So another year is nearly to its end! Office, work, everyday problems always make time go by so fast! I wish everyone happy holidays; Christmas is always a lovely period of the year, which allows you to spend some time with your people.
So finally DA has made a move, created the group ability which is a more than nice addition. I believe it was about time for this little treat, groups allow a more powerful collection of specific artwork and give people the chance to follow up more efficiently with what inspires them. So I took my shots and I created the Great Waterscapes group, which also introduces one of the most talented photographers of DA as a co founder and contributor of course,
The group is of course open to everyone and we plan to collect some of the best waterscapes found around in DA into it! So waste no time and join our quest if you are interested, a team of very talented and known photographers is already assembling the contributors of the group!
My next task was deciding a new tripod! I already own a Manfrotto O55X ProB which is a fantastic and really rock solid tripod (tested under really strong winds and on harsh landscapes) but yet again you have to pay the price for such a tripod, which is weight and size. Moving around with a motorcycle and such a tripod is a pain and soon it becomes another piece of the huge puzzle of photography. I started searching around for an additional solution (since I will be keeping the Manfrotto tripod), Gitzo was the first way I looked, but the prices it has for travel tripods is way high for my budget!
I made a huge, really huge list of tripods, and started asking people that had some experience with them, so I started filtering and filtering and filtering until I narrowed my choices to very small number.
So my choice was Benro! Chinese copy of Gitzos! Carbon tripod which folds to a 358mm (not including a head) size it weights 1.3Kg and is able to handle 8Kg of equipment (Canon 5D + Canon 17-40L weights around 2.6Kg so the max weight specs of the tripod makes it perfect for this setup), from what I was able to read (and a review from a very known site) I was able to find out, that Benro’s legs (and I mean legs, because Benro balls suck from what I hear) are very good, stable and almost identical to the Gitzo ones! I got the Travel Angel C169 legs ([link]) and I am now waiting for them to arrive. I am also looking for a ballhead and I think for the moment I will either settle to a Manfrotto Midi ball head (488RC0) which is 112mm high (which totals the tripod height to 470mm) compact, strong and lightweight.
My next step is getting a new backbag, I already own a Lowepro Computrekker (which has served me brilliantly all these years) but I am having problems when shooting, it is a pain trying to reach the gear, especially when conditions are harsh (moisture, mud, sand etc). I am looking for a Lowepro (since I have extensively tested them, and I know they are quality bags) Primus which Andy already uses and finds very comfy and nice for everyday usage.
Next week I will be away from the office, since I got 1 week left of holidays! And I am already planning visiting a few places for a new round of shots!

Some recent favorites:

Life is short and when it comes to decisions you have to listen to your heart and your desires.
Since I was a young boy I always remembered myself on a motorcycle, back then it was behind my father (a motorcycle rider as well) riding into the dreams, and nearly all over Greece, when I became 19 I had already travelled to most parts of Southern Greece, Islands, Mainland all over Greece with my father and his motorcycles.
I soon had my passion, I knew someday I would have my motorcycle; I had to have my motorcycle and nothing would change this!
Years passed, I finished school and became a University student, I had also my first job and everyday life was so busy and hard for me I had nearly no free time to anything, or when I had some free time I wanted to rest and relax from my everyday pressure.
A few years later (1999) and I receive my driving (well actually it should be called riding) license, and I also had the honor to choose a new bike! Yes that would be my father’s gift! I soon decided and I was on 2 wheels, striving to find myself running along the roads of Athens, I had a small bike so long trips where out of the question!
Years passed and many different motorcycles passed my life, I had the opportunity to ride different styles and taste the differences between each other. I soon ended falling in love with street bikes and since 2005 I am deeply in love with my Honda CBR 1000RR, a motorcycle that offered me so many happy moments, traveling and cornering, short and long adventures!
The addition of photography into my hobbies / passions created the need to find ways to reach more abandoned places in Greece, that meant 2 available choices, either get a driver’s license (car) or get a second bike which has the capability to reach the more abandoned places (I am not even considering miss-treating a lady not build to be treated like that –that’s the CBR -) it didn’t take too long to reach a decision, a second bike would be added into my parking lot!
The search was not that intense, it only took me around 1 week to reach my choice! BMW 1150GS 2002 model is going to be the second addition to my motorcycle list!
I already have planned my winter trips totaling something over 6000km’s around Greece, routes have been planned, information is being collected and additionally I am looking over Italy, Alps, Germany and Holland as the big trip taking place somewhere around June next year (hoping everything is going to be fine!).
I also had a pleasant surprise from an old friend when I heard that he will join the photographic adventures! I didn’t have any news from him for a long time, until recently when I received a phone call from him; it made me rather happy to hear that apart from motorcycles he was also into photography the last few years, so now there is another fellow 2 wheel companion to join the routes!
[link]

