(EXPLORED - March 14, 2013)
Second image in my Κάθαρσις | Catharsis series.
Another glance over this extreme white, over a scene so pure that it makes you forget how the world looks like in reality. Standing there, in the middle of this snow storm, I had a very powerful sensation of ease and a “happy for no reason” kind of feeling. For a moment I had the impression that I don't care about anything else in the world than the scene in front of me and I'm wondering if that was produced by the scene itself or it was something that had to do more with how I interpreted and lived the moment. Any way it might have been, it was such a great feeling that I didn't want to leave that place till I ended up completely frozen (me, camera and all my filters).
...and now I should tell you about the mulled wine that I had afterwards to help me warm up, but that's for another story :)
This image might seem very zen and peaceful, but like I said the weather was quite extreme and this made shooting this scene (and all the other in the series) quite a challenge. The wind, the heavy snowfall, the fact that I had to clean my lens every 30 seconds to be able to see anything through it made getting what I wanted from this place a very hard task. There was no way to use a tripod at that moment, the snow was very fresh and soft, very deep also and my tripod couldn't find a solid base. Plus the snowfall that was constantly changing direction made putting the camera in a place a no-go, I had to constantly move around to find an “open “ field of action. Pretty much like dancing, while I was trying to shelter the camera so the snow ends up on myself and not on my glass. Yes, I could have used an umbrella, but there is still no umbrella I know of that would resist in that wind. All in all, it was a very demanding shooting, all handheld, but all the more funny and fulfilling, especially when I got home and found that I have much more good images that I would have hoped for, considering the circumstances).
A few technical data: handheld 1/125 @ f/9,0, Tamron 18-270mm f/3,5-6,3 PZD @ 18mm, ISO 100, Processing: LR4, PS CS6, SilverEfex Pro2
NEWS:
I will be teaching as a co-instructor in the Chicago Fine Art Architectural Photography Workshop , September 5-8, this year. The team of instructors is an outstanding one, international award winning fine art photographers Joel Tjintjelaar, Sharon Tenenbaum and cinematographer Armand Djicks. This event is going to be a fantastic experience, I can guarantee you that. If you are interested and want to keep in touch, sign up for the Keep Me Posted newsletter of the workshop and put it in your agenda. I'll also bring you some news about it here, over the next few days.
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Tags: 2012 b&w black and white catharsis dreamy greece high-key highlights julia anna gospodarou landscape metsovo minimal monochrome mountain nature negative space serene snow snowscape square trees white winter winterscape zen “nikon d7000” “tamron 18-270 pzd” black and white fine art
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(EXPLORED No. 2 - November 6, 2013)
Fluid Time I - Architecture as parallel reality... blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/fluid-time-i/
Chicago - Jay Pritzker Pavilion (Arch. Frank Gehry) & Aon Center (Arch. Edward Durell)
T/S LE = Tilt + Shift + Long Exposure
Shot with Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II – maximum tilt & shift, using the Formatt Hitech Filters ProStop IRND JT (aka Joel Tjintjelaar) Signature Edition filter kit, the best ND filters I've used so far, and processed using extensively Topaz Labs BW Effects 2, ReMask & Detail 3 + PS CS6 & LR5 (don't forget you can use the code juliaannagospodarou to get 15% discount for ordering any Topaz product at this link www.topazlabs.com/782.html)
A long time since my last architectural image, you might wonder if I'm still doing photography : ) Well, the answer is YES, more than ever, but now that I'm doing it professionally I'm spending time doing a lot more than just working on my images (which I still love more than everything else). Not that I don't like the whole process, it's so very exciting and it suits me like a glove, but you have to know, doing photography as a business is much more than shooting and processing your photos, SO much more!! And you have just one choice, if you want to do your job at a top level, you have to spend time doing all the things around it. That's what I did with the Chicago Workshop, that's what I did with the Athens Workshop that took place this past weekend and was a great success blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/athens-workshop-2013/ ) and that's what I do with all my other activities, be they teaching, mentoring or else.
This is the first image I'm posting from the Chicago workshop, a workshop I did with a great team of photographers and that is still the architectural event of the year. Chicago is a amazing place and has won a big place in my heart. As Frank Lloyd Wright says: "Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world...” He is right and I'm already looking forward to the moment I'll be back there!
And now, as always from me, a few words about my vision behind this image.
Time, space ...they are just conventions. Living inside them can be just as easy as living outside them and the reality of living outside them can be just as real as the one of relating to them. If you need a proof just try to dream. Who says that dreaming is not a reality? Just as imagination can be reality as well. Who says that the world needs to have a material shape to be real?
Who says that we have to always relate to the same constants that are time and space and not create different times and different spaces that will cover different realities?...
