UPI MAGAZINE ISSUE 04 Spring 2015
United Photographers International
CRAZY EXHIBITION by Nicolás Berlingieri
IMPROVE YOUR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY PORTRAITS by Marija Milovanović Maksimović
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY by Armando Alcazar
4. UPI INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY 2014.
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 1
A word from the President.. Dear friends,
Cover image by Medi Wihayrono
U P I
U n i t e d
M A G A Z I N E
P h o t o g r a p h e r s
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
Within a “hot” summer for UPI we’re organizing our 3rd Photo Festival a t the end of July in Morocco. A lot of members as well as friends of UPI have signed up for it. Morocco is a beautiful country of high photographic interest. On behalf of the Governing Board I would like to thank our representative in Morocco Mr. Mustapha Meskine for the great effort he put in organizing this meeting. I wish this meeting will be the best we have ever had. In the beginning I’ve spoken about a “hot” summer for UPI. As you have already been informed due to force majeure we have to change our UPI name. I reassure you that this will be the only change that is going to take place. All the rest will remain as it is and we are all going to make our best to promote even further this association that we cherish so much ! Manolis Metzakis UPI CR5, UPI ZEUS, EFIAP/p, ESFIAP, PSA**
President of UPI
Executive editor & Graphic design Marija Milovanović Maksimović
Contents UIPMagazine
Spring 2015
Editor Manolis Metzakis
Associate Saeed Al Shamsi
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www.upiphoto.eu
Crazy Exhibition by Nicolás Berlingieri
15
UPI Titles & Crowns
16
Street Photography Exciting And …. Risky by Armando Alcazar
Back cover by Raša Milojević
“ Struggling Threw” - Wang Lung-Tsai - PSA GOLD - Color
How To Improve Your Travel Photography Portraits by Marija Milovanović Maksimović
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F cus
4. UPI International Exhibition Of Photography 2014. UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 3
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY PORTRAITS text and all photographs by Marija Milovanović Maksimović
BE READY This very basic and obvious, but so important. People photography is about moments, some scene will not repeat and if you’re not ready you might loose the moment. So have your lens cap off, adjust the preferred setting and be ready.
The next moment cat was gone
GET CLOSE You probably had some uninterested images because you were too far away. I know it feels awkward to get close to people you don’t know, especially in foreign country. It seems so much easier to take the big lens, zoom in and click away, hoping that your subject won’t notice you. Unfortunately, this isn’t working, at least not for me. It is rarely a good image. If you want to have the image which tells the story you have to get closer. This will put you in more control of things: the lighting, the background, the composition and depth of field. And if you want to get closer to people, you have to
PRACTICE APPROACHING PEOPLE Any time an opportunity shows up I try to take it and travel to distant destinations around the world, or sometimes it is just enough to travel anywhere, no matter how far. With our travels we are getting the chance to broaden our horizons, to meet other cultures and people, sometimes very different from us. As a photographer, I always try to capture it in a picture and every time I visit another country I am mostly interested in its people. But, in spite of my interests and wishes, my biggest struggle was taking good portraits. The problem wasn’t the lack of opportunities, because I had a lot of them, but I just felt too shy or not confident to get close to my subjects. I had a lot of excuses, which might sound familiar to some of you, like: „I don’t want to disturb the moment“; „I don’t wan’t to intrude the privacy“ or „They will hate my camera“.. Several times I traveled with my fellow photographers and I watched them approaching local people and taking their photos and different kind of scenes. I was really frustrated that I can’t act like them and I realized that I have to learn from them. Along the way, I gained some important insights how to think and behave in those moments when I’m having that awkward feeling and reservation while I’m photographing people.
4 • UPI Magazine spring 2015.
The biggest challenge in people photography has nothing to do with photography itself : Dealing with people. If you are not comfortable enough walking up to stranger and take the shot, you must know that you can learn how to do it and practice it. First, be respectful and careful of the local culture and laws. Find out what is allowed and what is not desirable. (In some countries you are not allowed to take photos of woman if you haven’t got the permission of her husband). After that it is all about your attitude and how you approach people. Get in contact, have a positive attitude and smile, smile a lot! If you put on a grumpy face, no one will want to go near you and wouldn’t want to get their picture taken by you.
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 5
When photographing children beside being cheerful, do something funny, even try to play with them. You will be more appealing to them immediately. During my trips I always carry bag of treats and sweets which I give to children as my gratitude for their posing, but I always first ask the parents if they allow that.
