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What the landscape photogaphy actually is?

28. 03. 2015.Educations, Photo notesadmin

By Robert Hirsch
The term landscape originates from the Dutch word landschap, meaning “landship.”

It represented a segment of nature that could be taken in at a glance, from a single point of view, and encompassed the land as well as animals, buildings, and people.
Going back in history, landscapes were originally used primarily to fill in the blank space behind a person or scene by painters, and other artists.

However as art and photography has evolved, the “background” was seen to have artistic value in and of itself. Today, landscape photography is a very popular pursuit.

These days, almost everyone carries a camera. From the small pocket digital cameras, to dSLR cameras, to smart phones. It is now essentially free to take as many photos as you want, and you can view them immediately. These changes in photography have meant that we are now flooded with images on social media, television and in advertising.
Is every “happy snap” taken of the landscape, by default, a landscape photo? I would argue that it is not.

In trying to answer the question, “what is landscape photography”, I came across many possible definitions including “the branch of photography dealing with the representation of natural scenery” to “photos of pretty much anything as long as it’s outside”!
So, what is landscape photography? For me, it is photography that focuses on the natural world and has a purpose…

Landscape Photos should have a Purpose

Tell a Story
A good landscape picture should make a connection with the viewer, and tell you a story. A good landscape picture will have you finding interesting details in the photo for several months after you first see it. The skill is to entertain the viewer within the singular moment of the photo. Capturing the instant in time, and preserving it forever, can make it into something amazing. It can remind you of a certain location, a certain point in time, or a period of your life.

Show someone more than they see
Landscape photography is not purely about taking yourself to beautiful locations- in fact the real skill comes from finding the beauty in everyday life. I came across a quote that I liked by Eliot Porter, an American nature photographer- “All the cycles of life are beautiful.” This quote rings true to the landscape photographer, as you search for the “special parts” in life around you. Many great landscape photos have been taken in places that would not usually be considered beautiful- by choosing what to include or exclude, and bringing your own unique perspective, you can choose the scene that best represents your creative vision. It all comes together when you push the camera shutter and the photo reveals something special and spectacular.

Sharing the feelings of a moment
Another aspect of landscape photography is to share the feelings that come with these incredible moments in time. It is one thing to be able to see these amazing things yourself, it is quite another to be able to share them with others.

Remind people of the beauty of our world
The final purpose that I will talk about is the ability to remind people of nature, and the natural world. In our current lives it is easy to run out of time to stop and smell the roses. It is common to get caught in your own busy world and lose track of the outside world. Landscape photography should remind you of that connection we all have to the land, and remind you to stop every so often, to take a big breath, and be aware. Landscape pictures can also show both the strength and the fragility of nature- the volatile beauty of the wilderness and the earth that needs to be protected. The act of photography intensifies ones visual experience.

What is NOT landscape photography?
Landscape photography is not photojournalism, it is not a not documentary, its aim is not necessarily to capture scenes in their ordinary state. Most of the time, we actually wait for the conditions that transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Challenges and tools
Landscape photography can be challenging- it is all about working within the fixed constraints of the land. You do not have the aids of sound and music like in video and cinema. You must exist within the natural world (unlike painters who have some leeway), and you do not have studio lighting to help you get the best detail from every shot. Add to this you need to try and capture a dynamic scene in a static medium, and create depth with two dimensions.

However, landscape photography is an addictive pursuit- every time that the light is inadequate, the wind too strong or the tourists in your way- makes the moments when it all comes together even more special!

You Tube Singidunum 2015 rewarded photographs

28. 03. 2015.Newsadmin

Here you can find a selection of the winning photographs by topic from Serbia PHOTO Salon Singidunum 2015.

Better in camera – John Grawett

12. 03. 2015.Educations, Photo notesadmin

John Gravett shows us how to get the best possible results “in camera” without having to correct it later.

It always amazes me the number of people who say, “Oh, I can sort it out in Photoshop”.

