Friendly Friday surprises

• Manja Maksimovič

In this surprising year I’ll take it easy with my surprises today. All are from the last week, mild, and mainly on the good side.

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I don’t particularly wish to go through my photos from the previous years yet. This last week, since I’ve turned 50, will have to do.

My surprises are furry and fluffy, or wet and pretty, or the surprise lies in the fact that I actually like the photo as taken.

I’ve been thinking about my photography a little.

I’ve just seen the quietly remarkable reality show Master of Photography 2019, in which eight photographers aspire to become the Master. Even though in each episode one is eliminated, I think they do become masters in their own ways. Quite fascinating with lots of photo insight, interesting and really demanding tasks, and some lovely Italian locations, such as Ostia Antica in the first episode.

That said, it becomes clear how individualistic and relative “success” in photography really is, which is a good thing to learn. The bad thing is seeing that I have no idea how to achieve a particular result with settings or lighting and such, or – which is even worse – that I love doing two things which the candidates are immediately warned against by the jury members: I take picture postcard photos, and I “just click”.

I think just clicking is mega.

So, I’m not going to be a pro. I’m not going to be a master. I’m going to keep seeing and clicking, instead of coming to a shoot all prepared and full of preconceived ideas about what I’d like to do. I will not move my subjects around. I will not tell them what to do next. I will let them just be. Yeah.

But sometimes a photo comes along that still manages to surprise me. For my unscientific method, it is not all bad. Here are some of those.

Most of these subjects are not surprising as such. I know exactly where to find them, especially the sea. Today I went to it for the first time in three months, as you will see towards the end. It felt so good.

  • Nope, not surprising. But still astonishing.
  • My record is five spotted during one walk.
  • Our neighbour in flowers.
  • This is a real surprise. Tunes on wheels.
  • I think for this dove we were the surprise.
  • Or better yet, the kitty was the surprise for all.
  • Not the last goose standing yet.
  • He is vocal enough that I know exactly where he is.
  • I read that in Italy they have laughing doves rather than mourning ones.
  • Cracking up, these two.
  • But who laughs last… And here I thought the cat was alert due to bestia.
  • This photo didn’t need anything but clicking.
  • How pretty and calm is the sea!
  • And how cold as well!
  • How many shells!
  • What a happy liberated bestia!
  • What an empty beach!
  • So pretty but how few poppies! Last year this field was red.
  • How dry the land!

For Friendly Friday Photo Challenge hosted by Amanda from Something to Ponder About: Surprise

35 thoughts on “Friendly Friday surprises”

    1. Thank you so much, Marie! Oh yes, all episodes are right there on YouTube. See the link to the first in my post. It’s a SKY Arte production, with European candidates and jury, including notorious Italian Toscani.

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  3. We’ve watched Master of Photography, and I hate the elimination process and regularly disagree with the choices they make, but it’s a fascinating show all the same.

    And I enjoyed these shots.

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    1. Thank you truly, Ellen. Yes, I hated the eliminations too. Before this one I watched the portraitists. That one was great too and without such eliminations, and it made me love Brits all over again. Even though I disagreed with the jury even more than here. Here I disagreed with the final photo selection as done by the guest photographer every time! I thought that they did all the work for the candidates! Selection and photo placement are more than half of the work. It was great to see that nobody was in agreement often. Photography is so personal and individualistic. I love that.

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      1. That’s true of writing too. I’ve sat–once or twice–on committees that were selecting writers for readings and the disagreements were stark. Beyond a certain level of competence (and, I think, sometimes below it), there’s no single standard.

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  6. Lovely surprises, Manja. And I love pointing and shooting too! I think you and I naturally compose a shot anyways. We don’t need an expert to tell us how to do that. I am glad you got to test the waters! ( pun intended)

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      2. Temperature-wise? You mean warm all year long? Noooo no no. Also it depends where you are. Here it’s pretty much open see all the way to Corsica, whereas Slovenia lies at the end of the Adriatic sea and the sea there is shallow and warm (not year long though).

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      1. Fab! By the way, a belated Happy Birthday, I would have loved to join you at your Virtual Party…I imagine a very good time was had by all!

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      3. Ooh, yes! It will be lovely to ‘meet’ you! Virtual meeting is keeping me sane at present, and I ‘see’ over 20 people per week!

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