Only ten minutes left until the turn of the year. I stand, together with a few friends, something away from the crowds and admire the world famous ferris wheel at Vienna. It is not very cold for this season. In fact, I have never experienced such a warm New Year in Europe. I do not even wear gloves, let alone a cap. But I carry a brightly flashing and singing cheap camera for kids with me.
A "top secret" place only professional photographers know
To shoot good photos, you should always go where the professional photographers set up their expensive equipment. This always happens at top secret places that are only known by the professionals. Some of these people are already there. They unwrap lenses that cost more than I earn each month.
I harvest distrustful glimpses. How the hell can he know about our top secret photo location? I could have told them that the "top-secret" location is onto estimated 20,000 photo blogs, and that Google does not need half a second to present it as a search result. But I let it be. Instead, I start taking pictures with my brightly flashing and singing cheap camera. And let me unsolicited mark as a bloody beginner.
The absolutely perfect way to photograph fireworks
In addition to a good location, you also need the perfect time to make a really good photo of a fireworks display. With a brightly flashing and singing cheap camera it is impossible to photograph single rockets. But when the big show starts and the whole sky shines bright, you can shoot good pictures without a tripod - even with a brightly flashing and singing cheap children's camera.
My brightly flashing and singing cheap camera exposed 1/15 seconds, chose the aperture f / 3.5 and ISO value 1600
Here we have 1/5 seconds exposure, aperture f / 5.6 and ISO value 1600
Of course the professional mob did not want to know anything about my photos. These people punished me with snooty ignorance.
A trip to the city of the dead
Vienna has much more to offer. For example, a huge labyrinth crammed with skeletons, just below the city. I find it a little irreverent to photograph the victims of the plague with a colorfully flashing camera, which also plays a happy little song. But somehow I had to find out how my brightly flashing and singing cheap children's camera works at low light and darkness.
These are deadly 1/25 seconds exposure, aperture f / 5.2 and ISO value 1600
Very skillfully my brightly flashing and singing cheap camera used the flashlight of a photographer standing next to me, who worked with a Nikon D7000 with flash attached. Even with this picture, only the right time was crucial.
In the realm of wild animals
Finally, I ventured into the most difficult and demanding field of photography: Exotic animals, if possible in the wild. We drove to the Vienna Zoo, which belongs to Schönbrunn Palace. There they have lots of big cats, elephants and other exotic creatures. The trick is to remove all elements from the image that look like zoo enclosures. For example, fences, tourists, bare walls and the like. I first tried my luck with a bird in an outdoor enclosure:
Just FYI: Exposure: 1/250 seconds, Aperture f / 5.6 and ISO value 1000
The animal was probably deaf. I expected the bird to fly up in alarm as my camera began to flash wildly and make funny music. Instead, it simply opened its beak and made a cooing noise.
The big cats from Asia and Africa did not like the cold outside. They preferred to stay in a building. Only a pane of glass, which, of course, reflected heavily and was marred by the fingerprints of countless childrens, separated me from tigers and leopards. I took out my brightly flashing and singing cheap children's camera and made some pictures.
Inside the building my brightly flashing and singing cheap camera selected 1/10 seconds exposure, aperture f / 5.1 and ISO value 1600
A wild beast, created with 1/50 seconds exposure, aperture f / 4.9 and ISO value 1600 by a really weird brightly flashing and singing cheap camera
Here it was impossible to completely remove the enclosure. At least not without Photoshop. The tiger became a little bit restless when I disturbed it with my brightly flashing and singing cheap camera while eating. I do not want to know what would have happened without glass between us ...