this place is not dead, yet..

now when winter is just around the corner (this morning we had the first snow!), I thought it would be a good enough reason to share some snaps as a flashback from my summer.

my sister visited Latvia again. just liked their synchronous poses here.

we played hide’n’seek behind the sofa and this is the final shot I got.

On our way to the celebrate the Midsummer’s night, we came across this field of poppies.

one of the rare photos of us together. later that night it turned so it could have been the last.

preparations.

we caught a firefly. saw it first time in my life – the timing was perfect for this night!

[...]

liked the following sequence of shots.

blue sky with(out) meaning.

somewhere in Latgale, just a few moments before it started to rain pretty heavily.

here is a finished image next to RAW file without adjustments. looks so dull because having no Grad ND filters I wanted to capture as much dynamic range in one exposure as possible to later extract two images – one with exposure adjustments for the ground and the other for the sky – and blend them together. it has always been interesting for me to know how starting material looked for others so I thought I’d share mine

before leaving, had to step-in in this badass awesomeness.

on the road home, after the rain this rainbow broke though the clouds.

went fishing with my dad. good times.

the G10!!!!

the sea, now just a few minutes drive from my new home.

certain someone had a birthday, so we decided it’s a good reason to throw the first pizza-party in our new place.

before heating up

and this is the end result.

meet our long awaited and wanted home spirit – Lūsija. or Lucy, in english. it was a love from the first ‘miaow’ : )

cheers.

it has been pretty quiet here lately.. to be precise, there are no more or less than zero frames made this year till mid-Aprils – and this creative gap was getting only wider and wider. everything that could inspire has been taken over by the daily routine where is nothing but wrkwrkwrkwrk. …

luckily, there was an escape out of the loop.. all of a sudden, this little thing fell in my hands: the LOMO LC-A. could not wait to give it a 2nd breath! went down to the local mall to get some rolls – salesman said they hardly sell one bw film roll in entire month nowadays.. so I got the last one what’s left.

<3

decided to start with Kodak Gold 200.

so, good morning beautiful.

aww..

in the end basically there are two controls to take advantage of – focus distance switch ranging  0,8 – 1,5 – 3 – ∞ and ISO scale from 25 till 400. no way to tell what shutter-speed or aperture I am on! guess, for some this way of snapping might seem pretty tempting.

this exposure most likely is accidental.. doubt that I would have been going after it.. nevertheless, find it worth posting.

for the sake of colors.. best tram interior in the city!

I remember after capturing this photo being quite worried if I guessed the focus distance correctly. glad came out spot on!

Master in the process..

kind of nostalgia..

hallo kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty

next, Kodak BW400CN. this one goes together well with the previous shot.

“Find the job abroad.”

zero lats..

this is for Bernhard..

still.. life?

yeh, and your English grammar..

testing out the dynamic range. actually, when I got back the negs from the ‘pro lab’, it seemed like they have been left for birds to shit on while drying..

went out to the sea

cats were all patiently waiting for me to come back

but where’s the fourth?

“if Jesus will come back we will get him down again”

must be the same bird.

and that’s it. more random than before.

in the end I find myself shooting more than ever before. the size of the camera makes it possible to slide it in the pocket and take it with me everywhere. as a result, there are shots that would have never been captured on dslr. sure, I’d like to have more control over the process, quieter shutter, etc.. at least now I know what camera I need/want  ; )

in other news, we finally got in our new apartment. welcome.

it’s hockey time now again – the beer is waiting so I’m signing off.

cheers!!!

so, how’s 2009 to you? to me it sometimes seems like we’re living Prison Break – where everything just gets worse and worse..

but it ain’t that bad yet, is it?

