LaForge's home page (Posts about photography)https://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/tags/photography.atom2022-06-21T07:49:57ZHarald WelteNikolaBarcelona Montjuic cemeteryhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060625-montjuic-barcelona/2006-06-25T03:00:00+02:002006-06-25T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
This morning I've been visiting the Montjuic cemetery in Barcelona. I went
there with mixed expectations, since the information I could find online
indicated that Spanish cemeteries tend to have these massive walls full of
small "urn storage graves", which are not of any real interest to me.
</p>
<p>
God, was I amazed how different it really turned out to be. Now, after having
seen it, I think it has definitely made it into my personal top ten of
world-wide cemeteries. Thousands of angels, and other extremely beautiful
statues.
</p>
<p>
Family graves of the wealthy Barcelona families from the late 19th and early
20th century, as rich in architecture, sculptures and details that make many
church look extremely plain next to them. And there you have hundreds in one
spot!
</p>
<p>
The whole cemetery is very well maintained, and due to its situation on the
side of the Montjuic hill, next to the sea and in direct sun there is very
limited vegetation (and therefor no spread of plants onto graves, etc.).
</p>
<p>
So by now, knowing my affection for cemeteries, you must have thought that I
was in heaven while visiting Montjuic. Almost, if there wasn't that stupid "no
photography" sign at the entrance. It made me hesitate a bit, but then I thought
"well, southern Europeans are generally a bit more open to bending the laws, so
let's try it anyway". I took some five pictures, and no later than 10 minutes
after entering the cemetery, I was stopped by no less than six cemetery guards,
who were constantly patrolling the whole cemetery with their small scooters.
</p>
<p>
They took my personal details (I wonder whether they will send me a fine to
Germany *g*), and asked me to delete those pictures on the camera. I did
without hesitation. The technical reader of this blog will know how easy it
is to undelete files from a FAT filesystem ;)
</p>
<p>
Anyway, I didn't engage in any further photography, and I was saddened to see
all this beauty, and being deprived of capturing at least tiny bits of it in order
to take it home with me, put some more prints to the walls of my apartment, etc.
</p>
<p>
This really has been the first cemetery I've been to which disallowed
photography. And I've been to many hundred cemeteries, mainly in Europe but also in
other parts of the world. And they don't even state _why_ they don't allow it. I would
pay for a photo pass, I would sign off on no any "no commercial use"
declaration or whatever. *sigh*.
</p>
<p>
I mean I can perfectly understand if people protest against inappropriate photo
shootings at cemeteries (you know what I mean... barely naked women tied to
graves, etc.), and there is _nothing_ in common between such inappropriate
behavior and somebody like me, who basically wants to honour the original
artist/sculpturer by taking some pictures for personal use only.
</p>Geek Pr0nhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060616-geekpr0n3/2006-06-16T03:00:00+02:002006-06-16T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
See for yourself at <a href="http://photos.jibble.org/GeekPr0n30">http://photos.jibble.org/GeekPr0n30</a>.
I really like them, not only because it is geeky, but also because the
photographic ideas behind at least some of those pictures. How the aesthetics of the body
mix with the geometry of certain object, and sometimes even play with some
cultural connotation that we might have...
</p>
<p>
My personal favourite of that set is <a href="http://photos.jibble.org/GeekPr0n30/Geek_Pr0n_3_0_Color_IMG_1768">this
one</a>.
</p>Looking for historical cemeteries in Barcelonahttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060612-barcelona/2006-06-12T03:00:00+02:002006-06-12T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
I'll be travelling to Barcelona for the <a href="http://www.germany.fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/europe-gplv3-conference">3rd
international GPL conference</a>. As usual, I'd like to take pictures of
historical and/or otherwise interesting cemeteries.
</p>
<p>
For the first time, I'd actually like to use this blog/journal to ask for
suggestions. So if you can recommend any particularly beautiful cemeteries in
Barcelona, do <a href="mailto:laforge@gnumonks.org">let me know</a>.
</p>Photography at Vienna central cemeteryhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060411-vienna/2006-04-11T03:00:00+02:002006-04-11T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
Apart from OSCON/LINBIT related stuff, I've also actually taken a couple of
hundred pictures (both digital and analog b/w) at Vienna's central cemetery,
Europe's largest cemetery with more than 3 million people being buried there.
</p>
<p>
I yet have to develop the films, and look into the 3+GB digital data. However,
I'm very confident that given the good light conditions and the amount of time
I spent at the cemetery, there should definitely be some really good pics...
