Summertime madness...

Dear "Diary" ,

I know I have left you alone for a little while. Truth is, many things have changed in my life forever. Summer is about spending time with your besties and go to the beach and have fun and get drunk and everything. But as I mentioned above, all my plans suddenly changed this summer. I just found myself alone in one of my favorite - relaxing places in Albania. Thanks to my parents, I own a holiday house in Pogradec where the weather is cool, the air is fresh and the view from my balcony makes me wonder and meditate. So, as long as I was alone, I have found myself thinking so much. Well, okay, I have been overthinking almost all the time! I was worried about myself, about my present and future, my feelings, my career, my life. Sometimes I feel like I don't know what I want. But as the Desigual adverts say "La vida es Chula!" and I guess, when it comes to life obligations, the only way to make it through is choosing. I still don't know what is going to happen with me but after these vacations, I guess my mind is clear even though I lost my muse. That's why I've been "offline" all the time. It's been a hard time of loneliness, no inspiration, no motivation. Do they call this madness? But hey, at least I've been reading some good books of the authors I love the most such as : Erih Maria Remarque, Edgar Allan Poe and OSHO (who taught me to love "me" more) and I sort of found myself refreshed and decided to take some pictures with my mum. We both enjoyed it at had some fun while posing. I really wish your is summer was less disturbing than mine but if so, don't forget that time is the only cure. You just need to appreciate more your time and the wounds will be healed day by day. That's what is still keeping me strong. 

Illustration of Edgar Allan Poe's : Annabel Lee poem

I had this graphic illustration final project for my drawing classes. Each of us was free to choose what was going to illustrate. I chose one of my favorite poems of the extraordinary poet, Edgar Allan Poe. It was such a hard work when creating your own characters , imagining all the scenes according to Poe's words and putting myself into that tragic story.  I have used different techniques by experimenting day by day. Anyway, this is my first graphic illustration and I know there will be more others soon because I by this project I have realized I adore so much this design genre. 

Enjoy the story! 

Reportage Photography

Hello guys! As you can tell, I'm passing all these latest days learning and working for my finals. Not so many presentations and exams to take and I'll be finally free for my summer vacations! Well, for as long as I've been studying I have left the blog so behind. But now you know that every exam season I pass, I will be posting more school projects. 

Starting and finishing with the Photography subject... The last and more important project of the subject was the Photo Reportage. This photography genre, usually refers to historical events, chronicles and everyday life. It's purpose is to show a little story without adding words of history. It is necessary to wait for the right time and capture the moment. 

The first exercise was based around Tirana. Each one of us had their own impressions and stories behind the photographs. I, myself was more focused on the artistic parts of the city including : Architecture, graffiti, music, paintings and lifestyle down the city. I'm not going to tell any other word so just enjoy this album! :D

All the good things are wild and free.

Every day I understand how much close is my relationship with nature. I miss it in my everyday life. God, I've become an inner warrior of the polutted air I'm forced to breathe everyday! I hate it so much when many buildings destroy our real world. Earth was given us as a home and we're only destroying it every second. I always need to find green places to breathe like a clean human being, like a member of the whole family of our mother nature. I'm so grateful to visit such places sometimes and then I find myself relaxing and meditating for a little while just to make sure my mind is not collapsed yet. Choose a good friend or your lover or another special one and be part of our wonderful ecosystem like maybe you have lived in the woods from one another life before. It will relax your body and clear your mind from the noise and all the gray clouds all around your head. I really think that human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. 

Why so green?

Hello guys! It's been a long time no posting but the finals are coming and you have no idea how busy I am with all the projects, homework and exams. Wish I had more time but one of the good parts is that I'll have more stuff to show you! Starting from this post, we had to make a photo reportage around the city of Tirana. We stopped in different corners and everyone of us had their unique topic on what to focus and express from the pictures. Anyway, I'll tell you more about the project when I post the photographs soon. Meanwhile, a friend of mine took some pictures of me during the work and I was just thinking: Why not to post them? 

My Heartagram day!

This day is the day when I turned to a 20 year old lady! Holy crap, I'm so old! haha. But, anyway I can tell that it was one of the best days of my entire life! When it comes to birthdays all the eyes are on you! You focus on the people you love as much as they focus the more on you and then you finish the day thinking how blessed you are. In fact, this birthday lasted for the whole week! I had so much people to surround myself with so everyday I partied my own way with different groups of buddies. I enjoyed that time a lot and got many presents! God, I love birthdays!

The most beautiful part of it was getting the tattoo I have dreamed about for ages: Heartagram! The Heartagram is the trademarked symbol of HIM, created by Ville Valo on his twentieth birthday. He has stated that the heartagram is a "modern Ying Yang" and is meant to represent the juxtaposition of 'good and evil', 'light and dark' , 'life and death' and 'love and hate' . It combines a heart with a pentagram and it stands for HIM as a band, as an entity and for 'love metal' in general. This symbol is sported as a tattoo by many HIM fans though...and sure I'm one of them! 

Eyes like a shutter, mind like a lens.

 Days have gone by and I have collected many projects to show. Every Wednesday we take different lessons and we got so much to learn. I have to mention that except the fact that we learn how to take good pictures, we also get to know more about the Photography history and evolution. I have known many famous photographers of all time and learning more and more about their special techniques, ideas, styles and their way of expressing and making art by using their artistic soul and a camera. 

One from the projects was about the four portrait lightning patterns every photographer should know.

1. Split Lightning

Just like it's name, it splits the face into equal halves with one side being in the light and the other one in the shadow. Often used to create dramatic images. Mostly used for musicians and other artists portraits.