Claudia Curici Photography
Exploring my passion for photography
Photographing food
Food photography, a tough one I must say. Not only you have to be a good photographer, but you have to be a good cook and a good stylist, that’s if you are trying to do everything at home, like me. I follow food bloggers (food blogging is a big thing here in the UAE) and the ones I love are the ones who have the best photography. Chapeau bas to them, especially those who prepare the food and also take the mouth watering pictures (and write well on top of that!). I’m not a bad cook, but have little patience so I usually end up messing up everything. The below pretty much sums up all the food related photography I have captured lately.
Slice of dragon fruit backlit
Dragon fruit and raspberry salad
Dragon Fruit. I like how the pulp resembles snow.
Dragon Fruit halves
Marie’s desert (and her red nails)
Olive oil, dark chocolate and rosemary cake. Yes, home made and delicious.
Rosemary and dark chocolate
Strawberries. Low light conditions, high ISO.
Citrus
The golden hour through glass
Sometimes the most beautiful landscape or light finds us behind a glass (which in the case of most skyscrapers cannot even be open). In the winter I can see the most beautiful sunset light from my office, and I wish I could open that window and take some shots (unfortunately impossible). One day I had the camera with me and decided to give it a shot. Another attempt was shooting through the window while I was in the metro. The glass was dirty and the visibility poor, but I loved the golden light coming from the sun setting above the sea (the left side). The two best shots below.
From my office window, in Downtown Dubai, a beautiful late afternoon light. I was lucky the windows were clean.
Taken from the last carriage of the train (Dubai Metro), through a dirty window; Hazy, dusty late summer afternoon
Lens corrections
I’m an autodidact and I figured the best way to learn is by discovering solutions to my own problems, rather than learning them from someone (probably owing to my short memory too!). Since I started photographing with my DSLR (with the zoom lenses), I noticed I have this problem with dark corners and, in case of buildings shots, curved lines. The other day I finally discovered how to fix that fairly easy: with the lens corrections feature in Lightroom (by just clicking on ‘enable profile corrections’). So many of my old pictures look much better now. Few of them below:
The Endless Column, sculpture in my natal city in Romania – Targu-Jiu – by Constantin Brancusi
Sunset on JBR beach in Dubai (what you see as horizon line is a man made island in the making)
Early morning light (and the moon) on the same beach in JBR, Dubai
Building in Dubai Marina, when the sun was high up in the sky
JBR, Dubai Marina, view from my terrace on a cloudy, rainy day
‘Jiu’ River passing through my natal town in Romania (Targu Jiu)
Experimenting with backlit photography
I live and work in places with window walls, so it came naturally to me to try different angles next to big windows. I remember we have been taught as kids not to take pictures when the light is coming from the front of the camera, something the adults were calling ‘contre-jour’. Ever since I got my professional camera I like to experiment with light, and I discovered I have a soft spot for backlit photography. I like the dreamy atmosphere they have, the softness of the objects, the silhouettes, the effects I can create by adding a colourful object nearby. Sometimes I play even more in Lightroom and I overexpose them (like the last image) for a painting-like look. Next step will be trying backlit portraits.
How I overcame a photographer’s block
Usually I don’t have much time during the week to take pictures, so I can’t wait for the weekend (Friday and Saturday in Dubai) to create something that is visually appealing.Today I had the photographer’s block. Outside is so humid my camera would be instantly all covered with condensation, inside I could’t find anything inspiring. So I’ve been desperately trying to find any objects that could unlock my creativity (I finally managed to work with some dry lavender, a ring, my pearls, a tule, some old seashells and a matchbox). Few of the pictures I took today are uploaded below and I’ll keep some more for another day. All the pictures below, except the lavender one, are taken in a dark room, with a tripod and long exposures.
Note to myself: don’t be afraid to make mistakes, you are learning something in the process.
Patterns
They are everywhere: in a fruit, in a plant, in architecture or cities. These are few pictures, most of them taken a while ago, that have elements of rhythm and repetition that make me see them as patterns.
Fear the fighter
I think many photographers are seduced by the ‘power’ photography gives them. Behind the lenses they are ‘in control’: they can change the way things appear to the naked eye, creating an image that is in fact a product of their imagination and creativity. Sometimes we are lucky – we have the perfect light, the perfect landscape, the perfect subject in the perfect place posing for us. What if a photographer finds himself / herself in a situation that actually not much can be controlled? Last night I attended, for the first time in my life, a fighting championship. I didn’t know what exactly to expect, but I thought I should be able to take some nice pictures. It was actually much more difficult than I expected: low light, no flash allowed, obstacles (cage, fences, people), distance, smoke, everything. I tried my best to play with the settings and get few decent shots: very high ISO, small aperture (I thought is better since I had a lot of obstacles between me and the subjects). I wish I could have taken more fighting shots, but I had no idea how to deal with the fence in between 🙂
This blog needs some (more) colour
Since the last two posts were a bit colourless, I thought of adding a touch of colour in this post. Some older pictures, some new, but still flowers. I promise I’ll come with something different very soon.
PS. Something that bothers me (and if anyone can help me with a solution please let me know): I work on an iMac and the colours look amazing on it (same with iPhone and iPad) however, on a normal computer they look a bit faded. Anything I can do about this?
The beauty is in the details
The beauty of macro photography is that by getting closer to an object you discover a totally new world, something you would hardly see with the naked eye. My struggles are still the camera shake (I hate using a tripod, it is probably impossible to go that close with prime lenses anyway) and the focus, but I’m getting there. I’m also not very patient when it comes to post processing (which I think should be minimal anyway). The same white roses from the last post, this time I filled the frames.
Roses and filters
Last night when I came back from work I treated myself with some beautiful crisp white roses from the the small flower shop (called “La Vander” – sic!) in the metro station. As you can imagine flowers in the desert can be very expensive, but this ones were quite cheap; 7 dhs a piece (aprox $2). I’m not sure if I bought them for decoration or for a photoshoot, but doesn’t matter they do both very well 🙂 I tried the filters in Lightroom and ended up with few beautiful options I think, but can’t make up my mind which ones I like most. What do you think?
PS 1 – antique; 2 – red filter; 3 – red hi-contrast; 4 – no filter colour (the original); 5 – b/w no filter; 6 – antique.
Claudia Curici Photography 