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I wouldn't ask this question here if I hadn't been surprised many times in the past by the hobbies of some TLnet regulars. Things ranging from history or philosophy to computers, physics and literature, which can't mostly be discussed anywhere else on the internet. Pleasant surprises indeed, more than once. Oh and the faptations thread. I HAD to mention that.
So now I ask: Is there amongst you anyone who's passionate about photography?
Watch out: you're about to experience the biggest and most ridiculous emo-rant you ever read in your life.
Regarding photography, know that I'm a big newb, with an even newbish camera than my skills. I'm waiting for the time I will be able to afford a better one, but that would most likely require me having a job somewhere, and presently I'm only in high school and live a small town, which provides very little opportunity.
I started getting interested in photography late fall 2006, that would be coincidentally the time I joined the TeamLiquid community as well (although I had been lurking for quite a while).
I have a medium skill at drawing (it's probably not skill in the true sense of the word, I'm just a very patient man and a perfectionist also). I had this art teacher that was constantly on my head last school year, literally threatening me he would fail me the class if I would not provide him with sufficient drawings to open a mini gallery on one of the school corridors. That was quite embarrassing, but I had no choice. From all the drawings, this one I liked the most:
It was a rather dark period in my life at that time, I had (actually still have) some problems with the law, and besides that, the ever-present extensive sensibility of a teenager growing up, added to the introverted nature I genetically got from my father, and a really dumb and useless pessimism I was involuntarily fond of (now I have a little more self control). I remember it felt so good after finishing the drawing, although I never considered it was really good or anything, I felt it expressed my feelings so well. It was the pure joy of putting some effort and realizing the act of creation, no matter what you created. I felt satisfied, actually, "freed" would be a better word.
Then I started using my dad's camera every now and then, mostly taking pictures of a nice sunset (I live by a large river btw, the second or third largest in Romania) or of a decent landscape. I have the luck of living in zone not too spoiled by the modern world, so a trip to the nearby forest was always a pleasure.
This is actually the first photograph I ever took, I called it Beyond this Life. Props to you if you guessed that it's a song title from Dream Theater:
Then came winter it it's full dark glory
I love winter. It's so depressing. So quiet. The streets are empty. Nature is dead. All that is left is the power of thought, meditation, and feeling.
Back then StarCraft was a fucking revelation. I could play Starcraft and feel relieved, it was the one thing that kept me away from my problems, and from all the shit I had done the last few months (remember the law problems?  ).
Despite having a hard time with things such as mentality, will to play, suffering defeat - overall I greatly improved my game sense, and strategical grasp of the build orders and tactics of Terran. From an unaware noob level I got around C/C+ on ICCup, when it started. But that happened a little later.
Besides a maximum of 2 hours of StarCraft per day, surfing TLnet like mad (mostly lurking, even though having an account for a few months) I had no social life to speak of. I barely maintained any contact with my fellow students outside of the classes. I also skipped classes quite a lot, mostly spending time alone, listening to TONS of Dream Theater and Metallica on my cheap MP3 player.
Then, spring slowly started creeping in:
"Sometimes, for a moment of bliss
And the passion, we're craving
There's a message we miss
Sometimes when the spirits left alone
We must believe in something
To find if we've grown"
I really enjoy Dream Theater lyrics. In the most serious of manners, they're such a fucking revelation at times; helped me alot.
A long with spring started my most active period as an wannabe amateur photographer. This is that really nice river I was mentioning earlier
I'm much wiser now
A lifetime of memories
Run though my head
They taught me how
For better or worse
Alive or dead
I realize
There's no turning back
Life goes on
The off beaten track"
This was taken from the bridge just 100 meters or so from my house. I really liked the range of colors present, it was so amazing to see live. Sometimes I feel like the camera is useless in front of nature's full beauty.
