Meeting a friend

Yesterday I met with my best and longest friend. We know each other since birth and even though there was a time where we missed each other, our friendship is still strong. With her new job and her moving to a new city we don’t have to many possibilities to meet, but when we do, it is still the same good feeling of being together with someone that knows you for so long.

We met at the train station yesterday and went to a kebap house. They have veggie kebap there and let me tell you it is pure bliss. It is soooo good, I can’t really explain it. It is made of soy, but is spicey and tasty and just so very good. Combined with fresh salad, fresh bred and a nice sauce it was a very good meal.

Later we went to a nice bar and had something to drink and of course we talked about everything. Her new job, my recent problems with my surrounding, wishes, ideas… You get it. Five minutes before seperating I told her, that I want to boost my photographic skills and that nobody really wants to help me. Every time they have some excuses and I am just sick of asking. And then she said: Hey, you can take pictures of us. And I am sure I have lots of friends who would love their picture taken. Sounds like fun. Just write me a mail with the date and we come.

So, of course I was just happy for this offer. And so next weekend or the weekend after – depending on the moody weather – I am going to take lots of pictures.

So, in the end Jasmine Stars advice to rwach out for your inner circle because they can’t say no wasn’t wrong. Even though my other very good friends and my sister said no (well, not no, but there is always “no time”). Now I can focus on my new task and be happy

Ressources

Since I am back from my sixth months journey to Latin America I am reading quite a few blogs about photography. Some just for inspiration, some for learning new techniques and getting an inside view in the photographer’s life.

One website in particular is very good for starting into the photography world. And it is also good for refreshing the memory on some very important basics. Of course you might not find it helpful if you already know a lot about photography, but for the newbies it is really helpful. That’s the Digital Photography School. They have tons of helpful articles, but this one is the newest: Photography 101. Even though I know about all these things, I found it a good read to refresh the memory.

A wonderful ressource for advice on taking better photos and post processing ist MCP Actions. She also creates amazing actions, some of which she is giving away for free. But the best thing for me are her incredible video tutorials, where she is explaining some great techniques in Photoshop. You should check her out immediately!

There’s a ton of helpful material out there for starters and pros alike. It’s never been easier than now to teach yourself the art and craft of photography with a little help from all the great photographers out there.

Yesterday

I went to a party yesterday and met a friend who moved to the South some time ago. We chatted a bit and tried to catch up with all what happened in our lives. I told her about my photography wishes and she told me that she has a friend in my region who is working as a wedding photographer. And she didn’t study this art. She’s just a self taught photographer. So I know, it is possible here in Germany. To know that helped me a lot to be more optimistic. My friend is going to arrange a meeting.

On a different note: Sometimes I am feeling very blue. Like today and yesterday. In moments like this I don’t have any hope that I will ever be able to fulfil my dreams. I just hope today will pass and tomorrow looks a little brighter.

Step by step

I decided that it is too long to wait for my friends and family (or good weather) to help me out with pictures. I asked several times now, but now it is enough. When they don’t want, I can’t force them.

I want to learn more about photography anyway. So I booked several workshops. At the end of July I will attend a one day workshop in Essen. It’s about post-processing. First you shoot, then you edit. I think this will be very helpful and at least, I will be able to take pictures of people.

The second workshop is about black and white photography, which will be in August over my birthday. It’s four days and you shoot as well as learn about the best techniques for the transformation to black and white.

The third workshop is in September and will be about portraiture.

As I want to be a people photographer I am sure the last two workshops will be very helpful. I also found out about a workshop specialized in wedding photography and I think about taking this one in September as well. I think and hope that I might be able to network a little and maybe start it.

I also signed up for Scott Kelby’ World Wide Photo Walk in Bonn on the 18th of July. I hope to be able to meet some photographers who will be able to help me. I think it might be a good way to learn, have some fun and take pictures. So I will be able to do some serious photographing, hopefully.

Have a great weekend!

Inspiration

Two weeks ago I ordered two books about photography. One is called “The fast track photographer” by Dane Sanders and one “Digital photographer bootcamp” by Kevin Kubota. Both were recommended by Jasmine Star. Friday the mailman brought me the books and I couldn’t stop reding them. Yes, both.

The first is about a kind of business plan to get started as a photographer. The essence is that one needs to focus on the unique parts of the own business, which means to improve as a person, as a photographer instead of focusing on the generic parts of the business. I think it is a very good approach. I am not finished yet, but I already find it very inspiring.

