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Behind the mask
The other day I was passing a parked car and was rather startled by a smiling face with empty eyes “sitting” inside the car. When having looked properly, I found out it was just a mask attached to the front headrest. I was delighted to have my camera at hand and took a photo or two. It’s an image that makes you think, isn’t it? I used to believe that wearing a mask is wrong, that it’s just a form of a lie. Yet I understand today that a mask may not only hide a hideous face but may also protect a fragile face and who I am to criticise…
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Pink hen and flowers
A few weeks ago, when I was thinking about what kind of photos I would like to focus on this year, I was thinking about returning to still life and its creativity. A few days ago, when I was thinking about spring and Easter, I was thinking about creating something playful and joyful and yet a bit serious. So here is my little playful yet thoughtful still-life variation featuring a figure of a hen I bought once as a prop. – In a whirl of events – – Waiting for a decision – – Devoted – – Lost in thought on a sunny day – – Lost in expectation –
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Be fearless
Do you pay attention to what words or ideas people can read on your clothes? I love T-shirts of many kinds but I dismissed many of them just because of what was written on their front or back, even though I loved their design. Last week I bought a T-shirt in an Orsay shop. They had it in two variants – one with short sleeves and an image of an owl without any words, the other one with semi-long sleeves and an image of the same owl, but this time with the words BE FEARLESS. I prefer short sleeves to semi-long ones but the words accentuated the image so much…
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(In)appropriate
My mother used to tell me that underwear is not to be seen on a washing line and taught me to hang it behind other clothes so that it was hidden. It stuck to my mind so firmly that even after all those years I follow this rule and would feel quite uncomfortable if I had to do otherwise. The rule also made me hesitant about sharing the photo above that I took during one of our photo walks. I love the morning light shining through the laundry and find the image relating a humble story about us humans, despite the inappropriate pants. Or is it the other way around…
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Unexpected meeting
It happened a few days ago. There were many people standing in that place talking to one another. Like in a party or exhibition opening. I was present there too, watching the event I knew nothing about, when suddenly I recognised a face amid all the unknown people that was smiling happily at me. It was the face of my father. I came toward him and we embraced, joy radiating from both of us. Then my father started to dance with me slowly and we were turning around among the people. After a while I realised we were dancing a foot or two above the ground and I woke up.…
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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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Along that road
I walked along that road. It was winding through the forest up and down, up and down. After some time I arrived at a crossroads where I found out that I was on the right road but was going in the wrong direction. I realised that there were some indications telling me I was going in the wrong direction but I was ignoring them deliberately. I didn’t care, for whatever reason. At the crossroads, I could not ignore the facts any more and needed to decide whether to go further and make a long detour with unsure ending or admit the mistake and go back. I had my son with…
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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 word for the year and walk in the village
Since 2014, I’ve been choosing my word for the year to be my guide and companion teaching me to grow in some regard. As I’ve explained in my previous posts, I don’t look consciously for the word, it always emerges from somewhere deep inside. This year it wasn’t different. On Christmas Eve I attended a mass and the priest concluded his sermon with an extract from Pope Francis’ Christmas reflection. I don’t like when such extracts are read during sermons, they often sound incomprehensible for ordinary me, but this time the extract ended with thoughts where joy was mentioned among others. When the mass was over, I saw the word “joy” in…
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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…
