I may be a dumbass.

"I tried taking pictures, but they were so mediocre. I guess every girl goes through a photography phase. You know, horses... taking pictures of your feet." (Lost in Translation)

I've come across a picture on flickr, that ironically displayed, "every dumbass with a camera thinks he's a photographer". I'd trade "camera" for a "cool SLR Canon", though it might not really matter. What actually bugged me was a commenter who said photography is about conceptual art, and he's tired of browsing flickr streams full of pictures of people's vacations (check!), themselves in the mirror (I've had my share of that as well) and FLOWERS (check!). I went to bed last night and thought "I may be one of these dumbasses" the guy is refering to!

I have after all this bad tendency of compulsively shooting everything that catches my eye, which most of the time happens to be pretty things. I'm obsessed about flowers, and I wait for spring like a little kid waiting for christmas. Blame the LONG winter, blame the fact the tropical heat in my hometown in Brazil is not the most friendly place to shelter tulips and cherry blossom trees. I never considered myself a photographer. I didn't study art at college, I actually graduated as a journalist, and I never ever really took a photography course, I just pointed and shot, and not until recently I came to learn a few technique bits. But when people start praising me, "my photography", I guess I gradually started believing the lie.

The thing is, digital has made things a lot more democratic, we all know that. You take a picture, it's not good enough, you can delete it and start all over again. Perhaps that's what prompted me to grab a film camera, a self-affirmation crisis (?), though I've only shot with 35 mm and disposable ones so far, which is overall pretty much amateurish, let's face it. On the other hand, I don't really like this idea of film's superiority over digital, and I find it perfectly fine if you prefer digital over film. I also don't believe you need a kick-ass camera to make interesting pictures. But well, it's just me. And what do I know about anything, right? I may be nothing but a dumbass with a camera.

candyfloss.

underwater.

"There is a silence where hath been no sound, There is a silence where no sound may be, In the cold grave under the deep, deep sea."

Thank you, John.

frost.

It snowed today.

another winter day.

I'm feeling much better now and even went for a short walk today... The temperature is slightly below zero, but the wind was so evil it actually felt like -45! Ok, I'm exaggerating, although I couldn't partially feel the left side of my face for a while. So much pain! Ah, I don't have a bath tub, but these little plastic ducks can surely slide on ice ^.^

stories.

Some of you must be familiar with the work of the young swedish photographer Arvida, but I'm not sure if you've already seen the videos she's been making and displaying on the blog entitled Stories, which is runned "by Arvida Byström and you", in the artist's own words. I have followed these stories from the beggining, and every single episode makes me look forward to the next one.

winter white.

I'd like to share pictures from the past weeks spent at home, but I got sick with the flu (or perhaps it's just a cold?) and haven't had the energy to post in a while... But I promise I'll! One of the things I'd like to do in 2010 is to post more often here. For now, a very wintery picture taken through my window, as I've been indoors 99% of my time these last few days.

autumn, end of afternoon.

Canon EOS D60, 80-200 mm zoom lens.

spring.

Spring in april when flowers bloom, spring in winter hanging by the wall.

yellow.

Both taken in 2008, I remember the 1st one was taken in a rainy day, the 2nd was probably somewhere between april and may.

Narnia.

I'm sort of hating flying to Brazil at this moment. Because...whoa, look at those pictures. Snow. Snow, which is rarer and rarer in these global warming times. At least in this part of the globe. Snow, that makes up for any dull landscape, dark and depressing weather. Snow like in fairy tales. Please, please, make it snow again when I'm back.

7 red things.

Lexie tagged me to post seven red things from my apartment. I'm not tagging anyone in particular, but if you'd like to do a similar post with red or another colour, just let me know!

snow.

From november and from yesterday.

oops, it was just an accident.

I love when I accidently change the camera settings. Some of my favourite pictures were shot that way. I mean, regarding colour and texture. Oh, my technique, or the lack of it... These photos were taken in the same day from the ones below, it was early fall, and it was rainy and grey. Well, it's been rainy and grey nearly every day this autumn. But I shouldn't be complaining, as I'll be flying to Brazil in two weeks (hello, ubiquitous sunshine!). I know I've been very quiet here, I guess it's officially become a photoblog. I'm much more verborragic (is there such a word?) on twitter, where I often minipost something concerning movies, fashion, style, art exhibitions I saw, a song I heard, anything, really. It's just so practical. I never end up writing a post, even if I meant to, so twitter is the solution. And I have no patience for outfits' pictures these days. It's completely dark when I leave home, and the lack of light early in the afternoon discourages me even more. And well, I do hate flash. And my indoors photos are so boring.

Do sheep ever get bored.

I love taking pictures of countryside elements.. sheeps, horses, landscapes, nature... It's always beautiful, no matter what season it is. It would definitely be my first choice of location to photograph someone. I love bucolic surroundings, but I doubt I'd always be happy in such quietness. It gets boring eventually. My dream would be a lovely house facing a forest, and five minutes by foot, a train, only 15 minutes away from the city. Who knows, someday.

the last days of summer.

One of the last days in august, when we had a late lunch outdoors and it was a bit chilly that someone needed a blanket and socks, while a naughty cocker spaniel runned away all the time to shortly make a come back, and the flowers were pretty, and so were the butterflies...