Hey folks, long time no see. I have not posted for almost two weeks, but the reason is very simple: I’ve been super busy prepping for my first proper photo exhibition coming up in the first week of August. Some of you got the invites already, some of you are 15000 km away so getting here would be rather tricky, but never the less, so far it’s been a very exciting process.
Finding the right gallery, selecting what to put up from over 25’000 photos taken, deciding how to print (matte or gloss, border on no border) and how to frame (glass, wood, foam board, clip board, pegs, anything I could think of) etc.
2 months to go and I think I’m in a good place. TAP gallery has been booked, final 100 photos have been selected, will print majority as A4 and 20 best ones on A2, to really get the impact. Finish will be matte and presented on quality foam boards to allow for various framing options, quite happy with the decision, but if you believe I’m making a terrible mistake and you have a better suggestion, please let me know, as stuff has not been printed yet.
Forgot about the final teeny weeny thing, I finally have a hefty budget estimate of 2000 dollars, what it will cost me to put up this show, so any suggestions on potential sponsors and partners that could help cover the costs are very welcome! Have a few ideas lined up already, but the more the merrier, wish me luck and for those who will be in Sydney in August, please do come down to TAP Gallery and say Hi!
Posts Tagged 'photo'
Preparing for the exhibition
Published May 24, 2012 Life , Photography 1 CommentTags: Travel, Photography, photo, exhibition, sydney, tap gallery, 100 countries under 30
My favourite lens
Published February 23, 2010 Photography 1 CommentTags: 50mm, favourite, lens, nikon, photo, Photography
Is Nikon 50mm prime. Why, you may ask (or not). Because it’s cheap, it’s fast, it’s light and it delivers amazing results. If you are into photography, here’s a bit more detail on each of those points, if not, feel free to skip this and watch some TED talks instead, great way to kill some time by actually learning something new.
By ‘cheap’ I mean cost involved compared to buying professional photo lenses, that deliver comparable results. 50mm lens comes at a bargain £100 a pop. You might say it’s expensive, but it is officially the cheapest Nikon branded lens in production and costs just 1/10th of what most other lenses would cost, yes you read it right, pro lenses easily go over £1000 a piece, and some are worth equivalent of a new car.
Now to the next point – ‘fast’, with f1.8 aperture, it allows you to get great shoots in low light conditions, like at dawn, just before the sun goes down, or indoors. I hate flash and this is great lens for all the flash haters out there.
It’s lightweight indeed, weighing just 155g, meaning that you can take it anywhere, significantly increasing the changes of getting that shot, especially when travelling.
As for results, well, it’s everyones personal judgement, but I consistently get great images with this lens, whilst some more expensive siblings do not always deliver. Collage above is just the selection of shots I’ve taken with this lens recently.
P.S. This is not a paid article from Nikon guys, I’m just a big fan of the product so happy to spread the word:)
2 feet of snow, empty wallet and smile on my face
Published February 11, 2010 Life , Travel 1 CommentTags: city break, cold, ice, norway, oslo, photo, Travel, winter
That’s how I feel about my latest trip to Oslo in Norway. First things first, there was snow, lots of it, probably not the whole two feet, but certainly close. Well, not really a surprise considering that its a Nordic country in February, only painful reminder that unlike in London, life does not stop there after it snows, the trains still run on time, people still go to work and children still (go to McDonald’s) play outside. To fully embrace the winter feeling, we even went to the newly opened Ice Bar, where you are given Inuit outfit and put in the freezer for 45 minutes. Inside of it everything is from ice, including glasses, but not the waitress. Her’s short sneak peak on video I took. Recommended as a one off, but not really worth a return visit.
Besides pumping oil, selling salmon and treating everyone equally, Norway is also well known for its high cost of living, that we experienced in full. Anyone fancy £4 tram ride, £7 wine glass and £20 lasagna? Prices in Oslo were pretty much double that of London, and London is not known for being cheap.
The goodness of people does not stop to amaze me. My latest hero is Ilze, good friend of mine living near Oslo. I had not seen her for years, but she made the best welcome possible. She took us around town, up the hill for panoramic views and down under to Thai bar that has thunder storms (don’t ask). We also had a great time at her bar Diva, which is in nearby city Drammen where Ilze lives. The signature cocktail ‘Asian rose’ was delicious.
