10 of my favourite photos from 2024
SOME STORIES TO REMEMBER
2024 was a rather strange year. Just a few good news around the globe and not an overall optimistic time of our lives.
On a more personal note, 2024 was an easy year for me and a time to do some housekeeping, in every level of my life.
MY PHOTOGRAPHY IN 2024
My photography suffered a bit in 2024, mostly because there were just a few trips in this year and just one of them being a strict photography one.
Even so, I had a hard time picking just 10 of them, so I will present you some runner-ups as well.
Enjoy!
“Essentially what photography is is life lit up.”
METEORA
Meteora is a place you have to visit once in your lifetime. We are lucky enough to live in this blessed by the Gods country, so it is relatively easy to visit this surreal place.
My favourite image from Meteora is this one, taken during sunset. A lonely visitor is enjoying the view from the top of a rock, many meters higher than the Holy Monastery of Rousanou.
Runner-up is this image, taken with the help of my drone, that shows what left behind from a small hole on a giant rock, many hundreds meters above the air. It is an unbelievable site to watch; you cannot {at least I can’t) imagine how is it even possible to climb up there, so many many years ago and not only make it, but stay there and paint all of these beautiful iconographies.
This is located on a rock across the The Great Meteoron Monastery and s ince it is hard to spot, I wanted to have a close image of it. What I didn’t expect was that from this particular angle, it looks like an angry face guarding the valley below.
GUITAR MAGICIAN
Mr. Piperidis is one of the few greek masters in his field. He creates guitars from scratch and the result is magnificent. Being a luthier is no easy task and let me tell you: each guitar is truly a piece of great art.
I wanted to show the details of the handcraftmanship of each guitar and struggled to find an angle that does exactly that. So, I came up with this idea and the result is wonderful, in my humble opinion. The viewer sees the unique wooden patterns at the back of the guitar, while at the same time can understand the dynamic shape of the organ. Total blackness helps in that direction.
This alternative take on the side of the guitar appealed in a very different way. It is also a prespective useful to the viewer who wants to understand the shape of the guitar.
Taking the photo was no easy task either, since we wanted the total blackness again, and I had to be very precise in lighting different spots of the organ, creating nice reflections etc.
NATIONAL DAY FLYOVER
Some years ago, I stumbled upon the work of mr. Mike Kelley. He has created a famous photograph of all the take-offs from LA airport in a timeframe of 7 hours in the same day. I wanted to do a similar photo, but not from an airport. So, on Greece’s National Day, I walked at the top of Panathenaic Stadium and waited for the planes and helicopters to fly over the Acropolis. The whole process took about 4 hours and this is the result.
Even though I am quite satisfied with the result, I will try that again this year, because I didn’t really like the weather that day nor the placement of each aircraft inside the frame. It would have been very easy to manipulate the position of course, so that the outcome would be more symmetrical or aesthetically pleasing to me, but this was not what I was after.
At 09:45, almost half an hour before the first airplanes appeared on the Attic sky, a seagull made an inspection of the area. Quite a rare sight, since we are a bit less than 6 km from the sea. I really like the light as the sun lits up only the Acropolis rock and the detail of the flying seagull, but this day was our National Day, so I prefer the other photo better.
KALOPSIA SUNGLASSES
This was the first time I collaborated with Patricia. She is a young woman with personality and this personality reflects a lot on her brand, Kalopsia.
Every model of these sunglasses has so many admirable details that had to be shown. At the same time, this is a luxury brand and therefore I decided to choose one of them and present it on top of a podium. A nice touch is that the podium is actually the case in which the sunglasses are delivered.
Once again, the podium approach, only this time I didn’t like the fact that there is a lot of empty space. Ideal for the graphic designer, but not for the photographer and that is why I prefer the other version.
ZAPPEION BEAUTY
In an unlikely turn of events, I found myself in Zappeion Megaron to take photographs of a political event.
This is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and special buildings in Athens and, while the event was not really artistically interesting by itself, it gave me the opportunity to wander around and I managed to take this photograph, which I really love. The tranquility of the caryatids is aligned with the still flag in the windless Attic sky.
This is the runner-up from the same event. It shows the Prime Minister delivering his speech to the crowd and this is quite interesting, as it shows the contrast between the impermanence of politics and the eternity of the Parthenon, which watches on in the night.
I like it a lot as a photograph, but by little less than the other one.
TO THE MOON
I have to admit, the moon attracts me more than it should, in terms of photography.
Early one night, we were returning from a short trip to Saronic Gulf. While entering Piraeus, the full moon was rising. What a sight! All lights upon the moon.
It was on my list to take a photo that resembles a comic book scene, with the moon in front of ugly apartment buildings full of TV antennas.
DANCE OF THE NATURE
The first time I visited Balos I was just 20 years old. This year was my 3rd time and the feeling of awe is always the same, if not more intense. No photo can give you the sense of grandeur; not even this panoramic one from my drone.
I very much like this alternative, because it is another angle that isn’t very common and gives you another glimpse of this indescribable beauty.
SWISS DREAMS
There are times in life that you never forget and this one might be one of them. My first time in front of a glacier. The couple can give a scale of the size of the glacier. While amazing, the exprerience was also devastating; the glacier has lost 1300m in the last 120 years.
I love this photo, I really do. It sums up half of the feeling of travelling to Switzerland: the flag, the tourists, the epic mountain vistas and the cows, under a cloudy sky. It’s just that the glacier photo has a bigger impact in me.
MY LAND
Being born and raised in the holy land of Delphi say much more for me than any words. The fact that I don’t usually take photos from this part of Greece is just because I want to make a large photo trip to show the beauties of my land. One thing is for sure: olive trees are an important aspect of Delphi’s DNA and it has been so for thousands of years.
Open blue skies, roads, religion, trees, water and mountains.
My country.
SPIRITS & GLASSES
There are times when I just want to take photographs, you know? It’s just a need that’s comes from inside me and I guess that is true for many photographers out there. So, in a case like this I just setup a quick backdrop and a light or two and snap photos of whatever lies around me in our home. 3 wine glasses in this example.
For the last years, a great fest holds up in our beautiful city. It is the Rum & Whisky Festival and in the 2024 one I had the privilege of being among the guests. I enjoyed too many rums and grabbed the opportunity of taking some photos. This one was actually taken out in the balcony and this is my special blend, moments after I sipped. You can see the rum slowly dripping in front of the night sky.
Not sure if I prefer this photo over the other one, but in any case, this is a good one to close this article down in 2024 photography lane.
Cheers to a better 2025!
