Pics and texts

I snap photos, usually digital, analogue when I feel rich; sometimes I write stuff. You can follow me on instagram if you fancy; you don't have to though.

[facesthroughsieves]

Don’t buy pens, ask a girl (or guy) to lend you one

So, fun fact, since I almonst always write at least some sort of plan before starting m texts, I was in a big dilemma over which of the three pens I have standing on my desk right now to actually write this with. Okay, my Pilot was out, since I’ve been writing some other short story with it this morning, but I really like my Pelikans, since I bought a ton of them as a pack 5 years ago, I also love my trashy teal but stillfun Fabers (as well as the fact that, from my experience, they are really popular with dem femalez). To be honest, I was even thinking to walk ower to my bookcase and grab one of my several Parkers (which are supposedly luxury items, yet still cheap enough for me to own a dozen of) and if I did that, I’d be even tempted to just use a Bic, since its the simplest pen around and I still have lots of them.

Well anyways, I made a quick choice, which, also fun fact, I’m regretting moments later right now, grabbed a pen and started writing, cause that’s what really matters. Reading about pen history and how this Bic dude cashed out on the pen’s patent big time thanks to ridiculously huge mass production, I thought how we subconsciously buy tons of plastic which we never really use. To be honest, and without meaning any insult to the company itself, every popular Bic product you’ve also bought without using to its full capacity before losing, breaking it or just leaving it home and buying a new one, cause its price is so miniscule it doesn’t matter. I mean, even going in a bookstore, it’s second nature to reach for a pen just to support the person’s business, but if you stop to think about how much plastic pollution is affecting our planet and actively harming many spieces of animals, I’d rather we all just bought a notebook instead.

Thus, I am personally making a bet with myself to stop buying pens, for the next five years, in my small yet important attempt to reduce plastic pollution. I am the type that usually carries a coupla pens around, just in case, but I guess the next time I need a pen and don’t have one, I’ll just have to borrow one instead. Maybe this way I’ll get to meet some cool person or, who knows, my next girlfriend. What’s for sure is this world needs more love and less plastic (pens). So borrowing a pen or lending yours, seems a nice way to make our world a bit better.

[facesthroughsieves]

The street-band

The street-band was playing on the side of the pavement. Lively folk they were. Definitely not the best musicians though. Yeah, you could hear that. But they were lively and looked glad to be alive and although it feels like everyone ought to be glad to have made it this far in our age, things are really tricky and indeed you can’t help but feel down sometimes, and other times being alive, here and now, feels like the most pointless thing, so it was jolly nice to see these street-band folk happy and well; even if their music was not the best, you could hear that, yeah, definitely.

But they had a lot of instruments and they did their best, wearing their smiles, one wrong string here, one wrong note there, but the show went on and they wore their smiles and were, of course, kindly asking for people’s contribution, anything you please, indeed, no bad feelings. Yeah, just smiles and singing, maybe even dancing as well. And the leader of the band, that middle-aged ape of a man knew his moves, it seemed, and dance he did, maybe out of enjoyment or maybe to attract people, and he looked honest, one wrong step here, one lost move there...

And then she came, out of nowhere, and she was young and she could dance, and dance she did, and the old ape danced along, one occasional wrong step here, but he made it up with a wide yellow smile and she smiled back and it was bright and it was glorious, and suddently I wasn’t sad anymore and it seemed the guitarist was happy too, if only a bit jealous.

[facesthroughsieves]

Taking better pictures; part 1: a 5 step guide to buying a camera

1. DON’T!

(my very own Nikon F3)

Honestly friend, like half the reason you want to buy a DSLR is because you saw someone cool with a camera. I’m not even sure if you actually saw the pictures they were taking (which I at least hope you did), but my point here is you needn’t spend on something just for looks. I’m not a musician and I’ve never studied music (which I often regret drinking rum through some really long nights). I’ve seen plenty of cool guitarists though, as well as zen pianists and majestic violinists to at least feel borderline jealous to full on doubting my career choices; now guess how many musical instruments I own: yeah, 0, cause I can’t play music and I don’t think I’ve got the time to learn! A camera is a substantial investment aimed at people who truely enjoy taking photos. It will neither outperform nor look cooler than an iphone in the hands of a complete beginner. Have you ever been fishing? Yeah, how good (or expensive for that matter) your rod is plays absolutely no role, if you can’t tie a single hook.

