Gojko Rađenović – Prijedor’s Music School principal (new name is Music school “Savo Balaban”). Music school in Prijedor exists for over 50 years and since then, its building was never repaired, until this year. It took one year and a half to finish all the reparations and through that period, music school was moved to 7 different locations.
Borut Peterlin – Slovenian photographer has a new book called 5am which is possible to purchase over Blurb.com. I know Borut for some time and we were discussing about his 5am project for few times and I saw just a small amount of pictures that he took on his long term personal project. It was just hard for me to visualize it as a concept but right now, after I saw his book (not real book but over Blurb and his web site here – and I will buy this book for sure) I’m amazed of how powerful it really is.
He captured that strange time of night/day with mixture of humor, empathy and with a great sense for dramatization. Well done Borut!!!
Click on image to view 5am gallery on Borut’s web site.
CLICK HERE to buy his book over Blurb
Club Life, DBAU has an album promotion called “Mašina” (machine) last night. They commissioned me to shoot it. Here are my favorite photos:
Finally, a new portrait. I’m back!!!
Nešo Nožinić – a pilot. Idea to take a portrait of him came to me long ago because as long as I’m aware of myself, I know for him and for his passion for hight. We were discussing yesterday of how the picture would look like and how am I going to do it and as I mentioned one old airplane on a empty field in small village near Prijedor called Međuvođe, I saw a sparkle in his eye. After a small break, he told me that the airplane, that I want to include in the picture, is the same airplane from which he had performed his first free jump while he was at the parachute training.
Through Nešo, I wanted to indicate on a long tradition of flying in Prijedor. That old devastated airplane of Kurir type is a monument to a partizan pilots from WW II that took 2 German airplanes and escaped to a non occupied territory of Prijedor and formed first partizan squadron. Those two pilots were Franjo Kluz and Rudi Čajevec.
Lazar Marčetić – director and manager of Saničani fish pond near Prijedor. I know Lazar for some time, and I tried to transfer my own vision of him in this portrait. I always saw him as an urban intellectual who live a quality and successful life. Active sportsman, involved in a cultural life of a city, successful career.
The idea was to show him as a worker (not a stereotypic manager kind a guy). So, fish net is symbolizing his occupation while basketball equipment (he was active basketball player for a long time and now he is helping in development of Prijedor sport life) symbolize his active way of life.
Just a few days ago, I finally got my book I ordered over Blurb. It is printed photo story about SAMARICE I did two months ago.
Here are some thoughts about quality and service from Blurb.
First of all, you need to download their software Blurb Booksmart (just a few MB and really easy to use) that is your main tool in designing and uploading your photos on their server. Only bad thing about that kind of service is that they will print what ever you send to them, so be careful when creating a book.
I’m pretty much satisfied whit copy I’ve got. I choose their biggest format (large format landscape 33×28 cm or 13×11 inches), hard cover with dust jacket and premium quality paper (price difference was very small between standard and premium paper). Options were to have hard cover with image wrap but I decided no to do that because few posts on Blurb forum and because some practical experience from other photographers (look here). If you decide to order from Blurb, don’t be lazy and go read their forum a bit. Lot of useful informations from direct users of Blurb services.
Here are some pictures of my book:
Paper is thick, with silky finish (not sure about the weight – on Blurb site there is information that it weight 100 lbs). Binding looks solid and clean and durable.
Print quality is over my expectations. I went (before I ordered from Blurb) to several printerhouses and ask them to make me some samples with my photos. Each of them are using digital printers and the result was similar from every one. Photos had some magenta-ish tone, contrast was good but separation of black color was bad and nasty. Only thing that I liked was a tip from a printer guy who told me to turn off ICC profile when saving a jpg version of a picture.
Here is some magnifications of one page so you can see the quality:
Here is the page I used for magnification (right side)
Great thing about their service is that your book goes immediately to Blurb Bookstore where anybody can buy your book by the price you set for it. Also there is an competition Photography Book Now where you can apply with your Blurb book.
Bad thing about Blurb is that they don’t ship to Bosnia so I had to ask my friend from Slovenia to use his address and he sent me my book after he got it. Thx Borut again!!!
There are many similar service sites as Blur with different options, prices, etc.
