A new (and almost ready) PATH train station, Manhattan, New York.

Date
Jan 1, 2016, 12:39:40 PM
Camera
NIKON CORPORATION
Model
NIKON D610
ISO
800
Exposure
1/320 sec
Aperture
9.0
Focal Length
110mm
Exposure Bias
-1.0

A simple and pure photography compositions

Sunrise at tKirchberg plateuax.. For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: As you probably know I am a big fan of simple and pure compositions in photography.

My today´s work is all about lines. Vertical and horizontal lines suggest order and stability; vertical lines convey strength and horizontal lines are lazy and rather relaxing.
A slightly curved line of the part of the opera´s roof adds a natural beauty and will softly guide your eye through the lateral part of the image rather than from one corner or edge to another.
The same is true for diagonal lines, which can also make an image appear more dramatic and can even convey a sense of motion.

Today´s architecture is extremely modern, almost entirely made of black, white or grey blocks, thus very inhuman and industrialist.
To bring some life to the image I decided to add green trees that look almost the same: symmetrical, almost identical and in that sense they do nor disturb much the geometry of the image.

Balancing your image is an another difficult task. My image is composed of five different geometrical pieces. Bear in mind that black parts "weight" more than whites ones so you must balance them carefully separating (and not putting together) dark and bright parts of the composition.
Balance is almost obligatory in most of the some photos, but if you want to make your images a little more interesting, you can unbalance a composition to attract the viewers attention (my four green trees are unbalanced).

 
Location:  Kirchberg plateau, Luxembourg. Just after the sunrise.  

 

Gear: Nikon D 610, Nikkor 70-300 mm, handheld.

Aperture: f/10, 1/320 sec.

Exposure bias: -0,3 EV

ISO: 640

Focal Length: 230 mm

Date: August 3rd, 2014. 7.10 a.m.

 

A spine

The Arrábida bridge  spanning the Douro River.

For a full size photo please click on the image.

A story behind: Saturday evening, just a few steps from our house. The warm rays of the dying sun was lighting up the "spine-like" middle structure of the Arrábida bridge.

To make the image not so boring I added 2 traffic lights.


Location:  Porto, Portugal.

 

Gear: Nikon D 700, Nikkor 16-35mm 4G ED AF-S.

Aperture: f/11, 1/125 sec.

Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

ISO: 320 EV

Focal Length: 19 mm

Date: 5th of July, 2014.

Shibuya at night

Click on the image for a full size.
A normal night at the famous Shibuya Crossing.

A story behind: Shibuya is a sakariba (party town) for the Japanese youth.

This is a huge and loud intersection decorated by a sea of neons.
When the lights turn red and traffic stops completely, pedestrians from all sides surge into the crossing. This is a moment of incredible chaos when everybody moves into a different direction but after a minute when the traffic lights change again all this madness and scramble stops.

Location:  Tokyo, Japan.

 

Gear: Nikon D610, Nikkor 16-32 mm.

Aperture: f/8

 ISO: 3200Exposure bias: -0,3 EV

Focal Length: 16mm

Date: 1st of April, 2014.

 
Maciek.

Long exposure

 

Click in the image for a full size.

A story behind: This modern art monument called "The triumph Arch" was created in 2003. I used a 10x photo stop filter to get 72 seconds long expose.  The spotted clouds were moving very fast and there were recorded as long white streaks.

Remember that the longer exposition, the most "creamy" sky you get.
 

Location:  City of Maia, Portugal.
 

Gear: Nikon D700, Nikkor 16-32 mm,

Aperture: f/22


Shutter: 73 sec.
 
Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

Focal Length: 29 mm

ISO: 50

Date: Monday, 23rd of February 2014, 09.08 a.m.

Maciek.

A rainy weekend in Lisbon

 

Click in the image for a full size.

The last moments of the day. Vasco da Gama bridge on the Tagus river. Lisbon. Portugal.

A story behind: Last days of January 2014. A rainy end of the day at the bank of the Tagus river with a view over the Vasco da Gama bridge.

Location:  Lisbon, Portugal.
 

Gear: Nikon D610, Nikkor 16-32 mm, umbrella.

Aperture: f/22


Shutter: 13 sec.
 
Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

Focal Length: 24 mm

ISO: 50

Date: Sunday, 31st of January 2014, 17.38 p.m.

Maciek.

The ecorkhotel

A fragment of newly opened ecorkhotel near Evora, Alentejo, Portugal.

A story behind: Last weekend we drove to the heart of Portuguese interior regon - Alentejo. We spent the night at the Ecorkhotel and Spa is a freshly opened new eco-hotel locolated not-so-far from the city of Evora.

