Street photography
Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. Share this:Facebook
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Still Life
As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one’s own originality. It is a way of life. Share this:Facebook
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Back to 24mm.
Today I went shooting and brought my 70-300mm and 24mm prime lenses. But as soon as went out I realized that I don’t want to use zoom lens today. So I put my favorite 24mm Nikkor. What a pleasure it is to see the world through wide angle lens!!! And then it began. I start seeing frame after frame and because of crowds of tourists in the city, people thought I was one of them and did not pay any attention to a man with a big camera and a small pun-like lens on it.
The first shot I made was within a second after I put this lens on!
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and then …
Then we went to the sea-side boulevard and met this little guy
And then back on the Fountain Square
Girls in Subway.
I’d like to continue the subway story. As you may read here I did some shooting in Moscow subway. Here is the second story. It was late in the evening and I was on the train, going to my hotel. There was nothing interesting, but I have a rule not to turn off my camera or even close the lens cap until I’m home. Suddenly a girl attracted my attention. She was very pretty but there was something more. She was in tears and from time to time tried to wipe off her tears with a paper towel. I had my small 24mm lens on my camera and made a few shots from the position I was.
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She looked so desperately sad wiping her tears and hysterically trying to play some game on her phone! My first intention was to come closer and ask if there was something I could help her with. But I also understood that she’d like people to leave her alone at that moment.
Although I moved closer and made more shots from the different angles.
Suddenly I turned my head and saw another girl just opposite this crying one. She was looking at me and smiling! She noticed that I’m shooting the sad girl and looked at me with a pretty warm smile. I gave her my warmest smile in return and after a few moments I came closer to her and said ‘Hello’. We spent a lot of time chatting. It turned out that she is an artist and sat there looking after that crying girl and thinking about how she would draw her emotions, gestures and character. When the train arrived to my station I left her but we planned to meet the next day. But this is whole another story 
Small walk. Yellow.
Had a small walk today. Too many things to do, but I found the way to make at least few shots a day. The main thing is to have your camera with you anywhere!
As you know I’m not posting the pictures the day I shot them. And all the posts and daily pictures are from random days, places and occasions. Maybe some day I will change this habit but not now. By the way I’m thinking about changing the design of Eyenology. Just thinking!
Picture of the day: Yellow.
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Nikon D700. Nikkor 70-300mm.
Dark Side of the Force.
Today me and me friend, great wedding photographer Bahman Mirzoyev decided to try something different from just walking along the city and shooting stuff. We exchanged our cameras. So I was shooting with Canon 5D Mark 2 and he took my Nikon D700. It was the great fun! We spent a few hours around the city, trying to get used to the new systems. As for me I was shooting Canon system for the whole day for the first time. It was good experience. I still didn’t heard Bahman’s comments about shooting Nikon. But I can say, I like the way this camera renders the image, I like the colors, I like resolution. What I didn’t like is how it renders the shadows in some difficult lightning situations, of course I’m comparing it to Nikon and what I found not good enough could be normal to people who are shooting Canons. The saddest thing to be said about this camera, and I think all other Canons, is ergonomics. For me it is horrible. But again, that’s for me, the die hard Nikon shooter. Overall impression is: Canon 5D Mark 2 is remarkable camera and it is capable of making fantastic pictures.
Meet Bahman Mirzoyev
Here I’d like to show a few shots I made with Canon 5D Mark2 And 35mm f/1.4 prime.
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Location scouting. Yeomen.
Did some location scouting today, after having coffee with a friend. There will be a lot to shoot next few weeks in the city.
Picture of the day: Yeomen.
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Leica V-Lux 1.
One more lesson learned. Technology vs. Photography. Ambush.
Guys I have to confess. In my 40 I am not as wise as I should be. Many people are trying to learn things the easy way. I’m not one of them. Sometimes I need to make the same mistake once, twice or even three times to learn the lesson well. Why am I telling you this? If you rewind two or three days back in this blog, you’ll notice two articles about my experience with the Android phone. That was the second try to switch from the iPhone to Android. The first try was with Sony Ericsson Xperia. It had Android version 1.6 and it was awful! So after trying it for a day I understood, for the first time, that this operating system is not for me. The second try was three days ago, and the reason why I switched to another Android device was that I just get bored with the iOS interface. I was using iOS devices since 2007, since the first iPhone came out. And for all these years it didn’t change. So I wanted to try some extreme and got the HTC One S. If you are reading my blog on daily basics, you may know all of the cons. and pros that I found using this device. But today it taught me a lesson I will never forget. While using iPhone I always knew that if I’m charging it to 100% it will live on one charge for about 24 or even 30 hours. All of this time I will use a phone, text, Facebook, Google+, e-mail and maybe some camera applications. My experience with the Android was like 8 hours of the same usage! And then the died! The result was: I returned this HTC back, and now I’m very happy with my iPhone 4S! Hope this lesson will be never forgotten! Don’t ever go for fanciness for the price of usability and never turn your back to the good friend!
Being a member of one Facebook group where people are chatting about photography I noticed one interesting thing. Many people who call themselves photographers are sitting in his group all day long talking about chromatic aberrations, lens distortion, discussing cameras, lens, and all the technology that goes hand by hand with the photography. These people are spending all their time discussing the technology but not photography itself. I’m just interested: guys, are you ever shooting? Or just talking about photography? If you think that lens distortion on the apertures beyond f/22 and chromatic aberrations of the lens that you don’t even own are so important, you have way way more problems with your photography! The only thing that will make your photography better is practice! You just need to go out and shoot! It is not the gear, it is not how good you know your camera! You will learn all this while shooting! As Scott Kelby said once “Do not overthink!”
