I’ve passed along this graffiti many times. It’s slogan decorates probably thousand walls around the world, yet here it seems especially striking. If you ever wondered on Housmanns gate in Oslo, you must have noticed it.

In every city in the world besides those most known spots, there are mysterious corners which create city’s unique atmosphere. Suburbs, old districts, long not renovated buildings are often enriched with street art. Locals are often very familiar with it as every day they go by it in a hurry.

Today I would like to share with you a few examples of street art in Oslo.

Kindergarten’s wall

The not so boring space

Street art can diversify the boring space or send an important message. It’s not surprising that many cities show off their most interesting graffiti and allow them near main roads or representative places.

But let’s not forget not everything can be art. Scribbling on newly renovated buildings is far from beautiful. However, towns which let organized groups of artists paint on old or abandoned places can be very surprised with amazing results.

Oslo is very open-minded when it comes to street art. There is plenty of space for graffiti and murals while there are very few wild scribbles. It’s very different from many places I’ve seen before. Although I’ve lived here for a while, I still discover more and more of them. And that is a real joy.

A rural perspective

Graffiti in Oslo is fairly popular, however, it is not the only place where it flourishes. Norwegian street art got out of cities and hit many places around the country. The Lofoten archipelago can be a great example, where a couple painters begun animating abandoned houses in rural areas. The project is called “Living Decay: fairy tales in the middle of nowhere.” It features some amazing graffiti, check out the video below.

What do you think about such form of art? Is it an important part of our surroundings?

Every time I come back to my home town, I become more and more aware of it’s locality. Koszalin isn’t big but there are plenty of people who want to make cool things, either for creative reasons or just for fun.

I recently guested DJ Pyteck, a co-founder of a “Baltic Waves” project which aims to promote good club music in the area. He plays deep, tech house and more of electronic genres.

We met at my home where I prepared a quick photo set. A backdrop plus some stands is all you really need to make clean, studio photos. A few strobes come in handy too.

Set-up

For our main shots I used a simple, 3-strobe set-up, with two lighting the background. I used silver reflective umbrellas to even out the light and get a bit smoother shadows on the talent. They are cheap and easy to transport—a good choice when you want to travel light. Transparent ones are also great, especially when you want very soft light, but they are a pain to control in tight spaces.

The key light was high over the talent and I moved it from frame to frame to try different moods.

Even creating a custom desk for the session is not a big deal. You can make one out of a keyboard stand, a long plank and some white material. If you don’t have a keyboard stand around, you can also use desk trestles.

Getting into the club

While the pure white can give an ethereal feel that is very cool on it’s own, I decided to try a few club-like photos as well. Theatrical color gels can change the mood of a photograph instantly.

First I used almost the same 3-light set as with the black and white shots. I took off the umbrella from the left back strobe and aimed it at the talent. Then I put a red gel on it, and dark blue ones on other strobes. I didn’t even need to move them much.

You can see well here that so small change as 3 gels and turning around a strobe can change things dramatically.

For the last shot I used a single strobe from the right. I wanted to get harsh shadows and so I pointed it directly at the talent without an umbrella. This made the mood even more club.

It’s cool to work with people who are passionate about the thing they do. It’s also a breeze to let them do what they love and photograph them in the process. A really fun experience.

The beginnings

While creating an impression, what is important to me is that little glimpse of the scene which only I can see. Ever since I first grabbed a camera, I wanted to capture those tiny moments of life. I tried many times with mixed results. My first more thoughtful attempt was Reconstructing my Mind project where I photographed transitory reflections of light in water.

After finishing that project, I looked for new ways of capturing an impression with a camera. One day, during a walk in a forest, I noticed that tall trees have a very distinct feeling if looked cursorily or rapidly over them.

This gave an idea to try doing the same I did with my eyes, using a camera.

Impression no. 5

I created the photograph at the top long after the no. 4 in the Aker Brygge district of Oslo. I decided to name my impressions with numbers as it has quite a long history among painters. Plus I find it very adequate for their form.

As I mentioned, my initial inspiration were trees. Their shape—at least some of them—made them especially interesting from human eyes perspective. We see quite wide with them but at any moment only look at certain points. When we look quickly along a long shape, it blurs and loses it’s details.

When I came to Oslo, I was struck with amazing architecture. There was Aker Brygge, National Opera, old tenement houses and many more. First I wanted to photograph them in their full beauty. But when I got to know them, I begun seeing them differently. The association with the long shapes of trees came quite recently.

Since I begun capturing impressions, I more and more often happen to look at the surroundings in a different way. Architecture can become less distinct and more abstract if looked rapidly. This way, even in the most familiar area, I can find something new and curious. And that’s how I find my impressions.

