Lack of time is one of the most popular excuses we all give ‘if only I had enough time to do A, B or C”. I’m no different, I use the same argument, but we also all know the truth. It is not an issue with time or lack of it, it’s about the decisions we make, choosing one thing over another (sometimes even unconsciously).
For me it is essential to find time for photography, preferably taking pictures of people although animals and great landscapes can do the job, too. It keeps my body in balance and my head sane. Some people have to run, some people have to write and some people need to construct stuff, to keep them going. And it is very important that we find time to do this, schedule an hour a day for your passion, or keep Saturday mornings clear of any other commitments to work on your passion.
Take my last week for example, after working till 9pm on Friday, the last thing I wanted to do is wake up at 7am on Saturday and go across the city to do an early morning photo shoot and scout for locations. It would have been so much nicer to sleep in and do nothing, but I made a promise to other people involved in the project that I will come, so there was no way out. Sometimes you have to trick your own brain to do stuff, but boy was I happy that I had a productive Saturday, feeding my passion for photography.
Time is never an issue, its what we do with it.
Posts Tagged 'Photography'
Finding time
Published May 29, 2011 Photography Leave a CommentTags: finding time, passion, photo shoot, Photography, sydney
Hobbit land
Published January 3, 2011 Photography , Travel 4 CommentsTags: albatross, dolphins, fishing, landscape, nature, new zealand, Photography, Travel, trip rtw
As most of you may know, a little known movie “The Lord of the Rings” was shot in New Zealand, and for a good reason. Hobbit land is indeed full of serene vistas and amazing wildlife. It’s every hikers/bikers/cyclists dream come true, rough and painfully beautiful terrain with first class amenities along the way.
I would not come all the way to New Zealand to bungee jump or skydive as those are not unique experiences for this place ( I can bungee jump in my grandma’s garden), but I would definitely come to see and experience first hand all the unique landscapes and animals surrounding this island. During my short visit I still managed to do several beautiful mountain hikes and bike rides, tickle dolphins, catch a fish or two, feed an albatross, wake up a lazy seal, sunburn my nose (twice, as NZ sits under gaping ozone hole, no pic, too scary), await New Year by the ocean at 25C and eat the biggest Christmas ham ever, among other things.
Here is full set of pics from New Zealand, I’ve changed some of the photo retouching approach, to try and do justice and bring the landscapes more alive, hope it works. Happy 2011, by the way!
They said Yes
Published August 13, 2010 Life , Photography Leave a CommentTags: 9 years, friends, latvia, Photography, Travel, wedding
It only took 9 years and several attempts, but finally they did it, they said yes.
I was lucky enough to be part of it. In the lovely Latvian countryside, we ate lots of meet, drunk vodka and listened to smooth songs from the 70ties, yes, nice it was. I even took some pictures here and there, the full set can be seen here.
Food porn
Published March 28, 2010 Photography Leave a CommentTags: close up, food, macro, Photography, porn, studio
I love food and I love… photography. Here in UK we have advanced commercial photography category called food porn. Close up macro shots of dripping ice cream on steaming hot apple pie, slicing of juicy turkey fillet and so on, you get the idea. Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and other stores often use these shots in ads to emphasize the premiumness/quality of ingredients. There is even official Wikipedia entry on this subject.
I’ve dipped my toes in this field as well, with few themed shots and bemused models. The truth is, making food look good is bloody hard, much harder than getting the dress or handbag look nice, but the results are well worth the effort. I’m looking to expand my food porn collection so suggestions and ideas on food to feature next are welcome:) May be something with eggs considering that Easter is coming…
As-Salamu Alaykum
Published March 17, 2010 Travel 2 CommentsTags: beirut, damascus, jordan, lebanon, middle east, Photography, syria, Travel
Or ‘Peace be upon you’ in Arabic, one of the few phrases I’ve learnt in the last few days whist travelling around Syria, Lebanon and now Jordan. It’s been hectic last 5 days and I think I’ve set a new personal record of not using internet for a whole 5 days, can you imagine. Unfortunately this hotel in Amman had wi-fi so I could not resist.
So what I’ve been up to in the last few days. Hanging out with local Syrians in Damascus, who play flamenco and speak with American accent. Chatting to Palestinian refugee in amazing Ummayad Mosque, Damascus. He was very friendly indeed, but when he started showing violent video clips on his mobile phone and call on fighting the aggressor (i.e. Israel) I thought it’s time to leave, not about to solve this conflict. Roman ruins in Baalbak (Lebanon) are amazing and definitely worth a day trip from Beirut. Talking about Beirut, it’s a crazy city, and totally not what I expected, with little historical sites kept, giving way to glass and concrete towers. Beirut contrasts highly with the rest of Middle east, with high prices (coffee costs £3-4), rude people and dead quiet down town with only military in sight (banning you to take photos). Syria and Jordan on the other hand have have blown me away, people are extremely friendly, centuries old houses are plenty full and prices are good even for my penny pincher standards.
