Uploads from Julia-Anna Gospodarou, tagged perspective, with geodata

mystical

nobody@flickr.com (Julia-Anna Gospodarou) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:45:10 -0700

(EXPLORED - July 26, 2012)

Atrina Center, Athens – Architect Ioannis Vikelas
Presenting a series of buildings on the routes of ATHENS ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY Workshop, Nov. 23-26/27 (Full Workshop Description and sign up here: goo.gl/wd4Gh

Not my usual kind of image, but a moment I liked a lot and thought that it was worth a still shot. Of course, there is also the LE version waiting to be processed and will be out as well, hopefully soon.

One of the landmarks of Athens, this building is designed by the same architect that designed the Athens Towers, of which I have already posted two shots: A Path to the Sky I -The Tower and also A Path to the Sky II -The Sky Beyond , both awarded with Honorable Mention at the IPA 2012, and just like the towers, this building is a high-rise structure, very slim and elegant, highly suited for dynamic compositions taken from very near to the building, as this shot, as well as from further away. And of course for LE shots, even if this shot isn't one. I so much loved this cloud resting just above the building, it seemed almost mystical to me, especially that it came out of nowhere, on a hot summer day, with a perfect clear blue sky. All the clouds I had that day came and went in a matter of half an hour or less. Just the time for me to take a few shots and leave. Happily I had the tripod and everything with me, so I didn't miss the occasion. Bears mentioning that the security people of this building were extremely nice and even wanted to help me with shooting.
So, closing the parenthesis and back to the building. It is comprised of three prismatic volumes of different heights, the highest rising at about 8om, creating a very interesting structure that overlooks the area and can be seen from afar. It has a metallic structure, combined with concrete elements and wrapped into a tinted dark glass and metal façade, that can give either very interesting reflections, or a rich matte dark blue hue, depending on the position of the camera.
I'll be posting more photos of different Athens buildings that will be on the routes of the Workshop, here but also on my G+ and Facebook stream, to give an idea about what we are going to see and shoot in November. Hope you'll like them and if yes, you're welcome to Register here for the workshop as well.

Have a good weekend everyone! :)

a path to the sky VI - steps

nobody@flickr.com (Julia-Anna Gospodarou) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:21:21 -0700

Julia-Anna Gospodarou posted a photo:

(EXPLORED - September 10, 2012)

First let me tell you that I'm very proud to have been awarded with Honorable Mentions at the International Photography Awards IPA 2012 for both my series “Like a Harp's Strings” and “A Path to the Sky” in both Categories Bridges and Buildings.

Then let my announce you that I'm also proud to be organizing the FIRST ARCHITECTURAL WORKSHOP & PHOTOWALK in Athens, in November 23-26/27, 2012. If you are interested or just curious, have a look at the FULL description here: goo.gl/wd4Gh and if you want to sign up, you can do it here: goo.gl/cgIoc . If you want to shoot the best modern architecture of a famous city (and not only) and to learn about long exposure and B&W photography, then this workshop is for you.

And now about the image...
_Mexican Embassy, Berlin – architects Teodoro González de León & J. Francisco Serrano Cacho_

My series "A Path to the Sky" is continuing with the 6th image that is dedicated to the people of the Mexican Embassy in Berlin, as a thank you for their wonderful gesture to offer the conference room for the Berlin Google Photowalk instructional sessions in May and for being so amazing, helpful and warm with all the participants. This was yet another beautiful experience along with all the other wonderful moments in this charming city.

As for the image itself, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted with this shot from the very beginning, but to get there I had to try a hundred things, and experiment with different ways of approach in order to find the best solution. ...what I do on every image actually, but this time my goal was very clear from the beginning, even from before shooting the photo. I've spent though a large amount of time in PP to make it look like what I had in mind: looking at it, tweaking it, playing with every detail till it took its place in the hierarchy and I was able to say OK, this is how it should be. To get the tones I wanted I worked on each pillar separately and played with light and shadow till I brought them to the right intensity. I did more than 40 selections for different areas of the image (and 2 for each pillar), I put light where there wasn't any and took away from where there was too much of it, and again, I had to make everything fit together and mold the result into the image I was keeping as a guide in my imagination. The icing on the cake was the highlight in the middle where I spent a few hours just to get a smooth transition from light to dark. Sometimes when I work with this kind of tonal transitions I have the impression that there are just not enough tones available for what I try to do...
And this whole process of working at the file made me wonder ...when all is said and done, what's easier: to find an idea or to put it in practice? Lately I tend to believe that the hardest to achieve is to bring something from the state of idea to it's realization and final shape. And I could extrapolate and say that this stands for pretty much everything, not only for photography or art. My experiences from the last period of time say just that: you never know what you're going to find when you bring an idea into the world and try to make it reality. No matter how much you know, or how well prepared you are, life will always surprise you when you try to create something. There is not such a thing as certainty in life...
But hey, finding the way might not be easy, but that's what I like about photography (and about life too), is that I learn something from every image I make (and also from every experience I have), from shooting till processing and setting the photo free into the world. And that's so fulfilling!

hidden

nobody@flickr.com (Julia-Anna Gospodarou) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 07:01:00 -0700

Julia-Anna Gospodarou posted a photo:

Gherkin Building (30 St. Mary Axe) – City of London - architect Norman Foster

Back home from holidays with a new photo to say hello, get back into shape and add a new image to the tutorial on architectural photography that I'm working on.

