...mille põhjuseks: ajanappus, tüdimus, väsimus, laiskus. Ehk tüüpiline igasügisene stsenaarium.
Võib-olla mõnel päeval viitsin pikemalt kirjutada, kuid täna piirdun kiire lühikokkuvõttega oma viimastest tegemistest.
Niisiis, liitusin oktoobris TTÜ fotoklubiga. Senimaani olen maksimaalselt passiivne olnud, sest hetkel ei suuda leida endas pildistamisaktiivsuse tõstmiseks vajaminevat lisaenergiat. Krooniline magamatus teeb entusiasmi kaotamisega imesid.
Klubi ise tundub päris asjalik olevat, tutvumisõhtul tundsin end pisinatuke ebaadekvaatsena - mis ma, võhik, siin passin? Aga eks näis, mis saab. Küllap millalgi kraabin jõuvarud kokku ja üritan nende tegemistes kaasa lüüa.
Kuna semestrimasendus on täies hoos, otsustasime paari kursakaaslasega rutiinile veidi mängulisust lisada ning viisime läbi nö telekommi fotonädala. Kõlab küll suurejooneliselt, kuid tegelikult oli see vaid max 4 inimese teostus, mis hõlmas endas 80ndate kampsunites - ja prillides TTÜ koridorides poseerimist (tudeng 25 aastat tagasi). Igal pildil oli oma teema/mõte ning tihtipeale kleepisime hiljem soovitud (sürrealistliku) stseeni hoopis photoshopis kokku. Jagada neid fotosid pole hetkel kahjuks võimalik - kogu üritus oli vaid oma lõbuks (kuigi ma ei välista, et millalgi midagi siia blogipinnale ikkagi pudeneb).
Oma sügismasenduses pole ma senimaani suviste kaustade korrastamiseni veel jõudnud, seega loodetavasti ei jää tänased pildid mu ainsaks saagiks viimasest neljast kuust.
Naabrite murulaukja lavendel loomaaias. (Kuskil oli mul postitatud murulauk ka enne õitsemist)
Loomaaias käies pidi loomulikult ka muru pildistama, tühja neist eksootilistest isenditest.
Minu väike Lapik...pole teda vist 2 kuud näinud. Viimati tundus, et vastupidiselt mu varasemale arvamusele on ta siiski tüdruk...Vat siis
Suutsin pildikvaliteedi kuidagi ära peedistada, kahjuks. Tallinna vanalinn oma hiilguses (ilma sarkasmita, ebatäiuslikkus on võluv).
This "blog" has been actively in use for a year now (in blogger, in tumblr it's 2 years) and over the course of that time I could see that people didn't really care for my photos. According to blog stats, that is.
To be perfectly honest, it has brought me down a bit in the past.
Why I needed (at least) some re-assurance that somebody somewhere occasionally did look at my photos? Why would that have to matter even the slightest? That's hard to say, my best guess is that I just wanted to know that I was doing something right and becoming better at my hobby.
Sounds really vain, I guess.
The truth is, leaving active membership on deviantART had a huge part in going unnoticed and I knew it perfectly well. I have been a member there since 2005, and there have been times of complete devotion to this site on my part. For years I was inspired to take better photos and build a larger group of devious friends.
About 1.5-2 years ago it felt like I couldn't handle the site anymore. It was taking up too much of my time and it wasn't about art anymore. It was becoming too "you :+fav: me, I'll :+fav: you" - granted, I've never actually been part of such a deal per se but I did feel it was an unwritten rule in *some* cases.
I felt it was necessary to turn my back on praise that might've been dishonest. And now I'm here, complaining about not getting enough attention :D
Well, the thing is...at this very moment I'm not upset about it anymore ("...it has brought me down a bit in the past").
If anything, it made me realize that I'm just not that good.
Yup, there, I said it. It's not something I'd like to admit but it's the truth. I always knew it, even acknowledged it to myself, but simply chose to ignore that little voice in my head.
My harsh reality is that I don't take spectacular photos, sometimes they're completely against every rule in the book.
Sometimes I fall in love with a scene and want to translate it to a photo, but I. just. can't. make. it. work.
Although I do shoot in manual, my settings were/are somewhat questionable at times.
Oh, I could go on and on with the list.
And therefore I can't blame people for not visiting this place (other than photoshop/lightroom downloads). Hell, I wouldn't bookmark it myself.
Recently, I've tried having a more open mind in taking photos. I still have a long way to go, but at least I've made some progress.
As said before, I got quite used to posting mainly for myself, so I didn't notice that I had received some feedback on couple of my recent posts. It felt nice to see that somebody liked my stuff and actually took the time to comment (I am guilty of not doing it sometimes).
Huge thanks, the feedback was very appreciated and it really means a lot to me!
Kalevi Keskstaadion/stadium of Kalev. A huge flea market was held there
that day. The fog was really quite thick and low, the city looked absolutely
beautiful.
A mushroom, Macrolepiota procera I believe.
Taken in Metsakalmistu (a cemetery) near the grave of my
grandfather. It was quite strange, I had never seen them growing there
before (plus, they were enormous).
Tallinn Music High School. A hallway that connected two houses once. I have no idea what happened. My grandmother
used to work there as a maths teacher in the 90s and I sometimes went to work with her, so I know this hallway lead
to the cafeteria (I still remember the smells! It was wonderful, great memories) and I'm guessing it was the part of the
school. I showed this photo to my granny and she confirmed the cafeteria part, but added that she knew the other wing
(in a very poor shape, more photos to come) was actually for a music academy? There isn't much info, so everything is
kind of hazy to me. The main building of the school was nice and renovated, though. I am really hoping they don't
demolish this building. Fingers crossed!
Laitse railway crossing and platform (built in 2009-2010, making it the new one. Old/better platform was destroyed the same year).
Some photos from this spring. Between Mustamäe and Õismäe.
In Laitse.
Clouds, clear area in the shape of an arrow. Never seen anything like that
before. It was like somebody had wiped through the clouds with a clean
towel.
And again, near the Laitse railway crossing. The sunset was beautiful.
I expected to post very often during the summer...but as you can see the activity here has been pretty much non-existent. Since I wasn't able to get a summer job, I wanted to spend more time outside (instead of sitting inside and doing nothing).
And so I did:
Firstly, I picked up roller-skating again. Thankfully, Tallinn has built quite a lot of roads for bicycling/jogging/etc. and it really has been a joy. I now have a wonderful connection to the bog of Harku (Harku raba) which is close to my home but used to be a hassle to drive up to (lack of decent roads). So while an obscene amount of drivers are mad at Tallinn for creating lanes for public transportation basically out of thin air, I've really enjoyed the direction where the city's support for sports is headed.
Secondly, I decided to educate myself and start reading more books. It's a shame that I haven't really read that much after graduating from high school. And it was years ago *shudder*. The last book I read was in spring and it was about crimes that have shocked Estonians ("Ajaroimad: kuriteod, mis vapustasid Eestit" by Heino Tõnismägi). It was pretty good, real people talking about real and gruesome murders/crimes. Since a certain book (fifty shades of this, that and blergh) had been making headlines in the media, I decided to give it a go. I ended up reading all 3 books. It took me about 4 days, so I am glad that I haven't wasted too much time on this series. My thoughts? Bad literature was bad *Oh my!*. The first/best review on goodreads.com pretty much sums up what I thought of it.
And lastly, there is always something to do in our summer cottage. Lately, I've really enjoyed being there because a stray cat gave birth to 3 kittens, and they all live next to us (our neighbour's attic).
Their mother can be seen here http://kairits.blogspot.com/2012/06/nature-mobile-shots.html and strangely enough, none of her kittens look like her.
She/he (I personally think it's a 'she', based on how she acts) is my granny's favorite. She is the first one that I was able to catch :)
Again, I believe this little one is female. We call her "the Dame" because she is not amused by "common foolish
things" such as chasing a toy. But when the Dame does want to play, she gets all grumpy and annoyed when she
can't catch the toy prey (and/or falls ungracefully). She's also my mother's favorite.
My granny's favorite. All shots taken after a "gaming" session, so she was pretty tired (and muddy).
Portrait photos. On the left is my mother's favorite and on the right is my favorite :) I believe this one to be a 'he'.
He is the most energetic fluffball I've ever seen, so fast and brave. I call him Lapik, which should
translate to Dapple or something like that. Unfortunately I don't have that many photos of Dapple
(and the ones I have are usually blurry because of the speed of him).
A nice way to drink milk.
