Hey guys. I know, I know, I’ve been quite quiet lately. There are a couple reasons for that, but the one that may be of your interest is that I’m currently in Oslo, Norway. I’m here due to my master thesis I will be writing. Something around Ibsen, drama and art, most probably.

This has made my previously built sched a bit shattered. There is no need to worry thou as I’m not quiting on taking photos. Actually, I am more and more confident on going full pro some day in the future. Photography is that thing that I really enjoy and never get bored of.

But I won’t bore you with those. I haven’t yet taken much photos here. Weather is rather gray, something that I don’t like much. I took some iPhone snaps here and there like the one below.

Anyway, I as you can see, I’m not so strict when it come to the 50 Weeks Project. 50 weeks doesn’t mean they have to be subsequent. If I happen to finish the project somewhere in January or even February, nothing bad will happen. At the moment I am revising and contemplating photos I’ve already made and thinking about improvement. I’m also analyzing how different styles suit me, how my own attitude changed and shifted. There is a lot of information in those photos and I would like to understand them as much as i can before I proceed.

I hope you guys are well.
Take care and see you soon!

The new portfolio is ready, however, I will link to it when all other portfolios are updated.

View the iPhone Photos portfolio.

Let’s face it, bringing your big camera everywhere is tiring and often pointless. I like to have it in my bag when going for a longer walk or a trip. But how about those times when you can’t or just don’t want to have it? Date, party, snack, coffee, you name it.

As Chase Jarvis says The Best camera is the one you’ve got with you. I don’t want to bring another device, like a compact camera, so i decided to use my phone. Quality is not an issue. I would even say that it’s an advantage as it makes you forget about equipment and just focus on the subject and composition.

So, don’t worry about the size or pixels, just take more pictures!

Take care, cya soon.

Here is a place to comment my Week 27 – The Look.

After a few outdoor shots we came back to my house for a fully controlled, studio portrait. The idea was to achieve very pleasant and calm face where eyes were the focus point.

By using warming gels and proper white balance I have achieved that very warm and rich hue.

By making everything yellowish and brownish, eyes became separated. Even though the whole photo was lighted with warming gels, my eyes preserved their blueish hue, setting them in front of the viewer.

Below a completely different look made with exactly same set-up. A change in expression completely changes the mood of the photo.

Here is a place to comment my Week 26 – The Morning.

This week I decided to move a bit away from strobes and artificial lights and use the morning sun as an only light source.

The above photo was quite spontaneous as it was taken after the actual photoshoot. The main idea was more serious, but, as it turned out during editing, seriousness was not what I was looking for this week.

Should I have chosen this one? I don’t know. What I know is that this project have taught me to be more open minded and spontaneous, even though my face doesn’t show it too often;)

As I mentioned in the Tech, the chosen photo used no artificial lights. However, it doesn’t mean I went there with no equipment. You never know what idea will come to your mind so it’s wise to take more than less (especially when you’re by car…).

When walking around I like to take less. When you don’t have to think about heavy bags you can take more pictures. But on planned sessions, I have learned to take more. You never know what place you will discover or what idea will come to your (or your friends’) mind.

PS: Thanks a lot to Skupi for the suit and the case.

3 weeks ago, me and my friends met in Galeria Scena to take some portraits. I don’t think much comment is needed here, just go to the gallery and check them yourself.

Besides the serious portraits, we also had lots of fun. Below some additional shots, not included in the gallery.

Skupi and Ania behaved like little brother and sister and played around like vampires, warewolves or sth…

Małek’s original smile… or shout.. or.. eh

And the legs.

Huge thanks to everyone for coming by! I know you enjoyed it as much as I did:)

Hope to repeat it someday!

This is a place to comment my Week 25 – The Second Half.

The first half of my project ends with this post. It was a crazy ride. Lot’s of ideas and lot’s of spontaneous actions.

Even though I have encountered some timing problems during those 6 months, I enjoyed it a lot. Had fun every time I tried to produce that genuine result and incredible satisfaction when it came to life.

During the last week I’ve been thinking a lot about that 25th pic. Many ideas came and flew away, and many attempts fell through. I’m not showing many from those session, but I can tell you, they were amazing. Below is one of the shots, taken when I was setting up a strobe during a beautiful foggy evening.