Photography took more and more out of my free time. I had all the free time I wanted btw, school has been quite easy and I am very lucky to have been given a good memory - which means almost no studying at home, just remembering whatever subjects of discussion we elaborated at class, along with heavy improvising and skipping classes here and there in order to avoid getting caught with the cat in the sack (not having my homework done or whatever). It wasn't the best of methods obviously, and I had many family argues because of this, but whatever, I am the laziest person to ever walk the Earth.
As I said, photography:
and some more
Have you ever listened to Dream Theater's "Trial of Tears"? I really recommend it
If there's one thing I find pleasant in the non-winter seasons, it's the rain. I fucking love it
My green homeland
This one below I particularly like. The title is Apocalypse, and as a comment, I'll say it's "only a matter of time":
Quoting another song from Dream Theater (Only a Matter of Time  )
"In a dimly lit room with a stool as his stage
a dream-stricken prince of a pauper's descent
haunts the eavesdropping silence
that presses his window
as he sweats a performance
to an audience that ticks on the walls
To the practical observer
It's just a matter of time
"You can deviate from the commonplace
only to fall back in line."
I understand mine's a risky plan
and your system can't miss
But is security after all a cause
or symptom of happiness? "
This may be my favorite photograph yet:
![[image loading]](http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs17/i/2007/178/a/d/Twilight_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
It's funny that I've always considered a "mass" of clouds and "darkness" choking the light. It's all so relative, as It could as well represent a patch of light making it's way through the dark clouds. I only realized the second interpretation very late.
"A father's benediction as his hopeful son departs
to brave the sea of rage and conquer at all costs
lingers in his memory
and visions still surviving in a logic-proof shell
that should have been held sacred, safe and hidden well
are compromised in usury
With every rising sun that yields no sight of land
the hesitation cultivates within the tired man
and rumors spread of mutiny
and though the time will come when dream and day unite
tonight the only consolation causing him to fight
is fearless faith in destiny
Even when plans fall to pieces
I can still find the courage
with promise I've found in my faith
Likely or not, it's a dream that we keep
and at odds with our senses we'll climb
But if faith is the answer, we've already reached it
And if spirit's a sign
then it's only a matter of time
only a matter of time"
This is the same bridge near my home. I'm really fond of dark figures against dim light -
The "path of fire", at 6 AM, before my morning jogging.
I called this next one the Gate-way. I only looks like that if you want it to look like that, I guess
No, not for Aiur >.< I'm Terran
I have a wonderful country. Wish I could say the same about most of the young people here
Kingdom Of Heaven. Not related to the movie, but sounds good doesn't it ?
And Parallel Universe. Just like the song from Red Hot Chili Peppers
Mayflower. Actually taken in May, this year
More clouds. I like clouds
Well I think I should end this ridiculously long and useless blog. If you read all the way to the end, I admire you
Here's my deviantart.com gallery :
www.lucian-v.deviantart.com
You'll find more photos there, and some other shit. It's all in English, so don't worry about any language barriers.
I'm waiting to discover any other people passionate by the art of taking photos. I'll seize the opportunity to publicly thank all the TL'netters who were at BlizzCon and represented the site, you guys did an amazing job, way more than I would have ever hoped.
Cheerfulls were fucking gosu, and so were your "MANI I STOOD FOR U" and "THX to Shield Battery" and other posters. We so totally own the shit out of the WoW nerds. Not only I felt I was watching history in the making, having Mani comment by Tasteless' side and shaking progamer hands, I felt for the first time I was actually PART of that history in the making, all because of the TL community.
Yeah I totally lack a healthy social life, but the again, don't you? And who gives a fuck on public opinion, it's all just the idiotic "Herd Effect".
 
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
Emlary's photographs are always very nice ^__^
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You should put up some more of your art work. I really liked the first one.
And just some more pictures too. Its great work =)
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very nice
i love dream theater too ^______^
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good stuff, thanks for sharing! i look forward to seeing more from you. despite the nice pics of nature you took, i seem to like this one the most:
+ Show Spoiler +
i've no idea why, haha.
edit: i can also identify with you feeling as if you went to blizzcon, tl really is quite a closely-knit community.
