the inner tempest

This is my first post for 2014, so I want to wish you all a great new year, filled with happy moments! This time of year, we all get to make goals and new beginnings. In that spirit, I made a facebook page for my photography on New Year’s day. This was something I had in mind for some time now, but I always left it for later. Although I have been uploading my pictures to various websites, I was reluctant to upload them on facebook because I wasn’t sure I wanted the attention. I have many friends on facebook, not too many I think, but of course there are a lot of people among them who like to hide behind their computer screen and pass judgement on their facebook “friends”. Well, that can happen on any website, but I think facebook is different because at some point I have met my facebook friends in person. So that is why I have been reluctant so far, but I finally decided to do it and stop caring about what others might say or think. I suppose that is the best choice for everyone after all.

During the holidays I had some days off to go and see my family. I had really missed them and my hometown, too. I live in the northern part of Greece (Thessaloniki) and my hometown (Mesologi) is about 500km away, so it’s not very easy for me to visit as often as I would want. I enjoyed spending time with them, especially my two nephews! Another thing I enjoyed was spending my afternoons looking for places to shoot. Mesologi is full of them, since it is a very beautiful place and I have taken hundreds of pictures there before. But this time I wanted to find quiet places that could fit my concepts. So I started looking for different places than the ones I had photographed in the past. I ended up going  somewhere I had never been before. I still can’t understand how I could have missed this. Mesologi is very small, there are not many places to go, but still managed to discover something new.

It is a narrow road that goes through the lagoon and leads to some fish farms. After you drive for a while, you run out of asphalt. That is where I stopped and got out of my car. The place is so calm and peacuful and beautiful. All you can hear are the birds and whichever way you look, there is the sea. The only people that go there are fishermen and birdwatchers. Oh, and young couples of course.

There was a light rain and wind when I got there but I decided to take a few shots anyway, so I set up my tripod and after five or six clicks there was a bang… and my tripod had fallen down. With my camera on it. When I picked it up I saw that a screw from the lens was loose. I fixed it when I got home and it seemed to work, but some days later I realised that the autofocus was not working correctly, so I had to open it again and hope I could do something better. Don’t ask me how, but I think I fixed it now. We’ll see I suppose…

So the next day (this was Christmas day) I went there again and it wasn’t windy this time. I did my first shoot and when I was happy with it, I thought why not do a second shoot at the lovely old boat I had spotted earlier. Unfortunately when I got there, there was a couple in a car nearby, so I thought maybe it would be better to give them some privacy. I was planning to go back with my sister the next day, but rain got in the way. Then it was time for me to leave for Thessaloniki, so sadly I only have this one picture so far. I don’t know when will be the next time I visit, but the only thing that’s sure is that I will go back to this road and shoot more. I am officialy in love with it!