The last time I visited Crimea in 2010. It was the famous settlement called Koktebel. And the last time I had a vacation was two years ago when I took rest at Turkish Mediterranean seashore. So, with the onset of September, me and my wife (an artist and a designer Polina Kudelkina) strongly decided that we need a sea. For the number of reasons, we couldn’t go abroad. Therefore, we turned our eyes on Crimea peninsula again. But this time, after long and careful study of tourist reviews, map and photos, my spouse chosen Novyi Svit settlement. And now, with all my seriousness and responsibility, I can say that this place is one of the most beautiful nooks of nature I’ve ever seen! I’ll start with the fact that if you stand facing towards the sea, almost from any place in the settlement, you will see The Falcon mountain to the left of you. This mountain conquered me once and forever! To my mind, it is the most picturesque mountain I faced in my life. Of course, someone can say: “Quite an ordinary rock. Nothing special”. But as for me, I was completely charmed with her: the shape of her peak; the fact that it absolutely free from any vegetation, although the mountain’s foot has lots of different trees and bushes; the rock texture (especially, in morning and at sunset when sun rays touch it with the sharp angle emphasizing all its roughness); the mountain’s height (374 meters above the sea made her as twice as taller than the rest mountains around); finally, the name itself (it doesn’t connect to the mountain’s shape, it’s just because of many birds of prey living there, especially falcons). Another thing I like is that Novyi Svit surrounded with mountains and hills quite tall to stop low clouds. I guess there couldn’t be such a hopeless and gray cloudiness as in Saint-Petersburg in fall. That’s why for the seven days of our eight-day leave there was completely clear sky. However, by the second day I realized that it’s good for me as for a person hungry for the heat and the sun. But for me as a photographer, that’s a little bit annoying thing, because only the mentioned solid, gray and low flying mass of clouds looks more dull on photographs than clean sky. Therefore, I had to seek something spectacular, something really special in order to get interesting landscape images. Nevertheless, for the first two days, we just climbed to the hills and rocks in full admiration and I remembered what and where I want to shoot. Only on the third day,...
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On the edge of the twentieth and our centuries, there was not only a rapid development of computers, soft and digital photographic equipment but also one more important process: all mentioned technologies were becoming more and more affordable to the widest range of people. Simply put, hardware was becoming faster, soft – more powerful, digital cameras – more perfect and, at the same time, all this were becoming easier and cheaper for a customer. If in the early nineties photography was a laborious and difficult process for the chosen enthusiasts, now, after a little bit more than twenty years, almost every person has a camera (I can even say “every person” if include cameras in smartphones). Moreover, from a purely technical point of view, our modern cameras can take higher quality images comparing to the best photos of the film era. So why the world is not filled with photographic masterpieces? Why photos we bring from the most picturesque places visited during vacation do not arouse our friends the same overflowing enthusiasm as we do? The answer is very simple and I can put it in just five words: Because of photography, brain and eye. I am sure you didn’t understand what it means. But this is only because I deliberately turned my answer in Suprematism in order to intrigue you. 🙂 And now, when you are really interested in it, I will make myself clear with pleasure. 1. Reality and photography What photography is? You say the portraying of a three-dimensional world on a plane. Absolutely right. And what the beautiful landscape photography is? Certainly, most will converge on that it is a harmonious combination of elements of a captivating place. I agree again. And what is this captivating place in reality? Perhaps all that can be captured in a photo. But not only. When you are in some beautiful place, say, on the seashore at sunset, you’re not only seeing a sea, a beach, rocks, sky and almost red Sun. You’re also hearing gulls and the sound of the surf. You’re feeling a light breeze and warm sunshine on your skin. Finally, you’re feeling the sea and plants odours and maybe even the coming from the nearby cafe smell of freshly prepared fish, baked-on coals of fruit trees. And how can you portray all these things in a photo? That’s right: you can’t. And when back home you show your photos on the screen to your friends you unconsciously remember all the gamut of emotions which you experienced at the moment. The gamut caused by a view, sounds, aromas and tactile sensations. And if there was also...
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I’m glad to present you my new album of interior photography. At this time, it’s the Mikhailovsky (Engineer’s) castle in Saint-Petersburg (Russia). Apart from the fact that the museum’s halls are very beautiful itself, I also have tried a slightly different way of adding sharpness to the image comparing to how I did it before. As you can see for yourself the photographs are look perfectly 🙂 – Mikhailovsky...
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