Goodies galore

Soon enough it's going to be exam season again, which, from my standpoint, can only mean more blog maintenance, since it's such a noble cause for which to procrastinate. And during my many recent travels throughout "I'll start studying tomorrow. I swear!" - land, I've discovered some very yummy treats for my many, many readers (enter the cricket sound). And when I say treats, I mean neither sugary goodies, nor doggy biscuits. What I did, however, find is a couple of truly inspiring photography blogs and/or online galleries, and what a sight for sore eyes they are, which is why I thought I'd share. So without further ado...

• Perspective Images - This is the online gallery of photographer Will Williams, which is so far my personal favorite among my recent findings, and on which I must've spent around two or three hours simply because I couldn't stop clicking that darned "Previous" button. As the title description succinctly mentions, the theme is "Travel and Nature Photography", but this seems somewhat generic to do it any justice. I suppose that what I most love about the style of these photos is the clean, elegant simplicity and the impression you get that each and every item, from an entire mountain to a speck of dust, has its exact place, making for some flawlessly balanced photos (in my humble opinion, obviously). And then, of course, there's those charming black and white Holga photos, that may very well be my favorite from the whole package.

• John Marquess Photography - I've found this to be a gallery equally impressive, though in an entirely different style. As with the previous gallery, this also consists mainly of landscape photography, but where "Perspective Images" is about serene, almost Zen-like photos with zero clutter, these are all about motion and dramatic contrast, with plenty of raging waves, dark cloudy skies, both mostly in black and white, making for a much more intense viewing experience. Of course, that's not to say that all images fall within this specific category. There's also a number of considerably calmer ones, either in natural color, or in a very charming old photo tone, vignette included. All in all, a spectacular portfolio.

That's it for now (actually there's more, but I can't even remember the last time I wrote a post this long, if ever, and I have my lazy writer reputation to think of), so I'll be back next time I don't feel like doing homework.

Jingle bells, Batman smells, Sylvester laid an egg...

Being in much higher spirits than the last time I dropped by, and actually quite jolly, I'll take the opportunity to wish the merriest of Christmases to whomever finds a moment to visit this place on this lovely day.

On the other hand... On any other day, I'd be delighted to be paid a visit, but it is Christmas, and you should have better things to do than to sit at your computer and StumbleUpon anonymous blogs.

Either way, have the jolliest of holidays, however you wish to spend it! Having said that, and if you'll excuse me, I'll now proceed to nibble on yet another gingerbread cookie dipped in wine. Yummy!

Jaded...

Despite finally being on holiday, after two or three weeks where my life just seemed like one giant homework, I'm still finding it a bit hard to enjoy the Christmas cheer that goes with the season. I was in a profoundly jolly "if I were to put in my two weeks' notice tomorrow, would anyone give a rat's behind?" sort of mood earlier today, so I suppose I should be thankful I'm now in that slightly more cheerful state of numbness where you manage to drop a sock into the turtle tank and find it mildly amusing.

Normally, I'd dismiss that sort of thing saying nobody wanted to hear about that, but my turtle glared at me as if wanting to express how deeply un-amusing he found the incident. It was probably at that point that it occurred to me how I still was yet to offer him center stage in my strange little corner of online space. It seemed like a good way to make up for the sock incident and all...



So that would be Mitica, in all his algae-prone, thermometer killing splendor.

In other news, the stickers I was talking about last time I dropped by are printed and all nice and shiny and ready to vandalize buses and park benches all over town.

Critiques and news galore

Once again, I find myself apologizing for having fallen off the face of the Earth. And again, due to homework, exams, and all that. Soon enough I shall begin to sound like a broken record.

But now that I'm back here (eventually), we might as well get down to business. In this week's news... I've been getting some new critique, mainly on the soap-bubble photo and the wire photographer (Note to self: Do start naming your photographs). And sadly, I don't really know what to make of it, considering how mixed the opinions were. Some liked them with great enthusiasm - even amusement, in the case of "the photographer", some found them bland, uninspiring, and downright bad. So either I'm smack in the middle of the fuzzy line between sublime and ridiculous, or one "side of the fence" is biased - "which one?" being the million dollar question here. Which brings us to a bit of a dilemma. Although I can't help but agree with some of the points made (on "soap-bubbles", for instance - too much noise, the bubbles should have been actual bubbles, instead of light trails), I wouldn't go so far as to name either of the two photos "pointless", and they have been named so. But then again, I would be the very definition of "biased" in this situation, so I suppose I'll just have to wait for the scales to tip in one direction or the other.

And now, having concluded this week's equivalent of handing over one's report card to one's parents, I'll proceed to the "In other news" section.
So in other news...

A couple of days ago I received my first actual post comment. Which - being proof that some are kind enough to stop and read for a second, and not just hit the StumbleUpon button again - naturally caused a most childishly giddy reaction in yours truly. Reaction that I will refrain from describing, for the sake of my dignity.

Also in other news, I've been spending the little spare time I've had lately, on designing some stickers to promote this place. Once I've come up with a draft I'm happy with, I'll shamelessly resort to sticking these around town - hopefully, not so shamelessly that it'll be called vandalizing public property. I should find some charitable and morally impeccable soul to drag around with me, just for the occasional reality check. But more on that in next week's "other news".

And last, but simply not least, I have just yesterday received a darling little present that I'm really excited about, in the shape and size of an ant farm. Which can only mean that over the course of the following couple of weeks or so, one will have the opportunity to observe a dorky little person with a big camera around her neck, going around chasing ants and slapping "home-brewed" stickers on ant hills. Twist my arm hard enough and I might even let you know how that turned out.

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.

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.

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?

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...