A (short) break

So far the image hosting on this blog was provided by flickr which I still consider from a technical point of view the best gallery software available. But with the recent deal about the Yahoo and Microsoft partnership and my solid stance to not give any money to the evil empire at Microsoft (either directly or indirectly), I will take a break from posting any new photo on flickr and think about the possible way forward.

As an unfortunate consequence, wile I am not sure about the hosting solution I will have to take a break from blogging photos too. It may take a while, the deal was expected for quite a while and for a long time I searched for a replacement with no success.

Honeysuckle ...or someone's hand :D

After an indirect challenge from Alex I just had to take my own photos of this flower (it was helpful there is a bush hanging on the fence of my garden). And while Alex is remembering the very sweet water drops you can find inside this flower, for me the smell is perhaps what I remember the best.



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Sitting like a fly on the... fence

A warm, sunny summer morning... the fly is a being too, with full rights to enjoy the sun.



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Bucharest at the golden hour

Lifting a quote straight from Wikipedia:

"In photography, the golden hour (sometimes known as magic hour, especially in cinematography) is the first and last hour of sunlight during the day, when a specific photographic effect is achieved with the quality of the light."

As I stumbled around the city center around the golden hour a couple of days ago, I just had to take a few shots in that magic light:



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....mmmmm, pizza! Hot pizza!

Pizza Diavolla with extra mozzarella and extra pepperoni, hot sauce and a cold beer on the side. Heaven (pun intended).



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Enache

My bad joke is like: if her name is not Enache already, it should be. Laptaria lu' Enache. Sorry, but I think she its impressive and I believe all natural. +1.

I tried hard to get the best shot, so hard that in the end I got noticed, which reduced the "candid" impact. So is life... too many people crossing the road, not enough chanced for a clear shot.



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Summer in the city

I always hated the megalomaniacal constructions in the center of the city at Piața Unirii, I think they are an ugly remaining of the dreaded communist era and are making Bucharest uglier.



But passing there is a torrid summer day the large number of fountains in the middle of the crammed traffic is somewhat refreshing.



And I find even more refreshing the life around those fountains, both beasts and people are enjoying the water.



I think the dog puts in perspective the "dog day" expression and also I envy his his freedom.

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Under the bridge

A loot of my candid shots are taken on a certain bridge in the Herastrau Park (a favorite spot), just like the one below: either with people passing by or looking down at the boats below. But there is also an ugly side: last Sunday, don't know how, I had my lens hood falling in the water... I don't know to swim and even so, I would not swim in that water, so it lost... time to buy another one!



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Dealing with the wind... close, but no cigar

A reader of my photography blog may already know I am trying to master the wind, with a various degree of success. Last week-end I was so close... but still no cigar.



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Dead fish floating

Many times I talked about the beautiful parks in the city, but there is also an ugly side you don't want to talk about very often...


And think there are people who bathe in that water...


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Firefox 3.5 release party and photos

So you are doing community stuff, being a speaker and helping with the organisation of a FLOSS event like the Firefox 3.5 Release Party, but at the same time you are a photographer, carrying the camera with you and shooting at every opportunity you get. The obvious result: some semi-candid cute environmental portraits.



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Mmmm... apricots... tasty!

Back when I was a kid there used to be a lot of apricots around, so many my family used to to jam of them, now to get some I had to go to the market place and buy. However, this is their season, they are affordable and tasty.



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The firebug and the chicory flower

Morning after morning I pass near that shaded chicory flower and wonder about taking a better shot, but today it was a little different: a firebug (Romanian: Vaca Domnului) was walking around, offering me the opportunity for a different take (yeah, in the backgrounds are blue chicory flowers and the fence is making difficult for me to shot them).



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A bug's life

On the look for the snail remake, I got one day unexpected help from a street dog: he was barking at the dirt, which made me look closely and notice his "enemy", this ugly bug.



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Snail remake

Another remake for photos lost in the same accident, this time for the snails photoshot, which was somewhat easier: there are plenty of snails after a rainy night, you only need to find a way and re-capture the original enthusiasm for the shot. And that is hard.



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Blue chicory remake

After they were lost in a terrible accident I tried a remake of the blue chicory shot, which was not easy since we are past their season. But I managed to find some, in deep shade where they resisted more, but the light was quite bad. So I don't really count this as a success.



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Watermark fixing

Following one of my graphic tutorials I got a request from one (supposedly) US girl: she say she lost the originals of some photos and need some help to recover a few who were watermarked by a hosting site.

I decided to not investigate further her identity and motivation and since the images are small and blurry anyway, I tried a bit of fixing with GIMP, nothing fancy, just a few minutes with the clone, shear and maybe the healing tool.

before	after

Not that bad with less than 5 minutes of work on each... (yeah, is possbile to work more on them for a better result)

Now being on different continents, I am a bit disappointed I cannot ask her in exchange to work for me as a model in a photo session, I am really look for models at this moment.

Printing photos

I don't print photos, almost everything I did so far with photography far was for online use only, do I don't own (and don't plan to buy) a photo printer. But exceptionally, for a small project, I needed some prints (about 50 photos), so went to the nearest shop (like 5 minutes from my office) with the photos on an USB stick.

Much to my disappointment I was told: "sorry, our USB reader does not work, come again next week". FTW? Waste a CD for that? I don't feel like doing that... And I learned from my co-workers this happen often. How hard is to have a working USB port on the computer? Or maybe I got to talk with the stupidest guy on the planet?

Conclusion: if you live in Bucharest, try to avoid Nic Classic if you have something to print.

Master of the wind part 2

A second take on the "you must master the wind" lesson and (coincidence?) this is taken minutes and effectively a few meters away (the same part of the Herastrau Park) from the first part, it must be exactly the same nasty wind, as it was the same nasty photographer.



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Street photography: formal versus casual

A quick research: the girls walking on the street look better in a formal or casual outfit? Look below:



+1 for formal



+1 for casual



+1 for formal



+1 for casual

... so far is a tie :p I guess is not about the clothes but about who is wearing them.

And now as a bonus something that isn't either casual nor formal:



A goth girl can be cute too!

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Master of the wind

This photo, from the park candids set is so close but still failed, it could have been framed a lot better. But there is one thing to learn: you must master the wind and the result is revealing.



PS: still debating with a friend, he is sure she is not wearing any panties, I say there may be a G-string. What's your take?

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Afternoon in the park

A lot of candid things may be captured if you spend a sunny Saturday afternoon in the park. How about when your "prey" notices you and send a smile?



Beside walking, people are skating, taking photos and taking photos while skating:



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