miguev's photostream  

© Miguel Ángel Vilela (miguev.net)
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From my last stay inTenerife, I learned a few lessons about how not to plan a holiday. The hard way.

1. Never travel to Tenerife in summer or whenever is "too hot". That's above 25 ºC for me :P
I estimate this means I should avoid going there from June to October, maybe May as well.

2. Never "work from home" to make the stay longer, in only makes it all harder. Unless there is a really good workplace where I can isolate myself from interruptions. My job comes with plenty of these.

3. Never be out by end of quarter, September being worst. Never, ever go out during or near Perf.
If you don't know what that is, lucky you! ;)

4. Never organize family reunions. That's work I'm not used to, turns out too stressful.

Never Again. Ever.

When you become an expat, you kinda lose your holidays. They aren't holidays anymore, but rather social visits to those who you miss and/or miss you. But you can only do so much in a few days, it quickly tends to be stressful. It's taken me five years to realize that I need to find a balance between hanging out with people and chilling out for a bit of a vacation that would pass for real holiday.

A very delicate balance.

Like the exposure in this photo, so that you can just make out some detail in the shady rock on the bottom while keeping detail in the clouds and sky. This one I could nail it :)

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Para español, pulsa aquí ;)
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Camera Info: Nikon D700 | 35mm(ƒ/2) | ƒ/8 | 1/250s | ISO 200 — Handheld — Natural daylight.
Processed with Raw Therapee with no exposure or color temperature tweaks. No HDR.

© Miguel Ángel Vilela (miguev.net)
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Nearly 3 months since I last posted here and I still don't have much to post, besides baby pics ;)

It's been (and still being) a time for staying at home a lot more and shooting a lot less.
Cooking has taken over Photography as my top hobby these days. It's a much more productive one :P

1.Augustweggen is a Swiss sweet bread baked to celebrate Swiss National Day. Just did it :)

I finally talked my wife into having our own cooking blog. From conception to go-live, it took about 28 months. After motivation building last year, it came to life just a couple of weeks later than Emma.

We will be publishing in Spanish, but translations to English are available on demand. Just ask ;)
For now, take a look at our food shots (Zorza & Gofio) to see what we've done so far.
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Hace case 3 meses que no pongo nada y aún no tengo mucho que poner, salvo un bebé ;)

Han sido (y están siendo) días de quedarme más en casa y hacer menos fotos.
Cocinar ha reemplazado a la fotografía como afición principal estos días. Es mucho más productiva :P

1.Augustweggen es un bollo suizo típico de la Fiesta Nacional Suiza. Hoy lo hice :)

Al final convencí a mi mujer para montar nuestro propio blog the cocina. De la idea a la inauguración, hemos tardado unos 28 meses. Después de acumular motivación durante el pasado año, el blog nació un par de semanas después que Emma.

Echa un vistazo a los platos (Zorza & Gofio) para ver lo que llevamos hecho.
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Camera Info: Nikon D700 | 60mm(ƒ/2.8) | ƒ/8 | 1/4s | ISO 100 — Tripoded — Natural light.
Processed with Raw Therapee for slight exposure and color temperature tweaks.

© Miguel Ángel Vilela (miguev.net)
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Don't Tell Me This Is Just The Starting Line

Emma just turned 3 months today, some minutes ago.

They say at this age is when babies were originally supposed to be born, but once we started walking and our pelvis become narrower only long pre-term babies would fit through the bright channel.
They say babies are incomplete until the third month, internal organs are not fully developed.

Whether that's true or not --I'm too tired and don't have time to search references to link now-- it does seem that babies achieve some important physical milestones by the third month. We hope that will mean less gas in her belly, less colics and, at some point, more sleep for the whole family! :D

Just Draw Your Starting Line Now And Start Your Race
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No Me Digas Que Esto Sólo Es La Línea De Salida

Emma acaba de cumplir 3 mesitos hoy, hace unos minutos.

Dicen que a esta edad es cuando a los bebés les tocaba nacer originalmente, pero una vez que nos pusimos a caminar y se nos estrechó la pelvis sólo los bebés muy prematuros cabían por el canal.
Dicen que los bebés están incompletos hasta el tercer mes, los órganos internos no están terminados.

