Author: Nina_Kirienko

Owner of Old Girl Photography. Graduate in Digital Photography at Durham College. I am especially drawn to fine art, architectural, landscape and community event photography.  The world is full of fascinating natural and man-made landmarks, many of which tell compelling stories of survival or imagination or both.  My aim is to find and photograph as many of them as I can. When I do photograph people, I most enjoy portraying them in a place or situation that inspires them. I have an infinite curiosity about the world. I'm not happy unless I'm learning.

Shedding Light on Adobe Lightroom

Photography, Tools

The most important tool in my kit is Adobe’s Lightroom CC.  It is the lifeline to my photographs, providing import, organization, editing and delivery for the thousands of images I’ve captured.

Lightroom is billed as a companion product to Adobe Photoshop.  It’s packaged with Photoshop in the Adobe Photography subscription plan.  Lightroom was designed from the ground up to be a standalone workhorse and many people use it as such.  But it is equally a great companion to Photoshop, allowing for many basic workflow tasks to be performed quickly in Lightroom before launching Photoshop for more complex edits.

Despite these positive features, I’ve spoken to people who describe Lightroom as frustrating and overly complex.  It seems this is because of 3 design decisions that Adobe made in terms of how Lightroom operates. Continue reading “Shedding Light on Adobe Lightroom” →

Another Year

Life, Nina Kirienko

We all reflect at this time of year on the things we’ve accomplished, the friends we cherish and how life in general has treated us.  In my case, health issues took centre stage, but have ended positively.  I also finished school and started to dabble in photography more seriously.  I’ve settled into retirement from a full-time career and now have much more flexibility than I have ever had in deciding what to do with my day.  And I’m sharing the holiday season with friends and family and having a blast.

But it is time to get serious again and do some planning around where I would like my photography to go next. Continue reading “Another Year” →

Adapting to Change

Life, Nina Kirienko

You might think that this is a piece on new photography technology or techniques, but it’s more fundamental than that.  A month ago today, I received a new hip, courtesy of the Ontario healthcare system and the wonderful folks at Sunnybrook’s Holland Orthopaedic Centre in Toronto.  I’ve affectionately named my hip “Metallica Chalybs”, in honour of the materials out of which she is made.   Continue reading “Adapting to Change” →

Graduation Day

Life, Nina Kirienko, Photography

After two years, 20 courses and a not so trivial investment in gear, I’ve received my diploma in digital photography from Durham College, Canada.  I am now a photographer.Graduation

Continue reading “Graduation Day” →

The Real Meaning of “Shooting RAW”

Photography, Tools

I like to know how things work.  I ask “why” A LOT.  Recently, I took an online course offered by lynda.com, one of the premier online learning environments.  They cover many professions and subjects, including photography.  One of their elite photography instructors is Ben Long, who has worked with clients such as 20th Century Fox and Bluenote Records.  In this course, Learn Photography:  Shooting in RAW Mode (sorry for capitalizing RAW, Ben), he covers all the details any nerd like me could possibly want about shooting raw images.  It was so full of information, I went through it twice.

ben-long

Continue reading “The Real Meaning of “Shooting RAW”” →

My Portfolio

Architecture, Landscapes, Macro Work, Nature, Nina Kirienko, Photography, Portraits

Durham CollegeYesterday, I completed my program in Digital Photography at Durham College, Oshawa, Canada.  Although not official until June, I’m ready to strike out on my own and find my niche in this competitive world.

Our last few weeks of school were about defining our photographic style, preparing a compilation of our work, deciding how to present it in print and electronically, and staging a show for industry and family.  I found this to be the most revealing and meaningful segment of my education.  I emerge from this experience with a better understanding of my interests and style, and with a full portfolio of work to share. Continue reading “My Portfolio” →

Why I Shoot Photographs

Nina Kirienko, Photography

In a mere three weeks, I will be completing my college education in Digital Photography.  I’ll be let loose upon the world to hopefully make a mark.  One of the last tasks in our college lives is to assemble a portfolio of work that represents our style and area(s) of focus (pardon the pun).  In putting my portfolio together, I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to make my mark commercially or artistically.  I decided the latter was more important.  Easy for me to say since I have an alternate source of income.

Once that decision was made, I needed to be able to explain my photographs – why I shot them, what they represented and what impact they had on me.  Typically labelled an “artist’s statement”, these short spans of text are often poetic and lofty, serving to both reveal and conceal information about the author.  By conceal, I mean create some sense of mystery in that the reader would want to know what might come next.bioposter Continue reading “Why I Shoot Photographs” →

Tools That Make My Photography Easier – CamRanger

Photography, Tools

In the first of what I hope will be an ongoing series, I’m profiling one of the many tools that help to make my photography easier.  When I say easier, I’m thinking about this from several perspectives:

  • achieving an effect that would otherwise be time consuming or overly complicated,
  • getting a shot that, because of site or equipment limits, might be difficult or impossible,
  • automating tasks that would be time consuming, tedious or repetitive,
  • compensating for one or more of the personal challenges we might have as photographers (getting older, mobility issues, etc.)
  • alternatives to expensive, top of the line solutions for any of the above

These won’t be “reviews” in the traditional sense.  Instead, they’ll discuss how I use the tools and what advantages they provide to me.  Hopefully they’ll help you too.  This month: camranger-title

Continue reading “Tools That Make My Photography Easier – CamRanger” →

On Being a Portrait Photographer

Photography

We’ve just finished another semester at school.  Three down, one to go.  This latest semester dealt with all aspects of portrait photography – fashion, glamour, lifestyle, environmental, figure studies.  Also a touch of small product work to get us ready for next term.  Now that we’re done, I find myself reflecting on what I’ve learned.  Most importantly, I seek the answer to a very basic question:  has  the experience made me more interested in photographing people?

Kelsey

Continue reading “On Being a Portrait Photographer” →

The Appeal of High Dynamic Range (HDR) – Or Not

Photography, Portraits, Tools

I recently completed an assignment that required a High Dynamic Range (HDR) final image.  This image blended an outdoor background with a studio foreground subject.  Both were processed using HDR capture and develop techniques.  I think the result turned out well, don’t you?

Yoga on the Common
Yoga on the Common

Continue reading “The Appeal of High Dynamic Range (HDR) – Or Not” →