December 28, 2012

Street Photography in Morocco + Making black and white

A few months ago I finnaly found my SD card from my trip to Morocco two years ago!

So I started making some black and whites of some pictures.

Why?
I noticed I made a lot of street pics. And, well, in Morocco streets are very crowded. Making the pics black and white pulls the attention back to the subject of the photo, the people in it.

Unless the colors are important, for example if I want to track attention to clothing or food, I leave it in colors.

I did this with the excellent free program called Paint.NET. It's a lot like photoshop, wich I used to have, but not anymore unfortunately...
Steps you mainly have to do:
1: Composition! You may need to crop a photo. Or put it back straight. But I wouldn't do this a lot. A photo that isn't straight is actually sometimes better than a straight one in street photography.
To crop: select the whole photo, use the "move selection" tool and hold shift while making the selection smaller to keep the same ratio. move around with selection till you are pleased. Then Image->crop to selection.
To turn: select photo, richt click on corners of selection to turn. Then crop.
2: Sometimes I let paint.NET do "Auto levels" (Adjustments->Auto- levels).This doesn't always turn out great, but it does manage to fix the contrast pretty well.
3: Turn it in black and white! (Adjustments->black and white)
4: Play with the contrast and brightness! (Adjustments-> Brightness/contrast) Don't mess with it a lot though. It just sometimes comes in handy with black and white:)

I start to really love black and white!
I know these pics are not super -WOW- pics, but that is what makes it street photography. These pics make great pics not because of their perfectness, but because they aren't perfect at all. They are a mess. They let you FEEL the streets.
Everybody can do street photography, the only special skills you need to have, is to DARE to take a picture, and that you know when and what to shoot.

The beautiful blue burka, tradition for the women in the city Taroudant

Men, and goats:)

old man, selling spices

Love the movement, although it's not a clear shot:)


Donkey!

small street with shoemakers and cloth repairing people:)

kids

For more pics you can visit my Flickr!

December 26, 2012

Macro photography with reverse rings (poor guys macro) explained

Yay!
I got my first macro shots with a reverse ring! :D

I was really surprised how fast I managed to get a clear shot!
It was very challenging working in Manual mode.

But in one evening experimenting with my camera, I already learned a lot.

So, here is a "how-to" for working with macro reverse rings!

1. You need the right lens. You need a manual lens with an aperture ring.What also comes in handy is an Automatic-Manual switch. Why do we need that? The lens is reversed so that switch doesn't function anymore, right? No! (See 5. )

2. Mount the reverse ring on your camera first. And demount it. Just to make sure it fits right. Now mount it again, and than screw the lens on.

3. Turn your camera on. Set the camera on M mode. Set the lens on the biggest aperture it has! (The smallest number) Now, you can look through the viewfinder and try to guess the settings you need and make a composition.

4. The problem with macro is that you don't want a too shallow DOF, Depth of field. This is the area wich is in focus. And I tell you, this is very small with a reversed ring. It's probably 1cm to 5mm. To make the DOF bigger, you'll need a smaller aperture. Ok then, lets make a smaller aperture.
Ow....Our viewfinder turns black, and our picture turns out too dark...
Yes...
So this is why you will either work with a longer shutter speed or with flash. The longer shutter speed is not a good option since we are working MACRO!! Every slight movement will make a blurry picture. And the advantage of a flash is too freeze the image. So turn on that flash!!
I did my pictures for now with the simple pop-up.
I'll soon make a flash extender and diffuser so that the flash will actually point at the subject and wont be that harsh anymore.

5.Ok, our flash is on. But we still can't see anything through the viewfinder! This is where the pin on the backside of your lens comes in handy! Turn the lenses aperture wide open. When you have a A-M switch, turn it to A. Now you can turn the aperture to about f8 or f11 depending on the situation. Push the pin, and....MAGIC! the aperture stops down!