Christmas eve snaps

after a long time, visited grandma again.

went out for some fresh air. I’ve been wondering if in other countries people along with birthdays every year celebrate what we call a ‘name day’? quick search and wikipedia has an answer. Internet is totally awesome!

while something to eat was prepared, I took a chance to snap some winterish lakescape

(apologies to those with slow connection of totally awesome)

heh

new years..

our united choir : )

alright, stay warm – there’re cold times ahead..

this is more like a sign of being alive.. and not that all of a sudden I have any good material to share. actually, lately everything has been so ‘fantastic’ all around that it does not make me want to pick up the camera..

be it as it may, here are a few recent snaps when we had a degustation of some new drinks. the usual boring stuff.

quality, not quantity this time. and, all the process had to be well documented – this *is* a ’serious bussines’ after all!

but to start off, we need something to eat.

and here it is:

choice of the preffered design

and color.. everybody shared the same opinion about the color of the middle drink.. heh

’show me what you think about all this?’

and then it’s all gone!

board games. exciting. yes.

all these pseudo-informative comments between the frames are so.. lame. now, when I have ‘nothing special’ to say to you….

though, this catch is truly nice! the one bellow, of course.

and this is a progress report from a year ago. still in process. should be finished soon..

in other news – to freshen up this place I have played with the design a bit. so leave your RSS reader for a moment and see for yourself.

and, in closing, let’s just say:

best of all is yet to come..

cheers.

Actually, it’s quite difficult these days to find energy (and time) to keep this place alive.. But I try, try, try..

So, how’s summer everybody? It somehow passed unnoticed for me here in Latvia.. Still, wanted to get some of it and escape from everything at least for a few days. I’m sure you know how it feels..

I remember some time ago planning a destination for this summer trip. Tbilisi, Georgia ended up being one of the top possibilities.. Fortunately/unfortunately we did not go there.

As always, final destination was chosen in last minute. Tunisia.

So, here it begins with a view from above. Who needs a fancy dslr when you got a camera in your phone?!

I’m still amazed by the fact that after 3,5 hours it is possible to switch climates and surroundings different  in so many ways.

when we arrived, the sun was going low over the city, and impressed with everything new to me around, I was snapping away like a Japanese (no offence to people from Japan! :)

the feeling was like being in a new world, where people live in other rhythm of life.

good luck!..

next day our mission was to find one of the two shops one is able to get alcohol. It is not sold anywhere else! good thing actually, I suppose because of the fact as one of the factors there is a relatively low crime level.

still can’t figure out what they’re selling there. disposable cameras, iso400?..

after all the walking around we finally found what we were after. vine was nicely priced. year 2006 was almost twice the price as the one we took of yer 2003. though, we could not tell a remarkable difference. lame, I know. way back in taxi, which are also reasonably priced there. the local music added to the atmosphere.

aww1

next day we had to get up early, there was a long road ahead. a morning view.

we stopped at a place that is very much like Coliseum in Rome.

yes, I know,this shot would be more interesting if there was somebody somewhere.

inside it looks like this.

view to left:

straight to the front:

and right:

and backwards:

already feel like been there and seen it all?

let’s go under.. to the basement.

actually, I quite like this frame, the black figure luckily wandered in the frame as a let the shutter go.

and, view from above with plenty of somebodies somewhere this time.

to Gabes.

those reflections I think add up to the snap, did not bother removing them.

there was a train, too.

they hang the meet for everyone to see, so you know you get the real deal when you make an order!

dos these go-by scenes get repetitive (boring)? perhaps for some.,

though, I like this.

the guy spotted the camera, apparently.

at one of oasis.

the guy clapping hands for us

vehicles.

at the caves. people, who live there, believe that at the entrance symbol of hand and a fish protects from a ‘bad eye’

donkey -  a symbol of endurance.

after this photo, clothes had to be changed because of the nice smell : )

backyard

and entrance

and another house, bit further away.

a short midday nap.

the thing gets up at first on back legs and then on front. you got to hold on not to fall down! actually, pretty interesting experience when it happens for the first time!

cockpit view

my ride. the second one.

white camels are the fastest. though, they’re not of great endurance.

next morning had to get up very early again for the purpose to witness ‘the most beautiful sunrise’ over the dry salt lake.

how bout adding some human element to the scene? aka aww2

one star hotel..

