Black & White

I've been playing a bit with Silver Efex Pro (version 1) from Nik Software and made a Black and White version from a pic I took from my good photography friend A. The pic was taken during a photoshoot we did together in September 2009.

 

Click on pic to enlarge

PC-Troubles

After posting for the last time more than two weeks ago I thought it was about time to post some new pics, but unfortunately there are some problems with my photosoftware. Also having some hardware problems with the computer. My PC probably need a good clean-up and replacing some hardware (probably one of the harddisks and powersupply) and a reinstall of Windows. Hope things will be solved soon, so please have a bit of patience. I'll try to add new pics as soon as possible.

This time I'll post a link to a photowebsite with photos made by Robert Knoth, a Dutch photographer from Rotterdam. It's called Nuclear Nightmares: 20 years after Chernobyl. I ran into this website a few weeks ago. This week there was some item on the news about the disaster 20 years ago on the night of April 26th 1986. It's not a very cheerful subject but the photos and the short descriptions of the people behind the photos makes it a shocking, but also a powerful and very impressive statement.

You can check at:
Nuclear Nightmares

Japan (7) - Nagano visit part 4

On Friday we went to Zenko-ji temple in Nagano an old and one of the most famous temples in Japan. I was here before in springtime 1997, but I never saw the temple complex while there was snow. It attracts a lot of tourist, but it is for a reason, because this is a very nice and gorgeous temple. Here are some pics to give you a bit of an impression.

Japan (6) - Nagano visit part 3

Here is part 3 with pics from Matsushiro castle. I haven't found some more extended information yet about the history of the castle, there is just a little bit of basic information at the info of Matsushiro town (see: link)

Near Matsushiro there is a famous battleground, called Kawanakajima where two warlords Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin fought five battles in the 16th century within a period of 11 years. These battles belong to the most famous ones ever fought in Japan. The picture below shows the sculpture that reminds about the battles between the two warlords.

Japan (5) - Nagano visit part 2

Here is part 2 of the pics from Matsushiro

Japan (4) - Nagano visit part 1

Like I promised last night I'm going to post some of my pics that I made during my stay at Nagano from Wednesdaynight till Friday where I visited my good friend Motoko. We met each other for the first time in Israel at the kibbutz in 1996, the year that I visited kibbutz Gesher for the fourth time and also the year that my brother got married in Israel. After the wedding I went to the kibbutz and became friends with Motoko and a few other Japanese volunteers. Motoko and I kept in touch since then and I made my first visit to Nagano during my first stay in Japan in 1997.

This must have been my fourth visit to Nagano. The first night we went to a nice and exclusive Chinese restaurant. You have to take my word that the food was gorgeous, because I forgot to take my camera with me. The next day we visited the mountaintown Matsushiro (see: link1 and link2 ) a quiet and historical town with a nice and peaceful atmosphere. We visited some old historical houses, temples and the local castle. Here are the first pics. I also shot some black and white pics. Because I shot quite some pics I will split them up and post some more in some posts I'm going to make later today.

Motoko, me and Motoko's mother in front of one of the many small museums of Matsushiro

Colorado (2)

During Julie's lunchbreak (she works from home) Julie, Becky (a friend from Minnesota, with a hawribly funny Minnesotan accent) and I took a walk down the trail, that starts from the end of the street where Julie lives. The trail goes down to the foothills. It was really a nice walk. It wasn't as colourful as it probably looks during early autumn or spring and summer, but the scenery was still very nice, at least it was for me, being a cityboy who isn't used to nearby nature. We saw some deer and snakes (one dead, another alive). Also shot some black and white pics. Here are just a few pics to give you an impression.

Almost the same pic as the previous, but then B&W

These were the deer I was talking about

More Crete Pics (2)

Today some black and white pics from our holiday at Crete.
The first 5 pics were all taken on Tuesday, October 11th. It rained most of the day. It was lousy weather to go swimming, but it gave me some nice photo-opportunities. Noriko went to a city spa and took a bath at the hamam and had a massage after that. In the mean time I took a walk around the old city walls around the old Venetian port of Chania or Hania (there are different ways of spelling according to which transcription is used) and decided to shoot some black and white pics. With the clouds at the gloomy sky it gave some nice contrast for B&W pics.

I like old junk

The rustier the better

Views at and from the city walls part 1

Views at and from the city walls part 2

Views at and from the city walls part 3

And finally a pic from Noriko shooting pics from the balcony of our apartment at Agia Marina.

Some more B/W pics

Here are a few more black and white photos. The first two were taken with a Samsung ECX 1 compact camera. The third one was taken with the Nikon F3.

This one was taken in Japan about 5 years ago from Noriko and their little and funny dog Ranchan. She was a strong minded doggy with very funny manners.
This one was taken about 6 or 7 years ago during a daytrip with my friend Monique to Maastricht in the South of Holland.
This is another one from my little niece Iris from the same serie as mentioned in my previous post.