Michael Kastl Photography

Tag: travel

  • Thierry Neuville


    Thierry Neuville
    SS 5 – Kefalari 1
    Acropolis Rallye of Greece 2013

  • Evgeny Novikov


    Evgeny Novikov
    SS 12 – Loutraki 1
    Acropolis Rallye of Greece 2013

  • Back to Athens


    The last weekend was one I was waiting for since months. After 2006, 2007 and 2008 this year is the year I would visit the Rallye of Gods, the Acropolis Rallye of Greece again. I’m still speechless. It was great fun and I will post more photos in the next days.
    The photo was taken aboard an Airbus A321 enroute to Athens while flying over Albania.
    (photo and editing by using an iPhone 4S) 

  • Griffith Observatory Panorama

    This picture is pretty much similar to the previous one and it is not this kind of photographs I usually do. But sometimes you have to look over the fence and try other things. This is a panorama shot taken at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. I made 7 pictures with a Tamron 11-18mm lens at 18mm and stitched them afterwards.

     

    You can see the whole Los Angeles Basin from Downtown L.A. on the left till Century City and Santa Monica behind on the right as well as the Pacific Ocean. Also note the Hollywood sign on the far right. A city of an unbelievable size (and I thought Mexico City was big).

     

    I did these photographs a few weeks after Apple has released iOS 6 which brought a panorama function to the iPhone 4S and newer and even it was a few weeks out, you could here this remarkable “beep” of the iPhone’s panorama function everywhere around the observatory. Other phones have a similar function, but when I was there it seemed like everyone was using an iPhone.

     

    So what did I do? I just took the iPhone as well and made panorama photo by using the new function. If you want to see the comparision between a panorama of 7 raw shots where an iMac Core Duo needed several minutes to stitch it and a panorama, taken on a mobile device and ready to use immediately after releasing the shutter – then click here…
    (iPhone on top)

  • City of Angels

    Finally I managed to continue my work on the pictures I took in Los Angeles in November last year…
    Unfortunately I was at the wrong time at Griffith park. Around noon with bad daylight conditions. Just imagine how this photo would look like if I had done it shortly after sunset. Anyway, one more reason to come back one day.
    I really like the field of view from this point: Downtown L.A. on the left hand side and a view to Orange County and Santa Ana mountains on the horizon, Long Beach on the horizon in the middle and the Pacific coastline in the haze on the far right side.

  • A piece from home

    I still have some pictures from California… This one was taken at the eastern dome of the Griffith Observatory. The Telescope as well as the planetrium’s projector are made by Carl Zeiss. It is always nice to see a connection to your hometown – regardless of where you are in the world.

  • It never rains in southern California

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    Made this one on the way to the office. This was the only rainy day during the week in southern California. I really like the outcome of this snapshot. Taken on Barranca Parkway in Irvine, CA.

  • Mount Lee

    Standing in front of the Griffith Observatory, which is sitting on the south-facing slope of Mt. Hollywood, and having a look in north western direction to Mount Lee and the famous Hollywood sign on its southern slope.
    As ugly as some parts of L.A. are, Griffith Park seems to be a nice place to spend time. More time than I had on this trip.

  • Solar System

    These are the orbits of the inner planets in the Solar Sytem Lawn Model in front of the Griffith Observatory.
    More information: Griffith Observatory website

  • 2012 Travel Review

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    Before continuing with more shots from southern California I just would take the opportunity to wrap up my 2012 travel experience. According to my Flightdiary I spend 3.5 days aboard airplanes in 2012. Only 2 flights more than the year before but with 6 longhaul flights and more than 40k miles I have earned the Frequent Traveller status from Lufthansa. I think I will not take any benefit from this as the express lines are unuseful when having a 2.5 hours trip to get to the airport. You have to calculate with extra time so you will always have enough time at the airport. But I really like the package I got from Lufthansa. On the last flights with them I had the feeling that as an Economy passenger you have to be grateful to be allowed to join this flight.
    The silver card comes in a clean white box together with personal luggage badges and a stylisch paper clip. Nothing special but I really like the minimalistic and clean look of the package.

    Allthough I’m employed directly in California now, I don’t believe to spend a similar amount of time aboard airplanes in 2013.