SixString Photography

It’s been some time since my last post. Nevertheless I still take my camera with me mostly everywhere I go and this weekend was no different.

About 10 minutes drive from our weekend house above Mojstrana is a nice place where we go from time to time. There used to be just sand and a small stream running through it. Lately they started to gather sand there, hence the small “lake” that has accumulated there. It’s beautiful.

It is funny, though.. This is quite high up in the mountains, with the serene beauty of the forest and the mountains all around you and then you find this machine lying there. It somehow looked magnificent and powerful and not at all ugly… Here’s the photo:

Lately I’ve found myself in a bit of HDR madness. The cause for that is the occasional sunshine and clear weather that we’ve been all missing here for a while. So when the sun does come out it’s like all these colours start to appear with all these beautiful contrasts and it is so different from the monotony of the greyish colours of winter that I just want to really bring all the colourfulness out. Hence all the HDRs. Yeah, I know they may look unrealistic but I like them nevertheless. They remind me that when I was there, taking the photographs it actually felt like the world was that colourful.

Portrait photography isn’t something I do very often. The reason for this is probably the same as the reason that makes me want to do street photography. I personally find posing on the photographs not very authentic. You can overcome that with a good model that can really deliver the feelings you are looking for but I tend to seek those authentic and spontaneous expressions and poses. Because of that I tend to take a different approach to portrait photography. I try to bring out those natural reactions or wait for the right moment. If I want to photograph a smiling face I don’t say “smile” but tell a joke. You get the idea. Sometimes the expressions come by themselves, like with this picture. It was taken during a great debate that me and this girl had.

I rarely see a person so relaxed in front of my camera and I wouldn’t be surprised if she popped up again from time to time on this blog. GREAT memories from that day and a beautiful photo to remember it by.

I guess carrying my camera with me no matter where I go really pays off. Rain surprised me today, so I took a bus home. Stared through the window and just instinctively pulled my Canon out and snapped this. Had to do manual focus, but it turned out nicely. This picture kind of represents how my day looked. Depressing at a glance but full and nice at the end…

This is the Trubarjeva Street near to where I live. I wanted to play a bit with HDR. I’m still a beginner, though. But I added some blurriness to the picture and it gave it a really dreamy look. I love it.

These aren’t the kind of photographs you would expect to find under a title “A concert”. To tell the truth, these photographs are from a day before the concert of a band TABU, that took place on 10^th of February. A good friend of mine is the band’s official photographer (be sure to check out his blog on the blogroll (Public void photograph()) and he asked me if I am willing to help him document the preparations for the concert. I was happy to help. I’m posting these two photographs because, like with the other posts, these are the ones that I really like. I have focused more on the more “artish” and less on the documentary  perspective of the day, when it came to choosing the photographs.

Through the viewfinder:

This is the stage seen through the viewfinder of Anže’s camera.

The guitar:

I just love this picture. It’s a strange angle to photograph a guitar from, but the lighting is amazing.

Street photography is a style of photography that attracts me the most. I also find it frightening, because I get nervous taking photographs of people without them knowing. It wouldn’t be hard with a zoom lens, but I like to use my wide angle Sigma to really make you feel like you’re in there. Here is one of my first attempts… Perhaps with experience I will gather the courage to move closer. ..

So I went out the other day and took my camera with me. The pictures I took were nothing special. The only one that I really liked is this picture of the tunnel that digs through the castle hill right next to where I live. This picture kept coming up in my mind so I’ve edited it a bit and decided it deserves its place here.

We have two dogs at home. I love to photograph them. These two photos were taken with a wide angle lens (10-20mm Sigma). This lens can produce wonderful wide photos as well as funny and distorted, that’s why Tobi’s head looks so big on his photo. The lens itself is also pretty wide so the integrated flash on my camera isn’t enough and shadows of the lens are visible if you are shooting close range. This isn’t welcome in most cases but can produce interesting lighting effects when you least expect. This can be seen on Vento’s photo. The pictures were spontaneously taken without preplanning so yeah, I know they are not anything special, but I find them interesting none the less.

Tobi:

Vento:

These are photographs I had to make for my school project about the history of documentary photography. The professor, who is a classically trained photographer, was very impressed with them which meant a lot to me. I too find them to be one of my best so far.

The photographs are named after the photographers, whose style we had to imitate.

Walker Evans:

Eugene Adget:

Martin Parr:

August Sander: