Candid Russia

I'm all for the suffering artiste within us, and some have labelled me with this title...

Photography is artistic afterall. How you approach photography is what really defines the role of the camera. Of course, the camera matters if you are are shooting for a magazine or planning to publish large prints. The camera DOES matter. However, if you are aiming to gain pleasure simply for yourself, then, I would say it does not. It's the photographer, either hobbyist or professional, who composes the picture from the depths of their minds eye.. or simply fires off that pefect shot. The fact is, we all see things differently. I am always heard saying, "you don't see it?".. and many don't because my mind sees things differently... regardless of the tool at hand it is what you compose that defines the moment.... never be ashamed of what you see.. frame it!

For example, I use three very different cameras for very different kinds of photography

A casio Exilim.

Why on earth would a person who calls himself a photographer buy a 'toy' hang around your neck gimmickie thing like that?

Well, here is one reason:



Do you see it?

I took this impromptu shot with the exilim. To me it underlines the need of such a camera - always at hand and always ready. I could have leapt on the floor and started crawling around, but, I fear the result would have been somewhat more colourful. It could have had more detail... more this... more that... but I ask you again... DO YOU SEE IT?

The Z2 is also useful with that 10X zoom... plodding along aimlessly one cold afternoon last month... I saw this:






Do you see it?




The EOS300D... the business as far as I am concerned used with a Sigma F4 5.6 11 lense.



Do you see it?


If you see only difference, then, you see technics where there should be something more of you and less of your camera...


D'arcy

In fitting, rather like the USA Patriot Bill, Russia has decided that a new law for visa applications will begin this year.. If you are considered to be disrespectful to Russia, rather like the American take on this nonsense, you may be refused a visa.

So, where does disrespectful begin I wonder?

We should avoid the historical references points as historical events shoudl be considered with a historical context - all nations have some monsters under their beds.. let's just think practical stuff... people stuff..

1. the Russian winters can freeze the nuts off a brass monkey.. (dissing?)

1. the Russian winter snow covers this country with a blanket of white crystaline beauty, which tfills one with a sense of romanticism when wandering along the historical streets of Moscow (res)

Maybe:

Why are Russian streets covered in GRANITE!? I slip on my arse 10 times a week. Could somebody, please, consider that streets covered in slippery stone surfaces become lethal in the winter... and don't look up as impalement by icicles is a common occurence here... couldn't somebody import rubber mats like in canada..?

The Volga is a bawking lump of metal driven by overbearing idiots who think pedestrian crossings were designed for them to test their brakes.

No... actually, Volvo & Volga driver and car = sepearated at birth... I'm telling you they are clones... same car mentality all over the world... big stupid cars = big stupid driver!

Who knows?

America and Russia, you are fine examples of humanity and we love you...

Will that get the visa?


Of course, America has a democracy but Russia has freedom! I've never met a free American....

Dis, dis, or respect?

Tired of Internet Explorer..

This week I'm using the FREE Mozilla firefox browser, and believe I will never need Interne Explorer again:

It's faster, smoother, just better...

Check it out kids..

Typical Friday night in Moscba...


And just blowing off the cobwebs of life.



I am developing a shoe fetish..

Note to self: avoid escalators this week.

Should get a normal job:



but there again............

On expatriates:

Moscow 1998 – most of the expats I know landed in Mother Russia craving adventure, money and harboured an insatiable lust for anything not familiar. Is that an average expat sense of self?

The sense of the unfamiliar, strictly speaking for most revolved around the pursuit of female (dyev) when not in pursuit of the elusive cash fix. Anglophile junkies tethered to a common, unspoken, cause of seeking difference: difference to what?

Well, to all things familiar. If you’ve done the mortgage gig and spent most of your adult life driving up the same motorway and paying the same bills, even the most practical minded person can start to question the old Zen situation. What if I just said ‘sod it’ and headed for one of those developing countries. What would I be there? The answer is many things because all that made you who you are will certainly change. It is an acute change.

I know of a waiter who is now a big fish (more of a sprite) in construction… a traveler who suddenly became a café owner… a teacher who owns three schools and more stories abound of people who were simply lost finding their true selves when abroad. Maybe you just need to escape the familiar to just see how alien you were in that place you used to call home. There again, if I had a dollar for every expat who whispered, “I’m working on a project,” I’d be a millionaire. Most never get that project off the ground, but the pursuit of it like the elusive ‘Gatsbean’ green light just keeps you moving toward it – the self justification of actually living this life of unfamiliarity. Is it why your relationships fail… hate responsibility getting in the way of the green light?

Russia, contradicts itself at every turn, as do most expatriates. That’s part of life here – any tangible sense of reality can evaporate in seconds. Maybe that is the attraction that moves expats onwards.. Regardless of the final destination you just feel driven towards that sense of being. You know what feels right and worse than that you understand that your old skin no longer fits you and probably never did.

You don’t talk about it because it’s sensitive. You don’t really understand your own feelings because it’s like having a conversation with an old mate from school you vaguely remember in flashes, but ultimately, have no sense of familiarity at all. All you're friends have become collegaues...

You are alone.

Isolation first came to me in the dessert of Saudi Arabia. No language, no friends, nobody around but me and a couple of Arabs, and of course, my camera. I had an experience where I slept for one whole day. It was a Friday. I awoke at what I thought was an early start – cooked my breakfast as usual before the morning shriek of ‘Allah Aghbad’ murdered my ears, but there was no strangulation to be heard. On venturing out, I realized it was actually 1am the following day. I’d slept for almost 28 hrs. To this day I don’t know why my body and mind disappeared for such an unaccountable length of time, but I resigned that week and flew back to Russia the following month convinced I was losing my mind - from one extreme to another.

