Richard Vanek - Black and White Photography

Even in March nobody was interested in free print, I have decided to go on and offer free print for April. You can find it in my shop.
Soon I will be opening new eBay store. You may check that out as well in case you are interested to purchase some print from me.

I remember walk with my grandfather. He died long time ago I was still a small boy. I remember him walking in long dark coat with hat. He was holding me in his left hand and cigarette in right one. He always walked very slowly, enjoying Sunday free time. he worked hard and he smoked hard and a lot as well. on our Sunday walk we passed a lot of lamp post like this one.

So finally I made Testimonials page where I am showing all testimonials and feedback I have got and will get about my work by people who purchased prints from me. You can find there link to the print which was purchased, testimonial itself and sometimes also photo how my photo is placed.

I made link to this from main menu bar on top of each page. List of recent images was moved to the front page under current image and was removed from top page menu bar. I believe this way it is better.

Is it any good? Should I take it? How do I look? May I buy it?...... Sure honey, no problem...

Yep, do not laugh. Please don't :-) I have no other way. I am using IMatch software for managing my images. I need it. I have huge collection over 25000 images all of them in this database.

As you may know I am preparing to open eBay store. I made selection of images and now I need to get all prepared images on my computer from CDs where I burned them after years ago. There is a lot of variants for the same image and different types as well. If I would just switching CDs I would have to put same CD maybe multiple types as I come to different images. I needed to make some automatization.
So I have written VB script for IMatch which goes through all images I have selected for eBay store. Find out on which CD they are. Than it only tells me to insert necessary CD in order from lowest index to highest. Very handy. After few minutes I have all images on HD and can work further.
I was working on this script for two evenings and it is now working. It was nice again to code and design a bit. Even I hate visual basic :-) You know I have over 20 years of software design experience and I just loved C++. My last work was in java and still doing some php. I like them as well. Especially for easy way to make what is needed (php) or nice logic behind java.

So that what was keeping me busy for last two evenings. I am looking to time when this eBay store will be running and I can do again something more photography oriented :-)

Cesky Krumlov, South of Czech Republic, 2006

This is amazing view on castle in Cesky Krumlov, which you can see after you park your car under the city. Cesky Krumlov is beautiful city in south part of Czech Republic. This image was exposed in summer of 2006.

I was away for few days. Traveling for business and having other issues which keeps me out of Internet. I am back now. I have plans to develop some films I exposed in last weeks and also add new photographs to my new store.richard-vanek.eu

I must say I like this one from all three shots I made on this place. Exposed in town called Cesky Krumlov in south of Czech Republic, summer 2006

I have just open my eBay store as a alternative place where you can purchase my prints. Please take a look and if you find something which is not correct or you think I can improve it, please let me know. I really appreciate it!

How hot it can be, in summer day. Everything you feel more intense. Grass, ground, trees, all smells more. Than you try to slide down, but the metal is burning hot. So you sit on it and you wait until your skin adjust. And that you go!

Fine Art Black And White Prints from Richard Vanek - qsell

do not cross $34.97 Frozen morning over Lokca $20.97 Horse $10.47 School brushes $34.97 Tourists from Japan $20.97 Wooden sticks $20.97

I guess this will be one of the last steps I do for this time. I placed rather nice scrolling advertisement for my eBay store on my other web site www.richard-vanek.eu. I may do the same in some smaller version on this site as well. I will see. I really need to get some back. I have invested quite some money in it.

And really, I promise I will bring some new shots soon :-) I miss it myself. And you know what? I have idea for small project and I feel that is a way to go for me. To have little and time limited project. Create few prints (3-7) out of it. I feel that as very inspiring.

I have feeling that viewfinder of my Nikon F100 needs some cleaning. The contrast is not the best in it and I feel it is bit DIM. So I wrote e-mail to Nikon Service point in The Netherlands. They reply very fast and even in English. (I do speak Dutch, but writing is still a bit problem for me).
On my surprise, they seems to not read my email. So I explain again what I like to do and they again answer in short time. But again I have feeling like they do not want to do anything for me, even not read my email. Or simple they just did not understand. I am attaching our email conversation. But I have no idea what should I do. Any suggestions?
Maybe I simply need to find some other Nikon F100 around and compare the viewfinders.

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richo:
Dear Sir, please excuse me writing in English, but my written Dutch skill are not on necessary level.

I would like to ask you about the price for cleaning my Nikon F100. Especially I have feeling that viewfinder could be improved by cleaning.

I found on your web site only prices for digital cameras.

Thank you for your kind answer.