LEARN THE BASICS OF THE LOCAL LANGUAGE
Fellow photographer playing football with local children
Learning a few words and phrases in local language will go a long way to helping you approach people. Hello, how are you?; My name is..; I am from...; What is your name? ; Thank you!; Beautiful! The last one will always bring a smile to your subject’s face. After taking several shots be sure to show them at least one picture on your camera’s lcd screen. Most of the people will be excited and pleased to see their photos, especially children. Precious gift to both of them. Taskent, Turkey
TAKE YOUR TIME Once you have made the contact and got the permission to take their portrait, it’s time to take the shot the best you can. It would be a shame to make one quick shot and run away. Be calm, think about the light, about what you want to emphasize and about the background. Try couple of shots, switch an angle or try different things. And while you at it, don’t be afraid to ask your model to move if the position or light is not good or tell which posture he or she can make. Many people will just stand stiffy waiting for directions.If they are nervous make them laugh to make them more comfortable.
6 • UPI Magazine spring 2015.
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 7
START WITH CHILDREN AND PEOPLE THAT ARE DOING SOMETHING
If you have a problem in approaching people, you can start with photographing children which are very easy to photograph. They usually love getting their picture taken and they are never bored with posing. In Asia people are more relaxed and most of the time they have no problems with their children being photographed, but in western societies a more cautious approach is suggested. Be sure to always ask the parents first. People that are doing something are too busy with their tasks, so most of time they will not care about you taking pictures, so you can be less stressed in these situations. Look for traditional workshops or handcraft businesses, always offer great picture opportunity.
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GET OUT OF THE BEATEN TRACKS The touristic places are usually far from reality. If you find, which is not so hard, roads less travelled, you can easily find more authentic places, like small villages. You will meet there real people who aren’t out to sell things. You will have more chances to interact and to take more authentic photographs.
Wherever you decide to go, just respect the locals and their culture, be positive and follow your passion for photography and you will be rewarded with great experiences and great photographs.
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 9
I started taking some photos of rag dolls and of the walls of the actual exhibition in the museum. I did not care about the paintings, because they would be replaced by others. Instead, I attempted to shoot several photographs with different angles of the museum, in order to have enough different images together. For the entire series of photos appear to have been taken in the museum, I tried that the walls had the same color uniform and the same texture. I discarded, therefore, all the walls of the rooms that differed in their different endings.I also photographed the rag dolls from different angles, to simulate being in different pictures, despite being them always the same ones. These dolls, along with footage of similar walls of the museum, would serve to provide a thematic unity to the series of photos. I liked the idea of making an exhibition of photos of an exhibition of paintings which didn’t exist. It was like following further blending the real and imaginary. But for the rag characters were not too repetitive, I also included some real characters, photographing their backs, simulating they were watching to the paintings.
CRAZY EXHIBITION by Nicolás Berlingieri
In a real exhibition of paintings, of a swedish museum, I found that an artist had made two rag dolls, like sculptures. He had placed them in such a way that it appeared that they were watching the exhibition.They had the size of a person and mingled with the real spectators attending the exhibition, as if they were watching and they were also part of the public.This mix of real with imaginary, suggested me the idea of making a series of images simulating an exhibition that, in fact, never existed. But the images should be as credible as possible, to appear that the exhibition really was.
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To do that, I used the image of a man with an old hat that I photographed in England. He looked very much to a character that the famous painter René Magritte painted several times on his paintings. The feature that distinguished him was his bowler hat, which many painters and photographers then they copied into their works, inspired by the Belgian surrealist painter. Magritte himself, in his paintings, he played a lot with the real and imaginary, making the viewer had to differentiate the two situations. In fact many of my images were inspired by painters like René Magritte, Salvador Dali and De Chirico, who are very creative artists I have always admired.
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 11
This sometimes makes me think about how volatile is the art for an artist. Always painters, sculptors and photographers, they tried to get their works will last over time. The choice of paint pigments, the type of marble to a sculptor, or the type of materials and process in photography, always had a unique purpose: that the work be retained as long as possible. But external factors such as environmental pollution, natural disasters, vandalism, or other causes, they make these works are lost forever. In digital photography, a simple computer virus, or the technological advancement if not taken care to copy the images on new storage media, make we may soon lose all our works.
