this evening when I shot some sunset photos with my Nikon D90.

Thought I'd try the manual mode on the Casio, not as convenient to bracket shots with the compact as with my DSLR (naturally) but it shows it's ok if one has no other option. :)

6-7 exposures at ISO 100, tone mapped in Photomatix and some final touches is Photoshop:

"Hällarna", Ludvika.

Bearing exchange...

Got some new bearings today from Kullagergrossisten.se I ordered them yesterday, they will replace the bearings on my Giant Reign.
Found the correct sizes here, also a great guide for swapping the bearings: http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=242343

GIANT Reign and Trance Components

• 2 pcs - 6900-2RS (6900 2RS [10x22x6 Gummität ABEC 5] - 12.00Kr)
• 2 pcs- 63800-2RS (MR1910 ZZ [10x19x7 Metalltät ABEC 5] - 10.20Kr)
• 4 pcs - 6902-2RS (6902 2RS [15x28x7 Gummitätning ABEC 3] - 14.50Kr)

Total: 102,4kr [132,4Kr with postage]
(inside parenthesis is the corresponding name at Kullagergrossisten)

Delivered in a padded envelope:
The bearings in the rocker arms was in really bad condition, I hope that the annoying squeak I sometimes heard during rides came from these and that the noise now is gone!

Made improvised tools for pressing out the old bearings and press in the new ones.
Looking good.
The old ones will be thrown in the bin!

Winter planets...

Just fooling around with a few recent photos in Photoshop using this guide: http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/create-your-own-panorama-planets/

Toy Stories - With James May - LEGO

James May builds a house, with LEGO bricks! =)








Thanks for the link Robert!

It's about time!

Finally it's possible to install ad-blockers and such in Chrome! It's a big step to be a option to use besides Firefox. ;)

HDR & Tonemapping

Managed to get a second place at one of DPreviews Challenges with one of my photos! It was a HDR & Tone mapping theme: http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Challenge.aspx?ID=2244&View=Results&Rows=25

Moore moon...

Shot the moon again tonight but this time I used a TC with x2 magnification (NAS teleplus MC4)

But first a few shots with backlight...

Pan & Zoom

Have seen some nice slide shows where the images are sliding and panned and as many times turned out they had been made on a Mac. Unfortunately I don't own a Mac so I have been trying to find something similar to windows.

Seems like Microsoft has something like that in vistas movie maker but that can't be run in XP, surprise!

Decided to download latest version of Picasa and see if it could solve the problem and it sure did! Exactly what I was looking for! Very simple but I suppose that's what they have aimed for.

First test:

Getting calibrated!

Finally got my hands on a monitor calibrator (colorimeter)!

Wrote about buying one some time ago but there has been other holes to put money in so it had been on hold for a while but this week I put in an order at Cyberfoto.se after I figured out how to get free shipping. :)

I got the ColorVision Spyder2express.

Don't know if it did a huge impact on the color setting but sure there was a difference before and after. The main thing is that it gives a peace of mind knowing that I have done what I can to get proper color setting on the monitor.

Uploaded two amazing, award winning grade movies of the unpacking and the calibration procedure!
Unpacking:

Calibration:

Reverse close-ups...

Went out to try more take a bit more serious shots with the reverse ring set-up, there was a gray overcast so it wasn't not that bright outside but the wind was calmer than yesterday.

The Nikon D90 was mounted on a Manfrotto 055 XPRO B and I used a wired remote. Lens used is the AF-S Nikkor 35mm/f1.8 G.

There had been some rain recently so almost everything was covered by droplets.
It's very hard to find the correct focus and it has to be adjusted by moving the camera back and forth until one is satisfied. Smallest wind and the object is out of focus!
Turning the focus ring on the lens does little or nothing for the focus range. I had do adjust the aperture with the finger just to see anything through the viewfinder since it was so gloomy weather.It sure is demanding using a reverse ring for macro shots but the close-up range makes it fun to explore the micro universe! Thankfully it started to rain so I had to end the shooting before it got late. :)

I forgot my Nikkor 50mm/f1.8 at work so I had no chance to try it, should be easier to use since one can adjust the aperture with the aperture ring on the lens.

