Omnia Mutantur » Photography

Travels: Istanbul, 2006

Ricardo — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 17:57:17 +0000

In May 2006 I spent some time in the northern areas of Romania, as well as Istanbul. I’m absolutely in love with the city, and would move there if money wasn’t an issue. The history, the food, the people, the architecture, the way the city vibrates with life… You can see a selection of photographs from the trip in this gallery.

Travels/Istanbul+2006/20060506_08-13-40_IMG_3610.jpg

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Romania, December 2004

Ricardo — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 17:24:34 +0000

It’s taken me quite a while, but I’ve uploaded some photographs from a trip I took to Romania in December 2004-January 2005. They’re mostly mementos, so there’s hardly anything there to hang on a wall – still those interested in gothic architecture can probably consider it castle porn. I’ll be adding some more details on the photos as I go.

Coincidentally, it seems that Bran Castle is now up for sale for the paltry amount of $77 million. It’s a beautiful place located in a quaint little town, so I wouldn’t hesitate to go for it if I had that kind of money to spare. As it turns out I am, alas, a little short.

As Wikipedia mentions, it has little to no relationship with Vlad Tepes. To get that you have to visit the significantly less touristy but immensely more historically impressive ruins at Poienari de Arges. There’s a mindblowing view up there from which you can literally peer back in time and see advancing armies approaching, waiting to be dismayed by the almost unassailable fortification – just be ready to climb up almost 1500 steps.

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Vero and Angi

Ricardo — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 16:01:37 +0000

Yes, I’ve been seriously slacking on my photography – other projects have gotten my attention, and things have a way of falling on the side when you’re not looking.

Enough procrastinating. I’ve decided to have at least a couple shoots a month – good or bad, it’ll keep the skills active. Here’s a selection of photos from a recent session with Vero and Angi – enjoy.

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More Vero…

Ricardo — Sun, 08 May 2005 09:36:59 +0000

There are a few recent pictures of Vero, for those of you that don’t know her personally. Click the photo below to go to the album:

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Look Ma! No hair!

Ricardo — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 17:47:37 +0000

Actually, there is. But I should start from the top.

Esteban Brenes, a friend known for his bizarre sense of humor, unsatiable appetite, mind-bending addiction to computer games and death-metal singer looks, just got a hair cut. A regular-length went-to-boarding-school haircut. I took a few “before” photographs, will upload the “after” when we get them.

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Photos – Liana Nicola

Ricardo — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 11:46:48 +0000

There are a few new photographs up, from a test session with Liana Nicola. This one is my favorite, maybe because it looks like she forgot there was a camera and immersed herself in the scene (the same reason why I like this one, in spite of the much more mundane set up).

Enough bludgeoning you with my opinion, go in and judge for yourselves.

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Perspiration vs. inspiration

Ricardo — Tue, 04 May 2004 16:08:53 +0000

Yes, I’ve said it before. I’ve come in all gleeful, heart filled with joy, proclaiming I’m finally back on track with my photography. Unfortunately, there was something unsatisfying even in my efforts with Marcela and Kelly, some missing ingredient that ended up having the effect that while the end result was OK overall, it still felt like it lacked something vital, some spark to make them feel alive.

I think I’ve hit it.

While Marcela’s portraits came out from average to OK (Cthulhu bless her, she was extremely happy with the results), they had the same problem as the five or six rolls I shot of Hailey Reifel: I basically limited myself to pointing the camera in her general direction, trying to get a composition that didn’t embarrass my entire family for generations, and pushed the shutter. I was playing it safe, trying to get to a minimum common denominator that wouldn’t upset anyone but would get the job done.

That’s just no way to accomplish anything.

It turns out that during lunch today, my friend Sileny casually mentioned she needed some portraits in her bellydancing outfit. She knows I’m a photography nut, and that I was itching for a chance to do some experimenting with the new baby. As luck would have it, or more likely because of her evil scheming (she thinks a lot like me), she was carrying one of the costumes in the back of her car, so we set for the house to do an improvised photo shoot in my living room. We moved a couch, took down some portraits that were on the way, I set up the flashes and experimented a bit while she changed upstairs, and we fired away.

The first photos came out pretty damned average. She was happy with them, but it seems I’m a damned lot more strict with myself than other people are with me – I just wasn’t pleased. You could clearly see there was a house wall behind her, on which there were often shadows projected, the hooks from which the photos had been hanging were painfully obvious, and many other tiny details that just bothered my detail-obsessed brain; I considered it, overall, a disaster.

