This is probably my favorite  portrait from the “Emotional Portraits: A View Within” series which is about capturing people in a highly emotional way that reveals small but powerful fractions of their character.

You can see the full audiovisual presentation of this project below.

Emotional Portraits from Stratos A. on Vimeo.

This shot was takes in Kavala’s soccer stadium during a very important match for our city’s soccer tema, during which we lost, unfortunatelly. Although there was dissapointment due to the match result, I was quite pleased with the photographic material I walked away with.

At least that’s something to cheer for …

Click on the image above for full view.

Those who are familiar with Steven King’s “The Dark Tower” book series will recognize the title. As for the rest I strongly suggest to check them out but be warned that you will be sucked into a magical world that will probably never forget.

This show was taken during a rainy day, while I was looking for a creative outcome out of household objects using glass objects and trying to get an interesting result from reflections and refractions.

I will not spoil the mystery by revealing what I  actually shot. I’d rather leave it up to you to do the guesswork

This is one of those images that just happen to fall in your field of view out of the blue.

I was wondering around an abandoned village, almost disappointed  because I just could not find anything interesting to capture at the moment ( wait… abandoned village and nothing interesting to shoot;  You must have the  “Give me a break” face right now!   ),  and then suddenly as I looked to my far right I saw this naked tree aligned with a huge sand dune.

I took the picture and then started to notice as I zoomed in that most of the trees at the background had still their leaves, in contrast with the tree in the foreground, which created a strong emotional contrast.

I choose to remove all color in order to magnify this feeling of shame and loneliness, but left everything else untouched.

Also note that his was taken with my ( rest in peace ) dear 18-135 lens at 135mm, which added compression making the image even more dramatic.

Click on the image to view it in it’s full glory

How can you make an empty stage with bad lighting look interesting? Zoom in slowly baby !

Here I am at the Camerata Classic Orchestra live performance in Kavala few summers ago and while I am waiting for the end of the break I was trying to find something interesting to shoot but the light was just … damn.

So I started experimenting with slow shutter speeds and playing with the zoom until in my view finder I saw a decent shape that kinda reminded me of a flower.

Unfortunately there was a quite tall woman in front of me going frantic for some reason, moving around her hands to fast and hard while she was chatting to the point I was afraid for my well being :-p

So after I moved a few seats sideways until I was relative safe,  I played with the shutter speed and zoom for a few times until I captured this frame.

Around here I must dedicate this photograph to the frantic lady . If she was not there probably I would never move to a better position which allowed to capture this.

To bad I didn’t get her phone number :-p

… It’s true!

This little fellow that keeps me company when I get back home is willing to pose for me for the most basic reward: food.

Sometimes though I believe that he gets to eat better than I do. And gets to sit on the best part of the couch. And requires more attention than a female.

Wait a minute …. these don’t  sound like a  basic reward to me! Arghhh !

… looks better with a polarizer.

Keep that in mind next time you go out to play “The Greatest Nature Photographer Ever Lived”.

First time I was at this location I did not take mine with me. Second time EVER at the same location I did not even got my tripod with me! Go on call me stupid you have every right to do so

But third time is the charm they say.

Even when you have to manually hold the polarizer in front of the lens with your naked hands at polar temperatures. Why the heck I did this? Because my lenses are 52mm diameter ( lame I know :-p ) and the plolarizer was from an old 18-135mm with a larger diameter which I cannot recall at the moment.

No I am not that cheap, it’s just that my order with the new polarizer did not arrive on time before the trip.

Really !

The amazing ( ? ) story behind this image will soon be online! Stay tuned people. and Do come back. Please !

The story behind this image will be shortly online. Really! Check back soon…

The story behind this image will be shortly online. Really! Check back soon…