If you want to read something about me, here's an article by Christopher O'Donnell about my work published recently in Photography Blogger with a view over my portfolio and some thoughts about my photography.
The Greek Cityscape – Architectural Photography by Julia Anna Gospodarou

The Gherkin building is a famous building in London and since it's so famous, it's also very photographed. Thus it's somehow difficult to come up with something new, as for the point of view and composition. And that's what I tried to do here. I also have the more classical shots from near and looking upwards, also some abstract ones, but after taking all the above I was still feeling that I need something else. So I started moving around, searching for different views (moving around is really number one in getting you a different look) and this is what one can see from a couple of streets down, looking up above another lower rise building that's in between and using a longer lens to get close. The longer lens also helps in keeping your verticals parallel so no need for much correction in PP.
B&W conversion & editing: LR4, PS CS5 & Silver Efex Pro2

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a path to the sky V - the destination

nobody@flickr.com (Julia-Anna Gospodarou) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 05:10:13 -0700

Julia-Anna Gospodarou posted a photo:

- IPA 2012 International Photography Awards - Honorable Mention -

(EXPLORED - June 5, 2012)

_Berlin – Jewish Museum – design by Daniel Libeskind_
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If you're curious to read something about me, Nathan Wirth was so kind to offer me a spotlight on his blog. Hope you like it! nlwirth.com/blog/archives/659
.......
Few buildings have impressed me the way the Jewish Museum in Berlin did. The fact that it is designed by one of my favorite architects may or may not play a role here, but most likely does because I'm probably more responsive to this kind of architectural language and to the way it manages to convey ideas and feelings. And the fact that Libeskind was for years a theorist of architecture also plays a role in the fact that I am drawn to his style, as I firmly believe that no valuable work of art can be created if one doesn't first know the bases of his art, the theory behind the way shapes and volumes, colors and textures work with each other to give an outstanding result. I believe and have seen it over the years around me that this stands for all kinds of art, because nothing can make an artist more bold in using his language and more sure about what to say and especially how to say it and how to make his feelings reach the world, than knowing that the instruments he uses to create his art are the right ones. An theory, well assimilated theory, is one of the most important instruments in the hands of an artist (although an invisible one), one of his best friends when it comes to conveying his feelings through his works. And no, theory - feelings, that's not a contradiction! Maybe because I believe all this about theory and art and because I'm convinced that knowing it helps a lot (otherwise it wouldn't have been taught in schools), I'm now working on a tutorial about architectural photography that will try to cover the theoretical part of it seen from a practical point of view.

The Jewish museum in Berlin is a poetry of forms and a building that makes you experience very strong feelings. The predominant angular shapes, the dark grey color of the exterior zinc cladding, the apparently chaotic window cuts on the façades and the slim, long, dark openings all along the exterior walls, that are somehow repeating their pattern on the exterior pavement and the garden, as well as the narrow corridors and uneasy interior spaces, together with the edgy and unexpected aesthetic elements: the almost randomly intersected beams, the stair that leads to nowhere, the very shape of the building, that is a deconstructed Star of David, everything makes you think of a path, a difficult and very emotional path to walk, a path that leads to somewhere, maybe for everyone that walks it leads to somewhere else, maybe it leads to the sky, maybe it's the destination itself....

This shot is the very last shot I took in Berlin at the Berlin Photowalk 2012.
Almost everyone else had left by then and the moment was filled with mixed feelings, I was sorry that the photowalk was over, missing my friends, I was thought excited to be there shooting this building, especially that I was waiting for the clouds for a quite some time, I was late for my plane and checking my watch a hundred times per minute (since this is a 4 and a half minutes exposure, I probably checked it 450 times :) … but I think this shot wrapped up in the best of ways a wonderful experience that Berlin was.
What was the most difficult thing while working with this image? The lines. The “chaos” of lines that you can see while looking at the building. Finding and putting an order in these lines, finding an idea that would support the emotion I felt while looking at this corner of building and applying it in my composition and light shaping. And the idea is the idea that this whole building tries to convey, the idea of a path. And this is why this shot is probably the most representative in my series of buildings as paths to the sky and of clouds as paths *in* the sky...

