Wiesn Girls in dirndl

A girl at Oktoberfest 2011 München (aka Wiesn). Wiesn girl #1

A trademark of Wiesn (the original Oktoberfest) are girls wearing dirndl for showing off their (sometimes remarkable) décolletage also known as cleavage. Dirndl are a traditional dress in Bavaria. It used to be worn by poorer working girls in the past. But more recently, it became rather popular at Oktoberfest because of its figure-hugging qualities. It even appears that the dirndl currently makes new friends all over the world. A fashion trend made in Munich.

So, all of this theoretically provides for ample of photo opportunities like in a giant fashion show. Except that Wiesn is a very crowded party zone and nobody would want to make it easy for you. On the other hand, taking photos is a tolerated sports as long as they are serious and don't show up in the internet without permission (which is why I omitted the face of people I have no permission from). Nevertheless, good décolletage photos are rare (except from prominent people posing to be photographed) and I made a test of what can be achieved.

Equipment wise, I used a Pentax K-5 with the DA* 60-250mm/4 using AF and a Pentax K-x with a DA 15mm/4. I fixed the latter to f/8 and 1.4m manual focus with SR turned off to have sub-second reaction time to take photos in the crowd. No photo bag to keep a low profile. This turned out to be quite a capable combination.

Actually, the girl in the opening image is taken from a video I took with the K-5 at 250mm using manual focus while she walked up the staircase to the Bavaria monument at Wiesn. The manual focus was difficult to maintain (and is not perfect). But I still like the result as a photo I may not have been able to shoot as a still.

Below is this staircase in the background.

Bavaria monument

Below, I'll show impressions from Wiesn 2011. Note that many images are heavily cropped. Also, some post-processing was applied to reduce some hard shadows from the sunny day.

Wiesn girl #2

Wiesn girl #3 (note the cleavage)

Wiesn girls #739.347 to #968.567

Wiesn girl #4 ("Awaiting him while being looked at")

Wiesn girl #5

Wiesn girl #6

Wiesn girl #7

Wiesn girl #8

I'd like to know from any comments if you like the fashion trend at Oktoberfest. It definitely provides for some nice eye catchers. If you have any favourites in this mini series, post a comment. I'd like to know your taste too :)

Thanks for stopping bye and I hope you enjoyed your stay.


Falk

Catwalk in Glockenbach quarter, Munich

On my way back home today, I ran into the preparation for a public catwalk in the streets of Munich. More precisely, Glockenbach quarter which is pretty known for cool events like this.

For the curious: the fashion designer and store owner is Svenja Jander, a cool new designer.

Great, so I grabbed "my" K-7, two limiteds and a flash and hurried back for prime time :)

People having shot catwalks may know that it is harder than it appears. The models run fast, and in this particular case, daylight was already low and artificial light provided was sparse (well, one lamp exactly lighting up the models passing by, for 1/2s maybe ;) ). My fill flash helped a bit, just a bit though. Nevertheless, compared to earlier experience with the K20D, I had a much higher rate of keepers this time. I like to use the DA 40 Ltd. in events like these and today was no exception. Unfortunately, I had no opportunity to mount the 70mm. When I was ready to change subject, the show was over, already :(

I didn't shoot burst and therefore, the higher number of keepers is mainly accounted for by a better and faster autofocus. I was quite pleased except for the fact maybe that I still got out-of-focus shots ;) Seems, the K-7 cannot produce wonders but it was a reliable tool indeed. And if you are wondering if others can produce wonders, here is a comment from a photographer shooting Nikon at the event: "Oh oh, the models ran sooo fast ..." :)

Looking at some of the missed photos again, many have motion blur actually. Despite flash and 1/100 - 1/180s ... If you look at some of the photos below, you can feel the motion, actually.

Another photographer shooting Pentax K20D, K100D, with triggers and big flash lighting box, got a big smile when he saw me and a Pentax in my hands. And he got pretty shocked to read "K-7" printed on it. He had never heard of it! ;)


One more comment about the photos you're going to see below ... They are all (sometimes heavily) processed and/or cropped and (except for one unprocessed original). My aim was not to reproduce what I saw! The photos are not meant for measurbation (if spelled correctly). I present them more as an illustration of what I could artistically achieve with a K-7, a DA40, a Sigma flash and little preparation. Others may do better.


Here you go ...


Nymph
A 100% crop (when clicked) of the photograph above.


A nice walk


Shine, baby shine

(Please, click on the photos for enlargement, select size from the toolbar. Please, respect the copyright.)


If you enjoyed the images, then you may be interested to visit the entire gallery here:

Catwalk Glockenbachviertel Jahnstreet


Enjoy,
Falk

K-7 in the rain

The saturday after fetching my K-7 was a rainy day. I.e., a perfect day to go out and do some test shots! This allowed me to get aquainted to the K-7 more and also enjoy shooting in bad weather conditions.

The K-7 is not only sealed for the worst of weather conditions; but its kit lens(es) is/are too! Needless to say that the K-7 really liked to get wet and for the first time ever, I didn't have any bad emotions seeing it getting wet :)


First impressions:

As noted by many on the web already, it is a real pleasure to hold and handle the K-7. In comparison, the K20D feels older than the core technical data would suggest. It feels solid, almost unbreakable and seems to offer timeless value. Of course, no dSLR can offer this with progress in semiconductor physics being this fast. Nevertheless, the K-7 just feels "right" -- as a serious photographer's tool. I like its size. It is rather small for what it does (smallest APS-C semi-pro body in the industry, look up the technical specs) but does not feel small because of the excellent grip. I could carry it around just holding its grip, for hours ... With its steel magnesium alloy body, it definitely feels solid rather than hollow; giving a nice balance to most lenses.

The first observations jumping to mind are: It does focus fast, it does shoot fast, and it does it in stealth mode (all compared to, e.g., a Pentax K20D or K-m). The shutter and mirror slap are so quick, silent and damped that it one wants to press the shutter in burst mode just for the joy of it (and my girl friend likes it too). Also, the live view (LV) operations are now fast enough to actually be useful. The K-7 is a lot faster to operate though without LV. Of course, for most discrete usage, the constant mirror up during LV, combined with SDM or manual focus, is an added benefit. Unfortunately, the mirror will unlock after a while, in some way or another.

Also, on first inspection, the image quality is very good. With the excellent image quality of the K20D, this is no surprise. I cannot yet tell if it is better or worse, though.

In the next couple of blog postings, I will study a number of details, e.g.:

• Continous autofocus
• Autofocus
• Image resolution
• Noise (when final firmware is out)
• Experience with tethering, both USB and HDMI
• Video
• How to have fun with the camera

In general, I'll try to add to what has been posted already and not repost too much.

For a product description, go here:

• Pentax Imaging's K-7 page


• Pentaxforum's K-7 page


• DP Review's K-7 page

Some more photos in the rain ...
Note: all photos as shown here are post processed. The gallery contains the original images, too.

Black drops

Red drops

Better stay dry

Very green

Unexpected flower

Peace

Please, visit the gallery page to access full size sample images. All original images have been taken with the camera's factory settings, in DNG raw format, and been converted to JPG in Lightroom with standard settings. You may download and print the original files but please note that the photos carry my copyright.

This blog post's gallery page