Inspiration Heaps // Blue Hour Picnic

I will write you how it really went. Manuel and I have been planing to meet up for a photo session long before meeting in person. Sending each other pinboards with inspiring photos of wonderful photographers via messenger we seemed to be planing a huge thing there - with body paint, with plants, with glitter, with smoke, mirrors, blankets, coal.. But when the day came to meet up (after postponing or cancelling it for a great amount of times) I got all indecisive and that said - simply lacking any inspiration or focus at all for the kind of scenery I wished to produce. Last second we decided to get the bus to the riverside and combine our artistic evening with a picnic. Until we got to the right spot, the perfect sunset hour just slipped out of our sights, though not stopping us from playing around with the light leftovers.There were bike riders passing by the place we sat at the water, the big field of meadow got all silent, fresh and moist after the dew had fallen. We took the given freedom - in no rush having a french style baguette-cheese-tomato dinner between the tall grass, then running around the empty fields, experimenting with smoke bombs, LED lights. Back then though I thought "what a pity - I have this beautiful evening, wonderful people but no ideas in my head". But the way my friend models were relaxed changed the flow of the evening into a magical result, at least for me.

I realised just shortly before the session that it's a very different thing all together to photograph a man as the main subject. I have rarely done it for a variety of reasons - women tend to join me in a session faster or on more simple ways than men, I guess. Also, it's a different message when you combine let's say flower blossoms with a girl than with a man (see, there's no link there for that kind of a session because I simply haven't done it yet, and I wish I had! though it was hard in the past - I remember I once tried placing an ex-lover in front of a blossom bush. He gave me 3 minutes. And after never again.)

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It was wonderful - a closing session like this of the warm sleeveless season and birkenstocked feet in the fields. Inspiration isn't always there, sometimes you have to gently invite her to come over, no force though. It's like a campsite cup: you hold it up, maybe it'll be filled with something delicious, maybe not, come anything - be grateful. Only when you don't have the right time for her - inspiration is aggressively there, annoying and teasing. Sometimes you just need this one shot to get your artsy ego happy for the night. At least we were more picnicking, laughing and joking than forcing anything. And after all - things just happened. And I'm thankful to the Fairy of All Beautiful for putting the right props together for me in the one right shutter speed moment.

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Thank you my two older and newer friends. By the way - Manuel is a starting out model and Maren is the heart of her fox band. Some tech details: shot with Nikon D7000 + Sigma Art 35mm f1,4

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September Gift // Desktop Wallpaper Giveaway

The month September where I grew up will forever mean one thing - it’s school time once again, kids, set your alarm clocks to an early hour again, get new notebooks-rulers-cartridges in the office supply shop and be ready for some rainy afternoons filled with homework to do. It was a certain sweet but also depressing feeling of hopelessness at the same time. To get back to school and hang out with friends in the break times in the cafeteria was one good thing. But knowing that that’s actually the end of the long sunny summer days and it’s only gonna get worse and wet and dark, and the next summer is like an eternity far away if it’s there at all, made me pretty mental.

In short: those few days before September 1st - they were heavily confusing.In a way I’m actually happy the twelve school years are long over but I’ll always remember them in a sweet hate-love manner.

Bottom line is - we need a new vibe for September. And that is why I want to wrapt it up into one sheeny mantle of a cozy mood. I imagine him to feel lush emerald, calming, silently inspiring and soft, with its way more gentle sunlight and refreshing moisty breezes. I prepared a desktop wallpaper that reflects these sensations and reminds me everyday of what I want September to feel like.

Nonetheless - I want to share it with you as you can join my idea by simply enlarging and downloading this photo-graphic calendar wallpaper that I made (or downloading it over here). And if you set it to your desktop picture - please send me a screenshot to see how it looks like, because I’m very curious!

Enjoy the beginning of autumn and a gentle change of the seasons. And - go more to botanical gardens! It's overall calming and a beautiful place for photographic meditations.

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Photos made with Nikon D7000 + Sigma Art 35mm f1,4, in this botanical garden. Graphics made with Wacom Intuos on ArtRage Lite.

My Brothers Paper Wedding: Šarūnas & Viktorija // Vilnius, LT

Congratulations to my big brother and his beautiful wife today - it's been one year since both replied "I do" and agreed on binding their paths together into one. Now - it's their first, the Paper Wedding Anniversary. A year ago I was there to dance and drink, laugh and eat, and also grab upon my camera once in a while, this way preparing my very personal gift for them. Weddings within a family circle are something different than friends weddings. Other thoughts cross your mind when you see a groom-brother waiting for his wife to be at the altar - families get connected, blood merges and the in-love-smile of your brother means so much more to you than anyone else's, you kind of feel in your molecules and start imagining what your little nieces and nephews are going to look alike.. But everything on that topic has to wait for its own given time. But for now - here comes a dash of a sweet sunny summer memory, with bright lunchtime sun and two people so in love under it. Chin chin to the paper-weds!

Quick note over here: Love is... is THE ultimate chewing gum of every post-soviet child in Lithuania. You could get it in every kiosk, some kids were collecting and exchanging the papers with little comics within, which broadly explained, what Love actually IS.

Gentlemen attributes..

..and the Ladies attributes.

