Dry spell

Gardaland, Italy, July 2012 © Marcin Świostek

I think the main reason I love this photo is that I had seen it exactly as it is before I shot it.

When I first started with photography I thought that every photo you take should be the best photo you've ever taken. And being a perfectionist, I still see it as my goal. As a realist, though, I know it's never going to be this way. But sometimes you have to wait a long time before you take one picture that is "ok". Sometimes it takes a hundred of frames to find the one you think is "correct". And it's easy to get depressed about it. It happened to me many times.

Do you remember any photo you took after a "dry spell"?

Accident

Girona, June 4th, 2009 © Marcin Świostek

I have some new photographs from this month but lets talk about this one.

I was covering my friend sculptor's - Tomàs Pons - exhibition opening. I saw this frame and waited for a few seconds - people were passing by all the time. The one thing I didn't foresee was that the man would, literally, escape from the camera.

Why have I chosen this picture? Last weekend we had workshops in Gdańsk with Photalitarism Collective. I had really good time talking about photography and shooting for two days. The one thing that disappointed me was the level of my photos. Today I developed a roll of film I shot a month ago. Result - blank negative. Disappointment again. So, as you can see, I'm a little bit under the weather right now photography-wise.

This picture reminds me that sometimes an accident is what you need to make a good photo. Most of the times, though, it doesn't. Have you got any photos that wouldn't be as good as they are if it weren't for a mistake? Share.

The Jump (El salto)

Girona, June 20th, 2008 © Marcin Świostek

This is probably the best (color) picture I've ever made. I'll leave it for your consideration. The story behind this one is not about the moment I took it, but what happened afterwards.

It was one of the finalists in Capturadanza contest for Teatro de Madrid in 2008. When I went to Madrid for the final ceremony I had an opportunity to be introduced to Luis Agudo. He was a ballet dancer and a choreographer and now he's a ballet and dance photographer. Why being introduced to him was so important? Well, he tried to convince the rest of the jury that my photo should won the contest. We had a little chat about ballet and photography. I didn't even cared for the first place then. Just knowing that a person who dedicated his life to both ballet and capturing its greatest moments was enough.

Sometimes we don't realize that one kind word from a person we hold an authority in what we do means more than any price or contest won. Even if we deny it.

Hello again!

So... This blog has been inactive for... quite a few years now. I've been doing some side projects that became main projects. I've also redesign my website www.marcinswiostek.com.

Since I've decided to dedicate my website to black and white traditional photography exclusively, this blog will be more colorful.

From now on, I'll be trying to follow the guidelines I proposed at the beginning: one post a month.

Also, there will be a short story behind the picture.

Let's get started (again).