Nature Photo Magazine 2010/4

nature photo magazine

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free online photo magazine

2010/4.

csaba darĂłczi | Portfolio nigeria | Interesting places birds of prey photography | Photo school

welcome Dear Reader,

Another three months have just gone, so here we are with our next issue.

The winter is here and Christmas is coming. I like this month, there is something nice, something mysterious in it. Everybody needs that in the present period of crisis when we have a lack of advertisers. Thank you so much again for the plenty of emails and feedbacks which encourage us to continue our work. We live in the world of globalisation where real values does not play an important part anymore as everything revolves around money. Money-centered companies do not cherish love for their fellowbeings and for the nature. But we, as ambassadors for nature cannot let them suppress our voice and pictures through which we can make more than 100,000 readers happy all over the world, and we can give some hope to Mother Earth. People should realise that money does not really count because if there will be nothing left to protect or to read then what money will be worth? Shall we eat it or read it?

Well, let’s put these thoughts aside and see the topics of our winter issue to cheer our readers.

A member of our editorial team, Bence Máté can be proud of being the first Hungarian winner of the BBC’s “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” main award. His fantastic first photo album has just been published. The book is entitled “Láthatatlanul” (“Invisibly”) and our readers can see one of its chapters in our magazine.

Anikó Imre és Tamás Imre, a photographer couple, show the wonderful lands of North of Sweden and Lapland in our Photo adventure column.

The Nice places column shows the unique birdlife of Tata by péter Csonka and Tamás Imre.

To go far afield to the the East we show you a trip to Nigeria by Mrs Csicseri, Mária Papp and the second part of China trip by János Eifert.

In our present “Portfolio”, we introduce Csaba Daróczi who is a well-known worldwide for his extraordinary air photos and conscious photography.

Our Trips and Tricks column show you around in the fantastic world of ice formations by László Suhayda and Árpád Krivánszky.

János Szekeres gives you ideas and stories for the photography of winter games.

Our “Photo School” provides technological and other ideas for birds of prey photography. Tamás Imre és Bence Máté nature photographers let you have a glance into their backstage secrets.

Our “Diaporama” column continues with an introduction to Wings Platinum 4 software.

Our underwater photographer Dániel Selmeczi now dips the readers into the fantastic underwater world of Borneo-Malaysia, so we could get to know this barely known water world.

Our Photoshop expert Márton Perhiniak escort us through the basic steps of retouching by his tutorial.

Please receive our seventh issue with love.

Tamás Imre Editor-in-Chief Photo: © Tamás Imre Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, EF 24-105mm f/4 IS USM 5 sec, f/9, ISO 100 stand

Photo adventure - lapland

6

Travellers usually steer clear of Scandinavian countries in winter. Coldness, darkness and tiredness, these are the first associations for photographers or for average people about the wintry Scandinavia. Yet this northern European region, abundantly blessed with natural treasures, was our destination. Unforgottable wild lands, mountains, national parks and the interest in the life of Lapland make this region attractive for nature photographers.

portfolio - csaba daróczi

22

Winter photography of mammals 42

I was born in 1969 in Debrecen, and grew up in Püspökladány. I went to secondary school in Makó and then I graduated at the Teacher Training College of Szeged where I did Geography and P.E. Now I live in Soltvadkert.

I came across photography when I did fieldwork for geography during my college years in 1992, however, the decision that I would be a nature photographer was made just in an hour of time.

I always wanted to take a picture of mouflons when it is snowing as heavily that you barely can see a thing. The chance was given to me in the winter of 2009, when - at last - a significant amount of snow fell.

As I was walking on in the heavy snowfall, I spotted mouflons on a gorge. When they saw me, they ran away, not too far though. I quickly settled down, camouflaged myself and waited. Shortly after they moved and came towards me. It was snowing terribly.

Photo school -

Birds of prey photography

34

©Szekeres János - Este

borneo / malaysia

82

This little tropical island with the area of 12 ha in Malaysia, 50 km far from Borneo is certainly one of the world’s top 10 diving spots. The famous oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau discovered at the beginning of the ‘80s what sort of treasure were hidden on this little island. He described it saying: “I have seen something similar 45 years ago, but now we found a piece of untouched work of art!”

Bence Máté - the invisible

92

Taking bird pictures is a branch of photography where it became worthwhile to shift to digital technology even before the picture quality was not even a third of the quality of those taken with 35mm film. How could this be? Here is the story of how I became, although totally unaware at the time, a pixel consumer.

interesting places

tata - wild geese nigeria tips and tricks

birds of prey Photography of ice forms People-cities-cultures china diaporama

wings platinum 4 / III képfeldolgozás

retouch techniques

16 50 34 58 66 80 109

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, EF 70-200L IS USM 1/25sec f/10 ISO 100

Photo adventure

North of Sweden and Lapland Travellers usually steer clear of Scandinavian countries in winter.

Coldness, darkness and tiredness, these are the first associations for photographers or for average people about the wintry Scandinavia. Yet this northern European region, abundantly blessed with natural treasures, was our destination. Unforgottable wild lands, mountains, national parks and the interest in the life of Lapland make this region attractive for nature photographers.

Lapland impressions We arrived at Stockholm by plane, and right after arrival we headed to the north. Important warning: if possible, rent a tyre chain or a car with studded tyres for the road through the Arctic Circle.

Some more advice fro preparation: when choosing your equipment, take into consideration that it could be as cold as minus 30 degrees Celsius.

We should wear several layers of clothing and take leg and hand warmers with us, they will do a very good service. I would like to clear away a delusion which says that DSLR cameras do not work in cold weather or they go flat quickly etc. It is partly true for Nikon, Sony and Pentax cameras with CCD censors. But today we are in the world of CMOS sensors which use much less energy. However, they go flat in frosty weather 15 % quicker but it is not significant. The point is that we have been working with Canon and Nikon shells for several hours in minus 25 and we had no problems at all.

So as we travelled to the north on the Highway 4, the most difficult part was the section between the mountains and crossing the Arctic Circle.

Our destinations were Boden, Jokkmokk and Abisko and their national parks: Muddus NP, Sarek NP and Abisko NP. If you want to see elks in the wild, it is the right direction to head north as sometimes we saw them on the road and all over.

The least daylight is in December and January, from about 10 am to 2 pm, but this is such a good quality lighT from a photographer point of view that you can utilise these 4 or 5 hours entirely for shooting. The only problem is with our biological clock as it often occurs that we are so tired at 3 pm as late in the evening another time.

I do not know how people of the north can get used to this alternation between summer and winter but I really had enough after ten days.

Our greatest experience was crossing the Arctic Circle which happened near Jokkmokk in Sweden. Normally, here is the coldest, it can be even minus 35 degrees.

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, EF 24-70L USM 30sec f/8 ISO 100

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, EF 24-70L USM 1/8sec f/11 ISO 200

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, EF 24-70L USM 3sec f/22 ISO 100

Here I would like to tell a salutary story. We were out to shoot landscapes but it was so cold that even grabbing the leg of the tripod with gloved hands was a painful experience, but the chance for nice pictures and the sight of the wonderful purplish and orangish pastel shades had fired everybody with enthusiasm. We went for shooting about 300 to 500 meters from the car, but one of my friends took the risk to go even farther from the group.

Well, it was nearly fateful. Everybody had finished shooting and we were waiting him to come back to the car but he did not come, so after about 20 minutes we were really worried about him. Then we saw him trudging towards us with a pale face as white as a sheet. He was about 100 meters far, so we went to meet him and helped to carry his tripod and bag. We asked what the trouble was but he said he did not know, just he was cold and exhausted. Likely he started to get cold due to the extremely cold weather and the unsuitable clothing.

It took about an hour to warm him up again.

Luckily there was a doctor with us and he checked him but thanks God it was nothing serious. But it was a salutary lesson. We mustn’t go that far from each other and we musn’t stay more then two hours out in that cold without suitable clothing and equipment.

We found nice scenes and lights during our trip.

The most fascinating experience was in Lapland where we had visited a family who run dogsleds.

There were about forty huskies around the house. Travellers can rent wooden houses here for one or two nights. The Suomi people live in Lapland who make their living out of tourism and breeding of elks. Sometimes we could see flocks of elks but they are not all wild as all of them are the property of local Lap communities.

It was not idealistic sight to see a stag blessed with mighty antlers as it was tied to a tree just before slaughtering.

The most beautiful themes of landscape photography were the rivers frozen over and the foggy valleys which can be found in Abisko National Park by venturesome nature photographers.

North of Sweden and Lapland offered us losts of nice natural sight so it is worth to travel such distance and get to know this varied but bleak land.

Text: Tamรกs Imre Pictures: Anikรณ Imre and Tamรกs Imre photographers

Planning Scene: North of Sweden, Lapland, Finland Accessibility: By car from Stockholm airport.

What to shoot: Landscapes What to take: Wide-angle lense of 16-35 mm, 70-200 mm telephoto lens, with 1,4x teleconverter if possible; tripod; ND graduated filter; memory card, camouflage net.

Accomodation: There are very good quality wooden houses with sauna along the road, but you must make enquiries about the opening times to avoid being left without accommodation in the cold weather.

Best time to go: from December to March

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, EF 70-200L IS USM 25sec f/8 ISO 100

Interesting places

Tata: Wild geese in the heart of the city Dear Reader, I would like to introduce our country’s pride: the wild geese of Tata. The name of Tata is well known among Hungarian and international bird-watchers. The Öreg Lake (a man-made lake with about 2 km2 surface) offers such a fantastic sight for nature-lovers that rightly makes this place world famous. The most spectacular time is the autumn and winter migration of waterfowl, especially of the wild geese.