One more photo from that day, completely different in it’s mood, yet as intriguing:

Some News

I have noticed that some of you using RSS can be a bit confused about Week 23. It is there, I just didn’t want to follow it with a post.

This week is going to be busy here, on marcinretecki.com. Many photos to come from recent (and not so recent) sessions to come. I’m especially excited about the Session with Friends project that just got a green light from all participants.

So stay tuned!

Here you can comment my Week 24.

Yup, late again, but it was worth it. The above photo was fully spontaneous. Sitting on the beach I was thinking about some sunset neatness, but cloudless sky and heavy wind wasn’t helping.

On the way back, I asked a friend of mine, Skupi about some crazy, interesting wall in our town, and fortunately for me, he instantly knew the answer.

Please introduce yourself.
My name is Juan-Carlos Hernandez. I was born in 1971 and took my first steps in photography in the 1980’s. Passionate about jazz, I started working as an amateur photographer on American and European stages as of 2004. Three years later, I decided to dedicate myself fully to my passion and became a professional photographer based in Geneva, Switzerland.

You are a live performance photographer. Was it your natural choice or more of a coincidence?
I protest ! ;-) I’m not only that, even if I’m basically that. For answering your question, it was a natural choice because I’m a music and particularly jazz fan.

Are you interested in other types of art or is your work as a photographer so time-consuming that there just isn’t much time left for it?
I’m interested in all arts, art is so important to people. It’s the thing most important and most useless it the world. As said, I’m passionate about music and by the way I play a tenor saxophone a little bit as a hobby. I love literature but as I have little time, I read basically a lot of poetry. Finally, when I walk the streets and I have time, I enter easily into galleries in order to discover new art stuff.

We can often hear questions regarding our favorite photography subjects, but much less often about those least favorable. What would you never photograph and why?
I can’t really answer to your question dear colleague. Really everything interests me. Now, that’s evident that some subjects interest me less than others, for example landscapes, studio photography or animals. Landscapes because I’m not often inspired.. Studio photography because I never search the perfect photography and animals because I’m much more interested in human beings.

How does your “dream day” as a photographer look like? What is your schedule, what do you do, with whom, what feelings accompany you during such day?
I would dream to have a one entire day session with Sonny Rollins. I would first have a long talk with him in order to know him very well and not only his music, and then I would make portraits of him in uncommon venues as for example a boat, the basement of a building which would be particular. Why not? But it would be as always a collaboration between the model (and what a model here!) and me. So.. inspiration and improvisation. I would be very happy.

Basically anyone can name themselves a photographer these days. We hear a lot about initiatives like “No, you’re not a photographer, you just own a camera” or how stock media destroyed the real value of a photograph. How are your feeling about it?
It’s totally true. These microstock agencies kill the profession and true agencies assigning true and long photographic works by selling photos without copyright (is it really legal ?) for ridiculous prices. People are loosing respect for the price of a photograph, of the work behind it. That’s our liberal world.. A photographer has to sell hundreds of images to clients to earn enough money for them. That’s only good for amateur photographers who love to pay them a caprice with extra incomes and lot of times without paying taxes on those sold photos.

And true photo agencies are disappearing (Gamma, Sygma).

A sad anecdote, will you believe me if I say you that I had to pay 130 Euros in order to put one my photographs on the cover of my book « Estelas de Jazz » ? Indeed, the editor signed a contract with a microstock agency and authors were obliged to choose an image among lot of photographs of this microstock agency.

Thank you for your thoughts.

You can find more of Juan-Carlos Hernandez on:
Juan-Carlos Hernandez Photographe
Juan-Carlos Hernandez Jazz Photographer

Here’s the place for Week 22 comments.

The last week was a bit crazy. Actually two last weeks were… The weather finally reminds a bit more of spring than late autumn, so the atmosphere’s much friendlier.

After last week’s forest photo I came back home for a tighter head-shot. As I mentioned in Info, I haven’t used my silver reflective umbrella in a while and Zack reminded me of “knowing your gear“. Good enough reason to grab and use it.

I’ve been getting out quite a lot lately. But still not in the mood for street. I need strong, bright sun, not those clouds, for at least few straight days to get into it.

Also haven’t been writing much. There is not simple reason for that, just not feeling it. Ideas are laying all around in my notes and drafts, but not yet ready to see the world. Hope it changes soon, as it bugs me a bit.

Thanks for stopping by. See you soon next week.