Today I went to take a few shots of the protest against Kosovo independence. The protests took place in front of Serbian orthodox church in Ljubljana. It started at 12:44, like anywhere across the world where people are protesting against Kosovo independence, to symbolise the UN resolution 1244. The resolution states that Kosovo is a part of Serbia.
What I wanted to capture at the protests were some interesting portraits and emotions. Not to make a coverage. After all, I’m not a PJ, so I can shoot the way I want. I was a bit disappointed, since there were only around 1000 people present, instead of anticipated 3000. So it was even harder to find the kind of people I wanted to shoot. Old men with their distinguishable caps (šajkače) and the protest itself was pretty peaceful and people didn’t get as emotional as I expected them to be. I mean, there of course was some chanting like: “kdor ne skače ta je šiptar, hej hej hej” and “ubi, zakolji, da šiptar ne postoji”. But there was no true anger or hatred, no tears, no violence. Ok, there were some threats to the PJs, that came to close. That was also the reason they kept to themselves, away from the “raging” crowd, while I was the only one that was in the middle of the chanting, jumping etc.
Here are some shots, comments are appreciated, since I rarely do documentary photography.
One can rarely see so many police officers at such small scale protests. The shot was taken 3 blocks away from the protest. American embassy was totally blocked with fences and police cordons.
Old and tired
Young and eager
One could see many interesting banners, as well as some more or less standard
When things got a bit crazier. Football match? Looks similar…
What do you think Apple fan(atics)? You’d be spending a lot more time on the toilet if Apple made something like this . And I bet you’d find it interesting if not inspiring, some would probably even request an upgrade featuring Mac OS X, which is not included in this set. You can check the full Apple style presentation on the (I believe it is) official Air Poo site. The source of the photos and text below is TechBlog.
With a MacBook Air/iPod dock, integrated surround sound speakers, heated seat, and multi-touch flusher, the Air Poo concept could be the ultimate toilet for Apple fans. Click here for first picture in gallery.
The multi-touch flushpad intuitively uses one finger swipe to send no. 1 down the pipes and two fingers for no. 2, which its built-in iPod dock and surround sound masks with “crystal clear highs and bowel-shaking lows.”
What a sad day for Slovenian photography! I just returned from Cankarjev Dom, where best Slovenian photographs are supposed to be exhibited. And I was really disappointed. As in the past years one can mostly see series, without any meaningful compositions, many of the photographs are technically worthless and what’s the most disturbing thing of all; there’s really no concept, no story behind them. Nothing to grab on. Top themes were, as usually, middle east, scenes from the gutter and other meaningless snapshots that an untalented 5 year old could take.
Until the photo contest jury will be made of mostly old farts that are favouring analogue technique above all and until the jury will be inclined to choose this kind of “art” photos, we can just forget about having a REAL Slovenian photography of the year contest. I’m sure some “artistic” soul will object in the comment section, saying we don’t get art. That we don’t know what art is really about and probably wrap it up in a complicated, dramatic description that no one understands - this is the way that the Emzin jury always justifies or better said describes why a certain series of photographs has won the contest. The main reason for that, is that they complicate their statements to a degree that nobody understands, but most of the people don’t object, most don’t even say a word, since they don’t want to be treated as morons. Like morons who don’t understand art. So they remain quiet and just nod with appreciation. Because they do understand what they just heard/read. And journalists writing articles about the exhibition are no better. Bullshit!
And we can see that we have the same winners every time. Manca Juvan again. Hear hear! I guess it’s better than having no winners at all, like it happened last year. I really think that it’s time that someone takes over the organisation of this contest. Emzin apparently can’t and don’t want to change. It’s the same every year. Like waking up from one of your worst nightmares!
It’s time to clean out the shelves and make way for 450D . No, just kidding, but I still have a special 400D offer for you. You can get it for 540 EUR and it’s in stock too, so you can get it right away. You can also get a 5D for a nice price, 2,2k EUR, but you’ll have to wait 3-5 days since it’s not in stock. Cameras have Slovenian warranty and user manual. You can pick it up yourself in the store which is located in Ljubljana or it can be sent to your home adress by mail. You can order it by sending me an email (contact form). If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
EDIT 11.2.08: A 2 GB Sandisk Ultra II memory card comes along with every camera.
Woow! I’ve got so many ideas for sessions, that I feel like my head is going to explode! And I’m so excited, I got an idea today, that I wanted to shoot almost from the day I started shooting seriously. And I’ve finally gathered a crew that I needed to make it work. Everybody from the make up artist, that can carry out my wishes and ideas, to the model that can get into her role, that is crazy and wild enough to do it. All I need is an assistant, but I’ll think about that when the time comes. Or better said when the spring comes. And I need to find a suitable location. That shouldn’t be a problem either.
Man, what a feeling! I really can’t wait…Now I really see, that a time off is needed. For me at least. After a while, ideas start poppin’ in my head, otherwise I’d just do similar sessions over and over and at the end bore everyone to death or in the worst case scenario even stop shooting.
I’m sorry for the absence of new photos, it will go on for a few more months. I just hope they’ll be worth waiting. Untill then occasional snap and test shots will have to do .
I went for another walk last week and this is what came out. My intention was to show you the field of view, I didn’t get into standard sharpness, aberrations etc testing. I didn’t have enough time to do it, besides that, I really don’t think those things matter the most. It’s really the FOV and the way you’re able to capture the world around you. Although I didn’t test the sharpness it seemed surprisingly sharp at f2.8-3.5 - but I won’t draw any concrete conclusions on that. Built quality is solid and AF worked really good on my 30D in all light conditions.
This video, more or less an interview with Uroš Uršić (ok, Uroš Uršej, but they messed up ) aka Lucifix appeared on Čarli TV. You can see most of the exhibited photos and hear words of wisdom from Slo-foto’s big boss. It’s a shame they didn’t put any footages from the opening, but I guess the cameraman doesn’t like big crowds .
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