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Portfolio at: gordonblackler.com
Model: JJ
Strobist info: Backlit by a large balcony window. The key light was provided by a single Canon 580EX II fired through a 60x60cm softbox, triggered with the Canon 60D built-in wireless transmitter.
Hey guys,
Sorry I haven't uploaded much recently. But life happens sometimes. We've finished with AnimeKon, both last year's photos and I had the chance to attend this year's edition even if I wasn't shooting. I had the opportunity to help out my friend as a lighting assistant. Pretty exciting stuff!
My last vacation was all about catching up with my friends. Someone once told me, that sometimes you need to put the camera down and make memories. I agree that this is important. But when my friend asked to come over on Christmas Day, I couldn't resist having a mini-photoshoot over our breakfast meeting. The light in my friend's kitchen isn't great in winter but we made do. She was a such good sport about indulging 2 amateurs in their pursuit of a photograph. :D
I decided to go for a different editing style. So I stripped the colour out and went for a much more "ethereal style". I wouldn't say this is my signature but I like being able to try different little experiments and share them here. That's the fun thing about Flickr.
I don't know about you guys but I love to hear the thoughts of others and have discussion with my friends. I find that it's one of the best things about friendships. I spent lots of time in the kitchens of my friends chatting about whatever we could come up with. Not that you have to always agree because you are friends, but you should be able to voice your thoughts without judgement. After all, true friends will never judge. ;)
Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead, dear friends. ;)
Catch me also on:
Twitter: @nhighlanderfoto
Instagram: @nickyhighlander
Camera: NIKON D5200
Shutter speed: 0.076923 sec (1/13)
Aperture: f/5.3
ISO setting: 200
© Nicky Highlander Photography 2014
All Rights Reserved
Bitter are the tears of a child: Sweeten them.
Deep are the thoughts of a child: Quiet them.
Sharp is the grief of a child: Take it from him.
Soft is the heart of a child: Do not harden it.
-PAMELA GLENCONNER
Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results. #thoughts #positivity #motivation
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
Mother Teresa
As we're going to have a stretch of great weather, we thought we would beat the weekend crowds and do a mid-week hike. There were still a lot people around, so many students and others with no work for the summer. A fire lookout station is at the top of Prairie View Mountain, and we got a chance to chat with Shane, who will be living there 24/7 for the next 5 months, keeping us all safe.
I know that almost every single self-portrait of mine isn't perfect…actually it's pretty shitty…I know. I don't call myself a photographer, nor even an amateur photographer. I just like taking pictures. But I take a photo of myself every single day - 365 - just for myself. It's because that when I start something I usually give up pretty soon and now I'm on the day 107 (I haven't uploaded it, yet) and I feel like "omg, I haven't given up, yet". You know, I tried to do 365 like a year ago but I gave up. I disappointed myself. And I try to learn how to be patient, not to give up everything! And that's pretty much why my photos are not excellent. I don't have a time for thinking about perfect background, theme and other stuff every day and that's why my photos look like they were made in a few seconds…because they were. But I still haven't given up and I feel like a winner everyday for taking a self-portrait.
I'm in a senior year on high school and I'm going to graduate in March, April and May 2013 so I must study hard if I want to go to university. There is a different school system in Slovakia (may make a post about it later). I even broke up with my boyfriend like 2 months ago because of school. Well, not only because of school (he's a prick, like I found out a few weeks ago) - honestly guys, it's really lame to tell a girl you used to love that you'll hit her - so now I can totally focus on school….who am I kidding, I met a nice guy a few days ago and things are looking nice with him so wish me luck :)
The actual meaning of this post was to apologize for shitty "365". So sorry guys, but I don't have a lot of free time and when I finally have one, I want to enjoy it with my friends and family, not always taking pictures of me :) Maybe when I graduate and improve my photography skills, you'll be finally able to see some super-duper cool photos. For now, it's the way it is. I hope you'll understand my current situation and you'll support me. Trust me, I need it more than you think.
Hope you all have a nice day/night
Love,
Simona
Projected Contest Entry
Subject: Seasons
Award: 4th Place
Sharon Woods park in the Hamilton County Park District of Cincinnati, Ohio. The local Winter weather has been pretty cold and/or unpleasant lately. The Snakedoctor is hibernating and I haven't been shooting much myself. So, my thoughts have been turning to Spring when I hope I'll be outside and more actively photographing. This shot may put me in the mood before then.
by ‘ek it’s parky this morning!
thought i’d post a summery shot today!
