justeline

Hello my devious, deviant friends, I wonder how many of you are still here, still following or still caring about anything I have to say after all this time I have been away
The thing is that there has been a lot of traveling around this past few months (not complaining of course)… which made DA messages pile up (not complaining of course)… which caused some anxiety attacks whenever I returned home about how on earth I was going to reply, thank, comment, watch, younameit… which was resolved by simply doing nothing… which resulted in feeling too ashamed even to post something new… and the messages kept piling up… vicious, devious circle.
Anyway, this is just to share the good news with anyone still here, still following and still caring enough to read

Contest News
I am the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2011 Gardens and Plants category winner !
Autumn Interlude got to the first place

Print News
My first photo-book LightScapes has just been published and is available on Blurb.You can leaf through it and tell me what you think and/or buy it

                            

Also available as prints on DeviantArt are two calendars, a collaboration with KirlianCamera


Last, my image Relax, my first Daily Deviation here, is featured in this month's Digital Camera World "Hotshots".


And before I sign off, just to make one thing very clear… I didn't neglect DeviantArt because I don't care about your comments, your love and support anymore, quite the opposite. I care too much which makes me feel bad to leave them without proper response. It's much easier to share, respond and thank people in Google+ or Facebook and it's much easier to post to 1x, 500px or Flickr without having to respond to every comment since no one expects any reply out of you. Still, I'm not forgetting that I owe my whole new life and what I am today to DeviantArt, for more than just one reasons. I don't want to sound mushy so I'll leave it to that, just know that I've read your comments and I'm very grateful for all of them, for all the faves, the watches, the features, the encouraging words, the enthusiastic remarks, it's just not possible for me to reply individually at this point so I hope that one big, heartfelt THANK YOU is enough for you. I know it isn't for me, but that's all I can do for the time being.
Signing off here, have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year, be ridiculously happy, be stubbornly positive no matter what and BE NICE!  


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… and a publication in Asian Photography India for "Destination Photo-Paradise: Greece"

Yes, you could say this last month was a good one. It has had its really terrible moments too though… I won't go into non-photography matters, let me just confess my sins…

About a month ago I got a mail from smibs.tv, asking me to appear live as their guest at their Fine Art Photography Weekly show, a popular on-line photography show that has already featured some great photographers. I guess anyone in their right minds would have been overwhelmed with joy and lost sleep due to excitement and anticipation. "In their RIGHT minds" are the key words here. I lost sleep alright but not due to excitement. I got so freaked out that I honestly forgot to feel even mildly glad. Why? OK, confession time: I bet most of my oldest friends here have me classified under the "talkative persons" list. But that's when it comes to writing, as this journal proves. The shameful truth is that I had never spoken English in my whole life for more than 20 seconds (at most) and that was usually the "go straight ahead, turn left and ask someone else" kind of talk. Yeah, I had a few chances to do more. No, I didn't take them. So there you have it, I suddenly had to speak for more than an hour; for my favorite subject, granted, but in an un-practiced language. Admitting that I was a nervous wreck from the time I read the mail till the time the show was over is a major understatement. Which resulted in a pretty hilarious (if not embarrassing) interview if I can recall correctly.

Nevertheless I did it, how I did I leave it for you to say (I'm sure the reason I hadn't announced it here beforehand is pretty obvious by now). You can watch and/or download the interview here  or just watch it at Vimeo or at YouTube
Just don't say you haven't been warned! Here's a snapshot from the show...


As for the Asian Photography magazine, I had been asked some time ago to do the "Greece" part in their Destination: Photo-Paradise article and I was very happy about it since it required just writing! Had a bit of a trouble fitting my love about Greek landscapes in so few words, though! Here's the article


For those having trouble making out what it says, it reads:

<article>"I used to envy people living elsewhere before I took up photography. It seemed to me  that all the other places were so much more beautiful. It took me a camera and some trips to my "backyard" to realize that Greece had pretty much everything I dreamed of in a lesser scale and what's more wherever I go I don't have to squeeze in between a crowd of photographers trying to capture the same place"