Picture of the day: Ambush.
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Nikon D7000. Nikkor 24mm.
Sunday. Android and Leica M9-M again. Girls and shoes!
Sundays are always very lazy days. So today I didn’t went out except for going to grocery store. So, what I did today? I’m digging deep into my new toy, Android phone. Some things are still seem to be very illogical. But I’m getting used to it and guess what? I’m trying to make this phone to look more like the iOS device I mean Minimizing the widgets and maximizing the amount of apps on my home screens. There are things I love in this Ice-cream Sandwich. For example the integration of social media services. What I could never have on iOS is that my G+, Facebook, Twitter and Foresquare messages and notifications to be collected in one place! The guys from Google and HTC made this my painkiller!
Ok, enough of Android! Dave Powell aka ShootTokyo posted some pictures she shot in Tokyo with new M9-M! He used ISO 10 000 which is insane! He promised to show more pictures on his site ShootTokyo.com.
Picture of the day: Girls and shoes!
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Nikon D7000.
Short news. Walk in the rain.
Just two short news for today. First is this site reached its milestone of 10k unique visitors! Congratulations Eyenology! The second is that I made a jump from iOS to Android and testing HTC One S. It is not because I don’t like my iPhone or that I like the Android a lot. No iOS is still my favorite mobile OS and Android is on the same third place in my chart, right under Windows Phone 7.5, but I want to gain some new experience. I’m using iPhone since 2007, and I just want to try new interface and new device. iPhones are perfect and they became a bit boring in their perfection. This device is just working So far I like my new toy, it is fast, it has very slick design and I like the HTC Sense interface, just need to get used to it.
Picture of the day: Walk in the rain.
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Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-200mm.
Disappointment day, part 2. M-Monochrom. Play With M9. Red’n'black 2.
As I wrote yesterday, I went to shoot fireworks. I should say that was horrible! First of all it started around 12 AM and then because of cheap pyrotechnics there was so much smoke, that sometimes I couldn’t see any fire splashes through it. I made a great mistake choosing the location for shooting. My position was very low, almost from the sea level and I was shooting with my wide-angle lens which was the second mistake. I didn’t even look through the pictures. Want to give them some time :-).
Just a short plug: yesterday Leica announced two new cameras. The first one is Leica X2, the second one is M–monochrom, that is actually Leica M9 with a monochrome sensor. I am dying to see the first test shots of this baby.
Guys I want to be honest with you, I honestly wanted to write the second part of my mini review about Nikon D800 and D4. But today while walking around the city I saw the M9 in the camera shop. I couldn’t resist and asked the guys in the shop to play with that. This is not the first time I’m shooting with Leica. But the more I shoot the more I want to get one. No need to say anything about the quality and most of all the feelings, the emotions I have shooting it. Forgive me Nikon, forgive me guys, but when the Leica comes to scene, all others should wait. Will post a mini review on D800 and D4 next week.
After playing with M9, I met with my buddy Mamed. We landed in the cafe, had some coffee and as usual started to tease each other regarding cameras and other stuff. Mamed is canonista and we did few test shots comparing his MK2 with my D700. That was fun
While walking around the city, made about 50 shots, that is unusual for me. Just want to post one of the shots now.
Picture of the day: Red’n'black 2.
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Nikon D700, Nikkor 70-300mm VR.
Disappointment day. Smoking.
Today one of my old photographer friends made me a gift. A Tokina 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom. The old working horse in mint condition! I need this kind of lens because the widest lens I have for my D700 is Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 and sometimes it is just not enough wide for me. Also I’ve planned to buy Nikkor 35mm f/2 lens. So this gift could make me absolutely happy. Why could? Because it didn’t! As soon as I received the lens I ran home, very excited by the way, to try it on my D700 baby. And as I also planning to shoot the fireworks today this lens came just in time. When I attached it to the camera I discovered that something was wrong. Oh, I’m sorry some things were wrong. first of all autofocus didn’t work, the second thing I noticed is that the meter is showing the wrong data. After trying several settings on the camera, detaching and attaching lens for a few times, I applied the universal diagnostic and repairing tool which we call Google. I’ve try to find the manual for this lens but didn’t succeed. Then I went to forms to see if someone else has the same issues with the same lens and camera. I found a few people who had the same problem and figure it out that this lens is not working with D700 and the only way to fix this problem is to send the lens to Tokina. at the same time this lens is perfectly working with D3 and D300 that are just few monthes older than D700. One guy d wrote that he fixed a sample by sending get back to Tokina and paying about 100 bucks. I’m not sure d I’m going to do this but am still thinking. I could’ve use it in the manual mode but the problem is that I cannot set the aperture and the minimum aperture it allows me to set is f/6.3 . So the first part of the day d was very disappointing. Hopefully this evening will be much much much better. Today d there will be fireworks on the seaside boulevard so I’m planning to get a few nice shots of it. Better than the year before. As far as d my widest lens is still 24mm Nikkor, I’ll try getting the best of it.
Picture of the day: Smoking.
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Nikon D700, Nikkor 70-300mm VR.
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