Lights and space- More than a photograph: November 2009

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Kinetic photography collection

I'm quite sure that you have seeing pictures like this before. And maybe wondered how these are really made. Some stunningly looks like computer graphics or renders and some looks like the were made with some kind of motion. And the fact about these shots is that they were made with some kind of a motion. And the motion is not really with the object which is shot but with the camera it self. This technique of photography is called Kinetic photography.

When you hear the word ‘kinetic‘ for the first time, probably the first thing that comes to your mind is motion. Kinetic Photography, also known as ‘camera tossing‘, is a technique of shooting photos with the actual physical movement of the camera. However, it does not necessarily involve tossing of the camera — you can also shake, bounce, swing or spin it; the goal of the technique is to obtain unpredictable results which are sometimes fascinating, always abstract and rarely boring.

The main rule of kinetic photography is simple: do not hold your camera stationary! Obviously, it is a quite uncommon and bizarre technique that involves risk of damaging your camera. The concept is extremely simple and really fun to use. Though the outcome is uncertain, kinetic photography sometimes produces beautiful abstract, random and motion blurred images. The results often look like a computer generated graphics.

Below I present some beautiful examples of kinetic photography for your inspiration.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Travel photography feature - Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara

Whenever I set my foot out having photographs in mind I plan my travelling up to the last possible moment. It helps me to achieve what I want to achieve and being a landscape photographer time of the day is my most important factor. But there are incidences where every plan doesn’t work out as its expected. But because of that sometimes unexpected opportunities occur. Below photo stream is from my recent visit to Anuradhapura. My initial plan was to photograph Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in broad day light or early as possible in the morning but due to some dozens of reasons I had to reach there an hour before the gates close at night.

Apparently I realized that it’s a good opportunity to shoot away some night scenes of the holy place which could end up being an uncommon set of photos. As I though the photos came out well. However taking the shots was a challenge. One was the lighting conditions and the other was to keep the places original nature intact while achieving it. As you may see in the night shots my main interest and focus is on the well lit areas and structures rather than the Bo tree itself. I had to come again the next day morning to capture the tree and the surrounding ritualistic behaviors which would look better and detailed with day light.

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Stone wall"

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Lighting lamps"

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Sri Maha Bodhi Entrance"

Below is a short description about Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi extracted from its official website

The Sacred Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura is reckoned as the oldest surviving historical tree in the world. It was brought to Sri Lanka by the Theri Sangamitta, daughter of Emperor Asoka and was planted in the Mahameghavana Park in Anuradhapura in 249 BC by King Devanampiyatissa. It is said to be the southern branch of the Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi at Buddha Gaya in India under which Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment.

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Guardian stone carving"

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Cheewara puja"

The Mahavamsa or the Great Chronicle of the Sinhalese provides an elaborate account of the establishment of the Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi in the island. Bodhi means wisdom that understands the four Noble Truths. Thus the tree which assisted Lord Buddha to achieve wisdom or enlightenment is called Bodhi.

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Panduru" (Offerings)

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Worship"

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Sri Maha Bodhi entrance"

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Sri Maha Bodhi and golden fence"

Kajo Merkert - Fine art photography

Todays featured photographer is Kajo Merkert. He emerges from Australia and does breath taking work on landscape photography. Below are some stunning works from this master

You can see more of Kajo's work here

Monday, November 23, 2009

Important things to remember when uploading photos to internet

Internet is a vast ocean of goodies. You can find anything and everything in it. The very first reason why you think of uploading your pics on to the web is because you got inspired by what you saw at the first place.

Let me tell you few things about which you should know and do when you put stuff on the web. There are nothing complicated or hard to adjust about these points.

1. Add a watermark. You know that something which says that the photo is taken by you and it belongs to you. Like “Priyantha Bandara photography” Which I have on my work. Its helps to make an audience and prevent your work from used in places which you don’t want. And when you put the watermark place it in a place where it’s hard to take off. If you place it right on the border someone will remove it easily and claim the work is theirs.