When you are serious about what you do, even the smallest things can make a big difference. It can be your clothes, low batters, too slow memory cards or even a strap. Today I want to help you with at least one of those things and present you a better strap – the R-strap.

Not thinking about your gear

Walking around with a 2kg brick doesn’t belong to the most subtle experiences. That’s why the less you need to think about that Brick, the better.

We all know possible ways of wearing a camera:

• over a neck – the tourist style,
• on an arm – the reporter style,
• in a hand – the sports style,
• on a tripod – the landscape style,
• in a bag – the hobbyist style.

For a long time, while using an ordinary strap, I used a combination of hand and arm styles. The later usually while waling a longer distance. I have to admit it was rather depressing. I was either thinking about that slowly slipping strap or the weigh of a camera. And I’m not using the heaviest one…

I searched the interwebs for some better solution and , while there were a few I liked, when I saw Black Rapid, I knew that’s the one for me. After finally getting one, it completely changed my experience. It’s sturdy, secure and easily adjustable.

No more thinking about the a strap, now I just put it on and can wear it whole day with no hassle.

The speed is important

My street photography days taught me a lot about using a camera fast. That is why I often walked around with it in my hand – ready to take that photo. If I had a camera on my arm, it was usually too late.

Nowadays, my camera hangs freely near my hip, and whenever I feel like taking a picture, I just do. Like if the camera was in my hand all the time. That’s how easy and smooth it is. It just doesn’t get in the way.

Let’s be honest, there are others

I’m not implying that Black Rapid is the only company that made it right. Although they definitely were one of the first. There are a few interesting alternatives like this one from Think Tank that many reporters rely on.

But if you ever feel that the strap you are currently using gets in your way, I can easily recommend you the RS-7 from Black rapid that I’m using. Plus I really like their instructional videos, they were what sold me. Check the RS-7 one below.

And what methods of wearing a camera do you prefer?

It makes me wonder that the world can be seen in so many diverse ways. Each moment gives us a glimpse into ourselves, lets us see with our inner sight. Each person can see something completely different even in the simplest of things. Actually, the more simplistic it is, the more you can see in it. The world stripped of details has more space for our own interpretation.

So what do you see? I’d love to know.

Check more Impressions on the project’s page.

When we were driving to Oslo’s center tonight, it was snowy and foggy, but soon the fireworks cleared the sky and we greeted the New Year in a really hot atmosphere. You can see yourself above.

I would like to wish you all the best in this New Year. I hope it will bring you many inspirations, creative moments and artistic experiences.

Happy New Year!

One snowy, winter day, in the depths of Galeria Scena, we organized a session as one of my personal photography projects. We had a lot of fun creating a fairytale land of the Winter Session and embodying ourselves in it. I have worked on it for quite a while and I can finally show you the results.

I must thank everyone that came that snowy day and hope you will keep the memories of it for a long time. We will do it again some day, maybe in a bit more sunny atmosphere.

You can read the story behind it and then check out the photos from the session. Don’t forget to let me know what you think in the comments.

Tech

For those of you interested a bit more in the technical details of the Winter Session, check the photo below:

The idea behind the session was obviously the winter-like landscape, but achieved in a studio. For a snowy background we used a plain, 10 meter long, white backdrop and then added a few graphical trees into the mix. When lighted from the front, they served as graphics, but when back-lighted, they created some crazy shadows on the floor.

Lighting was fairly simple, with four strobes in total. One sat in this big silver reflecting umbrella and served as our main light. Two bare strobes stood on the sides of the backdrop. I didn’t want blown whites so they were set just a tad lower. This way I could add a bit of a colorful life into the background during post-processing.

The last strobe wasn’t used on all photos, but we added it from time to time for additional drama. It stood just behind the background pointing down at the trees. This way we got extra shadows on the ground without affecting the overall lighting.

For additional fun we used a medium format film camera (thanks Grelus for letting us use it). The big focusing screen worked as our canvas on which we painted our winter fairyland.

Equipment

It’s interesting to point out how little you really need to pull off a session like this. Below the list of all supplies we used.

• 2 cameras: one digital Nikon, one medium format film camera
• 4 strobes: Nikon speedlights
• 1 big (150cm) silver reflective umbrella
• 1 white 10-meter backdrop
• 6 stands: 4 for strobes and 2 for backdrop
• 3 cardboards
• 1 sandbag
• gaffers tape
• some winter clothes
• cool people
• fun!

The trees

Our friend and designer, Magdalena Wierzbowiecka helped us with the trees. We cut out three in all, one big and two small, and then added them to different scenes as needed.

