11 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA PHONE

Well this one has a funny story behind it and it all began with a guy called Ismail. Ismail is the owner of the local Kebab stand here and he has more than one ace up his sleeve. He'll make you a mean lamb sandwich, and if you ask nicely, he'll make it bespoke. In my case, the recipe couldn't be any simpler. Lamb, grilled onion, salad and a slice of tomato, all rolled into a flat bread. No sauce, no fancy additions, nothing superfluous.

This is such a good mix that this day, on my way to my usual biking hill-climb, I took with me the exact amount necessary and decided to pay a visit. This is how I came to sit right next to the station, with nothing but my bike and a lamb roll. And that got me thinking. I had indeed not produced any valid image in a couple of days which had left me a bit frustrated. This had got to change and before you know it, I was standing on the tracks, framing with my hands. Yes, my image was right there to be caught. Now it was just a matter of realizing it.

I came back later in the evening, after dark. The scene had changed quite a bit, but only for the better. Initially, I was hoping to catch some motion of trains going by in the background (which you can, barely, see on the right side under the stairs). What I didn't quite think over though, is the fact that motion means trains, and trains means trouble, at least when you're sitting on the tracks.

Would this be the last plasticky clunk of a little kitchen robot's acetate heart? And more dramatically: would this be survived by camera and photographer? I felt a rumble when the locomotive approached on the track I had deemed safe. Two headlights came forth in front of me... and gave me the exact lighting I was going for. A shot worth dying for? Probably not, but it was a nice little addition.

Don't try this at home folks! That is of course, if you have railway tracks in your home.


No seriously, this shot was taken on an abandoned track not hooked up to anything and therefore not accessible to any carriage. The vantage point is a parking space in which said track ends up, unusable for any train. Also, the headlights coming up there belong to a locomotive rolling in on a track right next to mine, but are not - and could in no way be - headed towards me. I might go a bit bonkers sometimes, but I do value my life.

Had a long day today so I figured what the hell and as I arrived home I grabbed my freshly surgeried camera to go out for a little snapping. I mention the surgery my camera has gone through, not because it now works again, which is nice, but because it actually works better than ever before. I have indeed had the focussing screen replaced by a better, more precise one on my old 5d, which now makes my MF on the wide aperture lenses actually hit something. Granted, it still is quite a challenge to get an MF lens to focus properly when used at large apertures, but it actually is of great help, when you actually see what you're doing. Regular focussing screens mostly let you preview depth of field as it'd be on f 2.8. This is great on f 2.8, but quite hit and miss in the 1.2-1.4ish range. Having recently added the Zeiss 85 to my lenses, this was beginning to become an issue. I therefore ordered an ee-s screen and had it placed where due in my viewfinder... mate, what a difference that makes, hit rate is way up too :)