Almost every day we’ve been getting up around 3 30 AM and going for long walks around area where I live and taking tons of pictures. I really enjoy shooting before and around sunrise, light is unbelievably beautiful, air is clean and crisp, there are no distracting people around and we get to see many cool animals. Just last week we saw red tailed hawk, many storks and herons, huge hare, hundreds of baby frogs jumping through grass, a deer running through a wheat field and many more…

Speaking of wheat fields here is a photo of me standing in one of them, picture was taken by Arlen just few minutes after a sunrise.

Also, in lately I’ve been having many ideas for self-portraits but since my remote is broken I haven’t been able to shoot them so I’ve been writing down my ideas and doodling storyboard for photo shoots that will hopefully happen very soon.

Until then I’ve been having fun using a fish tank as a photo prop but I still need to find more creative ways to utilize it :)

In last month or so my (creative) life has been revolving mostly around photography-taking pictures, editing them, working on several new projects… I’m tempted to share everything I do right now but for various reasons I can’t yet (at least not for another month or two) but if you’re interested you can take a peek at my “analog” flickr account where I post new pic here and there :)

Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters Trailer from Benjamin Shapiro on Vimeo.

***********************************************************************************************************************

The second documentary I’d like to recommend is BBC’s The Lomo Camera: Shoot From The Hip that, as you might have guessed, shares the story behind creating Lomographic Society (did you know that Vladimir Putin was, in a way, a godfather of lomography? I had no idea.)

***********************************************************************************************************************

And to end this post, here is an interesting  read from fototazo on photography and money: part 1, part 2 and part 3.

During last week or so, while on my short (and sweet) blogging break I was either taking pictures or posing for them, but mostly doing both at the same time :) Me and Arlen embarked upon yet another photo adventure together, this time he is armed with even more (analog) gear, this neat Nikkormat being just one of the additions to his camera collection.

He also tried bringing this Yashica rangefinder to life but haven’t finished the repairs yet. It will be cool to shoot it when it’s fixed.

However this photo of me wasn’t taken either with Nikkormat or Yashica but with Arlen’s trusty Nikon N80 using Fuji Superia 400 film. It’s actually photo of me posing for a self portrait on a really lovely location (and by lovely I mean dilapidated, decaying, textured, rusty and crusty location- hey, you know I love textures!).

I took a series of self-portraits with a digital Canon mostly because shooting selfies with an analog camera can be quite difficult and because I wanted to add more new photos for my book  and all of the images in it are digital anyways. I took quite a lot of photos and currently I’m in a process of editing them.

Until I finish editing my own pictures here are two more pics from the photo shoot, both taken by Arlen:

As I was going through photos I took over last five year I got a bit sentimental. Shooting self portraits has been a big part of my creative expression  over the past  10 years. I was thinking I should maybe  put together a book of selfies taken during the past decade but most of my pictures taken from 2003.-2008. are stored on DVDs and CDs and my laptop refuses to read them. But if a freind borrows me her computer book of 10 years of selfies might still happen. Even if it doesn’t I’m still satisfied with putting together selected images from last five years.

Anyway, I’ve been very consistent in shooting selfies all through my twenties, it’s how I learned about myself and about photography as well. Now, I feel my attitude towards photography as well as my interests are changing and putting together this little book feels very cathartic, like I’m releasing a part of my personal history and making room for new experiences! It feels great.

As you can see from these screen captures, this booklet is still a work in progress. It’s a bit challenging to pick out favorite images from thousands and thousands I took over the years so by the time I’m done with selecting photos and editing this book might look completely different than current selection :)

I’m planning to finish this fun project till mid June and then I’ll write another post about it or maybe present it in a short video so you can see how it turened out. I’m not planning to make this book public I’m doing it just for myself to have as  a memento and a reference point for future photo project as well as a reminder of my very humble, modest , sometimes awkward but very fun beginnings in photography :)

As usual, t-shirts are available here.

2005.
I can’t possibly remember why I took a picture of not so pretty plant that day.

2006.
This was taken few days before moving into my new apartment. This is all the furniture I had. At least I arranged it so nicely :)

2007.
Back then I shot mostly film. I can not tell for sure if this image was taken on May 3rd but it was in a folder called LomoSuperSampler May 3rd, so yeah it could be (and yeah it was taken with Lomo Supersampler and it’s a double exposure).

