Author name: admin

Workshops: The Places Part B

Workshop of Fine Art Long exposure Photography in Patra History of Patra Antiquity The first traces of settlement in Patras date to as early as the third millennium BC, in the area of modern Aroe. Patras flourished for the first time in the Post-Helladic or Mycenean period. Ancient Patras was formed by the unification of three Mycenaean villages in modern Aroe; namely Antheia (from mythological Antheia) and Mesatis. Mythology has it that after the Dorian invasion, a group of Achaeans from Laconia led by the eponymous Patreus established a colony. In antiquity Patras remained a farming city. It was in Roman times that it became an important port. After 280 BC and prior to the Roman occupation of Greece, Patras played a significant role in the foundation of the second “Achaean League” (Achaiki Sympoliteia), along with the cities of Dyme, Triteia and Pharai. Later on, and following the Roman occupation of Greece in 146 BC, Patras played a key role, and Augustus founded a Roman colony in its area. In addition, Patras has been a Christian centre since the early days of Christianity, and it is the city where St. Andrew was crucified. Middle Ages In the Byzantine era Patras continued to be an important port as well as an industrial centre. One of the most scholarly philosophers and theologians of the time, Arethas of Caesarea was born at Patrae, at around 860. By the 9th century there are strong signs the city was prosperous: the widow Danielis from Patras had accumulated immense wealth in land ownership, the carpet and textile industry, and offered critical support in the ascent of Basil I the Macedonian to the Byzantine throne. In 1205 the city was captured by William of Champlitte and Villehardouin, and became a part of the principality of Achaea. It became the seat of the Barony of Patras, and its Latin archbishop primate of the principality. In 1387 Juan Fernández de Heredia, grand master of the order of the Knights Hospitaller at Rhodes, endeavoured to make himself master of Achaea and took Patras by storm. In 1408, Patras became Venetian, until it was recaptured in 1430 by the Despotate of Morea and its despot Constantine Palaiologos, who thus succeeded in recovering for the Byzantine Empire the whole of the Morea, apart from Venetian possessions. The administration of Patras was given to George Sphrantzes, while Constantine was immediately contested by the Ottoman Empire and later, in 1449, became emperor of the Byzantine empire. Patras remained a part of the Despotate of Morea until 1458, when it was conquered by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet II. Under the Ottomans, it was known as Baliabadra, from the Greek Παλαιά Πάτρα (“Old Patras”), as opposed to Νέα Πάτρα, the town of Ypati in Central Greece. Though Mehmet granted the city special privileges and tax reductions, it never became a major centre of commerce. Venice and Genoa attacked and captured it several times in the 15th and 16th centuries, but never re-established their rule effectively, except for a period of Venetian rule in 1687–1715. Modern era Patras was one of the first cities in which the Greek Revolution began in 1821 but the Turks, confined to the citadel, held out until 1828. The city was liberated on 7 October 1828 by the French expeditionary force in the Peloponnese, under the command of General Maison. Patras developed quickly into the second largest urban centre in late 19th century Greece. The city benefited from its role as the main export port for the agricultural produce of the Peloponnese. Italian migrants came to Patras after the failure of Garibaldi. At the same time, Patras was a gateway for emigration to the USA (most notably following the “raisin crisis” of 1920 which devastated the local economy). In the early 20th century, Patras developed fast and became the first Greek city to introduce public streetlights and electrified tramways. The war effort necessitated by the first World War hampered the city’s development and also created uncontrollable urban sprawl with the influx of refugees from Asia Minor. In the Second World War the city was a major target of Italian air raids. In the Axis occupation period, a German military command was established and German and Italian troops stationed in the city. After the liberation in October 1944, the city grew fast to recover, but in later years was increasingly overshadowed by the urban pole of Athens. Map of the places for the field-shooting

Workshops: The Places Part B Read More »