we were on the move already, when the sun finally came up. thou, it was not as spectacular as it should have been, because of dull weather

we switched the transport to jeeps to get to the rally track  Paris-Dakar.

people in Tunisia generally are very nice and friendly. as we stopped at the usual tourist-attraction spots, the ones you can meet around those places are like zombies trying to sell you anything. this obtrusion can get pretty tiresome when you are chased for money every two meters. but I can understand their position somehow – the tourist comes here just once and will never come back, probably, so they must benefit form the situation as much as possible. nevertheless, children should be taught to respect other people.

again, I managed to cut the top of the hill. nice.

photoshop.

this is just to show that a desert can be different.

it’s not just a field of sands.

and it in not a water either.

at this place movie “The English Patient” has been captured.

at this place – “Star Wars”

‘let’s zoom in!’

view from the back

someone made fun of me ‘rise your hand.. down.. down a bit’

ship of a desert

looks like it’s the same guy from the previous photo!

cloudy sky. later, there was even a bit of rain. wow.

nice mirror-self I discovered afterwards reviewing the shots. 100% crop, heh:

after a long debate I was convinced that we should try again that ‘traditional night’ type of thing. I knew there would not be anything new, but “free” drinks – ok, let’s do it.

am I making fun of innocent animals? probably.

donkey, equipped with a portable radio set. nice.

funny thing about this snap. when I was shooting this, at least 5 people came to see what’s inside the well. before that, nobody bothered about that. also I find it  funny  when I see others often copying my angles and ‘ideas of things to photograph’..

then, we had a ‘discotheque’ outside.

the ‘free’ vine started to affect.

there was a laser show afterwards. at first I was bit sceptical about this, but must say I actually enjoyed the show.

the idea was to tell a story of Tunisian history.

we were supposed to go by a pirate ship the following day.. but, because of the wild night and ‘free’ vine, the only right decision was to cancel that activity – I could not imagine swinging in the waves at that moment..

after some recovery we jumped on these babies

did not take my dslr with me because of all the dust it would have to go through. and there was plenty of it.

<3

evening in town.

love the looks I’m getting. somehow it reminds me of Bernhard. don’t know why..

cats in Turkey were different form cats in Crete which were different again from cats in Tunisia. very friendly and did not stand still for a second, it was very hard to get a decent frame at that light levels. this one is 1/15, f/1.4, iso1600.

and, the ‘perfect beer shot’. also a must, of course.

at the beech.

‘take a photo of my finger’ ‘uhm.. ok….’

would not try to tress-pass this fence!

and, as our trip came to the end, last snaps of a hotel.

view from our balcony.

when you are checked-out at 12:00 and you still have lots of time to kill, what you do? right. mirror-selfs.

we moved up to get a view from above.

tree in a shop growing through the roof. nice.

selfs in a restrooms shall be b/w. here it is. yes.

so, congrats if you made it to the end. probably I should have not included so many photos or divided this entry in several parts.

anyway, really enjoyed those few days off, shame it came to the end so quickly. It’s kinda hard to jump back into everyday routine in full speed again.

someone had to study hard but somehow mind was not into it.. so, as an escape from that situation, we went out to get some beer. there was a pleasant evening light outside, so I took my camera with me.

there is biggest Latvian river flowing along next to our house, so we took a turn.

later it turned out more like a portrait session.

perhaps, b/w’s look better.

than color. I like both anyway ; )

closer.

and closer.

at local supermarket.

no, we won’t be making pizza for dinner!

opted for a different brand this time..

waiting for the traffic light to turn green. beautiful light. shooting into the sun again.

I somehow succeeded talking into extending our little session further more.  guess someone loves the attention..

further away

and closer again.

I remember that not so long time ago I’ve avoided shooting portraits. felt kinda uncomfortable doing so.. not knowing how to interact with my subjects etc. not that now I’d say I know how to make pictures of humans “properly”, but at least I feel more confident doing so.

so here is one more set of two photos

“Don’t know whom to help?”

this is a cat. and you are a mouse.

