Extra, Extra Read all about it

Today was a  regular day, i took some street photos to process at the later time, i got home spend some time with the kids, had dinner, walked the dog, all routine things. 11pm The phone rings, its never a good when the phone rings at night, its my best friends wife, he was in accident and he is in the hospital. OK  i get dressed and take off to go there and then my world gets turned upside down, when i get to the hospital i am meet by the cop and the doctor telling me i am sorry and shaking my hand. MY friend of 20 years is gone just like that. Earlier today i spend probably about 3 hours talking to him about all kinds of things the longest we spoke in the long time. The hospital was rough between his family and so on, i tried to stay strong and not show any emotion at least there, did not know how to deal with it any other way at the moment. Fast forward i am home writing this, because i cant sleep, i cant do anything i am sick to my stomach and i need to talk this out as i am drinking a bottle of scotch. So what now, whats next i don't know everything has changed. The best thing about life, is life its that simple, nothing else matters! The tears are running down as i am writing this and my thoughts are all over the place. He will be remembered, life goes on. There is so much more on my mind but i just cant get it together at the moments, so i leave you with this pictures as a memory

Networking, Camerapixo and Random Thoughts

Networking on the photo-sharing sites like 500px or flickr or any other, is more important then getting high rating on your photo. Because of the networking and communicating with others i have met People like John Frenzel(check his blog), because of John i got introduced to Camerapixo who is run by a wonderful team of Artur and Anetta Heller. Some of my pictures will be published in the next issue of their magazine, which without networking with others would not be possible. Few things about Camerapixo It is a great online magazine that produces eBooks with different themes and photographers, they work with many pro's and amateurs, please visit their website and take a look you will enjoy what you see. They are also the same people who published my iPad story, if you haven't read it yet take a look it is posted earlier in my blog(link)

I also meet another wonderful photographer  his name is Gene Lowinger who runs a great blog, please take a look.

Continue taking pictures and sharing them with the world, don't worry so much about the rating of your pictures while it sucks to have a low rating that does not mean your picture is bad, the more people you know the more people will know your photography, also keep an eye on sites like Pinterest(if you want an invite please let me know) it may become a very big thing and great for sharing a find things and photos.

If you enjoyed this blog entry please leave me a comment :)

Thoughts on Photography

Photography VS. Taking pictures, while it may sound the same it is not, there is a lot of people now days with big fancy DSLR cameras thinking they are photographers, just because someone learned the proper camera settings does not make them a photographer.

Photography is not about the equipment that you use, but about a simple fact of taking a picture that makes others think, it creates an effect, makes people stop and look. Lately too many people concentrate on the proper setting on the camera, or what it is capable of and upgrading every time a new one comes out. Just the other day i had a discussion with my brother in law, when we were going over my new G3 camera and the first thing he did is ask can the camera do manual setting, how can you control shutter speed how can you measure the light, essentially comparing it to his Full Frame Canon, while the answer was yes In my eyes he missed the point of why i got the camera. It is not about if its better or worse then FF, its about that I can take it with me and capture the moments instead of missing them. To me its not about setting or having the latest highest mega-pixel camera; my camera is set to Aperture priority at all times, because it works for me, i go with my got feeling of what the ISO should be or the F. stop and that works. A good friend of mine(Greg Khitrov) who is a wedding photographer published a book called Fusion Style photography(you can look it up on amazon.com) and the book talks about not worrying so much about the studio setup and the tripods and just be out there taking pictures, have fun with it.

The point of my rambling here is I myself guilty of wanting a better equipment instead of just being out there and taking pictures, which is what i am doing now with my new camera. Go take pictures, have fun with it, we all see different thing as we look at the world and our interpretation of things via photography is what makes it fun.

To Photoshop or Not

There are many styles of photography: street, urban, portraits, wedding, landscape the list can go on and on. To each their own, we all have things we like and dislike and there is no right or wrong. With that out of the way here are my thoughts on some of the things I see going on in photography in general. While there are many styles as I mentioned I see  a few things going on in all of them. There are people who do very minimal editing and there are people who are all about Photoshop or other software to the point where picture does not look real anymore. Don’t get me wrong some of them look great, amazing, but is it really photography at that point or your Photoshop skills, does the picture become art at that point? To me the picture loses its life. One of the things I love about photography is that it can tell a story, but the more you edit it, the more of the story gets lost, there is a fine line where some editing that helps to get the point across like converting it to black and white or cropping to isolate the subject, but at some point with too much editing the picture loses its life and becomes some form of art instead of a photograph.

This is my 2 cents, so I hope I did not offend anyone by this post and thank you for reading!

Just another picture for your viewing pleasure :)

Thoughts On Street Photography

Street photography can mean so many things its an expression of the photographers vision on the society. Some street photographers like to get personal and actually ask permission to take the photo or they take the photo and then deal with people being angry as to why the photo was taken.
Myself i prefer to stay hidden i believe candid shots where people are going about their lives is a true expression, it conveys a message about what is going on around us at any given point. But as always there is no right or wrong way to do a street photography, it just about capturing a moment, an expression of something that you see. Some street photographers like to take portraits of people, while i do like some of them i also think it looses some of message you trying to convey about the street, as there is nothing else in the picture.
Each one of us has a different vision and different approach on how to take a picture. 500px is a perfect example of that, you can post a picture and it will be liked or not liked, that should not discourage you, just because someone did not like your picture does not mean its a bad shot, it just means that person does not share the same vision as you.

Photography Sites and Blogs

There are many sites that are popping up around the web that deal with photography and blogging, i am not going to list them all, and i don't think one is better then the other, they are all different. 

What i do want to talk about is how you use the those sites or multiple sites sometimes. Some sites like 500px have a dislike button i really am not sure why there is a need for it, if you don't like someone's picture just move on, do not comment on it, there are tons of other pictures, but it is what it is, i am sure there is a meaning for it. 

With that said when you browsing photo's or blogs and you come across something you like leave that person a comment no matter which site it is on.  Also just because some famous photographer is using a specific site does not mean you should jump into it as well, evaluate your options, just like photography itself there are many styles of it(landscape, city, street, nature), depending on your style some site are better then others.
I just watched this interview with Trey Ratcliff and i advise everyone to watch it or just listen to it as it speaks about being open, being yourself and not worrying about so much if people like or dislike your photos: http://youtu.be/Us9S8gVFzmo

Apple's New iPad

Apple's New Ipad or Complete Insanity

Few Days ago i started my day by waking up early so i can attend the insanity called Apple Lunching new iPad. I actually started this photo-shoot with a picture from the day before of people camping in the front of the store.

Upon Arrival i was amazed by the line that was 1 city block long and then a zig-zag in front of the store, there were tourists, locals, business people and even some military personnel. It amazing how in this economy so many people can afford $500+ device. At 8am the bells went off almost like a stock market and the store opened it doors, with employees clapping and cheering the first people in line, there were high fives going around, the crowd were screaming it was simply amazing and not in the good kind of way. As soon as you walked down the stairs into the store you were greeted by more clapping employees. I think there were less excitment when i attended my brothers homecoming after his navy ship was deployed. Fast forward a few minutes and the people who were first inline starting coming out with their iPads in hand, to be attacked by media and reporters wanting to interview them.

When did we become a nation that cares more about new electornic toy then whats going in the rest of the world. Please don't get me wrong i love a new toy as much as a next person and being an IT geek myself i probably have more toys then others, but i would never stay in line or go camping for it.

For a complete Story and Pictures please take a look here it was Published by CameraPixo