2. Don’t upload photos in high resolution. Always down size it because who ever use internet don’t want to waste their bandwidth on big photos which take forever to download. Any way if the photo is looking good and has a decent size that’s all what you require to show it.

3. Don’t flood your work or ‘spam’ your own work. Which means do not upload dozens of photos to the web at once. The best of galleries on the web were filled with years of work gradually. Not over night. My rule is max 5-10 shots for a new album and 3 for new additions to that album. If it’s a open gallery like Deviant art I will upload max 1-2 images a week.

4. Choose what you upload wisely. Maybe you think some photo stream looks good. Maybe some several shots of a bird feeding its little ones. But uploading them entirely won’t do good. Fans visit your page to see a photo. Not a mini documentary. Choose only the one or two best shots out of the lot and post those only.

5. Keep some information about the shot when ever its appropriated. Maybe the location of a landscape or the name of the bird etc. It helps.

6. Categorize your shots. If you have the facility to name the albums or upload them in pre defined categories use it accordingly. Unless you have bunch of shots which does not need categorization. Always keep the albums neat. I would upload landscapes and waterscapes separately. And other shots on a theme. Maybe depending on the trip made. Something like “Katharagama” Which has a bundled value than uploaded individually in different albums. But there are no rules for this. It’s your photos after all.

Hope this information will be useful. Let me know your comments and suggestions as well.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Photography of Cole Rise

There are no two words that photography is a form of art. And art is like drugs. Once you taste It you want more. Today’s inspirational featured photographer is Cole Rise. A stylish set of photographs which speaks for themselves.

Cole Rise has spent the better half of his life taking pleasure behind the lens; stalking cows and lying in the grass to capture the landscape. His work has been featured in a notable amount of international creative magazines, books, billboards, websites, posters, and even a few CD covers for bands you can find in most music stores. He can't tell you how big the universe is, or why we're really here, but his work sometimes flirts with the idea of knowing.

You can see more of Coles pics here

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Comment comment to get comments!!

What I'm about to provide you is a golden advice. This advice comes after browsing web galleries for countless hours and making 1000s of interactions with other artists and their work for last several years. And yes its takes time but it proves to work.
Maybe you are a photographer who would like to share your work with the community. As I have mentioned here there are several ways of doing it. And there are many good places which you can list your work and get feedback on. But sometimes you may feel like your work is not recognized or you are not getting the expected amount of interactions towards them. There can be several reasons for this.

• Your work is crap and no one want to see it or comment on it (Admit it! only way to overcome this is to work hard and more on developing your skills)
• The web site which you list your work on is not attracting the public (Look at the number of registered members and traffic)
• Web site you upload your work has different purposes. i.e. They let you upload photos but actually run other businesses on it like photography equipment etc.
• You are uploading for the wrong audience. Maybe you are a landscape photographer but your work is listed in a place where many comes to see studio photography.
• Time you spend on the site is considerably limited. You just upload and check back next day if it has any comments. (How easy is that!!)
• You don’t interact with other artists/fans.

Out of the above reasons listed I find the last 2 are more important even though its listed at the end. From my experience more you give more you get. If you want more fans you have to earn them. You cannot just do it by making good photos and uploading it. Accept it. Internet is a vast place. It has many good photographers not only you. So people visit and comment on their likenesses. But you can always go a step further to show that you are concerned about the society as well. Isn’t this the issue we all have?? An American president once said always do something for the country than waiting for the country to do everything for you. The sample principle applies here.

Embilipitiya - Photographed by Priyantha Bandara

My solid advice is to interact as much as you can. Spend some decent amount of time in the site. Look at other peoples work. Don’t just look at them, add to favorites/like/share/recommend to others. Keep comments. Tell what you like about the shot and tell what you don’t like as well. Ask what you want to know about the subject or the technique. Believe me many photographers on the web are very social people. They would love to tell you what they know.

The more you interact positively you will keep more marks on the site. And more people will recognize you and visit your work as well. Some will just come to appreciate you and some will want to know who you are. This is what’s community is. Be a part of it and use it wisely. And after some time you will see that you get more favs on your work and you get more comments as well. It never wrong.

Good luck!!