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Still life in an old hammer mill
While looking for photos for my project Technical last year, I came across quite a few interesting places I might not have visited otherwise, such as this nook in an old hammer mill in Dobřív. I love the contrast of the two ways of processing this still life photo, that dreamy imaginary on the left and the reminiscence of the old times on the right. What a different world many of us live in nowadays…
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Hydroelectric power station
Last year I started a photo project I call “Technical” and one of the places I visited when looking for interesting technical views was an old hydroelectric power station “Čeňkova Pila” in Šumava mountains. It is not used anymore but you can visit it and have a look at its Francis turbine to admire the technical work. As a visitor without special rights you usually have quite limited options when taking photos. I wish I could have had more time for extracting interesting details and I wish I could have used a tripod because there was little light and I had to shoot with ISO values climbing to the stars……
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Free to have a vision
Sometimes we see or understand things that others do not recognize but we are afraid to share our vision not to be laughed at or misunderstood. And if we muster the courage to share and do not get any positive feedback or encouragement as our vision may not be interesting enough for those around us, we may feel to be let down or not appreciated. But that does not change a thing about the fact that the freedom to have a vision and follow it is still there. Follow your visions. They may not be always breath-taking but they will let you grow…
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Birdhouses
Sometimes life is full of colours… …and sometimes it’s void of them… …but it’s always open to possibilities and creativity. Two weeks ago I visited the town Příbram and came across this interesting set of three birdhouses. They were situated quite high and behind a fence so I didn’t have much possibilities for finding the best angle for capturing them but I tried my best to get the gist of the scenery. I edited the photo but was not happy about the result. So I edited it more, highlighting the birdhouses, dodging and burning, adding textures to the background and deploying blend modes. I liked that result much more, I…
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Build up when creating your art
I make the same mistake all over on my photography path. I always want and almost expect to get my camera out, take a photo and be a witness to how great an image I created. Stupid, right? It happens here and there that the first photo is good, sometimes better than the following ones but much more often I need to start somewhere, immerse myself in the photography mood and build up. The same applies to editing. I edit a photo or two and don’t like any of that, but the process may give me an idea for editing an absolutely different photo. Like in case of this lawn…
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Bezděkov
Today I am sharing some of my photos from Bezděkov, the town I had assigned to December in my photo project for 2018. I selected 35 photos again, as in the previous months. Bezděkov is a small town with about 930 inhabitants. There is a castle from 18th century there but unfortunately, it is quite dilapidated, and also it is inaccessible as it is placed inside private premises. There was not much obviously captivating to be captured in the town so it was a challenge to get the photos I came for but along the way I managed to find some images to be taken home. You might ask why this town when…
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Lovely monster
As a photographer, I’ve learned one really important thing about taking photographs. Use your brain and think about what you want to photograph but also listen to your guts what they tell you. Here and there it happens to me that I notice something and feel the charge right away but I don’t see the result. I used to dismiss such perceptions… Don’t do that, go where it speaks to you no matter how commonplace it may seem, and pay attention. An old agricultural building that spoke to me when passing it in a car brought me to creating the image below. I love it and I’m happy I seized…
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In black and white
It’s spring, right? Birds are singing, first flowers are showing their beauty, some trees and bushes are coming into buds. And yet my photos for this week are black and white and I love their colourless but thoughtful stories. I took both of them on Sunday during our photo walk in Chudenice, it’s my hubby and me, or more precisely my hubby and my shadow. I’ve experienced quite a few changes since the beginning of this year. I’ve bought a new camera (moved from Canon to Nikon and to a bit higher level of the camera so I have a lot to learn), started to exercise regularly on our stationary…
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Fire engine and Rabí
On Saturday my hubby and I went on a photo walk, despite quite unfavourable weather forecast. You never really know what the weather will be like in two hours in a location far enough from where you start and we rather wanted to give the photographing a chance than stay at home and regret what we might have missed. Well, I can tell you that the weather was bad enough at the destination we headed for and arrived at after almost an hour of driving. The temperature was just below the freezing point but the wind was chilly and then it started drizzling persistently so taking photos was rather a…
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Heart-related
Valentine’s Day is a feast imported to the Czech Republic especially based on commercial reasons and is not celebrated by many. At least I don’t know anyone in my circle of family, friends, acquaintances and colleagues who would celebrate it… There is no local tradition connected with it and also, romance doesn’t seem to be a popular word here, rather something to sneer at. I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day either but it inspired me yesterday when I was thinking about a topic for a post. Here are a few heart-related photos I took on various occasions and haven’t shared yet. No. 1: Window This is a detail of a little…