Different from what you were used from me lately, more in line with my older architectural work, it's been a long time since I've showed an entire building in a frame, let alone 5 buildings, but I was thinking for a long time to make a series as the one I'm starting today. If you know me you know I love long exposure, I love motion blur and any kind of blur that can give me the freedom to bypass reality and go where noone else has been. I love the freedom these ways of seeing the world give to my imagination and now I also have a lens that will help me with putting in practice what my mind has already seen a long time ago: The Queen of the Lenses, Her Majesty The T/S Lens. : ) This image is the beginning of a direction I wanted to explore for a long time, architecture as a parallel reality. What I'm always looking for in my architectural images is to find the dream in architecture, in essence to find the soul of the building I'm photographing. I think now I'm closer than even to this soul and I'll show it to you too over the months to come.
_Technical data:_ 141.0 sec. @ f/11, ISO 100, Canon 5D MK3, Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II, 10+3 stops Hitech ProStop IRND filters. Processing: LR5, PS CS6, Topaz B&W Effects 2_
Limited Edition prints: bit.ly/10LD9qN Open Edition prints: bit.ly/16tbdzB
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Tags: fluid time architecture as parallel reality photography drawing black and white fine art photography fine art visionography envisionography architectural photography fine art architectural photography julia anna gospodarou architecture black sky modern architecture abstract chicago chicago architecture aon center jay pritzker pavilion frank gehry edward durell prudential contrasts building canon 5d mk3 canon ts-e 24mm manfrotto hitech prostop irnd
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(EXPLORED - July 02, 2013)
www.juliaannagospodarou.com
Strata SE1 Building, London - Architects BFLS London
Another image in my series Ode to Black (Black Hope) with an addition or a change in the name, I still don't know if I will keep both names or just one, I'll probably decide when I reach the end of the series, as now it is still a work in progress. The change in name came from a change in direction as for the meaning of the series. Many times I work on my images in a certain way, or rather creating a certain atmosphere or general feel that can come from the use of shapes (like in “Like a Harp's Strings”series), the use of subject (as in Catharsis series), or the use of light, as now in the “Black Hope” series. I feel the need to explore different paths every time and express myself through different elements or use different ways of representation and I believed till very recently that this is a rational and conscious decision and choice that I make. But working on the Black series I discovered that, while the way I'm working on my images, technically speaking, is a very rational and controlled one, since I aim to create a perfect image at the end of the process, the way my vision is born and the way it evolves till the final touch of brush on the image: the whole process from capturing my images, choosing which ones to process and then finally processing them, is rather a subconscious process that guides me many times without me even noticing it. Something very close to what they say about "being in a trance state" and following your vision there.
This series started apparently from nowhere, then it became an exploration of color black, of the absence of light and a challenge to see how far I can go with removing light till it doesn't exist anymore, to eventually turn into a psychological introspection with the unseen and unnoticed intention in the beginning (but that came to surface just recently) to express extreme emotions and be a highly personal representation of the world I see around me. Art is personal, art is selfish and I believe that in essence whatever we create is an expression of our inner need to explain the world, regardless if we believe that we study shapes, different subjects or experiment with light.
Technical data:_ 286.0 sec. @ f/11, Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 ED AF-S DX @ 13mm, ISO 100. Processing: LR4, PS CS6, NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.
If you want to read some more of my thoughts about this image and the series, you're welcome to do it on my site blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/ode-to-black-black-hope-iv-s...
And if you want prints of this image, or any of my images, stay tuned, I'll be back with some very nice surprises these days...
Last but not least, on September 5-8 I'll be in Chicago with a great team of fine art photographers teaching a Fine Art Architectural Workshop. Join us to learn everything about this kind of photography! visionexplorers.com/chicago-2013
Also, join me for private workshops and online mentoring courses www.juliaannagospodarou.com/Workshops/Private-Workshops/2...
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Tags: ode to black black hope” shadow black black white fine art photography fine art visionography envisionography architectural architectural photography julia anna gospodarou architecture fine art black sky modern architecture abstract “ondon architecture strata building” contrasts BFLS architects nikon D7000 nikon 10-24mm manfrotto b+w nd 110 hoya nd64 ThePhotographyBlog
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(EXPLORED - No.2 - May 09, 2013)
www.juliaannagospodarou.com/
(catharsis = purification, renewal, reborn of the soul and spirit through art)
Metsovo, Pindus Mountains, Greece
Another lone tree in my winterscape series...
This project started two years ago. I wanted to photograph this place under snow for the last two winters, but as you probably know, I live in Greece and we do have a lot of sun and warm weather, but snow is a rarity. Plus, this place is quite far away from my home (some 450km to be exact) so it's not too easy to get there, meaning that I was relying quite a lot on luck, which I finally had this winter.