2. GET THAT PHONE OUT OF YOUR POCKET!

(shot on a Galaxy S5)

Maybe even consider upgrading while you’re at it. At least if you have a freaking brick for a phone, that is. Smartphones have been getting kinda stale these past two years on the camera department and that’s ‘cause manufacturers have packed their devices so full of awesome, versatile cameras it’s hard to really get substantially better on the miniscule size factor of a mobile phone. You have impressive tiny sensors, plenty of detail and software that competes with the software pros use to edit their DSLR photos. So next time you feel like you need something to take pics with, remember: your phone probably has you covered!

3. EDUCATE THYSELF!

(an important step is to feel comfortable taking pictures)

Before you even consider the purchase of a dedicated camera, do yourself a solid one and learn how a camera actually works. The term exposure triangle should at the very least sound familiar and, I swear to god, if I see another auto-mode flash pop up in plain daylight, I will walk up to you and freaking smash that Nik-

4. CONSIDER ANALOGUE.

(first of the roll; another fun thing to play with is the half burnt first frame of every roll)

Wanna look cool? Wanna actually take pictures in a different fashion than your phone does? Not particularly interested in post-processing DSLR files (shame), yet looking for distinct and beautiful colors? Neat! Try film! Yep, #filmisnotdead my friend, and nowadays you too can buy a professional 80s and 90s camera for around 200$. Pair it with a hipster leather band and set off to discover beautiful film stocks that have distinct vintage colors, while bragging that you don’t need instagram filters as long as you’re shooting Fuji Superia 400! You will take fewer shots, which you will nonetheless treasure much more than any shot you’ve taken, you will give your friends a smile when you print photos for them and you will slowly but surely learn photography, since most analogue cameras, despite having some level of handy automation, will require of you some minimal work, like focusing the lens, etc.

5. SAVE UP A TON.

(maybe even buy an external flash; or a second lens)

And don’t come up to me asking what’s the cheapest camera you can buy, you cheap fuck! You just spent 1500$ on a freaking iphone so suck it up and gather at least the same amount (if not more) for your digital camera. If you still wanna buy one, then you ought to make it an investment. Do you know why your grandpa’s Leica and your dad’s Nikon, Pentax or Canon are still around? Correct, they were investments, not toys, so don’t buy a darn toy! Look for a ton of focusing points and maybe megapixels, you’ll need them. But get a full-frame if you can afford it, maybe sacrifice up to 30% of your megapixel count if you have to, because a full-frame gives you at least double the sensor size and that... uuuh... helps! And for the love of god, don’t stick with the kit lens! Look for a really bright, fast prime to start with, one that can at least reach an aperture of f/2.8!

That’s all, hope it helped a ton, tune in for part two, where I actually dive in on how to actually take better photos. Adios!

[facesthroughsieves]

So, summer is way past us, it’s getting cold, fun’s over; I guess. Back to work... oops, I’m a millenial, so apparently, I don’t work. Spent September e-mailing CVs to every translating company I could find in my country (I’m a translator, I also happen to be Greek). Most of them didn’t reply, a couple of ‘em did. They said they could give freelancers work on an almost daily basis if I would accept to translate for 0.02€/word. That ‘almost’ weirded me out, since at these prices you have to have enough workload to burn yourself out, if you really want to pay for security, taxes and actually make some money while at it. I explained that to those people and they seemed to umm... not give two shits.

I opened up this blog thingy instead, I noticed there’s millions of other blogs too, which means people are, in general, having a shi- umm jolly great time eh?! I have enough analogue and digital photos to share and enough material written down and I said to myself, hell yeah, why not open up a blog in a page where you can find millions of people that will not give a crap about you, that’s a great idea to boost trust in those things you do and insist in calling art.

Well anyway, no logic behind this I suppose, here’s a pic of a greek late summer sunset shot on a Nikon F3 with a simple Fuji C200 film, that’s all for now, bye.