Clouds prevented the sun to burn everything and let me breathe easier.

Seagulls were playing over the ferry as we traveled to the island Šolta. They were so close that I didn't have to use telephoto lens but just plain 50 mm one.

Sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) mating. They didn't mind me watching.

Cardinal (Argynnis pandora)

The Cardinal was very trustworthy.

I have never seen Carpobrotus (commonly known as Pigface or Ice plants) bloom. It is a ground-creeping plant, with succulent leaves which are mainly dried by the time I used to see them in the summer.

This time they were blooming and I seriously played with the idea to take some of them home with me.

This one kind of look like a little devil.

More Sand lizards (Lacerta agilis). Color green means it is the mating season.

Poppy (Papaver) is another plant I never saw on the islands before.

Aloe vera blooming

Even trees like this Pine tree were different.

Some of the plants were unknown to me but they were beautiful all the same.

The bees were doing their job pollinating the plants before they stop blooming.

I have seen Stick insects (Phasmatodea) in captivity but never before in the wild.

Even the lemons were not the same. This one is called Buddha's hand, Citrus medica.

Date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) were full of dates which were unfortunately not edible.

When I said full of dates I meant full of dates.

(Mytilus galloprovincialis) Mediterranean mussel

Opuntia and its pollinating friend

Its a big black bee with blue wings, latin name unknown.

Beautiful but toxic Nerium oleander

(Sicyonia carinata) Mediterranean rock shrimp almost bite my finger off.

Even ordinarily snails came out while raining.

So beautiful it doesn't need a name.

Lavender (Lavandula) attracted many bumble bees.

Large wasp with four yellow dots and orange head. It could be Scoliid wasp but who am I to tell them apart.

They said it was not poisonous. I felt better believed them.

Caring for the young ones.

Another Opuntia this time in the sunset light.

One of many terrific sunsets.

Orange, how I want you orange.

Last night presented another terrific sight. Summer thunder storm. This phenomenon is actually more frequent later in the summer.

It is true that the water wasn’t warm enough for prolonged swimming in the sea but going to the seaside before the season definitely has its advantages.

I am sorry for all the mistakes that I made naming flora and fauna. If you know the correct names please let me know so that I can correct my errors.

I took of from Ljubljana towards the region Štajerska before 7AM. Weather forecast was good for that part of Slovenia. I was a bit worried about the morning fog but was bound to lift if needed.

7:05 on Ljubljana's highway

I planned the course of the eclipse using SkySafari, iPhone app. With it I’ve seen the path of the moon crossing the sun.

SkySafari for iPhone

I was near the town of Vransko half past seven as I noticed that the nearby mountain tops were lit by the first rays of the sun. I stopped on the nearest hill over the town. The scenery was beautiful.

Panorama of town Vransko from my vantage point.

I quickly started to shoot phases of the eclipse.

Previewof the solar eclipse on Nikon D200 display.

I decided to do a time-lapse only during greatest eclipse as I didn’t have remote head on the tripod to follow the sun path. I used Nikon D200 and an analogue F90x with Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED and Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro lenses. I had a special foil on Sigma for watching eclipses that I got before the last full eclipse in Europe August 11th 1999. Nikkor had a polarizing filter on and a Light Craft Workshop™ Fader ND filter. Combined there was enough absence of light for watching.

Special foil for watching eclipses on Cokin filter on Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro lens and analogue Nikon F90x

Nikon D200, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED, polarizing filter with Fader ND

The eclipse was not seen with the naked eye.

The scenery and the light during the eclipse was perfect so I took some different photos.

Hand glove didn't helped watching the eclipse.

The lack of sun rays was not visible even during greatest eclipse. Maybe you could see the moon crossing the sun it if you squint with your eyes and imagined the eclipse.

The ground was frozen and after a good hour of standing I was freezing.

After the peak of the eclipse I went home to process the images.

Processing the images using Apple Aperture.

Photos were merged into one where you can see the whole course of the eclipse.

Course of the partial solar eclipse 2011

I pieced the photos into a movie and added a music score. I am very pleased with the creative beginning of the new year.

Solar Eclipse 2011 from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej strani.

Coop story

The shots were recorded in HDV so I converted them during capture in ProRes. Final Cut Pro has a setting that enables this (HDV to ProRes via FireWire). Everything else was as usual. Editing was done in Final Cut Pro, Color correction in Color, titles in Shake and music was chosen in GarageBand.

Some roosters were giving me the eye.

I was glad to be behind the fence.

Coop Story from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

If you liked the story, please consider helping me maintain this blog by purchasing your gear through my product links on the right. It will cost you nothing but will allow me to continue writing. Thank you!

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej strani.

Milenko Prevec taking pictures of Tussilago farfara.

Shot with my father’s Canon 7D with EF50mm f/1.4 USM and EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lenses using Manfrotto tripod and a Glidetrack. Edited in Final Cut Pro with music clip It Can’t Be from GarageBand, title tracking was made with Shake, which still does what it supposed to do. Color correction was done in Color.

