Claudia Curici Photography
Exploring my passion for photography
‘Positive distractions’
I had no intention to post these photos today, but then I just came across an article about a new study, confirming that nature provides the ‘positive distractions’ that protect us from mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. As someone who grew up close to nature, I am totally dependent on green spaces and I always look for nature experiences, no matter how small.
During my Chicago trip, I woke up early one morning just to go and see the Lurie garden in Millennium Park and to take some photos of plants. As I was bending very close over a flower, one lady came to me and imitated my position asking: “What do you see here?” “I see beauty”, I thought. She didn’t seem to understand my awe for those flowers 🙂
And here is the study if you want to check it out.
This was one of the rare occasions I used my Nikon with the 40mm lens, which makes for a good macro lens.
Out of Chicago – Michigan Lake
During one of the photowalks in Chicago when everyone was focused on the city skyline, I couldn’t get my eyes of the beautiful golden light on the lake Michigan (sun was setting on the opposite side). I took a quick hand held shot and I like the result 🙂
Lake Michigan is one of the five great lakes of North America and the only one that US doesn’t share with Canada.
Golden Hour on Lake Michigan, Chicago Loop.
Out of Chicago. Splash.
I will start this post with a confession. These pictures were not shot in square, but in 3:2 format. Take a fixed 23mm lens (35mm), unadjustable distance (because of the water), narrow background wall and lots of people and 3:2 won’t work. Too wide to have an interesting frame. I think I will remember next time, in similar conditions, to shoot square from the camera, it is much easier to compose. I kept one of the sides in some of the photos as I feel it puts everything in a context and creates a kind of connection between the children and their splash game and the city and its people / adults. These were taken in Chicago at the Crown Fountain, during a photowalk with Thomas Leuthard, who spotted the potential of this location: water + interesting wall + people, in this case mostly children, as they are the only ones free enough to run through water without caring they get wet :).
Chicago Splash. Orange.
Chicago Splash. Orange.
Chicago Splash. Blue.
Chicago Splash. Black and White.
Chicago Splash. Little human.
Out of Chicago – Street photography
You know that question: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” My answer would be “Street photography”. Oh my, oh my… I am all kinds of scared when it comes to street photography. Or let’s say street photography doesn’t come anywhere near my comfort zone and in my opinion is one of the most difficult type of photography to do. That’s why I went to Chicago with the hope that I’d learn some magic trick from the likes of Valerie Jardin, Thomas Leuthard and Marie Laigneau. So let’s say there were few things that made me gain some extra five percent confidence. Just some random things that stuck to my brain:
“There is nothing wrong in doing street photography. You are documenting street life”
“Smile and compliment people, we only pick people who are interesting, so this should be a compliment for them”
“We don’t shoot people that are vulnerable or in embarrassing situations”
“Be patient, not everyone is a good subject. Pick an interesting place and wait for the right person to pass by”
“Your gear is not important. You can document street life with an iPhone, but the smaller the camera, the better it is”
“Get closer, try as much as possible to get candid shots”
“In the worst case scenario, run!” 🙂
“Or explain what (and why) you are doing this.”
So I took few street photography photowalks, and these are some of the pics I came back with. All photos are taken with my Fuji x100S, so no zoom. I also took my first ever street portraits (two handsome guys, lucky me) 🙂
Taken from the train’s platform. Looking for interesting light patterns. Waiting for the right subject to cross. Sat there for about 35 mins.
I am not renowned for my patience, so I slightly changed my position with the hope I get lucky.
Pretty blurred, but they were running, so I thought the three ladies make for a good pattern.
Only God Can Judge Me. This is the first guy I asked for a street portrait, and he was happy to pose. And I got a pretty good message too. I am ashamed I don’t remember his name though…
Meet Zack. Valerie asked him if I could take a portrait of him. He had nothing against it. Pretty cool guy!
On my way back to the airport, I took my camera out when I saw this wall feature.
And a colour one.
Out of Chicago Photography – Introduction
It all started end of November 2013 when, during an event I was working on (in Dubai) I had an epiphany. I needed a professional camera. I would take pictures with my phone and people would say: ‘you take such nice pictures, you should be a photographer’. I have to point out that at that time I was desperately looking to find my passion (reading books, trying all kind of stuff, inclusive fashion design, which I liked for the creative part involved but soon I discovered it’s not really my passion). So, to cut the story short, in December 2013 I got my first professional camera and since then there hasn’t been one day when I didn’t learn something new, no matter how small, about photography. If I didn’t have time to take pictures, I would explore my camera, read articles and discover photographers I loved and inspired me to continue my journey. Fast forward to June 2015, I live in Dallas, Texas and just attended Out of Chicago Photography Conference, where I met some of these photographers who inspired me along the way. If you don’t know them already, check them out:
Valerie Jardin, Thomas Leuthard, Levi Sim, Kevin Kuster, Marie Laigneau, Michael Muraz, Bryan Peterson
Of course, there were many more, but there is so much time in two days and I had to make some choices. I met Valerie, who had a really important role in me starting my blog and me discovering Fuji X100S; I felt like I’ve known her forever, and I definitely learnt something from her these days. I met Thomas, who gave us some courage when it comes to pointing the camera in people’s faces on the street (there is nothing wrong in doing street photography!, but that really depends in which country you are). I met Levi, whose profile photos and website don’t really reveal how charming he is in reality (and I really think you need charm when doing street photography). Also, I learnt some pretty good tips from him about using Lightroom (which I desperately needed). Marie was inspiring and I was happy to discover her work. I didn’t have the chance to attend one of Bryan‘s workshops but he is wonderfully creative (I attended one of his lectures in Dubai). Michael takes amazing cityscapes, and he is one of those photographers who are particular about the tiniest detail in his creative process (and they look awesome, check him out). And last but not least, Kevin’s workshop was like a slap on the face! He reminded me that all that matters is the connection you create with the people you are photographing. He is an ex Playboy photographer who hated his job for it was limiting his creativity. You have to check his portraits, they are awesome! Oh, and he takes many of them with a phone (that’s the slap for those who think you need more gear to take better pictures :D).