(PLEASE NO AWARDS OR PICTURES OR FLASHY BADGES)
Leaving Elkstone, I planned to drive to Duntisbourne Rouse, a distance of 12 miles. Easy, I thought. However, It soon proved to be anything but. I turned off of the main road, not far from Cirencester, and followed the signs to Duntisbourne. The route took me down a narrow lane and into the village of Daglingworth. From there I proceeded through the beautiful Duntisbourne valley. I was enjoying the scenery very much, but pretty soon I realised that I must have missed my target. There are four villages called Duntisbourne - Leer, Rouse, Middle and Abbotts, and I had driven through all of them, and was soon heading back towards the main road. I decided to do another loop, and drove back to Daglingworth.
The village seemed deserted this particular Saturday afternoon, but I spied a man cutting a grass verge some way down a side street. I decided to ask for directions and headed towards him. He turned out to be a very nice bloke, and gave me straightforward instructions on how to get to Duntisbourne Rouse church. He then mentioned that the local church was just around the corner, and that it was ancient, and had some interesting Saxon carvings. So I decided to have a look seeing as I was in the area.
I parked outside the church and got chatting to a charming local lady who was tending to the churchyard. I told her I was from Essex, she said that she had lived in the village all her life. Her late husband had been the sexton, a task now performed by her son, and that she had not travelled much, and didn't know exactly where Essex was. I asked her if she had ever watched TOWIE, but she looked at me quizzically and said no - with a slight smile on her lips. Shut the front door! I thought to myself. She then told me that the church door was heavy and tended to stick, and invited me to look inside.
This area of Gloucestershire is particularly rich in ancient churches which have Saxon or Norman fabric. My guidebook for Elkstone church mentions that there are 30 or more in an area of no more than 10 square miles. Daglingworth is a prominent member of this group. The dedication is unusual, although again locally there are seven churches called Holy Rood or Holy Cross. From the outside, the church doesn't look all that ancient, the tower is 15thc. and the windows were also renewed in that period. But on closer inspection, the cornerstones are typical Saxon long and short work (stones laid alternately flat and upright). And the door inside the porch is of the round arched Saxon type, and has a sundial of the same period (10thc.) above it. The interior is light and airy, with a norman arcade to the north, a nice 15thc. font and a saxon chancel arch. However, the real jewels of this church are the four Saxon sculptures, which were rediscovered in 1850 during restoration work. They are now mounted on the walls. The stripped down, linear plainess of these sculptures, gives them an almost modern look. This is the type of primative art that inspired Epstein, Eric Gill and Henry Moore in the 1920's & 30's.
I was pleased that I had taken the advise of a stranger and had a look at this church, it was very rewarding.
This perfectly reflects what I would call my thoughts in my head, kind of all over the place today. So much to do, so little time and worry about not being able to get it all done.
I am off to shoot my husbands car as he is getting ready to part with it :(, it's been his "baby" for more then 5 years. I am sad and I am glad *more time for me* :P
I am sure I will be posting some of them here shortly.
See you soon :D
© All rights reserved. Use without permission is illegal.
Though our temperatures have risen (-15C to -9C this morning) and the sun is shining brightly today, I came across this image from back in October and thought I'd post it today. Photographed at the Reader Rock Garden, I think this is a Japanese Anemone.
This afternoon, the funeral for Sgt. Ryan Russell, an 11-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service who died in the line of duty Wednesday morning, took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. A very powerful service for this man. I have so much respect for his widow - this brave young woman managed to stand before the many, many Police men and women and others to offer her words of thanks for all their support. Something I know I would never be able to do.
www.insidetoronto.com/news/local/article/929569--funeral-...
From the May 2016 trip to Thailand and Cambodia:
Ta Keo was the first “lesser” temple we visited. It’s quite near Ta Prohm (just northwest of it). It was built in the Khleang style from the late 10th (975 A.D.) to the early 11th century. This temple is similar to Bakheng and Pre Rup in that it’s a bit of a “temple mountain.” (I didn’t have the heart to climb to the top, though it’s really not terribly high; I was just exhausted from the heat.) It was commissioned by Jayavarman V and later worked on by Jayaviravarman. The current restoration to Ta Keo is being funded in large part by the government of the People’s Republic of China.
It’s an interesting temple in that it’s built entirely of sandstone. It’s also an incomplete temple. Construction was stopped just as the carvings were begun. Currently, I think it’s quite photogenic in part due to its location and also because it’s purely sandstone. I would imagine this temple photographs extremely well in both early-morning or late afternoon light. We were here in mid- to late-morning, so didn’t see it at its visual best, though I still enjoyed seeing Ta Keo all the same. You can easily and comfortably visit this temple in an hour…two, if you really want to look at every corner of the place.
