Archive for January, 2007

As a Christmas present I got the Hungarian edition of National Geographic Photography Field Guide: Secrets to Making Great Pictures written by Rober Caputo and Peter K. Burian.

As a beginner of photography I find the book extremely useful. It writes about the basic technical things, such as aperture and shutter speed settings, measuring light and illumination, and also about how to compose a picture.
The most surprising thing I found in the book is the continuous awareness and patience that is required from a photographer. Awareness like always knowing what you are doing and why, what the result will be of what you do (cause and effect), what you are experiencing and how to take a picture of that. And patience of going back to the same place to see things in different illumination scenarios or waiting (peace of mind) in front of a remarkable sight, like a building or landscape, until something really interesting appears in the viewfinder making the picture special and meaningful.
Even though some professional photographers are making huge amount of pictures, they do not make great pictures accidentaly. They always have a message to tell, and a mission to accomplish.

New year, new pictures. I really like these. I was walking around Budakalasz, the little village where I live with my wife and two kids. All these pictures were taken with long (above 1 second) exposure time.

Alone

Budakalász

Fishing (retouched)

Retouched means that the long exposure time and the guys’ move caused some blur that I wanted to get rid of. I’m still not sure whether it’s ethical.

What do you think?