The Boy With The Bicycle

One of my most favourite photos is the boy with the bicycle, following below. The colours on the sky and the reflections on the wet road caught my eye in the first place. Then there is the boy on his bicycle, which the exposure gave the slight feeling of movement, to complete the frame.

The boy with the bicycle, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

When I saw the photo in full size I found one more, unexpected, gem. A distant seagull flying over the waves. Quite small but visible if someone will zoom in. For a bigger resolution of the photo please check my pages in 500px and Flickr.

Hmm…let’s talk a bit about that day and some of the “backstage” of the photo.

It was mid May in Milina (Μηλίνα), Pelion (Πήλιο). The day had started with a heavy dark sky, a strong wind and an extremely rough sea. Yet, some time before the sunset little gaps opened in the clouds, which the light of the sun instantly filled. The dull day would probably end in some glorious sunset! The gaps were growing fast so I grabbed the chance for some remarkable moments!

With my camera around my neck I walked the short distance from my home to the seaside. The waves had created ponds of water on the street, big enough for their surface to ripple by the blowing wind. “Angry” springs were flushing on both sides of the road, since the waves, which had flooded the drainage system, were thrusting through the gaps of the manholes.

An impressive and dynamic scenery I must admit.

l decided to walk through the yard of the church. Two kids on their bicycles were cheerfully approaching, among water and waves, on the seaside road. It was an instant shot. They caught me by surprise and I didn’t have time to prepare a better framing, so I lost the first kid but I managed to have the second kid on the left part of the frame. It proved to be better than what I expected, since the reflection of the bench was left intact!

A song for this post Brian Crain – Dream of Flying

Nesijaudink

The title may seem to be abstract or irrelevant with the post, yet it’s somehow related. I was trying to find a title for the following photo. My mind was a bit shallow today morning. So I called in the cavalry.

I turned to my girlfriend who was reading her book and asked her to show me the page she was reading that moment, which was in Lithuanian by the way. The title would come from a nice, random word or phrase from the text.

Nesijaudink,a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

I scanned the page with my eyes and since my Lithuanian is really poor, needless to say nonexistent, I had a couple of…unsuccessful (funny) results, before I find the word “nesijaudink” which means “don’t worry”. I was intrigued!

It came as a flash. “Whenever you feel dull just look at the sky. The game of light, clouds, the sun and the sea can have just a meaning. Don’t worry.” That’s the description under the photo in flickr and 500px.

The “nesijaudink” was made with a ND4 Heliopan filter and the help of a little tripod, which, the strong wind, turned useless after some point. The final touch was done in Photoshop.

Time Travel, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

“Time travel” is a much different story. This is the shipwreck of “Dimitrios”, in Gythio, Mani, Greece. There are many stories behind this ship and how it became a wreck. The most possible though is that it was used for cigarette smuggling and when the disaster happened, it was just left to rot on the beach.

Another story claims that the ship was abandoned, by the ship owners, after the captain was hospitalized. The port authorities decided to anchor it before it was finally drifted, by the extreme weather, to its current position on the beach.

However the disaster became an attraction and up to this day there are many wonderful photos of this ship.

The original photo was not promising at all! It looked somehow…dull and the sky was too bright. So i chose to turn it into a black & white and brighten it up to the point that the photo, except the main theme, to become white!

Song of the day Fool’s Garden – Yellow Lemon Tree

A photography storm

It’s been so many days since my last post and it’s been even more days since the last moment I checked the posts from the blogs I am following.

The following photos were shot the last weeks.

“Near Athens” was taken in Aspropyrgos, Attiki. Although the place is not what would be described as “magical” or “ideal”, there are some nice spots to have a good shot of the sunset with some sea and, whenever available, clouds. Of course one must forget that some hundreds of meters behind him/her there is a huge industrial block, but it’s pretty nice that the waterfront was kept clear and available to the residents and visitors. I almost forgot to mention the fish taverns that occupy (in a pleasant and delicious way) a good part of the area!

To make the following photo, i blended two photos with different exposures in Photoshop. I had 3 exposures, in order to create a HDR, but at some point i decided to ditch one of them and blend the other two in order to have a more “realistic” result.

Near Athens, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

Last week, since it was a long weekend, we decided to visit Larisa, Thessaly and the nearby Meteora. I grew up in Larisa, but this year the city surprised me in a pleasant way!

Back in 2002, the plants of the city had been destroyed by the ice. Then the mayor, who remains in his seat since 1998 (in some kind of live simcity game), decided to plant 1050 Magnolia trees in the streets of the city! A great decision with an even greater visible outcome!

Enough about Larisa. Meteora, is a block of rocks reaching almost 500m above earth level. On them there is a monastic community. The first traces of the community reach back in the 12th century and since then the number of the monasteries reached the number of 20. The main characteristic and the impressive fact is that the monasteries seem to be crafted, instead of built, on the rocks. 6 monasteries remain inhabited to our days.

The following photo was taken from the garden of the “Megalo Meteoro” (Great Meteoro) monastery. In that place i really love the feeling of “flying” over the plains or as the greek word meteora means, to hover over them. The eye can reach too many kilometers away and some days it’s really amazing to watch the weather in different parts of this land.

Meteorizein, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

All the photos on this page were uploaded in my flickr and 500px pages. You can see them in full size there.

And a beautiful song i heard a couple of days ago on the radio! Royksopp featuring Susanne Sundfor – Running to the sea

2 summer and a winter!

Busy days, busy week. At least it’s over now and a new weekend is ahead of us! And of course it’s a new month, a month of spring.