Canon EOS 40D, EF 500mm f/4 IS USM

© Péter Csonka 1/1000 sec f/7,1 ISO 200

© Péter Csonka Canon EOS 40D, EF 500mm f/4 IS USM

© Tamás Imre

1/250 sec f/4 ISO 200

© Péter Csonka

Wild geese, coming from the far North, from their breeding range, established their wintering range on the Öreg Lake of Tata centuries ago. The area is protected since 1989, under international agreement. Ten-thousand of them arrive in November every year to spend the cold winter months here, then in February or March they go back to their Scandinavian or Siberian breeding ranges. It is a unique spectacle in Europe, as the Öreg Lake is the only wintering range of birds entirely surrounded by a city.

And what a city! Tata, the “City of Waters”, has the most significant water castle in Hungary, and plenty of historic buildings in baroque style, and of course, buildings of the modern age, providing a wonderful, must-see scenery for bird photography and bird-watching. Lots of nature-lovers travel a long way to see this spectacle.

It is not widely known that the term “wild goose” is actually for more than ten species in Europe (and in Hungary as well). The most common is the Bean Goose (Anser fabalis) and the Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons).

The Öreg Lake has been mentioned for decades as the most significant wintering range of the Bean goose.

The number of Greater White-fronted Goose has been increasing in the last few years and today is permanently around 80 per cent. Hungary’s only nesting wild goose, the Greylag Goose (Anser anser) also belongs to the most common seen species, however, their number is under a few hundred. According to the statistics, the number of wintering birds surpasses 20,000 at present. The protected area can only be visited through the paths around the lake, as stepping on the drained lake-bed is forbidden due to danger of death. Local environmental groups show this spectacle to the public on the threeday Tata Wild Goose Festival every year.

© Anikó Imre Canon EOS 20D, Sigma 120-300mm + EX 2x

1/30 sec f/9 ISO 100

If you have never seen such bird migration, you should go out some time at dawn to admire the unforgottable voice and sight of ten thousands of geese.

For the pictures, thanks to Péter Csonka who did a lot himself through his environmental work for the birds living here.

Text: Péter Csonka and Tamás Imre Pictures: Péter Csonka , Anikó Imre and Tamás Imre

Daróczi Csaba

I was born in 1969 in Debrecen, and grew up in Püspökladány. I went to secondary school in Makó and then I graduated at the Teacher Training College of Szeged where I did Geography and P.E. Now I live in Soltvadkert.

I came across photography when I did fieldwork for geography during my college years in 1992, however, the decision that I would be a nature photographer was made just in an hour of time. It happened on a nature photography exhibition where the exhibited photos had such an effect on me that from that time my mind was constantly running on getting the suitable technology to do pictures like those and on learning the tricks of this profession.

I gained my experience mostly from my own failures and successes, however, I always followed the achievements of technology and learned the opportunities provided by them from more experienced photographers. I spent as much time in nature as I could, and I was interested in every theme suitable for taking a good photo of it. As my photos had accumulated, I more and more felt that I was interested in moments which were unrepeatable and showed nature from a very different point of view. Unfortunately, I cannot spend much time in nature recently (due to the lack of free time), so I can take less pictures, however, most of them are able to astonish and surprise their viewers.

I have tried nature photography once or twice on remote lands, but I had to realise that I could take the best pictures at home. The majority of my photos have been taken not more than fifty kilometres from my home.

I have won 59 significant prizes on domestic and international competitions.

For more pictures please visit: www.daroczicsaba.hu

Portfoliรณ

Wind sculpture

Autumn

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In the flow

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Frozen c

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Lette

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The oc

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Photo school

Birds of prey photography

© Tamás Imre Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, 300mm 1/1000sec f/5 ISO 400

article’s sponsor:

The present topic of our Photo School is very popular in nature photographer circles. Tamás Imre and Bence Máté nature photographers now share the following tips with you.

Photography of birds is a very tiring task and need to be done with caution. Most nature photographers try this wonderful genre out, but they soon realise that it’s not that simple as they first thought.

During photography we try to show the particular behaviour of the given species, we make photos consciously meeting the rules and the aesthetic principles of the composition. It does no harm to expose sharply either.

Nevertheless, birds of prey photography is one of the most difficult tasks in action photography. When we see a fantastic photo of a bird of prey, we even cannot imagine how much work, persistence and failure was the cost of that nice picture. Here we can read ten basic pinciples and some more backstage secrets needed for taking successful pictures.

10 suggestions worth keeping in mind:

© Bence Máté Nikon D300, 300mm 1/1600sec f/2,8 640 ISO

1, Plan the picture in advance if possible.

2, Place your photo subject in the picture in an aesthetic way, it should be dominating but also in harmony with the other elements of the picture.

3, Choose the best possible lighting conditions for the shot.

4, If you shoot from a hide, do everything for your comfort in favour of concentration.

5, Study the behaviour and habits ofthe given species, it will make much easier to capture the possible actions.

6, Choose a DSLR shell for bird photography which is able to expose a minimum of 6-10 pics/second.

7, Place your gear on a tripod as our hands get tired in long-term and simply cannot hold the camera.

8, Utilise the options of focus preset (not all objective has that).

9, Use seperate buttons on the shell for autofocus and exposure (AF ON button).

10, Increase ISO sensitivity up to at least 1/1000 sec shutter speed, but it can be even more.

From a photographer point of view the quality of light, the beauty of motion, the wildness and rarety of the bird species, the background, the weather conditions, the perfect knowledge of the equipment, the mental preparation and the ability to bear failures are equally important.

Only a photographer who bears all of these conditions in mind and tries to meet them if possible, is able to take good pictures.

Let’s have a look at some of the backstage secrets to have an insight.

© Máté Bence Canon EOS 1-N RS, Canon 800mm 1/80sec f/7,1 Fujichrome Velvia 50

© Bence Máté Nikon D300, 300mm 1/1600sec f/3,5 640 ISO

© Tamás Imre Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, 300mm 1/640sec f/4 400 ISO

Canon EOS

© Péter Csonka EOS 7D, 500mm 1/1000sec f/5,6 800 ISO

Eagles, the kings of the sky Photography of eagles is a bit more difficult as they are much more sensitive to human disturbance, so you must set up a hide in advance. The best solution is to build a hide with detective glass, so the birds would see that as a mirror and we could photograph from a super panoramic view. An important rule that you should enter the hide only at dawn, in darkness and in the evening, and leave the tent after dusk (when there are no birds in front of the hide).

Eagles do not tend to fight, so it is worth watching their behaviour carefully. Action is only expected if they suddenly stop eating and watch the sky tensely as something approaches the hide and then “fight”. It often happens for just a split second, so if you miss it, you have missed the scene forever.

Photography of buzzards Buzzards can be the most easily persuaded to eat carrion on frosty winter days. When setting up your hide, consider the suitable perspective, so it is worth to dig under ground level a bit so you could set snow or grass piles into the foreground much easier to cover the unwanted sight of the carrion. Always expect the fact that birds are much bigger when they open their wings. It is really important if you want to photograph a fight. A lens with high light intensity is really important, ideally 300mm f/2.8 with a full-frame shell.

Falcons and kestrels: The fastest ones Falconiformes and kestrels ae the world’s fastest birds: to capture a scene on their wings is a real challenge. Suggestions: set your AF switch to M position and wait until the bird flies into the desired sharpness plane. You can also use the focus preset option so you could remain in AF position, however, AF-C (Nikon) or AI servo (Canon) could be even better.

Do not spare pixels, put the burst mode into high speed position and expose. If the action photos did not work, then take the welltried static pictures, but make sure you meet the aesthetic rules.

Good luck and good chances!

Text: Tamás Imre Pictures: Tamás Imre, Bence Máté, Péter Csonka

Tips and tricks

Winter photography of mammals

Nikon D2x 2.8/300D Nikon tele+TC-17 6.3/60 ISO 400 EV-1.3

Nikon D100 Tamron 18-270 VR 11/125 +0.7 EV ISO 400

mouflon in the snow

(previous page)

I had been preparing to realise this photo for along time. My intention was to be out there on the field at the first snow and shoot a promising young mouflon ram in the beginning snowfall.

I went out to the field (which I formerly watched carefully) early in the morning, I set up my tent and waited for the chance. It was very cold and the weather was like that it could start snowing anytime. Suddenly this young ram emerged at the fringe of the forest and walked towards me nice and calm. The wind direction was suitable, so he could not notice me. I put a converter (TC-17) on my telelens quietly as he was a bit farther than I expected. I set the suitable shutter speed which was 1/60 at that time to gently make the snowflakes a bit blurred in the whirling wind. I set the aperture to 6.3 to show the background a bit mysteriously. I was waiting for the moment when he looked at my tent curiously and pushed the release button.

wild Boar family

In a beautiful snowy afternoon me an which - as I had noticed before - was Our intention was to take some nice p The weather was on our side and the wonderland. We stopped at a bushy p photo gear out. Suddenly we heard th as they were trotting straight towards down in the big snow and they alread 5 to 8 meters. The shot was done: the the boars were lucky. The fresh snow of the bush. The boars stood nicely in lens. They were puzzled by the sight o We took advantage of that moment. T bushes almost surrounded them.

nd my friend, RZ went out to an area preferred by boars in afternoons. pictures in the freshly fallen snow. e fresh snowfall turned the area into a part, got out of the car and took our he characteristic noice of the boars s us. We barely had the time to lie dy emerged. The distance was about e environment and the position of looked beautiful the the branches n front of us and stared into the of the two lying guys in the snow.

The branches of the snow-covered

Nikon D2x Nikon 2.8/300 D 8/500 EV -1 ISO 400

in the snow I always wanted to take a picture of mouflons when it is snowing as heavily that you barely can see a thing. The chance was given to me in the winter of 2009, when - at last - a significant amount of snow fell.