Greece has been a popular destination with Indian tourists for years, but apart from the Bollywood song sequences shot there, not many consider it a photographic destination. To Mary Kay, this fact alone makes it the perfect destination for photographers since it still remains "virgin" in terms of landscape photography.
No matter what kind of photography, Greece has something for everyone, and Mary Kay gives us the lowdown on what this beautiful country has to offer. With the twelfth longest coastline in the world and it many islands to be explored it is ideal for photographers who enjoy seascapes. Moreover, eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains or hills, making it one of the most mountainous countries in Europe offering a great diversity of landscapes, from barren, rocky lands to lush forests dressed in golden, amber and red colors during autumn and snow during winter. Scattered around the mountains there are many traditional villages connected by a network of stone-tiled pathways and bridges with unique architecture for the architecture photography enthusiasts. Most of the mountains are laid with well marked hiking paths passing through all kinds of scenery and impressive gorges for those who enjoy hiking. Macro lovers will find excellent opportunities to capture some rare plants and flowers too such as high country meadows ablaze with crocus in Kozani and the mastic bushes in Hios Island.
All in all, although statistically small, Greece is huge in its diversity and there is a bit of everything to cover all photographic pursuits and tastes.
Don't miss
Mainland: Meteora
A place with a surreal and otherworldly feel to it, The Meteora (meaning "suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above") offers a unique spectacle of a complex of monasteries perched precariously atop towering sandstone pinnacles often surrounded by low mist or clouds that really make them look as if suspended in the sky.
Mountains: Drakolimni (Dragon Lake) of Timfi
For those enjoying a good hike, Drakolimni of Timfi is a must visit. It is an alpine lake that resides at an altitude of 2100m above sea level (about 5 hours walking distance from the village of Papingo), on the mountain range of Tymfi and is inhabited by a species of alpine newt, called drakakia by the locals. According to local sources, the newts' resemblance to small dragons gives the lake its distinctive name.
Islands:  Santorini
Santorini is a volcanic island located in the southern Aegean Sea with a unique physiology. <end of article>

OOOOKAY, already said too much, I'll be gone for a couple of weeks again but I promise I'll take care of all of your comments and submissions once I'm back. Sorry for being absent for so long and letting things pile up AGAIN!
Massive hugs to all of you kind and patient enough to read this far, to all my new friends and to all of you kind and patient enough to stay with me and support me for so long


Signing off here, have a great time, be ridiculously happy, be stubbornly positive no matter what and BE NICE!  


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PS2 I don't tweet much but if you're a Twitter, you can find me there too twitter.com/Justelene

FEATURED DEVIATIONS:

… and I promise this will be a short journal for once since I really should be packing right now… Funny, I’ve noticed that I can’t leave without posting a journal asking you for “good light” wishes, maybe I’m superstitious… _{*makes mental note to discuss it with her shrink* *deletes the previous mental note and makes a note to first find a shrink*}

oook, let’s break this title apart…

Under the Red in Digital Camera: My first long exposure and very first big DA “hit” Under the Red

is featured in the Hotshots of this month’s Digital Camera World issue 109, March 2011 It’s the second image of mine featured there (after The Dark Traveler) and yes, it felt really good seeing it in print in my favorite photography magazine and with a really good review too!


Interview: I had the honor of being chosen by Anoya and Topicality to do an interview as part of the Animal, Plants and Nature week at projecteducate. So, if you want to know my real name, the big (!) secret behind my nickname, my photography mistakes and the truth behind my secret affair with Antonio Banderas, here you are!

Goodbye: Yeap, you guessed right, managed to squeeze about a week off of work and we will be exploring some new locations soon, wish us good luck and good light. I know I haven’t been very active in here lately, I promise I’ll be back by the end of the month to thoroughly go through all your comments, submissions and messages and I already have something new for you, so stay tuned! *massive group hugs*


Signing off here, have a great time, be ridiculously happy, be stubbornly positive no matter what and BE NICE!  


PS What do you mean you read the interview and there was no mention of me and Antonio, I wrote everything in detail, read it again! Nah, don’t bother, I knew I couldn’t fool you
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PS3 I don’t tweet much but if you’re a Twitter, you can find me there too twitter.com/Justelene

MY LATEST PRINTS:

… oook, let's move it a bit backwards cause it's been a while since I last filled you in with a journal…

<flashback> Last photo trip: Meteora, Central Greece…. Surreal place, beautiful scenery, just wanted a bit of a help from God Light to do it justice with our captures. Weeeell…  we found light in its most playful mood at the time, constantly mocking us, manifesting itself in all the wrong places. We spent 4 afternoons and 4 mornings at the same chosen spot, having to deal with rain (light but annoying showers for the most part),  witnessed rainbows materialize in all the wrong spots (over KirlianCamera's head ), watched a wonderful cloud formation changing colors over the wrong spot (the road), I missed witnessing my companion's time lapse rig tumble to its death (that's a once in a lifetime sight –hopefully- you don't want it to happen but you don't wanna miss it if it does…read the full account of that unfortunate event in his journal if you haven't already done it) and I finally got to have the kind of weather I wished for but only for a very short while allowing me just one image. Tell you all about it later… Next we moved on to a beautiful place only to find out that we were a few days late to capture autumn's beauty at its best. But we were rewarded with the best accommodation ever, a blazing fire burning in our fireplace every afternoon after our sunset sessions and a delicious, homemade breakfast in lethal quantities waiting for us after our sunrise sessions. Plus we got to meet photogrifos and spend a lovely day with him… </flashback >

