Category: Photography

I love photography. For me, it’s like painting, but better. And more accurate. And unlike painting, I can actually participate. I am not a big success or great master by any means. But I enjoy taking pictures. I also enjoy looking at other people work and sometimes sharing it. When I do, this is the category that I use.

Kurium. Beach and ruins

Kurium

Our brave company (Alex, his girlfriend, mom, and me) spent most of the day at Kurium (also known as Kourion). Kurium is well known and popular for two reasons.

Firstly, it is an excellent beach not far from Limassol. It is large and sandy. It is not protected by peninsula like other Limassol beaches, so wind and waves are frequent guests here. That, in turn, brings in people with kids, people without kids, and just people. Sportsmen, like kite- and win-surfers are often seen here too.

Secondly, it is a historical artifact. On the top of the cliff there are ruins of the ancient theatre, stadium and few other buildings with stone columns and arcs and mosaics on the floor. These are extremely photogenic and spectacular, especially in the light of the setting sun.

We have spent a lot of time both at the beach and at the ruins today. I have made a lot of pictures and surprisingly most of them came out OK. I have posted nearly 200 images to the album here. Enjoy!

Walk in the municipal park

Alley

Today, Alex, his girlfriend Olga, mother, and I went for a walk in the municipal park of Limassol. There were heavy preparations for the annual wine festival which starts on 31 of August (coming Tuesday), but the park was still open to the public.

I’ve made a few pictures. Some are of the park, others are of the wine festival bits, and few are of us. The results are here.

Pafos Aquarium

FishToday we went to Pafos Aquarium. It is a really nice place and I feel pity because we didn’t get in there earlier. We had only 15 minutes to wonder around, since we came in about 19:45 and they close at 20:00. I will repeat the visit sometime in the near future.

I got a little bit worried in the beginning, since there are a lot of sings like “No photocameras allowed” and “Please do not photograph”. After a breif chat with the cashier I found out that photographing is OK as long as you keep you flash off. So I switched to Av mode, closed my flash and entered. Video shooting is OK too so Hazard didn’t have to throw away his camera.

Photographing in the aquarium is a bit difficult. It is very dark. No flash allowed. The only light that is there is used for highlighting the aquariums with fish. I had to use ISO 1600 thoughout the shooting. The good thing is that I could get pretty close to aquariums. And I also used the solid surrounding of the aquarium to support my camera to minimize shaking.

Slow fish and snakes are the best to photograph. Fast ones are terrible. They blur too much. Also I had some troubles focusing when dark fish were hiding in dark plants or stones. Some fish were getting scared by me and swimming away to an opposite corner of the aquarium. Some were curios and wanted to be photographed. Some were indifferent. Next time that I will know that there are plenty of willing and cooperating models – no reason to lose time on the stubborn and scared ones. The only exception were sharks. Sharks are georgeous, but that have to move a lot. There are only a couple of places to shoot them from (near the lights), but the camera should be preset and prefocused. I didn’t manage it this time.

Meanwhile, the results are here.

Walk at Pafos port promenade

Pafos port

Today Hazard, Lev, and I went for a walk at promenade which is near Pafos marine. It is an excellent place to take your photocamera too, since many things are packed in to one place: marine with boats, castle, lighthouse, promenade with lots of people and cafes, musicians and other artists.

Of course, I took my camera with me and made few pictures. The results are available here.