Making of: Ziua Eliberarii Documentelor

If you don't appreciate the irony of having the Document Freedom Day photoshooting "Making of" video delivered in the close Flash format offered by YouTube (where the main audience is locked), then a Theora version is available too on Blip.tv.



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More DFD

Another set of pictures for the Document Freedom Day:

Piata Victoriei and the Romanian Government

Culture Ministry on the Kiseleff Boulevard

Free Press Plaza and The Free Press House
If you like the initiative, spread the word and the photos in any form and media, they are freely licensed as CC-BY-SA.

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Ziua Eliberarii Documentelor / Document Freedom Day

This was an interesting photojournalism project: for Document Freedom Day do a series of photos in front of a number of Public Administration buildings with the message "Nu va putem citi documentele! / We can't read your documents!":

Piata Constitutiei and the Parliament Palace

Near Cismigiu Park, in front of the State Archives

Piata Romana, in front of the Academy for Economic Studies
If you like the initiative, spread the word and the photos in any form and media, they are freely licensed as CC-BY-SA.

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Vintage FAIL

Hmmm... it looks like I need a new FAIL category in this blog... yesterday evening I had a meeting with some friends from the RLUG community and as all those meetings are best organised around some beers, we went to a pub called Bordello in the Old city of Bucharest (and this is the topic of my post here).

Long story short, the pub is called like that because in the XIX century in its place was a bordello, as the entire neighborhood used to be a light district (destroyed in a fire, rebuilt and such). And to keep the theme, the walls are decorated with vintage erotic photography, which awakened my interest as a photographer: now I think it would be an interesting photography exercise to take in this day some photos that will look like those. And this is going to be yet another source of frustration for me, thus the "FAIL" category, since is not going to be easy to implement.

Basically, those photos are not hard, what you need is logistics:

• first you need a plumpy model... not fat, just with a bit more meat on her bones, to fit the beauty standards of the era. And good luck finding a plumpy model with enough confidence to pose;
• then you need some old fashioned clothing, like the sheath your grandma used to wear... this is not as hard as it looks, use the "less is more" approach and you can get the job done with any piece of cloth;
• accessories: feathers, beads, fans, etc.;
• background is harder: an old looking chair, maybe a drawer, a bed with baldaquin;
• for the lighting setup I would have to do a bit of study, but it should not be hard, the photographers of the era didn't have expensive equipment;
• the photos should be very soft, slightly unfocused, but not with shallow depth of field. So maybe take them softer directly from the camera or just go sharp and blur it a bit in post-processing, a trivial task;
• again, in post-processing turn the colors in sepia tones, another easy task.

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Sarmale FAIL

Leaving the tourism fair I felt a bit hungry and as I was hurrying to another fair (photos from the weddings fair to be posted later) I stopped and tried some sarmale maramureșene (sarmale from Maramures) with high hopes, it was quite a while since I had some sarmale I really liked.

I don't know, maybe in Maramures the recipe is different from what I was used to, but I didn't find them extraordinary in any way: I couldn't find the taste of summer savory or smoked bacon but the taste of onion was quite strong and the meat not boiled enough. FAIL. Even if the presentation was okaish, with the lady clothed like that, with the big boiling cauldron and the large mamaliga.

Won't try again any time soon (and won't try to prepare myself some better ones any time soon, you won't get good results by preparing a serving for one person).

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Problem solving, blonde style

OK, I acknowledge that, I am an engineer so I work and think as an engineer most of the time, so apply the same style of work to any problem that needs solving (even if it is not a problem supposed to be solved as an engineer). However, this week-end at the tourism fair I had the opportunity to witness the blonde style of problem-solving.

It seems they (the blondes) approach the problem just the same way us (engineers) are supposed to do it too, by reading the manual (well, we engineers most of the time think we are smart enough do we don't need the manuals any more, but know it would be the sane thing to do):

Then they all get together trying to do some stuff:

Then the chief blonde (I think she is the chief, she wad the one reading stuff) seems to conclude: girl! (that must be read as the Romanian "fată...") I think that was not the good book, it had pictures of something else...

Eventually the problem got away, not sure if it was solved by our blondes or by an engineer passing by.

Note: girls, please do not feel offended by my (bad) attempt at humor, I think you are beautiful, otherwise I did have not wasted the time here.

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TTR Spring 2010

I don't know, maybe I got there at the wrong time, maybe my camera had a selective view of the world or something, but the atmosphere captured at the spring edition for 2010 of the Romanian Tourism Fair (Târgul de Turism al Romaniei) was not very energetic and optimistic (even if, compared with other years, it was held in a larger space):




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In the land of the legs...

In the land of the long, slim, smooth, beautiful legs...

... the panty is the king :D (duck and run)


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Spring in the city

Saturday I was out in the city for a photojournalism project (more about it next week) and passed near the Cismigiu Park and noticed how the spring has come: not only short, transparent skirts but also flowers and bees. Stopped for a short while (couldn't let the rest of the team wait for me) and took a shoot of the later.


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I am sick

A few days ago I got a little nasty cold (WTF? I survived the swine flu pandemic, the -20° freeze in the winter but this long awaited spring was too much). But I can tell you why people get ill: is because the doctors/nurses are busy with sexy things like this:


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Defining sexiness

I am sure all of you are familiar with this posing "with my lips puckered like that, I think I am sexy but I am not":

Certainly, I know some guys who think it is sexy, but your humble photographer prefers by far a honest, plain smile:

And forgetting about sexiness, from a photography point of view, dynamism is a healthy dose of fresh air:


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Arm wrestling competition

I know a bit more determination is expected on the faces of the competitors, no matter arm wrestling is not a real sport:

And now try to guess who was the winner, looking at who is holding the cup, the faces of the protagonists, their eyes and smiles..


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Twins in cars

Unrelated to the talk about cars and cleavages, I feel like jumping at how happy twins are expected to behave in a car.

And even the hood is happy being treated like that:


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Cleavage troubles

Driving (fake driving anyway), do you see any trouble with that? I don't... or maybe just one more half of centimeter missing.

However, someone else seems to have a problem with it, she does not like what she see or what? I already decided nothing is wrong there.


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Jammed car

This car si so jam packed, to the full capacity that you wonder how it manages to resist. And good look with having more than two "passengers" looking in the same direction at any given time.


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Bubbly Bubbles

In the land of the bubbly bubbles, there are a lot of soap bubbles floating in the air.


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The hard life of the photographer

A photographer life can be hard, he is a pro, must behave and don't do like the bozos (cocalari):

And he will receive his compensation, in the form of pretty eyes and beautiful smile:

But know what? Life is not always bad, when he go to the other end he will receive again the bonus of the eyes and the smile.


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