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!"

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...

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.

"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...

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... ...

Our team does not lose its inner stamina, not even on the on the brink of a holiday!   In fact, this Sunday we met earlier in order to prepare some calendars with our photographs, as we do every year. This time around we chose a picture of the Milky Way we shot. Afterwards we discussed about matters like “Where does an artist draw inspiration from?   And black & white or colour photography?   . Finally, we explored a technical subject regarding the lens of a camera (focal length and diaphragm). However, we are not quite done yet for today. We adjourned our meeting until the evening. We set a meeting point the old town of Vrondou. Our goal to photograph the trails of the stars…

Another Sunday morning was full of life for our school thanks to the Photo Club meeting! Many new members attended, so we focused on the basics regarding the body of a camera: the shutter, the mirror, the viewfinder and the photometer! We also watched a video in which Platonas Rivellis talks about the qualities a photographer must possess. And off course we had fun by playing yet another game... At the end, as usual, we shot pictures of each other!

Why should one concern himself with artistic photography? What kind of subjects do we choose to photograph? Does a picture have to provoke the viewer’s emotions? These are some of the topics that we discussed during this meeting. On a positive note we have new members joined our team. We welcomed them and threw them right in at the deep end. And of course, we played yet another ice-breaking game. When we were done, we visited one of the village’s taverns to satisfy our hunger and get to know each other a little better.

At our first meeting in the library this year, many new members attended, painting a rather optimistic atmosphere! Firstly, we began with an ice-breaking game. Afterwards we discussed about the content of the meetings that will follow, matters regarding the team’s way of operation and of course..... we shot lots of pictures with the 3 DSLR Nikon cameras we had at our disposal.

Our first meeting for yhis year took place at the old village of Vrondou, during the night, as the conditions were ideal for a photoshoot of the Milky Way. Even though the new members might not be familiar with the technical details, the enthusiasm was agreeable for all of us. Down below are some of the photos we shot: