About my photoss of cosplayers.

Three days ago I added a new gallery to my portfolio section in website, the gallery is a selection of my portraits of cosplayers that I have done in the past years while attending the anime convention Anime fest in the city of Brno.  My images have over-saturated colors, they are not “real” but my intention is not to represent reality. Anime and coplay is about fantasy and therefore in my photographs I want to show that fantasy, that unreal world of rich colors and fictional characters.

For me they are portraits of people who has the valor, courage, craziness and dare to live their dream at least for a day, incarnating someone they admire or like. Obviously some just want to have fun but still require courage to dress like that and go out to the streets.

Here some of them:

In a Czech bar...

Last weekend I made a little trip to Slavkov u Brna, a small town outside Brno. Its main attraction is is a castle  which unfortunately does not allow photography inside :( , so this post wont be about my photos of  castle however after my tour I went to a restaurant to have lunch but instead of sit on the bar and order a beer, open my notebook and start to make notes of some ideas for some poems I had in my head. After approximately five minutes a girl come and sat two sits next to me and something of her called  my attention, her ring, I don't know why I had the curiosity to ask her to make some shoots of it. So in my poor Czech I asked if I could and for my surprise she agreed, then I asked her friends who were working in the restaurant if I could make some portraits of them and they said yes too. 

I am not very into photographing strangers but is good to surprise yourself from time time and try something different. To break the ice there is no better "weapon" that a sincere smile.

a girl - Aksana

This images were, literally buried in my hard drive. I took them long time ago when I was a photographer at Carnival cruise line in 2008. During one of those nice and very few day when the crew members get some enough time off to enjoy properly a day at the beach. I posted one a while ago in my Facebook fan page and then again were forgotten until today.
She is from Belorussia and very pretty, isn't it?

a poem - Violence

Fallen Gods from the eternal dream
is time for human anger
and divine revenge
let's take back our ethereal kingdom
of lust and silence
let's gather under burned trees
and rise against the sitting tyrant.

  Merciless humans,

march to the battle at sunrise.

Pray forgiveness to the Gods and Saints
you will deny in future times
and once in the cold battle field
if your hands are tired and clean
immortality will be given to you.

Beautiful slayers of purified violence
light the heart of the beaten warrior
and collect his blood as a trophy.
Bring anarchy to our homes
where despair can reign
and Gods with Humans can finally
coexist.

                                                    June 2012, Carlos Lopez.

a poem - A good bye

Once I saw your eyes
then I saw your smile
and I wanted to hold your hand.

I called you my princess
and were happy.

We walk in summer days
and count the stars at night.

But the night became darker
and I could not see your eyes,
I couldn't see your smile.

  But was not the darker night,
I had closed my eyes
and I feel very sad.

Then I opened my heart
but you were not longer with me.
-
Where is my princess?
Where are your green eyes?
I love you and  I cannot see you
Please, to me come back.

 

 

 

 

a poem - Green eyes

I cannot hide my eyes from your smile
and cannot avoid smile to your eyes.

I couldn't caress your tired face every morning
neither kiss your pale hands under the silent night.

It was a shy winter illusion,
an unnecessary battle of pagan Gods.

But I still dream with unknown golden words

and a marble silent beauty.

Have your green eyes cursed me?
or is my sadness that claim your name.

I cannot hide my eyes from your smile

and cannot avoid smile to your eyes.

                                         Carlos Lopez, March 2012.

Intimacy - the hidden side.

Intimacy -side B it is the second part of my series Intimacy in which I explore myself trough portraits  but instead of be me in them I photograph women.

In this part of the series, the subject is the back of the women. I wont publish the statement, better make your interpretation of them. If you have any question about them, use the comment section or the contact page.

Karolina, 23 years old.

Toys, toys, toys... part 2

Continuing with the series of toys, here are some more photos taken for it just that in this case I took girly horses borrowed from a friend daughter. As in the previous photos I took them to a park to give the feeling of real forest.

  

 

 

The world in perfect detail!

This my last post about the pictures taken specially for the online contest and exhibition Feel and share from camera Samsung NX200. 

So with no more presentation words enjoy them:

This was for NATURE:

"Wake up, mother nature."

These were for the category ART

 

"Self-portrait"

 

"The dragon and Zuzana."

These were for the category CITY 

 "Playground"

 

"Flight high!"

Any questions about them? just write them in the comments.

About sisters...

I made theses portraits of these two sisters specially for the portrait category of the Samsung NX200 contest Feel and share.

I had just a basic idea of what I wanted: a portrait of them looking each other seriously but as the photo session started and more photos were taken it lead me to other kind of pictures as you can see. I took approximately 90 shoots and these are my selection. The 7th photo is my favorite, it give me that feeling of mixed emotions, followed by the 3rd of the faced being hold by hands which can have many interpretations.

Anyway, the most important is that they, Lenka and Kristyna, my wonderful models are happy with the results :-). I know these portraits are not the typical or expected photos of sisters, in which they would be smiling and looking happy but I think fall into what I would dare to call, even I don't like the term of "artistic portraits" because there is something more intimate in those eyes when you look at them. So no more words and enjoy them.

We can change the future..., actually not.

One of the hardest categories for me to send photos was Future, mainly because the way I see it is more technological, like robots, cyborgs, flying cars, etc. and make some images based in those ideas is pretty hard. However as the deadline was approaching, the pressure made me make diamonds:

Think too much about the future is useless, and this is a common phrase we hear when things are not going well in the present: We can can change it! but we can?

As the phrase sounds nice and optimist I decided to make a photo of it. I collected some leaves from the street and place them on a note book, some basic arrangement and done! but after few minutes to take this photos I realized that it was wrong, we cannot change the the future because it has not happened yet, therefore what we can do indeed is change our present so our actions can shape, up to some point, the future. And that idea lead me to the second image The future is not written yet.

Simple , effective and nice don't you think?

 

 

The next images are more from my idea of a technological world. As i did not have any of the objects i needed to make the images I wanted, a small twist in my ideas push to these with the Christmas light. The one with my son is titled: "Cyborg" and the other one "Artificial hand"

 

And to finish a picture titled "You and me".

Let the kid alone.

Continuing with the series of photos taken for the new Samsung camera NX200, the Facebook online exhibition Feel and share, these are the photos I sent for the category of people. The model for these pictures is my handsome son :-) of 3 years old. He was a little devil as a model, making fun of me and being very elusive to my camera. It took me a lot work get these shoots but they are worth. For the one he looks like crying and the one with the reptiles, only in those he made a sad and scare face, in all the others he is just making funny faces as you can see in "He, he, he..." but at the end that is the best way, he has fun and I get the images I want, real father-son team work.

Don't cry my boy.
Camera Samsung NX200 ISO 6400 - 1/50 - f 4.5

He, he, he...

Reptiles invasion.
Camera Samsung NX200 ISO 6400 - 1/30 - f 4.5

Untitled MMXI