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It's unfortunate you don't have a more positive outlook on life, you seem like a very pleasant person. What makes it hard for you to interact more with people in real life?
Nice post and nice pictures btw.
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Awesome work. It just so happens that I just started getting into photography, I just got my Nikon D80 with a 18x135mm Nikkor lens a couple weeks ago after a working my ass off for it. But I'm more into B&W/Sepia photography, I dunno why, but those pictures just seem to give more meaning and depth than a normal photo would, or maybe its just my personality and what I like. I spent hours a day before getting the camera studying books at my university's library on photography, just in case if you haven't read it but Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is a really solid read, teaches you everything from how to properly calculate and adjust exposure values and the effects on shutter speeds, apertures, and ISOs. Anyways, though I'm not really into nature photography, I did enjoy some of your exposures, although I might comment that one or two might have been a little over/underexposed, but it's probably cause you aren't using a SLR or something, but I digress.
Keep up the good work. It's amazing material from a regular digi point and shoot camera. Get a job, and buy yourself a DSLR, it's definitely worth the money, and if these are exposures your getting from a regular digi, then I want to see what you can do with a DSLR.
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On August 12 2007 04:17 near wrote:
Awesome work. It just so happens that I just started getting into photography, I just got my Nikon D80 with a 18x135mm Nikkor lens a couple weeks ago after a working my ass off for it. But I'm more into B&W/Sepia photography, I dunno why, but those pictures just seem to give more meaning and depth than a normal photo would, or maybe its just my personality and what I like. I spent hours a day before getting the camera studying books at my university's library on photography, just in case if you haven't read it but Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is a really solid read, teaches you everything from how to properly calculate and adjust exposure values and the effects on shutter speeds, apertures, and ISOs. Anyways, though I'm not really into nature photography, I did enjoy some of your exposures, although I might comment that one or two might have been a little over/underexposed, but it's probably cause you aren't using a SLR or something, but I digress.
Keep up the good work. It's amazing material from a regular digi point and shoot camera. Get a job, and buy yourself a DSLR, it's definitely worth the money, and if these are exposures your getting from a regular digi, then I want to see what you can do with a DSLR.
Thank you for the book recommendation, and I agree, B&W has something truly unique - it takes away the color, which in some cases only acts as a distraction from the true message, which may lay hidden within pure form and shadow.
I use a pathetic digi camera, 4 megapixels. It costs roughly 150 bucks TT.
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I really like your green pictures.
Your green homeland and Kingdom of Heaven... nice.
How can you be so down when you have a backyard of champions.
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I really enjoyed your photos. thank you for sharing friend..Ive always been very moved by all forms of art and photography is something Ive wanted to get into for a while myself, maybe someday ill purchase a camera and begin..
You strike me as a very passionate person - dont ever lose that..
BTW: I hope you dont think its rude of me to ask because its really non of my business, but the photo with the lock, Just curious what is written, just trying to get a deeper grasp of its meaning
EDIT: Im also curious if the skyline in your first piece is real or just from the imagination? Im probably being too analytical as usual but i cant help myself ;p
Cheers
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I suck for being bored to read the whole thing, but some of the pics there are truly amazing, just had to say that
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On August 12 2007 06:33 nofAcedAgent wrote:
I really enjoyed your photos. thank you for sharing friend..Ive always been very moved by all forms of art and photography is something Ive wanted to get into for a while myself, maybe someday ill purchase a camera and begin..
You strike me as a very passionate person - dont ever lose that..
BTW: I hope you dont think its rude of me to ask because its really non of my business, but the photo with the lock, Just curious what is written, just trying to get a deeper grasp of its meaning
EDIT: Im also curious if the skyline in your first piece is real or just from the imagination? Im probably being too analytical as usual but i cant help myself ;p
Cheers
The skyline's from my imagination.
