Riga Mimes

This entry will be quite short i think, or maybe not ...
This is credit to Riga Mimes (Rīgas Pantomīma) whose Art i am following regularly.
Thanks to THEM i fell in LOVE with stage/ performance photography. Their show was my first ever try out to capture performance. Most of their shows has been for free, which also means no regulations on photography/filming. That is how i started, getting closer to Arts people. I am still nobody in photography world, so i just try to use my chances wherever i can.
This group is Good, really Good, but not many people know that. They are enthusiasts of this art, doing it mostly in their spare time. They were very popular in Soviet times and traveled quite a lot - within USSR and abroad. Nowadays probably there is too many groups, options and events for people to go and see that they (Riga mimes) just dilute in all that variety of choices. That is my theory. Plus to it - these guys don't "blow their trumpet" very loud, - don't promote themselves enough.

Yeah. Anyway. Here is some pictures from their last performance and i am excited about their new show which is on its way. 

"Polar express" or "my First SLR"

Here is my first ("one and (not)only") SLR, - bought with my own money which i earned working at my mom's working place during summer's between school holidays (and probably some other pocket and birthday money savings).

I think i was about 15 years old when i purchased it, - so it could be 1984.
Back in those days (in USSR) even cameras like these were not around in shops for long before they were bought out - as many other similar valuable things (like bicycles for example).
With this camera it was a Start of my more serious journey in photography. I loved every bit of it. Waited with expectation every film roll which i finished shooting, lets say, during a period of 2 weeks, depending on events and Season outside.

This camera have been my companion for many years, - seventeen to be precise. It is still in working condition and never failed me mechanically, although ... there was some fault with sides of frame exposure later (fault with small strip of frame).

But anyway - this camera traveled with me for some Great trips.
One of them is most memorable for me as a teenager - first ever trip behind the "Iron curtain" - dance tour to Sweden in 1986. We gave concerts for 5 weeks all around Sweden. I probably could write quite a lot about that adventure.... so i better stop. Here is one very dear picture of me from that time.

Back to my Zenit camera. 
It also proved itself in freezing weather (minus 40 C ) of Siberian winter. This probably could be my most extreme and exotic pictures i ever shot with the guy from Siberian tribe. He used to live like this itself - in tepee, but this particular image shows a family he knew and brought us to see them. 
This area of Russia was closed in Soviet times, meaning only classified people (with permissions) could visit that town (Salekhard). No tourists could go there. In that area outside the town, - particularly were we went to meet that family was also a place where former Soviet Gulag was located. Those political prisoners were building railway to practically nowhere - to North Pole (Stalin's idea). As i was writing i thought of "Polar express", but yes....
Basically it was way to kill those people and that railway was literally built on human bones.
When railway later was dismantled somebody had an idea to leave one section (i think the last one) of railway line as a monument to commemorate those who died there.  

My "Tall Ships" experience

I wanted to post one picture (with the tall ship) on G+ and ended up with writing whole story about my experience around that Event.

It is definitely one of the Events of year 2013 worth mentioning, including it also as one of my photographic highlights of the year, although there is still lots of photos to sort. The gallery probably was not finished because there were no dancers with me this time to make it more interesting :)

 

... so here comes the Story

The Tall Ships Races 2013 in Riga last summer was Event of a decade. It happened exactly 10 years ago for the first time. This time there were crowds and crowds of people. It was spectacular and most definitely Event worth seeing. I remember 10 years ago - i had my film camera, but did not take that many pictures, - just a few.

This time of course everyone was out with all kinds of their digital "anything" to capture the beautiful and Majestic voyagers of the Seas.

Last evening before ships leaving… (sounds poetic  :)  )  i was one of that crowd also. I was with my family (not alone), so i felt bad to take more pictures than i wanted (it was also very easy to loose each other in that crowd), so i decided to wake up early next morning to come to the harbour. I was quite excited about the thought and woke up 4.30 am without alarm, which was set for 5.00. Cycled to the harbour in half an hour and enjoyed freshness of a beautiful morning of summer day. It was as i expected, - the Majestic Sailors of the Seas having some rest from millions of eyes which drew their attention during the days while they were harbouring Riga.

There was just technical personnel - re-establishing harbour fence which was taken away for the Event and some supply cars for the ships.

Sun was not even woken above horizon as i was starting to “shoot” the giants. My heart was leaping, i felt like a boy which enjoys something new, exciting. I was happy also that i overtook my laziness to wake up and leave my bed.

The day was Sunday.

After my glorious morning, i arrived home just in time for our breakfast.

I decided also to not lose opportunity to say goodbyes to the ships as they will sail out of Riga harbour. Well…. that decision was quite costly...

I decided to cycle to the Seaside as well hoping to see the ships as they will sail out into the Sea. I did not expect that kind of CROWD which i saw - cars streaming there, jamming the traffic. On a way to the Sea roads were so packed that even with bicycle was hard to cycle in places. Nearer the Sea i made a shortcut through forest road which was quite sandy. Many people walked there too. At one point i decided to head for the Sea turning of that forest road and heading towards Sea through the woods hoping that i will be close enough to see the ships from a distance to enjoy them. It was quite surreal to be absolutely on my own for about half an hour till i finally found the way out to the dunes. I discovered that i am still quite far from the pier but i already was so tired by then that i gave up my perseverings. So i just stayed at the same dune which i came out to the Sea and watched from a distance….

This picture from the view of ships leaving is probably one of my best tryings to not go home empty with the effort which i made to get there.

If you look more intently you can notice that there is two ships merged together, which looks very good and interesting, enriching the view.