Workshops: The places Part A

I will start today giving more information about the two workshops i organize in Messologi (30 November, 1st December) and Patra (21-22 December). This post is about the places we are going to make the field shooting and i will give you a detailed description of them through various photos of mine both in color and black and white. Some of them are not in my portfolio yet.. Workshop of Fine Art Long exposure Photography in Messologi History of Messologi Messologi (Greek: Μεσολόγγι, Mesolongi) is a municipality of 34,416 people in western Greece. The town is the capital of Aetolia-Acarnania regional unit, and the seat of the municipality of Iera Poli Mesolongiou (Sacred City of Missolonghi). Messologi is known as the site of a dramatic siege during the Greek War of Independence, and of the death of poet Lord Byron. Messologi was first mentioned by a Venetian called Paruta when he was describing the naval Battle of Lepanto near Nafpaktos. According to predominant historical opinion, its name came from the combination of two Italian words, MEZZO and LAGHI which means “in the middle of lakes” or MESSO and LAGHI (Messolaghi) which means “a place surrounded by lakes”. Until 1700, Messologi was under Venetian domination. Its inhabitants were mostly fishermen. They lived in cabins which were made of a kind of waterproof straw and reed and stood on stilts above sea water. These cabins or stilt-houses have always been called “pelades”.North-west of Messologi are the remains of Pleuron (‘Asfakovouni’), a town mentioned in Homer‘s works. It participated in the Trojan expedition and was destroyed in 234 BC by Demetrius II Aetolicus. The new town, which was built on the remains of old Pleuron, was one of the most important towns in Aitolia. Its monumental fortification comprised thirty towers and seven gates. The remains of the theatre and an enormous water tank with four compartments still exist. During the Orlov Revolt in 1770 the fleet of Messologi was defeated and the town passed to the Ottomans. Messologi revolted on May 20, 1821 and was a major stronghold of the Greek rebels in the Greek War of Independence, being the seat of the Senate of Western Continental Greece. Its inhabitants successfully resisted a siege by Ottoman forces in 1822. The second siege started on April 15, 1825 by Reşid Mehmed Pasha whose army numbered 30,000 men and was later reinforced by another 10,000 men led by Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt. After a year of relentless enemy attacks and facing starvation, the people of Messologi decided to leave the beleaguered city in the “Exodus of its Guards” (The Sortie) on the night of April 10, 1826. At the time, there were 10,500 people in Messologi, 3,500 of whom were armed. Very few people survived the Ottoman pincer movement after the betrayal of their plan.Due to the heroic stance of the population and the subsequent massacre of its inhabitants by the Turkish-Egyptian forces, the town of Messologi received the honorary title of Hiera Polis (the Sacred City), unique among other Greek cities. The famous British poet and philhellene Lord Byron, who supported the Greek struggle for independence, died in Messologi in 1824. He is commemorated by a cenotaph, containing his heart, and a statue located in the town. Today The town itself is very picturesque but also modern with functional, regular urban planning. Some very interesting buildings representative of traditional architecture can be seen here. People whose names were related to modern Greek history once lived in some of them. The mansion of the Trikoupis family, Palamas’ House, Valvios Library, Christos and Sophia Moschandreou Gallery of Modern Art emphasize the fact that Messologi has always been a city of some wealth and refinement. In addition, the Centre of Culture and Art, Diexodos, which hosts cultural events and exhibitions as well as the Museum of History and Art is housed in a neo-classical building in Markos Botsaris Square and hosts a collection of paintings indicative of the struggle of Messologi, further boosting the city’s cultural and artistic profile. The Missolonghi Byron Society also, founded in 1991 in the city, is a non profit organisation which is devoted to promoting scholarly and general understanding of Lord Byron‘s life and poetry as well as cultivating appreciation for other historical figures in the 19th-century international Philhellenic movement, idealists who, like Byron, gave their fortunes, talents, and lives for the cause of Greek War of Independence. The Messologi Byron Center is now located in the upper floor of Byron House. Today, the Entrance Gate remains intact and so does part of the fortification of the Free Besieged which was rebuilt by King Otto. Past the gate, there is the Garden of Heroes where several famous and some anonymous heroes who fought during the Heroic Sortie are buried. The Garden of Heroes is the equivalent of the Elysian Fields for modern Greece. Every year the Memorial Day for the Exodus is celebrated on Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter); the Greek State is represented by high-ranking officials and foreign countries by their ambassadors. Map of the places for the field-shooting

Workshops: The places Part A Read More »

