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On my first trip to New York, many years ago, I visited the NBC gift shop. I bought a Third Rock from the Sun t-shirt, I love the series. At the back of the shirt there is a small picture of our planet with the text ”Just visiting”. Somehow that phrase has stayed with me…
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Yesterday when I came from work, I found out that I have a new neighbour. Or sub-tenant. A garden spider had woven its web across my porch, I noticed the web just when my legs were already touching it. I was able to back out without breaking it, so I climbed in from the side,…
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The other day on my favourite photo critique forum a photographer posted an image which to me seemed like some improvements could be made. Someone else had the same thoughts as I did and beat me to it, but the photog was not happy – he had taken an image in the spirit of an…
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I moved to the countryside (well, a small village) last winter. It means more commuting, but I don’t really mind it – the road was one of my favourites already before I moved and I love watching the seasons change in the bogs and small forest lakes along the way. I’m having the time of…
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One of the most important lessons I learned in the early stages of my photography is that you should try remove distracting elements from your image. Just simply keep changing the composition to remove elements that do not contribute to your motif until all that remains is exactly what you want to show with the…
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Sometimes when the conditions aren’t right, you shouldn’t even try to take the photograph because you will only end up with something that doesn’t quite work. I’ve learned the lesson to not take the image to some degree, but there are always times I can’t resist the temptation – basically, take the image against my…
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One of my biggest failings as a photographer is that I don’t have a distinguishable style. I have a common nominator in many of my images, for example in my flower images I try to shoot the flower with extremely blurred background so that the only recognisable element is just the flower. But that is…
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Sometimes I wonder if I’m a little bit agoraphobic. I don’t really have a genuine fear of open spaces but I have noticed that I have a genuine tendency to prefer enclosed spaces – I’m not talking small closets, but wide closed spaces like forests or small lakes. Places like sea shores or big lakes…
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While most people put on their bikini and headed to the beach to lie in the sun, I put on my boots and rainsuit and headed for a roadside ditch to shoot orchids. The passers-by might have wondered a little while I endured the swarms of mosquitos and biting flies and the personal sauna experience…
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Since this was just about the first fine summer weekend we are having here, I was determined not let a small flu keep me inside. I set out driving and stopped to look every time something interesting showed up by the side of the road. I felt the effects, I was sweating all the time…