Little time ago I read PHOTOSHOP magazine for the first time. Polish edition of course. Articles inside maybe weren’t very exciting, but quite educating. Generally it was pretty good level overall. The main drawback is that the magazine is too small. There were articles and tutorials for every level of advancement, but only one or two for each. This way from an 80-page magazine I found only two articles that interested me.

I used to work a lot with Photoshop in the past, but it was usually simple photo editing. I never needed to get into advanced techniques and since I worked a lot – I didn’t. Now, when I have more time for myself, I can spare more time on things that interest me. And so I uses two tutorials to make the following work. One tutorial was about portrait editing, to get the effect as you see, and the second showed how to use zoomify plugin in PS CS3. Zoomify lets you zoom very large images fast, and I guess I will use it often now.

Unfortunately the original photo wasn’t too sharp, so the overall effect while zooming is not so spectacular as it should be.

Niedawno po raz pierwszy miałem styczność z magazynem PHOTOSHOP. Zawarte w nim artykuły może nie porywają, ale są edukujące i generalnie całość jest na całkiem niezłym poziomie. Trudno powiedzieć, z czym związany jest mój niedosyt. 80 stron pisma jest wypełniona praktycznymi tutorialami i w miarę interesującymi artykułami o nowościach. Każdy znajdzie coś dla siebie, i trudno narzekać, ale… może właśnie stąd mój niedosyt. Mam na myśli to, że pismo próbując być uniwersalnym zamieściło treści dla różnych poziomów zaawansowania w pracy z grafiką, przez co każdy znajdzie “coś” dla siebie, ale z całości pisma zainteresuje go tylko 1 lub 2 artykuły. Tak było ze mną. Nie jestem początkujący jeśli chodzi o pracę z grafiką, ale nigdy nie zagłębiałem się za bardzo w różne techniki. Wystarczało mi, że efekt będzie na tyle dobry, żeby nadawał się do pracy. Teraz, kiedy traktuję temat bardziej hobbistycznie, z większą przyjemnością mogę zająć się poznawaniem krótkich tutoriali. I tak w jednej pracy wykorzystałem informacje z dwóch artykułów, czego efekt można zobaczyć poniżej:

Niestety oryginalne zdjęcie było trochę rozmazane, więc przy powiększeniu nie widać zbyt dużych zmian, ale przy zdjęciach o lepszej ostrości i naprawdę dużej rozdzielczości, efekt zoomify jest niezastąpiony.

Tutorial “Przekształcenie portretu” to zabawa na 5 minut dająca miły wynik, natomiast wykorzystanie plug-in’u zoomify z Photoshop CS3 pozwoliło na zamieszczenie dużego zdjęcia w małej przestrzeni.

..at least it is what he told me.

I am trying to participate in some photo contests lately as they motivate me to do things I wouldn’t dare in other way.

This photo is for the contest called “People’s faces” or maybe “People’s aspects”?

Every time I see some photo contest topic, first things that come to my mind are the dark ones. For example there was a topic “Places worth visiting” some time ago. I imagine people would send images of beautiful places. I planned to go to dog’s shelter, slaughterhouse, dump.. I regret I didn’t do that after all, guess I am still little too shy and lazy for such trips.

This topic was easier. I had a man on my mind to ask for posing, but he was absent. I spent half an hour wandering around railway station and finally spotted this man on the market square in Krakow. I couldn’t make myself to talk to him and ask him to pose. I felt so embarrassed. I followed him for 20 minutes, watching him begging for money, taking food out of trash cans, waiting for the right time. Finally asked him to pose for me and he agreed.

He said he is homeless for last 12 years and an alcoholic too and that he used to be a commando. I regret I didn’t ask him about his age or more information about his life.

..at least it is what he told me.

I am trying to participate in some photo contests lately as they motivate me to do things I wouldn’t dare in other way.

This photo is for the contest called “People’s faces” or maybe “People’s aspects”?

Every time I see some photo contest topic, first things that come to my mind are the dark ones. For example there was a topic “Places worth visiting” some time ago. I imagine people would send images of beautiful places. I planned to go to dog’s shelter, slaughterhouse, dump.. I regret I didn’t do that after all, guess I am still little too shy and lazy for such trips.