You shouldn’t need to. There are a few simple steps anyone can take to ensure you get the best possible results using a digital camera, without having to spend a lot of time correcting it later.

But first, let’s dispel the romance of digital photography.
The digital camera does not take photos; it records data, and the better the data you capture, the better quality image you will end up with. Knowing what you’re working with can help you in the field.

In terms of getting colours right, I’m really not a fan of auto white balance (AWB). It tries to average every shot into equal proportions of red, green and blue. In a green landscape it adds blue, cooling down the image. In a sunset, it reduces the amount of red, and increases the blue and green channels, giving a more insipid feel to the colours.

I know shooting RAW these colours can all be corrected in Photoshop, but I’d far sooner spend more time in the field photographing, and less time sitting in front of the computer correcting it.

Set the appropriate white balance (daylight, cloudy, etc) in camera at the time of shooting, or use a preset or custom white balance if the lighting is tricky. By doing this, you are already at, or at least close to, the correct white balance and even your thumbnails will be closer to the colours you perceived. Don’t think that you must underexpose your photos when shooting to “intensify the colours”. Across the histogram, the further you can push your tones to the right, the more data you end up with (don’t blow the highlights in doing this).

Try taking two shots a stop apart. So long as your highlight detail is retained in both pictures, the lighter shot will almost always be a larger file size and so better quality.

Moreover, the lighter photo will have much better detail retained in the shadows, and whilst the picture might look pale, a slight tweak of the mid-tones in levels will bring richness back to the colours of the picture, without losing shadow tones. The less you have to lighten shadows, the better, as the dark tones contain the lowest amount of data and lightening them creates noise.

If a graduated neutral density filter can improve your picture (in terms of data), use one. Don’t wait to add a grad in Photoshop or Lightroom. Without a grad, the ground is often very dark, meaning it needs severe lightening in post-processing (again causing noise). Use of the grad in the field not only prevents skies from blowing out, it can also result in the ground being recorded with much more inherent detail.

Don’t rely on cloning out either – move things you don’t want in the fi eld. It means looking much harder round the edge of the picture before firing the shutter, being more careful with the composition.

When we shot film, we were careful to exclude what we didn’t want from the photograph. Many photographers now end up cropping a shot, not just to change the format shape, but to recompose the picture. You need to maximise the data you have in any picture to give you the best print quality. So, try getting it right in the camera, and see if your quality improves.

John Gravett is a professional photographer with over 30 years experience and one of the most respected photographic tutors in the country. Together with his wife, Gail, he has owned and operated Lakeland Photographic Holidays since 1999. Between them they have welcomed around 350 photographers annually on their workshops both in the Lake District and in overseas destinations.

© Better „in camera” by John Gravett

Play of light in photographs Hadzi Miodrag Miladinovic

20. 02. 2015.Galleryadmin

Hadzi Miodrag Miladinovic

An important characteristic of Miladinovic’s photography are sicial problems because it is actually everyday life charasteristic of the people living in these parts of the country and of our age in general.