I know there has not been a lot of variations subject-wise in this entry, but.. I just like the photos for obvious reasons.. and don’t care much for the rest.

this leads me to the ‘philosophical’ questions, like.. what to do with all the photos we take? is there a purpose for them to exist? what is ‘worth’ to make a photograph of? I think I’ve already answered them here above.

and one more random conclusion in closing: I can’t stand when people tell me what to photograph. and also  the rhetorical “what are you photographing there?”. aghh!

alright, as mentioned in previous entry, here is a very brief run-though the event that I agreed to take part as a photographer and a best man at the same time.. luckily, I don’t sing nor play any music instrument..

that would have been a good idea to start with the photos from bachelors party. but in the end decided not to – that night was just too wild to be revealed publicly with the level of retardness going over the limits, so I’ll better skip that part..

and say that it all started pretty early morning in one of those ‘beauty salons’.. if there is a mirror, self is a must.

also, I have learned to balance my attention – both photogenic subjects should receive equal treatment, or else..

a substitute for a ‘perfect beer shot’

unfortunately, did not have much time to develop this motif further more.. shot it with my telezoom that has been gathering dust for a long time, at its longest end (300mm, f/5.6, 1/50s, iso800).

had no time for these also.. still, managed to get the shots I was after ; ) but I’ll share just this one,,

waiting..

arriving..

driving..

pro photos in making…. … ……. .

who said it’s gonna be easy? love the random guy videotaping

nice set.

shooting itself was fairly easy, I never gave any directions, the game was on its own

I must have looked funny running along

I’m fine now, thanks.

and this is the very first shot with my wireless flash system. got it in the post-office the same morning. never had a chance to test it out so I had no choice but to do that in the field heh.

here my helpful assistant

and the only photo with all us together from that day – photo credit: self-timer.

have you ever seen any wedding where groom is carrying a lighting setup to ease the life for a photographer? it is called “team work”.

looks kinda nice? good that you can’t hear a sound from the ‘backstage’..

when everything that had to be done was done, there was a beautiful night outside.. I think I’ve never before evaluated silence as then.. looking into each others eyes for 30 seconds.. : )

and the following day I was just messing around doing various experiments with the flash.

and this is for MK to make it clear once and for all heha

in closing, this very last frame I took before we had to go.

and that’s it. no more weddings are planned for this summer. ..

]]> http://tehstory.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/about-multitasking/feed/ 3 Artis ' http://tehstory.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/n-d/ http://tehstory.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/n-d/#comments Wed, 14 May 2008 09:02:16 +0000 Artis http://tehstory.wordpress.com/?p=207 ]]>

so, I was kindly asked to cover a wedding.. that was a pretty challenging task for me taking into account the fact that I haven’t done anything like that ever before. I just made sure they are completely aware of the consequences.. I somehow spontaneously agreed from the start, because I am such a nice guy… heh

here are just a few shots of that day. I tried my best not disappoint and to make this gift as good as I could.

pretty unusual choice for the wedding rings, I must say. very cool.

getting ready.. I have other photo from the opposite side with better colors and such, but I somehow prefer this one with mother looking over shoulder..

and off we go!

listening to Placebo, Cold and the like while driving – again, pretty unusual choice.

I like the shadows here

conceptual details..

and here, also. uploaded also a bigger version for those old lady freaks out there!

after the formal group shots, I made one for myself. pretty much looks like ;through the wind’.. as this event took place the following day of happenings in previous entry.

and I like this frame a lot. for it’s symbolism.

a letter to each other to be red after a year.

“To beloved wife from beloved husband.”

here, unofficial part of the event – just the young couple, driver and photographer – perfect!

I tried tilting camera, something that I’ve not been practicing before

and shutter dragging.

