8/31/2010- Boys, boys, boys

I am going to admit something that would earn me reproach from some of my feminist friends- I love pictures of boys and men, and I love taking them. I would like to do an exhibition when I am old of "The Essence of Men," (or something like that) of all the pictures I've taken all my life of them. More specifically, I like pictures of men relating to each other in unique ways or doing things that are not usually considered "manly," but that everyone knows they do anyway. I love this picture of a festival in Bulgaria because it's completely cultural and unique but also so very...male. I love the arms around each other, the pride, the snow and bagpipes. I think it's also composed well, with receding lines, or whatever you call them. But you just can't beat the subjects.

I love this one for the same reasons--the picture was titled, "Fed Up," and I think that perfectly describes their relationship with their surroundings (taken in the UK) and with each other. Also, I get these kinds of looks from people a lot, because I take pictures of people wherever I go as long as they don't seem to mind (it's the, "What the heck--oh well, let her take the picture" look). I love black and white noncommercial portraits, so I'll probably be posting more of those kinds of pictures soon. 

Digital Photography, 8/26

This photo is of Isfandiyar Jurji Bahadur, Khan of the Russian protectorate of Khorezm (now a part of modern Uzbekistan). It was taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii around 1910. It captures me because, obviously, photos from that time are always seen in black and white. This photo looks like it could have been taken yesterday, like there was some sort of time-travel for either the subject or the photographer. It's a little unsettling, but neat to see these people as they would have looked then. Prokudin-Gorskii used a development process with red, blue, and green filters to get very close to true color in his black-and-white photographs. Read about the process (which I don't quite understand yet) at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html.

I don't remember where this town is located, but I think it's somewhere in Europe. I also don't know who took it (I saved it a long time ago without any information). I spend a lot of time trying to use natural light to reproduce a scene as close to what the eye sees it as, to get the feeling of the scene right by using only the available light. I'm interested in how other photographers do this. I like how the lights of the houses on the hills look like fireworks where the photographer used a longer shutter speed. It's a very warm, inviting picture.