Everything I shot in this series has been shot in not more than a couple of hours and I still have a lot of images, even very different than the one in this series that I either processed or I will process because I like them all. I have also done some experiments with ICM (intentional camera movement), some very minimal images but surreal and quite hunting, and they will probably become an independent series and I also have some other shots with larger subjects. What I want to say with this is that sometimes the conditions are so perfect: weather, place, inspiration, moment, luck that almost every click you make can result in a finished image. It's quite rare for all these to come together and create such a perfect moment, but this day was one of those moments. These two or three hours that I was there shooting trees were some of the most intense and rewarding in my photographic life. And I could say that this series reflects somehow the course of my recent life and it helped me to find answers to a lot of questions that I had in a process of “finding myself” artistically and individually. As I have already said I consider art as a very personal issue, as something you do because you deeply need it, as a tool in interpreting life and the world around us and I don't believe in any other message than the personal one as far as real art is concerned.
I'm trying to keep it short here (yes, this s short for me :), so, if you want to read about the creation, technical details and the processing of this photo and the Catharsis series come over to my blog where I continue my story. blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/catharsis-iv-spellbound-maki...
Limited edition prints available, Open edition prints as well.
Chicago Fine Art Architectural Workshop – September 5-8, 2013 – Info & Registrations
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Tags: “black and white fine art photography” “fine art” 2012 2013 b&w “black and white” “black and white fine art” catharsis “catharsis IV” – spellbound dreamy greece high-key highlights “julia anna gospodarou” landscape metsovo minimal monochrome mountain nature negative space serene snow snowscape square trees white winter winterscape zen nikond7000 tamron18-270pzd
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(EXPLORED - April 09, 2013)
_Willis Building, City of London - Architect Sir Norman Foster_ www.juliaannagospodarou.com
We are what we create.
I have no doubt about it. We might be searching for a way of expression for long years and try a lot of things till we find it, we may be struggling with prejudice and limitations, with doubt and with being misunderstood, we may have to ignore common sense and go against the flow, we may have to figure out new ways of escaping what we call reason, what we call reality (what is reality anyway?) but in the end, what we will settle for can only be that very thing that expresses what we are completely, that helps us feel accomplished and free, that helps a restless soul find peace and allow us to stop and take a breath. If you look at this image you will see very much of what I am. I won't explain it, I don't want to limit your imagination. :) I will say just one thing: whatever this journey may take, do it! It's much better to burn out searching than never know...
OK, now that we said what was important, here's a few words about this image. First, it's been two and a half months since my last architectural image, which may seem a lot but it actually isn't for me, as I've done a lot of searching, discovered a lot of things, even worked on a handful of images that are to come soon. I've done some thinking, I've done some experimenting and the results will show in the months to come. I've even tried to step away from architectural photography to see how it is, but despite the fact that I love all kinds of photography, I think my call is architectural photography. There's nothing I love more than working with shapes and light, nothing I like more than abstracting a volume till it shows a part that would hardly show to the naked eye. I finally understood what I'm trying to do in photography and that is exactly what I'm doing in architecture too. I am designing my photographs to suit my vision. I am deconstructing the volumes I see and recomposing them using light and shadow, I am in essence using the existing subject, I'm using reality as a base on which I build my own dreams. Photography, architectural photography is the tool my imagination needs to stay alive and to express itself. It would be interesting I think to show you the RAW file of this image. I'm sure you wouldn't recognize much of what you see here in that image. But hey, you will tell me, that's manipulation! Well, yes, you're perfectly right, I will answer you! But who said I want to do traditional photography anyway? This may not even be photography, as a matter of fact. This may be something else. This IS something else! As I was calling it a while ago while discussing with a friend, this is “(en)visionography”. More on this concept coming soon...
And at last a few words about the image and the processing side of it... But, since this is getting long, let's better move over to my site if you want to read more about processing and also to read my answer to a question I'm getting quite often lately, a question about my skies... blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/ode-to-black-iii-extreme-bla...
Technical data: 333.0 sec. @ f/9, Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 ED AF-S DX @ 11mm, ISO 100. Processing: LR4, PS CS6, NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.
You like this image? You can have a print of it. Have a look... bit.ly/10zPqzD or bit.ly/10LD9qN
PS:
If you are in London April 26 to May 12 go have a look at the SWPA 2013 - Sony World Photography Awards Winners Exhibition. My series Like A Harp's Strings will be exhibited as Shortlisted Finalist in Architecture Professionals category. And cross your fingers for me on April 25, when the prizes will be announced. Maybe... :)
More about the exhibition on WPO site: worldphoto.org/festivals-and-events/events/sony-world-pho...
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Tags: ode to black extreme black black and white fine art photography fine art architectural photography fine art architectural photography, 'julia anna gospodarou architecture black sky modern architecture abstract london architecture willis building contrasts norman foster manfrotto 055xprob sirui k20x hoya b+w nd8 b+w110 nikonD7000 nikon10-24mm
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