I also tried to play a bit with backlighting – frames that I would refrain from capturing previously, because ‘blown out photos are bad photos’. Works by Nick Onken inspired me to think the other way around.

after this we had to move on. not so rarely that happens exactly at the time when I finally feel like surfing on top of the biggest wave.. when you feel inspired, the light is right and you could just shoot and shoot to get closer and closer to the ‘perfect image’. let us say politely, I don’t like being stopped at that moment.

there are more (for my standards) great frames left unshown, but you got the insight I guess.

anyways, I’m quite happy with the results and, what is even more important, they are too. I tried to shoot the way I’d like my wedding to be shot one fine day.. with the highest level of responsibility knowing that these photos will be the only visual memories from that day. I’ve seen a lot of work of the ‘pro-photographers’ here around that are shot like a .. work of a cashier in a supermarket, if you know what I mean. It was extremely easy to work together, I enjoyed making these photos a lot – there was so much of positive energy in the air I could feel and soak up a bit of that for myself, too.

without a desire to become a commercial wedding photographer, there there was also another weeding I covered last weekend – so much different experience in many ways.. maybe I’ll post some of that too, we’ll see..

bet tikmēr, līdz nākamai reizei!

the other weekend I had this ‘team-building’ type event with my colleagues. here are a couple frames I captured along the way.

we were hiking

with orientation elements.

this was my team. named a ‘black team’.. collecting garbage was a part of the mission.

people exchange trees for money now so they can bay new cars

but you can pimp my ride anytime

as you can see, I was set on 10mm all the time

warm and quiet

I guess I will never be able to understand those who can carelessly throw away their shit.

anyways, we spent evening in this amazing place.

I had taken my tripod with me as a proof that I’m taking photography very seriously. besides that, it also served me for the purpose for keeping myself busy.

there we had a bathhouse with this huge bath and such..

this ‘lakescape’ was shot in the next morning

while everyone else were still waking up and packing their things for the way home.

and done with that,

ahh, I’ve almost just got a heart attack thinking I’ve mystically lost the following images. as it turned out I’ve mistakenly labeled them as year 2007. oh well.

so. yet again this was one of those times I had to travel abroad. but this time was quite a bit different, because there was some hidden excitement potential underneath.

I took my opportunity of using the awesome 85mm f/1.2 II. this is a frame that turned out more or less usable. must admit, it takes some time to get a grip on using that monster.

by the next table there was a Jesus sitting

all these were shot iso1600, and, among other things, I dig myself colors a lot. I believe the cause was that there was a certain very positive aura around me… flowing from two kind Belgian souls.. I had this great opportunity to meet MelvinKobe and (his :) the very gorgeous partner-in-crime Jorid.

must say, the beer pictured above tasted really good. the aroma, the aftertaste – all top class. Belgians know how to make beer. period. actually this experience made me pick up a four-bottle-package in the airport on way back home. it was that good. now I also have a Belgian beer glass as a bonus! btw, next month I’m heading to Vienna – will definitely check out what Austrians have to say in this compartment!

MelvinKobe brought also a couple of friends along, whom we should thank for being the best bar-guides.

I’ve found out they all work for the enemy.

here, a series of master himself – with the ultimate chick magnet. ; )

nowadays, girls pretty much can judge you by your equipment from the distance – whether you are here for a serious business or not.. trust me, the behaviour will change.. try to get someones attention with a pocket digicam.. or even worse – a Leica toycamera!

what does Jorid think about all this?.. probably nothing good : )

here, my attempt for a perfect beershot. extra points for having the perfect beershot photographer in the background!

there is something tender and pure I like about her a lot.. and as I was told,  MK can get pretty jealous sometimes.. – I can absolutely understand why : )

cute : ) and for the record, I should say that I was also offered a sandwich from the hands of lovely Jorid as well.. as a result, it tasted even better because of that fact!..

and one more thing. ‘precious’. played with it for the first time in my life. it’s heavier than I thought. focusing is also something to get used to with a rangefinder.. it definitely requires some special skills to able to react fast. low light makes it even harder. I believe that with some more experience one can judge the distance and pre-focus pretty dead-on.

taking into account mentioned above, we all agreed that Bernhard does an amazing job – with this look in mind I appreciate his work even more now. so… we went to the toilet and dedicated this b/w art for him haha!