As always my camera and me were atractted by the curvy modern architecture of the hotel.

Earlier that day we had a great time wine and olive oil tasting in Esporão winery.

Location: near Evora, Portugal, 

Gear: Nikon D700, Nikon 16-32 mm,

Aperture: f/7

Exposure bias: -0,7 EV

Focal Length: 16 mm

ISO: 400

Date: Suturday, 24th of August, 2013. 16.30.

Maciek.

Transformers

Vodafone building, Avenida da Boavista, the city of Porto, Portugal.

A story behind:  Modern architecture is my second great photo passion. When I look at the building form the different angles I try to recognize interesting curve lines or patterns of different rectangles. Experimenting with wide angles to produce distortion and extreme perspective is another great idea. Since there is always a big number of details you can crop in tightly on the building without making the photo feel unnatural. Desaturation is another fantastic tool you can use to captivate one´s eye. Black and white ( B&W ) photos with all shades of gray can increase a tonal range and make a picture even more appealing.

Gear: Nikon D700. Nikkor 16-35 mm. Tripod. 

Aperture: f/20

Shutter speed: 82 sec

Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

Focal Length: 16 mm

ISO: 50

Place taken:  Porto, Portugal.
 

Date taken: Sunday, January 13th, 2013, 16:40

Maciek.

The modern version of the Titanic

Modern architecture, city of Matosinhos,  Portugal.

A story behind:  I am a huge modern architecture fan. When you cut a piece of a building ( that may look boring at the first sight ) and spice it up a little by adding dynamic flow of the clouds, the result can be impressive.

The image was taken during the first day of a new year two thousand and thirteen so happy new year everybody!

Gear: Nikon D700. Nikkor 16-35 mm. Tripod.

Aperture: f/18

Shutter speed: 130 sec

Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

Focal Length: 16 mm

ISO: 100

Place taken: Close to the beach area of the city of Matosinhos, Portugal.
 

Date taken: Tuesday, January 1ts 2013, 16:23

Maciek.

A view from my window

Arrabida bridge, although built in 1963, continues to be a splendid example of the modern architecture.

A story behind: November is the best month to take sunset photos from my window. The soft light travels  along the river  and deep into the city. Slow shutter speed added extra linear movement of the water in the river. Unfortunately it was moments before the night bridge illumination was turned on. 


Gear: Nikon D700. Nikkor 16-35 mm. 

Aperture: f/16

Shutter speed: 21 sec

Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

Focal Length: 16 mm

ISO: 400

Place taken: Porto, Portugal.
 

Date taken: November 14th 2012, 17:24

Maciek.

Catching the wind

"Do not believe clocks - time has only invented them to play with us".
.
The Casa da Musica building, Porto, Portugal.

A story behind: This has always been my dream to capture a picture like the one above. My desire was to create the image with long exposure extending from 30 seconds up to 1-minute. I wanted to portray a sense of motion that would contrast with the monumental and massive concrete structure of Casa Da Muscia. It hasn ´t been easy. What you need is Cumulus clouds fast moving in a direction longitudinal to the long axis of the building to make an image dynamic; sunny afternoon but with the sun hidden during at least 1 minute long intervals behind the clouds; strong wind but not too strong to get your camera and tripod moving and lots of time ( since one shot takes about 3 minutes and camera movement can ruin your image ).
Finally this Sunday  afternoon I did it. 
Going with the square format was also perfect for this series. I find the square format very elegant and try to use it more and more. 

Please enjoy !


Gear: Nikon D700. Nikkor 16-35 mm. Polarizer. 10 ND-Stop.

Aperture: f/22

Shutter speed: 40 sec

Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

Focal Length: 17 mm

ISO: 50

Place taken: Porto, Portugal.
 

Maciek.

My bridge

The Arrábida bridge, Porto, Portugal, built in 1963, is a splendid example of the modern architecture.

A story behind: This is another thing that I am recently very interested in: slow shutter speed - long exposure photos. 
The fast moving clouds on the slow shutter speed of 48 seconds make an image more dynamic.


Gear: Nikon D700. Nikkor 16-35 mm. Polarizer. 10 ND-Stop.

Aperture: f/22

Shutter speed: 48 sec

Exposure bias: +0,3 EV

Focal Length: 17 mm

ISO: 50

Place taken: Porto, Portugal.
 

Maciek.

The spiraling stairs

Looking up the spiraling staircase at the Pão de Açucar hotel in downtown Porto.

