Light painting.

Painting with light is a fun technique that gives great results. It is called painting with light because this is what you are actually doing while taking the shot - painting with light.

It is not needed an expensive camera, a camera capable of long exposures is more than enough. This series was shoot with a film camera (Nikon FM10) but if you really want to get the most out of the shooting session, use a digital camera. You will be able to see the results in "real time" and make corrections as you go.

You will need too a tripod or a place where to put your camera and this stays still. A flash light or torch, color gels or color cellophane (this is cheaper). And dark location, some of these photos were taken outdoors during nights without moon.

If you do not have an external lightmeter, point your torch to your subject, get your camera and aim it close to the spot light and made a reading of the light. It will likely tell you something like 2.8f, 1/4 sec, but if you want to play with different colors you will need a longer exposure, so for 15 seconds you will need an aperture of f.16. So 15 seconds for one color in one side of the subject and other 15 for other color in the other side (like the photo of the man's head in red and blue) so a total of 30 seconds, plus 10 of changing gels let's make an average of 45 seconds at f.16

After you set your exposure start with one color first, lets see the horizontal photo of the lovers, you see two colors, yellow and red. In this case I started with the yellow gel and moving the spot light up and down so the light will be uniform on the lovers, once I finished with the yellow, I turn off the torch change gels and turn it on but now pointing to the background. Because I did these photos on a mechanical camera I used to set it up in bulb and once finished I stop it.

There are no limits for this technique, start playing around and you will be surprised with what you will get.

 

 

Brno, Masquerade 2009

I have rescued this photographs from my archive, they were taken the starting of the Ignis Brunensis festival, the afternoon of may 22th, as a ceremony previous to the fireworks show. It was held on Náměstí Svobody and it was very nice, a lot of actors dressed in "weird" ways that made the show visually interesting.
Usually as a photographer I would have taken tons of pictures, but I have learned that sometimes is better simply enjoy the show without the worries of to try to get a god photo. So, despite the fact I had my camera, I decide just snap or make just the minimum effort to try to get something really good. The consequences were: I did not take a t very nice photos I could have taken, so in other words, I miss them but in the other hand I really could enjoy the show.

Brno, Masquerade 2009 - Images by Carlos Lopez

P.S. Sorry for the delay but as I said these photographs were hidden in my archive.

What The Duck: Hard news

What The Duck: Hard news

Diversity drive innovation.

In the company where I am working actually it was held an internal photo contest where one of the themes was "Diversity drives innovation" So this is a multinational and intercultural company where is easy to find people from different countries and backgrounds.

So I decided represent this diversity with my toys, one dragon called Milušk and a monkey called Jimmy. The idea can be ridiculous for some but I like the results.

Ground pollution

My personal project Ground pollution is based in a personal quest for a self-discovering and understanding. Trough pictures of the ground I look for representing and showing my anxiety, fears and doubts. The ground in this case is more than a subject if not a mirror.

The idea of call it Ground pollution is because I am in some way expropriating its nature and putting my emotions on it, so I am "contaminating" the earth, taking its real form to transform it on my own benefit. In the same way the big industries (oil extraction, mining, etc) do to our planet.

The fragments of ground I show in my photographs have colours over saturated in some cases, fact that complicate the reading or understanding of the image due to an abstraction not common in photography where the object is usually recognized at first sight. But it's this diffciculty, to recognized the subject, which allows the viewer make his own interpretation.

There is an artificial beauty on this images, but not because of that less worthy. The strong and vibrant colours in some photos are like signs of a silent sickness or wounded skin. A cheerful decadence we could say while in others of dark tones there is some little optimism, a quick message telling us that there's still hope. As if our death will come tragically one morning of summer and the medicine that will save us would be inside an old mossy bottle.

I hope you like it.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare...

Janmashtami is the joyful celebration of Lord Krishna's birth. Major celebrations of Krishna Janmashtami takes place at midnight as Krishna is said to have made his divine appearance in that hour. These photos are from the ceremony held in a small temple called The understanding temple, located in the village of Chosica, Lima Peru  in 2004.

      

Eggs

As in my previous post, boredom sometime give me ideas to explore, in this case the subjects were eggs.
Four

Three:

Two:

One:








Wait for the explosion...

Flowers, a hard task.

A while ago I was at home bored, it was Sunday afternoon, nothing to do at all. So in my boredom I got an idea, I decided to take some photos of flowers, not my specialty. It was hard, a lot of ugly and bad shoots were taken but from all I got these shoots.

I should keep photographing flowers, dont you think?

Lighting the sky

Some months ago, here in Brno was held the anual fireworks festival  Ignis Brunensis but for bad luck I could  not go to main shows that usually held at the lake Prehrada where is kind of "easy"  take nice photos. But to be honest I am not good with the fireworks, this is my third time (the two first were in Peru at some traditional religious celebration) trying to get something really nice but no success.

From those days I like these two photographs they are like the eruption of some volcan or some galactic explosion.

I belive.

Last sunday we had the visit of the Pope Benedict XVI, he visited the city of Prague and Brno, around 100 000 people came to see him, people from Poland, Austria, Germany etc.
So while I was looking into my archive I found some that I would like to share.


This is photo was taken in bar in Mazatlan. Strange place for such a image.


An image of Jesuschrist on top of some kind of alter in the street du to the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Manzanilo, Mexico.


Procession of the Lord of Gualamita (Señor de Gualamita) in the town of Lamud, Amazonas, Peru.


A nice and expressive  sculpture of Jesus Christ in a park close to my home.

Thanks God for all what I have.

Sad cloudy days

The autumn has started in part of the planet, Czech Republic, and the cloudy sad days have come. For the people who like the summer as me, this season is a challenge, the nice natural bright light of the sun has gone. Now we have a plain gray sky. But this season for me is the best to take urban landscapes, I like it because is easier to walk around the city and don't feel hot and sweetie, specially if you walk with your tripod and a bag with you camera and a set of lenses.

Cloudy days are specials if you want to transmit some loneliness and melancholy.

Here are some:

I know those are not from Czech Republic, there is a sea in those. : ) The first one is from Belize and the second one from Martinique, so come back soon, I will post some from the city of Brno in the next days.

Bartosz Liszkowski

Some time ago I received a positive critic about my art photographs from travel polish photographer Bartosz Liszkowski so is time to give back the favor now that I see a "relationship" between some of his clouds images and my Sky photos.

His strongest images are the sea landscapes, good composition, strongs colors and simplicity over all. My favorites photos are one from Greece and one from a cloudy sky. I would like just to see less galeries and more images in each.

Enjoy his photos and buy some too. : )