Well, this is it. Save for a return flight to Bangkok on Tuesday, May 17 (a formality, really, just to pick up the return flight to China on the 18th…and no shoots on the 17th in Bangkok), Siem Reap/Angkor Wat is the last stop – and the one I was most looking forward to.
The flight over was pretty uneventful, though amusing. At Phnom Penh International Airport, we checked in at the gate, then went outside and hopped on a bus to take us to the plane…which was literally less than 100 meters away. That amused me to no end. A quick, comfortable 45 minute flight on the prop jet later – over completely black terrain; it seems the countryside is either sparsely populated, or electricity is a premium, but we may as well have been flying over a moonless ocean – brought us to Siem Reap (which, I’m glad to say, had lights). Siem Reap is the small town (and it’s basically a tourist/party kind of town where it’s great to go out at night after spending a full day in the sweltering hot sun. It’s about 10 kilometers south of Angkor Wat.
In overview, Angkor Wat is the ancient capital of the Khmer kingdom. What remains today are temples…temples…and temples. Hindu temples. Buddhist temples. They were also a people who were animists, so some temples are reminiscent of that system, too.
The detail of the temples is also fascinating. There are more asparas here than you can shake a stick at. Of the roughly 20,000 asparas, only one is shown smiling (baring teeth, that is). It fascinates – and impresses – me that people have done such extensive research and restoration that they know this. Those are the details, though.
A macro view of the Siem Reap area is just as impressive in that these temples are a study of a civilization close to one thousand years old (yet another jaw-dropping aspect of Angkor: the longevity) and their durability. The earliest temples are over a thousand years old, and the most recent are from the 14th century. (If the guide book I bought is correct, they were all built between 790-1307.) What survives today is all original (though there have been reinforcements with stone – many foreign countries support renovations of specific temples; I recall China and India among them). It’s quite obvious to tell what’s old and what’s new in most cases. However, the restorations are all good and necessary. One last note regarding the longevity of these temples is this: If these stone temples are what remained…how impressive must the society have been who created them? (That’s to say…think of the temples, houses, and all that didn’t survive as they were built of wood; these are simply the temples built by the royals or the aristocracy.)
A tour of modern-day Angkor Wat can be done in one or two fairly vigorous days. However, if you’re looking for any classic shots, you’ll want to spend longer here. (Common sense: the more time here, the more chances for good shots.) For this trip – it may be the only time I come here, though you never know – we arrived on a Saturday night and checked into our hotel (My Home Tropical Garden Villa; $20/night)
Siem Reap feels, at first, like a small dusty outpost of a town. The center of town is about four square blocks of small dive restaurants (and a bar street) and slightly pricier restaurants. There is also a night market street, an art street…all in all, it’s quite nice and has a bit of a party feel to it in addition to the endless souvenir stands you would expect. Though we didn’t go out on Saturday night (since we didn’t get checked in until around 9:30 p.m.), we did get a chance to go on Sunday.
Sunday morning was an awfully early start. Before having left Phnom Penh, I jumped on Facebook and, by chance, found and hired a local tuktuk driver, Mao Khvan, for $25/day. He agreed to pick us up at 4:50 a.m. to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Now, a quick note on tuktuks: almost every single hotel/hostel/guesthouse probably has tuktuks available for hire. Also, when we were picked up at the airport, the taxi driver offered to drive us for the time we were there. In short…it’s a competitive market, and finding a driver for the day will be no problem. $25 may even be slightly pricy (you could probably find a driver for $15-20), however, I was so impressed with Mao’s service that, if I were to return, I’d gladly hire him again. He wasn’t rude or pushy, provides all the ice water you could possibly want to drink, and though he’s not an “official” guide, he’s very, very knowledgeable and made both days pleasant. I even had him take us to the airport the morning we left, and he brought his wife and daughter to meet us. He’s just a genuinely good and decent guy. (For anyone who goes to Angkor Wat, here’s Mao’s contact info if you want to arrange his services ahead of time: www.facebook.com/maotuktuksiemreap/?fref=ts )
Back to the actual touring itself, Angkor is geared towards tourism and they do it well. You can buy an admission ticket for either one, three, or seven days. ($20, $40, or…$60?). It’s also nice because they don’t have to be used in consecutive days (for the three and seven day passes, obviously). The three days can be used in a given week. The seven day pass, within a month.
