We are not alone...

We are not alone on this planet and as a former city and a current town gal I don't always remember about this. Well a recent experience in the Peak district reminded me of the wider world around us, and all the creatures in it.



I spent a wonderful day walking around in the Peak district and bumped into all sorts of creatures from dogs to sheep and from horses to ponies... and even chickens! And God only knows what else was there that I missed (and I don't mean the random cyclist that looked very fit but still very out of breath!)



So yes, the collection today is a little reminder about how cute, entertaining and sweet the creatures are around us... Have a nice day everyone

I take your name and say "I do"...

.. or the best event to share with the rest of the world with (well, I suppose there could be a couple of those :)))



Images displayed here are from the wedding that I have recently photographed. It was full of joy and great spirit, which I did my best to capture. However the small details are great, still, and I find they sometimes portray the atmosphere in a no less acurate was than the big shots of people having fun.



Weddings are wonderful events to photograph, it's funny, when I was a child I always wanted our family to get invited to weddings more often - I just wanted to dip myself into the wonderful spirit of celebrating love and devotion.


Well, it did not happen as often as I wanted then, however, these days I can be a part of many - and not only that, but also capture great moments which will become treasured memories -special and different for each couple...

Photo cards

I am in the process of producing a range of greeting cards with my photographs in them. This idea has been in my head for a while, just did not have much time to materialise. Finally, I think it's time now. The images I am displaying here today and just an idea of what could become a greeting card. These are relatively abstract, later on I will post images for other "themes".



To be honest, thinking back now when I was very young I thought if I am ever a photographer, I'd like to produce images for greeting cards. Well, not much of an ambition maybe, but at that point I did not have much of a clue of what else there is.



Plus a part of me believes that my tastes and preferences have been shaped by the place I grew up in - that is, Saint Petersburg, a beautiful Russian city with a European exterior (in the centre at least!) and with a Russian soul. A city that is as young as America (yes, just over 300 years old!) and yet looking older as all architectural styles came to Russia from Europe with a bit of a delay... hence people refer to them as "Russian Baroque", "Russian Classicism", etc. You get the idea. And even after years of living in another country I am still very much a Doctor Jivago kinda girl :)

Back to the street - girls

Chatting, laughing, gossiping, giggling - it's fun to shoot a group of women talking - they often looks so animated!



At a street concert I noticed three friends enjoying the performance. I did several shoots of them, at different moments of their interaction.



Again, as before, the unsaturated finish enhances their expressions and draws our eyes to their personality rather than distract us with bright colours..

Lensbabies

I have been away from the Blog for a while, I hope you forgive me. But to make up for it, I have exciting news! My new lensbaby has arrived today, and it's wonderful.

This funny-shaped lense creats nice effects, and adds a new dimention to often quite ordinary images. Here's the lensbabies website: http://www.lensbabies.com/

I am posting three photographs which can truly be called test shots. I can't wait to try it out for portraits, weddings, and anything else that will catch my eye!

Street photography

I love street photography. Especially if you are in a busy place, a city, and especially if there is an event going on.

The pictures for today were taken at a street festival in London. What a great place for observation. We went to an exhibition at the V&A and when we came out we still had some time to wonder round. Colours, expressions, textures, candid moments and just bizarre things - it was all there. We just had to open our eyes and take it in.

I chose these photographs for a reason - they feature things that stood out for me, they don't show much, but it seems to me, they tell a lot. They are a bit symbolic, frozen in time and space, they kind of almost did not belong to the hustle and bustle of the whole event, the atmosphere, the pace of everything that was happening around us.

The girl in turquoise tights - she looked very interesting altogether, like a design student would look... She had short blond hair and a skimpy leather jacket on... Where is she going? through the crowd, not stopping, but not speeding up either...

That man sitting on that surreal uncomfortable pink sofa, next to someone else's bag (whose???), with people walking by and throwing slightly surprised glances at him and the whole composition...

That very classy looking lady with red scarf around her neck, with beautiful posture and face, with her hair tied back - staring away, through the crowd, the noise -what is she thinking of? She looks like a Russian ballerina who has just come out of the Royal Albert Hall after a performance...

