Chucky Being Mischievous

The Wind Was Exceptionally Strong Today...

Also, the dogs now have their own Google+ page with a steady stream of photos.

Yin & Yang

I think this random photo (by Thereza) captures the different natures of my two dogs rather well...

Before You Die, You See... Hanka

Zebra

Back from Japan

I'm back from my (fifth!) Japan trip which went a little bit differently than I expected. You can read more about it (in Czech) here.



This time, we (me and two other people) visited different Japanese cities, including Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Saga (where my friend's wedding took place), Osaka, Kyoto and the amazing Naoshima "art island". The photographs can be seen here.

A Walk Through Osaka

These photos were taken several hours ago, while strolling through Osaka, "the anti-Tokyo".

While the other guys went to explore the seedier city life, I fired up the Gimp and mutilated my pictures:



Coincidentally, if you live in Osaka, Kyoto or Tokyo and would like to show me some interesting stuff during the following days, don't hesitate to contact me.

Testing, testing…

This is a test post from the official Blogger app for Android.

Today in pictures

P.S: I didn't have sex with anyone / anything in these pictures. And yet, it was a good day.

Whole Lotta Light Fun

For those dark moments with dogs, I got myself Philips Imageo TableLights. I like them a lot. Other photos are in this photoset.



(I only got 2 of them and photographed them between two large mirrors.)

And here is the self-explanatory video about how they work. After charging, they last for about 12 hours.



They still got them at Alza.cz...

Albert's New Friend

Chucky is The Silk Spectre!

This is a follow-up to Albert's previous appearance.

Must be some destructive mutation...?

Albert imitating Jim Carrey:



From today's frolicking in the snow...

I Pity The Foolish King Arthur

We spent the New Year's Eve in scary cottage near the Austrian border and we visited a bizarre complex called Excalibur City.

Excalibur City is located exactly at the border of Austria and Czech Republic, the reason probably being that you can pay smaller taxes here, no duties or whatever.



It looks like some demented hellish post-apocalyptic nighmarish version of Disneyland / U.S. mega mall. See my photos and more photos on their homepage.



It's evident that whoever built this monstrosity had lots of money but zero taste. There is an airplane restaurant (boasting that Niki Lauda once visited it), imitation of Planet Hollywood globe (without any Planet Hollywood type restaurant nearby), medieval restaurant, lots of super discount shops and an Asian marketplace with Asian-styled wall around it. 10% of the shops are Duty Free type shops (as seen on airports), the remaining 90% are selling unbelievable crap (mostly Vietnamese knockoffs of Chinese knockoffs). There are also some "entertainment options" for kids and adults alike, most of which look very scary or don't work at all.

Amazing.

Panasonic Lumix GF1 Camera

This is Albert, the Zen master:



I bought myself Panasonic Lumix GF1 camera (with small pancake lens) which - at least to me - is a breakthrough piece of hardware. It shoots almost as well as DSLR, however it's very compact (slightly larger than Canon Powershot G series including the lens). That means I can carry it with me fairly easily in the belt pouch wherever I go and use it for guerrilla-style photography (i.e. "shoot lots of trash, pick 5% of interesting stuff from it"). I just have to find the right pouch, the current one is too big.

GF1 is fairly expensive but the quality of images is noticeably better than the best digital compacts (I had Canon Powershot G10 until now). For example the above photo is very small crop from large image, basically pixel-per-pixel resolution. And that's not even RAW, just plain old JPEG on full automatic. The level of detail is excellent and exposures are much shorter meaning there is less blur.

Tokyo: Still Crazy!

I'm back from Tokyo (for the fourth time)! You know the drill: The photos (about 900 of them) are here. There are also some videos on Youtube (more to come).



Maybe this time I'll finally write something longer. Or not...

Photo Story: What Really Happened Here?!?

Three pictures must be worth at least 3000 words...

Face to Face

Chucky and an Asian cook are eyeing each other with suspicion... (Click for large)

Bow Down, Heathens!

Skoda Felicia: More Than Meets The Eye

Now my car finally gets the respect it deserves.