As I was walking on in the heavy snowfall, I spotted mouflons on a gorge.

When they saw me, they ran away, not too far though. I quickly settled down, camouflaged myself and waited. Shortly after they moved and came towards me. It was snowing terribly. My intention was to shoot them with the fastest possible shutter speed to show the dramatic atmosphere of the hard winter and the struggle with the elements in the picture.

Luckily, they took the position what I expected before, so the snowcovered branches could strengthen the dramatic effect of the hard winter (I encouraged them to do like that with scattering some corn). The atmosphere was also boosted by the sight of snow patches on their body.

Nikon D1x 2.8/300, 8/200 ISO 400 EV+1

Nikon D2x 4/300 AF-S Nikon 4/200 ISO 400 EV 0

duel

(previous page)

Me and my friends planned an all-day photography. We agreed to meet in the morning the day before. It was a gloomy, late November day, a nasty wather as we used to say. It was dark, cloudy, foggy, a real “it looks like rain” feeling. I had a call in my car, my friends rang me to tell they were not coming. I was thinking myself like “what am I doing here?”, “what would I photograph in this terrible weather?” But I am stubborn, so I went on.

When I got to the field and finished with setting up my camouflage, the weather slightly improved. It still remained dark but the air really got cold, and it became foggy and rimy all over. A beautiful, rimy winter landscape started to form around me, it was promising.

Then the stags appeared and the events sped up, so it was quite hard to follow. At such times stags clash with each other in a short, heated fight, that was exactly what happened here. I set the aperture to 8 to make the nice rimy background shown in the background, and the shutter speed to 1/200 (as there was little light). I hoped that would be enough to prevent the stags to be blurred. I was able to catch rare moments. I was in a good place in a good time!

funny guy

I like pictures with humour. This phot stags usually lose their antlers. First th I like this field, something always hap and waiting for the events. Suddenly

They just walked out in front of me. I stand got to the most suitable place t The humour comes from the missing

I wanted both of them to look toward that they looked up suddenly, and th

to was shot around February when he older ones, then the youngsters. ppens here. I was sitting in my tent these two young stags appeared.

I caught the moment when the to refer to a hunting atmosphere. g antler of the stag left handside.

ds me, so I shot a short series. After he photo could be completed.

Nikon D2x Nikon 2.8/300 D 8/500 EV -1 ISO 400

in the fog It is worth to take pictures late afternoons, even in a cloudy, foggy weather. This picture is a good example. A young stag appeared in front of me and he was moving from lef to right, to forth and back, so I had to switch settings a lot. I could not resist, however, I was waiting for more serious males before.

But I found this moment interesting, so I shot this. I chose the colour temperature to make the bluish shades dominate the final picture. I set the aperture to 5, in order to show the.HU background mysteriously and set shutter speed to 1/200.

FOTÓOKTATÁS article’s sponsor:

FOTÓOKTATÁS.HU

Text and pictures: János Szekeres

Interesting places On varied roads during the Harmattan in Nigeria

Nigeria had surprised us a lot. During our wanderings, we came across beautiful, pretty women, nice children, confident and less confident men. Unfortunately, tourism does not really work on the country yet. Thanks to our hosts we could get to interesting events by our own car and driver.

One of them was a beauty queen contest at the TukHam cultural festival, 60 km far from Kaduna.

The festival went on different scenes, with workshops. We were interested in the selection of beauties. The early afternoon start had delayed a bit. We knew that in Africa punctuality was not considered to be an important thing, although we did not expect four hours delay.

I was not prepared for night photography. But they so kindly apologised and tried their best to strike some light out of the few working sockets that we let bygones be bygones soon. We were the special guests, the only foreign couple equipped with photo apparatus, under the spotlight. To such an extent that we were seated next to the judges, among the local VIPs. Having fever, I was just trying to survive the day with a wet towel around my neck. But that did not matter here, we were the example, the foreigners came from the developed world so we had to meet the expectations.

The beautiful women came in front of us in dance steps, wearing traditional costume and trays packed with dishes on their heads. They sang and then they had to tell us what dishes they made and how. The judges mentioned us here too saying that they should had make food what even us (the foreigners) could find delicious. This was followed by a tasting, but I omitted it referring to my bad health condition.

After we gazed at everything in wonder and took photos (for lack of something better, with my built-in flash) we danced with the organisers and the local chiefs and left. We had a fantastic experience, and we might had helped them, unintentionally, in improving their lives.

Next day we watched the dancers in a boiling hot weather and in a big crowd. School children performed in different kinds of tribal costumes with great enthusiasm.

We had the luck to photograph during the Gwong (Egg) festival. It is partly a political event, a ceremony celebrated with tribal dance on the occasion of the annual reelection of the local king. The attendance of the governor of Kaduna state with military escort and the police armed to the teeth showed the seriousness of the event as well. The dignitaries, sitting in comfortable armchairs, were watching the events under sunshades protected by their own guards.

We, the only foreigners (armed in photo equipment) could move freely and take our unforgettable pictures.

The World Heritage Site Oshogbo Sacred Forest was difficult to photograph but the road to there and the cultural heritage of the city was rich in wonderful experiences. The proximity of the capital made the numerous art galleries lively.

We watched how to make batik clothes,

and saw the artist training. We were accommodated in a former gallery, a colonial style house surrounded by a huge garden. We, as the only guests, could enjoy the house packed with pictures and sculptures and the peacock in the garden danced only for us.

During our trip we were fascinated by the children and I admired the fact that

how pretty and feminine women be. They choose t patterns with a good taste

They wear costume jewel of age, they have fantastic and a queenly posture. Th children is unique, they ar nice and kind. All of them models.

could the local their colours and e.

llery regardless c headdresses he vitality of the re very friendly, m are photo

The Harmattan, the African trade wind which brings fine dust in the air, had just reached the country during our stay.

This reddish fog protected us from the burning sunshine and, like a softbox, helped us in photography.

Pictures and text: Mrs Csicseri Mรกria Papp

tips and tricks Photography of ice forms Around November, unfavourable times are coming from a nature photographer point of view. No more colourful leaves, a colourless, foggy world is about to come. At this time, photographers really crave for some interesting themes which will be brought by the first biting frosts.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

© László Suhayda 1/13 s f/8 ISO 100

© László Suhayda

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM 1/10 s f/11 ISO 100

When the cold weather is here and it is below zero even in the daytime, it is worth to visit the nearby puddles as there might be interesting formations on their suddenly frozen surface providing exciting photo themes.

The first few days of frost are the most favourable, because as time goes by, the inside surface of frozen bubbles will soon be

covered with a sort of rime which change their structure and make them not as attractive sight as before. The interesting parts can be bigger or smaller in size, and even the very tiny formations can have an extremely exciting structure which can only be seen if we bow over them. If some parts of a plant, for example a leaf is frozen into the puddle, or the colour of the ground or the rock looms through

the layer of ice, that makes the photo even more exciting. When you photograph icebound objects, always consider that ice has a particular thickness.

Your photos could have very different effects if you set sharpness to different levels in the layer of ice. By choosing different depth of focus, you can also bring variety into the pictures.

© Árpád Krivánszky

Canon EOS 30D, EF-L 2,8/80-200 mm f/18 2s ISO 100

During a very frosty, long spell of cold weather even the bigger stagnant waters and lakes can freeze over, followed by the rivers - so we could discover exciting ice formations in the calmer parts of streams too.

As for lakes, it is worth to look for leaves and other natural formations frozen into the water, sometimes smaller animals.

In streams, the running water creates very different, interesting ice forms which are also worth photographing.

There are glassy, transparent and clear ice formations among them, in this case we could experiment with different, even colourful lighting.

We can also hunt for human or animal shaped ice formations which can make wonder the viewers or

make them smile. Streams usually do not freeze over entirely so we can take exciting pictures as the water runs around the ice forms and reflexions can appear both on the water surface and on the ice.

In ice photography, we should take into consideration that strong light is often unfavourable as the sight of the icebound objects might be spoiled by the bright sparkling of the ice surface.

© Árpád Krivánszky Canon EOS 30D, EF-L 2,8/80-200 mm f/16 1 s ISO 100

Canon EOS 30D, EF 3,5-4,5/28-105 mm

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

© Árpád Krivánszky f/18 0,8 s ISO 100

© László Suhayda 1/400 s f/8 ISO 800

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

1/160 s f/5,6 ISO 1250

In these cases, you should use a polar screen or cast shadow on the area to be photographed. Screened sunshine or a dull sky creates more favourable lighting conditions.

The photography of icebound objects can be disturbed by unwanted things such as rime patches on the surface of the ice. They can easily be removed by the warmth of our hand to make the ice glassy clear again.

Taking ice photos usually requires significant depth of focus which comes with longer exposure time and often the usage of a tripod. To photograph smaller formations, we should bring the usual macro photography gear, macro lens or telephoto lens with extension tubes, collapsible reflectors and torches.

Finally, we have to mention the risks which might lurk around us and our equipment.

One of them is the danger of slipping, especially on the steep, slippery banks of rivers and the snowy icebound stones in the riverbed.

At the deeper lakes we have to be very careful and only step on ice far thick enough not to break under us. For winter photography it is sensible to take some friends with us to help in case of any trouble.

FOTÓOKTATÁS .HU We wish beautiful lights and exciting ice forms!