Calculating exposure times

General terms Long exposure Photography is closely related to Neutral Density filters which are semi-transparent pieces of glass that get placed in front of your lens. What makes them special, however, is that they obstruct a precisely controlled fraction of incoming light, and do so uniformly. The obstruction also aims to be equal across the visible spectrum, thereby not introducing a color cast (although this isn’t always the case). This last characteristic also happens to be why it’s called a neutral density filter. Even though they might appear gray or even opaque to our eyes, this isn’t how your photo will appear; the camera’s metering automatically compensates by letting in more light. However, the viewfinder will still appear very dark, so photographers often compose their image prior to placing the filter in front of the lens. Unfortunately for consumers, manufacturers do not use a standardized classification system to describe the strength of their filters. For example, B+W designate its 1000x grey filter after the f-stop reduction:  110,  while others like Formatt Hitech, Lee  designate their filters using a density factor. So, a B+W filter of 110 would correspond to a Formatt Hitech filter of ND 3.0. Hoya designates its 9 f-stop grey filter by x400 based on its filter factor which is somehow lower than the absolute value of x512. Lets see an overview of the different descriptions concerning ND filters as a function of f-stop reduction and optical density but adding also a new parameter the filter factor. What is the filter factor? Each “stop” of light-reduction corresponds with a halving of light. A given filter strength therefore passes only 1/2 strength of the initial incoming light, where “strength” is the filter strength in stops. For example, a 3-stop ND filter (ND 0.3) therefore only passes 1/8th the incoming light (since 1/2^3= 1/(2*2*2) = 1/8).  So for this filter the filter factor is 8, and the transmittance (allowing light to pass in %) is the inverse number in % , that is  12.5%.  In the below table, you can clarify the properties of each filter. What happens if we stack ND filters? It is very common to stack ND filters to increase their light-reducing strength, but adding multiple filters to the end of a lens can cause vignetting. Keep in mind that no matter how many ND filters are used, the densities of the filters were added and the filter factors need to be multiplied. For example, if you start with an ND filter with a density of 0.6 and add another filter of 0.9 density, the total density of those two filters would be 1.5. This filter combination achieves an f-stop reduction of -5, while the total filter factor of this combination is 32  as illustrated in the table below. Basic steps to perform a Long exposure shot First you have to find out the unfiltered exposure time. Measure this with your camera in aperture priority mode using your desired f-stop. Switch to Bulb mode If you used AUTOFOCUS in aperture priority mode DO NOT forget to switch to MANUAL when you go to Bulb mode In Bulb mode: set the same aperture you selected in step one, and choose the appropriate exposure time (always have with you a stopwatch to time the exposure) Those of you who are fully confident working in manual mode will be able to measure the unfiltered exposure time in manual mode and then adjust the exposure length as required. In a very bright day when probably the sun is behind you,  you may need to think about covering the viewfinder before engaging the shutter. There are several ways of doing this: Cover the camera with a dark cloth. Use some thick masking tape (electrician’s tape) over the viewfinder. Use a small cap which is designed for this purpose. Is there a mathematical formula to calculate the exposure times? Yes, there is a simple mathematical formula and it is described in the following figure with a simple example. Useful timetables I have compiled some useful tables where you can find the appropriate exposure time when you have already chosen the unfiltered time and the type of ND filter you use. All the values are in seconds except it is declared otherwise. I believe this table below is maybe more useful since it deals with darker ND filters and longer exposure times. How can we read these tables? Check first the unfiltered shutter speed you want (this is the one you determine form the aperture priority settings..) and then go all the way following the row to the intersection with the appropriate column where you see your ND filter. And that is your new exposure time. Lets say for example you read in your camera settings a shutter speed of 1 sec (very low-light scene) then (see table below) if you are using a ND 3.0 filter , that is a 10 f-stop reduction, you need to time 15 minutes with your stopwatch when you take your photo in Bulb mode. Is that all? I am afraid no.. and i will give the reasons in the next section. Just to finish with the tables i will give you a most useful table where we can have exposure times for stacking filters. Be aware and use the minimum number of filters to achieve your required number of f-stop reduction. What i mean? If you want to achieve a 16 f-stops reduction use a 10- and a 6- filter and not combinations like -6, -6, -4. Increasing the number of ND filters can cause serious vignetting problems. You can work both ways with this chart (and every chart in this post). You want to make an exposure of approximately 1 hour (maybe  a traffic scene where you do not want to have the cars movement or people moving around..). You check first the setting of your photo without filters and lets say you have a value of your Shutter speed close to 1/15 secs. Then looking at this table below you see that for an hour exposure you need 16 f-stops. You put two -8 or -10 and -6 and that’s it! You have two -10 stops filters (that is two ND 3.0’s)