We’ve been working hard here, on marcinretecki.com. And by we I mean a whole bunch of my friends helping to figure out the new design and functionality of the website. I decided to dedicate a page to let you all know exactly what we’ve been working on. We still have a lot of backstage work to do, so I am sorry for any perturbations.

That being said I invite you to look around and let us know what you think in the comments. Don’t hesitate to point out any glitches or whatever things you think should be pointed out. We will keep our eyes and ears open.

I would like to thank all people involved in the redesign and without exaggeration I must say it would never come to life without them.

To all my loyal readers, stay tuned as the coming year we will kick off some amazing content for you. There will be photos, articles, inspiration and more.

PS: If you are reading this by RSS and wish to get the best experience, I encourage you to resubscribe to our feed.

While ago Chase Jarvis organized an amazing photo event in New York City at the Ace Hotel. You can read more about it on Dasein: An Invitation To Hang website. It’s a pure celebration of the snapshot.

One of my iPhone snaps was featured in the installation, you can check it out in the below video. Thanks a lot to Chase for giving so many creatives from around the world an opportunity to be displayed in one of the most hectic places out there.

A story about abandoning Windows and finding new apps and possibilities on a Mac.

A few months ago I finally decided to switch. New MacBook Pros were introduced by Apple and the specs were very tempting. I had been thinking about getting a Mac for quite a while then, and it was natural for me that when the new update come I would get one. And so I did.

Switching systems is a pain. A long, never-ending pain. Of course, I still have to keep my old machine, as many of my photos were developed in windows-only applications. I was a Windows user since Win95, and started thinking about changing the system only a year or so ago. So don’t blame me for having some “windows-only” apps.

After a couple months on the new mac I am finally getting used to it. Learning Terminal and searching hundreds of apps everyday to find the ones actually useful for my workflow. My main reasons for the switch were OSX (obviously) and Aperture 3. But it soon dazzled me how many cool apps I can get on Mac. Thay have a completely different feel than Win apps, more of a simplistic style. I also realized that I need only a bunch of them to get things done the way I like.

I had been consciously developing my workflow for around 2 years before I started pondering about mac. The folder structures, file-naming, retouch, resizing and saving etc. One day I realized I have everything covered, I knew every next step – I was sure of what I was doing and why. It’s a great feeling, believe me. Getting a new system was like suddenly becoming blind again after years of seeing. Imagine that you sit down to do something, and you have completely no clue how to do it, you don’t even know where to start. You have to take slow, small steps into exploring what you can and what you can’t, learning new rules and possibilities. At the end, it is very consolidating. You learn how to solve problems, you discover new, often better, ways of making things happen. And that’s beautiful, but obviously, it takes time. Time that you can’t spend on creating something, however, it is time spent on recreating yourself.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, mostly because I would like you to understand why I was so inactive on my website and social media – I was a child who needed to learn to speak again;)

As some of you may know, I work as a freelance web developer. I’ve recently begun a cooperation with a great designer and my dear friend Magdalena Wierzbowiecka. I will not bore you with details, be we hope to make some really cool sites together. Again though, Mac showed it was a completely different beast, which encouraged me to reconsider my code-writing workflow. It turned out amazing, as I sped up my debugging and uncluttered my main machine with two simple apps that I will present in a second.

My current set of tools is a bit simplistic, but they get the job done, and that’s most important for me. One thing I’m considering at the moment is adding Photoshop and Illustrator for seamless collaboration with my designer, but it would need to wait as it’s a significant expense.

For my photography, all I need at the moment is Aperture 3. Completely love it’s streamlined workflow, although I still get a headache thinking about the library concept, but I’m getting used to it. Photoshop will also be useful for compositing and hard retouch, but since I don’t do much of these, for now I’m happy without it.

My development tools got a bit more complicated. My usual “code -> local server -> ftp -> production server” system got a face-lift. I completely removed the local server from the workflow and added FolderWatch + Transmit 4 combo. These two allow me to have a local copy of my application and test it in real-time on the production server. FolderWatch has still some issues with deep catalogs, but when I add a new process for each catalog I want to sync, it gets super-fast. It’s a tool I would also recommend for any real-time backups. I don’t know how it will handle bigger files, but with PHP it is worth the hassle.

The other icons on my dock are SublimeText 2 that I’m currently testing (and writing this article on), Diagrammix that I’m trying out for quick diagrams and schemes, and the Reeder – a really cool client for Google Reader. Four catalogs below are my way of organizing tools based on their usefulness in Web, Media, System and Other categories – much faster than scrolling all apps in one folder.

Thanks guys for reading and hope to see you soon with some new photos. Take care!