6. We are going to take the picture! Settings ok (ISO,Shutter speed, white balance...)? Aperture wide open? Then immediately push the pin so the aperture stops down, and take the picture!
If you don't have the A-M switch I think you'll have to turn the aperture ring quickly to a higher f stop without moving your camera and take the picture.

I hope this helps!!

Here are the first pictures I took with this method:
Peacock feather details

a little christmas ornament

plant

Skin on my thumb, iiiiieeeew looks so awkward!

cuticle of one of my fingers

Hair!



December 25, 2012

Happy Newtonmass!!

And off course a merry merry christmas to everyone!

To all non nerdfighters and science lovers: 25th december is the birthday of the great Isaac Newton. (Actually 4th of January in the old calendar back than)

We really have to think a little moment at him.This great mind invented modern calculus, Newtons laws of motion and much more fundamentals for todays physics and mathematics.

What I will do on christmas eve, today, is go outside, look up at the stars, and thank him. Thank you, Newton. Thank you for opening the door to understand our universe much better.

File:GodfreyKneller-IsaacNewton-1689.jpg
Here a little carol for you, Newton!

God rest ye merry, physicists
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember Isaac Newton
was born on Christmas Day!
His gravity and calculus and “f” equals “m” “a”!
Oh, pillars of physics and math, physics and math,
Oh, pillars of physics and math!


A factor of big G – the same for flea and giant star.
Then multiply the masses and divide by square of “r”.
The force that keeps us on the earth and orbits moons afar!
Oh, pillars of physics and math, physics and math,
Oh, pillars of physics and math!

Now, calculus is math for those
who change things bit by bit.
To figure out derivatives
and get the curve to fit.
Then integrate and you can find the area under it!
Oh, pillars of physics and math, physics and math,
Oh, pillars of physics and math!


For those of you wanting to send a "Happy Newtonmass" card: Here is a card I made using photoshop;) You can use it!




December 03, 2012

New M42 Lenses for my DSLR!

Hi!!

A few days ago, I bought 2 excellent second hand lenses!

They are M42 lenses wich means their backside has a 42mm screw.
These are old lenses from the 70's. But they are so excellent!

The Yashinon auto DX is a fix 50mm lens with aperture up to 2.0! It's a heavy lens, and you can feel the quality.
The Super Marexar is a 28mm wide angel lens with aperture 2.8. Also big!
For the guys who aren't that common with all these numbers: You should know how bigger the aperture, how smaller the aperture number, or f-stop. And how smaller this number, how more lightsensitive the lens is, so that you can shoot in darker conditions, and what makes it more expensive. Also, a big aperture gives you a smaller DOF, depth of field, and gives you a nice bokeh!


So how do I attach these lenses to my modern DSLR?
Just buy an adaptor! :D

You should know that you have to shoot all manual! You can addapt aperture and focus on your lens itself.
You have to put your camera on A (aperture priority), S (shutter priority) or M (fully manual)
In the A mode you set the aperture you chose on your lens, and your camera will choose the shutter speed etc. In S mode, you choose the shutter speed, but, notice, your camera will tell you which aperture is needed, so you have to addapt this on the lens!!

If you want to use a M42 lens for portraits, people, animals or macro (with extension tubes etc) they are perfect!
However for landscape photography, or all other subjects on which you should focus to infinity, this will not work! Unless you buy an adaptor with a correcting glass in it, which I do not recommend. The quality of the lens will then be equal to the quality of the glass in your adapter, which is usualy bad....

I intented to use these lenses reversed on an extension tube to do macro photography!
I am still waiting for the reverse ring and extension tubes to arrive (China stuff from ebay) :D

November 27, 2012

The Girl

While today should be a day for learning my mathematics, I drawed instead...

Luckily it turned out great! :D

Normaly, I draw with a model or a picture or something. This is one of the few drawings  made just from my fantasy! I'm satisfied!

I didn't know for sure if I wanted to add some color
Decided not to do that, didn't want to ruin her....

