The Beginning Actually, I wasn’t really interested in photography till my 23. I had a couple of times when I took several photos by that moment but, honestly, it wasn’t serious. It was like “OK! If nobody else wants to take a shot, I’ll do it!” But then it happened that I occurred in the photo equipment store just a couple of weeks after my university graduation. And there I had to study cameras, films, flashes, tripods, and so on. Quite natural to my mind that after I’ve learned the technical basics, I started to interest photography itself, as a human activity, as an art. But the only interest as it is not enough for getting decent photographs. Nowadays, I know and notice, many people think that you became a photographer immediately after purchasing your first DSLR or mirrorless. Why does nobody think that way about music? (Here’s the answer I invented just now: because not a single musical instrument plays music after you give it an introductory pair. And that’s the main trap of digital photography to my mind.) As for me, I’ve stopped to shame call myself a photographer only when I started to earn with photography. Honestly, that’s another extreme. Now I think that even if you’re not working as a photographer but spend much of your free time for shooting, processing, and, of course, learning photography, you are a photographer. Not a pro, yes, but sometimes that’s really better. Frankly, I hadn’t an idea what exactly and how to shoot properly in order to express myself, to transfer what I feel till my 29. That’s when I bought my first camera. It was a Canon EOS 450D, the simplest and cheapest DSLR at that moment. But I didn’t buy a starter kit (my ambition didn’t let me!). I’ve purchased it with Canon EF 50mm/f1.4 USM lens. And I still have it in my bag! Honestly, now I use it quite rarely but when I take it that means I really need it. I think that in some way this limit (I mean the focal length of my sole lens in combination with the camera crop factor) pushed me to find something, to invent the ways of how to show the beauty I saw with the equipment I had. Of course, now I know much more about using almost any lens in nature photography but at that moment it was quite hard for me. I very seldom got the results I really liked. Nevertheless, there are few photos from that time I still love. Read further: Part 2. Don’t Drown! P.S.: Follow me on YouTube,...
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Today, on my 41st Birthday, I decided to congratulate myself by launching my channel on YouTube. Actually, technical launching was a couple of days ago – I have uploaded three slide show videos with the collections of my photographs in different genres which I took from 2008 till 2019. Sort of an introduction to my photography for those who haven’t seen it yet. But the factual launching when I uploaded not a slide show but the real video, my first one ever, has been today. Therefore, you have the opportunity to be the first witness of this event quite important to me. So, I invite you to watch it, give the video any thumb you want, and even write something! If you decide to subscribe, it’ll be weird of course but I’ll manage it! 😉 By the way, I have a whole bunch of plans for my future videos! That’s why I’m sure it’ll be interesting to follow. P.S.: Follow me on Instagram –...
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You might think that an absence of glory. There’s a myth between people that any creative human is suffering without fame, that we all need to be admired and adored. That’s not so. I mean probably some of us really need all that stuff but to the most – no. Moreover, a lot of creatives are quite modest and don’t like an excess of attention. We do it not for fame, we just can’t not to create. The majority of people are absolutely convinced that this thing is the critique. That creatives are very painfully perceived any negative opinions about their art. That’s much closer but, again, far not all of us so inadequate. Those creative persons who have a working brain would be happy to get some constructive critiques. The problem is that so many critics have no idea what is that – the constructive critique. They for some reason think that any negative reaction is good without even an attempt to find the advantages in the artwork, and also don’t try to advise what exactly to fix. So, what is that then? What’s the most awful for creative persons? I think that’s indifference. You see, almost every one of us make extraordinary efforts to create our artwork, to make it perfect (at least we always do our best to do so). For that, we learn and practice for years (and never stop either the first and the second one), we spend an endless amount of attempts, we critic ourselves mercilessly, we don’t notice time and inconveniences trying to perfect our artwork and to express ourselves in it in the best possible way… And after all that to face the indifference… This is the most terrible outcome. P.S.: Follow me on Instagram −...
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And here’s my top 9 (in my own opinion) of art photos 2019. Thank you all who followed me! Special thanks to those who put likes, and the warmest gratitude for those who commented on my social media accounts. See you next year! Happy New Year! P.S.: Follow me on Instagram –...
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On the Internet, there’s a crowd-sourcing platform called CityCelebrity which helps artists, designers, photographers, and other creative persons. A couple of days ago, a small interview with me was published on their Instagram. Here it is: 1) What are you striving for as an author? I strive people who’re watching my photographs to feel the same as I did while shooting: sincere admiring of what has been placed into the frame be it beautifully lit gorgeous building or, more often, amazing beauty of nature. I just want to share my emotions. Also, I think that if a person can estimate and understand the beauty in the photograph, he’ll never become a reason for something irreparable in real life. 2) What inspires you? Most of all, nature. And the originality of a moment. The same place can change beyond recognition depending on times of day or season, weather, and, most of all, the light. But nature is great in any form and, just like music, makes you forget about problems, move them away just for a while. Also, a beautiful architecture inspires me as well. The city is a landscape of the human living space. 3) What is the most difficult thing at work for you? To overcome laziness and despondency. The first, for example, means to force myself to dress on and go for shooting in bad weather through traffic jams or in overcrowded transport knowing that this trip can easily turn out useless if I won’t manage to take a single decent image. The second is to deal with indifference or overly restrained reaction of viewers as a response to my photo post. The photograph which I took after thorough planning, recognition of the location, calculating the perfect time, choosing the right set of equipment, long hiking to the spot, patiently shooting, and then, spending hours for selection and processing the images. In other words, the photograph which I literally lived through. 4) Which question would you like to ask our next guest? How exactly do you understand the famous words “an artist should stay hungry” and would you agree with it? P.S.: Follow me on Instagram –...
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