Maybe we all have to lose some sanity to become expatriates. I mean, unless you’re a body strictly motivated by the pursuit of money, I can’t imagine a reason for putting ourselves through such rigorous anti-normality scenarios as an expat abroad. What is it with you? Hey? Can’t you just get on with it? Settle down... Build your career like normal folk? You’re surrounded by xenophobia…justifying why you are here every week… love… hate… fear… instability.. What is IT with you?

No, you can’t… can you? You’re just like Mr Hemingway, burning up all of that residual sense of self till you implode… that’s why you are here, or over there, and you wouldn’t have it any other way because you are very, very, far from yourself.

Good luck

For whom the bell tolls...

If Ernest Hemingway topped himself from fear of ageing, did his father commit suicide for the same reason I wonder...?


I expect if you've lived a life of action and adventure ... the old body giving in is a bit of a bugger..

Note to self: increase subscription of viagra....

The Canon EOS 300D.

After scouring the net for months I finally purchased a Cannon EOS 300D digital camera – black bodied model.

It cost me $1500 which included: a Sigma lens, standard EFS kit lens, battery grip handle, 128 mb disk, and a bag. I thought that was a good deal, especially as I am based in Moscow, Russia where customer service is a vicious rumour quickly dispelled by any self respecting shop assistant here..



I take pictures. I am not going to offer a mechanics view of the camera as you can get that over at numerous review sites. I’m just offering an opinion on a photographic tool I have chosen as part of my kit. I did not choose the Nikon D70 as the Cannon, for me, suited my needs perfectly, especially with the additional battery grip, which is important for when you’re hanging from ceilings as I do some days and just need that bit more grip. The D70, although with a sturdier body and some technical superiority, did not beat the EOS 300D on Image quality. I tried both… In fact, the EOS 300D and D70 both equaled the Cannon 10D’s in resolution. It’s a difficult decision to make, but mine was based on personal usage and at the end of the day the Canon suited me perfectly for portfolios, commercial and medium sized prints and offered the adaptability I needed.



Now ‘Elvira’ as I have named her is proving to be winning in the popularity stakes between girlfriend and photography. She always responds to my touch, pays for her own meals, never says no on Sundays and frankly speaking is not as ‘high maintenance’ attention wise. In fact, I am in lurve…

Ok – she’s a little bit tacky in places, but her curves turn alot of heads so kudos to cannon on designing a camera that looks the part aesthetically wherever your photography may take you. More to the point, you will find it actually is the PART in more ways than one, especially when you start experimenting (and investing) in new lenses. I just hope you’re not the jealous type because an endless amount of people want to taste her charms for themselves so guard her well from eager hands.



Firstly, it’s not all champagne and roses between me and Elvira: she slaps me around a little bit. The flash has a tendency to smack me in the nose at every over shoot. So if you are a bit Gonzalesed in the nose department you might want to invest in a viewer extension which might help you avoid some nose bleeds. You should also get to grips with Adobe immediately as that will be your dark room from now on. Canon provide an excellent elements adobe 2 and file transfer software.

Things I don’t like about the EOS 300D:

- the plastic body, although not being too bad at all, is still plastic and the grips should have been rubber
- the fact I can’t protect the display
- view finder is a bit small
- the flash hitting me in the nose
- can under expose with flash, but get a better flash or learn adobe
- the lack of PC sync for external strobes.
- flash as auto focus assist light, but you get used to it



Things I do Like about the EOS 300D:

- Resolution to equal a 10D
- Light weight body and essential battery hand grip
- The price!
- Superb 7 point auto focus really does the job in action photography
- It’s finally in BLACK
- ISO Selection to 1600
- Effective auto modes and enough freedom to be creative away from them
- Superb lense for $99 in the kit
- Excellent software to get your dark room up and running
- Excellent macro
- The shot-to-shot speed is very impressive - just fire away
- the camera's 1.6x focal length conversion factor - So that 18 - 55 mm lens is really 28.8 - 88 mm
- Ability to get Af/AFS lenses so I can grow



So, I eloped with Elvira for two score weeks. The results were profound.

The images on this site are all fond memories of Elvira and me romping around Moscow like children examining a secret garden of new found delights oblivious to the normality of the grim world surrounding us (getting bored yet). Isn’t that what photography is: you, a lense, and an eye for the world?

I love my Elvira and as I understand it she has a whole family just waiting to seduce you with her charms.

You will be consumed by your addiction.

D’arcy

People like fishing. It's relaxing. Even when it's -20.

In Moscow I see alot of this:




Snow - mountains of the fluffy stuff....

It was -20 last week and I got down to the river, which is completely iced over. The images speak for themselves. Generally, people make the most of the ice and snow here with winter sports - flying across the ice is not appealing to me at all as I generally fall on my lobulous backside more often than not, but watching them suits me fine.






This gentleman had been there for 5 hours - not a fish insight! We chatted briefly as I kept hearing little cracking noises under my toes and as he was content drilling holes into the ice supporting us I thought I'd better just run along and let him do his thing - ALONE.

Dogs. Always packs of dogs running around wild in Moscow. I must have 'pedigree chum' tattoed on my nose.

This motley crew were following me around all day...




But, finally, as always something to warm my aching soul... the great white female emerged from the domes of ice and melted my heart...

I'm off..... I've pulled:-)






Russia, certainly does have its charms.... and no, I won't be sharing any of my prenuptials with you!:-)