Miodrag-Mica Miladinovic, a fine photography artist of the ULUPUDS and a photography master of the Photo-union of Yugoslavia, works as a professional photographer and the editor in chief of Radio-TV Aleksinac, studio “Vesela televizija”.
He was born in 1957. He took part in more than 250 exhibitions in the country and abroad and won about 80 awards.
He has organized 30 independent exhibitions. His photographs are being published in daily and periodical newspapers and he carries out professional tasks and artistic projects.
One of the characteristics of Serbian photography in the last few decades is that the big majority of present professionals have begun this profession as amateurs, mainly in photo-clubs. Later, photography became their main, even the only profession.
That also stands for Hadzi Miodrag Miladinovic – his work is based on traditional experience and on club and photo-union exhibition aesthetics. Later, he adopted his development to the needs of professional photography. From the very beginning of his career he has been expressing himself in a creative and author’s way.
The first Miodrag’s preoccupation are landscapes and that is the subject matter of his first independent exhibition. This period is important for Miladinovic not only because of the photographs he has realized but also because of his author’s maturity and controlling over the technology and photography aesthetics and he is qualifying for further successful work. Miladinovic soon realized three characteristics that would be typical throughout his creative work.
The first one is the forming of a recognizable author’s access. The second is the appreciation of the subject matter he is working with. Actually, the theme and its importance are what determine Miladinovic whether to devote himself to it or not. The third characteristic is that he has chosen cycles in his creative work – which is to say – he is working with a theme or some motives for some time – long enough to work it out deliberately.
The analysis of Miladinovic’s photographs shows that he is analyzing the material he is taking pictures of in great detail – then hi is devotedly and professionally realizing it.
The percepted cadre contains all the information that is necessary for understanding the subject matter. The actors of the scene are functioning naturally and logically in it.
Miladinovic chooses the standing point so that he is also a participant of the material he is taking pictures of, but he is not disturbing the scenes that are going on in front of him.
This is the moment when Miladinovic, together with the people who are behaving naturally in front of the camera, expresses a special skill. The light in his photographs is also natural and it helps the photographer to preserve the atmosphere. With the special feeling for the “decisive moment”, Miladinovic’s photographs enable us to feel as though we are present in the scenes he is taking pictures of. Everything looks persuasive and trustworthy. This is the best tradition of the documentary photography.
Miladinovic approaches photography as though it is the means of creative expression, but the subject matter which is preoccupying him in the period of his author’s maturity is the everyday life, especially of the town he is living in – Aleksinac and its surroundings. Having worked long and diligently, Miladinovic as a chronicler has formed precious documents about people and time he is working in. Further more, the author is not satisfied solely with the registration of events. The material he is working with initiates him to think profoundly about it and by respecting the original meaning of the photographed motives, the author is trying to make the monograph out of percept scenes and to expose the essence of the subject matter. The social problems seem to be a very important characteristic of Miladinovic’s work as they are the part of everyday life and the general characteristic of our age. The best example for this is the following projects: “The Life of the Miners from the Town of Aleksinac” and “Life as an Illusion”.
Miladinovic has created documents about the accident in the mines of Aleksinac, war destruction in Slovenia, Bosnia and Kosovo; the monograph “By Fire over Aleksinac”, but he also worked with beautiful visual totalities: “A Journey through the History of Greece”, “holy Mount Athos”, “Hilandar”, “The Monastery of St. Steven” in Lipovac near Aleksinac, and others.
Miladinovic is extremely diligent and his photography opus is rich and the quality of his photography realization is calling for our respect. Yet, the best thing about his work is his devotion and honesty. Miladinovic’s photographs are always human. Humanity is his the main characteristic and of enormous importance in his creative work. He has already shown a high potential and it would be good if the circumstances could enable him to exploit it as efficiently as he was doing it until now.
Dragoljub Tosic

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The jury concluded its work on the First International Salon Singidunum 2015

20. 02. 2015.Newsadmin

First International Salon of Photography Singidunum 2015, organized by the Serbia PHOTO Belgrade, attracted 329 authors from 55 countries and all continents worlwide.
Jury: Branislav Strugar, Belgrade, Radisav Filipovic, Leskovac and Nenad Nikolic, Belgrade, on 13 and 14 February 2015, reviewed 3363 digital photos and selected for display 1088, as well as 1307 images on paper, and selected to be exposed 444. The regularity of the jury work was under supervising representative of the FSS Bozidar Vitas from Belgrade.
Among the most successful authors of selected photographs jury assigned 144 awards (gold, silver and bronze medals and commendations). Also, with two special awards: GRAND PRIX Salon and Blue badge FIAP, that are assigned to the authors with the best results and most of the received entries.

