Urban | MiKS Media Photography

A Short Photo Walk in Downtown

by Kasia Sokulska | Mar 9, 2020 | Urban

Summer memories.. It was hard to plan photographic trips around our weather last year. One hardly knew if it was going to be sunny, rainy, windy or maybe there would be a tornado watch posted… So, when we had a moment and it looked O.K. outside we just picked up our cameras and went. That particular day we were hoping for a bit of luck and invited a friend to tag along with us. I rarely practice street photography, finding it not as enjoyable as other types, but taking a walk in our downtown in a company of others is never a chore and that time I decided to limit myself to just one camera and one lens and see if I’d be able to come up with any good images. And, of course, after a short time, we were chased away by our weather turning wet and cold. But I did manage a few shots. Hope you’ll like them.

Kasia

Winter Around the City

by Kasia Sokulska | Dec 1, 2019 | Urban

One doesn’t have to travel far to enjoy a bit of winter photography. Go for a walk in one of the neighborhood parks or even just around your own home and I am sure you will find something to take a picture of. Today, I would like to share some of my favorite shots I took over the years without going out of my way, during winter months when I was not able to go anywhere far, You have, probably, noticed that I don’t do very well stack at home for too long, especially in winter. That’s why it is so important for me to take a bit of time for myself, grab my camera and go out and see what I can see. I hope you enjoy these pictures and get inspired and do this for yourself as well. Enjoy!

Kasia

The Short Lived Fall Of 2018

by Kasia Sokulska | Dec 3, 2018 | Urban

Our autumns never last long here on Alberta prairies, but this year we have lost our colors even sooner than ever. With the first snowfall occurring before the middle of September, followed by another one a week after, with temperatures falling way below freezing and cold winds blowing all the foliage off the trees it was not a huge surprise… It did get warmer after a while, but the damage was done and we have to deal with empty trees and shrubs until next spring. That is why I usually go out quite early when the colors show up to capture them, in case they disappear as quickly as it happened this year. That is, also, why I do have some this year’s pictures to share with you . I took them at the beginning of September at Rundle Park, when it was still dressed in all the lovely color. I am so glad that I have managed to visit! Enjoy!

Kasia

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.

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!

Taste of Edmonton 2017

by Kasia Sokulska | Jul 24, 2017 | Urban

They call Edmonton, the City of Festivals. There are over 100 festivals during a year with over 50 different events happening in spring and summer. This past Saturday we went to visit one of them – Taste of Edmonton. The weather was great, the atmosphere – wonderful and we have had lots of fun walking around Churchill Square trying different foods offered by many vendors and engaging in one of my favorite pass times – people watching. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a street photographer! Mac is much better at it than I ever will be and I always straggle a lot to find something interesting to shoot. I am not very comfortable taking pictures of people without their permission. I usually try to do the “hip shots” and end up with 100 photos with people’s derrieres prominently displayed instead of anything of value.. I rarely practice this particular genre of photography and when I do it it is mainly to challenge myself, but I did try to capture some of the spirit of the event. I hope I was somewhat successful…?

Kasia

« Older Entries