Lady Champagne

She smiles at you :) too bad for the backdrop however...


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Photographer badge

I made myself a little "freelance photographer" badge, holding this title, my full name, an invented serial name, a photo and, of course, contact data, which I am lately wearing when shooting at public events, hoping will decrease the chance I get asked who am I. Not sure about the target audience, but so far quite a few photographers liked it and asked for one.

Since I was asked and because sharing is caring, I decided to share the design freely. As I do almost all my illustration and DTP work with Inkscape, the badge was made with Inkscape too, the canonical source is in SVG format.

I understand many photographers are not into illustration and may not know/want to edit a vector file, so I rasterized it and transformed into a GIMP layered (.xcf) file, for those who fancy that (I use GIMP for my photo editing needs):

Since I understand most of the photographers are unfortunately still locked in the Adobe world, I went to the extra-mile, used "Save As" from GIMP to produce a Photoshop (.psd) version. This is untested, since I do not have any installed, nor I want to.

Feel free to use it in any way you want, but don't forget to add a photo, and to edit your name and contact info (web and mail). Also, put a random digit string as serial number.

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Tea versus Green Men, an Earth Hour story

A small group of photographers meet Sunday in the Bucharest city center with the plan to take some photos at the Earth Hour festivities (for my part, I was dumb enough to forget home the wide lens, so wasn't able to shoot many things there)

A cold wind made us enter for "an hour" in a tea place, warm a bit, look at photos and have some talk

But the "hour" took a hour and a half, just enough for us to miss the critical time... blame the dea (wild cherry, cinnamon and honey bush flavors):

Still, we managed a few glimpses with the green men and their "victims":



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Sakura tracing

Is that time of the year again, the spring has come, trees are blossoming... photography fever. Saturday evening when passing through the Cismigiu Park (on my way to the Earth Hour event) noticed the very first blossom of the year, it was far away on the top of the tree and it was already dark, but I had enough gear on me to solve take some pics:

Sunday morning I had again some business in the city center and noticed a lot more trees in blossom, a shy beginning, but sakura time is here, definitely.

Sprin in full force: trees, flowers, people:

Of course, the weather became uglier and now is a little setback, but it will delay only a few days.

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Crocus again

Is that time of the year again, when the spring tries to establish and the first flowers appear, time for crocus, the spring's announcers... too bad the day was fugly: cold, cloudy and trying to rain and too bad my camera has some issues (after ~85.000 frames the shutter button has problems triggering, I don't have the balls yet to part away with it for a repair) and too bad the dogs damaged the flowers in my garden, a visit to the park was what I had to do.



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Huntin'

Ever since I got The Sniper I wanted to go hunt squirrels, but things happened, I was either busy or down so postponed it again and again, until the last week-end, when despite the improper weather, I got some work done. So, introducing Mr. Squirrel of Herastrau Park once again:



Now indulge me for some Romanian language, I remembered an old joke, which I won't bother to translate (but for the gist of it, bere = beer, veverita = squirrel ~= beaver in slang)

Veverita vs Bere

O bere este mereu umeda. Veverita trebuie încurajata.
1 punct pt. bere.

O bere nu-i placuta atunci cind este calda.
1 punct pt. veverita.

O bere inghetata te satisface.
1 punct pt. bere.

Daca gasesti un fir de par intre dinti, band bere, poate sa te apuce vomatul.
1 punct pt. veverita.

Daca te intorci acasa si puti a bere, nevasta-ta te cearta.
Daca te intorci acasa si puti a veverita, nevasta-ta ar putea sa te lase.
1 punct pt. bere, 1 punct pt. veverita. (depinde de punctele de vedere)

10 beri pe noapte si nu mai poti sa conduci.
10 veverite pe noapte si nu mai este nevoie sa conduci.
1 punct pt. veverita.

Daca iti faci treaba cu o o bere intr-un local plin de lume este normal.
Daca iti faci treaba cu o veverita intr-un local plin de lume devii un mit.
1 punct pt. veverita.

Daca un politai te simte ca mirosi a bere, ar putea sa te aresteze.
Daca un politai te simte ca mirosi a veverita, ar putea sa-ti ofere o bere.
1 punct pt. veverita.