Such as Asuka books (quality and expensive)
Here is some very interesting stuff (to me) so I’ll share and you enjoy:
JoeyL – great photographer (and only 19-years old) and interview with him over Robert Benson’s blog
The Best Of Photojournalism 2009 – take time and check all galleries
DoubleTruck magazine – magazine about photojournalism (all issues are possible for complete overview with zoom option and full screen)
Alenka Peterlin – if you need good book binding or a wedding photographer, check this one (she is based in Slovenia)
Mladen Palada – a parachutist. Owner of many awards and medals and one of the icons of Prijedor sport, member of Prijedor Airclub. He is still active but doesn’t compete anymore. Many interesting stories he has to tell but there is one that can not leave you calm. Back in 1971 he had to perform his first jump after a theoretical part of his parachutist training. Airplane climb to altitude of 800 meters from where every training jump begins. They were performing a hook jump (where parachute is hooked to the airplane and opens instantly after jump). He jumped, and everything he felt was high speed but no absorbing shock when parachute opens. He saw that parachute was not opened right so he detached his main parachute and he opened his reserve. He had just 3 sec. to do that. And it was his FIRST jump. That was the time when death at first jump was common thing.
I was trying for few days to do this portrait but everything came up wrong. From weather to idea and scenario. First, weather was so bad that one could not go outside from a house. Then, I was building some ideas for this portrait and finally I overcomplicated it too much that realization became impossible and too expensive. So I decided to go with Mladen at Prijedor airfield and we will do some simple and clean portraits. When we get there, strong wind starts and instantly, I’ve got an idea to try to open a parachute against the wind. We were trying for several times, but it was impossible to get Mladen at the place I wanted him to be because, parachute was carrying him around airfield. So, I tried to run with him while I was holding my light stand in one hand and camera in other (and that is how picture on the top arise). Suddenly, wind stopped and parachute collapse over me.
And here are few tryouts of opening a parachute
I shot this picture maybe a year and a half ago and by accident. I was just in a search for a portrait background and I saw a boy playing with this dog. Even at first sight, I noticed that dog walks pretty funny. A boy told me a story of how rough life that dog had. First, his parents brought a puppy home who was hit by a car on open road and they were planing to carry him away to a veterinarian for euthanasia first thing next morning. Dog had both front legs broken. But in the morning, by some miracle, dog was very cheerful and and they decided to cure him by themselves. In a few months, dog was able to walk… a bit funny with his curved legs… but he was walking.
Their home with not so big yard is next to a railroad which was a playground for a boy with a dog. On some ugly winter day, boy had a flue and could go outside to play. A dog (who’s name was just simple “a dog”, “ćuko” – on serbian) was wandering across railroad when suddenly train just kicked him away. A boy didn’t see it but he heard a painful sound. He found a dog few meters far from railroad covered in blood. His parents weren’t at home so he decided to clean him with a towel and bring him in house. He argued with mom and dad not to carry him again for euthanasia and he told them that dog will be fine again right in the morning. Again, miracle… dog was eating and barking just the next day. He couldn’t walk again but not for long. Few days after, a boy and a dog were outside playing on the same railroad tracks. Boy told me that after the train accident, dog walks better then before, so he guess that train actually fixed his dog.
Today, because of bad and freezing weather, I couldn’t shoot portraits that I planed even for few days ago, but I just delay it day by day, I decided to search for a possible location for my next portrait. I met that same boy… but haven’t seen a dog. Boy hardly remembers me and he just told me that “a dog” is dead because even if it looked like that train fixed a dog, the train broke him bad.
I felt sorrow, because of the dog and also because of a boy.
This is my Homage to “a dog”!
Tihomir Ilijašević – artist, painter, director of city gallery, Gallery 96 in Prijedor.
He is also a caricaturist and I asked him to draw himself with light as a contrast to real him. This kind of shooting is based on many tries and many mistakes. This particular picture is taken in 42 seconds and f stop was 8.
My advice to all of you who will try light drawing on your pictures is to have some kind of canvas behind camera (a wall, or blank sheet, or a truck 
) because it will be much easier to draw when you can see some of light trail.
Here are some tryouts:
B5 Jedna Svetlost Strobist J. Mcnally Creative Lube
