Opinion is divided on street art / graffiti. Some consider it vandalism, others (including me) enjoy the way it brightens a city. Great street art can be beautiful; it can make you think; it can transform a district. So of course I was on the lookout for street art in Tirana, as I am everywhere I go.
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It’s not too difficult to take a photograph of an object, person, animal or scene. Choose your subject, point your camera and press the shutter. A modern camera (or phone) will do all the work for you in terms of making sure the subject is in focus and well exposed. But how do you photograph a mood?
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Lighting is everything in photography. It can make an ordinary subject look intriguing, while the lack of it can make an interesting one look dull. Light that falls on your subject from the front will make it look flat and two dimensional. Side lighting is more interesting, creating shadows and bringing out textures. The last option is backlighting, which can be beautiful and dramatic.
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Enver Hoxha's regime may be a thing of the past but traces of it remain in odd corners of Tirana, such as this book spotted in the city's flea market.
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My own 'natural' environment is a city. I grew up in London and have lived there most of my adult life too. I enjoy the buzz of city life and the easy access to a wide range of restaurants, galleries and other culture. But when I travel I like to experience totally different environments.
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When the sun is low in the sky we may feel its heat a little less, but we see it more clearly. The glow of early morning, or just before sunrise, adds warmth to our images. They absorb and reflect its light, taking on a glow of their own.
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If tricks are the practice of fools, where does that leave trick photography? The genre is nearly as old as photography itself. Did those early experimenters pave the way for today’s explosion of in-camera and post-editing trickery?
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Travel is all about experiences. They may seem quite small at the time, like a chance but memorable encounter with a local person that changes your perspective on the world. Or they may seem huge, visiting an iconic world sight that you’ve dreamed about seeing for years. But whether large or small, long-planned for or serendipitous, the experiences of travel are, in my opinion, among the best to be found.
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It’s only eighteen months since Anne asked us to define our ‘photography groove’. My answer then was travel photography, and now that John asks much the same question about our favourite style or genre, the road we most often take, my answer remains the same.
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How do you find peace in a city rife with crime and violence? During the 1980s and most of the 1990s Medellín had the reputation of being one of the most violent cities in the world.
