idollisimo have tagged me with this "10 things" game. I am trying to cope and also write someithing that would be most informative for my readers, not only for myself
1. I was photographing since I was a boy, used little half-frame film camera, then russian rangefinder cameras and first SLR, also russian. I was developing films myself. However, what I did was a pure snapping. Things changed when I got a hand on reversal color film. I started to shoot sunsets, flowers and laser images we made using school's equipment. These films are somewhere in my Finnish shelves now and I hope I can scan them one day. For long time I was continuing to do things using film camera Minolta. Finally, I was able to invest 2000 euros into my first DSLR Nikon D80. I was about to set off to Japan and of course had been preparing. Day after I returned I was shooting my first gig, which was Yngwie Malmsteen. And I still keep these pics in DA, they turned really well!
2. I do not think that I am a good photographer yet, but it's a lot of fun exploring various techniques and approaches, and watch pictures becoming better. I do think that a creative person should be humble outside and ambitious inside. I do not have a portfolio site yet (I will but I can not come up with domain name!). Why I do not think I am a good photographer? I lack attention. I want to see more things during shot, not after it. I want my mind to be more used to shootings, to develop careful and attentive approach. Sometimes I shoot just on intiuition. Which is also good but intuition can't be controlled, while to get solid result out of the shoot you should not only rely to your feelings, but know something. By the way, many people create websites, own fanpages and even conduct exhibitions while are still to get good shoots. It is their right and I never tell anyone personally that they must not do that. However my IMHO is that can be against them. Anyone DOES produce crappy pics (if you google, you may find some pretty silly "rejected shots" from Playboy mag shootings, for example). But good photographer exposes only solid result in public.
3. I shoot metal musicians and young cosplayers with equal passion. I try to be immersed into their world, to undertstand what drives them, and to reveal it in my images. A photographer should be interested in some way of what he is doing. Though I sometimes want a cute underage girl to scream like Sotajumala frontman. Worlds collide
And I listen to goth, metal and watch anime. Almost forgot, I also like Ball Jointed Dolls, but I do not owe one. They are great models
4. I was living in Kazan, Russia, till I was 24, now I spent five years in Finland and currently reside in Istanbul, Turkey (till November 2010). Later I hope I will live in Finland or somewhere in Europe.
5. This year I want to shoot more cosplay and more great bands
. For that I probably travel to Kiev (UA), Moscow, St.-Petersburg, Kazan, Berlin... if I have money.
6. I do not aim to become a photographer who earns money. I do not think that my work is of enough quality for that. However I did seen people with lack of skills who try to charge people even for very bad examples of photography. So far I earned 50 euro (minus taxes) from my Jalometalli 2007 picture published in a local news website. In concert photography I receive my "pay" in opportunity to be close to the bands I like, in portrait photography I value my freedom to work with these people who I like as a models. Professional photographers can be great artists, but they have to deal with, err, customers. I can not enjoy a routine photography of random people who just need a cute pic for Facebook or dating website. I adore my models deeply and very personally, that's why I shoot them.
7. I am a Catholic, but perhaps not the most accurate one. I do not have a religious "switch" enabled in my mind. Hovewer I hope that death is not the end and think that to make this world right, we need to act ourselves in some right way. And that way includes understainding other people and may remain without any proclamations about faith and such. On some metal festival, I saw a crowd of christian people next to the line, they were convinced that metal is evil and were standing there to make their point. But guess who would be closer to the actual people, some shouting guys with anti-metal posters, or all-black-clad photographer on the other side. And metal as a genre is not evil by the way. Yet I shoot black metal a lot (this Sunday I expect Behemoth), while I do not employ any black metal attrubutes myself. Sometimes I might not even bother to convince myself: most part of that is the same commercial appearance as whatever else. I was interested why people try to be "evil". Often it's a protest against not a relighion but all insincerity in that. And indeed, it's very funny to see these guys in corpsepaint in modern 21st century. The more serious they are, the funnier they look.
8. What I do not like in art is kitch and obviousness. There are some good pieces of art, but they are heavily deteriorated by too obvious symbols. It's like when you depict a praying priest next to cathedral or decorate a wedding picture with plenty of "love" words and hearts. I enjoy complex images that slowly reveal themselves as you look deeper and you find something "hidden". Once I went to a cathedral, I guess it was Lubeck or Luzern, but I am not so sure. There was a "Pieta" statue in small chapel, left to altar. When I started to think, how I can photograph it from best angle (statues of humans should be photographed as real humans), I found myself far from symmetry axis pof the chapel, somewhere in the corner. And then I found that some stone tablet, that was dominating the wall somewhere behind the sculpture, fits symmetricaly behind the head of Jesus. That was hint from the cathedral architects that careful viewer would find. I like it.
9. My goals so far: be more sporty (lose few kilos), learn more photography, learn more Photoshop, shoot more bands, read more astrophysics, learn ExtJs framework, find a job after November (tfu-tfu-tfu), find a place to live for next five years, see my family more often, and I hope to get a personal life too.
10. I dream of going in tour with Apocalyptica and be an author of photobook. Also my huge dream is to learn studio / portrait photography to be able to shoot my favourite musicians in a creative way. To make them remembered and to be able to contibute to their images and stories with my work.
That's it.
GroupsI love very much the new groups feature on DA. Great way to expose art to more people and get watchers. My groups can be seen on my main page
middeneaht.deviantart.com/ at the left down corner. Besides ovious cosplay and musical groups I am enjoying
Picture-Editing and
digitalBRILLIANCE.
Ball-Jointed-Dolls also is a great source of nicely done BJD portraits. Anyone know some really good portrait communities? Without common stuff please.
Some of my best shots