In this post there will be 3 photos I uploaded the last days in my Flickr and 500px accounts. 3 photos from Vilnius. 2 summertime photos and a winter shot. A good combination for the new month we just stepped into.

Great summertime events, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

Vilnius in summer was buzzing with cheerful people, and tons of beer of course! The tones of the summer sky were really warm during the sunset and the cloudy spots on the sky gave some nice sunset photos, that i still haven’t converted from RAW into JPGs (I am really slow in Lightroom the last months…). In the photo above I increased the clarity of the sky while the contrast was reduced to -100. The highlights were reduced a bit while the shadows got a +60. Then the vibrance jumped in +80 and the saturation in +30 while a brush was added to brighten up the left part, since the group of those ladies was really dark.

It’s so bubbly i’m gonna die, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

The “It’s so bubbly I’m gonna die” photo was shot in Uzupis. A part of Vilnius which is divided by the rest of the old city by the river Vilnelė (Vilnia). Uzupis became popular among artists, who chose to move there, and since the name actually means “on the other side of the river”, its creative residents decided to declare it an independent…republic. It’s obvious that Uzupis is not an ordinary place, it even has a Constitution consisted of 41 articles and starting with the fact that

Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnelė, and the River Vilnelė has the right to flow by everyone.

Some of the articles state obvious facts, yet i don’t think they had ever been legitimized before or anywhere else. Like in the following articles

Article 3 Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation

Article 12 A dog has the right to be a dog

Article 13 A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of need

Under these conditions it wasn’t that hard to find ourselves making soap bubbles in the middle of the street! The title was inspired by the wonderful Agnes from “Despicable me“.

Go there, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

Vilnius impressed me with the tags on the walls. The tag in “Go there” is near the Cathedral square. I haven’t managed to understand the purpose of the chair, even though it invites us to sit down, but it’s a nice touch under the sign “Eik Ten”.

Enough with Vilnius for now! I think i can hear some London Calling!

Strolling in the port

One more from the port, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

A port, from its own nature, is an interesting place. Ships, people, cars, cranes, buildings, an open sky and, of course, water dominating the place. It might not be the cleanest nor the most inviting of water to swim, but we are not in a port to swim, right?

Most of the days the weather was pretty good, with hardly any clouds on it, which is a bit boring for me. However there were some rainy days. I don’t know if the word “rainy” can describe correctly those days, since the falling rain was so sudden, intense and heavy that at least one time I thought I would be able to swim instead of walk in the street.

Both photos on this page were taken in Limassol (Lemesos in Greek) port, 2 months ago. I wanted the “One more from the port” to be more dramatic so I increased the contrast of the sky and the clarity of the clouds. On the other hand I wanted the “Dusk in the port” to be more soothing. So I kept the contrast of the sky in normal limits, while I increased the contrast of the sea with some touch in the details by increasing the clarity and sharpness.

 

Dusk in the port, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

Paul Weller time

Milinian Sunset

Milinian Sunset, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

A stormy day and a sunset. I think that’s a good combination to experiment with long exposure photography. This is what i did here. I took my tripod, stabilized it somewhere among the rocks, fitted the Heliopan ND4 filter and then experimented with many many photos from this spot i found.

I really enjoy listening music while i am making photos. Yet, since i don’t remember what i was listening that day, the song that will go with this photo today is…

Koop – Koop Island Blues

The Halcyon days

A window on the tower,a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

Lately we had some extremely good weather. Warm and sunny days. Bright days. Spring days instead of winter days. Normally on January we have the so called Halcyon days. Winter days with extremely good weather, a welcome gap in the heart of winter. But now it’s February…! The Halcyon days might have already passed but this good weather winter window was absurdly nice and welcome as well.

The Halcyon days is not a modern term. The term was used by Aristoteles and has its origin in the Greek Mythology and in the more modern science of astronomy.

The ancient Greeks thought that the bird Alcyone (Kingfisher) was Alcyone, the daughter of Aeolus. Alcyone was married to Ceyx and they both were a really happy couple, but not in a “living happily ever after” scenario. Sometimes they used to call themselves “Zeus” and “Hera“…This angered Zeus and one day, while Ceyx was at sea, he threw one of his lightning bolts at Ceyx’s boat (or brought a huge storm according to other sources)! When Alcyone learned that Ceyx was dead, she commited suicide by throwing herself into the sea. Her act rose the compassion of the Olympian Gods…Zeus included (probably succumbing to Hera’s nagging on bed) and they decided to transform Alcyone and Ceyx into…birds! Since the Kingfishers lay their eggs on January, in Greece, the ancient Greeks thought that Zeus were keeping the weather good those days, so that the eggs would be incubated.

A nice and a bit sad story from the rich Greek Mythology.

Black and White Galve with Trakai, a photo by eliaslar on Flickr

The years and the centuries passed, the myths were burried under a thin layer of dust and science gained ground. Strange creatures and mythical persons were turned into stars and constellations. Alcyone became one of the stars of the constelation of Pleiades and since Alcyone is clearly visible during the cloudless nights of the Halcyon days on January, it wasn’t that hard for people to name those days after the star.

Science gained lots of ground the last centuries and curious people decided to understand why there is this pleasant weather gap in the heart of winter. The science of meteorology was called to solve the riddle. The official reasoning is that due to Greece’s geographical position there is somekind of High-Low pressure equation resulting in no winds and clear days, while the temperature levels are more pleasant, remaining above the normal winter temperature, and the sun in shinning bright, for a small period of time.

Personally i like the myth rather than the scientific explanation.

Song time!