The second is the perfect workflow for a photographer. It helps a lot to implement a strategy to work with your photos. He starts at downloading your pictures, doing efficient backups, using Lightroom, record presets until the tweaking in Photoshop. It is written in an amazing way and very helpful for a newbie to the world of photography, especially digital photography.

I think both of these books are very helpful and I am glad I bought them. Thanks to Jas!

How to start?

I so wanted to start shooting people. All my life I wanted to shoot things rather than people and I was fine with that. But now that I found out where I want to go with my photogrpahy passion, I want to shoot people, but unfortunately nobody wants me to shoot them. I asked my sister and her friend, but althoug both are pretty and I told them I just wanted to train shooting and don’t want to publish anything, they always have new excuses. I don’t know why, because I see how they are looking, if I take a picture or just talk with them. Why is it such a big problem to take some pictures? I don’t like pictures of myself either, but if a friend asked me for help, I would say yes anyway.

Then I tried to persuade my friends, but it’s the same with them. Well, they said yes, but we never find a date to get together. I can understand the individual reasons, but it is important for me to get started with something. I want to learn how to shoot people. I can’t do that without subjects. How should I learn to take people’s pictures, if I don’t have models? I’d also love to take pictures of a couple, like an “engagement shooting”, butmy male friends find it unmanly to have a shooting.

So, what can I do? I really don’t know. My mom planned to drive to Berlin this weekend to visit relatives and I thought, maybe this is the chance, because I have lots of cousins and they are young, they might liked their pictures taken. But now we aren’t going, it seems. Missed opportunity No. 1276. I just wished someone would realize how important this is for me and would help me.

Anyway, I think I am going to sign up for a photo course in August. Maybe there I have the chance to take some pictures. I hope there will be some models so I am able to shoot some humans. I also want to take a portaiture course, if I can get in. There must be models, right?

Failures on the road

Even though I completed a report to attend a contest, I must admit, that I haven’t really followed my resolutions of last week. I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted. I wanted to take photos of my sister and her friend yesterday. But then it started to rain cats and dogs. All day long. We couldn’t go to the park to take pictures. Today we wanted to go to the beach, but it was raining again. This is no summer so far. I hope it’s going to change soon.

Also my writing resolution failed. I wanted to finish a short story this weekend and I am far from the end. Either I need a night shift or I just need to accept my failure. Again. I had so many plans when I came back from Latin America and now I am just a lazy ass. It is awful. I definitely need to get my spirit back and start my plans. Tomorrow starts a new week and then I definitely want to start fulfilling my dreams to renew my life.

I don’t want to live a life anymore that’s not leading up to my own expectations. Therefore I need to start living my dreams. Otherwise I will never be as happy as I can be. And that would be a waste of life. In theory I know this. But in practice it is so easy to settle into your life without changing anything. I don’t want that anymore. So from tomorrow on I will start to fulfill  my resolutions.

What I want

This is the first post in my new/old blog. I know I started this before and then deleted everything, but just because I didn’t write about things that I am truly passionate about. I juts thought, everybody has a blog, so I need to have one too, but then I didn’t feel like writing and just posted some stupid stuff.

Now begins a new era. I only want to write about things, that I really enjoy. I do enjoy a variety of things and I want to talk about everything, I feel good about.

For my first blog, I choose the theme “What I want”.

I was six months on a backpacking trip in Latin America. It was an amazing time and I will never forget it. It will always be a fond memory for me. I had a lot of fun over there and enjoyed it so much. At the end of my journey I wrote a list with things that I want to change in my life. It was clear to me that I couldn’t just come back and do everything as it always has been. Then all my journey, all my new experiences, all my new ideas and all my new personality changes would have been in vain.

I am sharing now a few points on my list, because I want them to be public. So I need to fulfill them and can’t back away. I am writing it in “I will” sentences, to put stronger emphasis on it and to make sure, that I really put all my afford in it.

• I will make a living out of writing.
• I will write every day a few pages of my travel report book.
• I will write lots of articles and try to publish them.
• I will attend writing workshops and contests.
• I will deepen my photography experiences.
• I will learn more about Photoshop, dark room, exposure etc.
• I will attend photography classes, workshops and contests.
• I will take pictures everyday.
• Tomorrow (19th of June 2009) I will start my “project 365″ (credits to Anita Larsen for the phrase). I will take at least one good picture every day.
• I will read more to be more creative and to deepen my crafts.
• I will go to more often to exhibitions, concerts and readings.
• I will meet friends and family more often.
• I will save money for my next journey.

That’s what I want to achieve in the near future. I hope I will be able!

And now a little insigth in my journey:

Little girl in Peru