I took countless photos of people from Myanmar – from children, field workers, monks, people on the streets of Yangon – everywhere you point the camera there is an interesting face. The only other place where I could literally not stop from taking photos of people was India. Myanmar is just as fascinating.
Officially the summer is over since September 1st. However, only today really feels like autumn is here. Rain – clouds – sleeping late – umbrellas. Yet the biggest change is that weekends no longer mean going to the seaside. Probably until next year it’s goodbye beach life. This train of thought made me browse some of the older photos, and I found a set from Sri Lanka which I haven’t published yet. So – that’s the reason (if I need one) to post this image.
Do all photographers have a pet obsession? Your cat maybe? Or interesting windows? Or – i think this is a phase in every female photog life – pictures of the feet.
After a few tens of thousands of photos I can safely say that I have a few obsessions of mine. I can no longer call them ‘pet’ as they are pretty adult, as obsessions go.
One of them – as you probably found from the picture on the right – is taking pictures of bicycles.
Preferably old, or decorated / painted in interesting colors, and places in interesting surroundings. I do not know why – I have not ridden a bicycle in about 2 years, so it has no relationship to other hobbies. Of course I can rationalize about hidden meanings – movement, age of things, clean and responsible traffic – but I know that when I see a bike I just take the camera.
Shoot first, think later.
Because I started doing some homework – processing old photos, selecting the good and discarding the chaff, and so on – I started to get little folders of newly processed photos.
Some of these were already published here, but now I see them in a different light.
For more about my 2010 mexico trip you can also read these posts -
How to best describe Bruxelles? A tiny gem of a town, old buildings and new people or waffles and beers ? I really liked the few days I spent in Belgium – split between Bruxelles, Bruges and to neighboring Luxembourg. We were very lucky to have clement weather – a bit of rain, a lot of sunshine, some cold winds (which compared to the weather in Romania were very welcome).
Bruxelles is easily visited in 2 or 3 days, but it will probably take weeks if not months to discover all the hidden gems. And drink all the possible beers. And while I am sure one can see everything Bruxelles has to offer, I am not so certain about managing to drink all the possible beers. A lot of cities claim to be the best place to have a certain kind of food, sometimes rightly so but a lot of times it’s just tourist propaganda. However – Belgium and beer is another story. The moment you step inside a Belgian pub you step in another world – a better one, full of tasty, strong beers. I tried a lot of them, and finally settled on La mort subite, Duvel and Chimay bleu, yet I haven’t even scratched the surface of all the possibilities.
Besides beer gardens and pubs, bruxelles has a lot to offer: from impressive Euro buildings (the parliament is a huge multi-building complex that dwarfs you as a little EU citizen), to old quaint neighborhoods, to little Europe and the Atomium, to Grand Place (main square) and so on. Almost every little street and place in the city centre has a magic feel to it.
I started to upload some of the photos from this trip – enjoy this first set, focused on black and white.
Black and white photography can be evocative, touching, even haunting. It is said that the best photographs are those that can cut all the clutter and convey a message, a story, in a minimum of elements. And reducing a photo to only shades of gray can be one way to achieve this. Of course – a bad photo will still look bad in B&W, but people can ‘see’ the message so much better in a B&W.
I found on Google Buzz the link the a very nice collection of B&W photos – http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/100-awe-inspiring-black-white-photographs/ – and this made me to take a look at some of the photos I have shot for a later B&W processing. Below are some fresh results.
Also – a few of my old galleries contain some B&W photos. And browsing those pages I found that while some colour photos no longer appeal to me, the B&W photos “retain” their strength better. What do you think?
Ciudad de Mexico is….
Now I am in Oaxaca, so For the moment I had to say goodbye to Ciudad de Mexico. New places to see, people to meet, photos to take…
and some pictures from CIudad de Mexico and Teotihuacan
Sometimes people look at me somewhat strange when I tell them I have no particular plan when I start traveling. I have a general idea what I want to see, and at one point (morning coffee) I read the guide and make a draft.
And unfortunately this means that a lot of times I do not make an optimized circuit in the city. I might arrive in the same place 2 or 3 times in the same day – and even more if I stay a whole week for example. On the other hand this means that if I do not feel particularly keen on visiting a certain area, I don’t. And it also means that every new place I see I find very interesting and enchanting – after all I had no expectations and sometimes it wasn’t even on the plan.
Last weekend I went to Otaku 2010. Looking extremely confused at the different activities – from cosplay, drawing, console gaming – I tried to think for a reason why I am going to these events. The only reason I found is it’s for some of the funny / nostalgic moments I have from time to time. Playing some ancient Mortal Kombat, leafing through mangas, recognizing one or two of the different action figures or characters there (from lots!) – I suppose these should be reason enough.
Also – I find the talent of some of the people (either drawing, preparing costumes for cosplay, …) amazing.
Here are some pictures from this year Otaku.