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FOTÓOKTATÁS.HU Text and pictures: László Suhayda - Árpád Krivánszky

Dancer

People-cities-cultures china, Xinjiang, The Land of Uyghur, 2nd part

Kashgar, market by the river

Girl with earring, Kashgar

Wedding boots

On the move, Kashgar

Shinjang Uyghur Aptonom Rayoni The Land of Uyghurs, Xinjiang, or to be more precise Uyghur Autonomous Regionis China’s largest administrative division. The name literally means “New Territory”. With Chinese letters: xīn = new, jiāng = territory. In order to get an idea of the size and position of this land, I have to provide some well-known data. Area: 1,660,000 km², population: 19,630,000. Xinjiang borders Russia to the north, Mongolia to the east, Tibet and India to the south (Kashmir), Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan és Kazakhstan to the west. On the south, it is dominated by the Himalaya’s northern lines of mountains. The east-west chain of the Tian Shan Mountains separate Dzungaria in the north from the Tarim Basin in the south. It has few rivers, the longest one is the River Tarim. The region has eight lakes, the largest one is Lop-Nur, but it has temporary lakes as well.The area is mainly desert due to the continental climate, it hardly rains, the annual rainfall is about 250 to 500 mm. The official languages are Chinese and Uyghur, however Kazakh, Altaic and Kyrgyz are also spoken. The Uyghur language belongs to the Turkish branch of the Altaic language family and spoken by half of the population.

Silk Road The Silk Road is well-known as the channel of extension of the ancient Chinese civilization to the West. It played an important role in the ChineseWestern economic and cultural relations. Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, which began during the Han Dynasty. As it extends westwards from the ancient commercial centers of China, the overland, intercontinental Silk Road divides into the northern and southern routes bypassing the Taklamakan Desert and Lop Nur. The northern route started at Chang’an (now called Xi’an), the capital of the ancient Chinese Kingdom, which, in the Later Han, was moved further east to Luoyang. The route was defined about the 1st century BCE as Han Wudi put an end to harassment by nomadic tribes. The northern route travelled northwest through the Chinese province of Gansu from Shaanxi Province, and split into three further routes, two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the Taklimakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar; and the other going north of the Tian Shan mountains through Turpan, Talgar and Almaty (in what is now southeast Kazakhstan).

90 years old woman, Kashgar

China, Hami Twelve Muqam

Child portrait, Qitai

Folk dance, Turpan

The routes split again west of Kashgar, with a southern branch heading down the Alai Valley towards Termez (in modern Uzbekistan) and Balkh (Afghanistan), while the other traveled through Kokand in the Fergana Valley (in present-day eastern Uzbekistan) and then west across the Karakum Desert. Both routes joined the main southern route before reaching Merv (Turkmenistan). A route for caravans, the northern Silk Road brought to China many goods such as dates, saffron powder and pistachio nuts from Persia; frankincense, aloes and myrrh from Somalia; sandalwood from India; glass bottles from Egypt, and other expensive and desirable goods from other parts of the world. In exchange, the caravans sent back bolts of silk brocade, lacquer ware and porcelain. Another branch of the northern route turned northwest past the Aral sea and north of the Caspian sea, then and on to the Black Sea. The southern route was mainly a single route running from China, through the Karakoram, where it persists to modern times as the

international paved road connecting Pakistan and China as the Karakoram Highway. It then westwards, but with southward spurs enabling the journey to be completed by sea from various points. Crossing the high mountains, it passed through northern Pakistan, over the Hindu Kush mountains, and into Afghanistan, rejoining the northern route near Merv. From there, it followed a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern Iran, Mesopotamia and the northern tip of the Syrian Desert to the Levant, where Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to Italy, while land routes went either north through Anatolia or south to North Africa. Another branch road traveled from Herat through Susa to Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to Petra and on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome. Both routes are called “Continental Silk Road�. I travelled along these routes following Marco Polo’s footsteps and I had photographed in

Food

the area surrounded by the Tienshan Mountain, the Taklamakan Desert and the Tarim Basin. The Uyghur capital Ürümqi was my starting point from where I travelled through Kasgár (Kashi, Kashgar, Qäshqär), Atush, Tumshuk, Xianglonghu, Kucsa (Ku Che, Kuqa), Baluntai, Bayanbulak füvespuszta, Korla (Kuerle), Gongnaisi, Turpan, Changji, Miquan, Sanshiutan, Heizvilig. Having met with Uyghur, Tajik, Mongol, Azerbaijani and Han people, I discovered a very different image of China. I was amazed the most by the fact that people here could establish flourishing cities and prosperous agriculture under rough geographical and weather conditions.

basis of cotton production. It has a long history with lots of sight and monuments including the Aitigaer mosque, the Apakehuojia graves, that is Xiangfeimu and Mohamod. The Kashgar Grave embodies the Uyghur culture, architecture and art in one piece. The walls and roof of the mosque - an Arabic style building - is covered with green glazed tiles. In the age of Bairam it was overrun by hundreds of pilgrims. The other famous monument is the Xiangfeimu or the Grave of Abakh Hoja, which is situate on the eastern fringe of the city. The natural beauties of Kashdi also attracts thousands of tourists. Kashi is a must-see for every one who visits Xingjian.

Kashgar

About the Chinese cuisine

Kashi’s full name is Kashgar. This ancient city, China’s historic city of culture, was a key station of the Silk Road and was called the Pearl of Silk Road. Kashi is one of the oldest agricultural areas of China and the largest

In Xinjiang, the largest territory on the west, we can get an image of the whole Chinese cuisine. Here they also say that customs vary so eating habits and cooking styles are in a great variety.

Open furnace

Moving sandhill

Kashgar, Animal market

In restaurants, people normally sit at a round table which has a turning disc in the middle.

The waiter puts the different dishes on the disc and everybody takes as much as he wants. The Uyghur, Kyrgyz and Mongol people (all of them are nationalities of China) set their meals on a low table or on a rug on the floor and eat them squatting or sitting on the ground. The first few dishes are cold, the other ones are hot. There are places where fruit and seeds are served as starters . Tea is certain, we can have it with any dishes.

Beside the two chopsticks, a small china spoon is also used for eating. We can take some from the dishes to our plate with that spoon and eat the soup which is served as the last course. Several dishes are eaten by hand, for instance the famous Beijing duck can be consumed this way. The bits of the soup are eaten by chopsticks and the rest (the liquid) is simply drunk from the cup. They do not set a knife, as everthing is cut into small pieces.

Eating is normally a social event where talk during and between the courses has high importance.

There are differences between the different cuisins, however, beside the local meals, we can find the different styles and flavours in any part of the country. So in Xinjiang we can enjoy the Uyghur, Kyrgyz and Mongolian flavours beside the Shandong-style of the Beijing cuisine, the hot specialties of the north, the spicies of Szechuan cookery or the special fish meals of the south.

The cooking methods vary too, as cooking, stewing, steaming, roasting and frying can even be combined. They do use only a few ingredients but season well. Seasoning does not always mean hot and spicy effect, it is rather a gentle, modest, sometimes sweet and sour flavour in harmony with the food. Chicken, duck, lamb, beef, fish, turtle, alga, prawns, mussels, shark fin, vegetables, soya, bamboo shoot and mushroom can be on even the same dish - Chinese chefs can mix flavours in a masterly manner. They cook more than 250 types of traditional dish which rather contain vegetables and mushroom than meat, so they are healthier. They do not overcook their food, cooking over flame, grilling and steaming are more common. They pay great attention to the appearence of the meals too, the harmony of colour, smell and taste. We can often meet excellent gastronomic compositions. On special menus we can find meals to cure different diseases. They use traditional Chinese medicine to make these meals. Historic dishes are also on the menu.

Spices-Basar

Kashgar, on the riverbank

Dance

We can choose from the favourite dishes of the Chinese emperors or aristocrats, or we can stay with regional specialties of Shandong, Szechuan, Canton, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Anhu and Hiunan. I have tasted the best food in cheap restaurants along the road or in the diners of the street markets and at the street vendors. Having tea, fruit and cheese, different seeds, sweets and drink also belongs to the region’s culinary delights. The tea, the world’s most popular drink comes from China. 90 per cent of the world’s tea production comes from Asia. How fantastic drink tea is, you can really taste in China. If we only look at the processing methods, tea can be divided into five main groups: green tea without fermentation and smoking, the black or reddish tea is fermented and roasted, Chuanong tea is smoked, Wulong tea is partly fermented, the brick or block tea is made by a pressing method. Grinding, twisting and roasting of the different types of tea is done by experience of centuries. They mix different flowers, such as jasmine and magnolia to the scented teas. Jasmine tea is particularly popular in North of China. It is loved for its cooling, relaxing effects in summer, and used as a stimulant in case of tiredness. Herbal teas make a different group. Drinks also can be found in great variety. The famous Qingdao and Beijing beers are made with karst water. Wines are produced and bottled with foreign (Hungarian and other) co-operation. Their special wines made with herbs are interesting too. The spirits are strong and they have special mint flavoured drinks too.

Találkozás a világ legmagasabb emberével On my way home at the Beijing airport, I met the tallest man of the world.

As we travelled on the same plane, I could have a short chat with him before boarding. My fellow passenger, Bao Xishun is the tallest man of the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. The shepherd who lives in Inner Mongolia is 236 centimeters tall. He is on talk-shows all the time, but he said that he was not happy to be that tall. People reach to his hip: 236 cm height would be unusual and uncomfortable everywhere in the world. He can go through every door and gate bowed and he has to spend more time for security checks too. Bao Xishun is 236 cm tall, he had to get through twenty-two medical checks before the Guinness Book of Records justified him to be the world’s tallest man. The shepherd told me that he was not proud of his height, in fact it really disturbed him that people always gaze at him. “I hate when they are staring at me in the street.

They look at me as I was a rare animal”, Bao said. He was just like the other kids until the age of sixteen, but after that he started to grow very fast and reached his present height by the age of twenty-three. In the army he got into the basketball team of course, but he wasn’t quick enough so demobilization was a relief for him. He is a shepherd in Inner-Mongolia of Xinjiang and has a part-time job as an advertising man of a local restaurant.

