Photography - Happy New Year's Blues

"It’s almost New Year, snow‘s still fallin’ down/
Yes, it’s almost New Year, the snow ‘s still fallin’ down/
And my baby ain’t here to hold me/
I’m the loneliest man in town." Lonnie Johnson - New Year's Blues


Well.. as you probably guessed, this post will be dedicated to the new year's blues. 
I guess I am not the only one having the blues this year, and therefore this post was created for all of you who have the new year's (x-mas' or birthday's) blues.

You know the drill - last year everything was perfect... You had the woman/man of your dreams, maybe you had money or a good job, you had the feeling that this is just the beginning and life is going to be even better! But, in few months everything was gone.

"Now the stage is bare, and I am standing there, with emptiness all around." 

Elvis Presley, Are You Lonesome Tonight.

Here are some photos who make the loneliness and the blues look pretty.

A Lonely Streetlight

This streetlight, actually been captured in the morning...

It is a classic 40's or so design, and I decided to give the picture a film noir touch. A darkness and a spotlight were added in order to make the streetlight stand alone with all his glory. We can feel the coldness and the darkness of the night, as well the loneliness. But... the minimalism and the clean lines, make us admire the object.

A Dry Tree

I was wandering around a field, when I found this dry tree.
It was standing all alone, with its yellow leaves. It was kind of sad to see the tree out there without any flower or a bird around it. Everything around was dead and dry, except the sky. I took the picture with a wide angle lens, my intention was to capture the gloomy brown and yellow tree with the perfect blue sky.

The contrast between them, makes the picture more interesting and optimistic.

Mr. Blue

The man is standing in front of the sea. Reflecting, thinking about his life. He doesn't look very happy, he is Mr. Blue. 

The blue tones, the texture of the water and the wood rail, give the photo a lyrical quality. It is indeed a melancholic scene, but a beautiful one.

Even though this post was a little blue, I wish you a very happy new year, may 2012 will make all your wishes come true!

Photography/Digital Art - The Importance of Composition

Hi there!

This post is dedicated to the importance of composition, in photography and in art.
Now's days we have many applications and software that help us improve our photos - to enhance the color, to retouch the pic, to make it retro/vintage style and more... We can even find a camera that can take a perfectly focused picture, so we don't have to master all the photography techniques - the technology will help us with most of them.

All of these apps and gadgets ARE helpful, but they cannot transform a boring picture to a more interesting one. If you don't have a good composition, you could make the picture prettier, but it still going to look boring, nobody will give it a second glance. The other way around is different, if you have a good composition, most chances are that people will tolerate (to some point) a poor focus, light or noise.

Let's look at these photos:

Good light and color, poor composition

Poor light and color, good composition

Which picture is better? Most of us will find the second picture more interesting. The composition is much more appealing (the movement and the position of the bar), even though that the light is poor. On the other hand we can't do magic with the first picture, it has a better light and a stronger color, but that is it! Take a look at the second picture after a little bit of lighting, crop and contrast...

Good composition, light and color

I had the same situation, the other day. I was walking in a rural area, looking for an interesting place to take some pictures. Suddenly, two cyclists popped up in front of me... my camera was off, and I tried to capture them as quick as I could. The picture was blurry and the light wasn't perfect, but the composition... it was awesome! The minute I saw the picture, I knew that it has a great potential.

Let's look at the evolution of that pic.

The original - interesting composition, far from perfect focus, light and contrast

Improved light and contrast, better but still imperfect focus

The post processed result was better, but still I thought that this composition needs a better presentation.
So I decided to think out of the box, and to change the photo to a digitized impressionist paint... I had to experiment some filters and to adjust some variables, but the final result was exactly as I imagined - bright colors, noticeable brush strokes and a well presented nature.

Digital impressionist paint

The cyclists and the green background also gave me an idea for a logo - created with vector art.

So, (I'm sure that you already know) in my opinion a good composition is a major (maybe the most important) part of photography and art. You can play with the filters, light and the focus, they are the side dishes... the composition (as shown) is the main course.

That's it for now!  Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you enjoyed it :)

You can find more of my art at my Zazzle store, feel free to browse around!

You can find more art pieces at my Squidoo lenses :
Pop Art
Abstract Art
Still Life

Photography - Anti Beauty

Hi there!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder thay say, I must agree. Especially in photography, the most unatrractive scenes and objects, sometimes look apealing and interessting even more than our usual everyday eye candy.

In this post I gathered some of my Anti-Beauty gallery. Maybe you'll find some beauty here too...

I was strolling on a sunny day, looking for something interesting to shoot. It was hot and I couldn't find anything. All the flowers have gone, not a single color around, besides that dead boring brown. I thought to myself, if I can't find something worth shooting, I must find the beauty in the ugliness. Suddenly I saw a common housefly buzzing around a dried flower, with thorns around him. In my mind I was thinking, everybody wants to take the perfect photo of the beautiful flower with the bee or the butterfly around it, and I have the perfect opportunity to shoot the exact oppsite! so I did.




I hate to see garbage on the streets, it's an ugly habbit, just throw it to the near trah can, it's not so hard!
Saying that, I couldn't ignore the photo opportunity here... The red plastic cup laying there on the green grass. The contrast, the minimalism, the inappropriate object and the question : "why did you take that photo?!" all make it worth while.

Respect the elders!
Those two dead leaves were hanging there, in a majestic way. The sunlight was caressing them, showing every detail of their old being. All the young leaves were standing in the background in a perfect position, just to make those two oldies pop up even more.
What can I say, sometimes death is beautiful.

12 long years I was driving on the same road to the same job. Every morning I've noticed that wreck on the side of the road. Many times I thought to myself that I must go there, to look around, I really liked it, especially in the winter time. Last year I finally did. I picked a very cold and cloudy weather and examined the place.

The green grass carpet, and the grey clouds have created a perfect scenario. all I had to do was to find the right angles.

Take a look :

Well... I hope you enjoyed all the garbage and wrecks around!

Thank you for visiting my blog :)

You are welcome to visit my:

• Zazzle store where you can see more of my art.
• Abstract Art lens
• Pop Art lens
• Still Life Art lens