Calculating exposure times Read More »

A Guide for Neutral Density Filters

General remarks Everyone is interested in Long exposure photography needs to know about Neutral Density Filters. I started with my previous post to give the general description of how to calculate exposure times and i think now it is time to give you a guide about these filters. I thought about presenting my ideas as a regular post but then i decided that it is more pedagogical to show my report in the form of questions. So this is the complete FAQ about neutral density filters. Some points before i start: I narrowed my search to only some brands i know or are widely known. If you think that a company not mentioned here deserves a quote please mail me and i will update my post, or simply add a comment below. Also if you found some errors concerning the description i gave to the various products or maybe i have forgotten some important characteristics of them please comment and i will also update my report. I will try to be objective concerning the use of these filters based on my personal experience or the experience of photographers i admire. Of course these ideas may not reflect the general belief but what can i do about this? It is just my humble report and my ideas after all. Still anyone wants to add his personal experience is welcomed to add his/her comments. What are the types of ND Filters? The ND Filter Screw-in Type: This type gives you the ability to screw in the filter itself into the camera lens and leave it there as a part of the lens, whenever you want to change it or take it off, simply screw it backward and remove it. The ND Filter Slot-in Holder Type: This type consists of a holder that fixed (screwed) on the camera lens and provide the ability to slide in any rectangle ND filter into the holder’s dedicated slot. Variable ND-Filters Screw-in Type: Density can be varied just by rotating the indicator from Min to Max Brand: Formatt Hitech, JJ-Long exposure kit What is a Graduated Neutral Density Filter (GND)? Half of this filter is clear and the other half goes from Light to Dark to the top of the filter. In the middle of the filter, the amount of filtering increases from 0 stops to 1 – 4 stops usually, towards the top of the filter. You will find them in these 0.3, 0.6 0.9, and lately 1.2 density factors (that is 1, 2, 3, and 4 f-stops reduction). Also the second important characteristic of these filters is the type of gray-graduation (light to dark) from the middle to top. A Soft Edge filter makes a soft gray-graduation while in a Hard Edge filter this graduation happens abruptly. Lets say we have a 4×6″ filter GND 0.3 as an example which is a 6 inches high filter and the bottom 3 inches of it are clear or 0 stop. If it is Soft GND then at the horizon line, it will gradually get darker towards the top from 0 stops to 3 stops of light filtering while in the Hard GND case we will have 3 inches of clear and 3 inches of 3 stop filtering. Graduated ND filters are used where there is a large dynamic range between the brightest parts of a scene and the darkest part of a scene. For example a sunset or a scene taken towards the sun where the sky is very bright compared to the land. Without a graduated ND filter you would have to select either the sky or the land to be properly exposed and sacrifice the other to be blown out (pure white) or under exposed (black). So a graduated ND filter will allow to get a much better sunset shot in a single frame, the alternative being to take multiple exposures and blend them together afterwards in Photoshop or Lightroom. There is also the case of Reverse Graduated filter where the darkest part of the filter is right in the middle of the filter and then gets lighter towards the top of the frame. Most common use for this filter is shooting a sunset when the sun is right on the horizon. You will be reducing the amount of light coming in from the horizon (the sun) and letting the light in from the other parts of the scene. Technical info: More easy-handling are the Soft grads and so more popular whilst hard grads are really only suitable in certain scenarios such as oceanic scenes where you can align the transition line along the horizon. It is important to be aware that GNDs are a compromise, it is not so certain where the transition can occur and if it is exactly where you want in a frame. That is why you end up many times with trees that are darker on the top than the bottom. Someone can say that it is always a matter of post processing but things become almost impossible  when the alignment of the horizon with a hard edge GND is problematic . Although usually the GNDs are plate filters there are also some Screw-in types. The main problem using Screw-In GNDs is that you have no flexibility playing with the vertical position of their horizon line. And this is a BIG disadvantage.   What is a solid ND filter? The whole filter is dark and has a specific density factor. Usually these filters are from 0.3-3.0 density factors (until 10 f-stops reduction) both in Screw-In type and Slot-In Holder type. They made from glass or optical resin, with an index of refraction nearly identical to the optical glass  (pretty much as the GNDs). Recently we had a new entrance from Singh-Ray. A solid ND filter with 15 f-stops reduction! This will be available in both types (starts from 450 USD) Technical info: All filters produce some optical vignetting with wide lenses, because around the edges and corners the lens is looking through the filter at an angle, so it is effectively thicker and therefore more dense. Again you can correct