Some recent favorites:

Can't say much, only the lyrics of my favorite summer song come in my mind:

I've got a feeling
with the wrong people
and I can't control my thoughts

I wish that I could sleep
and just get this over with
...this is only high school bullshit...

I just want to feel

I was warned
absolutley numb
no good around people
everyone knows and watches me

how did I get here tonight?
what am I doing here?
how did I reach this state?
how did I lose my sight?

I'm lost... I'm freaking
and everybody knows... everyone's watching

...so here's all my hopes and aspirations
nothing but puke
god, it's so lonely...

I just want to feel

[link]

Some recent favorites:

Hello everyone!
I hope the summer is “rolling” nicely for everyone, I am still waiting for my holidays (around 2 weeks far away) to relax for the madness of the big city and the loads of work I find everyday in my office.
But enough with desks work and big cities, we are here to discuss art, photography and all those nifty little things that make our everyday life more enjoyable!
So first of all let me share my joy with you! It’s been nearly 2 months since I stopped smoking and I already feel like I never felt before! I used to be a heavy smoker for more than 15 years and I made the decision to quit smoking 7 weeks ago, it was not that hard (although I had times that it was hard) it was more a mind decision! If you are thinking of making such a move just go on don’t be afraid of anything! And more importantly don’t even think you will be missing something!
I would like also to exploit the opportunity of this journal and inform you regarding Hitech filters (since a lot of people are asking my opinion on them lately); Hitech filters are superb in terms of quality! I use the 100mm x 150mm system (which is the biggest) of theirs and they are truly wonderful, I have not had a single problem with casts or whatsoever with them and I believe in their quality they are similar to the Lee ones.
Support of the company is fantastic! Whatever I have asked them I never had any problems! When I initially received my filters there was a small scratch on the 2stop GND, rather small and probably not affecting picture quality, but I felt I had to mention it to them, I received an immediate answer from them stating that they would send me a replacement, and so they did!
Few weeks later I found out that the 3 stop GND filter was just a tad bigger from the filter holder which resulted minor scratching on the sidewalls of the filter when inserting or removing it. The scratching again had no effect on the filter since it was on the area of the filter which is hidden inside the filter holder, I again contacted them, and they again send me a replacement! Wonderful people they never asked me questions, they never requested a return of the products, they just did whatever they could to resolve my problems. But you say are you satisfied with the filters? Then why the problems? Well I believe the minor scratch could be possibly due to the transportation of it, or maybe a small defect when they produced the filter, the good ones had no single problems! What about the 3stop? Scratching on the filter system? Well the filter as a filter was perfect, but it seems just a few mm’s bigger on the sides, I had not problem since the company replaced it immediately, and now I also have a spare 3stop GND which I can use on more severe conditions (and not worrying that much that it will be scratched). The only thing I would change on the Hitech filters is the packing of them, they are packaged on a plastic wrap which is scratch resistant though but it feels a bit cheap, a more hard cased housing would be probably be better, but that’s again something easily fixed with a 3rd party filter housing (which can be found rather cheap around the Internet).
Finally I was looking for a replacement of my Computrekker backpack, I love this backpack since it allows me to carry nearly all my equipment (along with my tripod attached externally to it) but it felt heavy and not that operational when shooting close to my home or whenever I wanted movement freedom or quick access to my equipment. I started looking for an additional bag I could carry with me which would allow me to carry my camera, my filters, my filter adaptor, the polarizer case (for swapping between the GND holder and the polarizer) and most important that I would be able to have quick access to filters or other stuff you make excessive use on field.
After searching I found the Lowepro Inverse 200AW belt pack, and I must say I am really happy with the decision to buy this! Firstly I was not looking for a replacement of the Computrekker but rather an addition to it, something I could carry along (whenever I was travelling for a few days away) and that I could use it with ease!
The Inverse is a wonderful; it feels small but yet again holds nearly all the necessary equipment for the field! It can be used either as a waist or as a shoulder bag! Or both (when carrying lots of stuff) and has an AW cover which protects the equipment in the case of rain!
I was able to fit inside it:
1) Canon 5D with the 17-40L attached (lens hood reversed)
2) My GND filters (100mm x 150mm, hard stop, 1,2,3 stops)
3) 3 additional batteries
4) Hitech 100mm filter holder + adaptor ring
5) Extra CF card
6) Cable release
7) Marumi glass filter + filter case
8) Microfiber lens cleaning cloth (for quick cleaning when necessary) + 1 small bottle of lens cleaning liquid.
9) Blower (I use it when shooting in windy and dusty environments, to blow off dust and particles from the filters or the camera body).
That’s all for a back which costs around 70 euros! And I believe it deserves every single penny!

