Alessio Michelini Photography

I start to think that the guys in RedBubble really like me, as for the third time I've been featured in their "Found" section! For who is not familiar to what the "Found" is, it's essentially like the "Explore" on Flickr, which shows some of the best works everyday, but with the big difference that unlike Flickr, where pictures are picked by a mathematical formula based on views, favourites and comments (and sometimes you see awful pictures end up in the Explore while other amazing works get totally ignored), on RedBubble the best works are picked manually by RedBubble stuff, which is kinda nice and you rarely (or never) a bad photo or illustration on their homepage.
Funny story is that for the picture below meant to be totally different from what I thought to do, and I'll probably get to that place another time to shoot what I meant to photograph, but here we go, 5 minutes spent on Lightroom using a preset I did because at that time I was pissed off as it didn't turn how I wanted, and everybody love this photo (apart me).

(Buy it on RedBubble)

A few weeks ago I was looking for the prices for the Samyang 24mm f/1.4 on Amazon, an affordable wide prime lens, when I noticed that just underneath tha lens, it was listed the following lens, the Samyang 24mm T1.5 lens, which is essentially the same lens but for videographers, with a better focus ring. But while it was pretty clear that the T1.5 was related to the max aperture for the lens, I didn't really understand why it was using a weird value (1.5) and why the T and not the usual "f".
The answer is simple: while the f number indicates area of the aperture of the blades, the T value indicates the amount of light that ends on the sensor of our cameras, and because light has to pass through the different pieces of glass in our lens (I didn't want to say lenses of a lens, it sounds weird to me), which reflect and/or absorb light, you will never get the 100% of light transmission, and the T number indicates the real amount of light that ends on the sensor. But as I'm terrible to explain how things works, and I doubt I will ever present an episode of MythBusters, maybe it's better if you just watch the video above, where Matt Granger explains, way better than me, what's the difference between the F Stop and the T Stop number.
(via ThatNikonGuy)

Nerdy moment: I think it's time for a new server. A little guy from far away says "why you don't buy just an external hard drive Alessio?". Because it's not enough. Just to make it clear, I have 3 external hard drives for my first backup, where one is for a general backup, one is for the last year of photos, and one is for all the photos, plus I have an HP microserver (which sound a very expensive thing, but it is not) where it holds 4 hard drives, for a total of 7TB, and where I have a second general copy of all my photos, and this is the current situation of my server space:

93% /media/Tethys
78% /media/Photos2
79% /media/Phoebe
99% /media/Photos

As you can see they are pretty full, and bear in mind that I still have to copy the photos I took in the last month. Another voice from far away says "But why you don't delete the rubbish photos, stuff that you never developed, or that you don't care?". Already done my friend, already done...
So I think it way about time to buy a new server, or at least to replace one of the hard drives with a 3TB hard drive, but it's a temporary solution, so I prefer to, how we say in italy, cut the bull's head, and I'm probably going to buy the newer version of the server I'm using at the moment, which is the HP Proliant Microserver N54L, which I can find if for a little bit over 200 euro, and it's a really good machine.
I know, some of you are thinking "I don't really care... show us more photos!". I'll do, but I'm still working on old photos, and for the moment I don't have anything to show you, apart my beautiful girlfriend:

Hopefully tomorrow I'll find the force to get the fuck out and go to take some snaps, so stay tuned!
 

A fellow photographer just sent me a photo of the photo release you have to sign before the show of Public Image Ltd.

As usual, we get a nice copyright grabber line: "These photographs can indefinitely be used by PiL Official Ltd / JRJL Productions for all commercial and non-commercial purposes".
What about no? What about I will never photograph any of your show?

Thanks to Sean Conroy for the photo.

Well, as I said, my few days in Italy were quite unproductive, and as I said, many plans but did nothing. To be fair I've a lot of nice pictures of the my girlfriend's family and our pets, but I'm still working on them. But that isn't the topic for this post, but instead I wanted to show you some pictures I took in the past two weeks, but as I can't find new places to photograph, these pictures were taken in the same places I went at the begin of this month: Pigeon Road and Grand Canal Dock.
I'm not 100% convinced about these shots, but to be fair I'm rarely happy with my shots.
Anyway, do any of you would like to suggest me some new places to photograph? Any ideas? Please leave a comment below if you know some cool places around Dublin.

We often see Aaron Nace of Phlearn.com behind his laptop showing us great tricks on Photoshop, but he is also a really good photographer, and in this video he is going to show us the behind the scenes of how he made one of his recent work.

(via Phlearn.com)

At this stage we all know the main new feautures of the version of Lightroom, like the upright tool or the radial gradient, but in this video Julieanne Kost is going to show us some of the hidden gems that not everybody know and that may be very useful for your workflow.

Photo release for Jimmy Eat World, not sure if this is still applied, according to the comments on the Music Photographers's page, someone had to sign it, someone else didn't. In any case, this is a terrible photo release, and apparentely the band is well aware about this release. My suggestion is to stay at home, and if you really like this band, buy the ticket and leave the camera at home, but don't waste your time to photograph these guys.

(via Music Photographers)

When you are shooting outdoor you always have to deal with the biggest source of light that mother nature gave to us: the Sun. And when you are shooting landscapes, but this is valid for any kind of photography taken outdoor, how to use this source of light is one of your main concerns. For example, if you shoot facing the sun, especially in those rare occasions where even here, in Ireland, the sky is clear, you will get a very bright sky, and it's impossible to have the entire frame exposed correctly, because if you expose for the sky, the rest will be underexposed, if you expose for the land / city / whatever, the sky will be overexposed. Then if you turn by 180 degrees, with the sun on your back, you get a better situation, where the sky is more blue, and the exposure can be a bit more balanced. But then if it's midday, you are screwed. as the sun is on the zenit, and doesn't matter where you point your camera, because everything will look the same: flat.
In fact one of the common mistakes in photography is to believe that in sunny days, when there are no clouds and the sun is high, is the best situation to take photos. That's absolutely wrong. Especially when the sun is high, the light is extremely hard, and the fact that it's perpendicular as well it doesn't help at all. It makes everything look flat, no tridimensionality at all, no depth, just an awfully boring photo.

Finally, after 6 months without going anywhere (apart three days in Donegal, but they don't count right?), tomorrow I'm flying home for a few days (don't worry ladies, I'll be back on wednesday). As usual I've plenty of plans to squeeze in these few days, and as usual I will do nothing but playing with cats and dogs. But in case I'll find the energy to actually do something I need to be prepared, but because I cannot bring all my gear as on the way back I have to fly back with Ryanair (sigh!), I have to keep my backpack under 10kg, and as I have to bring my laptop (which it steals about 3kg), I have to bring what (I think) I will need for these days, so if you want to know (but I do understand that these are not information that can change your life) what I have on my bag, that's the list:

• Canon 6D
• Canon 17-40mm f/4 L USM
• Canon 35mm f/1.4 L USM
• Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM
• Battery Charger
• Lee Big Stopper
• Hanhel Remote Control
• Laptop

That's it. I could keep the 35mm at home, as that focal length is covered by the 17-40, but it's such a good lens for street photography that I just cannot bring with me, same story for the 50mm.
Do I need any telephoto? No I don't, I never use them when I go around, I love my 135mm but it's a lens that is not essential for me.
Now, tickets ready, baggages ready, tablet with a new book to read and plenty of games ready, girlfriend ready, so it's just a matter of wait for my flight tomorrow.
I'm not sure if I will be able to update the blog in the next 5 days, as playing with pets it takes a lot of resources, so if you don't see anything new in the next few days, don't worry, it's all fine, I'm in the right paws.