You’re working with a bloody digital camera, I told to myself. You made the damned investment, start using it.

So I started tweaking parameters, using the limited controls that the Digital Rebel has (my film EOS 3 has spoiled me), and shooting frames as I went – tweak, shoot, evaluate; tweak, shoot, evaluate; ad nauseum. I experimented. Finally I hit a combination of manual metering, flash, aperture, and other technical crap I won’t bore you with, and got some results I liked.

While they may not be completely original, I dare you say you can tell I took these in my cluttered living room during a dark, rainy afternoon.

Yes, they’re not perfect, but there are two things I love about them: the quality of the light is aeons ahead of anything else I’d managed to accomplish so far, and Sila’s mischievousness really came through on those photos.

Next thing we knew, it was two hours later and we had shot about 150 photos. Most of them I’ll end up discarding, but there are several which are keepers. Currently only two of them are up, I’ll be adding more as I edit them. You can also expect a rant about the wonders of digital photography in the near future.

I’m so hooked.

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Bring out The GIMP!

Ricardo — Fri, 26 Mar 2004 03:05:42 +0000

The GIMP, that wonderful open-source freely-available easy-to-use Photoshop clone, has been finally released on version 2.0. New features include a more polished user interface, much improved text tools, handling of EXIF tags, channel mixing and other great features.

And whomever told you that the GIMP was for Linux freaks only, lied like politicians promising not to raise taxes.

If you need some help getting started using The GIMP, you can always consult the tutorials, Sams’ Teach Yourself GIMP in 24 Hours or Grokking The GIMP (which are available online here and there respectively). For more advanced users, there’s always GIMP for Photographers.

Why bother pirating Photoshop when you can get something better legally and for free?

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Gallery updated

Ricardo — Wed, 24 Mar 2004 15:42:49 +0000

I’ve just upgraded Gallery, the image management software I use on the site. If you notice any weirdness, please let me know.

I’ve also uploaded two older images to the gallery: one from San Francisco taken at a distance in the early morning, and another one a portrait of Horus my siamese cat.

Enjoy.

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Gallery

Ricardo — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 15:07:59 +0000

Photo.net has been undergoing some technical problems, plus, I feel that I should archive my own photographs instead of relying on an outside service to do so. I’ve created a gallery for my images, mostly of recent images, and I’ll add some of the older ones as I go.

Comments on the photos are, as usual, welcome.

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Slowly coming back

Ricardo — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 08:08:12 +0000

I’m slowly returning to my right-brain-oriented pursuits. While Apocalipsis is still in the cooler because of various personal reasons that wrecking-balled me out of the right mood, I’m writing the basis for another story that so far I’m liking (I won’t post anything about it until it’s done, however, to avoid the pleasant sensation of early feedback stop me from continuing).

Photography, however, is returning in a steady drip. My last published photo was back in January, then the aforementioned personal issues banged me up for a while and I had to concentrate in my work to forget about them, until finally two weeks ago I had another photo shoot as a favor to a friend and his wife. This is one of my favorites from that set.

It was liberating – I feel that they actually did me a favor.

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Must… resist…

Ricardo — Wed, 03 Mar 2004 01:49:54 +0000

Digital… photography… calling me… Don’t know… if I can resist… No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

GIMP for Photographers

Ricardo — Fri, 08 Aug 2003 14:27:50 +0000

I’m kind of under the weather, so this and the next one will slow weeks. Meanwhile, you can spend some time reading Erick Jeschke’s excellent GIMP Image Editing Tutorials for Photographers, on topics from the basic image toning to the more advanced cosmetic retouching.

It’s a great resource, and it goes a great job of showcasing the GIMP’s ability to stand against Photoshop for most people’s image editing needs.

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Must … burn … negatives ….

Ricardo — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:07:25 +0000

So I go in, my water- and dust-sealed camera oozing coolnes from every contour, half-used black and white roll inside (no digital equipment for me, the enlightened user of traditional film). The equipment bag ready with tons of gadgets a couple of feet behind me, an amazing landscape in front. I consider my options, weigh the elements, evaluate the light, settle on a vantage point. Take an image, recompose, repeat.

I take the film to the lab, since I wouldn’t want to screw these priceless frames by developing them myself. After picking them up a few hours later I run home and, even though I just spent 11 hours in front of two monitors wrestling with a query that wouldn’t die, start carefully cutting the film and scanning the strips.

They suck. And I remember why I was sticking to photographing people.

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