The other footage of ordinary spring plants at some other occasion. Now let’s jump to the wasteland area.

Nuclear Wasteland from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej strani.

Our house is on the left

Later that morning we went from St. Oswald which is near Bad Kleinkirchheim with a lift on top of Brunnach (1908m), where I did the rest of the time-lapses. Up here is also the Brunnach lake which is used a winter for snow cannons.

Brunnach panorama restaurant Nock-In at height 1908m with Brunnach artificial lake

I used Nikon D200 with MC-36 remote. For one moving shot I used Mizar Optical KD motor mount. I fixed it to the rail with Manfrotto Super Clamp. This shot is slightly shaky ’cause the wind was blowing hard.

Nikon D200, 17-55mm f/2.8 lens, Mizar KD Mount, Nikon MC-36 remote and Manfrotto Super Clamp

12V lead battery and mount remote were placed on the bench next to the backpack

I did the rainbow shot late that evening again from the balcony. I forgot to turned of autofocus so there is some focus searching in the shot.

I used Aperture to process the RAW files, exported them in HD resolution and merged them to movie files in QuickTime. I edited them in Final Cut Pro and color corrected in Color. The music was put together in Soundtrack using ambient loops and bird sounds. I had to remove flicker from the 270º shot. For that I used FurnaceCore (DeFlicker) from the Foundry.

I hope you will enjoy watching the movie.

A day in Bad Kleinkirchheim from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

I decided to use Vimeo this time because I don’t like the legality politic on YouTube. They turned of on of my videos, television clip that had more than 85% of my own footage. The rest were their TV show presenters. But more on that on some other occasion.

Slovenski prevod vpisa si lahko ogledate na tem naslovu.

First batch of cameras (bottom right is Canon 550D with 50mm f/1.4, that I got from Foto Format) - iPhone (edited with Pro HDR, CrossProcess)

I knew that there will be to little time during the weekend so I went location scouting in the afternoon. I still had an idea about a poppy filed so I followed directions from my friend Nataša to the nearby field. There were a lot of poppies but the surroundings were horrid. Small village on one end and billboards on the other. This was clashing with my idea of a lost lonely girl in the nature.

Poppy field I (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Poppy field II (©2010 Peter Prevec)

I gave up the poppy filed idea and went to Slovenian Istra. I took the highway to Koper and over the hill to Dragonja. It was raining for the whole time and I wasn’t hoping for nicer weather. First photos were made under umbrella.

Istrian wines (©2010 Peter Prevec)

I mainly used Nikon D3s body with the new 24mm f/1.4 lens, which quickly became my favourite lens and only thing that is stopping me from buying it is high price (€2.000). It is everything it promises: sharp, fast, sensitive and wide.

Even old Megane looks like a hot rod with the new 24mm f/1.4. (©2010 Peter Prevec)

There was lots of interesting locations on the way, but they were to far apart and we would use too much time between them so I decided to go to small deserted village called Abitanti near Croatia border. On the way the sun came from under the clouds so I stopped a few times to take pictures.

Sun between clouds and earth. - iPhone (edited with Pro HDR, CrossProcess)

Self portrait - iPhone (edited with Pro HDR, CrossProcess)

I stopped by the road, step out, take picture and drive on. The light was phenomenal. (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Sunset after the rain. (©2010 Peter Prevec)

It was after 9 PM when I arrived to the Abitanti village so I quickly set up the cameras to do some time lapse photography. You may think I was too late and the darkness to thick, but the light sensitive Nikons were performing great in night photography with the fast lenses I had.

Nikon D300, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 400, f/2.8, exposure 8s, time 21:52 (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Nikon D3s, AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED, ISO 800, f/1.4, exposure 2s, time 21:55 (©2010 Peter Prevec)

This is actually a night photo. The bright thing on the sky is not sun but moon. You can see some stars on the left side of the image. Nikon D3s, AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED, ISO 400, f/1.4, exposure 1.6s, time 23:17 (©2010 Peter Prevec)

I hope I will finally write more about the shoot itself in the following days and even post some video clips.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tem naslovu.

Travelling Poppy from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

When they bought the location to build there Sloveniales, parking lot or Plava laguna (what would I know), poppy went to dolenjska where my granddads sister Vida and her husband Stane had an old house. Their son Jernej and his wife Blanka brought poppy back to Ljubljana when they build a house in Bežigrad (near Bratovševa platform). I went to visit once, heard about the story of poppy and wanted a piece of history. I brought it home to Vižmarje and put it in a big pot. After it bloom for the first time it looked like it died so I put it in my mothers garden, where we found out that there is nothing wrong whit it. And from that day of every May it blooms and makes very big and very beautiful red flower.

Snemanje filma Mak popotnik (©2009 Milenko Prevec)