Sea cierto o no --estoy demasiado cansado y no tengo tiempo para buscar referencias ahora-- sí que parece que los bebés alcanzan hitos físicos importantes hacia tercer mes. Esperamos que eso signifique menos gases, menos cólicos y, en algún momento, ¡más dormir para toda la familia! :D

Dibuja Tu Línea De Salida Ahora Y Empieza Tu Carrera
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Camera Info: Nikon D700 | 85mm(ƒ/1.8) | ƒ/2.8 | 1/125s | ISO 200 — Handheld
Processed with Raw Therapee for slight exposure and color temperature tweaks.

© Miguel Ángel Vilela (miguev.net)
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about a dozen books, some in a hurry, others taking it so easy it's been already years, but I hadn't been so comfortable with reading several books at the same time.

Not that having a baby gives you time to read... it makes you wish you had four (or more) prehensile hands, or developed extra pairs of arms. I set up for this shot in a couple of minutes, when Emma seemed to be sleeping, but after a handful shots there was a knock on the door, I knew the shoot was over...

So, how comes? Goodreads — best social network ever ;)

Precisely because my time to read has dropped significantly, I find it more efficient to read each time a bit of whichever book I feel like. Different mood, different book. Page by page, slowly but comfortably, I've gotten around to read 3 books in a month —January. I had never done that before!

If you enjoy reading books, even if you're not currently reading any, have a look at Goodreads and give it a go ;)
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unos doce libros, algunos con prisas, otros con tanta calma que llevan años ahí, but nunca me había sentido tan cómodo leyendo varios libros al mismo tiempo.

No es que tener un bebé te dé tiempo para leer... te hace desear que tuvieras cuatro (o más) manos prensiles, o que te salieran más pares de brazos. Preparé este montaje en un par de minutos, cuando parecía que Emma dormía, pero tras un puñado de tomas tocaban a la puerta, supe que se había terminado...

Entonces, ¿a qué viene esto? Goodreads — la mejor red social ;)

Precisamente porque mi tiempo para leer se ha reducido drásticamente, me resulta más eficiente leer en cada momento un trozo del libro que me me apetezca en ese momento. Distinto ánimo, distindo libro. Página a página, despacito pero cómodamente, me acabé leyendo 3 libros en un mes —enero. ¡No lo había conseguido nunca!

Si te gusta leer libros, aunque ahora mismo no estés leyendo ninguno, échale un vistazo a Goodreads y pruébalo ;)
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Camera Info: Nikon D700 | 85mm(ƒ/1.8) | ƒ/1.8 | 1/200s — Tripoded and tethered
Strobist info: SB-600 1/8 @14mm into white shoot-through 45" umbrella, 5' left and up from books, triggered with pop-up flash as commander.
Processed with Raw Therapee for slight crop, exposure and color temperature tweaks.
No GIMP to fake black background this time — it's a real black background, at last :)

© Miguel Ángel Vilela (miguev.net)
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I didn't exactly promise I wouldn't keep featuring Emma here, did I?

Anyway, that's three weeks until her next appearance and I already had one photo idea to work on before that (and she won't feature on that one ;)

Besides the fact that babies change quite fast, I just got today my new Nikkor 35mm 1:2D and tried it out for close-up portraits of Emma & mom, but I haven't had time to process those. This one was an easy, nearly obvious pick, just needed to crop it to 5:4 for a better framing.

I'm looking forward for more sunny (less foggy) days so that I can comfortably use the 85mm for this.
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No es que prometiera que no seguiría mostrando a Emma aquí, ¿verdad?

En cualquier caso, son tres semanas hasta su próxima aparición y ya tengo una idea para fotografiar antes de eso (y ella no sale en esa foto ;)

A parte del hecho de que los bebés cambian bastante rápido, hoy recibí mi nuevo Nikkor 35mm 1:2D y lo estuve probando con retratos de cerca de Emma y mamá, pero no he tenido tiempo de procesar esos. Este fue una elección fácil, casi obvia, sólo tuve que recortarlo a 5:4 para mejorar el encuadre.

Estoy deseando que lleguen días más soleados (con menos niebla) para poder usar el 85mm para esto cómodamente.
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Camera Info: Nikon D700 | ISO 200 | 50mm(ƒ/1.8) | ƒ/1.8 | 1/60 s — Handheld
Natural light behind and gold reflector in front.
Processed with Raw Therapee and cropped to 5:4.