Town Hall picspam
20 July 2008 13:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Yesterday was a lovely warm sunny/cloudy summer day, without rain for a change (for this week), and as mum had realised that the Tallinn Town Hall is open for the public in the summer, we decided to go. I've been inside a few times over the years, but she never has.
Click for bigger versions.

Random street artist in front of the Town Hall.

A ring of some sort, in the ceiling of one of the rooms inside. With shadows.

People outside. I love the effect the crown glass window gives - sort of painting-like.

One of the rooms.

The Citizens' Hall, with its painted columns. I've always loved that room.

Staircase (obviously not very old) to the attic.

The attic - one place I'd never been to before, either. I don't think the attic's been open to the public until more recently.

The clock from the inside.

Clock mechanism.

View at the Town Hall Square from the attic window.

The staircase again, looking down.

Vana Toomas, the original weather vane (1530) of the Town Hall.
Off to see Prince Caspian now - have been meaning to go for weeks, but haven't got around to it until now. Not having any huge expectations, so I'm hoping I'll like it - didn't have any expectations for the first Narnia film and ended up being reasonably entertained.
And last but not least:
If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met "in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.
Click for bigger versions.
Random street artist in front of the Town Hall.
A ring of some sort, in the ceiling of one of the rooms inside. With shadows.
People outside. I love the effect the crown glass window gives - sort of painting-like.
One of the rooms.
The Citizens' Hall, with its painted columns. I've always loved that room.
Staircase (obviously not very old) to the attic.
The attic - one place I'd never been to before, either. I don't think the attic's been open to the public until more recently.
The clock from the inside.
Clock mechanism.
View at the Town Hall Square from the attic window.
The staircase again, looking down.
Vana Toomas, the original weather vane (1530) of the Town Hall.
Off to see Prince Caspian now - have been meaning to go for weeks, but haven't got around to it until now. Not having any huge expectations, so I'm hoping I'll like it - didn't have any expectations for the first Narnia film and ended up being reasonably entertained.
And last but not least:
If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met "in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.
no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 10:58 (UTC)I enjoyed Prince Caspian. I would've enjoyed it more without having read the book.
no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 17:42 (UTC)*huggles her Town Hall*
no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 11:19 (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 17:43 (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 12:43 (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 17:44 (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 13:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 17:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 13:28 (UTC)I enjoyed Prince Caspian very much. I hope you do.
no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 17:48 (UTC)I might have, but mum started feeling unwell quite soon, so we ended up having to leave some 45 minutes into it. I wasn't terribly keen on it at that point, but that might have had to do with worrying about how mum was doing - I might pick it up on DVD at some point.
no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 14:29 (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 17:50 (UTC)Having been ruled by Germans for so many centuries did have its good points, yes. ;-)
no subject
Date: 20 July 2008 21:26 (UTC)I should try to learn a bit of photo technique. Some day...
no subject
Date: 21 July 2008 05:00 (UTC)Photo technique... erm, yes. Mine is very simple: see thing, point camera at thing, click. :-D
no subject
Date: 21 July 2008 10:29 (UTC)In that case, may I ask again the type of your camera? I want one like that!
no subject
Date: 21 July 2008 10:43 (UTC)Only when I see that P doesn't work (when it's clear enough on the LCD after taking a picture - too dark, too light or so on), I start thinking about changing anything, but that's needed very very rarely really, only in exceptional circumstances. 99% of time, I let the camera take care of exposure settings (and with my eyesight, I don't even want to think about manual focus, so it's autofocus all the way).
Focusing is ... well, obviously one needs to focus first (with the shutter half-press - I think all modern cameras require a half-press to set focus and exposure first, then full press), but that's about it. And zooming, if one has a zoom lens, but that's part of the "see thing" bit really and not something I think about. :-O
Right, to modify the previous statement: see thing, raise camera to eye, zoom in to the desired view, click. :-D
(As for my current camera - erm, well, I have a few! The compacts work well enough, but the last few sets of pictures are all with the Pentax K20D (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PENTAX_K20D).)
no subject
Date: 21 July 2008 11:23 (UTC)I do need to read the instructions of my compact, but I've always been deterred by the 100 pages of fine print.
*sigh*
no subject
Date: 21 July 2008 11:36 (UTC)Now you do! :-D As for the how - the half-press tells the camera to take care of that, so that really is how it's done. (Immediate full press should sort of work for most cameras, but means that it will take more time and the camera might not have a chance to get either the focus or the exposure right, so even if you can do it, it's not really recommendable.)
The thing with most modern compacts is that there isn't really much to do for the user, even if it has manual setting options - they won't make much difference and in the great majority of cases, the camera will have picked the optimal settings anyway (and if the result sucks, it's because the camera has reached the extent of its capability - for example, there just isn't enough light, or the contrast in the scene is too high for the sensor to cope).
IMHO, the only useful things to know with compacts would be where and how (and why) to change the ISO (sensitivity - the less light there is, the higher the ISO needs to be, but for compacts, high ISO means pictures with a lot of "noise" and mushy details), and where, how and when to change the white balance (auto is good enough for natural light most of the time, but it's sometimes helpful to change it indoors, when the light comes from tungsten or fluorescent lamps, or the colours will be very off).
no subject
Date: 21 July 2008 12:09 (UTC)Thank you so much! I hope I'll be able to show you the results of my enlightenment!
no subject
Date: 21 July 2008 12:37 (UTC)The rest have completely useless higher ISO - anything over ISO 400 is just lousy, but indoors one really needs a good ISO 1600, which compacts can't provide (their sensors are too small). The only real option is to use flash, but ... again, compacts not that good, as flash range isn't too great (so you get the subject washed out by the direct flash while the background goes all black).
It's worth trying and experimenting, but quite honestly, I wouldn't expect really decent photos indoors from a compact camera - there's only so much one can do. (The only way to get good pictures indoors with a compact is to use a tripod and long exposure times, but that only tends to work for interiors or immobile things, not people.) In general, it's either to use flash and accept that the results are what they are, or to get a DSLR with a low-light capable lens and/or an external flash.
no subject
Date: 22 July 2008 02:07 (UTC)no subject
Date: 22 July 2008 05:14 (UTC)I wish I had the energy (and proper desire) to actually put some effort into learning something about this stuff. I know the basics, but generally don't bother thinking about settings and just let the camera take care of everything.