2008.
Succulents at a friend’s house.

2009.
Self-portrait, an outtake from 365 project I was doing then. It was (obviously) raining :)

2010.
A really big mug I acquired around that time. I got it because I liked houses pattern on it. Now I keep my paint brushes in it.

2011.
My favorite gnome vase. Well, my only and therefor also my favorite gnome vase.

2012.
Some stuff I thought look neat together: a mask I painted blue, necklace by Isidora, one of my photos and an old shirt that I totally worn out and threw away since this picture was taken.

2013.
Irises. A photo that was taken solely with a purpose to make this post more complete :)

May flowers

It’s a rug!

Breezy waves

Dots and leaves

Chubby pattern

TAKE MY PICTURE from GARAGE Magazine on Vimeo.

Take My Picture is a short documentary about rise of popularity of street fashion blog and all the craziness followed by it. I remember when I “discovered” a first street style blog back in 2006., hel looks and even though I was not into clothes or fashion I really enjoyed it because the concept of it seemed so fresh and interesting. Fast forward 7 years and street style blogs are a huge trend that are definitely re-shaping our view on fashion, for better or worse.

Kevin Russ | A Traveling Photographer from Max Monty on Vimeo.

I’ve seen many wildlife photos taken by Kevin Russ all over the internet but only in this short documentary I found out  they were actually taken by an iPhone. Wow! Makes me loathe iProducts just a little bit less (but just a tiny bit). Also his story inspires me to pack up and go on a long trip (or maybe I’m just craving vacation) but, anyways this video is definitely worth watching.

How Sam Abell Makes a Photograph – From The Atlantic ‘First Draft’ Series from Ross McDermott on Vimeo.
I always love hearing about process of taking photos so I truly enjoyed this 10 minute interview with Sam Abell, a National Geographic photographer.

Speaking of National Geographic I like FOUND, a tumblr that is a curated collection of photography from the National Geographic archives. In honor of 125th National Geographic anniversary, the blog is showcasing photographs that reveal cultures and moments of the past. Many of these photos have never been published and are rarely seen by the public.

Over the weekend I started listening to Art Marketing Action Podcasts from Alyson B. Stanfield because I heard so many great reviews about them. I even downloaded iTunes to be able to listen (and that means a lot)  and yes it was worth it. Alyson gives great business advice to any professional or aspiring artist and after listening to some of her podcast I fell simultaneously inspired and pissed off (because now I have no excuses not to implement some of her ideas :)).

Well, that is all for this short but sweet links of inspiration edition. I wish a lovely holiday to my Croatian visitors and a wonderful day  to everyone else as well :)

But, hey this isn’t supposed to be a post about the said band or my taste in music, I just wanted to share some photos I recently took .  So, here we go, here are some pics I took during last days of month April on my walks not far from  the town where I live…

Let’s start with some field’n'clouds. Oh,  look at that cloud in the middle, so cute and chubby and friendly, that’s a cloud that wouldn’t rain on anyone’s parade :)

Another field, nice and green.

Some more greenery.

A splash of yellow…

…and a piece of bright blue sky.

Blooming apple tree. (This is how it will look in September.)

Some sweet ride I saw on my way back home. I hope I wouldn’t need a driver’s license to cruise around in this mighty machine.

Ok, so this is a photo of a cat and some bread on a window sill. I was wondering why would someone put pieces of bread and a cat on there and came up with this solid theory: okay, so person who lives there is a gourmet chef wannabe who wants to learn how to prepare Pigeon breast with beetroot crème fraîche, a recipe that requires a pigeon. Since he can’t buy one at a market he decided to catch one himself. So, first he put some bread on his window sill hoping to capture a pigeon when it comes to feast on bread crumbs. Very soon he realized that catching a bird with your bare hands is pretty challenging but he refused to give up. He remembered that cats have a reputation of being amazing bird killers so he employed one to help him catch a pigeon. All that cat has to do is attack an unsuspecting bird when it lands down on the window sill to get its daily bread and bring it to the aspiring chef. Then the chef will prepare a delicious bird dish and share it with his feline friend as a reward for pigeon murder. My theory makes perfect sense , right?  Well, I sincerely doubt it will come true because that cat looks too lazy to even move :)