Ilan Bresler Photography

Tough week. Long week. It's not getting easier.

About the photo.
First of all, it's not new work, the frame was taken about a year ago, maybe even more. It was my first time trying my (then) new SB600 flash. I was never swept away by the 'flash lovers'/ Strobists people, although I do love the result it brings.
I don't know, it just always feels like a totally different photography world, and I almost fear my ignorance of this world. And I'm too lazy to go around with another photo gadget in my bag. I'm sure I'm missing a lot by ignoring flash... *sigh*.

The structure of the frame above, the triptych, is not something I use often. Actually,I think this is the only photo I ever used it in. I must confess - I'm not sure about it.
'A picture is worth a thousand words' is something STRONGLY I believe in. If you failed to tell a story in one shot(="thousand words"), why would three of them will be better? Or two? Or four?
I really think that three frames in the photo above, each one of them can be a pretty good photo, so why use such structure? It's another issue for paintings, but lets stick to photography.

Please share you triptych/flash photo in the comments section! :)

This week I'm interviewed on SlashMaraud blog (by @tntd) AND featured on "The Weekly Bzzzzz" by @rtd13 so please, hop in and check it out.

AND - Just in case you missed it last week - "Around the world: A Photography Project Born in 140 Characters"!

One year ago I've started my blog (about the reason WHY I started just click the mosaic above for my previous post).
Looking back on my photos brings up memories from places, times, posts, commenters who became friends and even friends who are no longer 'friends'.

In great synchronization with my blogs "birthday" (but totally unrelated) I had the honor to participate in first of it's kind (or at least that's what I would like to think) photo project. Before going into details, please click the play button, turn on your speakers and enjoy -

Around the World, Street Photography in BNW from wahliaodotcom on Vimeo.

The idea for the this project was 'born' over Twitter and semi-official name of the outcome is -
"Around the world: A Photography Project Born in 140 Characters". (Thank you, Francesco!).
I had a pleasure of working with 5 other super talented photographers -

Elaine Vallet
Sureka Dharuman
Francesco Gallarotti
Wong Kin Leong
Anissa El Gariani aka nissou*

All of this wouldn't be possible if not Wong Kin Leong aka King Leong, who collected the images, and was responsible to turn them into this beautiful presentation.
If you'd like to participate in future project, please visit and join the Street Photography channel on Vimeo


ALSO, in another turn of event, I'm also featured on "Craig Ferguson images" blog! Please, hop in, and check that as well. Thank you, Craig, for the opportunity!


And if you still here, after this long post, a personal note.
I've planned this post to be happy, grand, celebrating first year, project, featuring..
But, on last Saturday (20/06) my girlfriend and I broke up. After eight wonderful years. I can't feel the joy I wanted for this post. I don't think I'll be taking a break, I sure need your support and something to do while sitting home alone, but it's very hard to do it and enjoy this hobby of ours at the moment.
For those who follow my blog for more than few weeks, you know that many of my photos are of my beautiful, now-ex, girlfriend (you can see it in the mosaic above, which I prepared before the break up) so it's extremely hard for me at the moment to even look at my own photos.
I really feel broken. I love her so much...

Inspired by my all time favorite artist - Edward Hopper.
His masterful use of light in his painting is a great inspiration for me.

My first (and so far - only) photo taken with a cell phone. Sony Ericsson K800i. 3.2mega pixel. My first digital camera was only 3.1.. The progress...

Now, most of the time, I'm not sure if my photo is good or bad. But this one, I really think is not "too bad". But photos like this, will never reach Flickr's "Interestingness"/Explore page. It saddens me. Not the fact that my photo won't reach such "goal" but the fact that we miss so many other good photos just because they are not colorful/flower/pretty woman/processed enough.

I must confess - About a year ago, reaching the 'Explore' page was my ultimate goal.
Out of 150 photos I got on my flickr page, 43 were featured. That's not bad, I think, but then I realized two things -

1. The system is pretty easily 'manipulated'. I now know how to reach Explore with almost any photo of mine.
2. I was working too hard and contributing to flickr and not my photography.

After realizing these two things - I've started my blog.

I'm sure I'll be asked how to 'manipulate' the system? / How can I reach Explore?. There is no a 100% fail proof path, but you can use some of these tips. Be warned though - Soon as I found out how it works, I lost all interest in this. Traffic? Yes, it brings some. But it's cheating. The nasty way.

There are few considerations flickr counts when calculating how interesting the photo is.

1. Do notupload the photo to more than 3-4 groups.
2. Do not re-upload the photo to groups. Many use this to make their photo appear on the groups main page.
3. Tag the photo properly. This is the most unclear point to me, because it seems that giving hundreds of tags might also decrease photo's grade.

So far, these are pretty usual tips. Now we go from tips, to cheats.

4. Upload the photo at the correct time. When most of the users online. From what I found, the best time is between 12pm to 6pm(I always checked with NY timezone).

5. As soon as you upload your photo, comment like crazy. Not your friends, but users you are not connected to.

By 'like crazy' I mean, comment 400-500 (and more) users. about 70%-80% of them will come to look on your flickr stream and about 40%-50% of these visitors will comment/fave your LATEST photo. There is a window of few hours for the photo to be "interesting" for that specific day. To reach Explore you need a good ration between comments, faves and views. 7-8 faves, 15 comment and 50-60 views are almost sure to put you somewhere in Explore.

Of course, it'll go much easier is your photo over saturated and has a pretty face in it. Or both.

Well.. Good luck, I guess. Maybe exposing the system will cause them to improve it, I don't know. Since starting my blog, I lost interest in Explore race.

If you got more tips/cheat, feel free to share.

For few years now, I've been fascinated by windows.
They not only a transparent barrier between the outside and inside, but also some kind of divider between different lives, but in contrary to doors, fences or walls - One that let's us peek through. (Legal clarification - I don't support voyeurism in the name of voyeurism! :))
Specific thing that I love in these 'windows', are the people sometimes forget that they are... well... transparent. Or opened. In such cases, you are able to capture some 'real' feelings. People without their daily masks.

The first (ever!) photo on my blog was a guy I captured in Prague. This photo was inspired by few 'windows' works (here, here and here) by the superb talented street photographer Nils Jorgensen.

I won't go as far as calling the next week a 'Window Week' but if you got some 'private moment through a window' shots - Feel free to share it through the comments :)


Late addition - My photo is now featuring on the first page of Green Tea Gallery Magazine

More Barcelona. This was a lucky snapshot :)


Few notes - I would like to thank Ron (@rtd13) for including me on the 'Weekly Bzzzzz' (again!)

And, of course, wish a happy BBD (Blog-BirthDay) to Marc from Take-Out Photo!

PS.
Did you know I'm on Photoblogs.org?