Oh boy, I remember when I first got my camera. I don't remember anymore what type of camera it was, it wasn't great for sure; but I love it. I remember spending hours to figure it out. Yeah, you could say I was too excited about it. Then one day I bumped into Macro mode. I didn't understand why the picture was turning out so smudged. I didn't realize that it was the mode in which the picture has to be taken from close-up. Well, I spent more and more trying to figure out how to work it. This are some pictures that I got out of it. I'm still working on my skills, of making good macro pictures. But since those day when I just got the camera, I've learned that in order to take a good picture in that mode you need to focus the camera very well. Keep holding the capture button until the image looks exactly the way you wanted it or at least something similar. Sometimes pictures still turn out bad, but it might also be because of the lighting. I always try to make sure that the lighting is good too. To make the pictures that I posted today I used the lamp, to make the light fall on the flowers to give it the special effect that they have. If you look at the photos you can see how the color varies, just like the contrast. There are so many different things with macro, you just have to play around with it. So have fun!

What a Season

Fall. Some might love this season, some hate it though. Well, I think this is THE best season. When it comes to photography, the colors turn out unbelievably beautiful on the picture. Not only on the picture, but in general if you take a look around they make you feel warm and right. Well I love to take pictures when this season comes, I like to walk around and enjoy everything that's around me. I didn't love fall at all, before I came here. Because when I didn't know how it is in Chicago, the first thought of the word "fall" was cold and rainy. It doesn't stop raining at my home country and the colors don't vary as much. The trees are yellow for a week, and than they are gone. Too bad for whoever didn't get to see it. They reason why the colors are gone so fast is because of the weather; it gets windy. Now in Chicago, we are in the middle of October and the trees are still colorful; and it was still warm outside. You just want to take your camera out and take pictures. I don't understand the people who don't want to.

I added the picture to the post that I took a year ago. It was by my high school and you can see the how so many colors are combined. Yellow, orange and red. They make the picture warm, so you wouldn't even mind going to that place right now. I took a few pictures, but sadly I can't post them all because when my computer broke I lost all of them. But I had one left which is this one. And I'm so glad I can share it with you.

What's around you?

Chicago, I wasn't born here. I didn't grow up here. All I knew is that it has some really TALL buildings. I was born in Ukraine and all buildings are pretty much the same, it's a five to ten floor buildings with apartments. No tall buildings, no small ones either. I know that those who never visited Ukraine can not draw a picture that I am talking about right now, but that's not what I plan to talk about.Only five years ago, I moved to Chicago. Even though it was totally different from what I expected, it was also much better in so many different ways. It shocked me how beautiful it is in downtown, by the lake and etc.. But it shocked me even more to find out, that there are many people who don't have time to see and enjoy the city because of many different reasons. Some people live in the suburbs and they don't have what it takes to come to Chicago so often and see it. I've been taking pictures of this beautiful city for so long, that I can't even choose which photos (taken by me), I would want to share. Since all of them represent the city, that is one of THE best ones I've ever seen. And trust me, I've got to see many.

Doesn't Take Much

Do you REALLY need a "professional" camera in order to take good pictures? My answer to that is- absolutely no. It doesn't take much to take good pictures, just some creativity and imagination. Well, what can you say about a 3.2 megapixel camera? It might not make much sense to those who don't know anything about camera's. Professional photographers will probably say that that's not even a camera. In some way they might be right; I'll say it's not the best one. My phone (which is the G1 htc phone) is actually the advise with the worst camera that ever made. "The worst" was just a loud term I used, to express what I think about it; but the camera itself is not that bad. It's just it takes forever to take the picture. No zoom in. Nothing. Who can argue about this camera being "so great"?
  A picture on the left, is my work from last year AND it was taken with that same camera I not so long called "the worst". In my opinion, the picture turned out very well. Not only do I like this picture because of how well it turned out, but because when I look at it I can bring back so many memories and just go back to that same moment.

   Now the picture to the right, another phone picture. Not as good as the previous one, but the tone and the color are recreated very well. Like one of my friends said: "The flowers turned out so clear". Meaning that you can see them very well, sometimes when a picture is taken by the phone small details seems to be unclear and the picture looses it's meaning. To take a good photo, you don't need to be a professional; you just need to spend some time on getting it the way you want. Another major point is imagination, to take a photo some imagination should be involved or else it's not as interesting to look at. I tried to combined both points into my pictures- creativity and time. And this so far is what turned out when I was working with my phone.