Next stop is the Dead sea, the lowest point on earth, and Petra, where Indiana Jones chased the bad guys. Egh, it’s good to travel.
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:)
India in pictures
Published January 13, 2010 Photography , Travel Leave a CommentTags: delhi, india, kerala, Photography, pictures, Travel
After two weeks with no laptop (my old one was dying a slow death for a while), I finally got a new one couple days ago and have spend last few evenings retouching and selecting images from India trip. I have to confess that I hoped the set would be stronger than it turned out, but that’s life, will need to work harder next time. Hope you all are having a good time and grim weather outside, well, remains outside.
Full set of pictures from India can be seen here.
Tooth
Published October 5, 2009 Life 1 CommentTags: Life, loss, lucky, Photography, therapist, tooth
Last week I lost a tooth, ok, not the whole tooth, but a big chunk of one sucker. Imagine, I probably had it in my mouth for a good quarter of a century and then one day its gone. I normally do not get attached to things and let go easily, but this little fella stuck to me, I carry it around in little plastic bag, its my lucky tooth. Trust me, it’s totally normal, a lot of people do that, that’s what my therapist says at least.
Will You Marry Me?
Published September 1, 2009 Photography Leave a CommentTags: hackney, london, merry me, Photography, wedding
It was not me who asked this question, but it was asked, trust me. Last weekend I had a chance to attend a wedding in London, Hackney to be precise. It’s a rarity, by my very precise calculations, 85% of 7.7 million people living in London are not from London, or in other words, very few people that we meet along the way actually grew up in London. If you’re not Polish or French, you are likely to have come from Derbyshire, Cheshire or Lancashire, and now living in London, because that’s where you find jobs, or at least were able to find one up to 9 months ago. As a result, very few weddings actually take place in London. So here you have it, nice little insight about this immigrant city of London.
Ok, back to the main event, the reason I’m mentioning this in my blog is that I was asked to contribute some of my time, capturing the event on photos. The pressure was off, as I was not the main photographer and thus nobody was paying attention to me. As a result I had great time watching from the sidelines the event evolve, capturing some interesting moments along the way. Great natural light, plenora of photogenic people and laid back atmosphere made this event a bomb. I’m not a wedding fan, but this indeed was fun.
If you would like to see more photos from the day, click here.
Travel nightmares and related stuff
Published July 25, 2009 Travel Leave a CommentTags: nightmares, Photography, top 5, Travel
Porto train station
Today, whilst sitting on the bus 468 from Croydon to Camberwell (1h30min in place of usual 45min), and enjoying the usual pleasantries from my fellow passengers (exchange of racial abuse between granny and drunken father of 3), I recalled the sweet memories of other great travel moments from my past journeys. Here is my top 5.
Heathrow T5 (2009)
What could be more important in business trip than certainty and reliability, after all that’s why we pay such premiums for business travel. Not so if you’re going to Heathrow, on the way back from T5 it took 1h45min to central London due to road congestion. What is the point of building £4.3 billion terminal 5 if it is still linked to the horrors of M25 motorway.
Lesson: never use taxi when going to/from Heathrow
London to Tokyo (2008)
I never expected 12h flight from London to Tokyo be an easy ride. Catching flu 2 days before did not help, I boarded the flight with 39.5C temperature, shivers and muscle ache, and was surprised to be let in by lovely Japanese boarder guards, as I looked like death on arrival. To sweeten the journey even more, both of my bank cards were blocked when I tried to use the Airport ATM. Thank god the Internet and Skype. 2 days in bed, lots of sleep and vitamin C and I finally managed to enjoy the great Tokyo city.
Lesson: when flu hits you, stay put.
Riga to London (2005)
Arriving in London with only £600 in the pocket, no job or place to live was a little bit adventurous. It all ended well, got into Uni to do MA and found a job, but would not do it again.
Lesson: Do a little bit of research before you decide to relocate to another country.
Riga to Paris (2001)
When you are 19 and penniless student, trip to Paris might seem like a great idea, even if its 5000km round trip across Europe on the bus. That was before the Ryanair and EasyJet days and plane ticket cost £300 (my monthly salary back then). To top it off, I foolishly agreed to sit together with my 6ft4in friend (I’m 6ft5in).
Lesson: do not take a bus to Paris, the long journey on the road may look glamorous in movies, but believe me, it’s not.
Frankfurt to Riga (2000)
Waiting at one end of the station (confident on departure stop) for my 1766km bus ride from Frankfurt to Riga whilst bus departed from the other end, probably is my favourite travel mishap. This silly mistake I am putting down to my lack of travel experience back then, or was it the party from night before.
Lesson: know your stop