István Virag is admitted to the World Association of Hungarian Photographers

25. 01. 2015.Newsadmin

We are very proud that Mr. István Virag, a member of Serbia PHOTO Association, FIAP, FSS, FKVK “Rada Krstic” in Sombor, and FK “Moholy”, Baja, Hungary, achieved great success in the field of art photography.

In October last year he was admitted to the World Association of photo-artists of Hungarian nationality (World Association of Hungarian Photographers), which gathers together photographers from around the world.

István Virag and Joseph J. Fekete, a regular member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, in front of the photo “Trippers02”

In the company with President WAHP dr. Patrus Sandor

Membership in this association is granted on the basis of recommendations or invitation by submitting a portfolio and based on the assessment of the competent authority WAHP.

In Győr (Győr) in Hungary on January 20, 2015 was prepared a promotional exhibition of new members. István Virag presented with “Look03” and “Trippers02”.

Petar Sabol – Sharpeye

16. 01. 2015.Photo notes, Galleryadmin

Peter Sabol “Sharpeye”, was born in 1981. He is been engaged in photography since 2007.

He is particularly interested in photographs of nature and wildlife. He specializes in the area of macro photography, that his favorite form of artistic expression.

He is a member of Photo Club Čakovec, Croatia and Photo Club Danube in Serbia.

He has participated in several group exhibitions within the photography clubs. In early 2012. he began regularly sent their works to the FIAP (Federation Internationale del ‘Art Photographique) and PSA (Photographic Society of America) and achieved tremendous success.

AFIAP (Artiste FIAP) won the 2013. and 2014 received the honorary title EFIAP (Excellence FIAP). He has participated in a total of 176 FIAP salon, his works have been admitted more than 1,500 times and has won a total of 137 awards, of which 71 commendations and 66 medals in 29 countries around the world. At PSA exhibitions participated 27 times and won an additional 23 commendations and 27 medals.

He also won the FIAP gold medals in the UAE on 7th Emirates Photography Competition 2012/116 as the winner in the category of macro photography with “Natural abstract”, which is permanently stored in the National Library in Paris.

Author: Petar Sabol

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Exhibition by Aleksandra Lekovic – Between the lines

14. 01. 2015.Newsadmin

Between the lines / Omedjeni linijama – is a series of photographs dominated by geometric shapes, most significantly lines which lead to or bind people, which are always present in the frame.

The photographs were taken in urban spaces, where the setting reflects the estrangement which is dominant in those settings, so it is no surprise that the people in them are alone or unconscious of others.

Geometrical shapes, surfaces and textures in the photographs are a part of a setting and our living space, but symbolize the boundaries that are imposed by our everyday lives as well, and their rhythmic repetition imitates the monotonous day-to-day events and the fast-paced rhythm of contemporary life, everything that pressures and binds the modern man.

However, often the lines and shapes with which the man is “bounded” are simply a game of light and shadow and create an illusion of boundaries due to which we feel alone and estranged from ourselves and the others, so one can take away a possibility of escape from these photographs, through life-long optimism and courage necessary for crossing the “line”.

Martin Chambi – The Scent of the Andes

08. 01. 2015.Photo notes, Galleryadmin

Martin Chambi (1891-1973) was an Indian-born photographer born in Coaza, north of Lake Titicaca, Peru. It is considered one of the great figures of American photography.

Recognized for his photos of deep social witness, historical and ethnic origin has portrayed agrarian and urban society in the Peruvian Andes. At an early age left his native Puno to start an adventure that would lead him to discover his vocation as a photographer.

The story of Martin Chambi began at a mine in the heights of Carabaya when he saw for first time a camera. The interest in learning about the handling of the magic boxes which freeze the time, led him to work in the studio of “Max T. Arequipa Photographer Vargas”.

Once learned the techniques of developing and expanding, the basics of photographic composition and management of a study, he established his empire of photo in Cusco.

