1. Welcome

Hello World!

I was strolling through my photo albums today searching for a specific photo (which I did not find, by the way) and I realised that I have a ton of pictures which I kind of have never shown anywhere.

And since we're all social distancing and all, I thought - how about I start publishing my stuff somewhere in the Internet? If this is not the best time to do it then I don't know what is!

Oh, and I am sorry that this is all in English but I definitely wish to reach to my International friends as well - i hope you can all live with this.

So, I don't think I have ever shared my 'artsy' story before. So here it is.

*Please excuse my clumsy use of words - I am no writer, trust me.

I started my journey with photography somewhere in my teen years. There was not much to do in my hometown and some of my friends started their photo blogs at that time so I decided to give it a go as well. I never had it in mind that this would become something serious though, it was always only kind of a hobby for me. Well, at one point of time it crossed my mind to make it my daily job, do some studies and all, but I gave up this idea quite quickly, because I never felt like this was the right thing to do.

At first, I was experimenting A LOT. I took photos of everything, everywhere, gaining experience, trying new things, destroying photos with awful auto-filters and weird angles. But it gave me a lot of understanding on what I like and what I don't. Somewhere in this process I fell in love with macro photography. Flowers, bugs, feathers, droplets. I never felt comfortable with taking photos of people so whenever I am doing this, it really is me going way out of my comfort zone. Side note: I am an introvert - you'll often see me with my headphones on, out of touch with reality. So yeah, I just find it easier to communicate with inanimate objects than actual human beings.

2007 'art'.

Somewhere around that time a friend of mine introduced me to Photoshop. This is when I started adding massive frames to my photos and I believed that it looked good. Well, it looked bad, but, I had to realise that on my own. I tried tracing the blog I owned at that time to find some of those beauties but it turns out that we website no longer exists. Phew.

Since the beginning I had 4 photo cameras. The first one - I don't remember the name of, was a simple digital camera my parents bought and of which I broke the display (by accident). Then I got a digital Sony camera which allowed me to develop my love of macro photography. It was kind of advanced, with super zoom and all the thingamajigs that helped me in understanding why ISO and aperture are important. Yes, I started working with manual settings then!

My true love - macro photography. 2008.

I also had a tiny affair with analogue photography - I used my father's Zenit 12XP for a while but I always found it problematic to develop pictures once they were taken - there was only one place I could do it and it was not even in my hometown so, yeah, this wasn't my top choice. I loved the photos that came out of this camera and the 'vintage' feeling it brought. Also, there was always this tiny bit of suspense - how did it work out? Did I make it too light or too dark? Well, you won't know until you get that developed - exciting, isn't it?

Analogue photos

And, last, but definitely not least, my baby - Canon 450D, also known as 'Paco'. I got it for my 18th birthday so I've had it for 10 years now and, I dare say, we're still getting used to each other. There is this thing that people say that it is good to use cameras and lenses already used by some photographer because they are better - as if formed or tailored by them. I think there is some truth in it because it does seem to me that my equipment gives better results the longer I use it. Is it due to the equipment getting worn out or me learning constantly, though? That's a hard question to answer, at least for me.

Of course, this is not a perfect camera for a professional - but I never was one so it is sufficient for my needs.

Some of my favourite shots

I took part in some photography workshops, learned from people who know their stuff, but mainly I learn on my own mistakes. I have tons of photos of the very same place/thing, taken with various settings, to see what works best. I tried many competitions (both online and "offline") - with various results, usually rather disappointing; had three exhibitions - two in my High School, one on the street of one of the cities; posted my works in many places (deviantart, photoblog, etc.).

I still have a lot to learn but looking at what I did right when I started and what I 'produce' now - I am super proud of myself (and I don't say that often).

Right after I started my adventure with Photoshop, I realised that you can do so much more than adding frames to your photos there. I'd say this was the moment when I got interested in graphics. But don't look too much into it - it was just pure fun like making desktop background for my own (or my friends) use with my favourite artists (musicians) at that time.

This was something I dropped quite quickly, which is a shame - I liked that a lot and I often think that I should have put more effort into it - maybe I'd be even doing a different job now? In the last couple years I had a chance to get back to this (at least to some extent) by creating a background for my work's Movie Club Live Podcast created and led by my talented friend as well as her off-work Podcast (give it a listen!); and some Birthday cards/diplomas/etc. on various occasions at work.

Recent attempts.

This leads us to the most 'fresh' field I am exploring - the manual works. I give private English lessons from time to time and I have this one kid (who's now 19 years old, so, right, a KID.) with whom I am working since he was in Junior High School. At one point he started working in a cafe in our city so he needed some push with his work-related English. I didn't want to make it boring so I created a menu for us to work with but something was missing. I added some cafe-related doodles and.. I was caught. This is when all of this started blooming somewhere deep in my head.

One thing that I think I should mention here - I always liked drawing, sketching, painting, etc. I was very much into it in Junior High School but whenever I felt super proud of something I created, the grades I got were below my expectations. This pushed me off for a long time. Then in High School, we had one year of Art classes (let's call it so) and during one session we were supposed to paint a picture on a specific topic - the best ones were supposed to be presented at a competition. And, to my surprise, my painting got there and was presented along with other works in public. This was a shocker to me but didn't change my mind on my skills.

The real game-changer came unexpectedly, with Julia asking me if I would like to create a logo for her blog. I told her I'll try but I can't promise anything. This was a long and painful process. Don't get me wrong, I loved every little piece that came out of it, but it was a real struggle for me, a perfectionist. It took me quite a lot time to do, after all, it was all paper and pencil and me trying to represent the areas of interest of hers in the best possible way. I learned a lot about doodles and my anger issues - trust me.

Sketch version

Once the sketch was approved, I had to put some life in it - adding colours, shape, shading.. I think we ended up with a pretty decent result, but if you want to see the final result, you have to head here.

Well, this project unleashed the beast (for which I will be eternally grateful) and gave me the opportunity to explore more. After that, I reached out not only for pencil but also paint. Starting from tiny objects, I moved to more and more complex ones. I still get furious at myself when something is not working like I would like it to, but I am a complete rookie here. It took me several years to understand photography so I shouldn't expect myself to magically wake up one day being the most skilled painter in the World. It all takes time and practice.

Some recent works

That's it. A ride through my story with "art", an introduction.

I can assure you that this is the longest entry when it comes to the amount of words I have written down - from now on it will be images speaking for themselves with a tiny commentary from me.

You may want to take a look at my Instagram, where I am posting some little challenges I take part in, photos, and sometimes my thoughts on stuff.

If you managed to get to this point - congratulations, you deserve an award!

Till next time,

M.