I took a bicycle and went for a ride to the Old town. This is
taken somewhere near the Kultuurikatel and Linnahall.
The school of Valdeku street. It was half-way demolished this year because it hadn't been used since 2009. At least they kept the main building...
It's a Soviet decoration (a 5-pointed star; flags; a book and a globe, I think) at the very top, for those who are unfamiliar.
*A texture is used on the left one.
The main entrance and facade of the school in its full glory.
Not particularly a very exciting image. Just the reflection/curtains/trees of an evening sky in our summer cottage.
And a July must-go-to Vasalemma. I took plenty of photos, just haven't
had the time to sort them. More photos will come, this is the only one I
had "prepared". It's also almost the same spot/angle where I took a photo
in Vasalemma last year - http://kairits.blogspot.com/2011/09/shameless-repost.html
Of course, no post would be complete without music.
NB! I have some Lightroom presets lying around and I'll be uploading them in the next week or so.
Unfortunately this trip is never for pleasure, and thus we barely have any time to look around. There are some wonderful houses/buildings/parks (the old is not ruined by Euro-norms there) in Valga, and the nature in Southern Estonia is different - the land is not as flat as it is in the North. The only reason we go there is to tidy the graves of our ancestors. I'm not even sure if that's how you say that in English (or whether foreigners will understand what I'm trying to say here because as far as I've seen in the movies, the cemeteries in UK/USA are mostly covered by grass and the keeper takes care of them - ours are not). When a grave is not visited for a year, you will have a lot to weed. And that's pretty much what we do there. Visit and weed the graves of people I've never met. Our relatives live in Valga and even they don't care (nearest cemetery is 2 km from the border of Valga).
Oh well, at least I get out of my routine once in a while. And go abroad (3 km radius in Latvia)...I've missed just wandering around and going to places. My favorite choice of transportation (bicycle) is beyond repair and it makes me sad that while my friends are out in the great world doing big things, I'm not even able to go as far as 20 km. I probably sound awful, because I have a home, clean water and food so I've got nothing to complain about.
But on to the main topic! As said before, I never have enough time in Valga, so the photos I've taken could definitely be better.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helme,_Estonia A small place we always pass on our way to Valga. There are some ruins of a castle and
caves, but we usually never go there. I've been to the caves about 3 times before, but since
extremely tight spaces make me very anxious (slightly claustrophobic) and I get trouble
breathing, I tend to avoid that area there.
This right here is the essence of Valga (to me, at least). Many houses are
old and tired, they're not all made up and covered in pastel colours, they
are real. You can see their age, not just read the date of "birth" from a
plaque near the door and see the photo of the original house in a museum.
The real house, as it was built, is right there before your eyes.
It also makes me wonder...who made that house, what was situated in that
building, who lived there and what has happened to those people...
A house near the park.
The statue of Nipernaadi in a park and a Lada Riva near the market and church.
And finally a photo of a church in Rapla. This photo wasn't taken during this trip, though.
Ruja - "Eile nägin ma Eestimaad" (title translates "Yesterday I saw Estonia"). It goes well with the topic of this post.
Please bear in mind that I mostly use these curves for photos of nature (and that's really what they were designed for). I also tend to use a mixture of curves (23% of x; 33% of y etc), I'll never rely on the effect of just one curve (plus there are other wonderful features in PS as well).
I know most people would prefer to have curves that would look good on every photo, but unfortunately that's not possible in reality.
Also, sorry for the names, they were a last-minute thing. My curves are usually named "isdof8ufsdk", or something like that :P
My comments on how/where:
Greens - Adds a lot of contrast + green/yellow tint.
Light breeze - Adds a blue tint and creates a softer and lighter feel. Does best with lighter images. This image was processed with a mixture of light breeze curve and a bit of something else (which I can't remember).
Miami - Very yellow/orange. I use it in moderation to add warmth to some images. It's good if you want to enhance/create a sunny photo.
For nature - Ah, a tricky one! If you have a yellow/green looking photo of grass etc, this is the one to bring out interesting colors in your shot. However, wood/dirt/brown things will look extremely purple...so that makes this curve less versatile.
Old times - I haven't really encountered a photo that didn't look the part after using this curve (no guarantees, though, very dark images are always questionable).
The result? Slightly yellow/green older-looking colors. Basically a niche preset, useful if you're into the vintage-retro stuff.