A Guide for Neutral Density Filters Read More »

The amazing world of Akira

I will start today showcasing the work of some favorite photographers of mine. Photographers i find their work inspiring and mind-puzzling. I don’t intend to share in my blog many interviews. My only motivation is to give you something different from the standard view in the field of Fine Art Photography. One of my favorite photographers out there is Dr. Akira Takaue and i came across his work around 2011 when i saw his amazing seascapes in FotoBlur. From that moment i followed him in every other social media and witnessed his transition to Architecture Fine Art Photography. Hope you enjoy it. I would like to thank you Akira for this interview and i start by telling you that i totally love your architecture work because it has so many conceptual elements and brings a different (extra) dimension to the classical Fine Art Architecture Photography. But first lets talk about your title. You are a Dr. that means you have a PhD..what is your field and what is your actual work? Tell us some things about your life. My main field is structural engineer/ consulting engineer, providing engineering of high-rise building and long-span bridges such as mega-structure mainly in the Asia nations.I started this field since 1996, firstly I was designing bridge structures mainly in Japan. And then After receiving Dr. of Engineering and qualifications of Architect/ Professional Engineer Japan, I’ve been in the field of international structural engineering from Italian long-span bridge project in 2004. Naturally daily job is “fortunately” so busy, have not enough time to stay in Japan with my family calmly, but I’m satisfied since it allows me to travel a lot. Does your profession influences your photographic vision and if yes in what way? Can you define your artistic vision in more detail if there is such thing of course…? Yes, that extremely influences my photography.I would like to produce conceptual urban scape including the fields of Aesthetic Design and Structural Mechanics including material engineering. And also I would like to direct a spotlight to not only famous structures but also “Common Structures” usually seen in a town. The photogenic subjects regarding structures may not be limited in famous and popular structures. Even if they are nameless and common shape structures they were designed and planned carefully, calculated in depth and constructed precisely, which must be the crystallization of engineering. I would like to produce artistic images of such structures based on the logic of Landscape Architecture Design and structural properties of the building. There is a common saying that a good photographer can find his masterpiece in the backyard…is this possible with the architecture photography? Of course Yes. The field of architecture category in photography consists of a lot of elements, such as close-view, middle-distance-view, long-distance view, BW, Color, abstract, Flat-Shot-Image that is my field such as “Interruption” you can see here. Buildings and Bridges are not constructed automatically, but they are planned, analyzed and designed by Engineers based on aesthetic design, landscape architecture design, City planning, Structural Mechanics and material engineering. Therefore, I believe that I can find out and discover some different and characteristic points of views of a structure including surrounding conditions. What i really like in your work is the color or selective color. Every photo can be black and white or color in Fine Art photography? What are your thoughts about this? The choice whether BW, Color or spot color is applied to may depend on the concept I determined during taking and post processing. For example, this shot with warmhearted colors, beautiful lady with colorful bags, “Joyfull Day in Urban Matrix“. Already I received a lot of opinions about this image, but I determined that the concept of this image should keep warmhearted color and not strong BW tones. I like BW images working by only contrast, shape and light condition, but sometimes that may not efficiently work.The choice of color or not completely depends on the major concept including motif and story of the image.Therefore, I believe that photographers should make their own concept, story and motif in their images.   In some great photos of yours i have seen some conceptual extensions..Remember that one with a woman’s silhouette in a skyscraper. Can you tell us more about this kind of processing? What are your thoughts about manipulation in general..I have heard many people saying that hate to change the sky from a photo and add a more dramatic from another one and others saying that the most important in a fine art photograph is the final result and how close it is to the artist’s vision. My photography is now under development. The mentioned photo of a woman’s silhouette in a skyscraper was produced in my challenging term in 2010. This is just a concept of digital Manipulation, not an architecture image. I challenged this concept 2 years ago but I thought that such the concept with digital manipulation might not become my main category, so I stopped to produce them. Therefore, from that time since 2012, I’m trying to take shots without drastic changes by photoshop and i am focused in taking architecture shots with ND filters. I do not disagree with such the concept of digital manipulation but I would like to take real urban scape photography based on structural mechanics and landscape architecture design. Do you want to become a professional photographer? As of today, No, I don’t. I’m a architect and bridge engineer, which may be my one-way road in my life. Therefore, if I quit my main job as international structural engineer, my architectural images would not be worked remarkably and technically well. What is your photographic gear and how much time do you spend for post-processing? NIKON D700 and NIKON V1. And for post processing, I spend total 2 or 3 hours by Photoshop element and Nikon Capture NX2. Are there special places for a Architecture photographer? I mean for me as a landscape photographer Iceland is paradise..Any paradise for you Akira? As I mentioned in the second question, I would like