It is because of this particular picture, that this Story came into being. I worked on it just couple days ago. It was put aside for some while as potential art work, seeing it in my mind Vintagized and this is the outcome result.
It was good for me (in my mind) to go back to those summer days and call back the feelings.

our Name

"No Zobena Saule Lēca" (2010.) - backstage

As my previous post mentioned Dance event "The Sun Rose from the Sword" i thought to continue a little bit on that "note" (as we say in Latvian, - meaning musical note), republishing here what i had written (under this picture) somewhere else. As the purpose of blogging is speaking (in my understanding) then i just want to collect my thoughts (of my photography) in one place.
_______________

"Our Name.
Most of us probably value our name. Lots of things
put together shape it into who we really are.
I value this picture very much because it's kind of symbolizing
the process of making our name known.
This picture is taken in the backstage during the dance project
"The Sun Rose from the Sword" in which i took part myself in 2010.
There was a dance called "Grains" and every dancer had to take
handful of grains to use it in that dance. By the time every dancer
took the grain, backstage floor was full with it and some girls
during the show played with it creating arty shapes from that grain,
including putting together their names."

_______________ 

Photographic conditions.

It was very dark there, so i used possibilities today's digital world offers with using high ISO and my best lens - my only light one i have - 50 mm (1.4)

Exp.          1/10

Apt.          1.7

ISO            1600

F.length     50

and this image is also merged with vintage texture, giving the picture timeless look  

Picture of the Year 2010

Where do I start ...??  with this Blog

I thought that it should be some sort of chronology of my progress or chronology of photographic events, but seems that soooo many things had happened that i just better jump with what is happening right now and share NOW pictures and fresh thoughts which are going around my mind and maybe time to time go back to the past.

This entry i actually wrote somewhere on Internet (on one of those Photo sites, i tried out). I am just thinking …. about it … -  many photo sites which try to draw our attention.

I am probably also in too many places, not knowing where to be or where to stay (where to concentrate my energy and photographic work)....

See what is happening with writing - it starts to generate different thoughts straight away - i love that about writing.
And now back to my Picture of the Year of 2010 (according to myself)

2010 became the year when i returned to dancing folk dance, which i was doing since i was 4 years of age. There was a big Dance project coming along with about one thousand dancers of all ages involved. For two years my dance mates tried to get me back to it, so finally i gave in. In this way i became photo insider - “dancing with camera” as i used to say.

I decided to stop dancing this year after The Most Amazing Latvian Nation’s Event - Song and Dance Festival which involves about 30 000 participants (almost 15 000 dancers were involved in this year’s Dance Festival).

Back to the Event with which i returned to dancing. It was dance show “No zobena saule lēca” (The Sun Rose from the Sword) which they actually about to repeat in this month.

The show is about Latvian nation through the ages - it speaks about circle of life which goes around all the time - as we come into the world and leave it for the next generation. It is great show to remind ourselves about true values and meaning of life.

And during the days of the show as i was taking pictures of all what was going on - i caught one particular image which became as a surprise to myself as i noticed in it very special look of a girl which seemed timeless and iconic - it was a picture i saw in the picture. It was that kind of photo which you can not predict or plan, like “from Above” - perfect moment, perfect look, perfect angle…

This is perfect example which shows why i like digital photography, where i can be a painter, creating something unique out of raw material, which allows me to crop a photo, to zoom in to some special fragment of a photo (which big photo file allows me to do so in a great extent) and then to do a “painting”.

The year 2010 was also the year when i discovered Vintage photography and learned how to work with layers. I absolutely fell in LOVE with this style which continues in my works to this day.

PS. Other photos from the show:

 

 

Lens switch

I just thought the other day about my photographic start and i realized something interesting...
I was wearing glasses till i was 8 and you can see it on that first picture in the blog. And i just thought, - how interesting, - the same time i got my first camera i stopped wearing them. So i did lens switch which actually (and i realized this some years ago), i am sure, helped to sharpen my eye sight, especially for my right eye which is used for focusing camera lens.
My first camera though did not have proper viewfinder, it was just a glass which even did not tell the frame i will get in my picture. However this same camera, my first one...

... surprised me some years later when i decided to take it to my journey to Poland (in 1990 ties), instead taking my heavy Zenit 11 SLR. That was the time when lots of things changed around us and one of them was equipment and supplies for photographers. Before that journey i have never put color film in my first (Smena 8) camera because in Soviet days we practically did not have them (did not have normal good quality color films like Fuji or Kodak).
When i came home from that trip to Poland and developed my films, i was positively surprised by quality of pictures. I am sure that they were much better then pictures of those simple automatic cameras, they were nice and sharp and clear. And the value of this camera grew in my eyes and it is very dear to me now, as it is my first one and still in very good working condition.

The very Start

The very start, at age of 7, i guess

The thought of this Blog came to me as i was thinking about pictures i work on. There is always more pictures i take, then those i work on afterwards in some photo programs. There is often thought behind while taking certain pictures, seeing that this seen, or thing or moment could be useful to add to some thought (in a Blog or letter) or to some Slideshow later on, or that it could be as a good card to send to someone particular. And sometimes i feel that those "chosen ones (photos)" i work on, i want to describe a bit more, - to tell more about it than just giving a title to it or adding only couple sentences about it.

Some of these pictures which i will add to this Blog could be to do with my learning something new in photo editing or just sharing what i see as my progress in my photo journey. But some maybe will tell a story.

I think that this Blog is more for myself, to help me to see what i like in photography and to discover what i don't like in it, - observing photographic world around me. I have a feeling that in Today's photography, with all the perfection of new technologies, - always better cameras with more possibilities, better lenses and photo programs, pictures (photos) sometimes loses soul and what is left of it is just an outward beauty.

What i would like people to see in my photography is a Soul in the image, - to see them live and speaking to those who look at them. I don't know if i succeed in it (making my pictures to speak), but at least that is what i would like people to sense and that is what i am striving for.