He was the first to photograph his race with a postcolonial eye. When Martín Chambi arrived in Cuzco, the ancient Incan capital, the richest and most splendid among American pre-Columbian cities, was experiencing a slight demographic recovery following the dramatic population decline.

It was Chambi who had the greatest international diffusion, and he who has left us the most personal, magical, profound, and dazzling work among all Peruvian photographers and maybe of all Latin American photographers.

Martín Chambi’s images laid bare the social complexity of the Andes. Those images place us in the heart of highland feudalism, in the land of the large landholders, with their servants and concubines, in the colonial processions of contrite and drunken throngs. Chambi’s photographs capture it all: the weddings, parties, and first communions of the well-to-do; the drunkenness and poverty of the poor along with the public events shared by both. That is why, surely without intending it, Chambi became in effect the symbolic photographer of his race, transforming the telluric voice of Andean man, his millenary melancholy, his eternal neglect, his quintessentially Peruvian, human, Vallejo-like pain into the truly universal.

“I‘ve read that in Chile they think that the indigenous South American peoples have no culture, that they are not civilized, that they are intellectually and artistically inferior to European white peoples. The artworks are a graphic testament that is more eloquent than my own opinion, always. I hope that this testament will be examined fairly and objectively. I feel I am representing my race; my people will speak through the photographs.” – Martín Chambi, 1936

There is a lot to learn from Martin Chambi. He is definitely someone to look up to if you want to take up photography.

All of his photos say something and indeed, he is one of the few out there who knew how to communicate a whole story in only one image.

That was Martin Chambi.

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Mario Testino – more than a fashion

07. 01. 2015.Photo notes, Galleryadmin

Fashion photographer Mario Testino was born in Lima Peru, South America in 1954. He was raised in a mixed Spanish-Italian-Irish family.

He studied economics during his first year at the University of the Pacific in Lima, Peru and later studied law at the Catholic University of Lima. He traveled to the University of San Diego, California to study international relations.

In 1976, he moved to London, England to pursue a career in photography. In the beginning he worked as a waiter to finance his photography. In one of the restaurants where he worked he met some of the editors of British Vogue who invited him to submit samples of his photographic work to the magazine.

Testino soon began to freelance for British Vogue, starting a professional career working for other European editons of Vogue and eventuallly in the United States with Vanity Fair, and later American Vogue.

© Ryan Gosling - Mario Testino — © Ryan Gosling – Mario Testino

In 1995,Testino was commissioned to photograph the Gucci campaigns. Testino’s love of glamour enhanced the sexy, sultry and powerful Gucci clothes, and the Gucci aesthetic took the fashion world by storm.

Testino was greatly in demand after that and was hired to shoot campaigns for super-brands such as Donna Karan and Versace. Testino made a name with his practice of putting his models into large groups which convey vitality and energy and are usually set against the backdrop of an event or a daily-life situation.

Testino is today one of the world’s great fashion photographers, the source of numerous covers of the best fashion magazines . Testino has photographed celebrities such as Keira Knightley, Madonna, Kim Basinger, Elizabeth Hurley, Gwyneth Paltrow, Janet Jackson, Cameron Diaz, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones.

But what definitively elevated him to become a celebrity himself was his portraits of Princess Diana for Vanity Fair.

In March 2005, he was honored with a plaque on the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style, a distinction bestowed by the high-end Beverly Hills shopping area for contributions to fashion and show business. Testino’s plaque quotes his famous quote, “Chic is nothing but the right nothing.”

Testino is also known for discovering the models of tomorrow; and launching the careers of models such as Georgina Grenville, Gisele Bundchen, Lisa Winkler, Carolyn Murphy, and Jacquetta Wheeler.

Mario Testino published his first book of photography; a collection of images entitled Any Objections, in 1999. In 2003, he published Portraits to accompany his exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery. In 2005, his exhibition of Diana photos, Diana: Princess of Wales, opened at Kensington Palace.

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