Full set of pictures from Oslo trip can be seen here.
p.s. some of my work is also exhibited in Ilzes bar:)
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Taste of Balkans
Published September 29, 2009 Travel Leave a CommentTags: Balkans, belgrade, city, kosovo, photo, sarajevo, Travel
I recently returned from 2 week trip around Balkan countries, mostly ex-Yugoslavia. I’ve posted some updates during the trip (with no photos). So here are some more nooks and crannies from this adventure as well as links to some pictures.
In 14 days I managed to squeeze in 7 official countries and one almost country (Kosovo). Starting in Ljubljana I linked to Zagreb, then Belgrade, down to Kosovo, Skopje, followed with nightmare ride to Tirana (read post ‘Sprinter’). From there I went along the coast of Montenegro, then Sarajevo and back to Zagreb. If you look on the map its a nice little round trip. No one would advise to do all this in two weeks (including me), I could have easily spent those two weeks in any of the lovely Balkan country. But I saw this trip as a quick intro to the region, sniffing the Balkan air, and that, believe me, I did in full.
Sarajevo and its bullet holes was really interesting experience. Bosnia historically has had as bad luck as Baltics, but its great to see that Sarajevo has bounced back into action, erasing most (not all) scars from the 90`s. The same goes for Belgrade. When talking to Serbs I see a lot in common with Russians, from another ‘ex-super power’ state that have not yet fully accepted the reality of 21st century. Most people are extremely nice in Serbia, at the same time I had this thought in the back of my had that the same people who are now walking the dogs in the park and leisurely drinking coffee, just 15 years ago the same people took to the guns and all but annihilated their closest neighbours.
This picture of punched up mannequin describes Kosovo really well. Despite some smart outfits and shiny cars, it still has lots of restoration to do to establish the basics.
I’d like to add that my trip was not all doom and gloom, I had some nice chilled days by the cost of Montenegro, which is just as good as South of France, the same Mediterranean sun and sea, only cheaper.
As for Croatia and Slovenia, yes, they are really nice, but just so dull, it could be anywhere in Western Europe, with plenty of smart cafes and tourists in white pleated shorts. I rather choose Kosovo.
Here’s a link to full set of pictures from the Balkan trip.
Dancing in the Dark
Published September 5, 2009 Photography 1 CommentTags: athlete, dance, london, movement, photo, photoshoot, studio
One of my favourite forms of photography is dance, especially modern dance. It can be highly choreographed, or simple and impulsive, but capturing the body movement is amazing experience. Dance models are far cry from fashion models, almost exact opposite, the antidote to stillness and emotionless form of typical fashion photography. Emotions over make up, impulse over posture.
Here I’ve included couple of pics from my favorite dance shoots I’ve done. First one at the top is the wonderful Iranian girl Ghamzeh, that I’ve worked on couple of occasions. She’s always full of energy, fired up and ready to go.
Next one is Chez, she’s actually an athlete (as you can tell) not a dancer, but her moves go down to dance in my classification.
Then there’s Luke, great guy who was not too confident initially but the more we worked the more he relaxed and showed some great little tricks from urban dance.
And finally Clare from Laban dance school showing off some classical ballet poses.
New York, New York
Published August 21, 2009 Travel 1 CommentTags: blues, harlem, new york, photo, Travel, usa
First time I visited US, I had a warm welcome. First thing I heard on the US soil was immigration officer shouting in my face “Move aside, this queue is for US citizens ONLY”. It was back in summer of 2001, right before 9/11. I mean it right before, when I was sitting under twin towers and took pictures on my crappy film camera, it was the last day of August. 10 days later, back in Latvia, with my newly developed pictures in hand, I was watching live CNN feed with twin towers going down. I’ve just spent 3 months living careless life deep in the countryside of Michigan, 3 hour drive from Chicago, with the closest half decent city being Kalamazoo, 1h drive away. Our highlight of the week was driving to Wallmart to get some cold beers and off to the lake. After spending such purposeful 3 months of my youth, I had decided to save some money and stay the last week in New York. Good choice. It was well worth it. Somehow I managed to arrange free accommodation in warehouse apartment in the heart of Manhattan, with investment bankers family, who’s brother I got to know through the summer camp. That summer in America was a lot of firsts to me: first long haul flight, first taste of Korean Gui, first whitewater rafting, first road trip down to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, first lost luggage by United Airlines, first raccoon stuck in rubbish bin, first proper travel that got me hooked ever since.