He is now 54 and lives with his parents. He said that he was in love only once bit with two girls at the same time. But his height was uncomfortable for both of them so it finally came to nothing. Bao definitely suffers from his extraordinary size in his private life. His clothing for the Guinness Records adjudication ceremony was made out of 10 meters of textile by the tailor. He is not lucky in love either, he could not get married and still lives with his parents.

Text and pictures: János Eifert

Let’s make a diaporama

Picture with keyframes

wings platinum 4 / III In our previous article we presented the diaporama as a genre, introduced the basics of making a diaporama and we hope that the more detailed description on how to use the software has been downloaded by many of you from the Download menu of the magazine.

Now we continue to get acquainted with the software.

In this part of our series of articles we are going to pan, zoom and fine tune. Also, we are going to get to know the features of keyframes. If we wish to move an image during making a diaporama, or we want to pan or zoom, we have to create keyframes.

There is a starting and an ending keyframe before and after each image, describing the actual status of the image. To create zoom effect, the first keyframe is left unchanged and the ending keyframe is set to a zoom value of 130%.

The transition between the two keyframes is calculated by the software, creating a continuous zoom-in effect while the image is shown. The transition between the two points is defined by the type of the keyframe, which can be normal, spline or smart moov. This is especially important when several keyframes are created.

To add new points, first the relevant band has to be enabled. Right click on the name of the image on the time band then click on the Control tracks function. We have to enable the option ‘position, size, rotation’ in the pop-up window.

If it is properly done, a new grey band appears above the name of the image with spheres before and after, symbolizing the default keyframe. Click on this control band to create a new band below the audio, video and image bands called XYZ. This is the control band where the keyframes can actually be changed, as the keyframes appearing above the name of the image are only symbolical.

s

XYZ properties with set

To move or resize an image, click on the option ‘Properties’ on a keyframe or simply rotate or resize the image using the yellow arrows and points in the preview image.

The creation of the keyframes of visibility is much easier, you just have to double click on the default trapezoid yellow line symbolizing the visibility of the images.

Keyframes, keypoints have various types such as normal, spline or smart moov. To highlight several details in an image, for instance if you have an image of the seaside and you wish to zoom first on an albatross then its nestling, a separate keyframe has to be created for each of these two positions. We will right away face the problem during playback that after reaching a keypoint, the image proceeds with a halt.

This is the normal keypoint. If we change the type of the keyframe to ‘smart moov’, the zoom will slow down a bit before reaching the keypoint to avoid halting. It is just like slowing down the

turning of the zoom ring on the camera lens before reaching the end point. The ‘spline’ effect solves this problem in a different way. It moves the image along curves, which smoothes every motion. The option ‘smart moov’ is recommended for zooming in an image, while ‘spline’ keypoints should be used for panning. Do not be afraid to make trials and you will soon achieve spectacular results.

And do not forget that all this was created using the free BASIC version of Wings Platinum 4, so there is no point in trying to ‘obtain’ other programmes since we can use such a professional tool at no charge and what is more important, legally.

Our next article will be on the saving and exporting of the prepared work.

Text: László Szilágyi

Life underwater BORNEO / MALAysIA

This little tropical island with the area of 12 ha in Malaysia, 50 km far from Borneo is certainly one of the world’s top 10 diving spots. The famous oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau discovered at the beginning of the ‘80s what sort of treasure were hidden on this little island.

He described it saying: “I have seen something similar 45 years ago, but now we found a piece of untouched work of art!”

My friend Bumbi told me about this island and showed me wonderful pictures in the past as he had been to Sipanad several times. I’ve heard many times that this island is the home of turtles, and coral and fish population live here in great variety. At the beginning of 2000 Sipinad was a frequent topic in diving circles.

A unfortunate incident happened when 21 diver had been abducted from the island by extremists. So in 2004 authorities ordered the closure of the local diving bases. After that most of the bases moved to the near Mabul and Kapalai islands, and some of them closed diving business for good. However, another change happened in 2008 when the island became a National Park and the number of divers were limited to 120 per day altogether in the 10 diving base, so it was a big restriction. Before my journey I read a research that the restriction has done good for the biodiversity: the fish have increased in number and corals come back to some places!

I am thinking as I sit here on the board of a safari ship on the Red Sea. We are anchored on the Shaab el Erg sandbank not far from Hurghada which was famous for dolphines. Now 12 ships carries its passengers to here, so the atmosphere is a bit like a flea market. In the past one could only see safari ships here, it was normally the first diving spot on the way to the north but now...

Restrictions are sometimes painful but it is worth considering that how we could save this underwater wonder for the future.

Oil, overfishing, damages, fishing with dynamite...

Man, I don’t know, I believe in it less and less...

Mabul After such precedents Sipadan, or Mabul where our accommodation would be, was waiting for us. We start our trip with a Kuala Lumpur stop. it is worth to spend one or two days in this metropolis and revise our ideas about the developing Asian countries. We must see the famous Petronas towers, the view of the city from the TV tower and the Hindu sacred place, the Batu Cave. Our plane took off early in the morning to Borneo which is the 3rd largest island of the world and habited by the rarely seen orangutans. We arrived at Tawau from where we got to the port of Semporna after a 45 minute transfer by bus and we continued our journey by ship. Travelling with a fast-speed gave us a pleasant refreshment in the 38 degrees heat. The sight was fascinating as we approached the island. The coral reef around the island gives the sea a turquoise colour, the coast is lined with palm trees and covered with white sand.

We are getting closer to the pier where we will have our base for eight days. We chose the Sipadan Water Village, one of the oldest base of Mabul which provides a fantastic view and comfortable accommodation for visitors. The way to the little bungalows is lined with wonderful flowers. Stepping out to the terrace I can see an incredible scenery: the endless blue Eden with a slight silhouette on the horizon, that must be Sipadan. It is only early afternoon so we do a check dive. The entrance of the reef opens from directly from the pier providing a comfortable dive. The wildlife of Mabul greatly differs from the farther Sipadan. There are no big cliffs here and we won’t have the chance to meet with bigger animals. The main spectacle here is the macro world.

Ghost pipefish, orangutans, crabs, frogfish and more and more special living creatures emerge, almost in front of our room. What is really special and unusual here that we meet lost of turtles at every dive. They were eating or just resting at the sea-bottom. We are lucky, we can go to Sipadan tomorrow (our permission has arrived) so I look forward to the next day. I have a glance at the faraway island in the light of the setting sun and I fall asleep.

Sipadan I wake up early, luckily my photo gear is ready to go, a quick and light breakfast and I go to the base. The rest of the group were preparing on the pier while the crew put our equipment into the fast ship.

After a few minutes we are sliding on the waveless water towards the little island, to which we are getting more and more closer in the light of the rising sun. Barely ten minutes later, when we left Mabul Island we stand on the pier, the only landing stage of Sipadan. The sight is surprising, armed soldiers stand in the shadow of the trees, their black boots sink into the white sand. There is a big contrast between the paradisiacal conditions and the machine guns. I was putting my diving suit on when our team leader said that we should wait as we have to register first. We get off and after filling a form quickly in a little house, we are on board again. The diving will be at the most famous place Barracuda Point.

Our ship clears off the pier only to 50 meters, I realise it with surprise but I am rather preparing to see the what we travelled here for. The water is pleasant as I’m sinking, exactly 30 degrees and the distance of vision looks endless as it turns from light turquoise to dark blue towards the depth. We start our sinking at the top of the reef. It’s an ideal place to meet with bigger species of the open sea. The slow stream takes our team towards the open sea, I leave the reef a bit to see whether I can spot something interesting.

My expectations were justified as I spot a couple of White-tip reef shark swimming sleepy after a tiring night hunting. They don’t let me closer so I can’t take pictures of them now. The reef turn towards the east, these projections are ideal for the fish to make large groups. As I expected, I spot a giant group of barracuda there.

Everywhere I look I recognise the members of the species. The stream is not strong so the flock do not form the spectacular “tornado” formation, they rather are meandering through the different depth levels of the sea.

I can see a few shades far away, Whitetip and Grey-tip reef sharks patrol their territory. I have a feeling as I miss something because Sipidan called the haven for turtles but we haven’t seen any so far. But my wish soon fulfilled when a giant green turtle emerges and swims slowlyin the warm water. Our diving time is nearly up, the 70 minutes has gone so fast and there is a bright sunshine on the surface as I swim towards the ship. The team members are really thrilled by the experiences.

We discuss that next day we dive very early - before sunrise - preceding other divers. Our team leader approves the plan and drawsour attention to a very special sight, the green humphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum). I already know this special species from Sudan.

It differs from the other parrotfish what we could in the proximity of the reef. The main difference is their size which can be one meter and their weight can be around 50 kg. It is really spectacular as these big sized fish swim in groups around the reefs.

Imagine a flock of 30 species in which the smallest fish is 80 cm! The only problem has been so far that they were very shy so I could not take a good picture. I set off in the morning with great expectations. It is still dark when our boat leaves the port of Mabul.

Our leader is inspecting the top of the reef with a snorkel. After ten minutes he waves that they are there. I put my gear on and go.

I find myself in the middle of a group of 15 and I try to get a good position to take a good picture. I realise that these members of species are not that shy as the ones I met in Sudan. The fish change gear after a few minutes, spped up and disappear at the horizon.

The other members of my group sink down to the deeper parts of the reef but I stay at about 10 meters as I found a new theme.

A flock of Bigeye Trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus) is starting to assemble from the deep waters to the top of the reef. Maybe they are looking for the morning sunshine and want to relay in the warmer water. I hide and wait as I don’t want to scare them away since I need some interesting formation for my pictures and not plenty of fish scattered all over the place. During the few minutes of waiting I set the performance of my flash lower since the silvery sparkling fish need less light. I approach them slowly trying not to disturb them.

