Once again it is my great pleasure to introduce to you another PhotoCapM “Flickrite” in the Spotlight. I happened on to this person early in my experience with Flickr and her growth as a photographer has really been inspirational to me. Her name is Basia Noverini (a.k.a. basianov).
Basia is truly a wonderful photographer who looks for opportunities to tell stories through her photography. According to her she is inspired and driven by the fact that, “every photo has a story.” I believe her photographic work perfectly reveals this and can be seen in the photograph called “Waiting for Spring 1” displayed along with this article.
I had the opportunity to ask Basia some very pointed questions about how she came to be an image maker and her story about how she progressed was so intriguing to me that I decided to bring it to you unedited and in her own words.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I was very adept with computers (shout out to RadioShack’s Tandy… which got me started down the techie path!). In high school, I did a lot of desktop publishing, and it was designing newspaper layouts that helped me discover a love (dare I say detail-oriented obsession) for computer-assisted design work. Oddly enough, while I was an editor for the school paper, I didn’t pick up the camera much. Computer design gave me instant gratification – I could manipulate elements and immediately see the results. One has to wait for film to develop… and thus, my 35mm P&S only came out for school dances and such.
I discovered Adobe PhotoShop in college. My dorm had a couple of computers and scanners for shared use, and I was absolutely mesmerized when I discovered that you could scan your photos and then add/subtract elements. I immediately gave a portrait of myself hair extensions and was so pleased with the virtual results that I can honestly say I was hooked ever after. However, there was still that trouble of waiting for your film to develop…
It wasn’t until I graduated from college that I got my first digital camera. At the time, the quality was so poor that even using photo editing software didn’t give me that much pleasure in my work. However, I doggedly continued to use it, because I enjoyed the instant gratification of the preview screen. Then, I took a business trip to London and dropped that camera on an escalator at a Tube station. It dented. Next, I took it to my hotel room, plugged it into a power adapter/voltage converter… and smoke erupted from the power plug. Needless to say, this camera was doomed. I was so frustrated with that experience that it was five more years until I got another one… a nice Minolta DIMAGE that my husband I took on our honeymoon to New Zealand.
I carried that camera while my new husband carried his Canon EOS 35mm SLR.. complete with several lenses. The truth is that he was the photographer… way before I ever considered myself to be one. I thought he was silly for lugging around all of this equipment while my Minolta fit neatly into my pocket. However, I was jealous that my husband’s camera could produce such beautiful bokeh (I didn’t know what bokeh was back then). He took some great photos of birds and such – my Minolta’s images made nice snapshots, but it could not compete with the depth that his film camera was able to capture produce. I had honestly never seen photos like that. I was used to P&S images.
[Years later we purchased Canon 50D DSLR for Christmas]. Once I got my hands on that thing, there was no turning back. I finally had instant gratification from an SLR, and I found that to be totally amazing. Getting those images into photo editing software and learning the various methods of enhancing, improving, adding, and subtracting has helped me recapture my childhood love of artistic reproduction. I’ve always been artistically inclined, but I’ve never been the type of artist who imagines something fantastical purely from imagination. As a little girl, I loved to draw. However, I much preferred reproducing an object faithfully in my sketchbook. It gave me pleasure to perfect all of the details in a sketch, rather than create something outlandish that didn’t look at all real. To me, beautiful photography is reproducing a perfect moment in time for others to experience, just as I did in my sketch work as a child. That is probably why I love it so much.
By the way, my poor husband barely has the chance to use his Christmas present, because I am constantly carrying it around!” (Basia Noverini, Interview, January 19, 2010)
As I stated before, Basia is inspired and driven by the fact that “every photo has a story.” When viewing other photographer’s work she finds herself creating a story in her mind as she views it. She also loves to hear the stories that people have created in their mind about her work that are different from her interpretation. She finds this “intriguing” and with every image she makes “strives to elicit a story with every image [she] captures”.
She also loves to look at high contrast black and white photography and is fascinated by High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos. Along these lines Basia sees her black and whites, as well as cityscapes to be her best methods in image making. She feels that she has an eye for high contrast images and can pre-visualize the end result of these types of images.
Her Flickr Group involvement revolves around those groups that provide her with challenges. On top of that she attributes much of her improvement in photography to a group called Life Thru a Lenz (Quality Comment Group), which serves as a form of on-line learning for her.
I had the opportunity to ask Basia if she had any advice for those want to pursue photography and this is what she had to say.
“There are stories everywhere –go out there and show them to someone. Don’t worry about whether this is technically perfect or that is “artistic” enough to be a worthy photograph. Everything is interesting, and capturing things that speak to you will always bring you personal pleasure. Also, get involved in Flickr or other social networking sites that bring photographers together. I can’t count the number of hours I’ve sat in front of the computer and smiled from all of the stories I’ve seen ‘round the world. It is a constant source of entertainment and further serves to help me develop my craft. Plus, the shear variety of different photographers that collaborate in such a group exposes you to various styles of photography that you can then go try yourself. Endless inspiration!”
I believe that Basia really demonstrates for all us what progressing in the photographic craft is really all about. Her story, likes, loves, and desires in the world of photography show us the spirit of a person who wants to make images that speak to others directly. This progressive spirit is why Basia is a PhotoCapM “Flickrite” in the Spotlight. Please visit Basia’s photostream by clicking on her Flickr name above (basianov) and find for yourself the stories that images can produce and that come from such a creative mind.
Until next time…
(Important Notice: The image in this article was used with the expressed permission of and is copyrighted by Basia Noverini (basinov). All rights reserved.)
Michael Frye
Harley Pebley
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