The amazing world of Akira Read More »

the dream of an amateur..

Some thoughts about my site Finally managed to finish the update of my site. There are some more things/updates i need to do but i leave it for later. As you can probably see there is a new look concerning the layering of the pages, the appearance of my portfolio and especially the presentation of my photos. A highly recommended plugin (unfortunately you have to buy it) is the FooBox. Actually this was the reason i did the whole update since my previous wordpress theme had some problems with it. Feel quite comfortable with this new theme and i think i will keep it for quite some time. I did a major update of my portfolio adding my newest collections, updating some old ones, deleting some others. Also decided to present only two color collections since, i think, my “color vision” has changed considerably the last year. I will add soon a post about this new vision when i will describe my latest color photo “never ending journey_the color version”. So stay tuned.. Goodbye 500px I decided about a week ago to leave 500px after a year and something of active appearance there. I had a very successful profile with more than 700.000 views and high numbers concerning their favorite/like metric system. Unfortunately, for me, this social network had nothing to give me except for an easy way to show my work to people. But i guess this is something you can do with your website. I have been four times selected by Editor and some of my pictures there had more than 30.000 views. Although “exposure” is the magic word you hear all around about these sites believe me it is just an illusion. Nothing exciting really happened but instead i was seeing people asking me to take a look at their photos and give my “like” vote. And then i asked my self “Is this the real meaning of art? Begging people to vote for your vision?” I couldn’t stand reading all these comments any more..so goodbye 500px. So for me there is the Facebook (with many problems dealing with it also but i keep it), my Flickr account and Behance network which i think it is the best network by far. I will come on this on a later post I have a dream… What is actually the dream of an amateur photographer? I’ve heard many thoughts on this closely related with public exposure and becoming a successful pro photographer. For me an amateur should stay amateur, at least i will keep it this way. An amateur has the unique privilege to photograph when he/she wants, when he/she feels being in that special mood to express his/her inner world with a picture. This magic moment is gone when you become a pro and you may have to shoot many times you really hate to do that. My dreams are simple and difficult at the same time. I want to master my technique and control my feelings in order to reveal them in my photos..Controlling your mind and soul is always the most important ingredient of a good photo. The skill to process a photo can be learned, the skill to capture your feelings and thoughts in a 2D layer (i.e. photo) is more like a gift from your inner self. Although i try to evolve my processing skills my main concern is to control my feelings and emotions that is why i need motivation to shoot. Public exposure is always a great gift for an amateur photographer. I started last year to participate in international contests and to my surprise i received many recognitions. Taking, two years in the row, the Second place in International photography Awards (IPA) is such a great bonus for my work-Last year in Advertising/Self Promotion and this year in Nature/Landscapes. The most important achievement nevertheless is that i took many Honorable Mentions in so different categories like People/Self-Portrait, Architecture, Abstract, Digital Enhancing, Special Panoramic. Although i consider my self as a dedicated landscape photographer i want to evolve my vision and technique to other photographic genres. And having all these prizes is a strong motivation to continue. So i guess these are my dreams, nothing more or nothing less. Last but not least i love to hear the voices of the people looking at my work. This is also a great gift for me and when by any chance i hear words like “your work is inspirational” then i know that being an amateur will be always my main concern. A big welcome to my site and thank you for your visit.

the dream of an amateur.. Read More »