Going backwards!

Ordered a third party 52mm reverse ring to my Nikon camera this Friday from Fotofyndet for 149:- sek, got it in the mail today! =)

The original Nikon BR-2A reverse ring cost more than twice the price (350:- sek) and it's just a metal piece with threads and has been on back order a long time!

Close-up on the side that fits in the camera, in this case Nikon F-mount.
The threaded side where you screw on the lens reversed.
Here mounted on the 35mm/f1.8 lens.
The other way around, mounted on the camera.
How it looks like correctly mounted.
Cap off.
Noticed the close up range is much greater with the Nikkor 35mm than with the Nikkor 50mm. What you miss on the 35mm since it's a G-lens is that it lacks a aperture ring but it's possible to manipulate the aperture with the aperture "arm" that pokes out of the lens with your finger.

Sorry that I don't have any example shots but I don't have any SDHC card reader right now but I'll post shots as soon as possible!

Next step is to get my hands on a double threaded adapter to piggy back a lens on another lens...

Tool time!

After using the single hacksaw blade for, what felt like forever, I got tired of the bad efficiency and invested in a 39:- sek handle and a new blade!
After several more minutes of hyper-intensive sawing I used a flat screw driver to try prod off the stubborn small piece that was still there way down the seat tube and noticed that the whole seat post sank down as I hammered on the post!

Drilled a hole in the side where the slit was and this time used the screw driver to hammer the piece upward.
Wohoo!! Coming up, coming up. Citing E-Type. ;)
Used a pair of pliers to pull it out the last bit.
GOTCHA!!!Finally I can start the "transformation" to a somewhat decent road bike! And yes, I will use lubricant on the new seatpost! =)

Moonshine...

Got out late this evening to try capture the moon shining on the sky, took the Nikon D90 equipped with the Nikkor 35mm/f1.8 to try out the low light capabilities.

I took some ISO1600 shots at f1.8 but the clouds were moving too fast to get decent HDR images, the moon itself is very bright and has to be shot either with small aperture or fast shutter.

Best I managed to take tonight.
Decided to try some long exposure shots instead. 15sec. ISO 1600.
It was almost pitch black, I could not see the lake in the background at all!
And a couple of HDR images. ISO 200 and f2.4 - 5-6 different exposures and tone mapped in Photomatix.
Hmm, think I should be sleeping right now... =)

Friday night ride.

Were to my parents place to wash my car for the first time in a long time, been way too many months since last time. Finally getting rid of all the grit and salt that's been piling up on the car!


My fathers dogs were let out for a walk, but I don't know what that style is called? :)

Too bad the car looked as dirty after riding home as it was before the wash, well, well..
Tried to make some HDR:s, really hard with att those sodium lamps.Saw some photos taken inside a car with a ultra wide lens and I have wanted to try to do the same since then and last night i rigged the tripod inside my car and took a few test shots, looks pretty cool. =)

Even shot a few videos, here's one of them with little quick editing.

Holy blow hole!

Really cool dolphins playing and modifying rings of air that they create with air from their blow holes!



Wonder if it's a result of boredom? :)

Another video...

Deshaked a bunch of videos from a ride the 9:th of January, newer minded to make any video since the footage looked sooo bad, shaky and jerky. But now I think I'm getting to results that are in the ok range, a few strange artifacts here and there but that's easy to oversee when compared to the original shots!

Here's the result. It was a beautiful winter day! Enjoy! =)



Have to go through my all videos now... =)
Think this will make me use the video capture on the Nikon D90 way more than I have done so far!
Just have figure out how to automate the process as far as possible in VirtualDub, should be doable in the CLI that comes with the software.