Wonder how I'll name her...
She's so...
Her left eye expresses strongness, but her right eye shows her scream for help and her weakness...


Illustrating experiment!

The last few weeks, I've been experimenting with making some illustrations.

I really didn't know how to begin. So I just bought a great Staedler 0.1 water resistant pigment liner.
Good buy.

So I drew the outlines and then coloured in with watercolours.

Still not good I think.

There has to be some other way to do this.

Here one of my experiments:

I don't know if some of you know the story of Medusa?

Medusa was first a beautiful girl, just like her other sisters (together they were called 'the gorgones').  But Athena got angry at her and transformed her into an ugly snake-headed women who could stone people. For the reason of her anger are several story's. One is that she slept with Zeus...

I like to use Greek mythology in artworks.

But I have to say, this wasn't really a piece of art in which I'm showing my skills! Everyone could do this:) You just need to have the idea!

October 07, 2012

No lazy sunday

Today I showed my -eagerness- haha

I visited a company working in nanoelectronics and nanobiotechnology.
I may be still an undergrad, but I think you can never start too young with networking.

I already got some information to do a PhD or an internship there, pretty great huh?

And when I got home and checked my mail, I saw that I have a job! Yeah!
I'll be working some hours in the week in a lab: making samples, cleaning glass, weighing samples...

What did we learn today?
Never too young for networking.

And sience is awesome, off course...

October 06, 2012

New blog header + Brett Manning!

I'm so proud of it!

I made it with paint.NET, a free photoshop like software.
You can do a lot with it!

I downloaded the fonts here.The title is in a font called "things we said", and the description in the beautifull and simple font called Soymilk!

My paper was 1050x300 pixels.
Off course I used different layers. A layer for: Title; description; girl; wool; background.

I used the pipet to take the girls hair color as a primary color, and in the color palette, I made it a bit darker.
For the wool: I cut it out a bigger drawing. The background was a bit yellowish, so first I swapped the image in black/white, and then I played with the contrast.



The illustrations are the work of Brett Manning. I hope she doesn't mind I'm using her work.
I want to thank her!

Her work is so warm and gentle. She has a love for textures, fabric and hair. It's really hard to draw I think.
And again, she uses the combination of ink drawings and paint, aquarel. I love it!
You could say that this combination of techniques is called "illustrating", but her work is real art for me.
She isn't only an illustrator, she paints, draws and so on!
Lots of respect from me!
Here some of her work...


































Hope you like it!

And again, sorry Brett, but your work is so beautifull :)

October 05, 2012

Selfmade recycled papercraft design basket

Hi guys!


This DIY, I did 2 years ago for a school project. Got an A+ for it ;)
And, really, I like it a lot!
But unfortunately, I used the wrong glue, and it fell apart during the next months... :(

The title of the work is "Kring", what I could translate in "circle", although it's not completely the same. The concept behind it, is that it's a paper bin, made out of paper. So actually, there is no bin! And the paper you throw away, can be recycled into this beautiful design. The circle of life?...

Anyway, what dou you think about it?




When I was a kid...(artwork)

Here are some drawings from when I was a kid and a teenager!
Most pictures from a sketchbook I used a lot.

I'm still very proud of this drawing:
My art teacher gave us, 8 year old kids, the exercise to draw a kind of bicycle which was on a table. So it was an exercise to teach kids to first look good at the object, and then draw, and see what you're drawing wrong.
Well, except the fact that I didn't even know how to draw a circle, this is pretty good didn't it?
Maybe the wheels are the evidence that I was a quite smart kid.
"I see wheels, so I draw a circle, a wheel" That was not what I thought. I didn't think, I just looked and draw.

When I was 12 I had a phase in which I liked to draw manga

 And then there was a time I liked to draw elves, midgets, angels and other mythical girls stuff
And then I started, when I was like 15, I started with making illustrations. I liked to draw without taking my pencil from the paper. A real challenge, and it gave nice results! This is a drawing I made with the help of a travel guide about jungles (lifelong obsession by the way)

And then, about two years ago, I started to draw fashion illustrations.

