June 2009

Who would expect to find vineyards in Maastricht? For those of you who don’t know where Maastricht is: it is in the south of the Netherlands. So what’s so amazing about vineyards in Maastricht? Well, that they exist at all here! It’s neither the warmest place in Europe nor with lots of sun. I actually had an opportunity to try white wine from Maastricht (I got a bottle for my birthday in April for which I’m truly thankful) and I have one advice for those of you who would like to try it: avoid it!

Now about the picture. I dug out few old pictures taken still with my old SLR (yes, there is no “D” in front of it so it’s not a Digital one) – Minolta 505si – old, good traditional 35mm film camera. There will be posts called “From the Attic”, which means that these will be some old pictures, most of them taken with this old camera.

Taking a picture with a lens 18-105mm of something that can be very beautiful and fast (like a bird) can be a tricky thing. Those of you who ever took (or tried to take) a picture of a bird know what I mean. But sometimes you can be lucky enough to shoot (down) a bird with a simple lens but there is a little trick: you have to be patient. What I did to take this picture required quite a lot of patience from me (and I’m not a patient person). I was approaching the bird by taking a little step one after another and taking a long pause (approx. 1 min.) between each step. Of course you can, and you will, scare away a bird at some point and you actually never know when it’s going to happen. So, you need to take a picture after each step. Sounds simple? Try it yourself

The Dutch are famous for many things, but to name just few: soft drugs, wooden shoes, depression, again soft drugs and bikes. As you can imagine, the latter point was the most popular during Dutch National Sport Week in April 2009. I was in Maastricht at that time and I managed to capture few interesting (and thrilling) moments.

A group of freestylers were showing some amazing jumps and tricks with their BMXs. You can see the full picture set HERE on my Flickr account

I have to admit that my experience or knowledge about architecture photography is very limited. However, pictures of buildings or bridges, when taken in appropriate way, may be as fascinating as pictures of other subject. In my opinion, the right angle and the position of a photographer in such pictures is vital. Besides, every architect (just like an artist) wants to send out a message in his building or architecture. The trick is to capture that message and provide it in a picture. Well, there is still much of practice and improvements ahead of me