</p>Half a day in the darkroomhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060407-darkroom/2006-04-07T03:00:00+02:002006-04-07T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
I've spent the better part of this day first setting up my darkroom (in the
bathroom), and then working in it. It's been quite some time (must be almost
two years) since I last found time to produce my own b/w prints, but now the
time has come. Used about 50 sheets of 24x30cm PE paper only today ;)
</p>
<p>
I'll probably continue with some more (postcard sized) prints tomorrow and
later next week. There's certainly a backlog of a couple of hundred images
that I have on film but not on paper yet.
</p>Taking photographs at Vienna's central cemeteryhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20050607-vienna-cemetery/2005-06-07T03:00:00+02:002005-06-07T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
Vienna is well-known for it's historic cemeteries. I always wanted to take
some pictures there. Now that I'm in Vienna for business reasons, I at least
wanted to visit one of them, the Zentralfriedhof (central cemetery).
</p>
<p>
The first thing you notice is the magnitude of this facility. Coming from the
next railway station, you enter through gate 11. Yes, that's _eleven_. Next
curiosity is that there is a dedicated bus line taking you to different parts
of the vast area.
</p>
<p>
I must have spent some four hours there, and it was definitely just a quick
browse, I could barely scratch the surface of this beauty.
</p>
<p>
My photography was hampered by the weather. It was very cloudy, resulting at
quite long exposure times even at 400 ASA films - and every so often I had to make a break because of rain.
</p>
<p>
After getting back to the hotel I discovered a most embarrassing truth. The
pictures from the digital SLR turned out fine, but the chemical camera was
lacking a film. I was (and still am) totally devastated.
</p>
<p>
How could this beginner's mistake happen to me? Well, I have two SLR cameras
for old-fashioned chemical film. The one I took this time apparently advances
the picture counter even if there is no film inside. Despite using that camera
for numerous years, I didn't figure that so far. *sigh*.
</p>
<p>
This means that I definitely have to come back at some later point. Maybe I
can manage to get some cheap flight tickets at a time when the weather is
better, and I'm less stupid...
</p>Doing some fetish / erotic / alternative photography againhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20050522-photographing-again/2005-05-22T03:00:00+02:002005-05-22T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
Due to lucky circumstances I've been able to get back to do some photography
in this area. This also means that I'm actually going to spend a number of
hours in the darkroom, developing prints. Didn't do that for more than a year
now, and I'm looking forward to having some fun with that again...
</p>The Karlsruhe Cemeteryhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20040628-karlsruhe-cemetary/2004-06-28T03:00:00+02:002004-06-28T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
On Sunday morning the weather was fine (sun shining but not too hot), so I
finally went to the Karlsruhe Hauptfriedhof (main cemetery) for some photo
shooting. For those of you who don't know it yet: Photography [especially of historical cemeteries] is one of my hobbies.
</p>
<p>
To my big surprise, there were a number of beautiful graves, angels, statues,
... Normally 99% of all cemeteries in Germany look the same, since most of the
graves are from 1950 to present - and apparently nobody has the money (and the
taste) for something different than a standard grave stone.
</p>
<p>
Also, this was one of the first occasions to get some more experience with my
new digital SLR camera, the EOS-300D. I really hope that the convenience of
digital photography won't prevent me from still doing real chemical b/w photography... Especially with my lack of time, I fear this possibility.
</p>
<p>
Now you may be asking yourself: Where are the pictures? Well, I really want to
show you all of them, but first I need to get the database-enabled photo
repository finished. Stay tuned.
</p>Bought a new camera: Canon EOS 300Dhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20040607-newcamera/2004-06-07T03:00:00+02:002004-06-07T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
In the past I've been doing only chemical b/w photography, using SLR cameras
from the mid-80s. Recently I decided to explore color photography, too - but
certainly not with chemical film. Developing color prints in your own darkroom
is way more complicated than b/w, and it requires to buy completely different equipment.
</p>
<p>
The entry-level digital SLR cameras have just gone below the EUR1000 line, so
I decided to go for the Canon EOS 300D. Despite not having had much time for
exploring it, the pictures it produces are really great.
</p>
<p>
The only thing I don't like is the physical quality of the case. Coming from
metal cased chemical SLR cameras, the plastic case of the EOS 300D feels
extremely volatile. Also, the lens frame made from plastic is really
disturbing... I'm sure this camera won't last 20 years like my two existing
chemical SLR's.
</p>
<p>
Maybe finally I'll also find some time to work on <a href="http://www.cemetery-photography.org/">www.cemetery-photography.org</a> -
which is still empty at this point. Not that I'm lacking the [digitized]
photographs, I just don't have the time to set up the website, design the
templates, and so on.
</p>