I actually would really like to make this dress :)

And I'm still searching a bikini like I drew :)
So those where a few drawings. I have a whole collection in the attic. I kept all my drawings from when I was 8. 
Oh, I would like to see them again actually, but I know it will take me a day, I would really enjoy it....

P.S.:sorry for the pictures, I didn't get them in landscape. When I uploaded them they were still ok...



Recent Artwork

I would like to present you some of my work.

I absolutely don't do a lot of art anymore.
I wish I had more time.
These are from about a year ago.

I love the mix between drawing and painting!
And I like to draw or paint very realistic. But I also like to twist body shapes or add some deformations. You can bring a lot more feelings in your work!

I discovered this style thanks to Egon Shiele, an early expressionistic painter who did have an intense short life and made some great art. He learned from Gustav Klimt, also a favourite of me.

I'm hoping to take some lessons in illustration once....

A remake of a work by an unkown Belgian artist, Jef Bertels. I'm in love with his work.

An etch print of a self portrait of Egon Schiele.

DIY: Recycled multi-purpose mint gold white glass

So my first DIY for my blog!
I'm so excited!
I did this one like a month ago or something.

So, here they are, my beautifull recycled jam and pickles glasses!


On the moment for my pens! And a beautifull decoration for my desk.

Aloƫ vera :3

Recently I discovered an equal post somewhere on Pinterest, didn't repin it, but did remember! :D
But the Pinterest glasses where fully covered with paint.

I decided to leave some glass clear.

So here the steps:
Materials: -Jam, pickles, honey, .... glass
                 -Tape
                 -Acrylic paint
                 - Colored and clear spray paint
                 
  1. First tape your glasses, and leave big and smaller stripes clear.
  2.  If you chose to use acrylic paint, you can mix your own color. Here is a very very usefull website, if you're not that experienced with mixing colors. I love the combination of mint and gold. And I also used white. The gold is spray paint.
  3. Paint or spray
  4. Let dry
  5. Spray the whole glass with clear spray if you've used acrylic paint and you want your glass to be waterproof. I've noticed the paint will otherwise shrink. I wanted to use my glass as a vase and spilled some water on the outside and the acrylic paint shrunk and got wrinkles. On my next glass I used clear spray paint, and it helped a lot.
I use one glass as a pot for my little aloe vera plant. I've put some little stones on the bottom, wich gives a nice effect, you can see them;) The other glass is for my pens on my desk!
You can also use it as a vase or a storage for candy... 
I hope you all like my first DIY on my blog!

--InZaiE

September 28, 2012

Screw this

Ok, so, since I wrote my three chapters, I can say

THE END

I'll start real blogging now :)

I'm planning to post a lot of pictures and DIY's.
So, YES, my blog will be usefull to you, I hope!

I'm searching for a way to make tabs or other pages to my blog.
Till then, I'll just label my posts with the 3 chapters.

x
inzaie

Chapter 3: Eager

Eager to learn...

I don't know why, but I just like to know things.

I'm a kind of person thats interested in everything. I like to learn new things. And that could be in theoretical way, or practical, as an experience.

Like travelling: I hate persons who take a plane, travel to a beautifull country, and don't even leave their hotel. Really, I HATE them.
If I travel, I'm not a tourist. I'm a traveller. I'm interested in their culture, history and nature. I visit their country, to learn something.

Uomo Universale. Like a walking Wikipedia, haha
Yes, that's what I want to be.
Sience, history, art, culture....
And I want it just for myself. Not to show people how smart I am, or I don't know what.
No. I want it, because I appreciate life. I don't know how to explain it. What is life worth, if you don't know anything about life?
I think everybody has his own answer on the question: Why do we live?

I could answer it paradoxical: I live to learn and experience, and I learn by living and I gather experiences by learning from life.