For paints of the series “Crazy Exhibition”, I used actual paints that were in other places, graffiti painted on the city walls, transformed into paintings, and even photographs of real characters, which I tried to simulate they were paints. The Photoshop tool that most helped me to achieve these photo-assemblies, was the command “Transform > Distort”. With this tool I could not only adjust the relative size of the images of the simulate paints with the sizes of the walls, but also to adjust their angles of perspective. I found in the walls of some streets of Buenos Aires, several graffiti done by the same author. I could be sure so, because the paintings had the same technique and style, which would served me very well for my purpose.Currently, several such graffiti no longer exist because the walls on which were painted, were torn down to build new houses. But those images will last forever, now exposed in the walls of my imaginary exhibition.
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But back to the “Crazy Exhibition”, which is the subject of this article. I told you how I got the inspiration for it, which sometimes is the hardest thing that comes to mind. How to have the imagination to develop a new issue is usually the most difficult and most arduous to convey. Unfortunately you can not move the imagination to another person. As well as the experience. It may suggest some techniques, but the imagination and experience is unique to each individual. The technique however, can be taught, and often the learner ends up surpassing the teacher. That’s why many authors are jealous of their techniques, and are reluctant to pass them, or do so only with few people. It is a thought that I don’t share, because secret techniques developed by famous artists are lost forever buried in the graves of their authors.
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 13
UPI CROWNS
Step - 01
The technique for making photo-montages using Photoshop layers, was discussed in several previous articles. Let us see now how combine the different perspectives and sizes to produce an image of realistic proportions. Let’s start with a picture of a corner of the Gallery of the Museum (see image: Step-01). To give the impression of greater depth, and to “close” the image on the right side, I added a portion of a wall taken from another picture. Without this little trick, the viewer’s eye try to watch down to the right, watching the lighted floor. Indeed, the light areas of an image attract much attention, and located along the edges of the picture, distract us from the main point of interest. I had to darken this piece of wall (see image: Step-02.jpg) so it was seeming being in the shadow, because the light comes from behind. Therefore, the only imaginary light that illuminates this wall, should be the ambient light. So that the texture of the wall was consistent with the rest of the image, was first necessary to distort the perspective (Edit> Transform> Perspective). So I had to enlarge the right side of that wall (See picture: Step-02.jpg). A selected image from the original photo of a graffiti was used to simulate such an enormous panoramic painting (See picture: Img16). This layer also had to be distorted so that the perspective of the two images (wall and painting) had a happy coincidence and the same angle to the vanishing point. Therefore, the painting should have horizontal edges almost parallel to the ceiling and the floor, but with a slightly open angle (see image: Step-06.jpg). A small shadow, using the command “Layer> Layer Style> Drop Shadow” (see picture: Step-04.jpg) gives the impression that the painting is really hanging in wall and produces its corresponding shadow.In these cases we must take into account the direction of the main light and its shadow should be projected exactly to the opposite side. The rag doll, cutted from the original photo adds to the picture that feeling of unreality I was looking for (see image. Step-08.jpg). The final touch was achieved by adding a portion of the painting hanging on the wall, placing it in the frame that holds hands of the rag doll. In this case the distortion of the graffiti is different from that hangs on the wall, to match the visual angle of the picture frame on the hands of the doll.
Step - 02
Image 16
Step - 06
Step - 04
Step - 08 14 • UPI Magazine spring 2015.
& TITLES 2015.
