KaraNagai.com

All of us – people with cameras – like to take photographs for various reasons. And I am noticing for quite a while that the reason why you hit your release button affects the quality of your pictures.

So here are seven wrong reasons. Don’t take a shot if the only reason for it is:

1. Everybody are taking pictures of the same subject;

2. You just like how it looks (good example: a nice landscape);

3. You think that this scene/object/person might look good in theory;

4. You feel like you might never again (or soon) have an opportunity to take a picture of the same subject/event;

5. Somebody asks you to photograph a subject/person;

6. Just because you have a camera with you;

7. You went somewhere just for taking pictures and don’t want to come back empty handed.

You might extend the list, but what unites all these reasons is that they are not about vision of a picture you are about to take. Vision rules, people. All other reasons are unnecessary.

Of course I did not mean that you have to refrain from taking a picture if one of the reasons for it is listed above. I meant not to rely on these reasons, rely on your feelings in respect to the result.

As any other abstract principles, this principle of “wrong reasons” could only serve as a lighthouse in the sea of your experience, not as something you will ever 100% achieve in practice.

Dryad, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

This was taken by occasion, while taking group pictures of few people that attended the Victory Day Reception in the Russian Embassy in Dublin.

Blue and Red, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

Been to a street photo night out with Smena people last week. This picture is not a street photo as such, but I like it.

Here is the rest.

Joint Smoker. The Green House, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

Also from Amsterdam, as you can imagine

Here are few more pictures of this kind.

World Press Photo Exhibition, Amsterdam, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

Been there in the end of April. Few shots of the visitors are here.

Girl in blue, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

Here are few more pictures from the evening street photography session our club organised yesterday.

Ropes and Nets, Howth, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

Been to Howth on Saturday.

Here are six photos on flickr.

And here is everything “developed”.

Val Thorens: Snowboarder, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

Recently we’ve been skiing in Val Thorens, French Alps. It was my first time skiing in the mountains. I enjoyed it a lot despite the damn dry air that made me cough and sneeze all the time.

Here are few more pictures from that trip.

Paddy Day: Hijab, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

Here are few other shots of both crowd and the Parade itself.

Bob, originally uploaded by KaraNagai.

Bob is one of these good people, who work in Lantern Centre, where our Photographic Society is having its’ weekly meetings.

Here are few other various shots that I made in Lantern Centre in February.