Conventionally, two days is enough to see the “main” sites (albeit quickly) in about 8 hours each day. There’s a small loop (which we did the first morning) in which we caught the sunrise (not a great one, but…there was one, and it wasn’t terrible, by any stretch) at Angkor Wat, followed by a quick tour of the grounds – but not the temple itself. Afterwards (we were at Angkor Wat from 5:30 until 7:00 or 8:00, I’d say), we hopped back in the tuktuk and headed over to Ta Prohm, about 15-20 minutes away. Ta Prohm is famous for those who are fans of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider movies. (The first, I think. I’m not, so I don’t recall it vividly.) After those two spots – probably two of the three most famous – we went to the Khmer Country Kitchen for a rather nice, relaxing, and cheap breakfast where we spent an hour with the other two members of our group. Around 10:00, we went to our third stop: Ta Keo Temple. In 40 degree heat (roughly 104F), I was feeling a bit too exhausted to climb the somewhat steep stairs to the top of this temple, but I did enjoy the lower area just as well. From Ta Keo, we made a quick stop at two temples (they form a pair): Thommanon and Chau Say Tevoda for about 20 minutes. Between these three, I’d say we spent about an hour. Our last stop of the morning, around high noon, was the Bayon complex of Angkor Thom. Passing through Bayon’s east gate, we stopped for a few quick pictures before going to the main compound of Bayon, which I would say is the the last of the three most-recognizable places here. We spent a good hour, or a little longer, shooting here after which point we were completely spent. Mao would have gladly taken us back to Angkor for sunset, but we actually decided to call it a day around 1:00. 9 hours in high heat was more than enough.
Back at the hotel, we rested, and I enjoyed myself immensely in the swimming pool. In the early evening, we walked about 600 meters to the “happening” part of town where we wandered the various streets and had a rather nice Khmer dinner. After eating and walking off a rather good dinner, we called it a night and headed back to our room. (For what it’s worth, the afternoon sky clouded over quite a bit and I heard we didn’t miss much as far as sunsets go. Mao also told us the following morning that the sunrise was a wash, as was Tuesday morning’s. Perhaps he was just trying to make us feel good.)
Monday morning we gladly skipped the sunrise and had a late start around…10:00. After a good old-fashioned breakfast of a ham & cheese omelet, Mao came by and we spent the second full day on the large loop. The first stop of the day was at Ba Phuon, a lesser temple just north of Bayon in Angkhor Thom. This was accompanied by quick stops at the adjacent Elephant Terrace and Leper King Terrace. After about an hour in the Ba Phuon area, we rode off to the northeast and stopped at Preah Khan, which was a rather interesting ruins. Another hour or so gone, we continued along the northeastern loop, bypassing Neak Pean (which, following English pronunciation rules, could theoretically be pronounced “neck pain,” which amused me for some reason…). The next stop was a rather small temple named Ta Som on the eastern end of the outer loop. Just down the road from Ta Som, we stopped at the East Mebon temple. When it was constructed, this was an island, only accessible by boat. That, however, was centuries ago. Now, it’s just a very dry, dusty area – with the temple still standing – and it’s hard to imagine it was once surrounded by water. At any rate, it was a quick stop at East Mebon, followed by another nice meal at the Khmer Country Kitchen before we continued with the tour. The next stop on the list was due east of the restaurant (southeast corner of the outer loop, which is really slightly northeast of Angkor Wat). Pre Rup (or Bre Rup) was a fairly photogenic temple. By this point, the heat – also around 40 degrees, just like Sunday – was starting to take a toll, though we still managed to stay out and see all we could. The last “new” temple for us was Banteay Kdei, a citadel that is at the corner of where the inner and outer loop meet on the eastern side of Angkor Wat. Directly across the street from Bnateay Kdei is what should be a nice lake called Sra Srang. A long, rectangular lake, which is also across the street from the Khmer Country Kitchen, it’s now nothing but a dustbowl. Though it’s rainy season now, there’s been so little rain that the lake has completely dried up. (But, please don’t tell any “right”-thinking politicians in my country that global warming is a problem. It certainly isn’t, despite what your eyes see.) After some rather sad contemplation at Sra Srang, we went back to Angkor Wat around 4:00 and were there until 6:30 or so for sundown. However, a boomer of a thunderstorm (light rain, but heavy on thunder & lightning) came through and there wasn’t much to see. However, we did finally get to tour the interior of Angkor Wat, and found that a pretty fitting way to end the initial Siem Reap shoot. From there, we went back to the hotel where we passed out from exhaustion.
The only thing left to do was wake up on Tuesday for a quick 45 minute flight at noon to Bangkok. We concluded the trip as we started it: eating well at a Thai restaurant. Other than that, we just had a quiet night in Bangkok (no shooting at all) and a very early (3:30 a.m.) wake up call for our return flights out of Thailand. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Thailand again soon.