Academy of Arts is knockin’ on the door!

It’s my habit writing last minute posts before I go somewhere. Last minute writing is good because all thoughts are fresh, can we call them like that? Ok, let’s see what is this all about…

I worked hard over two loooong months to finish my portfolio and prepare to enroll the Academy of Arts – Photography department, in a very beautiful town Novi Sad, Serbia. This morning I’m going on a 600-km-long-trip from Novigrad to Novi Sad by car and my uncle goes with me. My dear friend Jelena, also know as Queen of the sunset, will be my host for a week or maybe more. Bags are ready, batteries are charging and my eyes are closing. Before I tap “Publish” I just wanna say “Big Respectable & Lovely Thank You” to all of my friends and supporters who wrote a few very kind lines for me. Hope my parents will sleep well these days.

I’M GONNA DO MY BEST, REALLY!

By the way, read my 3 months old post “Setting my goals, reachable targets” about my plans, it’s closely connected with this one, and it will explain a bit better what is in my head at this suppose-to-be-stressful-but-it’s-not-at-all moment.

PHOTOGRAPHY IS MY LIFE, SO WISH ME LUCK!

Jun 20 by Danijel

VISUALEYES PRODUCTION: Matteo Bertolio for “ORIS – Swiss watches”

As I wrote, we have more news from lovely Natalija…

Matteo Bertolio has worked on a visualeyes production in Shanghai for their client ORIS – SWISS WATCHES. For this project they were investigating for a suitable upcoming artist who fits to the CULTURE COLLECTION of their client. You can also see these images in one of the latest issues of Victor Magazine by Hasselblad.

Hope Natalija will inform us about new stuff!

Jun 19 by Danijel

VISUALEYES PRODUCTION: Hanspeter Schneider for “Magazin Z”

While I was at Photodays, I’ve met amazing gal Natalija Bajric, the head of visualeyes agency which is now representing 17 reknowned and international photographers. Thank you Photodays for getting me closer to people like Natalija. Today she has something for you from the very first issue of their magazine.

Hanspeter Schneider has worked on a visualeyes production in Paris for “Magazin Z”, which is a fashion suppliment of the NZZ, Switzerland’s most read newspaper. The production took place in a beautiful appartment in Paris and with 10 models on set. The shooting was accompanied by a TV station and documented in the daily reportage of GLANZ & GLORIA. Nice work!

Hmm… think we have some more news from Natalija. But not today, stay tuned!

Jun 17 by Danijel

Cool little photo app by Lisa Bettany, introducing Camera+

With Camera+ you’re able to use your iPhone to shoot the best photos you possibly can. Packed with several useful features that your standard camera app doesn’t include, your pics will improve the instant you start using it.

I know Apple has just presented the new iPhone 4 featuring a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and HD video recording but I think this little app will kinda upgrade your iPhone camera features until you buy a new iPhone. You really have to try it out, it’s amazing!

Have you ever heard about the rule of thirds? Now you can use the grid to line up your shots and eliminate unsightly tilted photos – no more crooked pics! Goodbye blurry shots here’s the stabilizer to steady your iPhone and get the sharpest photos you can. There are many many cool and very useful features, read more at campl.us.

Good luck with the app Lisa!

Jun 12 by Danijel

REPORT: Photodays 2010, day 2

Day two was a bit slower for me and I had much time for talking with my friends photographers, made many new contacts. Weather was perfect and the official program was interesting. Make sure you have read my first report!

There are no Boundaries, or? (Lecture and Workshop), by Bruna Kazinoti

Very interesting lecture by Bruna was actually a presentation that gives an overview of contemporary international photographers and a selection of Croatian artists. Bruna has graduated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerpen, Belgium, and she has published material in magazines such as Dazed&Confused, Qvest, Sleek and many others. She brought some of the recent editions of the world’s leading magazines and we talked about boundaries in photography. After the discussion participants had an opportunity to tell their own story through their photographs, with one-hour-limit for shooting. Commendable!

Portfolio reviews

This was the best part for many of us because we were able to show our photos to people from the professional world of photography and get a feedback. I will point out some of the reviewers: Helena Srakočić Kovač, agent and ex-gallerist who spent all of her business career in London dedicated to photography; Ivana Tomanović, editor in chief of REFOTO magazine and Natalija Bajric, CEO of the photo agency VISUALEYES. Big respect for Ivana’s comment on my photos, it will help me a lot for sure.

Panel discussion: Current Trends in Photography from Galleries to Commercial Industry

Photography in the region against world trends. Croatia has no museums dedicated especially for the photography and that’s a problem. We discussed about the global market and photo auctions, I heard about these prices for the first time.

Thank you for the great weekend, see you next year (or sooner)!