My efforts has been proved to be successful as I managed to get to the right place at the right moment. A group of them takes up the perfect formation. They sparkling as a silver globe, the surface and the reef surrounds the formation and the morning sushine makes the background perfect. I could take a few shots while the silver globe turned into liquid mercury and looks dropping down to the depth and my mackerels dissolve in the blue...

We spent a very pleasant week on the base and the diving spots of the region. After my last dive I had a thought: the regulations which sometimes cause inconveniences are necessary as they help to save the underwater world for a long-term, so divers could see this wonder many years later too, and not only from old picture and articles remind them how it was.

Kép és szöveg: Selmeczi Dániel www.selmeczidaniel.com

Taking bird pictures is a branch of photography where it became worthwhile to shift to digital technology even before the picture quality was not even a third of the quality of those taken with 35mm film. How could this be? Here is the story of how I became, although totally unaware at the time, a pixel consumer. © Bence Máté

Bence Máté - teaser from the book

A Revolutionary Transition

B

ack in 1999, sitting in my first home-made reed-walled hide by a winter feeder, my limited budget only allowed me three to four Sensia slides per bird species at most. Even if I took photos every weekend, I still had to make a roll of film last for several weeks. As my financial situation improved, my Zenith Photo Sniper was exchanged for a Pentacon lens, and consumer grade Sensia slide film for Velvia professional film. I bought my first roll for 1650 forints (currently about 6 Euro), which for me was really a rare treat (at the time the average Hungarian wage was the equivalent of just 400 Euro a month). Sometime later I became a little more cunning and managed to cut down the price to 1000 forints per roll by ordering 100 foot rolls from Budapest. The film then had to be wound, fumbling in the darkness, into used, film cartridges I had got from laboratories.

This was a risky game, as the utmost care was needed to prevent light leaks from damaging the film, and to avoid scratching or leaving fingerprints on it. It took one and a half hours to prepare 18 rolls of film for use. I also learned that if I stuck a

20-cm strip of used film at the start of each roll, I could gain an additional 4-5 frames that would have otherwise been wasted during the winding process. Developing the film cost 600 forints per roll, so even in the most ideal scenario I was spending 40 forints per picture!

By 2004, prices had doubled and I literally starved myself through my school-years to cover these rising costs. Indeed, these new costs caused arguments in the homes of most of my photographer friends, when priorities had to be made on whether to buy shoes, rolls of film or new tiles for the bathroom. Today, in the digital world, we smile when we think back to the “age of film” when snapping an unfocussed shot made us feel guilty, and the success of photography was measured in rolls of film rather than gigabytes.

My personal record, in 5 years of film-based photography, was 8 rolls, about 300 frames, on one particular day. That day I sat 14 hours in the hide and photographed action-packed scenes all day. Today, just 300 shots in a full-day in a hide is usually considered a bad day’s shooting

My annual average of shots nowadays is 50,000, a total which would have cost more than four million forints in the good old days of film. In addition to this, the efficiency of digital photography is light-years ahead of film-based photography.

The first clicks of a new era I had my first taste of digital photography in late November 2004. I was involved in a marketing

campaign for Canon Hungary for which I was received a EOS 300D camera (EOS Digital Rebel in north American). In those days many arguments were voiced and written on the subject of digital versus filmbased photography. For a while the loud majority still held their own in the otherwise slowly shrinking number of film fans. So when I received this apparently rather odd-looking device, I did not think for a moment that I was holding the fulfiller of my dreams in my hands. Yet, from this moment the fate of the film I had stored in the

fridge at home was at once forever sealed, and the highly esteemed, professional EOS-1N RS AF SLR film camera, for which I had been saving for several years, suddenly reached retirement age. The first few frames that I clicked with my new digital camera were of the last of that autumn’s migrating cranes.

In was a mild January and only 15 oC and birds could be heard rather than seen in the still and foggy weather. On one of my trips I set off for home in the early afternoon but took a detour towards the

fisherman’s house to say goodbye to the warden. Driving towards the house I flushed 10-15 Grey Herons off a little pond where small fish were kept in the winter. The herons allowed my red car to get quite close before taking flight and a fish-farm worker confirmed that they always returned very quickly, no matter how much the fishermen tried to scare them off. I learnt that year old Silver Carp were being kept here for the winter, Because the birds could easily catch the weaker fish of this poor stock, most of them just used two small ponds for hunting.

I changed my plans on the spot and searched for a suitable parking place‌ Having no hide with me, I used the car. Within a few minutes, everything happened just as the warden had predicted. Now my digital camera finally showed me what it was worth. These were the moments when I first experienced what it was like to instantly see the pictures you have just taken. Then, at frame 40, I experienced another new and unusual sensation. There was no need to change the film! I had in the past reeled off around 45 frames in a row for a very good

subject, only to realize that I had attached the 36-frame film on the spool rather poorly and so it did not advance correctly. All the pictures were exposed on the first slide.

Now I could make sure that every single image was properly saved on the memory card. Moreover, the thought that instead of 80 forints per slide, I could take an unlimited number of pictures free of charge, further enhanced the experience of photographing the growing number of herons. Lost in this new, exciting adventure, I did not even realize that it was getting dark.

For a couple of days I was unable to return to the area, but when I did, I went equipped with my hide. Finding a good place for the hide was difficult, but finally I pitched it on a narrow dyke between two ponds, hoping for a good photographic session the next day. High winds brought very cold air that night, all the large ponds froze and only the constantly moving water around the inlets resisted the freeze and remained clear. I arrived at dawn, and it was still rather dark. My tent-hide looked as if it had exploded. A mere fluttering veil remained which it had frozen to the ground. I managed to park right next to it and collected the scattered remains in the beam of the car’s headlights.

The ground was so frozen that it was impossible to secure the tent pegs by hand. Hoping to find a hammer or something similar I rummaged around in the car, which normally held the entire contents of a garage, but this miracle of the Russian automotive industry had just had a thorough cleaning and there was no hammer to be found. So I did the job with a crowbar whilst sacrificing half my supply of hot tea to keep myself warm. Then it got light. The wind was still roaring and the birds were nowhere to be seen. Fortunately I had invested in a -20 degree sleeping bag just a few days earlier, so I tucked myself into it, stuck the camera out the front of the hide and waited. After two hours of waiting quietly, there was still no sign of any herons though some fish-farm workers had arrived on their motorbikes. They set to work behind me with an excavator, shouting loudly. Despite the racket, it was so cold outside and so cosy and warm inside the sleeping bag, I decided to take a nap rather than go out. The ground below me sloped steeply towards the pond and reclining my head meant too much blood rushing to it.

I could have perhaps turned around if the tent had not been so low and as narrow as a mole’s tunnel. Instead I was left in this uncomfortable position with nothing to do but wait. At 10am I was ready to call it a day when the first heron appeared on the dyke opposite.

A moment later a second arrived, soon after there were ten, and soon after that there were up to fifty-two. In a matter of moments I had such a large flock of birds in front of me that I did not know which way to turn with my camera. Wherever I looked, I saw herons waiting in ambush at the edge of a hole in the ice. I had a 20-year-old manual focus Canon 800mm f5.6 FD lens with me with an effective multiplication factor of 1.6 due to the camera’s small sensor (1280mm). With this setup the head of a heron just 15m away, as well as the fish swishing about in its bill, filled the frame. It was an amazing sight, the like of which I had never seen before.

As soon as a fish was grabbed from the pond, the water in its gaping mouth squirted out like a fountain, as it was squeezed by the heron’s bill.

Naturally, the fish did not take kindly to this treatment and protested, swishing their tails and splashing large drops of water into the air. For the first time I experienced the drawbacks of my camera.

Previously, I was used to long bouts of thorough preparation followed at the right moment by 10 snapshots in a single second, with only 6 milliseconds elapsing between pressing the shutter button and the exposure.

Now, however, the elapsed time was 125 ms, and the total of pictures in one sequence was 4, at a rate of 2.5 shots per second, followed by a maddening 10-second pause. This caused me to miss a lot of action and I couldn’t swear enough when I saw things I wanted to shoot but was pressing the button in vain. Even at this rate, I managed to take 150 shots before early afternoon, which was exactly as many as the memory card could store. That night at home, I finally downloaded the first serious set of digital pictures I had ever taken, and this thrill matched the experience of actually observing the fantastic real life action of the herons. After a short look at my rich bounty, I recharged the camera batteries, prepared a couple of sandwiches, brewed up enough tea for two thermal flasks for the next day’s mission, and fell into a deep, satisfied sleep.

The following day was calmer, but the temperature sank even further.

At dawn, the car’s battery had been nearly exhausted by the starter motor, when at last, the engine sprang into life just when I thought it would die. I had everything that I could possibly need with me, except for one thing. I had left the key to the barrier on the dyke in the pocket of the trousers I had worn the previous day. This would mean I would have to walk for an extra 600m to get to the hide-tent. When you are dressed to such an extent that you look like the Michelin man and have to carry a load of 30 kilos in the dark, the distance is quite different from when you walk it in light shorts on a warm summer’s day. It had to be done and at least the tent was still there in one piece. Its pegs were frozen in the ground so hard that it could have endured a tsunami. The fishermen did not work at weekends, so I hoped the birds would be even more confident and active. The first heron appeared at around 10am, and from then on, there was no rest. I reeled off pictures as every fish caught offered another, often even better photo opportunity.

