I am a bad person

I must be. How often can you hear a normal, decent person say they single-handedly reduced to silence a highly frequented forum thread of one hundred and forty-six pages, with one post? I should take note and refrain from having my critique requests unleash further death and destruction upon the world.

Then again, at times, I briefly think to myself that maybe my photos were so inspiring, that everyone was too much in awe basking in their glow, to actually reply. Because I'm confident, like that.

No matter, the show must go on. (I feel I've said that somewhere before. Either that, or I'm suffering from deja-vu syndrome, which sounds so glamorous, I couldn't help but see a silver lining in it all.)

Fearful as I may be of the consequences, I dare present to you my latest weapon of mass forum destruction...



As you may suspect, this was also taken sometime this summer, and I hate my then self with a vengeance for being in a warm sunny place, with glorious mountains to gaze upon and not a care in the world. I also hate my future self for being not just cold, but at the very least snowed upon.

However, it has come to my attention that I am beginning to make less and less sense, which can only be a clear indication of the fact that I am now too sleepy to be coherent. I shall now bid you good night, before I start quoting limericks in a shakespearean tongue.

Facing my Nemesis

I'll start by saying that I've always had somewhat of a phobia of taking portraits, mostly because I was never quite sure what to do with my subject, and I suppose on some level, because I'm also not much of a people person.

But then again, my grandpappy used to say - or someone else's, I forget - that one should try everything at least once. And I, being the good granddaughter that I am, now find myself facing what has turned out to be my greatest fear as far as photography is concerned.

The result...



Should one find oneself wondering about the nature of the funny looking light streaks - wonder no more, they are soap bubbles. And no, I am not five years old. I dare you to claim otherwise.

Milestones, statistics and critiques, oh my!

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and what a fine morning it is! The sun is shining gleefully in the sky, birds are singing perched up in the trees, and the joyful presence of unique visitor number one hundred was bestowed last night upon my humble little corner of the Internet. Joy to the world, I have an audience! Gosh, I suppose I'd better watch what I say from now on.

And we now return to our regularly scheduled program. Today's happens to include critique report for Sunrise. It was generally well liked, mostly due to the colors and the framing, and basically the only thing people seemed to find wrong with it (or at least would comment on) was its lack of sharpness. And now the more I look at it, the more I tend to agree.

Someone once told me - and I'm starting to think this is the best photography advice I've ever received - that the final result is all that counts. No one cares if I had to do a somersault or stand on my head to take a particular photo and nobody is going to cut me any slack if it's still a bad photo.

So far from it that I'm saying this as an excuse rather than a simple explanation, but no, I didn't have a tripod and it was also a little too chilly for comfort. It's actually quite a funny story - I did technically own one, only it was a present and I wasn't going to receive it until a couple of days later. C'est la vie... There's always the next photo.

Anyway, despite the generally positive critique, none of those who commented were overly vocal about it, which confirms my original suspicion that my Sunrise falls within the category of "close, but no cigar". I suppose that's a critique in itself and a very constructive one at that.

Back to school

Remember when I told you about my epiphany that maybe I could figure out just what makes a good photograph tick, if only I'd start by taking a good long look at each gear? No? Well it may have been something along those lines.

Whatever the case may be, my lesson for today deals with texture. Case in study - small waves on seawater...



As with all others that are going to take their place in this category, this is a photo with no point or meaning whatsoever, but that I found appropriate for the subject in discussion and good for future reference. I suppose what I found attractive about it in the first place when I decided to point my camera, was the elaborate play of light being reflected and refracted over and over, making for an almost psychedelic and surreal look when taken from context. But that was just me.

Having concluded our lesson for today, I'll end with a "class dismissed" I'm sure you're all looking forward to.

The triumphant return...

...Exactly how triumphant we shall see after the exam results are posted.

Yes, my darling audience (do I have such a thing?), I return humble and apologetic after having gone A.W.O.L. for the past few days, due to circumstances beyond my control. Homework and exams, to be precise. Not that I would right now be in the clear, but I reserve myself the luxury of not working on Friday evening.

Have I brought any goodies, you ask? Hard to say, considering my camera is more or less in a state of hibernation these days, but fear not, I shall make up for it yet. In the meantime, I allow myself another moment to reminisce about my lovely lovely vacation this summer. And after all, what better defines a novice photographer's portfolio than the mandatory cliche sunrise/sunset?



Consider this my two cents on the matter, and accept my sincerest apologies. It won't happen again.

Photography 101

I've decided to start a series of so-called studies - photographs that aren't intended as complete works in themselves, but rather bitesized bits of research into isolated aspects of photography. As such, these should be viewed as no more than simple exercises with a distinct objective.

And my self-assigned homework for today is going to be...

...drumroll...