A story behind: In early July our friends are coming to Porto. They made a reservation at the Pão de Açucar hotel in downtown Porto. As I was passing by the hotel I stepped in and ask at the reception desk in everything is OK with the reservation. A spiraling stairs immediately caught my eye.
I put my camera and shot some photos.
Gear: Nikon D700. Nikkor 16-35 mm.

Aperture: f/22

Shutter speed: 1 sec

Exposure bias: -0,3 EV

Focal Length: 22 mm

ISO: 250

Date Taken: Thursday, March 15th, 2012, 13: 17

Maciek.

Lisbon - Vasco da Gama bridge

Vasco da Gama bridge stretches for 17 kilometers and is one of the longest structures in Europe.

A story behind: Monday. Very early morning. Shooting photos with Mariusz at the bank of the Tagus river, at one of my favorite spots close to the Vasco da Gama Bridge.
The light was far from perfect with almost clear sky. The sunrise was quick but spectacular. I used B&W preset in my camera.
Gear: Nikon D700. Nikkor 16-35 mm. Tripod. ND reverse 0,6.

Aperture: f/22

Shutter speed: 1 sec

Exposure bias: -0,7 EV

Focal Length: 16 mm

ISO: 200

Place taken: Lisbon, Portugal.

Date Taken: Monday, March January 5th, 2012, 06: 45

Maciek.

Imperial War Museum - Manchester, UK.

A story behind: It took me almost 2 hours to circle the building of Imperial War Museum twice. The first time I had a wide angle lenses attached to my camera and looked at the building from every possible angle but could not find the right spot. For the second round I switched to a 50-mm Nikkor 1.8 lenses to get more details. And this turned out to be a very good decision. The repeated lines, patterns and shapes started to emerge. They inspire, motivate and bring out creativity.
Of course is a very heavily populated tourist area and hundreds of images being taken of it every year. The trick is to capture the beauty and power of the museum in a way nobody has done before.

Imperial War Museum was the first project in the UK designed by internationally-acclaimed architect, Daniel Libeskind. Clad in steel and silver colored highly polished aluminium, this Manchester City landmark is a visionary work.

Location: Manchester Quays, UK.

Gear: Nikon D700. Nikkor 1.8 50 mm.Capture NX: RAW to Tiff. PS Tiff to JPG.

Aperture: f/8

Shutter speed: 1/250 sec

Exposure bias: 0 EV

Focal Length: 50 mm

ISO: 200

Date Taken: Wednesday, July 13th, 2011, 12: 47

Maciek.

Serralves Museum Festa !

One of the Museum´s dark corners and part of ‘Off the Wall’ exhibition.

Mirrors: part of the exhibition ‘Off the Wall’, organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York ( featuring Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol ).

A story behind: Pictures from the Serralves Museum of the Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal.

Location: Porto, Portugal.

Gear: Nikon D700, Nikkor 16-35 mm AF-S ED. RAW to Tiff.

Aperture: f/5,6

Exposure bias: - 0,7 EV

Focal Length: 35 mm

ISO: 800

Date Taken: Saturday, May 9th, 2011, 9: 17

Maciek.

Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon ( part II )

Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon.

A story behind: The Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon was accomplished in 2010. It is a multidisciplinary center for research of excellence, with the best possible conditions to attract and retain the best researchers, academics and medical doctors from Portugal and abroad in the fields of neurosciences and oncology. Magnificently located at the bank of the Tagus river, very close to the famous Belem Tower, the modern architecture of the buildings attracts the eye.


Location: Lisbon, Portugal.

Gear: Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20 mm

Aperture: f/5,6

Exposure bias: - 0,3 EV

Focal Length: 18 mm

ISO: 160

Date Taken: Sunday, May 1st, 2011, 11:03

Maciek.

The Transparent Building

A story behind: "The Transparent building" or Edifício Transparente ( in Portuguese ) is an example of architectural bad taste. It was built in 2001 for the Porto 2001: European Culture Capital festival. The idea was to make a panoramic double window construction: one side wide open for the Atlantic ocean, the other with a view over the biggest green area: the city park.

The idea was captivating but somehow has lost its spark on the way and now appears neither innovative nor groundbreaking. Today the building stands for many as a monument of the architectural bad taste.

But at night while sitting there ( where many restaurants and coffee-shops are installed ) and watching the spectacular sunset, the Transparent Building can undergo a metamorphosis into something special.

Location: Porto-Matosinhos beach, Portugal.

Gear: Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20 mm

Aperture: f/22

Exposure bias: - 0,3 EV

Focal Length: 12 mm

ISO: 250

Date Taken: Wednesday, April 20th, 2011, 20:01

Maciek.

Vodafone office building ( part 5 )

Main corridor, level 0, Vodafone building, Porto.

Maciek.