And a particular Thank You to Chris Smith and his awesome team who organized the conference for the second time, and did a hell of a good job!
Ohhh, too much text and no photos… I will start with the one below (of quite an iconic location) and I will continue with more posts from Chicago in the next days.
Morning sun
I have mixed feelings about posing, but sometime you gotta do what you gotta do :). My friend Darina wanted some pictures taken before I left Dubai, so we woke up one morning to go for the sunrise in the desert. The sun rises quite early in the UAE, so we missed the moment, but we still got some beautiful morning light to work with. The desert we went to was not the best place for photos, but we stopped by Al Bastakyia on the way back (an historical neighborhood in Dubai saved from demolition and revived by British architect Rayner Otter) and we managed to get some nice shots there.
Because Father’s Day. Environmental portraits.
Once someone told me that my dad is the most honest man he’s ever met. Oh, I was so proud to hear that, and those words got stuck to my brain :). It’s true, he is, that’s why maybe the first thing I look for in people and appreciate is honesty. In Romania we don’t celebrate father’s day. I have no idea why, as we do celebrate mother’s day (in a very communist manner though, on the 8th of March, which is also International Day of Women). But since I am in the US, and all I could hear today was Father’s Day, I thought a post dedicated to my dad would be just the right thing to do.
I have taken these pictures in March, last time I went home. When it comes to portraits, I don’t like posing. I prefer to ‘catch’ people in their natural environment, or in a genuine moment, and I do that by just engaging in genuine conversation while photographing. I really love these pictures of my dad at work. The atelier was quite dark, but had a nice small window letting some beautiful natural light creep in. I took the pictures with my Fuji x100S, on auto ISO, and I likes so much the Jpeg version (I shoot both Raw and Jpeg), that I didn’t see any need to make changes. These are the files straight from the camera (except for the portrait version, that was taken in the kitchen while we were having a conversation).
Happy Father’s Day to my lovely dad!
Windmills at work in Texas
Not exactly your serious ranch windmills, but these all together were pretty cool. This was another one of those occasions when I wished I had a zoom lens (I have my Nikon with 18 – 140mm lens but I don’t carry it around with me anymore, it is too big).
I tried different shutter speed / aperture combinations, and this one I liked the most: f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO 200. With a zoom and an ND filter, I would try something different 🙂
A short video of these windmills ‘chorus’ can be watched on my Instagram
Dallas in squares – one
After a photo walk I always end up with many photos I like but I don’t share, simply because I don’t find a place for them. I think they are more on the documentary side, so I decided to start a series “Dallas in squares”, where I will only post my square format pictures, that usually don’t get shared. Some of them are shot in 1:1 from the camera, some are frames with square in mind even though I don’t change the settings in camera, and some are simply crops in Lightroom. I normally avoid posting copped pictures, but since I don’t have a zoom lens on my Fujix100s, sometimes, especially with architectural shots, it is impossible for me to fit perfectly what I want to shoot in the frame (for example the green Beetle, the only way I could shoot this frame was to be placed in the middle of the street, which was impossible at that time :)). I also put some effort in naming each photo, mainly indicating the location where it was taken or the name of the building.
Golden light and white balance
This is a photo I took on the way back from my downtown (Dallas) trip yesterday. The days are long in Dallas and the sunset light is spectacular. I mentioned previously I am in a love / hate relationship with my Fujix100s, but the capacity of this camera to see the real colors is amazing. [The hate is mainly because of the limitations, but maybe that’s a good thing after all]. The first version of the photo is almost how it came out raw from the camera (I just applied a little bit of tone curve, contrast and sharpening; I didn’t touch colors at all). Even the white balance was on auto and I didn’t change it at all (usually i like to have it on cloudy for sunset light). For the second version, while I was trying to see how it would look with a different white balance, I really liked this tungsten version.
Those leaves are quite small, so I was very close, on macro mode, at f/2.8, 1/250 sec (it was a bit windy), with the ISO on auto (800).
Claudia Curici Photography 