June - Not the best for very "crowded" photos. The sample image covers the basic look that this should be good for.
July - Sweet, bright and wonderful. Slightly over the top contrast/brightness, doesn't alter the colors much.
August - Bright, vivid and happy colors. Use in moderation, 100% full on might be a bit too
much!
Dream - Very bright and simple colors. It can be used on darker images but it can also look good with lighter ones to create a pure, washed out look.
Some photos that I've taken in the past month or two, nothing too exciting unfortunately. I'm thinking of doing a week-long photography challenge (in order to improve my rusty skills), taking photos of something every day. I might even come up with a theme for each day ("6 different birds, doves don't count"; "Beaches/doors/windows of Tallinn" etc)...but that's still a huge *maybe*.
I have to admit, these past 2 weeks have been lazy, UEFA Euro 2012 (can you believe that?! They actually had to pause the game because of a thunderstorm, I've never seen that done before) is keeping me indoors in the evenings. "Hmm, it's a lovely evening, I should go and take photos of the sunset...wait, what's that? Russia is playing against *random country*? I guess no sunset today!"
And about thosecurves I promised! I hope to upload 2 packs of curves in 3 days, I've been looking for before photos and writing down my thoughts/suggestions for using these curves.
The bog of Pääsküla. I could hear snakes moving around in the tall grass..
which made me pretty nervous because I'm a huge chicken.
I could never make it in Australia. I like nature, but a live snake is just
too much nature :D
Also, ticks. Small (hard to notice) and deadly.
The first daisy.
And the second one.
Chives or murulauk in Estonian.
The cat without a home. It's a photo from autumn of 2011, I posted a similar photo of her back
then as well (and it wasn't that nice because I had some weird Photoshop-dream of her in my
mind that I failed to execute properly).
And now some fun images I've taken with my phone. The first one (starting from the left) was a
weird dummy (the head appeared to be a kids' ball) in Laagri Rimi. It also had a name tag: "Jüri"
The second one was a t-shirt in New Yorker. A chihuahua-Jackson? I have no words.
The third one was in a thrift store in Rapla. Do I get a penguin-vibe? The purpose of this...thing is unknown to me.
Some music worth listening.
Би-2. I've known about these guys ever since the movie "Брат 2" (year: 2000) came out (the soundtrack was excellent) but only recently I was able to get my hands on some of their albums and now I'm in love.
Unfortunately their best songs (in my opinion) are not on youtube, so I can't really spam this blog with their music :/
Mяу кисс ми; медленно схожу с ума; Bарвара; полковнику никто не пишет; моя любовь; зажигать; ангелы; сердце на волоске; луна-парк; третий рим; шамбала; фавн dj; скандал....
Okay, so it's been a while since I've been active here. I recently changed the looks of this blog (nothing major, the dark background is gone, some widgets are in different places but overall it pretty much looks the same), because I wanted to have a "cleaner" page. I'm not pleased yet, so if you have any thoughts on what could be done, feel free to comment/contact me.
In terms of photography I've been taking some photos in Laitse and I also went to the bog of Pääsküla, so those photos are coming soon. My means of transportation are a bit limited now because there's something wrong with my bike that makes pedaling extremely difficult, I'd say I have the speed of a slow snail. And although I do have a driver's license, I don't really enjoying taking the car to go out to nature, I just feel that I can't stop every time I see something interesting on the road and that's why I prefer walking or bicycling. So yeah, there's that.
Now, I know that probably about 99% people that visit this blog come here for the Photoshop goodies and I haven't really uploaded anything lately. For those who like my stuff...good news, I plan on uploading a pack of curves soon. I've had it in mind for quite some time now. I believe it should have about 10 or so curves which I've made over the time and use to edit all my photos, always.
Now for the tip. Check out this wonderful video by Peter Hurley teaching how to lose the dreaded double chin in portrait photos (without Photoshop).
A panorama of 2 images, shot in RAW & edited in PS5 Camera Raw. You could see the halo-effect just ever so slightly, it became more evident with the right camera settings.
1 year ago today I lost my cat.
Since my Internet connection hasn't been the greatest, I had time to do this. A "tribute", if you will, to Miisu. It's not the best (I don't usually draw in PS + it's kind of a pain to do with a mouse), but I think it doesn't look too bad either :)
