Aleksanteri, Fuengirola: Grave Adventures and Flashy Facts

Simple HDR picture with improvised stand

Sometimes I get this urge to go around and just start taking photos of different places. Sometimes these adventures don't end up being such safe trips but as long as you use your brains everything should be OK. I have played around a bit with HDR pics, but since I didn't have a stand it was quite an adventure trying to figure a improvised stand out your surroundings. During daytime its of course more easy since improvised stands aren't as stable as you would like and longer shutter time also means longer bracketing time on your camera.

Also using HDR for newspaper print might seem a waste but actually I tried this out with good results. We had a special number in Fuengirola.fi newspaper. It concentrated on death in the land of the sun and sea and how it should be handled if it happens to concern you or your relatives. That way I got a task to take photos out of this local graveyard.

A HDR picture where I tested different perspective and approach.

This time we went together with my workmate to this graveyard. Normally we do our separate gigs on our own but he was quite interested to see this graveyard on his own eyes as well. I have to admit that having him around substantially improved the quality of pictures I took of the place. There was really no hurry so I decided to test some techniques he used.


There's a great deal that can be said about the beauty of these local graves in comparison to our simple gravestones back in Finland. Even the entrance was so magnificent, I thought for a half a heartbeat that we were on accident in front of some luxury hotel. My workmate said as much as that.

Mikko Rasila in his newly opened Bar Mask

As much as I like to make HDR pictures, it is not always possible to do so. It is almost impossible to create one out facial expressions. Faces have way too many muscles and twitches to stay same during the bracketing time. I remember that I have tried it before, but even if I could get it to work, it would require a good model or an actor of sorts.

Speaking of actors we were interviewing Mikko Rasila in his newly opened Bar Mask, here in Fuengirola. It was a perfect time testing out stuff I've learned about using flash and changing perspective when photoshooting. I noticed that mister Rasila had these still moments on his most of the time so I managed to take this picture with following settings.
F5.0
1/15
iso100

Normally I would never risk taking a photo with so slow shutter time, but this man was an exception in many graceful manner. The original picture is really sharp as well even it can't be seen from this internet version.

Of course it took me few mishaps to realize basic facts about flash. Simple things like effect of aperture to flash power was something I've never really thought of before. Only when I tried to get a sharp mountain to the background with small aperture, it became painfully clear that flash had near to no effect when I tried to add some light his face on the following picture.

Psychologist P. Sveins treks on mountains on his spare time.

Of course I could add a lot of pictures, what I've taken so far in here but I prefer telling about my progress as well with the pictures I've taken so far. If a teacher of mine contacts me and tells me to do so, of course I am obliged to do as told.