Friday, May 30, 2008

Lensbaby and Texel links...

For more Lensbaby pictures click here
A nice article about Texel (the island I am going to tomorrow)

Jim

After working with Arnold this morning, while wandering around with the lensbaby, a man started talking to me as I was shooting a photo. I liked his look - and asked if I could take a quick portrait of him... he agreed, and then we started talking.

Meet Jim - this image was taken with the same lens as the photo in the previous post. Jim is an author who has previously published a book titled; Carlyle and Jean Paul: Their Spiritual Optics. He is currently working on another book about Jung and Carlyle. After talking for a while, we started discussing our mutual love for portraiture - and he was soon showing me some of his favorites, including a photographer named Yousuf Karsh, aka Karsh of Ottawa, who took one of the most famous portraits of Churchill, in a slightly crabby mood. After I had a chance to share some of my photography and portraiture with Jim, he said perhaps one day I would be known as Talya of Davenport. :-)

Who knows what will happen in the future!  For now, I'm really enjoying meeting and getting to know new and interesting people! I hope to get to spend more time with Jim and look forward to our future conversations.

I'll work on getting up some of my other photos taken with the lensbaby... I've got a great weekend planned - including a trip to an island called Texel with my friend Larissa, where we hope to go horseback riding - and I will definitely have this lens along with me for the ride!

-Talya of Davenport

Lensbaby fun...

I had another "lesson" today with Arnold... and he had a surprise for me! He let me try out a Lensbaby 2.0 (selective focus SLR lens) with a Nikon mount until my next lesson! I've been walking around shooting some images with it, and it is REALLY hard to focus on something specific... I need to read the directions more efficiently - as I just got my hands on this toy this morning... but I'm already having fun!  Enjoy this sort of quaint street scene I shot with the lens.



More to come later. Ciao for now! - T

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Arnold...

Let me tell you about Arnold... 

Arnold has owned a camera store for 
something like 50 years at the top of the neighborhood I live in, the Jordaan. His range of old and new cameras in all shapes and sizes attracted me the first time I saw them in the window. Anyway - I've befriended him and his wife Bep. SOOOO... Arnold has OK'd my coming in to the store and learning from him in between his customers, and I think there's a lot of potential there. I'm hoping to do some film photography this summer - and perhaps experiment with some different formats?! We'll have to see how this all pans out... but I'm really quite excited about it all!
 
Anyway - I spent some time with him on Friday, and we he looked through the few photos that were on my camera... I'll be bringing my computer with me next time I see him so he can get a better idea of my skill level, it'll be nice to have fresh eyes looking at some of my older photos! Meanwhile, Arnold has given me sort of an assignment - I'm supposed to work on concentrating on bike photos... big surprise right... a Dutch guy suggesting I concentrate on bicycles. At least there is no lack of them around here... so it won't be too hard to work on that subject!  I'm posting my favorite of my bicycle photos on here - and you can see more at the link from the last post (I'll repost after the photo).


I came across this bike that was covered in I think stamps from all over the world. I should have taken more photos than I did of the interesting bike... but I did get this macro shot which I really like.



















Have a wonderful rest of your weekends.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Fresh photos for your viewing pleasure!

Some fresh photos... as always comments/questions/critiques are always appreciated!!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Ik maak fotos!

Ik maak fotos! is the name of the blog (I make photographs!) This is the first phrase I learned to say before coming to AMS... and I think it sums me up pretty well :-).

My favorite photo at this moment... 

this photo was taken on one of the canals around here... I like the juxtaposition between the slightly rough wooden boat and the smooth apartment reflection in the water. There are times when the light is absolutely perfect for reflections!

I've been playing a lot with reflections in the canals and elsewhere since I've been here. It's something I'd like to concentrate on even more... I'll put up a gallery of reflections to link to here :-).

-T

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Where I stand...

It's an exciting time in my life right now... there are so many good things happening for me in 2008 - graduating from Cornell with a BA in sociology and a concentration in visual studies - really, truly being done with my undergraduate years! - successful completion of my second newspaper photojournalism internship - being lucky enough to get to travel to and shoot some amazing places in the world including Australia, New Zealand, and the place I am now, Amsterdam, and my most exciting achievement - my acceptance into the International Center of Photography's photojournalism and documentary photography certificate program, which I will start in September in NYC!

I have been putting up photos for the last two months from my stay in Amsterdam (AMS) - however they are scattered on the web - I am actively trying to figure out the best place to display them, and will post some links soon.

I'm not sure where this blog will go... but please feel free to join me on the ride!