Meanwhile, the flock was augmented by ten Great White Egrets that specialized in robbing prey from the Grey Herons. I photographed as many action scenes that day as I had done before in half a year with slide-film. The birds caught the young Silver Carp without rest and then tried to fight off the thieves that seized every opportunity there was to steal a fish. When a heron caught a bigger fish that it could swallow at once, it would try to flee with it before the other birds noticed. One heron jumped into the water from the edge of the ice, but before it could lift out the fish it had caught, two other herons attacked and in the resulting turmoil the fish dropped back into the pond. My uncomfortable, prostrate position and the full-day of tense concentration, wore me out to such a degree that I could hardly stagger back to the car at the end of the day. I would have really appreciated it if in the meantime the battery had not gone flat and the night watchman and I would not had to have pushed my four-wheeled friend for half an hour in the moonlight. Finally, to make matters worse, it then started to snow…

Hoping for some good snowy pictures the next day, I continued the routine – pictures to download and batteries to recharge, sandwiches, chocolate reserves, and tea to prepare, sleeping, waking-up, dressing, packing, running back for the memory card, caressing the dashboard, praying to the car’s spirit, starting the car! I went out an hour earlier to set up a new hide with a seat, on the narrow paved road that ran by the pond, and this proved to be much more comfortable in the long run.

The snow had completely changed the landscape, offering a new and perfect perspective. The cold whiteness covering the opposite dyke provided a nice, homogenous background. I did not realise in time the limits of the automatic sensitivity adjustment, so I had quite a few over- and under-exposed shots. I should have remembered that in such conditions it is always worth setting the shutter speed manually. I thought it was routine for me, but checking things after taking the shots, proved me wrong. If the birds fished down on the ice, in a bright environment, I had to over expose by two or three levels. On the other hand, when the birds jumped in the air during a squabble and the dark brown of a far-away forest came into view in the background, the shutter had to be narrowed by one point compared to that indicated on the exposure meter. There is no straightforward recipe for the amount of compensation needed in such cases, everything depends upon colour distribution, brightness, the angle of light, and the like. This was less obvious during the film era, but now the image on the LCD monitor can be immediately compared with reality.

I was greatly mistaken, however, when I thought that digital pictures could be enhanced on the PC. I had been impressed how poorly exposed RAW files could be improved in Photoshop, but it took me some time to realise that this practice also deteriorated overall quality. Nevertheless, the digital camera, despite all its drawbacks, doubled the joy in the hide by making it possible to check the pictures immediately. Seeing the photos on the PC I learnt a lot. My errors were instantly noticeable and I would try to correct them the very next day. In addition, moving the hide led to a switch in my photographic style. I started photographing from a further away while using a shorter focal length manual 300mm f2.8 lens to concentrate on scenes such as birds squabbling with each other over fish.

desire to win, all combined to reduce the chances of my hide surviving any longer, It had served me faithfully over five years of nature photography in nearly one hundred different locations. This was the last time my old companion would see the sunset. On the bright side, at least no one was injured. That was not all, because as a result of the collision, the camouflage netting covering the hide ended up on and around every rotating part of the bike. The entire night shift was not enough to remove all the shreds from the wheels, shafts and spokes.

My alarm clock went off at dawn, but I decided to have three minutes more sleep, three minutes which became three hours. Before this, my over-sleeping usually coincided to a fair degree with days when there were history exams, but this time it was definitely due to the unearthly hours that I had started most of the preceeding days. The gain in this pain was that I was informed by telephone about the accident and therefore I set out prepared with a new tent. Once out there, I walked all around the ice hole again and found a new spot for my hide. The ice had grown so thick along the margin of the pond that I could actually pitch the tent on it. My longest photographic marathon to date was to continue, but from a new position, with a new hide and I was even refreshed after having had plenty of sleep.

The workers seemed to know that I was not completely normal, but when they saw me spend a fifth day in a row, from dawn to dusk, in a 1-cubic metre tent-hide, they rationalised it by saying ”So there are worse jobs than ours”.

Although we did not meet they recognised my car. They had plenty of opportunities to get acquainted with this 1967 ”Russian Ferrari” the previous year when, after building another hide, a bit of poorly executed reversing I now had so many opportunities to take pictures that it nearly transformed the car into an ice breaker. My car was clear that I would have to invest in a bigger memory rolled down an embankment into an icy lake and it was card. The capacity of the biggest available card at the only rescued from complete ruin by the combined efforts time was 2GB, which when compared to the existing 1GB of nine fishermen and an excavator. card, would offer far more space than any action-packed day would require. But I was wrong. In the meantime, I Sitting alone in the hide, I overheard them as they walked by and voiced their thoughts. had another 150 pictures to download and all my best bird pictures at the time were neatly stored on the card. ”Can you see that camouflaged tent on the ice? Joszi says Not everyone passed the night as happily as I did. a boy comes out here every day at dawn, creeps in and Although I told the fish farm workers about the new never comes out before the evening”. position of the hide on the road, and where they could ”He must be mental! How on earth does he not get his pass it, the night watchman was not, unfortunately, nuts frozen in this cold?” present during that conversation. At night, to kill ”There must be some heating inside”. boredom and time whilst patrolling the ponds, he and a ”What do you mean? There is hardly room for the boy in friend indulged in a bit of motor-cycle racing on exactly there!” the same stretch of road that I had found most suitable ”Of course, there is, look at the stove-pipe sticking out!” for my hide. The darkness, poor headlights and the By which I presume he meant the lens shade!

Indeed, we had a very severe cold spell, with even daily temperatures remaining below zero, and at nights it sometimes sank to -20 degrees centigrade. I expected the digital camera to ’freeze’, but even on the coldest days only the LCD monitor slowed down, and everything else worked as it did at room temperature. It was so cold, even the river Tisza froze over and so throughout the whole region the only chance of catching fish was at the inlet of the winter holding ponds.

The size of the open water hole shrank continually, while the number of birds there increased. On one occasion I counted 120 herons and egrets, of which only 15 would have access to the water at any one time. The scene was bound get dramatic, and indeed it did when Mother Nature started her merciless selection process.

digital cameras in 2003. In most areas of usage, there is no need for a higher resolution than this. When I saw for myself the potential of these files, I placed my film camera on the top shelf of my slide cabinet. Its counter still stands at sixteen. Who knows, maybe one day I will have those few frames developed! There may be something interesting on them…

A gift from above I have wanted to photograph birds in snowfall ever since I first sat in a hide. Now, as if my wish had been heard, a sudden, heavy fall of snow had transformed the landscape before me.

Thick snowflakes up to an inch wide came down incessantly, creating a cozy blanket of snow. Such heavy snowfalls are rare in lowland Hungary, but the herons just The birds first had to fight for a suitable fishing place, then they had to catch a fish, but the real fun only began carried on squabbling, ignoring the weather. at this point when a life-or-death battle broke out over every fish caught. I observed a young heron catch three I knew that this time of wintry plenty would not last long, carp in a row, without managing to swallow a single one! so I re-doubled my efforts and concentrated on getting it all in pictures. This was not the time for mistakes. The An older heron, taking advantage of the young bird’s vulnerability when its beak was full, pressed it against the available memory quickly disappeared as the cards were ice, stood on its neck and pecked hard at its head until it filled with pictures of this winter wonderland and my joy was only interrupted when snow started to accumulate finally gave up and released the fish. inside the lens shade and blurred the pictures.

It seemed that the birds were actually queuing for fishing places. Many birds had not eaten anything for days, and I pulled the camera inside so I could wipe it and quickly cut out a piece of the plastic sheet that was attached to the atmosphere was getting increasingly tense. Then I saw the first exhausted individual which spent the whole the ceiling of the hide and bent it into a tube. I then fixed this on to the lens shade to keep out the snow. morning just standing in a corner, before sitting down and watching, quite motionless, as the other herons squabbled. When I came out of the hide in the evening, By the time I had slowly and carefully put the lens back into position, the snowfall had become more intense. the poor bird was dead.

The snowflakes were merged and almost invisible on More dawns arrived and full-day, non-stop photographic the pictures and so the background was totally white.

Suddenly, a thunderous roar broke the silence of the sessions followed, but it never became boring. On only two occasions did I take a film camera with me, perhaps snow-clad landscape. The wooden board on top of the hide fell in on top of me along with several kilos of ice more for the acoustic sensation that the 10-slide per second volley it caused inside the hide. This did not bring which were frozen solid to the camouflage netting. It me any more satisfaction than the fact that I did manage was as if someone had kicked in the front posts of the hide. to use up some film that was otherwise destined to go moldy in the fridge. Eventually, I got over the limitation of I was terrified and did not have a clue what was going exposure rates and stuck with the digital camera. on. All four legs as well as the roof of the hide were intact, and the ice below me had not cracked. That’s But almost every day I asked myself, “will I not one day right, it hadn’t, it had melted. The heavy weight of the regret that the quality of these excellent pictures will nevertheless still be much poorer than those taken with tent was supported by four thin aluminium legs, which had gradually thawed, melted and finally punctured film?” My worries, however, lasted only until I carried the ice. It was easy enough to remedy, the hide just out an enlargement test to A4 size and found that the result was by no means worse than that when scanning had to be moved only a few inches further away. an original slide. This was also confirmed by statistical data. The cover photo of this book consists of 8,368,566 When I had done this, it took less than a minute for the pixels, which was first achieved by commercially available birds to begin to drift back.

Although by now I had hundreds of pictures that I could show others, I was still waiting for THE PICTURE. All my hard disk drives at home were full. So I called a computer shop and told the salesman I needed a 1-terabyte hard drive. He must have smiled when he replied that 250GB drives were the biggest produced at the time and he could send me four of them. For want of something bigger and better I ordered two, plus a 2-GB card, as the final exciting hours of these days were invariably spent in trying to free up some memory space on the existing three gigabytes.

At last, THE PICTURE

Standing in icy water I had been taking photos constantly for more than three weeks, and could do with a well-earned rest for a couple of days. Winter still held Hungary in its icy grip, and even when the calendar turned to March, the ground was still covered in snow. We awoke to one frosty dawn after another. Many birds were starting to show off their breeding plumage and I continued to take photographs, but on a different theme, one that had been long in the planning.