CROWN 5 Calosi Claudio, Italy Jerlemar Nils-Erik, Sweden Metzakis Manolis, Greece Tam Joseph, Australia CROWN 4 Alibrahim Ahmed Abdullah, Saudi Arabia Alrabeai Nasser Saeed, Saudi Arabia Alsaleh Mamdooh, Bahrain Al Sulaili Mohammed, Saudi Arabia Anisimov Sergey, Russia Dhahi Saeed Bahrain Frenzel Volker, Germany Karaca Cihan, Turkey Ledgard Ian, UK Wong Danny Yen Sin, Malaysia CROWN 3 AlGhanboosi Hamed, Oman Cheng Hong Wai Victor, Hong Kong Milovanovic Borislav, Serbia Papadakis Manolis, Greece Jovanovski Vladimir, FYR Macedonia Stuppnig Stefan, Austria CROWN 2 Abbott John, Australia Agnesoni Mauro, Italy Alalawi Said Harib Haliman, Oman Al-balushi Abid Ibrahim, Oman Al Hajri Ali, United Arab Emirates Almalki Rayed, Saudi Arabia Alsubhi Ahmad, Oman Al Zaabi Muna, United Arab Emirates Angawi Najla , Saudi Arabia Bostanoglu Emre, Turkey Cannon Wally, Australia Chow Charles, Australia Ginawi Ahmed, United Arab Emirates Kapadia Abbas, United Arab Emirates Lin Kah-Wai, USA Gärberg Göran , Sweden Ozseven Refik, Turkey Polakowski Andy, UK Tunc Feyzullah, Turkey Usenmez Masis, Turkey CROWN 1 Davies Janet, UK Geus Serge, France Hashim Sayed Hussain, Bahrain Özcan Dervis, Turkey Ribart Guilhem, France
“The Cretan”, portrait - Antigoni Metaxaki, Hermes / autumn 2014 UPI title: APHRODITE Alibrahim Ahmed, Saudi Arabia Jovanovski Vladimir, FYRO Macedonia Gurrerio Amparo, Greece
“Lisbon”, street - Antigoni Metaxaki, Hermes / autumn 2014
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 15
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY EXCITING AND …. RISKY text and photographs by Armando Alcazar
When I say, “street photography”, I refer to a picture that is not taken at an event or in a studio. It is photography about real life, where the photographer, whether professional or amateur becomes part of what is happening or is a first-hand witness of the facts, many times risking his own life to grab a shot. Many people ask me why I take my camera with me day and night; I believe that the exact answer would be: “because I am a photo- addict”. This has sometimes put my life in danger, as you can appreciate in the titled picture where I go between a shooting of policemen and kidnappers, the police confused my lens with a telescopic rifle sight and began to shoot at me. What could I do in those moments? Nothing, only take a photo that perhaps would be the last photo of my life. . Incredibly, at least in my case, I feel immune to danger when I am behind my camera, something that is extremely stupid, but that I find happens to many photographers. The good about this type of “Hobby” is that one does not need to have a professional camera, you only need a decent film camera or a digital of at least 5 MP or better, and that has a good optical zoom.
Well, as you know in the street there are also delinquents, animals, birds, insects, etc. and wonderful things and people that you can photograph in their best moments.
“Mimo”
“Shoots vs shot”
Sometimes, in this type of photography, the photographer becomes part of the situation that is happening. For example, one day I was walking toward the church with my wife and we saw a young guy drinking beer at 7:00 am at the edge of a cliff that is more than 70 meters high with a fall directly onto a freeway. Immediately I suspected that he was contemplating suicide and while I tried to speak with him I took out my camera and I had it ready for whatever happened. The guy told me that he planned to jump in that moment, but a cyclist that had noticed what was happening looked at me and it was as if we had connected mentally to save him.
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It happens that many times, whether as a professional photographer or as an amateur (or for anyone that carries a camera with them), will often come across things that they could never imagined in life. In my previous topic, I spoke of some of the risks of street photography. Now my topic will be about the strange things that one find along the road. For example, one day I was on the roadway that goes along the whole coast of several districts of Lima, named “LA COSTA VERDE” (“The Green Coast” in English), and from my old 1971 VW bug, I saw a lifeguard that seemed to be trying to take something from the sea, but apparently, without any results. I parked on the side of the road and I ran, with my camera in hand toward them, and I found to my surprise that they were trying to return to the sea a bottle nose dolphin (like Flipper) that was beached on the shore. That made me feel great, because I could witness that there are people that will go beyond what their work asks of them (lifeguards are the police in this case), to rescue a poor animal in trouble. Of course, I put my camera in a safe place and helped them in their heroic task, but regrettably every time that we got the beautiful animal back into the sea, the dolphin turned around and headed back to the shore again. Then we found out that a ship of stealthy fishermen had been throwing dynamite into the sea, which damaged the nervous system of the poor dolphin, who, finally died in our arms.
“Car crash”
“Sucide”
“Alive backpack”
“Dolphin”
The cyclist then positioned himself on the opposite side from me of the suicidal man where he could not be seen and I put myself in view of the suicidal man and I said to him, if you are so valiant, why instead of jumping, don’t you fight with me?. The guy, which was totally drunk and perhaps drugged began to come toward me and the cyclist came closer from behind and we both grabbed him and got him away from the cliff, but, in that precise moment the police rescue squad arrived and the guy made a half turn, looked to the edge of the cliff and jumped. All this in front of me, and with my camera in hand I captured those moments that you see here as a collage.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS SURPRISES
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 17
With much sadness for what had happened, I sat down on the beach to meditate about what I had witnessed, and while I was looking out at the beauty of the sea, I was thinking about how there are people who for money, do so much damage to our ecology. Until then all was normal, but later I turn my head and I saw the most incredible thing that I could ever imagine!!!!!!!. There, on the beach, some special force policemen were talking to a clown!!!!, yes!! You are reading it right, hahahaha!!! Why does the special force policemen were on the beach? Moreover, even stranger, what was doing a clown there? It was not summer nor there were bathers.!! Well, an image is worth more than a thousand words, so see for yourselves what I just told you.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY, EVERYTHING LIKE IN A MALL It is not unusual that a photographer that always takes a camera (I have said “ALWAYS”) will find scenarios like the ones that I have illustrated at the beginning of this new publication. Some time ago, my wife and I (and my lover “my camera”) were walking in the park and we came across a few persons that were offering free hugs to all passersby. The response from people was incredible and everyone stopped to receive and give warm hugs. After receiving my respective hug, I took some photos of this rare event.
“Street car shop”
“Up side down”
The truth is that the photographer is not the only privileged one to capture these scenes, this can happens to everyone, the difference is that the photographer that always takes a camera can immortalize those moments. I don’t want to bore you with so much blah, blah, blah; so I give you some more of my street pictures, because: “AN IMAGE SAYS MORE THAN A THOUSAND WORDS”. “Free hugs”
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“KO Woman”
While I took that picture, I heard a terrible shouting between a lady and a salesperson at the market that seemed to be about money. I instinctively looked for where the shouting was coming from, and through my camera lens I saw them about 50 meters from me. I steadied my camera on the roof of a car, and I waited for the opportune moment to capture the lady throwing the salesperson a huge punch that impacted his face, concluding in this way the discussion.
“Handicapped hero”
“Shoemaker”
“Clownfish” There are other times, that unintentionally destiny puts an incredible picture in front of us, like when I was photographing a shoemaker that had a sewing machine that worked by crank, this is the picture.
“Siesta for three”
UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 19
FF cus cus “Funny Girls” - Joao Taborda - UPI HM - Color
“Into the Dawn” -Joseph Tam - PSA HM - Color
“Lovely in the rain”- Nguyen Vu Phuoc - PSA bronze - Color
4. UPI INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY 2014. UPI is organizing every year its photography exhibition where are welcomed not only the members but everyone, around the globe. Back in December 2014. was the deadline for the 4th issue of this exhibition. This year, beside two standard color and monochrome categories, we had new category – Selfportrait. We wanted to provoke the shy faces, usually always hidden behind the cameras to show themselfs. Not many had that courage, but some of the brave ones had creative ideas. The international panel of judges was composed of three distinguished photographers: Agatha Bunanta ARPS, MPSA, EFIAP/g, UPI CR4 from Indonesia, Ayman Lotfy RDSPA, AMIP from Egypt and Francis Nicoll MFIAP, UPI CR4 from Belgium. 122 authors from 37 countries entered the competition with over 1000 photos. The judges selected 254 photos for the exhibition. Awards were UPI and PSA gold, silver and bronze medals and HMs for each section and also the medals for the best club entry and the medal for the best author, in total 29 awards. The best club entry was won by Shangtuf club from China and most sucesfull author was Medi Wihayrono from Indonesia. First public showing of the exhibition was made in May in Belgrade, Serbia. Second and third showing should be during the summer in Turkey and Greece.
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“Thirsty caveman” - Medi Wiharyono - UPI Bronze - Color
“Turt and Me” - Gary Brennand PSA Gold - Self portrait
“ Sparking” - Chau Kei Checky Lam UPI bronze - Monochrome
“Rhapshody in blue” - Vincente Moraga Costoso UPI silver - Color UPI Magazine spring 2015. • 21
“Stiekem” - Daniel Lybaert UPI Gold- Monochrome
“Mouring” - Aylin Cakiner UPI HM - Monochrome
“Down you go” - Joseph Tam PSA Gold - Monochrome
“Catching” - Xing Fang Su UPI silver - Monochrome
“Yell” - Minqiang Lu - UPI Bronze - Monochrome
“My auto-dyne 3” - Shaoyang Lin UPI Bronze - Self portrait
“Stairway” - Volker Frenzel - UPI HM - Monochrome “Reflection and depression” - Hasan Hulki Muradi UPI Gold - Self portrait
“Blu boy Bernd” - Bernd Mai UPI Silver - Self portrait
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“It’s time” - Mila Maksimovic PSA Bronze - Self portrait
“Photographing with heart” - Medi Wiharyono - UPI Silver - Self portrait
“Beautiful Rwandan” - David Somali Chow - PSA HM - Color
United Photographers International