there is a Leica and there is a street, so together it stands for street-photography, no?

and the official group-shot in the end – turned out perfect!

after a couple of beers done, Carlos showed his impressive driving skills

I felt so relieved when I could touch the ground on my own feet again! kidding, kidding ; )

seriously guys – it was a such a pleasure for me to meet you two. thank you for that evening – I truly enjoyed your company and, of course, the superb Belgian beer! and, I hope to see you some time soon again!

guess, I’ll finish this with this self in toilet that become like a cliche in this photocommunity blogsphere, if we can call it like that. but the question is, does facial expression change depending on the timing one snap a shot.. like, for best results, when to shoot – before or after? or right in the middle. hmm..

alright, got a new batch of images prepared to be shown here.. it’s kinda hard to come up with some entertaining introductory chapter.. what will eventually result in a waste of time, your and mine.. I’ve been trying to start this paragraph many times, but erased everything and started over again. talking with myself here right now is feeling like I have started some kind of self-analytical psychology course. not that it would be bad. so I better tune my playlist to band I recently discovered, hoping the word flows will be more natural from now on. let’s dig into my Alt. Metal archives.. Hurt, albums “Vol. I” and “Vol. II”. perfect.

the white area in this photo is because of huge softbox I got in the kitchen. heh.

and now, the very important process of serving some potatoes for me – this does not happen that frequently actually.. I wish it did. she’d think otherwise, definetly. anyway, I had to document this unique moment.

and yet again it was impossible to avoid making something like this

although focus is not perfectly on the eyes, the photo is appeals to me. thought that b/w works here better. b/w stands for brown and white, in case you did not know.

<3 and it stands for ice-cream, in case you also did not know that!

landscape in motion. pastime on the road.

and this one was also snapped through a window, but just in a higher speed – 1/4000 to be exact.

and we have arrived. I guess some could recognize the place.

immediately I felt artistic spirit awaking in me heh.

actually photographing things like these is a good excuse to kill the time until something warm and tasty is prepared on the fire so I can come back and everything is ready and served to be eaten! clever, I know.

this is as much snow as we could get this winter. Al was right!

some serious jumping going on

even more serious

here almost the same scene, minus the seriousness.

then the weather changed and it started to snow pretty heavily

this is a tent we used to stay overnight during the summer

and suddenly all the snowing was over.

I believe I have photographed enough of those footbridges… till I have a chance again.

and last frame from that day

now let’s continue with this important photo:

you might (or not) wonder what’s so important about it. besides the obvious snowman you’d like to kick, it’s actually a photo of my some-fine-day to become house. see that small three storey object behind the tree? yeh. it’s 1/5 done. unfortunately could not get any closer, so we had to explore some-day-to-be-our-neighbourhood walking around the fence.

nice shadow..

this was the first time we were there to evaluate ‘the progress’. will see how it goes.. we all hope for good!

it stands for ‘private property’ in Latvian. actually, if I look at this photo I find it containing all the ‘key elements’.. or by dA description, it clasifys as ‘conceptual’..

view from a different place. there’s a lot of water around this quiet place.

and here a ‘comissioned’ photo of future neighbours.. aka ‘a new local mafia has formed’. there was a comment like ‘oh, how we’ll be fed up with each other after a few years’

our house is supposed to look a bit different from the rest.. will contain a dedicated party area.

I remember snapping those numbers also featuring other subjects standing on that thing, but somehow those shots have vanished from the memory card after the camera was given away for ‘parādi man ko tu tur esi safotografējis’. well, it happens time after time.

liked that natural light entering to the room through those big windows

one

two point one

two point two

two point three

three

boomerang. little practice before we are ready to hunt.

we had a luck to throw it properly just a few times so most of the time was spent searching the place where in the snow it landed

tilting horizons is very pro!

and, perhaps it’s a time to conclude this chapter

alright, girls and boys – enjoy the sunny weather outside, but still stay cool!