Seeking the World’s Soul

The Viking Threat

I’ve been pretty busy this week trying to get some web software working - back in April when this blog crashed so did 4 other bits of online software I was running, and I’m finally getting them back up to speed. Anyway, I’ve been working with some models this week, including Tony who wanted some shots in his Viking gear. I’ve got 2 uploaded currently but will get some more up shortly. I’m trying some new software called Zenphoto for online gallery management - it doesn’t allow prints but it should be indexed by Google, which Zenfolio isn’t, something of a problem. So maybe I’ll put my stock photos in Zenphoto and casual shots in Zenfolio - and what is it with the “Zen” thing anyway?

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Had a friend from the States visiting this weekend, and got out to a couple of museums for the free Thursday museum nights. The Pergamon museum showcases architectural antiquities - here’s Dawn sitting on the steps of the enormous Altar of Zeus, which is not exactly the sort of thing you expect to find in North-Eastern Germany. 19th century archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann dug it up in Turkey and sent it home for re-assembly… rather makes you wonder how much the Turkish people would like to get it back! It does still have that sort of tingle old temples give me, but I kept wishing they’d paint the walls with murals of what the land would have looked like in Greek times; temples like this tended to be sited over very picturesque views.

I may have gotten spoiled by visiting the temples at Dougga, in Tunisia, though; they’re mostly intact and the wind was blowing over the hills and ancient olive groves when I visited, and the sheer beauty of the site made me feel as if light was bursting out through my skin every second I was there.

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Didn’t expect to be shooting disaster pictures when I went down to the weekly expat riverboat barbecue two weeks ago, but what looked to be a gas station was on fire upriver of us. It took the fire department about two hours to get it under control. Yesterday one of my new neighbors almost burned the apartment down, too, so it seems to be a season for fires. A guy upstairs fell asleep while cooking and there was smoke just pouring out his window… he finally woke up when the fire department starting trying to break his door.

That said, Berlin is probably the most mellow city I’ve ever been in. I was thinking about the different cities I’ve spent time in and sort of comparing them to tastes and drinks… Paris is like dark red wine, heady and old and rich. Moscow is a bit like a Red Bull & Vodka - does horrible things to your body and mind while making you both hyperactive and insanely depressed. Minneapolis is like a pitcher of Liennie’s Honeywiesse Beer with lemon slices - both earthily local and a bit gay. Berlin… Berlin makes me think of sipping vodka lemonade on the porch.

Very likable place, anyway. I just wish we were having an easier time finding work, so I could actually relax into it.

Tags: Photos by Kira
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Sorry about the lack of posts recently; I just made a major international move from Moscow to Berlin with about 2 week’s notice. My husband and are getting settled in fairly well now and I should be posting again regularly! The trip was… an adventure, in the way that badly planned things often are, but we made it to our new place at about 4:30 a.m. on May 2nd and are now about 80% unpacked and set up here.

So, this photo is of some artistically dressed up mannequins I saw on the street, the first day out exploring, and links to a gallery set from that day.

Tags: Galleries, Photos by Kira
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This is Karina, the first of the two models I’ve been working with and the reason I went out and bought studio lights. We did a lot of playing around with props and poses - I love the golden age quality of this image- sort of a vision of Queen Maeve of Connaught via 1940s Hollywood.

Shot with one softbox for lighting on my usual Canon 350D, 18-55mm lens at 27mm. The matte black background is wide rolls of crepe paper I taped to my bookshelf. I did a little bit of “painting with light” on this one - above the basic image layer I created a transparent layer set on “soft light” and then dodged and burned that layer by painting white, black, and golden yellow at 8% transparency over the photo.

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I think my website has been hacked… the main site has disappeared and I can’t get into the Wordpress admin area either. The other wordpress blogs I’m hosting for my family are messed up too. Arg, computers. I’ll deal with it tomorrow. Gallery still works, anyway.

Anyway, a bit of what I’ve been working on:

First edits up here.

The model is Tamta, a Georgian girl who’s a refugee from Abkhazia (and sort of a student though I’m not charging her), who I’m helping develop a modeling portfolio. She’s a treat to work with, though I had to do her makeup (just a touch of it) because all she has is colored chapstick.

Tags: Galleries, Photos by Kira
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I photographed this statue in the Capitoline Museum, Rome, and I really, really wish I’d snapped a shot of the tag on it as well. I’d hit the stage where my artistic juices were flowing smoothly and my common sense had turned off, though, so…

It makes me think of fallen angels, forbidden knowledge, and messages in the night. Another photo that’d do well as a cover for a Goth CD… I don’t believe the statue even had wings - it’s probably Mercury - but the shadows on the wall behind it make it look as if it does.

Shot in RAW on a Canon 350d, 18-55 mm lens, converted to monotone and then toned to night-blues.

Tags: Photos by Kira
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