if i only knew...

My new flickr photoblog

Self portrait mirrored
Uploaded to my Flickr photostream.

A couple of months ago i looked at Flickr, the photo community thingamabob made by the cool folks at Ludicorp (who are responsible for my GNE addiction (see sidebar boxes)). I was unimpressed by the complicated interface - lots of features crammed into a website and some rules i didn't like. e.g if i uploaded a photo and made it public so that i can blog it from there it would instantly by available for every other flickr user and i could not undo that - i wasn't allowed to make it private again. So i left flickr and continued to sit on my heaps of photos.

Today, i gave it another try. And boy, did they revamp the whole thing since then. There are a zillion new features, the whole thing is much more usable and they dropped the stupid public or private for eternity requirement.

So, ladies and gents, let me introduce to you my new photoblog, powered by flickr!

Notice the links on the right side menu:
» Calendar view - this will give you a calendar of the last 5 weeks with one photo highlighted per day.
» idared's tags - this is one of the coolest features. Each photo can be tagged with words that act like a folder from then on, you click on a tag and you will see each photo that is tagged with that word. And, you can see all the photos tagged with that word from ALL Flickr users as well. Sounds confusing? Look at this page of the 150 most popular tags and you'll understand!

And, Flickr supports posting to MT blogs, so i will post some of the photos here as well to entice you into checking out the photoblog.

(PS: This is step one of the big blog revamp. I am reengineering this whole site because the one blog format doesn't work for me. Stay tuned.)

Beauty

Beautiful.

Mail art photography

Having participated in collaborative random travelling journaling via 1000journals as well as a miriad of other mail based activities at nervousness, i will be following the travelling cameras of Randompixel closely. Judging from the first returned camera, it will be lots of fun! (I like the commenting and the guessing of the context and location based only on the visual pointers on the photos.)

If you're new to this kind of mail fun:
"A camera, alone in the world. Each Randompixel camera was given to a stranger. Stickers on the camera instruct the recipient to take a few pictures and pass it along. When the camera is done, it is dropped in the mail, it returns home, and the pictures are posted here."
A new camera is posted each Tuesday. Yay!

Best of Photoblogging 2003

If you ever need inspiration for your photography in 2004, or just simply need some eye candy, take a look at The Best of 2003 Photoblogs.

First Holgas

Here is my first roll of Holgas:

The right image in the first row was taken in Vancouver, on a very foggy morning. The left in the 2nd row is Chris, next to him it's me, accidentally double-exposed. The one that's not showing very well was supposed to be a mirror portrait but i forgot to wind the film. :) The rest of them are just random shots of Budapest.

I am getting a Holga!

(Warning: This post has no informational or aesthetic value, i just felt like sharing my excitement.)

I am getting a Holga, i am getting a Holga, i am getting a Holga next week!

It will be my first ever non-35mm camera so i am all excited! Will post when i actually have it in my hands.

Lakeside lomo

Finally, new lomos:

These were taken in July during my vacation at Balaton, the largest lake of Hungary. The whole roll that i shot there is amazing, i am going to post them when i get a chance to scan them. The scanner is blanding the colors, the images are much more saturated but i hate to mess with the color settings on the computer because then it feels like i am editing the image and making it fake. When in reality, this *is* the fake image. Anyway, i hope you like them as much as i do. More to come soon!

My LOMO is sick again...

I was so happy when I changed batteries and thought i had solved my LOMO's sticky shutter-like problem. And now, two rolls of films later, it's worse than it was before. :( The previous roll had 5 blank shots, and the one i got back from the lab yesterday has about 50% of the pics all blank and the rest of them aren't right either, there's this dark kind of filter on most of them, as if they'd been shot at low light with short exposure, but they are in fact daylight shots. I don't think i will have it done here in Vancouver so i will have to wait until November when i get back to Hungary to have it checked out by a photo repair wizard person.

On the other hand, if you know someone who could take a look at it and help me in Vancouver, please comment here and i will be forever greatful!

In the meantime, you can look at my lomohome, there are no fresh pics, but the new layout is worth a look.

Light explosion

Here are a few more shots from my crossprocessed roll (more here and here). The first one is my hand, above a floor-light. The rest are lights of a concert.

Lomo LC-A, crossprocessed slide film

Photoblog layout linkography

I am working on the new photo-friendly layout for this blog, and thought i'd share a linkography for folks who are looking for photolog tools and inspiration:

I am playing with the idea of incorporating a lomowall into the blog. The movable lomo MT plugin looks promising for that purpose. I don't want it animated, or randomized, so it probably needs some tweaking, but it's a nice starting point.

I will be posting photos as entries in a second blog, but siplaying them in this blog. To do that i will use the brilliant MtOtherBlog plugin.

Other sources of inspiration:
Photoblog tutorial
PhotoStack - "an image organization system featuring template driven layout, smart caching, automatic thumbnail creation, RSS feeds, picture level EXIF date extraction, and picture level descriptions, all without the need for an SQL like database." (Which is also responsible for feeding our Hugo and Oliver addiction.)
Mt Photolog in 5 steps - a tutorial

Tulip beauties

Shot in Vienna in April. Lomo LC-A

   

Lomo sky shots... again

I can't stop shooting the sky even though i have tens of such pictures already, but how could i resist the urge to point my lomo to such beautiful clouds? Especially *knowing* that they will look this cool when i get the roll developed? I love my LOMO.

    

    

Ducks and Toulouse-Lautrec

I last posted photos on May 9th. More than a month ago. See my previous entry about usability issues for the reasons. It's still a very depressing thought. But here are a few photos to chear myself up and stop whining and actually post instead.

