Jesus the rest of my pictures from Tbilisi turned out really annoying.
The city has beautiful buildings, a fascinating language and a kind, history-weathered population.
Of which I managed to capture exactly none.
Instead, I came home with a bunch of pictures of an empty, vaguely European diorama.
It’s like a master-class in how to ignore the characteristics of your subject and resort to sub-Instagram photo trickery.
Like this one: The Ferris Wheel Atop The Mountain. It’s auditioning to be the headline of a Malcolm Gladwell article.
Or this one, with that movie-star lighting. What’s the appropriate hashtag to describe it in detail?!
Awwwwww shit, chain links and religiosity. They give Pulitzers for cropping, right?
Notice the electrical lines in the foreground. You can tell I was ducking sniper fire as I took this.
Oooh, this one’s ugly! It must be real!
Oh no, this church is hella nondescript! What to do?
Zoom in on the flag, for a little metaphorical significance?
Or kneel in the dirt and finagle this rose for the foreground?
Naw, son. Just zoom in until it looks like a stock photo on the cover of a Vote For Bachmann direct mailing.
Wanna make something seem mysterious and far away? Hold your camera behind some branches til you get the desired Escape From Witch Mountain effect.
Who needs PhotoShop when you can fake your photos at the source?
Backlighting is the black sweater of my photographic repertoire: Appropriate for all occasions.
Another favorite: If the bottom half of a church is littered with dumpsters and unsymmetrical bushes, just aim upwards til it’s unblemished.
That way, instead of looking like your photos were taken in a specific place by a specific person, they could be anywhere, depicting anything. That’s the point, right?
This picture is trying so hard it’s practically doping.
Thank god there’s nothing here to actually look at, that would have been confusing.
Nighttime! That’s an iPhone app, right?
Aaaaand… I’m out. I may not have come home with any amazing photos, but at least I have some nice memories.
They don’t last as long, but they’re easier to edit.
Ha I actually thought these photos were really great! (though the captions were even better!)