Berea mai veche este mai buna.
1 punct pt. bere.

Daca te scufunzi intr-o bere, avand prezervativul la locul lui, nu simti diferenta de gust.
1 punct pt. bere.

Multa bere te poate face sa vezi farfurii zburatoare.
Multa veverita te poate face sa-l vezi pe Dumnezeu.
1 punct pt. veverita.

Daca te intrebi mereu cum va fi urmatoarea veverita, este normal.
Daca te intrebi mereu cum va fi urmatoarea bere, esti alcoolic.
1 punct pt. veverita.

Sa rupi eticheta de pe o sticla de bere este distractiv.
Sa rupi chiloteii unei veverite este mult mai distractiv.
1 punct pt. veverita.

Statul taxeaza berea.
1 punct pt. veverita.

Daca bei inca o bere, prima nu se supara.
1 punct pt. bere.

Esti intotdeauna sigur de a fi primul care deschide sticla de bere.
1 punct pt. bere.

Daca agiti o bere, dupa putin timp, se calmeaza singura.
1 punct pt. bere.

Blonda, rosie sau bruna. Poti alege berea care vrei.
1 punct pt. bere.

Despre o bere se stie exact pana la ultima centima cat o sa coste.
1 punct pt. bere.

Berea nu are o mama.
1 punct pt. bere.


PUNCTAJ FINAL: BEREA BATE VEVERITA (11-10)

Daca esti o femeie si in momentul asta te superi, sa stii ca berea nu ar fi avut nimic de zis pierzand aceasta confruntare: un alt punct pentru bere.

So, here is some beer:


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Basketball

The kids are playing basketball in the back of a community center in Tîrgoviște... so many years ago I used to play the game (both basketball and football) in the court of the school in my neighborhood... fun times! In fact what we needed was a ball, a little open space and some play companions.


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Dracula's Backyard

In the Chindia ruins complex, past the old church there is another church, a smaller one, with a graveyard on the side. As the castle was ruled, among other voivods, by Vlad Dracul (Drăculea) and his son, Vlad Țepeș (the Impaler, the famous Dracula), I like to call it Dracula's Backyard, since for sure it was the backyard of the two Vlads.

Now, I wonder, those graves... is something happening there at midnight?

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Orthodox mural paintings at Tirgoviște

Part of the complex of the voivodal palace in Tirgoviște there is the old church which has inside remainings of the old orthodox mural paintings:


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The ruins of Tîrgoviște

Being in Tîrgoviște for Tudorița/Paștele Cailor, couldn't miss the ruins of the voivodal palace there (last time when I visited it, it was... back then in primary school). It made me a bit sad for hot having my sword handy... but since it is a museum, they would have not allowed me anyway.

There is the old church, with old painting on its walls:

The ruins of the castle where Mircea cel Bătrîn, Vlad Dracul, Vlad Țepeș and many others ruled:

And of course the famous Chindia Tower:


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Paștele Cailor at Tîrgoviște

I was familiar with the expression "Paștele Cailor", meaning "Horse's Easter", as a date when nothing will happen (as in, for example, I will such Bill Gates dick at Horses Easter) and also knew a couple of explanations for it. This year I learned another one in a photography trip with Orasul.ro: is a festivity of the small Bulgarian community in the City of Tîrgoviște, happening after the winter when the horsed are taken out for the first time. It is also called "Tudorița".

So together with a bunch of other photographers I attended the event this year, which, of course was pretty much about horses:

And it was also about the people in that Bulgarian community and their traditions:

And, as we are in Balkans, it was also about food (don't remember the name of those small breads decorated with pepper seeds):

And of course it was about contests, to see who has the best horses and who is the best driver:

And it was a lot about local divas, sitting and smiling in the carts, in their pretty and colorful costumes, for all of us to admire:

And of course it was a festivity for the kids to enjoy ("give me the camera to take a picture to daddy" said the little princess):

And not last, it was a festivity for us, the photographers, who were there in great numbers trying to capture everything:

And on top of all, it was a really beautiful hot and sunny spring day, a pleasure to be outside.

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