an interview with inna karenina (not to be confused with anna)

inna joined our BC365 flickr group at the beginning of the year. i hadn't met her before that and it wasn't long before i learned that much to my surprise she was only 18! her photos were completely luminous and inventive and creative and i was blown away to find out she was so young. i had to realign completely my way of thinking and for that, i thank her very much. eventually, she revealed to us her beautiful blog and you must visit it along with her 365 project blog and her flickr photostream, right after you read this.  all of the pretty pictures are hers...



1. you have been extraordinarily dedicated to the 365 photo project, have there been moments when you wanted to give up and what did you do to get through them?

Yes, there has been. It's quite a regular feeling for me that my photos are not good at all, and those feelings may lead to the moments when all I want is to give up. But that's part of learning and improving, I have learned. The last, and the only really bad moment like that, was just a few weeks ago. Then I just whine, cry, feel bad for myself for taking such terrible photos, whine a bit more, and get over it. Maybe take a day off in between. Not very adultlike I suppose, but that's honestly what I do, and it helps. I'd love to say it's only the love for photography, and the love for learning that keeps me shooting, but even though that's all true - I am rather passionate about photography, and I love how the project makes me grow not only as a photographer but also as a person - I must admit the biggest reason why I keep on taking the photos day after day is that I am too proud to give up. I am too proud to admit that I couldn't do something that I have started and so publicly done.



2. when you reach what feels like a plateau with your photography, what do you do to take it to the next level (because i think you always do take it to the next level)?

I'm not sure if I understand the question right, but in case feeling like a plateau means the same as feeling like your photos are always the same, I just try to do something different. New location, new time of day, anything that's new for you. Once when I was feeling like in a rut, like my photos weren't getting any better at all, and looked the same always, I just woke up early in the morning, and went to photograph the sunrise around 5 a.m. Waking up early is so hard for me, so I had hardly ever photographed a sunrise before, and that day I was rather lucky and there was this fog which looked dashing in the dawn. After that I had a lot more courage to do something different again, and I think, I was able to start taking my photography to a new level again.



3. you do absolute magic with your nikon D40, but what would be your dream camera?

my dream camera? a camera with more focus points (is that how you call them in english?) than three ones. or maybe a film camera, as that's something I would really like to try and experiment with.

4. a little known quirky fact about finland...

They say Finland is the only country in the world where news are broadcasted in Latin..

5. what do you want to be when you grow up? (i still don't know, so don't feel bad about this one, i mean it more light-hearted than it may seem. :-) )

I might say a photographer, because that's what I want to do, but I guess it'd never happen as I am rather spontaneous when it comes to photographing. I'm not that into planning, so photographing weddings etc. wouldn't be the best option. After all, in the middle of wedding you must take photos of the wedding, instead of going out to capture the perfect light or the beautiful clouds. Anyway, my sister and I have been joking that we will probably be studying all our lives, and that's the only thing I could actually imagine happening. There are too many interesting things to learn and do, and I guess I won't be able to decide what I really want, not anytime soon at least.



6. you've been experimenting with self-portraits lately - what has it taught you?

Self-portraits are still rather new thing for me, and I am still in progress processing the feelings and thoughts that I have about it. For sure it has taught me a lot though. As I earlier mentioned, I am not much of a planner when taking photos, and self portraits are teaching me to plan: to think about the composition, the light, the location etc. before taking the photo. When taking selfies, you can't change them so easily, and I am lazy, so it forces me to focus and think. That's the part which I find the most challenging, but also which I think I need to learn in case I would like to be real, professional, photographer some day. Also, I often feel like the selfies I take have already been taken by so many other people, so it's teaching me to be more creative, and to learn what is the thing in a photo that makes it me, if that makes any sense.

7. how do you feel about photo processing? is it an essential part of the process or is it cheating?

Nowadays I do think it's an essential part of the process. There was time when I felt guilty for editing, but after writing about it in my blog and reading thoughts about it, I have realised it is essential for me. For me editing means finalizing the photo, making it look like I feel or like I see the world. And as I have noticed that photography is a way of expressing myself, it is essential to make the photo look like me, or like my feelings. I still do not edit a lot, I do not remove anything from the photo, or add there anything, so I haven't yet any opinion about that.. art it is for sure anyhow.

8. is using someone else's lightroom presets cheating?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and there is this voice in my head saying that it is. However, I really would like to think it's not, because it makes editing a lot more fun and easy. I have not much experience with presets in Lightroom, but when I used to use actions in PS Elements, I always made sure I read also a tutorial of how you do the stuff which the action makes for you. That way I was able to feel less quilty.



9. they say the northern lights have been visible in these parts in recent nights, have you seen them?

nope, unfortunately I haven't.

10. do you have or would you get a tattoo?

Tattoos are a little too permanent for me. I get tired easily, that's why. So no, no tattoos for me.

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thank you, inna, with your name like a russian epic novel, for sharing your beautiful photography with us every day in the group and thank you for letting me interview you right here.  i know you'll be a photographer if you want to be and you won't be the kind who has to do weddings...of that i'm sure.