Exploring Fine Art Photography

The origin When i try to describe my vision is like i draw incoherent lines, shapes in a white paper without any real meaning and sense mostly because everything is driven by emotion and, for me at least, is very difficult to “tame” it and restrict it in regular shapes and rules. I am surprised when i read about the visions of other photographers so well defined and described. It is like you can control your emotions or leave them out of the whole creativity process. Anyway lately i was featured in a new photomagazine and was asked to give my ideas about the terms Clarity and Confusion and how these terms define my work. It was that time i realized that these terms could describe quite well my whole perception about my Fine Art Photography. I will try to elaborate this but firstly i will show two of my latest artworks from my collection “Borders”. It is the best way to describe the way i work and understand Fine Art. My “real” world is unreal “Borders” collection © Vassilis Tangoulis| Fine Art Photography These latest artworks show clearly that I am motivated by a vision to transform the “real world” out there into a dreamy place possibly in another timeframe and outside the ordinary description of shapes, lines and figures. In order to succeed this I am using the Long exposure technique allowing me to play with large time exposures and my post processing skills. The truth is that beyond every photographic technique and any post processing skill i have to visualize these unearthly scenes, i have to “see” these rock formations and the trees balancing in the borders of a calm sea and a dynamic sky. As i have said I am drawn to Long exposure photography because it allows me to add a fourth dimension– i.e. time– to a three dimensional object. My photography is a 4D object leaving its footprint, its “trace,” in a 2D layer. When this happens for a 3D object, it is easy for a mind to visualize its 3D morphology. In order to envision a 4D object, however, one needs the power of Fine Art photography. In other words I use Fine Art Photography to reveal secret aspects of common subjects like these rocks and trees. “Borders” collection © Vassilis Tangoulis| Fine Art Photography I experiment with light, time, and spatial coordinates– and then through my post processing, my “common” subject is finally framed in a transformed world in which its dimensions can be easily described and visualized. As you can see my intension is to question everything reality considers as prerequisite, to alter the way nature is photographed and finally to confuse the eyes of the viewer.  Someone could say that this can be done easily if you use subjects like trees and rocks so i will give some more examples. I always find as an interesting challenge to visit well photographed places like Meteora i visited lately. You can see my interpretation in one om my photos from my collection “Middle of the sky“. Emphasizing the tones of the misty backgound, playing with the tonal gradients, using dodging processing for the foreground rock formations and paying special attention to the light treatment managed to give a mystic atmosphere quite suitable , i think, to this special place. For a moment i manage to confuse the eye of the viewer about the reality of this landscape although all the elements of the frame seem to be quite real and if someone happens to be familiar with Meteora can raise easily the question if this photo was taken there. “Middle of the sky” collection © Vassilis Tangoulis| Fine Art Photography Finding…”Confusion” I believe everything started unconsciously when I was trying to find my identity as a photographer many years ago. I never felt comfortable with street photography and landscape photography (when I was trying to capture the real picture of a scape). Then I discovered the neutral density filters and a whole new world was suddenly revealed. A world with blurred movements, skies with dramatic tones where the clouds have unreal shapes, the seas are frozen and everything there is blurred giving the notion of movement in a static medium. “Waterland” collection © Vassilis Tangoulis|Fine Art Photography The figures of people are abstract and in one picture there is a whole history of movements while colors, when the photograph is in color, have such a great mixture of tones already outside the classical pallet of colors nature uses to treat its miracles. I felt in love with this technique and the transformed world I could capture with my lens and by the same time this was my very first step to create confusion (not to me of course) but to all my viewers and to make them asking questions like (is this from a place in earth? Am I living in this place because I haven’t seen something like this before). Elaborating Confusion through Clarity Through the years i tried to elaborate my “Confusion” concept. I wanted to keep my photos simple. There is a misunderstanding here that simple means easy. “Messolonghi” collection © Vassilis Tangoulis|Fine Art Photography Actually it is quite the opposite. Having a photo with a boat or a tree or an abandoned house “resting” in a large negative space is so challenging for me since I have to intrigue the eyes and the mind of the viewer and at the same time to make him/her wonder about the clarity of this work. In other words to confuse him/her about something so ordinary and simple. A large portion of my work is minimal having this kind of vision.I wanted to make this confusion more challenging and I think this next step was the decisive one since I managed to give my personal signature to this peculiar and at the same time so interesting perception of my “reality”. My intention was to produce photos with a “Clarity” character and this means that a viewer instantly and clearly understands my subject but at the same time a

Exploring Fine Art Photography Read More »

PhotoGallery
Contact
Blog
Subscribe