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Bikes and traffic signs
I noticed that when I’m strolling along streets with a camera in my hand, I’m often attracted by traffic signs and bikes left on the streets. I often feel tempted into capturing them but actually just a few of them make it into my photo archives. In the photo above, the traffic sign is not the most important part of the photo but it complements the scene beautifully. I loved the complementary colours and simplicity of the view. I often feel foolish when taking a photo like this because I expect that nobody would find it interesting but I’m getting better at managing my feelings because this is what I…
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Inspiration or plagiarism?
There are so many photographs nowadays, you can’t avoid seeing many of them. And if you are a photographer, you can’t avoid being influenced by many of them. Also, many photographers recommend other photographers to study photos of renowned photographers as well as photos which attract their attention. To learn the craft, to find out what captivates them and to get inspired. Some even go as far as recommending others to reproduce the ideas or even the scenes to learn in that way. As a result, both knowingly and unknowingly we use the ideas, scenes, compositions, etc. in our own photographs. We need to learn the basics, the principles and…
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One plus additional
The November theme of my 12-month photo project was defined as ONE PLUS ADDITIONAL which was meant to be a photo accompanied and complemented by a few other related photos. The main photo had to be taken in November, all the photos taken this year could be used as the complementary photos. There were actually more ways of how to interpret this assignment so after having created several sets I decided to choose just those strictly satisfying the conditions. For example, I excluded a set of five observation towers… The photo I took in November was the largest in the set but it was not the main photo, it was just…
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Contrast
It is the last day of October today and according to the rules of my 12-month photo project I am supposed to publish 3 to 5 photos that I took throughout the month based on the theme of the month, which this time was CONTRAST. Up to now, I always posted five photos, today I have just the minimum, the three, but I’m happy to have them actually. My hubby has been enormously busy these weeks and to make it worse, I fell ill and stayed at home for more than two weeks which didn’t leave me with many options. Eventually I decided to use the last few days I had…
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Means of transport
It’s the last day of the month today and I’m here to present the five final photos I selected from those I’ve taken for the September theme of my 12-month photo project, which was MEANS OF TRANSPORT. No. 1: Bicycles I took this photo in front of a shop where several great-looking bicycles were displayed to tempt prospective buyers. The circles attracted my attention and for me, the detail beat the whole. No. 2: Car and beetle People have their cars decorated in many more or less interesting ways, don’t they? I loved that beetle and its metallic lustre as soon as I saw it, I was happy to have my…
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Pleasures and pains of editing photographs
The process of editing photographs can be pleasant and fulfilling but it can also be confusing and even intimidating. At least that is my experience and I want to talk about it today. Not to make the reading too dry, I’ll add a few of my before/after images. The before images are unprocessed RAW versions just transferred to JPEGs. Let’s make it clear from the beginning that for the purpose of this post, by editing I don’t mean adding textures, creating composites or making any major changes to the photograph’s contents (except for cropping and minor healing or cloning), just adjustment of light, saturation, contrast, white balance, etc. My first…
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Rudbeckia counterbalance
On Monday, a new school year started here which meant that last week I spent quite a few hours by shopping. Everything the school asked to get for lessons such as exercise books and pencils, watercolours and brushes, but also clothes and shoes as my 13 year old son is growing almost in front of my eyes these weeks. That clothes part was the most exhausting because although he is of average build, it was not easy to get trousers for him thanks to the current slim and skinny fashion. So much wasted time when looking for something suitable… One day when we came home from such shopping, I went…
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Sundial and other clocks
Time measuring devices, that was the theme of my 12-month photo project that I tried to fulfil in August and that my five finalists represent today. I have to admit that although the theme seemed to be simple at first, it was another challenge. Clocks of all kinds tend to shine and reflect their surroundings, their numerals look soft, and they are often placed quite high. Also, I wanted the clocks to be the feature of the photos, yet at the same time to be just part of them, part of the whole. As much as it may sound contradictory, I believe that in this way the photos would better tell their…
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Expressed in Black and White
Do you like b&w photography? Do you create b&w photographs yourself? I have to admit that fulfilling the theme of b&w photography which I had assigned to July in my 12-month photo project was a real challenge to me. Black & white images can be really powerful and can both express and arouse profound feelings and thoughts but my experience in creating them has been very limited. Actually, I had never taken a photo with the aim of creating a b&w image before, I just tried and transformed a few of my photos when the b&w transformation seemed much more expressive than the coloured version. When a friend of mine asked…
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In motion
June is drawing to its end so here I am with five final photos that I’ve taken and selected to represent the theme IN MOTION assigned to June in my 12-month photo project. There are surely many ways how to capture motion in a photo. You need to freeze the action and yet make it obvious and to achieve that, you can choose from several effects. You can opt for having everything sharp. You can have the background sharp and blur the moving object or just the moving part of the object. You can have the object sharp and blur the background. You can blur everything. You can use zooming or…
