Let me start with some extreme choices made by a Russian girl chasing the most original shots. Gimnastic Angela Nikolau has a very dangerous hobby, but also one that is very popular among young people in Russia, particularly in St. Petersburg, which combines rooftopping with photography. The movement involves climbing onto roofs, balconies, cornices of skyscrapers, cranes and monuments, and taking photos, sometimes even selfies, in extremely dangerous shots. Need of adrenaline? Looking for emotions or beauty? The results are very interesting photos and very varied opinions of viewers, usually on Instagram. Is any picture worth the risk? See for yourself… These photos may give you collywobbles.

We don’t take such risk when looking for the best picture, but we still can get a nice result, which has been confirmed by the awards we have won e.g. the Pearl Awards in New York in 2014, when the cover for Netia magazines won the Best Cover title, and in 2010 our cover of the “Nowa Gospodyni” magazine won the Cover of the Year title in the GRANDFRONT competition. We’re looking forward for more, although the competition in photography is growing, also among amateurs.

With the growing access to digital cameras and as smartphones cameras are getting gradually more advanced, the definition of the photographer as a profession and the specificity of the art of photography are changing – you can read about the advantages and drawbacks of those changes next week in a special article on this matter.

In the meantime, here’s a holiday-photo warning: the latest research shows that if you are constantly taking pictures of what you see, e.g. in a museum, you tend to remember less. So, instead of documenting everything with your camera, why not wind down a little bit and look at the world with your own eyes, instead of constantly looking through the lens of your camera. The only exception is when you photograph details, when you focus on a chosen fragment and photographing does not prevent your brain from remembering it.