Jun 05 by Danijel

REPORT: Photodays 2010, day 1

This whole environment is very pleasant, surrounded by photographers and photography lovers – GREAT! This is third year of the photography festival Photodays, already, and I’m third year here too, proudly. Rovinj was always the most photogenic city for me and it’s like ideal for similar events. Press centre has kindly hosted me and helped with anything I needed. I’m satisfied with the day 1 at Photodays, I’ve met many people from the photo industry. I only missed the colour management (calibrating monitors) workshop by Dean Žvorc. From many exhibitions and workshops I chose these two below to write a bit more:

Camera Obscura (Lecture and Workshop), by Borislav Božić

The leader of the camera obscura workshop, my respectable mentor, Borislav Božić has prepared 15 “Ljubica” camera obscuras for his todays workshop. The “Ljubica”, as he calls it, is a type of camera obscura he has designed several years ago, and which is used by the attendants of his recording workshops. It is very practital and adjusted to photo paper with a dimension of 10 x 15 cm. Actually, that was my first camera ever, when I took my first analog photo about 7 years ago on his workshop. It was my pleasure to see him again.

DSLRevolt (Workshop), by Marko Butraković

I wrote about Marko before and I finally met him in person. Cool guy! His todays workshop on DSLR video recording was very instructive. Audi R8 Spyder had its promotion premiere for Croatia. We learned more about elaborating advanced DSLR recording techniques and their application to real-life situations. These guys have a lot of professional equipment and the most interesting for me was Steadicam. We recorded many different scenes for a short film. Totally great experience.

Regards from sunny Rovinj, stay tuned for day-2-report!

Jun 04 by Danijel

Photodays 2010, this weekend in Rovinj

This weekend (4th & 5th June) I’ll be attending the largest and my favorite regional photography festival, Rovinj Photodays. The official festival program is published, there are many interesting workshops, presentations, exhibitions, portfolio reviews and panel discussion about current trends in photography, from galleries to the commercial industry. I’m also very happy about the camera obscura workshop hosted by my mentor, oldschool photography legend Borislav Božić, founder of the photo club Rijeka.

I’ll press cover whole event proudly as the official blogger. My camera and laptop goes with me, so stay tuned here on Die without Art for fresh updates directly from Rovinj.

Do not forget to follow Die without Art on Twitter and subscribe to RSS feed!

See you here or there!

May 31 by Danijel

So young, so good. Anya for the win!

Anya Kozyreva is a freelance photographer from Moscow, Russia. Her focus is the atmosphere shot, preserving the emotions of model and their freedom in the photo. Since 2009. Anya began creating her own photo business, am I wrong with the title? Anya is only 19 year old and I’m sure her career has just started. Good luck. Do not forget to check out her photostream on Flickr and follow her on Twitter.

Thank you for this submission.

Apr 28 by Danijel

School of creativity has changed my life exactly 8 years ago

One more busy but very creative week called *School of creativity – Novigradsko proljeće* is in front of me, a week which has changed my life exactly 8 years ago when I took my first photo with the fabulous camera obscura and actually discovered photography in the darkroom. I’m very grateful to all people who supported me when I was (only) 10 years old. Thank you friends, thank you family, thank you all. Then, about 8 years ago, photography maybe was not so serious business to me but now the whole story has changed and my teenage beginning deserves a spontaneous clapping, yay! Because it is for the win, really.

That’s simply my favorite week of the year because all my creative friends are coming to my town, my ex elementary school, to express their imagination. They are kids from all over the country, all ages – from 10 to 20. We have chose our workshop (for example: dancing, acting, singing, drawing, photography, filmmaking and many more) yet and then all together will be working under one topic – this year it’s a CIRCUS.

How you see on this photos from the last year, we are working all over the place and everything is full of colors and happiness. There’s no white walls, each is painted and filled with thematic illustrations. You would not believe what these kids can make, unbelievable.

Last day we are usually opening our group exhibition before the huge and crying ceremony. This unforgettable experience is repeating every year, better and better. Can’t wait to see my dear friends tomorrow after one long year.

I’ll try to publish our impressions every day, and still don’t know which hash tag to use on Twitter. But make sure you have subscribed to my feed and that you are following me.

Apr 17 by Danijel

POSTCARDfrom Vitez: Kangaroo hop

Introducing a new category “POSTCARDfrom”, yay! Iva and her friend Jelena who’s jumping like a kangaroo, just started a new collection of postcards here on DwA. Feel free to send your photos, illustrations, videos, words – anything to submit AT diewithoutart DOT com, just title “POSTCARDfrom”. Here is the only rule, you must tell us something about you and your place. Interact with us and follow the hash tag #POSTCARDfrom on Twitter.

Apr 14 by Danijel