rain and photography – the umbrella treasure hunt

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Andrei

European cities, long weekends and photography go very well together. The “common” knowledge says that the fourth element is sun. There is a general feeling that in order to make good photos a lot of sun is mandatory. Yet the reality is pretty different.

First – the creative barrier: it is definitely harder to swim against the tide of sunny pictures with every monument, every cafe, every bridge/church/park than to come with a different look. Gloomy photographs – old buildings, overcast skies, huddled passer-bys – make for pretty powerful imagery. Not to mention that Gothic architecture works better with doom’n'gloom weather.

The second issue with sunny weather is the technical limitations of the cameras. It is easy to forget that the poor camera does not have the huge light latitude our eyes have. The dynamic range (the range of light intensities a camera can work with in one shot) of a digital sensor is a very limiting factor. After all – no one likes a white sky and black alleyways. (And no, using film is not better. Actually the dynamic range of film was even more problematic to work with).

a different look at the canal bridges in Venice

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Andrei

The classic photo of Venice is a composition with a gondolla, a bridge near the foreground and one or two palaces in the background. And of course I have countless images like this. However, like any city, Venice offers more. I also tried to glimpse some of the people living there and also catch more unusual imagery.

Today – a few photos from love locks on a bridge in Murano. Supposedly this Italian tradition started a few years ago in Rome, and represents eternal love (‘amore eterno’). Two lovers inscribe their name on a padlock, attach it to a railing or one of the many bridges and throw away the key. At one point There were talks to try to put a stop to this practice, as the weight of the padlocks put the flimsy bridges in danger. One could argue that a bridge sinking under the weight of so much love would be poetic, but probably cause a lot of headaches for the Venetians. As I didn’t pay a lot of attention to these locks, I only got a few pictures.

portrait from Myanmar (part 2)

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Andrei

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.

goodbye to summer

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Andrei

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.

the bicycle obsession

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Andrei

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.

remember Mexico

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Andrei

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 -

continue reading remember Mexico »→

elegant architecture

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Andrei

I really like this type of building – probably as it fulfills my image of Japan

Bruxelles in black & white

Posted on August 27, 2010 by Andrei

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.

the power of black&white

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Andrei

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 – impressions

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Andrei

Ciudad de Mexico is….

the smell of delicious food – tortas, burritos, quesadilla, and so many more which I intend to try
music – everywhere I can hear a band playing – from love songs to spanish rock
colonial buildings and…
modern skyscrapers
a people that every day demonstrates
zocalo – the place where a lot of things happen all the time
very nice museums
a hostel that looks amazing, beating Cat hostel in Madrid for this title
subway network that takes you everywhere
a pretty safe and comfortable feeling city – all the info I found regarding beggars, robberies, hawkers, taxi scams seem WAY exaggerated. And this was the opinion of people who were in Mexico for weeks or months

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…