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Nikon Service:
Dear sir,

We don't have specially prices for cleaning a camera. The website tells you only about cleaning a CCD (sensor) of a digital camera. Why does the camera need to be cleaned?

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richo:
Well I use camera every day and it has already few years and there is dust inside of film chamber, I could clean that myself as I always do, but I have feeling that viewfinder is very cloudy. I believe it needs to be cleaned.

What kind of regular service do you do for F100 SLR?

Thank you for your kind answer

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Nikon Service:
If there are no problems with the F100 there's no need to let it cleaned

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Did you also play your own games, alone? Did you care that it was cold, dark and night? No you didn't you only realize all that when mom voice was looking for you.

I guess you noticed that rotating banner as advertisement for my prints on my eBay store. It is made in JavaScript. I would like to ask you to tell me if it causing any trouble for viewing images or it is in any way annoying.
I have placed it there for simple reason to sell some of my prints as I need some money to buy more film and paper...
In case you like to support my photography and make it easier for me to make next images, you can support me by buying my prints either from my own shop or you can use eBay store and auctions.
Thank you very much if you decide to do so.

I have put some crazy prices on eBay, if you like to have something very cheap take a look.
Frankly I try to get some attention for my eBay store. I have 30% discount there until Sunday.

I wasn't never pretending that. I like to do photography my own way. Today my wife asked me to do some photos on celebration of school anniversary where our kids going. So I took my F100 with 85 lens a flash. I made about ten shots, when battery dies :-( Oh yes.
Yes I didn't check them before I only took camera and two rolls in my pocket.

There was a photographer on the celebration. She was very busy taking a lot of pictures, two cameras around neck, one with long tele zoom the other with wide zoom. In a small break I asked her if she doesn't have four AA batteries. She didn't hesitate. Pull out of a pocket set of four and without a word she handled it to me. She had another two packs of four AA batteries there.
After a show I come to her and return the batteries with words of thanks and apologizing. She was very nice to me. I felt terrible for my mistake, but thanks to her I didn't felt like total idiot.

And this is what I call Professional. She helped me without discussing. She was ready for everything. It doesn't matter what photos you do. Difference is that Pro is ready, Amateur is just surprised.

I have cleaned the glass on viewfinder and checked focus screen as well as mirror. Than I went to the near by place. I visit very nice person who was offering his F100 for sale. I compare my viewfinder with his. I also had a chance to compare it with Nikon D200 and Nikon F5 as he owns them all. Result? Viewfinder of my F100 is perfect and I must admit the main reason why I though it is bit cloudy, was simple dirt and greasy glass covering viewfinder and probably also that I looked at it at night. Comparing D200 viewfinder with F100 just insured me that my F100 has bigger view (expected as different size of sensor/film) and is as clean if not cleaner than D200. D200 has a bit higher contrast and feels to have little warmer color cast. Summary: I proofed myself that my F100 is perfectly in order. Also get experience with Nikon Service and as last it showed me that I need to clean the basics first and than start looking around. I am glad I was able to compare my F100 to other one.

I have more than seventy prints in my eBay store and in few auctions. I think I will stop here for a while until I will sale something. It costs money every month, so I need to get some back first
I had plan to work tomorrow on my prints for exhibition and to make some prints for the gorgeous pass-partout I bought today. It seems I will have no time again. We are heading for family trip.

I wish you good night.

Do you know what did elephant said to the naked man??

"It is cute, but can you really breath through it?"

Cold fingers, warm jacket. Running across the field, from bush to bush. until you have full hands of briers. Your grandma dry them up and later you have great tea. Do you still remember?

I have bought about almost month ago densitometer Xrite from a friend Daniel Staver. It arrived today after it spend 20 days at customs. I find this terrible. They delay your package almost three weeks and you have to pay not only VAT but also fee for handling it. Why? They invented that work why should I pay for it???
Anyway, it is here I hope it is in good condition. I didn't have time to check if after so long transport it is still working.

In case you wonder why I need to have densitometer, well I like to make my prints as perfect as possible so I like to calibrate and setup my chain for making prints as good as I can. This tool will help me to calibrate and setup all the way I can have black as black as possible and tonal scale smooth.

In this month April, I still have all three free prints available, take a look at my web shop and you find all the advantages of ordering my free print of the month
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I have sold another five prints on eBay. Sales seems to going up again.

I was shocked, in April nobody likes to have my free print. I am offering free print also in month May. This time I choose a bit less popular image with hope that maybe that will bring some interest.
I also add about dozen new prints into my shop. And let's not forget there is still my eBay store! I actually had first sale last week from it!

Walking through small streets of village in south of Portugal, I suddenly saw this dog standing on top of the house and looking to me.