Next time I visited US was for New Years of 2008 in New York. Second time around I had no issues with immigration. It was much more relaxed trip, with no pressure to tick monuments off the list, just enjoying the vibe of the great city and people watching. I caught myself constantly comparing NY with London, the two great megapolis, who has better transport system, who has cooler bar scene, what is cheap and what is not. But the highlight of the trip has to be New Years eve in Harlem, that was unplanned but turned out to be amazing. Against (un)common sense to join the rest of New York on Time Square for the countdown, I chose to visit Spanish/Argentinian house party that was set up by sister of my Spanish friend from London. We awaited the countdown in the flat just off 125th St, but shortly after midnight we headed off to small and well known blues bar where live music was supposed to be. And sure it was, miraculously we found seats at the front table and next few hours I spent 2 feet away from amazing blues man and woman, jamming tune after tune non stop. It was surreal feeling as except our little group everyone else was over 60 and seemed to know each other. New people kept on coming on this tiny little makeshift stage, sing couple of tunes, play something and the next one would come on. It felt like watching some music documentary on BBC4, but just in real life.
Full set of pictures from the second trip can be seen here.
Love Walk
Published August 9, 2009 Photography 4 CommentsTags: funny, london, love, names, photo, strange, street, walk
Have you ever thought who comes up with the street names? It must be one of the most fun professions I can think of. You go to the party and someone asks you “so what do you do for a living”, and you say “I come up with the street names”, booyah…touchdown!
Take one of the busiest London traffic ring roads – Elephant & Castle, or Little Britain street (near Barbican). Mr. Google says that London County Council comes up with the new street names. Who would have thought that you can work for a local council and have the coolest job in the world, ok second coolest after that bloke looking after paradise island near Australia.
My personal favorite discovery is Love walk, just 5min from my house, with nice little garden houses and alleyway, not sure what the council man was thinking of when he came up with this one. Bird in the Bush road in Clapham is not bad either.
Pancakes and Oranges
Published August 6, 2009 Travel Leave a CommentTags: africa, Marrakesh, morocco, photo, Travel
Back in Nov 2006 I went with some friends to Morocco.
We started off in Marrakesh staying in nice little Riada, near old town. Freshly baked pancakes and orange juice were included (little did I know that’s all I’ll be eating for next week or so). Some people say the highlight of Marrakesh is the market scene, for me it was the nightly food stalls in central square, along with hustlers and snake charmers. Food was plenty, cheap and tasty, which I can not say about the rest of Morocco.
After Marrakesh we went off to Atlas mountains, few hours bus ride away. It was a great few day hike, with donkey (for backpacks and food, not my lazy ass) and guide. Some mountain villages we visited were most remote I’ve ever seen, it felt like being thrown back for a century. Our €5 a night village guest room was four brick walls, with no windows, just holes, no water, heating etc. Temperature at night fell close to 0C, but never the less, it was a great experience, you start to appreciate the hot shower and WiFi at home a lot more.
After Atlas mountains we headed towards the ocean, Essaouira. Air was damp and everything smelt of the sea. Men in double breasted suits and big-ol sunglasses were strolling down the shoreline.
In a sense, Morocco is prime example of capitalism in action – nothing comes for free, everything is business. You ask for directions and the old men will try to sell you something. You take a picture of a woman going to market and she’ll ask you to pay for that ‘opportunity’. And don’t forget the haggling, you haggle for everything. Overall, interesting experience, but not my cup of tea.
Full photo set from Morocco can be seen here.
Long weekend in Porto
Published August 2, 2009 Travel Leave a CommentTags: city break, long, photo, porto, portugal, Travel, weekend
Ohhh, Porto, the little gem of Portugal, where the wine is cheap, the food is tasty, the weather is nice and people are friendly. Add excellent public transport system, and cheap connecting flights to London, and it has ticked all the boxes. Perfect weekend getaway.
Breakfast for two €4.75, big glass of Port wine in restaurant €2, espresso €55c, metro ticket to airport €1.45, sounds like paradise to me.
Full photo set from Porto can be seen here.
