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Permission to photograph
On Sunday my hubby and I visited Horšovský Týn, the town we assigned to February in our photo project. It was a cold but sunny day and provided for a great photo walk. We enjoyed it thoroughly but three times we ran into a situation we had to deal with which I would like to discuss here. The first situation happened when I was walking along a street and came to a passage leading to a yard. I loved the light showing there! There was an open door in the passage and I heard music playing and people talking and it sounded as if a group of people was enjoying…
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My photo project for 2018
Last year my hubby and I were striving to fulfil a 12-month photo project with a theme (such as buildings, people, contrast, etc.) defined for each month. When the project was nearing its end, we both wanted to continue together somehow and started discussions about how to do that. Of course, we could just come up with new themes and continue in the same way this year but it didn’t seem attractive any more, we longed for a change. After a few heated but eventually constructive debates we agreed on an assignment interesting and inspiring for both of us so here is the project we would like to work on…
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Captured in three different ways
December will end tomorrow so here I am with the final photos that I’ve taken and selected to represent the theme A THING OR SCENE CAPTURED IN THREE DIFFERENT WAYS assigned to this month in my 12-month photo project. The aim of this theme was to look at the objects and scenes that we photograph from different angles, perspective or distance to realise there is more than one way how to see and capture them. I decided to arrange the final trios into horizontal triptychs to visualise the differences, here they are. No. 1: Door If I am not mistaken, this door leads to a café but I had different thoughts to deal…
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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…