A Study In Tone



This photo came to be as a result of sheer boredom and a bad white balance setting, but as a novice, I have made peace with the thought that for now, I'm more likely to do something right by mistake than by intention. This only seemed to confirm the prospect. At any rate, I happened to be somewhat fond of this photo and I figured I'd make the best of it - excessive as it may be, the blue sets a bit of a nostalgic tone that I find rather pleasing. And I have to say I was quite proud of my camera for the distinctiveness of each fiber composing the rope in the close-up part of the photo. But then again, what do I know?

I would (very politely) ask for some feedback from my readers, but as of yet I'm not even sure Google has indexed my humble little corner of the web. For all I know, I could be talking to myself here.

But no matter, the show must go on...
So tune in next week, for a study in texture (or whatever else I may find interesting at the time).

P.S. I keep forgetting to mention this - if you want to, you can click the photo to view it in full size.

Dusting myself off

For the first time since I've decided to post my work up for critique, this morning (or rather last night) I received some very constructive and "to the point" feedback. Since I have a tendency to forget good advice and keep doing things my own wrong way, I'll include it here for future reference. The critique, by the way, was in regards to "The Street", which I posted a little while ago - the one in black and white.

Note to self:

Dear Catalina,

Next time you decide to bump up the contrast to insane levels and discover the "masterpiece" looks good, do make sure your monitor is calibrated - the same goes for color balance. Next piece of advice - everybody becomes annoyed when you stop every 2 minutes to get "just the right shot". That's not going to change, so you might as well have something to show for it - try several angles and frames, wider, tighter, portrait, landscape, so on and so forth.

Best wishes,
Catalina

P.S. Next time you drop by, do remember to add thumbnails for the photos.

You would think I'd be able to figure out things like these on my own. Apparently, I need to be taken by the hand and given the nickle tour over and over until I get it right. C'est la vie...

Oh, and Catalina, honey... water the damn plant once a year, will you?

The Photographer

About time or not, I've decided to try my luck with colors this time. Once again, Photoshop stepped forward as my knight in shining pixels. I still get the distinct feeling that so far I've only been exploring the proverbial tip of the iceberg in terms of its capabilities, but I am working on it.

So without further ado, I give you... The Photographer.



Alright, so I have to admit the idea wasn't entirely mine - inspiration came from Bent Objects. I've been meaning to do something like this for quite a while and since I happened to stumble upon a suitable length of wire (or two), I thought I'd take the opportunity and put it to good use.

As a side note, in case you're wondering - with two certified engineers and one in the making living under one roof, it's not unusual to find things like wire, electric fuses and multimeters lying around the house. Good to know...

What do we have here?

I hadn't initially planned on having this type of posts, but just this once I couldn't resist.

This morning I stumbled upon the online gallery of Michal Chelbin. To my shame, I had never heard of this artist before, but I find his work truly inspiring. I just thought I'd share.

From the top, with feeling

And hello again.

I thought I'd start with - what else - the beginning.
And in the beginning there was... the camera. In my case, and my humble uneducated opinion - a darling little toysie with smarts, named the Olympus SP-560UZ, perfect for the semi-beginner with high aspirations. Or as I have affectionately dubbed it - Wallie. Needless to say, the debate around the name was beautifully surreal.

That having been said, I now give you my first attempt at urban photography...


A little crowded, a little amateur, a little clumsy in postwork. And I hereby dub it "the starting point". The original photo was taken this summer, somewhere in Rethymno, Crete.

I happen to be quite fond of this genre and I suspect there's going to be some hefty amount of further experimentation for me in this area. Then again, I'm in that stage where I feel the need to experiment with pretty much anything, so Lord knows what will catch my eye next.

As a side-note on the postwork, I should say I've worked with Photoshop for some time now, but never with more advanced photo retouching, so I was in for quite a revelation upon discovering its versatility. I know it's immensely tempting at first and I expect to rely heavily on postediting for quite some time, but I am doing my best to move on to a stage where my photos won't need that much tinkering with to just be decent.

So there you have it. I'll be back with more, but sadly, right now I have homework to do. Cheers!

Welcome to my humble abode...

I suppose introductions are in order.

I've never been a big fan of shaking hands and forgetting the name five seconds later, but how can I resist the quirkiness of introducing myself to a practically empty room? So by all means, let us proceed.

I'll start with the part where I let you know that you don't actually need to call me Ishmael, or anything else for that matter. I'll settle for being the nameless goldfish that entertains you from inside his fishbowl. Come say hello every once in a while and feel free to tap on the glass.

As for what tricks I know to keep you amused... I has a camera and I like me some purdy pictures. All for your dissecting pleasure. I'll even let you shoot them down - it's fashionable and you might win a teddy bear.

And let us not forget - there's always the lovely little side show of random, occasional rants and ramblings. As the poet said - one does not suffer from insanity, one enjoys every minute of it. But I'll let you be the judges of that. And I'm getting ahead of myself, no less.

So, mesdames et messieurs, I bid thee good evening...