All in all, once again I came back with my mind's memory card full of keepers and my camera's memory card with just a few shots I really liked and a couple I really, REALLY loved. When I shared one of those -Autumn Interlude- here, the response was immediate and overwhelming to put it mildly. Which made me extremely happy, to put it extremely mildly. After just 3 days of a devlove storm, amazing comments and replies from old and new friends, I get the first comment saying "Congratulations on the DD" and I think "lol, he confuses me with someone else"… and then I find out that this was actually featured as a Daily Deviation. First response to the news… , then I drag myself off the floor, curious to see who suggested it.
MarcoHeisler, dunnofly, gracie-is-a-pie, JessR-Photography, PlanetaryButterfly, daisukekuroneko, archanN and SarahDaktyl, in lack of a stronger word, just THANK YOU!
And Anoya for featuring it!

In more recent news, Christmas break is here and I'm departing as soon as I post this journal (coming back January 10), there are plans for a phototrip on some Greek islands that are just too popular and overcrowded during summer but deserted during winter, we hope we get to show their winter face if the weather and light permits us.  Goes without saying that I'm leaving a frighteningly (and delightfully) overloaded inbox, I promise I'll get back to you… next year, just sending you all my love and gratitude with this journal for the time being, many s to all of you!

Signing off here, have a very merry Christmas, be ridiculously happy, be stubbornly positive no matter what and BE NICE!  Hope Santa brings you much more than you asked for!


PS Also huge thanks to all of you that bought my prints and our calendar lately, you know I don't receive details about who was the buyer so feel free to show your face (or your avatar) and tell me.

PS2 Could you please send Ian-Plant to the North Pole ? I don't like his presence here, makes me nervous (yeah, kidding, but help him out, I'm sure you'll be rewarded by what he brings back from there)

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MY LATEST PRINTS:

… and I’ll be damned if that makes any sense to any of you!

Ok, let’s start with the DoubleShortlisted part. About two months ago (or more, never able to keep track of time and space) I submitted some of my works to Digital Camera’s Photographer of the Year 2010 competition. There were more than 114,000 entries in the 10 available categories, it was the first time I took part in such a huge competition and frankly I didn’t dare keep my hopes too high. The shortlists were announced a couple of days before and out of the 19,000 entries in the Landscapes category only 35 made it to the shortlist. Prisoners of the Dusk was one of them! Out of the 11,000 entries in the Creative License category only 34 made it to the shortlist and Ad Astra was one of them! What follows next is the Commented and Highly commented list and after that the final winners, again I don’t dare hope for much more but being shortlisted twice in such a competition looks like a great achievement just by itself



The DoubleSpread part… Yesterday I got hold of this month’s Digital Camera World issue (October 2010, #104 issue) and had the pleasure of seeing The Dark Traveler featured as a doublepage spread in the magazines HotShots! I admit it was the high point of an otherwise bleak day as yesterday was the day that I managed to completely wreck my 10 year old and always faithful and dependable rustbucket of a car.



Which brings us to the third part of the surreal title. Long story short, it was a wet day and the roads were slippery as hell and I completely lost control of my car in a not-so-steep turn of the road. It was not the first time either but in every other occasion I had managed to get the upper hand and avoid any harm. Well, not this time. The car seemed to be spinning forever, gaining speed all the time and I had plenty of time not to see my life pass before my eyes (as it’s accustomed in such cases) but to envision all the possible endings of this hellish ride. When it finally stopped bumping at all sorts of obstacles and I got out with just a bloody swollen nose (yes, both bloody and swollen, very funny to see in fact) I realized I had not envisioned that scenario and that this was actually a very happy ending.

So I bid goodbye to my faithful old Ford Ka and I’m very happy I was able to see another sunset and sunrise. I would encourage you to go buy that calendar we submitted but it would have to become a biggest bestseller than The Bible itself to buy me another car

Anyway, sending huge s all around and big thanks for your love and sorry I’m so behind in answering comments and responding to your submissions, my devwatch box is intimidating and so is my message center but you know I’ll get back to you and you know it’s not the first time I will be awfully late  but I bet that comes as no surprise to my oldest friends who know me too well to be offended

Signing off here, have a great time, be ridiculously happy, be stubbornly positive no matter what and BE NICE!


PS Just a side note for those of you who haven’t seen my interview at Asian Photography Magazine…


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