Ok, maybe that's nonsense.
I just don't know how to explain it. It feels that I have an inner voice wich tells me to learn :)

Chapter 2: persistent


My life is a series of experiences who left me cold and angry.

And I didn't learn persistence...
I just had to be!

I never give up. If I start something willingly, no one can stop me. It doesn't matter how hard I need to work to achieve my goal: If I want it, I go for it. And I'm pretty sure I will reach what I want.

I could say school is the best example. I always want to make things hard for myself, to see how far I can go. How hard can I work to achieve my goal? Till now, in school, this strategy always worked. When I went to university, I told myself to stop working so hard, and just choose to study something what interests me. Biology.
Even if it wouldn't be too hard for me.

And well, you see where I ended. It lasted one year.

I'm back.

Again, I couldn't say no to myself. I needed a challenge again. I want to now how far I can go.
So I started bio-engineering studies.
This will be a hard year.
Just like I want.

September 27, 2012

Chapter 1 : Creative

Like I said, I describe myself with 3 words: creative, persistent and eager

Here comes the WHY of creative
Ready?

Since childhood, my mother did everything to give me as many chances to learn something.
I really appreciate that from her.

I was a kid with so much hobbies, I needed to go somewhere everyday!!!

Arabic lessons, horseback riding, gymastics, music lessons, art school, dancing and so on.

Art school was my home for 10 years long. Untill I was 18...And I miss it so hard...
This is the place where I learned to use a pencil and a brush, a place where I never wanted to go.
Some people say, it's because of the 10 years of lessons that my drawing is so good. I don't think so. I was born with it, it was a gift;)

Music lessons also started when I was 7. At 8, I learned to play the flute. But I had a really bitchy german/Russian teacher, I still get the creeps if I see her. I cried a lot back then. So I stopped with the flute and finally started what I always wanted to do: playing the harp!
And my dream came true: My mother saved some money, and I got my very own harp about six years ago. And I'm still in love....
This year I took a break, so no lessons this year. University will take a lot of my time...
But I'm still playing, and I'm hoping to do some covers.

DIY-ing is not a hobby, it's a lifestyle for me. If I go shopping, and see something nice, you will often hear me say: that's easy to DIY!
The DIY-ing probably comes from my parents, die-hard DIY ers. Probably because money has always been a problem in our family. And in situations like that, my parents became creative.

Another thing I got from my mom is my love for fashion. I'm maybe not wearing the latest fashion, but I'm surely up-to-date!!
My mom, in her time back then, was an absolute fashionista, but also a weirdo. She used to buy fashion magazines and look at the clothes and sew them!
And guess what: I'm learning to sew to ;)
Plus, my mom happens to save all her old clothes, which has become my wardrobe now, I love her vintage stuff! ;)

So next thing: When I became 16, I started to learn myself the "real" photography, and got myself a DSLR. I'm still very happy I put my money in that. But I'm still in the learning process.

And then the rest:
I like cooking and baking
I like to write
I like to do my nails
I like to be creative with my hairstyles
I like decorating

and so on...


I guess you understand chapter 1 :D


PS: Did I excuse myself for my horrible English? I'm very sorry :s

I'm Back / New start / Finnally begining?

 well well....
Look what I found today!
My lonely blog...

A year has passed, as I see.
And, still, I'm trustless...

But at least my new computer, Mr. Waffles, isn't like my previous ;)

My first year at university passed really quickly. I had to redo only 1 exam: organic chemistry.
So in July, like every year, I spend my summer at the lokal kids club, playing with children, and earning some money.
And in august, I had a holiday job in a kindergarten. After my hours, I was learning o-chem....

So quite a busy "holiday" I had.

But at least, I passed my exam with 12/20, and decided to stop studying biology, and start studying Bio-engineering.
Explanation will follow maybe...

So that's where I am right now!
Colleges started this week, and I'm ready for new books, friends and pubs ;)

--inzaie