More from Madrid

I am really busy at the moment so I did not have time to upload pictures I had took in Madrid, way back in January. However I chose a couple of photos (which are my favourites) to upload here.

Madrid – The city that never sleeps (part 1)

This month I went for a short trip to the Spanish capital, Madrid. This city is really wonderful and you can rest assured that you can never get bored, since there is always something going on. Madrid is a really busy city and its streets are always full of people, especially in the evening and at night. Here are some of the first shots I took of this city. I loved its wonderful architecture and these first shots illustrate the detail of its architecture, which can also be appreciated at night with the magnificent lights used to illumate it.

My first Portraits

First of all I have to say that I’m not a big fan of portraits and I don’t enjoy much shooting people. However as part of the assignment of my photography course I had to submit a Portrait. Following are my very first Portraits. The model is my beautiful sister and the location is in the limits of Rabat, Malta.

What I have been up to

Well in the last few months I was really busy and I did not have time to post anything here. I have started a photography course as well at the Malta Photographic Society. Thanks to this course I started to explore new kinds of photography such as Portrait Photography. I managed to shoot a couple of good portraits in my opinion, even though my favourite subjects remain landscape and nature. Here are the best shots of October and November which you can also download as stock images from Dreamstime and Shutterstock.

Amazed at Shuttertock!

I have been trying to become a member of Shutterstock for a long time. Finally, after three attempts, my profile has been approved. Well this is how it works: in order to be approved you have to upload a first batch of 10 photos and if at least 7 of these 10 are approved than you can become a full contributor and can start uploading and thus selling. I have gone over this process for three times and each time my photos were not accepted I was really disappointed. On the first attempt only 3 out of 10 images were accepted, the second attempt I got 5 approved and the third I got only 4 images approved. And by the way a month has to pass after your batch is declined in order for you to be able to upload again! This week I was able to upload the fourth batch of photos and my hopes were not exactly high; I just wanted to give it a try! In less then 24 hours I received an email saying that 9 out of 10 images had been approved and therefore I was approved of a contributor. Unlike other stock websites, the images are evaluated in less than 24 hours (on other sites like Dreamstime sometimes it takes over 4 days!).

I was really happy when I saw this and I really couldn’t believe it! Furthermore, I was even more amazed when the same day my images were approved, one of my images has been downloaded and so I had my first sale! I am already deeply in love with Shutterstock! Below are the images which have been approved on Shuttestock:

The first photos with the new Nikon D5100

In the previous post I have explained that I had high hopes regarding the picture quality with my new DSLR and I am pleased to say that my expectations were brilliantly met! Below are the first shots I took with the new Nikon. I am really happy with their quality, especially the night shots since I can finally take some excellent shots at night without the use of flash and still get sharp and detailed images as you can see for yourself:

High Hopes

My new DSLR promises good since the first stock image uploaded on Dreamstime was approved straight away! The picture quality is exceptional and I am amazed at the difference in sharpness and the amount of detail. I hope that I can try my new Nikon D5100 to shoot night landscapes as this is the main reason for which I have bought it. I have high hopes and hopefully they won’t be turned down! Following is the first image taken with my new gear which has been approved for stock imagery. It’s a series of vintage stamps from Malta, since I used to collect stamps when I was younger (I had to stop due to lack of time). These stamps date back to the 1940s and 1950s, when Malta was still under the British empire.

DSLR upgrade

Finally I have decided to purchase my very first DSLR!! I have opted for a Nikon D5100 kit with 18-55mm lens. I really hope that I have made a good decision since I have spent quite a lot of money. At first I was not sure whether to buy this Nikon or a Canon EOS 600D since they are very similar. I am used to a fully articulated screen, since I own a Canon Powershot SX10 and I can say it is very practical in various situations, such as during shooting during concerts, macros of objects which lie on the floor, even when taking pictures using the tripod you don’t have to bend down. Therefore when I started to  search for cameras which had this feature.

The Canon EOS 600D has a higher resolution, but on the other hand the Nikon has a greater choice of compatible lenses. For the moment I have opted for the kit lens, but in the future I intend to invest in some good wide angle lenses since my favourite subjects are landscapes. Now I am really eager to receive my very first DSLR and hope to get it before the weekend so that I can go out and test it out.

My first try at editorial images

This week I tried to upload my first images on Dreamstime.com and I am very happy because 3 of them were accepted and are now online. I tried to upload some images of past concerts I attended, and some of these photos were quite decent even though I was very far away from the stage. Taking photos during concerts and shows is quite difficult (unless you are an official photographer and have special permissions to go near the stage). Luckily my camera has a good optical zoom and although I was very far away I managed to capture some good shots in my opinion. I guess I managed to find the right balance between shutter speed and ISO since obviously flash in this case is useless. Moreover usually there are hands flying all over the screen and it is really difficult to press the shutter button at the right moment when there is nothing obstructing the view. Anyways here are the best shots I managed to take. The first image was taken in Malta during a concert of a popular maltese band Winter Moods in July 2010. The last two images were taken in Italy during the U2 360° concert in Turin.

A trip to Comino

It’s really unbelievable that I live on an island of 316km² and there are still places which I haven’t visited yet! Comino was one of them until this week. This small island boasts some of Europe’s most beautiful beaches; The Blue Lagoon. If you type Malta on Google and click on images, one of the first photos you get is of this beautiful beach with crystal clear blue waters. I have been postponing this trip for quite a long time and it was really a pity not having seen one my own country’s landmarks! Well finally the day has arrived, I prepared my camera and left my house at 7.30 in the morning to catch the first ferry to the island at 9.00 am (even though I wish I could have been there earlier). It was fricken hot and I knew it was not going to be easy to take some good pictures. When we arrived I was stunned by the beauty of the scenery, especially the colour of the sea! I couldn’t believe I was still in Malta. The beaches in Malta are beautiful as well but nothing compared to the Blue Lagoon. As soon as I arrived the island was almost desert (actually only one family lives here and I think that they do their best to stay away from the crowd of turists which invades their ‘private’ paradise) and I went for a short walk to shoot some pictures. Here are some of them: