Sunday, January 22, 2012

Barcelona II/ Sagrada Familia

It's hard not to photograph every single statue and corner of Sagrada Familia, and the genius that is Gaudi. A pity that it wasn't finished, and perhaps fortunate that Josep Subirachs sculptures' are so different from Gaudi's and one can easily differentiate between the two artists. The commissioned sculptor didn't attempt to imitate or imagine what Gaudi would've done and created his own sculptures. Modernist, and terribly inconsistent with the rest of the cathedral and its organic style, in reality he had no other choice.
















Barcelona

All I have to say about Barcelona is that it is an amazing place.
The photos do not do it justice, but here's a little peek at this Catalan gem.










Thursday, January 19, 2012

Photo Editing

I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been knee-deep in photo editing. Not anything fun or brilliant, just the "make this photo look decent" editing. My D80, constantly overexposes and has some odd color shifts. Since I started in film photography, I was never a big believer in post-shooting editing. There were hours spent in the lab dodging and burning by waving my hands or a piece of cardboard in front of the image being exposed (gasp, photo developing secrets revealed) which were very frustrating. So I prefer a nicely exposed shot - just like everyone else. Recently I have turned to photoshop out of necessity, or perhaps desperation. I feel like I am lacking eye to camera coordination and that my camera won't understand me(I have been told I should love it more, maybe then it would behave). I need to find some fellow frustrated D80 users for tips, or just go back to shooting film.

Here's what I'm talking about. The before shot is actually above average for my camera, as it is shot with my 50mm. Aside for the trashcans and bathroom signs, which somehow always show up in shots these days, the image is terrible: faded colors, washed out sky, and a most shocking the neon red in the upper right. So I have to get to work and make it look the way it did in real life, the way I saw it. Not a vibrant enhanced shot, just a decent one. These days with digital photography the quantity of images is ridiculous, and I should probably only keep 5 images from a trip, but lately I've seen some lovely places and am trying to end up with some lovely images. This is the extent of my photo-editing, although with most I don't even take out the trashcans.


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy Holidays

The people of the Republic of Moldova love Xmas and New Years so much, they celebrate it twice. The long and convoluted history of being given over to the Russians, lead to celebrating Christmas with the modern word, on the 25 of December, and the old world russian on the 7th of January. Same happens with New Years, but it's all just an excuse to celebrate if you ask most of us. Who in their right mind would say the new year starts on January 14? I believe the early Romans had it right: March 1st. New season, new beginnings and new year...
Happy 2012! and for those waiting for an apocalyptic sky, all you need are fireworks.