These are lovely ducks hanging out at Vienna's new Museumsquartier. We went to see the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, you can see the poster in the second image's background. It was nice, but i actually expected a bit more of his colourful posters. I saw them in the Vancouver Art Gallery at a temporary exhibit a few years ago, and they are wonderful. So much movement and color and sophistication. This current exhibit is more about his drawings, sketches and lithos, which are also interesting but there were so many of them, and so similar, that it kind of got boring after the second room.

(Lomo LC-A)

X-processed sky

I think i like x-processing (having a slide film developed as a negative). The only problem is that i got it done at the expensive lab, but wanted to make prints in the cheaper one, and the cheaper one couldn't do the print either, because the negative is different than ordinary ones. So x-processing is extra expensive, but it's worth it! I will post more of them later.

Doggie crossprocessed

I finally got my prints from my first crossprocessed roll, and about half of it turned out really great. Here's a batch of dog pics.

Note the ears and tail movement...

Playing with the light

And proof that dogs are faster than my shutter speed...

Magical spring sky

My window looks on the inner garden of our apartment building, and other such buildings. No Eiffel tower, no ocean, no Golden Gate Bridge in sight. But on some days, nature compensates with such views. Isn't it wonderful? As if someone had painted the sky with magical colours.

My favourite colour is green

In the Budapest subway, Lomo LC-A

And at a busy train station waiting for Bence to arrive and passing the time shootin lomos

Lomo nights

In Millenaris park, Budapest at night:

This is a tower that is lit up in wonderful colors at night. I went inside and snapped this photo:

Then Bence took one of me standing on top of one of the lights. :)

And this is next to the koi pond in the park. 100% peace and tranquility.

Beauty

Windows of a florist in Vienna (lomo photos, of course).

(More to come tomorrow. Good night for now.)

Lomo experiments

I got a new roll of film from the LOMO developed, and when i saw the pcitures, i got such a thrill! Look at the Beetle headlights! And the clarity of the Budapest view! Such excitement!

Me and Bence - reflection on a Beetle :)

This is the same view that i showed you in a fake lomo, now here's the real thing.

Killing time while waiting for Bence's train to arrive - so easy with a lomo!

Just some silly playing with chair silhouettes in a coffee house. This is not a great shot, but somehow i still like it.

First real lomo photos

Yay, the first lomos are here! I scanned the best from my first two rolls of film. I have the third one developed but not scanned yet, there are really funky clubbing photos on that one. (coming soon)

Click on each thumbnail for the bigger version. The last one is a bonus: a lomo mirror project photo!

Beetle police

This is what some of the police cars look like in Vienna, Austria. I wouldn't mind so much if one like this stopped me on the road...

I have a LOMO!!!

No more fakes, no more fakes, today i bought a LOMO camera! It's an old-school, before-the-lomomania-began model, i have no idea when it was made, but it's not new. :) (I bought it at a used camera shop for $45, which was really cheap compared to the $180 it goes for at the official lomographic stores...)

I love it, love it, love it. I am shooting like crazy, and will have the first film developed tomorrow. I can't wait! Time to dust off the scanner too... i haven't used it for a while.

What's really funny is getting used to actually having to look into a camera's viewfinder when taking photos. And the clicks the camera makes when it's exposing the film. Ah, the wonders of photography... I should get out my Canon SLR too, and use it sometimes, i haven't shot with it since i bought the digital camera about a year ago.

And another one...

This weekend in Vienna:

Little Beetle passing the bigger - and dirtier - cousin Beetle.

(click for Parking Spots page)

My first (fake) lomo pics

Because a Lomo camera costs €180, i must make do without it for a little while more (hopefully not too long though...). So i tried the lomo-effects at photolog (found via kottke) and i am quite impressed. Are you? (click on the image for larger version)

My little Beetle again

Wow, a New Beetle has parked in my Ford Fiesta's spot!

Go, little Beetle, go!

(wondering what the hell this is?)

Discovering lomography

I have never heard of Lomography before i checked out the Photobloggies nominations. Now i want a Lomo Camera! The vivid colors, fun light effects and the vintage feel make it irresistible. Here are a few links to follow if you are a newcomer to lomoworld like i am:

>> lomography.com - from the people (in Vienna) who discovered the Lomo and rescued it from Eastern Bloc demise - all you ever wanted to know about lomography, and wonderful galleries
>> Dawn @ lifeuncommon.org has wonderful lomo photos all the time, looking at her archives made me realise that i *need* a Lomo camera ASAP (lomo galleries: chicago, xmas, doggie)
>> Edulis from Finland also has a lomo gallery (discovered through the mirror project)
>> terence patrick has amazing lomo photos from several locations

Silly paws

Note to self: when i finally get a dog or a cat i shall not forget to take pictures of it from silly angles.

Parking spots numero uno

I sent in my first parking spots photo! Click on the image to be taken to the site:

My first photo at the

My first photo at the mirror project:

If i had $2900 to

If i had $2900 to spend on a photography book, it would be this one. Take a look at a selection of its photos here and here.

Funny and cute photo essay

Funny and cute photo essay with excellent photography: Jeff Phillips: The Chick Magnet. [found through 2003 photobloggies - vote for him!]
And also a photobloggies find: a cute little beagle dog has a blog!

Look at this amazing photo

Look at this amazing photo of the view from Columbia in space...

You must have heard about

You must have heard about the floods sweeping across Europe... well, Budapest wasn't spared, but after the great flood of 1873, our great-great-great granddads built tall walls along the danube that withstand a 10 meter flood. The one we had this week was 8.5 meters, and the city didn't have any serious problems, but there were quite a few unusual scenes (and the water level did break all previous records, and outside Budapest the little towns and villages alongside the river are very badly swamped).

Click here for a few photos i took on Saturday and Sunday. {opens in a new window}