Summer 2017 Projects - Messinia

My final vacation time for this summer was spent in Kalamata in Messinia prefecture, mostly relaxing and sea bathing, but there was enough time to visit Peroulia beach and Koroni with its famous castle and food.  I also spent some hours alone under the dark sky next to Kapetanakis Castle in Charavgi village, photographing the Milky Way (or trying to do it properly this time anyway), using Magic Lantern's Full-Resolution Silent pictures function with the integrated intervallometer, powerbank-to-battery convertor and very high ISO rating for a future timelapse sequence.  Finally, I shot some editorial photos for the now functional bridge in my home village in order to create my final post on this subject.

What I value the most from this visit, is the magic time under the stars near Kapetanakis Castle.  I never really thought about planning it prior to my visit.  I just grabbed my photo bag and went there.  It was supposed to be a night full of falling stars, but I didn't see more than 20-30 that night.  I roughly estimated the Milky-Way's position, framed the castle with the stars and estimated my timelapse duration. I started Magic Lanter in my camera and tried to enter the numbers for shutter speed, timelapse duration and number of seconds before the next shot, but I forgot that Silent pictures only work in specific shutter speed range and that I must also add the exposure time to the number of seconds before the next stop, so I spent some time trying to figure this out in complete darkness!  Setting up the powerbank converter, the powerbank itself and cables was easy and I kept shooting for about 4-5 hours until the moon started rising and flooded the sky with light.

If you don't know some of the terms I am using here, let me explain:

- Magic Lantern: Camera firmware working along with Canon's firmware, doing extra stuff

- Full Resolution Silent Pictures: DNG photos without shutter actuations (ideal for timelapse sequencies)

- Intervallometer: "Take one shot every xx seconds for xxxx shots"

- Powerbank-to-battery convertor: Powerbank connected to camera instead of camera's battery, lasts waaaaay longer than camera's battery

I had not seen the photos at the time this was written, nor had I pre-processed them.  There was a lot of work to be done after the summer was over and I was not so sure if this was worth the trouble, or if I am even doing this for myself.  Shutterstock appears to have taken a major hit and we contributors are facing 2 main issues: Our photos are being stolen from right into their servers and we are receiving very low revenue.  We see our photos everywhere, many have been stolen and it seems nothing can be done right now.  Alamy is also taking a hit and there is also no revenue from there.  I see many good photos everywhere for free and I am seeing myself spending much time trying to repair my own photos from dust particles because of my dust-hungry camera sensor.  Magazines and newspapers don't buy photos as frequently as they used to and there is less activity than the previous years even though my portfolio is increasing month by month.

Photography has played a major role in my life, but is also taking too much time from it.  I can't imagine myself without a camera somewhere in my bags, but no real revenue means no upgrades, no tests, no new investments and something has to change before I get tired of trying to catch up with  new technology.

 
Even Lightroom has changed  its scheme and will go strictly online and only by subscription, so I am looking for other solutions for my photo development.  I still have the urge to travel, climb mountains and go to new locations, even though money is always an issue in the middle of this economic crisis.  After all, this is one of the few things in my life that makes me feel really alive.