People | MiKS Media Photography

People and Horses

by Kasia Sokulska | Feb 23, 2018 | Nature, People

Horses are so beautiful, aren’t they? I love to watch them though, unfortunately, I don’t have many chances of doing that living in the city… Some time ago, however, such opportunity presented itself when we were invited to join a photo shoot in one of the stables close to Edmonton, where the riders wanted a few portraits with their favorite rides. It was a gorgeous summer evening and we were able to enjoy watching an exercise session with a couple of those lovely creatures and, of course, take a picture or two as well. It’s also, an opportunity to share some summer, with all us poor folks, watching it snowing, yet again.. Summer memories, nothing like it during a cold winter day.. Enjoy!

Kasia

Vacations with old film cameras – part 1

by Mac Sokulski | Oct 20, 2017 | Families, Landscape, Nature, People

Taking old film cameras on vacation, deciding to take images only with those can be a little risky. Specially when you never shot with a camera before. A great friend of mine, came all the way from New York, and brought me a Minolta X570, with a very nice 50mm f1.4 lens. I never shot with that camera before, and neither did he. We didn’t know that it would develop a strange light leak, that would run in different places on almost every image. Practically ruining every shot I took with that camera. Good thing I had my medium format TLR Minolta Autocord.

I knew from the start that this is not going to be a photo trip, as we had family and friends visiting with limited time to show them around our favorite places, and friends and family were my main concern with photography. I was hoping that I was able to catch a few good images, I mean you cannot take a bad picture while in the Alberta Rocky Mountains.

It’s a lot of different experience shooting with film cameras. There is no way of telling that the shot you envisioned is done properly. You have to trust your knowledge that all is good. Then it teaches you discipline. You are limited to 36 on 35mm, but only 12 on 6×6 medium format. So each image has to be the image you want to create. It’s not easy, but it’s a part of learning. Really, who wants to sit at their computer and go through thousands of photos and pick only a handful, when you can take just a handful of great photos.

Enjoy!

We all need a break

by Mac Sokulski | Sep 29, 2017 | Film, People, Urban

Sometimes we all need a break. Since I started shooting exclusively with film cameras at the start of this year, I was focusing on what I usually do, landscape and nature. I found that limitations of film and old cameras, self developing and scanning, forced me to look at the world differently. Every image requires more thought, more “seeing”, as my friend Olaf Sztaba would say. So it I was very grateful when another good friend Mark Reierson setup a meeting to photograph people in Calgary.

Early day, fairly long drive, made short by audio books, and a bit a screw-up with models and make up artists, made for a very interesting day. Whole day was spent wandering the streets of Calgary, and just making photographs. Slow and deliberate. Trying hard to create something interesting, to visualize something interesting.

I find that using film made me realize how important each frame, each photograph is. Everything becomes more focused, more deliberate. It’s quite refreshing. Hope you enjoy these images.

Summer Travel – Alberta Travel Photography

by Kasia Sokulska | Sep 21, 2017 | Nature, People, Travel

I’m not very happy that summer passes so quickly in these parts.. There is not enough time to take full advantage of it, however, we do what we can. This year we have had a rare opportunity to take some of my family and friends along for a trip to the Rockies. It was a wonderful adventure, though there was not much time for fine art photography. There is simply not enough time to wait for a perfect light / conditions, especially when you try to cram as many places to show your visitors as you can. However, one can always practice a bit of travel / family photography while visiting all those beautiful places in Alberta Rockies.

Today, I am going to share some pictures I have taken during our first day visiting Jasper National Park. We were lucky, for most parts, to escape the haze caused by smoke from the BC fires that have been covering our skies far too frequently this year. The first evening, after we arrived, welcomed us to Jasper with beautiful golden light and, as always, breathtaking scenery. We have also been able to see some of the wildlife at the park. We have also been able to show our visitors what not to do, while we encounter animals. It always amazes me how tourists leave caution behind and get too close to wild animals to take a picture. There are, pretty much, always either elk or mountain sheep close to the highway there, between Talbot and Jasper Lakes. People, not only stop by suddenly, while driving to get a closer look (we are talking here Trans-Canada Highway, which is very busy most of the time with all sorts of vehicles, including huge trucks that pass by every time of day and night, which will not be able to stop suddenly), but also leave their vehicles and walk up to those animals to take a picture, letting their children do the same. This year, with free park passes, there were a lot more first time visitors, it seems, and, perhaps they never realized the danger of such behavior… However, my hope is, with mentioning about this in my post, I will be able to raise awareness of this danger. The animals may seem docile, but you never know what might spook them, and when they are scared, they will do whatever it takes to escape, which includes attacking people who are too close and blocking their way. I won’t even mention the danger of trying to cross busy highway on foot to get to those animals…

But, enough of this. Let’s enjoy first part of this visit to the Rockies!

Kasia

Taste of Edmonton 2017 the Film Story

by Mac Sokulski | Jul 25, 2017 | Film, People, Urban

As Kasia was saying in the previous post about Taste of Edmonton and street photography. We both not street photographers at all. Even though Kasia, still thinks I’m better at it, I would like to disagree with that statement. Real street photographers like Antonio Rosario from Switch 2 Manual, or Olaf Sztaba , are definitely someone to emulate, but me and Kasia are just opportunistic photographers.

We had a chance to attend the annual Taste of Edmonton. Its a gathering of restaurants where you can purchase bite size dishes. As always it’s always full of people, so one would think a perfect time to practice street photography, which is a foreign to me as the surface of the moon. Still having excellent photos of Antonio, and Olaf, and my good friend Mark in mind, I loaded the little Minolta Autocord with some film and went in search of images. Since most of street photography I have seen is in black and white, I thought I would be presumptuous, and add a little color to it.

The whole experience left me nervous, and afraid. Good thing the little medium format, twin reflex camera, from the late 50’s was an ice breaker. People would, if not stare openly, actually ask about it. This resulted in conversations, but not a lot of images, unfortunately. Still I tried my best to emulate, and “see” like all my friends mentioned above, would. Well I tried, and here are some results from that little outing.

The color film was Kodak Portra 160, and the black and white is the Kodak Tri-X 400.

Enjoy!

New York Part 2: Central Park

by Mac Sokulski | Dec 9, 2015 | Fuji Landscapes, Fuji X, Landscape, Nature, People

I figured that Central Park should get it’s own post. As we both love landscape photography, it was an easy choice. It’s a beautiful place, and hard to imagine it’s location, among the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Coming from western Canada, where fall has long past, and the world turned to gray and brown, it was such a relief to still see magnificent colors present. It brought immediate memories of childhood days. I believe this has made Central Park, even more special.

Photographically, it’s a paradise. One could spend days there, photographing nature, wildlife, and people. If you are carrying a camera in Central Park, be prepared to be asked to take photos of strangers. The bigger the camera the more you will be asked. Carrying a little Fuji with me, I guess I wasn’t considered a serious enough photographer, but a friend that was with us, and his big DSLR camera, was asked constantly. So here is an advice, if you want to be left in peace, don’t bring a DSLR camera to Central Park.

While taking pictures, we tried not to duplicate ourselves, and it wasn’t easy to do. Here is what we came up with from the brief, albeit memorable visit.

Remember to click on the images to see them in full glory 🙂 Enjoy.

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