The school year for our group has just started. We welcomed the new members! We talked about all the procedural stuff, played an introductory game and continued with an introduction to art photography. Then we took the cameras in our hands and took some shots!  

  Here we are again! The schools have opened and our team (with the composition it had last year, for now at least), made a strong start with a visit to the stream Orlias on Mt.Olympus! We photographed the waterfalls and the stream using slow shutter speeds and a neutral density filter, to achieve the following blur effect in the running water. Then we turned our cameras on a brave visitor of the area who was diving into the icy stream! And as one member of our team said, "This school year has had a very promising start!"

  Unfortunately, our group has suspended its operations as the government decided to shutdown schools for precautionary reasons of public health, to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.  

Today’s meeting was different from the rest, as you can see in the pictures below: We did not miss the chance to experiment a tad with some improvised light reflectors .

Today’s meeting was set to take place at midnight so, when dusk falls, we could practice on night photography matters. We began with a critique of our photos and continued by looking at Diane’s Arbus pictures. Afterwards we practiced flash techniques.   We experimented with rear curtain synchronization. In both the pictures below the book’s movement was from right to left, however in the second picture we were using rear curtain synchronization in the flash resulting in a more natural depiction of the book’s movement. Then we worked with the stroboscopic flash, however because we were not satisfied with the shots, we will not be presenting them to you. We will nevertheless return to you with our new attempts. Then it was time to freeze an image with flash. We went outside and (it was already dark) and throw semolina in the air. Here is the result:   As you can see, every grain of the fine semolina is visible!   In the end the time was right for o...

In today's meeting we started with a presentation of the work of Nikos Economopoulos, Magnum photographer. We continued with some theory about the flash and its synchronization speed. Then we played a game in which we had to use our minds and work together harmoniously to achieve the solution of the problem given to us. To close we grabbed the camera, placed an ND1000 filter that cuts 10 stops of light on the lens and went out into the yard. There we tried the experiment with the "disappearance" of walking people. Those who were walking were not recorded, while those who stood motionless for a while were recorded as "ghosts".

Here we are again! A health problem of our team teacher kept us apart for a few weeks. Even with a delay of a few weeks, today we cut our traditional sweet bread for the New Year. N…s A…..s won the “gold coin” at which point and he also received the accompanying gift. Then we entered the main lesson and got to know the work of Konstantinos Pittas. We genuinely enjoyed his photos. In the technical part we studied the flash, knowing the basic principles of its operation (to be continued). To close, we played one of our favorite games...

You can find us on Instagram now! This is our username: school_photo_club and this is our full name: Photo Club Kontariotissa You could follow us if you like!

This was our last meeting before the Christmas break and it inevitably was influenced by the holiday spirit! We began by exchanging our Secret Santa gifts. We continued by getting to know the work and life of the monstre sacré of photography, Henri Cartier Bresson. An all-encompassing repetition of technical subjects to solve any questions that might pop up and fill the theory gaps of those who missed a few meetings. Lastly, we took a group photo.

Just like every photographer that... respects himself, we got the, so called, “normal” lens. It’s no coincidence that top photographers like Henri Cartier Bresson used this lens rather often, if not exclusively.

"If you try to please audiences, uncritically accepting their tastes, it can only mean that you have no respect for them: that you simply want to collect their money" writes Andrei Tarkovsky in his book “Sculpting in time”. This opinion of his doesn’t need a lot of comments, yet we began our lesson by discussing it. Afterwards we occupied ourselves with the work of Gary Winogrand, who was quite possibly the photographer who enjoyed the process of shooting photos more than any other, especially if we take into consideration the fact that he shot hundreds of thousands of pictures that he never saw printed! Then we relaxed by doing the draw for the clubs Secret Santa which will take place next Sunday as Christmas is drawing closer. We can’t wait for it! After that we got to know the use of various filters like the colour ones on black & white photography, the UV filter, the polarising filter and the neutral density filters. The usual critique...

Today’s meeting begun by expanding upon the histogram; an important tool allows us to check if our picture is properly illuminated. Then, we analysed the functions that cameras offer us and specifically the “PSAM” functions. After that we saw the best photos our members shot during November as well as the one that Mr.Vassileios Dodis chose to be the best of the month. Subsequently we tested our knowledge on some technical matters, so as the programs coordinator teacher can be sure that we’ve understood them. In the following picture you can see us fill in the test’s questions. Dough! What do we have here? Is somebody cheating? A presentation of Robert’s Frank’s work followed. Did you know that during his trip, that lead to the infamous book of his, “The Americans” being published, he traveled for 16,000 km and shot 767 films worth of pictures? After all that a little recreation was necessary as you can see in the pictures below: At some p...

How does a photometer work? Do the values it recommends always lead to the right exposure? And if not, what do we have to do to correct the exposure? What do High Dynamic Range and exposure compensation mean? These are the technical matters that we occupied ourselves with at the beginning of today’s meeting. Afterwards, we got to know the work of one of the pioneers of photography, Eugene Atget. We finished by critiquing photos members of our team have shot, a procedure that absorbed us so much that we even forgot to shoot any photos! Unbelievable isn’t it? Unbelievable yet true! To be precise though, there might have been a few that played the goat with the camera a little bit...

Today’s meeting differed from the usual ones. Even though it was a   longer meeting (4 hours), we devoted but a few minutes to photography and specifically a technical subject, sensor sensitivity, also known as ISO. What did we do with the rest of our time? We made some Christmas decorations for our schools’ library and multipurpose hall! Check out the photos below to see what we’ve made…

Our meeting lasted quite a bit longer this time around. There are two reasons why this happened: Firstly because we prepared a couple of calendars with photos from our nighttime excursions and secondly because the critique of the photos we shot is taking more time than scheduled as our new members are pretty lively and creative! When we had finished, we explored how a photograph can be affected by changing the values of the shutter speed and aperture of the lens. By using a faster speed, we can ‘freeze’ an image, whilst with a slower one, we can capture the movement of the object we’re trying to photograph. You can look at some examples down below: In our next photograph you’ll see a lit spinning top that even though it is currently spinning appears to be still as we used a 1/1000 speed. By using slower speeds, the same spinning top looks different...Notice that in the following photos the slower the speed we use the more lights are captured... ...

Today we begun our class by critiquing the photos we shot. The new members are gradually starting to comprehend the elements that compose a good photo... We continued with the presentation of a photographer’s work, who originates from the town of Katerini and lives in Paris, whose name is Vasileios Ntontis. From now on, we shall work as a team with Basil, as the best photo of the month, will be selected based on his preferences. Afterwards we occupied ourselves with the diaphragm-shutter speed combinations and how they can be equal when it comes to exposure. Then we got to know the work of one of the great photographers, Walker Evans, and learnt several biographical facts about him. To finish, we got the cameras in our hands and posed for the lens...