Some recent favorites:

So I was bored the other day and I decided to transform my laptop from acer aspire, to acer macspire (laughs!). I decided to give MacOS for x86 another try! Downloaded Ipc and installed on my laptop, finally for the second time I have a working MacOS on my laptop (dual booted to windows vista). I sacrificed my Linux partition on this one, since I had limited HDD space but nevertheless I am really happy!
Nearly everything works on it, Graphics adapter (nVidia GeForce 9500M GS, with QE enabled), audio is ok, wired networking is ok (with small hacks) and the only part I had some problems was my wireless card. I decided to hack even more in it, so I ordered from ebay a mini pci-e wifi replacement (Dell 1490) which is fully compatible with MacOS and I am waiting next week for it to arrive in my hands.
I didn’t test my Bluetooth connection (rarely use it), my webcam (never actually used it as well), and my card reader (does not support CF cards, so I never use it as well) although I am sure the last will most certainly not work, since most onboard card readers are not functioning.
The experience is wonderful, and everything seems to be running smoothly and nicely, I have given photoshop a try, and I also downloaded aperture to run a test on it (I am totally ignorant with aperture since I have never used it before!).
The hackintosh project is steadily growing and more people are getting involved, hardware is a small issue with the community, since it’s on a very early stage! Not much out there, but most laptops are good to go since the decision of Apple to move to Intel based hardware.
I made a nice test, and worked on a few images inside osx and photoshop, I was really impressed with the way osx handles everything! If you have Linux background experience it’s rather easy to find your way around the osx, and even easier to make you necessary hacks to get your hardware up and running.
My next step once my wifi card arrives will be trying a retail installation! A bit more advanced as a task, but worth trying (allows you to have vanilla updated straight from Apple).
I hard stressed the system to see if there would be any kind of bugs or problems, and I must say I had zero! No problems whatsoever, under heavy photoshop work (TIFF files open for editing) and quicktime playing a few avi files (Lost ) just to see how everything would respond, and indeed it worked flawlessly!
Furthermore there is a photography contest ongoing localy in Greece, and we have a few participants (me included) from DA! KirlianCamera, and Justeline are also taking part at it (actually they were the ones that first mentioned and I found out!) so If you are bored, or if you like any work from us, just shoot a few stars toward our direction (although I am left really behind! LOL)
My entry is:
[link]
KirlianCamera entry is:
[link]
And Justelines entry is:
[link]

And now some recent favorites: