Chinese Woman - 19th Century

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The Old Bridge in Mostar

The Old Bridge and It's Area are part of UNESCO's World Heritage List. It was constructed in the year 1566 and the building was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent. The goal was to replace an older wooden suspension bridge of dubious stability.

Upon its completion it was the widest man-made arch in the world. Certain associated technical issues remain a mystery: how the scaffolding was erected, how the stone was transported from one bank to the other, how the scaffolding remained sound during the long building period. As a result, this bridge can be classed among the greatest architectural works of its time.

Tell me what you think of this below in the comments. Would you like to see more images from the city I live in and the surrounding area? Thanks to all the FMTSO folks who came to visit me from the blog!

click on the image for a bigger view

Singing Girls, Hong Kong, China by Benjamin W. Kilburn 1901

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Benjamin West Kilburn (December 10, 1827 – January 15, 1909) was an American photographer and stereoscopic view publisher famous for his landscape images of the nascent American and Canadian state, provincial, and national parks and his visual record of the great migrations at the end of the nineteenth century. Visual historian of immigration and international tourism.

Visiting Sibenik 2013 [Part 5/5]: Ocean Sunset

Here are two sunset shots, taken on the fortress of St. Nikola. I wanted to close out the summer vacation photos with these two shots.

This is a multi-part series from our vacation, other parts include:
Part One: Lost on the Island (Part One)
Part Two: Lost on the Island (Part Two)
Part Three: Old Town of Sibenik and Cathedral
Part Four: Visiting the Fortress of St. Nikola
Part Five: Ocean Sunset

click on the images for a bigger view

How to make daylight images work

Daylight can be harsh. Very harsh. Photographers will tell you never to shoot during the middle of the day, but to wait for sundown or sunrise, because the light is much softer.

But sometimes you can't help it or don't have a choice. And this is where this short tutorial comes in. If you are shooting in JPEG mode then there are two simple steps on how to make daylight images work. (RAW mode images will be covered in another tutorial).

This is what we are creating (click on the image and screenshots for a bigger view):

As you can see the shadows and highlights are much softer and the image works much better. There are only two easy filters to achieve this in Adobe Photoshop.

Step 1: Open your image
Go to File > Open and find your image and open it up in Photoshop

Step 2: Open Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights...

Step 3: Adjust the filter

You can adjust the two sliders to make fit to your image. Make sure not to overdo it. Especially the highlights slider.

Step 4: Apply the Curves filter Image > Adjustments > Curves

Since the Shadows/Highlighs filter greys out the image, you can apply the Curves filter and play with the RGB curve that opens up first. Just like in the image below. (You can click on the screen grab to see a bigger version). This step is optional.

Step 5: Save your image
That's it. Save your image and use it to your liking!

Please tell me below how you liked this tutorial and if you have any further questions. Would you like to see more tutorials like this one? Did you have a hard time following?

Ghostbuster Abe Lincoln

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An extremely rare photograph of President Abraham Lincoln taken during his brief yet memorable stint as a paranormal investigator and eliminator circa 1864.

Late 1800s, one man band

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Game of Thrones Location Photos in Dubrovnik and Lokrum

I don't know if anyone here watches HBO's Game of Thrones, most likely you are, since it's so popular right now, and if you do, you might know that they shoot parts of the show in Croatia, mainly Dubrovnik and it's surrounding area. I recently took upon watching the show and noticed a lot of locations, that I had actually visited and have photos of. Mainly it's about the Old Town of Dubrovnik, but also the nearby island Lokrum, where a big storyline in Season 2 was shot.

If you have not watched the show, you can enjoy these photos as they are. But if you are familiar with the show you will also be familiar with the images that follow.

This post contains no spoilers from the show if you watch! You can click on the images for a bigger view.

First I'll show you a shot of Fort Bokar, which was the key point in the defense of the Pila Gate in real life. In the show it was used for scenes in the Blackwater Episode from Season 2.

And here is a shot of the St. Lawrence Fortress, that doubles as King's Landing in Season 2 and 3 in the show.

Of course in the show they do a great job of digitally enhancing the fortification, making it fit the fantasy world that they have created. Here is a shot from the show:

They use the inside of the old town of Dubrovnik as the streets of King's Landing. Some shots are actually done without any CGI (computer generated images). Because the old town is so well kept they can literately move the camera 360 degrees. Of course they make sure to dirty it up sometimes, and to dress the actual old town to make it fit. Here is a scene from the show.

This was shot right at the entrance of the old town. This next scene was taken inside the walls.

Here are those locations in real life.

Here they dressed up an old alley to be an even older and dirtier path in King's Landing:

Shot taken from here.

In this next shot you'll see the old town. This was taken from the walls. You can see how much they enhance in the show, but the basic structure is there.

The Island Lokrum doubled as the city Qarth and they used the old fortification on that island for the House of the Undying in the Season 2 Finale. You can reach the island with a boat in 5 minutes from the Dubrovnik harbor. Although most of the scenes of the city Qarth itself are completely digital, some of the garden scenes were filmed in the botanical gardens on Lokrum and in the Former Benedictine monastery.

Here is a shot from the show:

Here are some location photos from Lokrum:

The do shoot a lot in the botanical gardens in Lokrum, but also the botanical garden surrounding the Old Town of Dubrovnik. First is a scene from the show which was shot in the monastery on Lokrum, and then some shots of the gardens of Dubrovnik and Lokrum.

 A back view of the monastery:

 The gardens:

I hope you enjoyed this journey through Dubrovnik and Lokrum. Please let me know what you think of this in the comments below. Thanks for watching and reading.

Visiting Sibenik 2013 [Part 4/5]: Fortress of St. Nikola

My sister and I visited the Fortress of St. Nikola last year. Click here to take a look back at the images from last year. It was really fun to go back. Last year I didn't bring my tripod with me, because I didn't anticipate how dark it would be inside, or that you could even walk inside the Fortress.

This year I brought it with me, knowing what awaits us. Well actually a lot of things had changed. There used to be a stone "path" (Let's call it that, even though it was just rocks you had to tumble upon to get to the island where the Fortress is), but now the path has been modernized with a new wooden walkpath. It's nice to be able to get there quickly, but this also means more tourists!

Last year there was barely anyone there. This year lots of people took the trip and it just isn't the same anymore. This of course had no affect on the actual images.

This is a multi-part series from our vacation, other parts include:
Part One: Lost on the Island (Part One)
Part Two: Lost on the Island (Part Two)
Part Three: Old Town of Sibenik and Cathedral
Part Four: Visiting the Fortress of St. Nikola
Part Five: Ocean Sunset

click on the images for a bigger view

Rare vintage photograph of an onna-bugeisha, one of the female warriors of the upper social classes in feudal Japan (emerged before Samurai)

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An onna-bugeisha (女武芸者?) was a type of female warrior belonging to the Japanese upper class. Many wives, widows, daughters, and rebels answered the call of duty by engaging in battle, commonly alongside samurai men. They were members of the bushi (samurai) class in feudal Japan and were trained in the use of weapons to protect their household, family, and honor in times of war. They also represented a divergence from the traditional "housewife" role of the Japanese woman. They are sometimes mistakenly referred to as female samurai, although this is an oversimplification. Onna bugeisha were very important people in ancient Japan. Significant icons such as Empress Jingu, Tomoe Gozen, Nakano Takeko, and Hōjō Masako were all onna bugeisha who came to have a significant impact on Japan.

Visiting Sibenik 2013 [Part 3/5]: Old Town and Cathedral

I guess I should actually post some photos from Sibenik, since that was the main part of our vacation. We visited Sibenik last year, so we didn't overdo taking photos there. The side destinations were actually more appealing to us this year, not trying to take away from the beauty of the old town of Sibenik. Here are some sunset images taken by the famous Sibenik Cathedral. Since 2000, the Cathedral has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.


And as long as we are talking Cathedrals, it doesn't get better than the Cologne Cathedral we visted last December for Christmas. Check those photos out here. 

This is a multi-part series from our vacation, other parts include:
Part One: Lost on the Island (Part One)
Part Two: Lost on the Island (Part Two)
Part Three: Old Town of Sibenik and Cathedral
Part Four: Visiting the Fortress of St. Nikola
Part Five: Ocean Sunset

click on the images for a bigger view

In the upcoming part we will visit one of my favorite places: the Fortress of St. Nikola! It's going to be good.