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a path to the sky IV - waves in the sky

nobody@flickr.com (Julia-Anna Gospodarou) — Wed, 30 May 2012 07:57:36 -0700

Julia-Anna Gospodarou posted a photo:

- IPA 2012 International Photography Awards - Honorable Mention -

Bauhaus Museum, Berlin - Architect Walter Gropius

_“The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building!”_ --- Walter Gropius – Manifesto
...if you want to read the full text of the “Bauhaus Manifesto” … www.dmoma.org/lobby/Bauhaus_manifesto.html

I could say so many things about this building ...about Walter Gropius ...about Bauhaus.. It would be like talking about how we arrived at the point we are now in modern architecture, in modern art, who were our “fathers” in terms of creators and creations. This building is much more than a building. It's a symbol. Together with the old Bauhaus University in Weimar, designed by Henry van de Velde and the new one in Dessau, designed by Walter Gropius himself, the Bauhaus Museum in Berlin, also designed by Gropius, reminds of one of the most daring and creative periods in modern art and architecture. So many minds of the 20th century have passed through one of these three buildings, either teaching or studying there, so many products of their work are still a reference in modern art history.
Just a few names ...Wassily Kandinsky (the founder of the group Der Blaue Reiter, which I particularily love), Paul Klee, Mies van der Rohe, Oskar Schlemmer, Lyonel Feininger, Gerhard Marcks, El Lissitsky, Theo van Doesburg and so many others.
Bauhaus movement had a major impact, first on the architecture, then on all kinds of art in Europe and North America mostly, but also all around the world. And it still has, after almost a century from its birth. Its promoters managed to raise the functionality to the level of art and showed to the world the beauty of the simple forms, taught us that form always has to follow the content and sincerity in building means beauty.

I could spend hours talking about this, but it will probably be boring for many, so I'll stop now and just say that what I wanted with this photo was to show in just one image how I feel about this building: the magic of blending order with fantasy, that's what I see here. Simple volumes, no decoration, but put together they look and sound like a poem, and the shapes and the white of the roof makes me think about the sea and its waves on a windy day...

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a path to the sky III - stroke of light

nobody@flickr.com (Julia-Anna Gospodarou) — Thu, 24 May 2012 02:19:02 -0700

Julia-Anna Gospodarou posted a photo:

- IPA 2012 International Photography Awards - Honorable Mention -

Jannowitz Center Berlin - architects HPP Hentrich-Petschnigg

This was the first LE shot I really liked from the ones I took in Berlin at the Google Plus Euro Photowalk. It was taken on the first day I arrived there, before having even met anyone from the photowalkers.
The clouds were absolutely glorious that evening. I remember I was jumping up and down, laughing by myself seeing them as they were coming from behind the building and people at a cafe nearby were looking at me then looking at the building and the sky, then again at me and smiling somehow condescendingly, somehow curious... Maybe they were thinking that I had a vision. Which, by the way, was right :) In another way than they were probably thinking, but right !

This is the Jannowitz Center, situated right next to the Jannowitzbrücke, and I stumbled upon this building by pure chance, as I was looking for another one and kind of got lost. That's why I love to get lost, every time I find something interesting I didn't know of. I never found the other building, btw. I was in a wrong neighborhood anyway. This is only a small part of it, but this building is very large. It's a commercial center and it has a lot of the elements I like to play with when designing a building myself. First of all, irregular shapes and volumes that intersect each other, different textures and materials put together and a lot of transparency that gives you the possibility to explore how the spaces work with each other. As for the photography part, it has a lot of interesting angles, but I only took this one. I knew from the moment I saw it that this was MY angle!

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a path to the sky II - the sky beyond

nobody@flickr.com (Julia-Anna Gospodarou) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 08:08:07 -0700

Julia-Anna Gospodarou posted a photo:

- IPA 2012 International Photography Awards - Honorable Mention -

Athens Tower (1971) – Architect Ioannis Vikelas

This is the second image in the series I'm working on about the tallest building in Greece, a building that is one of the landmarks of Athens and also a point of reference for the people living here.

This is the link for the first photo in the series, "The Tower I - a path to the sky":
www.flickr.com/photos/juliagospodarou/7071872597/in/photo...

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a path to the sky I - the tower

nobody@flickr.com (Julia-Anna Gospodarou) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:14:01 -0700

Julia-Anna Gospodarou posted a photo:

- IPA 2012 International Photography Awards - Honorable Mention -

(EXPLORED - Apr 13, 2012)

Athens Tower (1971) – Architect Ioannis Vikelas

A very dear photograph of mine, it marks the beginning of a new chapter in my work and life and was a big step towards discovering myself...
...ever since I was a kid I liked to imagine that a tall building could lead me past the clouds, right into the sky and I kept secretly hoping that I will someday find that building. I'm still looking for it and that's why, when I'm in the street, I always like to look up and see what's going on above myself, maybe I can discover it. I always found so fascinating how, if you stand in the right spot in front of a building, not too close, but not too far either, you can swear the wall going up is like a road to the sky. And I always liked to imagine that I can switch planes and walk on the building's walls just like I would walk on a horizontal surface. That's exactly what I wanted to do here, walk that white path and leave it take me from down here and drive me right up to the clouds....

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