Self service

Calssara was one of the special guests at Otaku 2012 and she had a session talking about cosplay in her country, Germany. She told they never pay the photographers (as the photographers are the one needing to pay the models) and they prefer to learn and do the shooting and editing themselves, since after a 2 hours session, the photographer will give only 3 photos. It was not the time and place for me to try to intervene, telling how is a 2 hours session is a good thing if you get 10-15 good photos (publish worthy) and how bad photos are not useful for the model.
Actually I see this conflict: models pushing for all the photos ("I had a pretty smile in that one, does not matter my legs and arms are unflattering"), while the photographer refusing to put his name on pictures less than his intended level (any photo session, from any photographer, will produce some bad photos).
After all, Calssara do some decent pictures, so learning is always a good thing. Still, I think some people have to learn more about the TFCD concept.

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No caption needed

This picture can be captioned is so many ways, and all of them funny, it needs no caption. Just laughs.

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Fan service

Fan service is often found in anime and manga, so it couldn't have missed from the Otaku anime festival. Most of the time it is aimed at the male audience and then it can consist of gratuitous panty shots or jiggling breasts. Now, thanks to Calssara, we were blessed with some beautiful panty shots:

The female audience was pleased also, by the apparition of Ellfi's muscular pectorals:

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Otaku cosplay

Some of the costumes from Otaku: special guests, contest participants, general audience. A lot of people was wearing costumes there.

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Special cosplay guests

This year the Otaku anime festival had as special guests a few famous international cosplayers, which also served as members of the jury. I think is the first time this happens in a Romanian cosplay event.

Those cosplayers were also examples of quality cosplay, as you can see here, Calssara from Germany and Elffi from Finland:

And also Licorne from Hungary:

Can I say "multipaaaaasss!!!"?

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Japanese culture days

This week the Odeon theatre in Bucharest hosts the Japanese culture days, with all kind of activities. I went there for the Fotohaiku photo exhibition, where a few friends have pictures exposed (is a combination of photography and haiku, which I found myself too boring to participate)

Being there, I also attended an Ikebana demonstration held by a Japanese hipster by the name of sensei Nomura who said he do freestyle Ikebana and was not able to tell the audience much about what and why he's doing there:

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Frames of Style, May 2012

After last november I assisted to the Frames of Style first edition, now this fusion event, consisting mainly by fashion, but also including contemporary art, interior design and video art, had a second edition. The first fashion presentation was a collection by Sandra Chira:

Then followed a collection designed by Sandra Galan:

The fashion show closed with a collection designed by Irina Irimia and featuring accessories by Ashley Scott:

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A trip to fortified churches in Transylvania

I had the opportunity for a trip to medieval fortified churches in the county of Sibiu in Transilvania, those are built by Germans around the XIII century and preserved in various states, from ruins to fully functional. The first to visit was Cisnădie, which is well preserved and functional, being located in the middle of the city with the same name:

Then Cârța, a spectacular ruin in a small village, probably the first Gothic building from this region:

Dealu Frumos was hard to photograph being under restoration works and covered with scaffolds:

Hosman is a larger complex and next to it has a large cemetery:

Slimnic is very large and also very damaged by time and hostile forces:

Apparently small on the outside, Valea Viilor has plenty of things inside waiting to be discovered:

The last visited, and probably the most complex, was Biertan:

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The hard work of taking photos

They may say photography is easy, all fancy and glamour, but taking pictures is art and also hard work: you have to keep your both hands on the camera, eyes sharp, focus correctly, frame right, take care of the light, click the buttons and so on. Not easy, trust me, I am a photographer.

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