I remember this little cabrio ride through the weekend city, with the newlyweds drive-dancing in the front and us two photographers Egidijus and I in the back, listening to this song of the incredible ODESZA out LOUD.. seriously, the ultimate summer time Vilnius ride with ultimate summer time soundtrack. Maybe you should listen to it while observing the rest of this post I strongly recommend, just to catch the awesome vibe.

It was a neat modern Lithuanian style wedding, including the parents greeting the newlyweds with black bread, rough salt and a shot of home made vodka for each - has something to do with good luck in their lives, of course; Lithuanian live music - good old pop and some folk; a whole lot of funny games involving the guests; and a present from the couple for their guests - fireworks at midnight. Singing dancing clapping - there was plenty of all. I wish every few years we could celebrate a wedding like that! so THANK YOU!

PS: You can read more about the beautiful late baroque style St. Johns church over here. Or even better - go over and visit, Vilnius is overall blooming with culture!

Focus!

There are so many things that I wanted to create and share on this blog since ages. So many - I don't even know where to start. I have a very impulsive mind and I rather suffer from the many ideas that come into my head than make and actual profit of it. All of them, the ideas, really want my attention and to get materialised one day, or rather just right now, and if they don't - some of them start nagging me till I cry, can you imagine? And then they get angry and pretty cruel! I tell them to stand in line and wait for their turn, and what most of them do is just roll their eyes, start taking long loud breaths to show how 'patient' they are, one starts tapping its foot to the ground, eventually start moaning. I get soft and when I turn to the most impatient one somewhere in the middle of the queue, kindly giving her a warm hug and offering to go to the front of the crowd, despite all the other ideas that are there in front  of her already. And I kindly ask what can I do to make her existence come true, but what she does is getting all bitchy, stops talking to me at all and turns her eyes away.. Apparently, I've been neglecting her for so long and she's so heart broken now, it's too hard for her to talk to me anymore. Our relationship is ruined forever. With lots of patience I have to start guessing, offering her a cup of tea and somehow trick her into sharing her life-changing existential goal with me. Maybe she'll still give me her blessing and I can create something beautiful out of it.

And that's everyday. Multitasking, managing, dealing, staying patient yet vivid with all the ideas that pop into my mind and scream for attention. And I better recognise the best ones fast, and I better get on doing what they say, 'cause no matter how genius they are - they won't be standing there for ages waiting for their turn in line. They are very undisciplined, you know! They are like little babies, little untamed kiddos. But that's why they are amazing at the very same time. A creative idea, just like a kid full of phantasy, won't be sitting there, killing off all its energy, just to be able to play 'on its given time'. Ideas, like kids, grow if you give them the time and space to grow into something amazing. They might become your inspiration well, your best friends, an amazing part of your identity. Now, I don't know how this turned into some essay about how a child becomes your identity, but that's what it's all about right now. What I want to say is - be careful with ideas that pop into your head. Take a good first scan and decide on just a few which will stand in the queue to become realised. As shiny and sparkly some of them might look - they will have to be sent away in order for you to built just a few bigger stronger projects at a time. Some might eventually come back again, maybe even more developed and advanced by the time.

So stay focused.

The photo shoot is from July last year on a beach on Helgoland, one of the photo experiments which my friend Indre Winterrain helped me to work on. Born out of another idea which was luckily standing in line with a little bit of patience. Luckily, I didn't let her stand there in the never ending queue for too long.

Warming Up for the Wedding of Agne & Marius, Klaipeda, Lithuania

in the late summer weeks i left my daytime office job on the island for a short holiday. more than ever i was excited to visit my home country Lithuania - apart from family and a great lithuanian summer time there were two weddings waiting for me. the first one of Agne and Marius.

there is a story about me and Agne - she is like my sister, undeniable relative always and forever. we grew up together and she was the first girl i saw on my first day of school, totally impressed by some kind of strength energy around her which you could sense from across the big school hall. ever since, our friendship - sisterhood - grew. with a two more gals we became 'the four' throughout the twelve school years. with big dreams, lots of dancing, teenage adventure, tears over boys, make-up experiments, birthday surprise parties on roof tops with candles, house parties, fights over nothing, cafe club plans and friendship pacts for life building our relationship as of stone bricks together. days past, years past, we are all in different cities even countries now, with different agenda. but every time we talk - there it is, a sense of an invisible cable connecting us, like a blood twine, whatever we talk about. we changed a lot, of course. but there is a deep love there within. i guess this is meant to happen when your friendship goes back to the days your teeth were still growing out.

with all this and more - to photograph a wedding becomes more fun, way more responsibility, much more feeling. here you see a girl you love in love with a new friend for life that she found, her husband to be. but before we come to the wedding story there is this evening before the wedding, a warming up with long time not seen friends from the same school and childhood playground, in our awesome home town of Klaipeda in it's most beautiful cozy colours than ever. in a dimmed sun light we talk, hug, eat, drink, till the sun finally leaves us in safety with many home harbour lights to pet the eye.

its a moon over the ocean.

thank you Agne and Marius for the awesome vibe of the evening. and thank you Meat Lovers Pub for hosting us and making this vibe more possible. next post - the Wedding! ,-)

all shots with Nikon D7000 + Sigma Art 35mm f/1,4 DG HSM