This topic was easier. I had a man on my mind to ask for posing, but he was absent. I spent half an hour wandering around railway station and finally spotted this man on the market square in Krakow. I couldn’t make myself to talk to him and ask him to pose. I felt so embarrassed. I followed him for 20 minutes, watching him begging for money, taking food out of trash cans, waiting for the right time. Finally asked him to pose for me and he agreed.

He said he is homeless for last 12 years and an alcoholic too and that he used to be a commando. I regret I didn’t ask him about his age or more information about his life.

In order to participate in a photo contest “Polish nature” I woke up on Sunday at 6 in the morning to shoot some swans. I couldn’t find anything really interesting around me and swans are always looking good. I decided to try making a strobist photo, with very strong flashes from short distance. I went to Vistula river, near Wawel castle and found a nice place where I could throw bread pieces on ground. Soon a couple of young, gray swans came, but they didn’t look very well. Finally some adult swans swam to me and I started to shoot for next half an hour. It took 10-15 seconds for my flashes to recover after each shot but all went good and I made few photos that look very nice.

In seconds everyone was calling 112 and people started to run towards the body. I couldn’t decide what to do.

Probably a course of first aid would be a good idea… :-/. The only thing I remembered from classes was that one musn’t move the body in case of spine damage.

I could see the car, an opened airbag, and car’s interior full of smoke. I moved towards the place to see more details. I didn’t even dream about helping in any way – I wouldn’t know what to do. I felt shame.

A group of people were deliberating if the victim shall lay on his back or on his side. In the meanwhile the man recovered. Spitting with blood he asked to take his helmet off. I was surprised he was able to talk. I was surprised he was alive! He even tried to stand up, but a dozen of hands pulled him back.

He moved his legs (thank gods). He complained about the pain in his arm, probably broken…

The ambulance came in 6 minutes, fire fighters in 9 and police few minutes later. I went away.

I will never forget the moment he hit the car and flied in the air like a puppet… such a shocking view.Yesterday I witnessed a motor accident which had happened, like, 100 mts from me. The guy on the motorcycle passed me driving around 60-80 km/h. I followed him with my eyes thinking “He is driving too fast, it is dangerous…” and next second I saw a car turning left from an opposite lane. The man in a car must have noticed him too late and was already crossing motorcyclist’s way. Quite fast, but still too slow. The man on a motorcycle broke in panic – too late, his motor-bike started to turn and slide, approaching its fate with deadly speed. So fast. Motorcycle hammered into a car, and the man rolled over it, crushing into car’s corner. The car was still in movement and the motorcyclist bounced 5 meters to the right like a mannequin. I froze for a moment, cursing aloud. Half second later man’s body lied with no movement. I was sure he was dead.

In seconds everyone was calling 112 and people started to run towards the body. I couldn’t decide what to do.

Probably a course of first aid would be a good idea… :-/. The only thing I remembered from classes was that one musn’t move the body in case of spine damage.

I could see the car, an opened airbag, and car’s interior full of smoke. I moved towards the place to see more details. I didn’t even dream about helping in any way – I wouldn’t know what to do. I felt shame.

A group of people were deliberating if the victim shall lay on his back or on his side. In the meanwhile the man recovered. Spitting with blood he asked to take his helmet off. I was surprised he was able to talk. I was surprised he was alive! He even tried to stand up, but a dozen of hands pulled him back.

He moved his legs (thank gods). He complained about the pain in his arm, probably broken…

The ambulance came in 6 minutes, fire fighters in 9 and police few minutes later. I went away.

I will never forget the moment he hit the car and flied in the air like a puppet… such a shocking view.

But besides that, all is going well. I am trying to participate in different photo competitions and recently I even found a job as a photographer and I feel great about it.

Oceń te zdjęcia :-]

Those two are from competing Cracovian football fan clubs. Didn’t let me show their faces as they would be troubled by people from both fan clubs.

Check out this super cool feature of Google. I spend hours a day working with Internet and Google, but I haven’t seen it before. Delicious!

Click here.

Guess, which one is programmer and which one is graphic designer ;]

Since I was the one to shoot photographs, I wasn’t on the photo ;]
I took one of those before, while making some other photos:

You can call me eclectic.
Punk’s boots, Scottish kilt, sport hoodie, rap-like gestures(?) and tired artistic face-look ;]

Now I spend my time thinking about an idea that will help me realize my dream…

That’s my neighborhood… 8-E

That’s my neighborhood… 8-E