July 2012
July 31, 2012
I need some inspiration, seriously. I've been in Czech Republic and Slovakia pretty much the entire July. However, hardly any luck in terms of a good photo-material. First day in Prague we were too tired to get anywhere. What's more, the car broke. Next day, there was a family gathering, and I don't think that people while eating are particularly good objects to photograph. Neither is a still-life of a cake (what is then?). On Friday, it was terribly hot and sunny, and at the time the light was supposed to get softer, the clouds got gray and heavy, and later a thunderstorm kicked in. Shooting indoors would be an option, if I had the right lens. On Saturday, Stanko woke up having fever which lasted until the evening, and pretty much the entire day evolved around that. On Sunday, the fever was gone, and we visited the zoo, where tireless Stanko was running around for about 4 hours, and I snapped many candids - but nothing else. On Monday, we took a train to Slovakia.

My brother had plans for a Slovak outdoor/nature vacation, and I thought we could join him. However, he and his girlfriend got a stomach bug at the music festival they visited over the weekend, and were forced to spend the entire vacation next to the bathroom. So, we've met with our family in familiar places, which is nice and fun, but quite boring photo-wise. And going anywhere with my parents means that I don't have an undisturbed moment to concentrate and come up with a good idea for a picture.

So my only hope for these days, it seems, is to pack a backpack and set forth on a trip to somewhat less notorious places, like Tatry. The picture btw is from the hill above my parents' house, where I've been probably a thousand times.

June 2012
July 31, 2012
The films I shot in June are not yet developed, and they won't be until I get back to NYC. However, it's the end of July already, and I'd prefer to keep my postings chronologically orderer. I'm not particularly in love with any digital photo I've shot in June, which were mostly quick snaps. The one I chose is Stanko in the pool of colorful balls. Alison and Murray made a 2nd birthday party for little Nathan, and this was one of the proprieties. Nathan preferred to run around, but Stanko had a lot of fun with those balls.

Update Aug 23rd 2012: I got the analog photos today. Hence I replaced the original photo with the following two: The first displays some art happening in East Village, the latter one is the famous Brighton Beach roller coaster in the evening.

On flickr
June 16, 2012
Thomas Hawk, once an avid flickr enthusiast, said that flickr is dead. What he meant is that flickr lost its significance as a social photography platform. Thankfully, that doesn't make flickr dead for me. What is that social photography anyway?

My approach to photography has evolved since the time I joined flickr, as has the approach of my contacts. While at the beginning I was actively seeking social interaction - comments, favs, people adding me as a contact, I've now found my place in a small community, and frankly don't care how many new people come and browse through my memories. It is good enough that flickr allows me and my family to view them in a neat way. So maybe that's what actually happened to more users - after all, flickr has been around for a while, and it's normal that the community has become a bit more mature, and the current network can be characterized by stable clusters rather than by a rapid growth.

Two observations:

1. Growing popularity of analog photography in my contact circle. Since film photos typically cannot be shared real-time, this looks like an antithesis of social photography according to the wikipedia definition. Yep, I too got hooked. Better colors, higher acceptable exposure range, aesthetic grain, archiving options, the moment of surprise, I don't need to continue.
2. I feel overwhelmed by the vast amount of photos I saw, thanks to social media and online sharing. I have such a hard time to feel that I'm doing something original, that I don't even attempt it anymore. It seems that everything worth being photographed has been shot from all possible angles. And shooting a cup of coffee, the mirror reflection of myself, or a random flower just to spit out the daily dose of pictures is imho quite boring.
   Instead of the frequent attempts to be original, I now aim for personal significance. This results in fewer photos taken on average through a given period of time, and my photostream now resembling an old-school family album, mapping vacations and children's milestones. So again, I've drifted away from social photography.

To conclude, flickr still works great for me and my needs. And it has an awesome community of talented photographers who don't superficially overshare. Because you know - flickr is dead, and there are google+, facebook, and instagram for that purpose.

Learning to fly
June 11, 2012
Over a week ago, we adopted a baby sparrow. This is him today. Credit for the audio track: gillicuddy.

What makes a good photo?
June 9, 2012
I'm not quite satisfied with my photos lately. Thus I compiled a few notes for myself:

1. Good light is important but not sufficient, if the scene is boring and there's no vision behind.
2. It helps to let the others have a peek into your personal life but beware of being show-offy. If you are, it may deserve you attention (think celebrities) but not respect.
3. Get out of your home, head to nature at best. It is not only beautiful but there's much more freedom to photograph people than it is in the squeezed city streets. A small person amidst vast landscape somehow makes a powerful statement.
4. Don't shoot random people in the street if there's no personal connection between you and them. It's not artistic, it's boring. Especially the 15th+ picture.
5. Try to have a story behind each photo. In that way, it becomes unique, not just the same picture that everyone else has taken in the same place.
6. Think. Ahead. Being spontaneous is often rewarding but if you are at least a bit familiar with the photoshoot circumstances, it helps to spend a while thinking what picture would you like to bring home. It's less likely that you'll get a great idea afterwards, while lying in the bed in the evening.
7. Having decent gear helps, especially with landscape photography, but anything really high-end is very secondary to having a great vision.
8. Not sure about photo projects. On one hand, committing to regular photo projects challenges creativity and after all, complies with 6. However, can we really create a memorable moment out of nothing? Probably the best thing would be to make memorable events more frequent in one's life.

Here are a few examples of photos that immediately caught my attention:


anna/marek


Mr Sullivan


eyebex


Kornei


slnka


eros turannos


Bradley Farrish


Katrina Lane

May 2012
June 5, 2012
One of each: Evening at Calamity Pond, Adirondacks (Nikon D90). Evening at Garfield Pl playground, Brooklyn (Nikon N60/Ilford FP4 Plus ISO 125).

April 2012
April 29, 2012
This month was very special. It doesn't happen to me very often - to have so many wonderful opportunities to shoot. We were driving and hiking in the legendary American southwest. The three pictures below feature a) a small canyon we hiked, somewhere between Hanksville and Lake Powell, Utah (Nikon D90), b) resting at Confluence Overlook in Canyonlands, Utah (Nikon N60/Ilford HP5 Plus ISO 400), c) the morning in Monument Valley, Arizona (Nikon N60/Ilford HP5 Plus ISO 400). The reason why I chose them out of the many photos I've taken, is that they seem quite unique to me - not something I have seen in everybody's southwest album. For the rest, check the set on flickr.