Although I had previously attempted to photograph herons by night with a wide-angle lens, I had always failed. I would set up my equipment under a roosting It was my twenty-third day by the hole in the ice in this tree that stood in the water during the day, before the long-lasting cold spell, when I felt I had captured ”the shot”! Two adult Grey Herons were fishing opposite one birds arrived. It was a complicated procedure to mount the camera on a tripod in deep water, standing in chest another. Their head postures looked suspicious to me, and I knew it would be worthwhile to turn the worn lens waders and leading a 70m release cable through the reeds to the edge of the pond. From a distance, it seemed shade of the 300D camera gently towards them and to to work well, the birds landed just in front of the camera, adjust the focus ring to the appropriate position. After and the flashes went off when activated. exchanging hostile looks, they then began ignoring each other and turned their attention towards the still water surface of the hole in the ice. Two minutes of tense A couple of weeks later, however, when the pictures were developed, I was disappointed to find that no matter waiting was suddenly broken by five-seconds of high how close the Little Egrets had landed to the camera, drama. One of the herons slowly raised its head, then plunged into the middle of the hole and lifted a sizeable they still appeared on the picture as tiny as a pimple on a Silver Carp to the surface. No sooner had it done this than flea’s leg. The concept of proximity is completely different with a 20mm lens to how it is with a telephoto lens. In its rival launched an unprovoked attack. order for the bird be the main focus of the image, it has to be within one metre of the lens.

The fish fell on the ice but before it could twitch twice it was in the bill of a Great White Egret. Meanwhile, the At such a distance, however, in a pre-visualised set-up, two herons began to fight, suddenly rising into the air the chances of getting the bird to land right in front of whilst stabbing and striking each other. All this took the camera, in the right posture, and also within the place by the hole in the ice, against the most beautiful wintry background and the shutter of my camera clicked sharpness range, is minimal. I realised that I could only be successful if I could look right into the viewfinder right at what was arguably the most suitable moment. whilst holding and freely moving the camera in the right To illustrate the speed of the birds (and the lag of my direction. I planned to work on this together with the camera) I recall that I definitely pulled the trigger of the help of my friends Tibor Dombóvári and Attila Dávid shutter when the birds’ wings were bent forward, but on the picture taken, they both have their wings folded Molnár. The idea was to stand neck-deep in the icy water, backwards. I knew instantly that this was my best photo taking pictures right from the water surface with the camera in an underwater case. The expertise of these ever. guys, my “gilled friends”, is the underwater world, so they lent me a dry-suit that left only my face uncovered A near perfect composition was achieved by precise exposition, great sharpness, wonderful background I could dress warmly in the waterproof suit, so at least for and dynamic movement. It is very rare for everything to coincide like this. Up to that point, 4-5 of my pictures the first few moments I really did not feel that the water would have competed for the title ”best photo” but each temperature was hovering around freezing. would have actually fallen in the ”All right, all right, but The tripod was fully submerged, and so was the what if…?” category. I took my prized trophy home, I regarded it as the king of the pictures I had taken during bottom part of the underwater case screwed onto it. To camouflage myself, I pulled a small, floating ”hide” over 23 days of hard work. No matter how my photographic career develops in the future, that moment will stay with my head. me forever.

I did not intend to leave the arrival of the birds to chance, so I placed a couple of fish in an aquarium submerged two millimetres under the water, right in front of the lens. My friends hid themselves on shore and I was left to wait motionless, literally to freeze.

The fish were splashing about nicely, and I hoped the birds would spot them before I shared the fate of Jack Dawson. My body began to tell me with its constant trembling that the environment around me was far from ideal. After the first quarter of an hour, each subsequent minute seemed like an hour.

I waited for the appearance of the first heron as if it were to be my Saviour. The birds, however, did not dare to come closer than ten metres – I presumed that they found the new, unusual object in the middle of the icehole somewhat suspicious. It was too late, however, to worry about what would have happened if we had accustomised them to it beforehand. After half an hour of shivering I gave up the struggle against the cold and I rushed into the fishermen’s hut to thaw out by the stove.

My enthusiasm had literally gone cold and without the further encouragement from my friends, I would have certainly never returned into the “deep freeze”.

un-heron-like way, from the air. In the course of this, their wings kept slapping against my head, which was only covered with a thin cloth. Out of a sense of nostalgia I went easy on the film, so it lasted an entire hour. But this session ended even worse for me than the first. I could barely feel my limbs and needed the help of my friends to get to the hut. So even though I had had a fantastic and eventful photographic adventure, I promised myself that I would never do it again!

There is no photo that would be worth compromising one’s health for. I did not want to be scraped up from the floor, half-dead, like a boxer who has been knocked out.

And so I returned to my usual routine – sleeping bag, terrestrial hide and zoom lens.

Vision Digital technology has progressed steadily since it first came on the scene in 2003 has greatly contributed to raising the standards of bird photography. In my opinion, action photography will in the foreseeable future merge with the shooting of motion pictures.

The current technology enabling us to pick out a single Sitting there somewhat discouraged, we noticed frame from a motion picture and to turn it into a highthrough the tiny window of the hut that a heron had quality still that can be printed out in A3 size is already taken a fish from the aquarium. This gave me new hope! not that far off. It will be possible to use a well-captured This time, I only had to wait ten minutes before meeting scene in a film as a single photograph. Technical the curious eyes of a heron in the lower corner of the innovations will no doubt bring some interesting viewfinder. The camera started clicking and, as we could changes, but I believe that developments will not race not obtain an underwater case for our digital cameras, ahead as rapidly as they have over the past 4–5 years, I was burning film again. We were back to using the old years which saw the breakthrough of one of the biggest methods for this one. barriers. With traditional film, we were all used to using 50–100 ISO, and we were obliged to use artificial lighting All of the birds began to concentrate on the fish in the to be able to take sharp pictures of fast-moving birds in aquarium. The boldest, or perhaps just the hungriest action. However, setting up artificial lights in the wild is ones, caught the fish one by one. A distance of one only possible in small, enclosed spaces, and it is also very metre between us (thanks to the 114o angle of the time consuming and costly.

14mm lens) was just enough to fit a Grey Heron, with its two metre wingspan, into the viewfinder.

Today’s professional full-frame digital cameras can easily This time the excitement ended not by me nearly freezing, but at the 36th slide. I removed the camera from the lens, threw off the camouflage, climbed out and ran for the next film. The others, however, would not allow me to go back into the water since, as it turned out, I had spent 45 minutes there. I did not listen to them. I poured a litre of hot tea down my throat and went in for the third, lucky, dip.

This time it took less than five minutes for the first fish to be caught. The birds stabbed their beaks into the water barely 30-40cm from the lens and because they could not land next to the aquarium, they attacked, in a most

work with a sensitivity of ISO 1000, which is more than four stops faster than of the best quality films, Velvia 50.

Indeed, it even surpasses it in quality.

In other words, with a f2.8 aperture setting in overcast conditions and with scattered light, one can set a shutter speed of 1/4000 seconds instead of 1/250 seconds, a shutter speed that can freeze almost any action in the avian world.

Text and pictures: Bence Máté You can order the book here: www.matebence.hu

digital image editing

retouch techniques

In this video tutorial Martin Perhiniak shows some essential retouch tecniques with Adobe Photoshop CS5

In this issue we are going to learn about some essential photo retouch techniques. Photoshop and retouching photographs became one term.

There is a big difference however between reasonable, proper retouch and far-fetched photo manipulation. If someone has the sense for using the possibilities of this application correctly the final result of the photograph can be much better than before the editing. On the other hand using too intense effects, filters and retouch can ruin the whole image. We need to be aware of the possibilities of Photoshop but then we also need to learn when to stop.

The Clone Stamp tool is one of the most effective tool in Photoshop for getting rid of distructing elements from our photographs. Most users however are not using this tool properly. With every retouch technique we need to work completely non-destructively, which means we can always make changes easily to our retouch.

Digital images are raster/pixel images, which means that they are resolution-dependant. This is the only disadvantage of them. It means the more pixels we capture with the photograph, the more details we will have (there are other factors as well of course).

When we are editing an image in Photoshop we need to take care of resampling the image, because that will always effect the quality.

Fortunately there is a clever way to get around this problem too, which is called Smart object.

In the video tutorial above I’m showing some techniques with the Clone Stamp tool, the Smart object and using Layer styles. It is a whole, completely non-destructive retouch workflow.

Text and video: Martin Perhiniak

editorial Editor in Chief : Tamás Imre Tamás Imre

Anikó Imre

János Szekeres

Béla Szabó

Árpád Krivánszky

László Suhayda

Adrien Imre

Iván Éder

tamas.imre@naturephotomagazine.com

Editors: Anikó Imre

Árpád Krivánszky

Béla Szabó

János Szekeres László Suhayda Associate Editors: Adrien Imre

Ágnes Kiss

Bence Máté

Dániel Selmeczi Iván Éder

János Eifert Martin Perhiniak Copy Editor:

Árpád Krivánszky Art Director: Anikó Imre Graphical Design: Martin Perhiniak Web Design: FX designport Web Product: Thomas Picture Translators: Péter Pál Tóth Advertising: Anikó Imre aniko.imre@naturephotomagazine.com

Nature Photo Magazine www.naturephotomagazine.com info@naturephotomagazine.com

Bence Máté

Ágnes Kiss

Publisher: Thomas Picture Publisher Ltd. Address: Hungary Budapest 1576 Pf. 3 All rights reserved © 2010 Thomas Picture Publisher Ltd. The Nature Photo Magazine assumes no responsibility for solicited or unsolicited contributions and materials.

Martin Perhiniak

Dániel Selmeczi

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February 28, 2011