Stefano Politi Markovina

Barcelona, California

Stefano — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:55:00 +0000

While most of the continent is experiencing one of harshest winters ever, this afternoon I was enjoying the mild spanish sun by walking along the beach in Barceloneta and watching crowds of surfers waiting for catching some great waves. Beside excellent surfing conditions, the distant storm brought also several photographers on the beach to catch good shots of surfers playing with tubing waves. All the ingredients for a typical californian scene were there: palm trees, sun, sand, spectacular waves and plenty of surfers in the sea. Then, I made it up to Montjuic just in time to catch all the city in perfect sunset light conditions and Barcelona seemed to turn into a gloomy californian city right at my foot.

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Quotations about photography

Stefano — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:23:40 +0000

This is a still uncompleted list of interesting quotes about photography I have found by searching through the net.
If you want to contribute to this page with more quotations just send them along with the author’s name and I will add them here.
Thanks!

Stefano

Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts.

~Minor White

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.
~Ansel Adams

The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.
~W. Eugene Smith

The camera can photograph thought.
~Dirk Bogarde

You don’t take a photograph, you make it.
~Ansel Adams

Photography. The best cure for a bad memory.
~John E. Burkowski

Photography is all about light, composition and, most importantly, emotion.
~Larry Wilder

For me, photography is a virtue, a charity if done to value the people around.
~Zakir Khan

A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.
~Ansel Adams

Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.
~Duane Michals

A photograph is memory in the raw.
~Carrie Latet

Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.
~Tony Benn

Albers Vista Gardens

Stefano — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:29:40 +0000

Just came back from a two-week shooting in the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula located near Seattle, USA. It was both a great and useful experience for myself as I was commissioned to take photos of the beautiful Albert Vista Gardens for a photographic book to be published next.

Albers Vista Gardens of Kitsap is an oasis of common and unusual horticulture specimens artfully arranged. Albers Vista Gardens was created to preserve, enhance and display a collection of unique and botanically diverse plants. Albers Vista Gardens also provides horticulture learning and research opportunities.

Take a look to the images I shot in that scenic and pleasant colorful oasis .

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Occupy Seattle

Stefano — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:32:08 +0000

I was in Seattle right in time to face a close-up at the “Occupy Seattle” movement, last October. The occupation of a group of Seattleites is part of an international resistance movement that started in Madrid, Spain in summer 2011. Protesters aim to focus elected officials and the voting public on the majority’s desire to take the single countries’ governments back from the big money interests that currently hold undue sway over decisions affecting all the world. Westlake Park in Downtown Seattle has been occupied for weeks already, night and day, by dozens of “Occupy Seattle” members.
On October 7, 2011, a date marked the 10th anniversary of the Afghan war, a protesters’ march held in Seattle converged on Westlake Park where it met the Occupy Seattle movement. I was there to shoot pictures of that event.

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Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers

Stefano — Fri, 20 May 2011 20:35:25 +0000

The other day I bought Martin Evening’s Adobe Photoshop for Photographers. Despite being considered, above all, a classic reference sources for photographers at all skill levels, this book contains a wealth of practical advice, hints and tips to help also already talented photographers to achieve professional-looking results.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers begins with an overview of the Photoshop interface and the fundamentals of how to use Photoshop, followed by how to configure and optimize your computer’s performance to run the program and then dives straight into the essentials of Camera Raw image editing. The Sharpening chapter shows how to use the Camera Raw controls to obtain optimum capture sharpening and noise reduction, and the Essentials chapter outlines how to work with all the basic image adjustment tools that are in the program.

Practical workshops show you how to master the essential techniques, such as color correction, retouching techniques, toning a black and white image, creating composite images and so on. Each technique is described in step-by-step detail, showing exactly which command to use.

I am going to discover it, page after page, in the next few days and I hope to deep even better my knowledge of editing pictures with Photoshop!