I’ ve been living in vain, living insane / I’ ve been tripping down all the darkest of lanes ”

Sirenia, Absent without leave

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

Well, in other words, all my camera raw files from July until now are gone. Maybe GOD knows where. They were written on a NTFS partition by Leopard, using a 3rd party driver. Now they’re not. So here I am in Vista, trying to recover anything from those files…

And all that I wanted is to post some pictures taken with my first prime lenses… Maybe later

Garden insects – testing my patience

• Do not try to do too much too soon.Even if you are already fit and healthy.
• Start by riding for 10 or 15 minutes only.
• If after several days you do not have any bad effects, start to ride for longer.
• Try to ride regularly – if possible several times each week.
• Keep gradually riding for longer and longer each ride.
• Keep at it – you will be surprised how far you will be able to ride before long!

Now, replace the word bike with the word camera and you’ll know what to do
(Advices taken without permission from http://www.bicyclingforbeginners.org.uk/how.htm)

Let’s all welcome my new TAMRON 28-300mm!

Three days passed since then and … arrgh, well … let’s say I needed something to let me get closer to my subjects (insects, flowers) so…

I also present you my HOYA Macro Set.

There are many sites with pictures of her. Inside and outside descriptions, different angles shots of her. I saw her, I liked her, I dreamed about her. And the day came. I noted her number and her accessory number, I called to check if it’s available and I went to meet her. The guy at the entrance looked at me with a “he, he” smile on his face and asked me in. And there she was, waiting for me. The accessories were there too. I’ve payed and take her home, ready for some intense action. Well, she wasn’t that ready for action that night and I had to wait ’till the next day to use it. And I did!

Those are the first shots with my new Canon 450D (Rebel XSi) digital camera:

I think it works, right?

View the photo gallery…

What’s to do when your skills are not good? Don’t practice. Don’t read about. Don’t learn! No! Just invest in things that may (or may not) help you. That’s exactly what I did today. Now I have a camera, two types of lenses (wide and macro) and one polarizing filter (does that thing make Polaroids?).
Anyway, until I’ll find out about those new toys, I’ll post some pictures taken before and after (hmm the teleshopping effect) the new lenses.

View the photo gallery…

You’re sitting in front of your computer, and all you can think about is PMR, TBD, PP, WSC and WAS.
You see your camera looking strange at you with her lenses filled with dust and you start thinking about how many days passed from the last time you saw the world through her lenses…

Wait a second, that’s not you, that’s me! What are you doing in front of your computer? It’s spring outside. Go out, shoot some springy things.

View the photo gallery…

Bad weather in Bucharest lately, clouds and rain and it seems that the next days will be alike… not a very inspiring atmosphere.

I open the cigarette pocket, I notice one more time the message that says <<smokers die young>> and I turn around the pocket. The other message is nicer: <<Smoking may hurt you and the ones around>>; Good, I don’t like my neighbors anyway.

I decided that instead of smoking that cigar, I should try some shots. Since I don’t have any tequila, I used the camera… very inspiring (NOT)… indeed.

I couldn’t find any good answer so I will answer with a ZEN question: “If a tree falls down in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a noise”? At the base level the answer will be “If I make a photo and there’s nobody there to see that photo, does that photo exists”?

Blogging is not a one man show. I make photos, I like them and I post them. You comment that photo and that photo lives. Otherwise that photo is just a waste of space.

That’s why I blog. That’s my definition of blogging. So … why do you blog?

A cold day, lots of clouds, no inspiration, a perfect day to shoot something (or someone) and a perfect day for a walk.

Anyway, I found a place with a lot of grass and trash and I started to play with the camera. One tree, “click”, one bird, “click”, and so on, until … I saw him. Everything was fine ‘till then. His was bigger! A real DSLR, real lenses … and he was shooting trees. My trees, my flowers! I wasn’t the only lunatic shooting trees and small plants anymore… obviously, I couldn’t resist the temptation to shoot him.

What a sad day …

[smooth=id:3;]

day Three – photo gallery…

… and there was the third day.

To cut the story short, those were the actions: a journey to the industrial buildings I’ve shoot yesterday, some flowers, new friends and a long way back home.

Being the first day of traffic restrictions in Bucharest – yeah, we’re hosting the largest NATO Summit (of the week) – the road back home was a nightmare; a long one, almost two hours of “go, break, full stop” in the first gear. Good opportunity to shoot some photos…

day two – photo gallery…

From the first time I saw the markings for bikers on the sidewalk I thought: “wow! fresh yellow & white paint on the almost black pavement, nice contrast, I have to make some pictures of it”. That first time was long ago. Now the markings are not that bright anymore, the pavement not so black, the contrast not that great. Last night it rained. Dark pavement, clean colors equals good opportunity to shoot some pictures.

That was the main theme of today. A cop that made me wait 20 minutes in traffic, some disused towers I saw from the window. That’s all.

Training – day One – photo gallery…

Starting today, I’m on training. In other words, there are four days of journeys and learning – the good and the bad. The bad: I have to learn (not to fall asleep). The good: I don’t have to carry anything with me so I can carry my camera.

Q: You have four days in one location, some people and your camera. What will you shoot?
A: Day one, get there 1h and 30min earlier. Find the location. Spot some trees and shoot their flowers. See an old-man solving some crosswords. Shoot him. Take eight hours break (or learn something). Get back home as quick as you can (speeding at 5-6Km/h in the afternoon traffic). Mess-up some pictures from your car. Delete them when you get home.

HDR Playground – photo gallery…

HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging! A new trend, a new look, some may like it, some may not like it. For most of us is just a new toy.

You take three pictures with different exposures and blend them so you get the most of the dark / highlight area. Basically what you get is one picture that contains all the information in all the three pictures – THE HDR! 16 little bits of color! Well allot of work for a picture that you can’t actually see on your monitor. What to do? Down sample that image by tone mapping. What you get is either a beautiful photo or a completely unreal image with a lot of artifacts (most of them are just like that).

Anyway, HDR exists and well … I like it. I liked it and I tested it (obviously without understanding it).

See the photo gallery…

Ahhh … It’s spring again. Whole nature is slowly coming back to life. Little bees in the air, beautiful flowers looking up the sun … blah, blah, blah

Here are some flowers that got in my shooting direction.

Here’s the photo gallery…

Well, another Saturday, a sunny one. Doesn’t matter to much, I have to work again. From time to time I have to get out to smoke, lucky me. I get to see things, some funny, others not that funny.

Anyway … that’s what others do on Saturday. I get back to work hoping no one made pictures of me…

View the photo gallery…

With my sleep abruptly interrupted by some very loud noises, I get out of my bed, right to my window. There were construction workers – everywhere. Machinery, lots of smoke, dirt, and noise. I got my camera and start shooting each one. Some escaped and flee as fast as they could.

I gave them a lesson, goddamn maniacs! How can they work on Friday morning?

I thought about upgrading my Flickr account to pro. On a second thought I realized that my domain was empty so … another thought crossed my mind “my own space, my own blog, my own pictures”. With my mind crossed by so many thoughts, I created this blog.

That’s it, that is all about, my blog, my pictures. Feel free to read it, feel free to comment, feel free to watch the pictures, feel free to leave to another blog (maybe a serious one).