All these people we see in the street just for a second, our eyes pick them out of the crowd just for a moment - wouldn't we just love to know more - sometimes?

The demolition party...

Like I said last time, there has been a lot of building work going on around our house (to follow the demolition of a couple of walls and fences) ... not the most fun but very necessary thing to do :)
Which of course meant that it was unavoidable to have crowds of friends in our house - those helping and those entertaining, bringing beer and drinking it, scaring away our cats and later on - eating the apple and cherry pie with cream...

All this was accompanied by rows of beer bottles, plasters over thumbs as a result of hard work, rose wine - for some and earl grey tea - for others :) Who knew that doing labour around the house on your day off could actually be so much fun!

The Taste of London: behind the counter

Another Sunday! my pictures often reflect my life with a slight delay, this weekend for example we spent demolishing and then rebuilding the walls around our house... however you'll most likely see the images next week, and today's pictures are from last Saturday.

A large group of us went to the TASTE OF LONDON exhibiton, it was a great event, buzzing with energy, offering a huge variety of delicious foods and drinks from all over the world - after all, London is such a multicultural place! Here's Channel 4's link to the website:
http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/T/taste2008/


I was walking around absorbing the atmosphere, sampling everything from lovely ctusty buns to spinach paste, and just observing the people - from people behind the counter to people who came to discover new dishes and restaurants. These three images are just a small selection of what I saw, the atmosphere, the abundance, the buzz and the hard work that went into it.

The three images depict different "modes" of being behind the counter: the first lady is waiting for questions and requests from the customers; the ladies in the middle are in the middle of serving a bunch of people; and a lady in the third image is catching her breath and recomposing - which I thought was quite a nice moment to catch... It sort of brings our attention to how much effort goes into serving us, customers - every day, in every cafe, shop and restaurant...

Black and white today

Today is going to be a brief one.. left the house at 8 in the morning and came back at 7 in the evening! "saturated" day :) so - balanced out by monochrome pictures...

To follow my own "rule of thirds" the three images today are more portraits - more of Anastasia and Sarah :)

Wishing you all a great Sunday evening and a good week ahead. Until then!

AFTERNOON SUN!! what can be better

What can be better than the light that the setting sun creates on a warm summery afternoon? well, ok, a couple of things, but this still gives you an amazing feeling - and an amazing photographic opportunity!I did a photoshoot with two friends in the Luton Hoo and surrounding area. We had great fun, the place was a sheer inspiration, and so were the models I have to say! It seems like watching "America's next top model" brings results not only to potential catwalk divas, but to all of us - photographers and models alike ;)) (We were joking a lot about it)
Featured here are Anastasia and Sarah. Both being not exactly bad looking ;) they are also fantastic at improvising as well as listening to directions! was a really enjoyable experience. Hope the girls will be happy to see the finished work! I definitely am....

It's Sunday and I am here.

Hi thanks to everyone who took part in the opinion poll! Despite the widely known "classic" opinion that beauty will save the world, most of you thought it will be spirituality. Which is hopeful! Please feel free to leave your opinions here as the new poll is ready.
This has been a good week - I had a chance to use my camera quite a bit, two days in a row! :))
There is an Arts Festival opening in Luton, it's called B:Fest. Here's a link to the webpage:

http://www.lutonartsfestival.org/

I am taking part in it in a number of ways (more on that later). I shot a hip hop performance on Friday, which acted as a preview to the Festival, will share the results shortly.


Images I have chosen to display today are portraits of my friend Maria. We had a relaxed photosession in the park yesterday. I just love photographing her. Don't you wish you had a model like this to photograph? She is not just a pretty face by the way, oh no! Maria studies interior architecture at the local university and has a bright future ahead of her. We share a couple of things (at least): same name, common language (Russian) and passion for photography. Her pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7312311@N06/

Hello Hello Hello Hello

(almost) in the words of Bridget Jones... :)

Hi everyone!

You can say I am here for many reasons but the last push was the article by Natalie Norton (http://natalienortonphoto.blogspot.com/) about how great blogging is and guess what! here I am.

Hopefully this blog will make a tiny contribution to all thoughts and ideas out there, we'll see!

I am here every Sunday with new images, comments and other stuff that bloggers do. See you soon!

Mashka Cordwell