Autumn links
I’m trying to make this “linking post” thing regular, at least once in a season 
Idea is to put here some stuff that truly caught my attention.
Few days ago, I was surfing a bit, just to rest from work and, while I was filtering (mentally) my RSS reader, one headline over THE CLICK blog looked like interesting stuff, so I clicked. On second thought…, maybe it was on some other feed but never mind, THE CLICK is great. Headline was something like… someone… on … VISURA, or new something on VISURA. So I went there. Nice looking magazine with lots of good images, features, artists, etc. Worth seeing. At VISURA magazine I clicked on artist ANDY SPYRA to take a look at his Kashmir story.
Those images I saw, left me speechless. For some time, I haven’t seen such strong and emotional reportage that instantly drove me in to. The rest of his portfolio is great too, but don’t miss to visit his BLOG that is full with images as it is his second portfolio. Very worth seeing… several times. There is a blog called ENGLISH RUSSIA – a daily updated entertainment blog about things concerning Russia and ex Russian Federation. Sometimes, it’s full of snapshots from some (forever interesting) Russian village from end of the globe and sometimes there are truly quality documentary images. For example, this story is called Star wars clone and this one is Star wars for real.
“The Best camera is one that is with You”. I believe I heard it long time ago, or maybe I read it somewhere…never mind. Lately,Chase Jarvis is using that sentence to promote his book of images taken with his iPhone ant to promote his iPhone application. Ok, he is Chase Jarvis and he is commercializing a quote that I believe isn’t his but that’s not the point. Point is that the quote is clean truth. I found myself, for thousands of times not being able to take a nice photo because my camera is not on my back. It is to heavy, or I just finished shooting and left it in my car, or my backpack is just too bulky to carry it around… even there is no excuse that is my reality. So, I decided to get a small camera with decent picture quality that I can carry around in my pocket or small shoulder bag. Not to do some assignment job with it, but to have it all the time with me (I’m not a maniac or camera addict, I’m just a photographer ). This one caught my attention. And at the same end, I like to spice my posts with some images. Those are my phone images I took sometime through this year: (all post production thing is done in phone editor)
A Tomb for BD – by Danilo Kiš
Prijedor city theater, new show – A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, by Danilo Kiš, directed by Gradimir Gojer – work in progress.
GitarFest Banja Luka 2009 poster
I did a poster for IV International classical guitar Festival GitarFest Banja Luka 2009.
Basic idea for it came out of current world economical crisis that affected GitarFest too. So, Festival lasts for three days instead five as past years. Lots of Festival features are decreased or suppressed.
I decide to do a poster where artist will play on a small (decreased in size) guitar as a connection to actual economical situation. Also, name of the Festival will be changed a bit: GitarFest Banja Luka 2009.zip
Here are some of possible posters:
My new portfolio page
Few days ago, I received an e-mail from Cassidy Duhon – a photographer and founder of Oliad (new web portfolio solution for photographers), who offered me a sponsorship for 24 months. I’ll have a great portfolio page for free and it will be used as an example for Oliad promotion (a mutual promotion).
So, my old page (igormotl.com) is not active any more and new one at same adress will be active at the begining of October. Some of my posts were linked to my old web page and those links are broken now. All links will be in function in a few days.
Concerning my new portfolio page, I will let the design job to the professionals-designers to do it for me. Looking forward to see how it will look like.
Thanks again to Cassidy Duhon and to Oliad for noticing and liking my photography
River UNA
Here are some recent photos I’ve been working on lately. I’m shooting some pictures for regional tourist guide (cover for video presentation).
This is river UNA at river mouth with Sana in town of Novi Grad.
I like it black&white. Some would say it is a shame not to show that beautiful green color of water, but I don’t care 
Blurb book review
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)
Springtime links
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)
homage to a wanderer
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”!
I like to move it, move it!
I’m commissioned by the city theater to do stills for their new play. I went tonight to the main rehearsal just to get in to play a bit, to see how the light was done and to shoot some snapshots just to test it. Sometimes, I just like to play with my camera and I like to do something that has nothing to do with play itself but is interesting to me. So, I did a bit long exposure photos from hand while movement on stage was intense and here is result. Shutter speed was 0,5 sec. I’ll do the official shooting tomorrow, so I’ll post more info about the play after.
Winter links
I would like to share some stuff I’m in to in cold winter days:
Toxel - very inspiring blog about new tech designs and some crazy inventions.
Richard Nicholson Photography - like his portraits the most, but there are many interesting stories
Conscientious - fine art photography blog (this guy has new posts every day – amazing)
Simon Hoegsberg - don’t miss his We are all Gonna die - 100 meter long photo
Life in monochrome - Mustafah Abdulaziz blog – great New York city photographer
Enjoy!!!