As for the photo with the lock. It's called "philosophia". Here's the comment I left on deviantart, where I originally posted it
philo - love
sophia - wisdom
Love for wisdom, or being a philosopher does nothing to your being if it does not exceed itself; philosophy is the way through which one elates himself to 'wise man', wisdom being the potential ultimate result of philosophy.
The goal is achieving knowledge of self and realization that reality is but an illusion, as we understand it; it is relative, the absolute purpose of all that is existence as well as of all non-manifested possibility is the same common spirit, or divine intellect each rational being potentially has within it.
"You think you are nothing, but the World lies within you"
Every human has the key; every human can grow knowledge inside of him; can you unlock your being from the constraints of Form?
The reward will be what many consider "meaning of life", or "balance within yourself", or more simply "happiness".
As for the text, that's actually an essay I had to do during the native language classes, so it's all in Romanian. I had to write a short monologue using some particular words, can't remember them all, something along the lines of "lake", "moon", "grass", "melancholic", "tender" etc. So I wrote an incredibly nostalgic monologue from the perspective of an old man, as he was remembering some trips from his early childhood at a wonderful and exquisite natural site, at the shore of a lake.
Thank you all for your comments, they're actually much better that what I expected.
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United States24497 Posts
I can relate somewhat. I've always had a bit of knack for photography but never really pursued it. I have a powershot a540 which should be sufficient to give me the chance to work on my photographing skills.
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Pretty nice pics, I liked them. Post more when you take 'em.
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These are some real nice pics man. The one with you plucking the sun is my desktop =x.
Apocolypse is real nice as well
good job
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mayflower is my background now
good stuff, i like it
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Are all those pictures in your post yours???? because they are really really good.
Anyways, I'm an engineering and physics student, but I do enjoy photography as well. Not actually taking pictures, but I can appreciate good ones. Why not study at school? If you don't enjoy what you are doing then study something you do enjoy.
Anyway I thought this was funny (fixed of course):know that I'm a big newb, with an even newbish camera than my skillz
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On September 02 2007 09:09 fight_or_flight wrote:Are all those pictures in your post yours???? because they are really really good. Anyways, I'm an engineering and physics student, but I do enjoy photography as well. Not actually taking pictures, but I can appreciate good ones. Why not study at school? If you don't enjoy what you are doing then study something you do enjoy. Anyway I thought this was funny (fixed of course):
Yes they're mine, and thanks
I agree with studying what you enjoy... but you don't always have those options.
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Physician
United States4146 Posts
I wish I could have given you a six for the effort you put in this post.. 5/5 will have to do
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On September 03 2007 13:30 Physician wrote:
I wish I could have given you a six for the effort you put in this post.. 5/5 will have to do
It wasn't unpleasant effort, don't worry. It felt liberating.
Thanks
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EPT![[image loading]](http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs14/i/2007/046/1/3/Here_the_Angel_has_fallen_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs14/i/2007/037/0/e/Beyond_this_Life_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs14/i/2007/181/b/f/Cold_tree_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs15/i/2007/178/2/1/Forest_Love_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/i/2007/202/d/3/Crimson_Sunset_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs13/i/2007/065/2/3/Fresh_Air_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs14/i/2007/065/5/b/Might_of_the_Sky_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs13/i/2007/065/4/3/philosophia_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs15/i/2007/091/4/2/Creation_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs15/i/2007/091/8/7/After_Rain_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs15/i/2007/103/9/c/Green_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs18/i/2007/169/d/9/Apocalypse_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs18/i/2007/121/e/2/Endless_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs17/i/2007/178/e/c/Path_of_Fire_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs17/i/2007/161/3/6/The_Gate_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs16/i/2007/161/3/c/Kingdom_of_Heaven_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs17/i/2007/161/c/1/Parallel_Universe_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs16/i/2007/130/0/f/May_Flower_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs16/i/2007/130/6/0/Cloud_Connected_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs18/i/2007/130/8/6/Dreams_by_LuCiaN_V.jpg)
