The first shooting for 2012 deserves a blog post, so I`ll try to be short and to the point.

As you probably know Europe was under a massive snow storm. We (in Bucharest) got hit pretty hard, and we had to stay in the comfort of our apartments for a few days. That was fine by me because I took advantage of the overcast and shot with beautiful window light for almost 5 hours. I was actually happy that I only took one strobe out of the bag, and I only used it on a couple of photos.

The photo-shoot  was awesome and I would do it again any (cloudy) day.

Catching up on stuff.

I finally managed to get done a big batch of photos for the Dear World project. First thing: Share with the whole World. Second: get some sleep!

The project is pretty simple: ask people to send messages to the world by writing them on their body.

Alexandra Sandu and Ioana Toma are also working on this project. It was brought to our country by GRASP

Hello again,

Long time, no see. We`ve been through such a busy month that I neglected the blog completely.

Highlights:

• we packed our bags for USA, and by the time you read this entry, we`re probably over Switzerland, or over Greenland or maybe we just landed at O`Hare – Chicago (depending on your time-zone)
• we aced the final exams of our 5th year of Architecture.
• we went swimming at the seaside last week-end and it was great.
• I sold my Leica gear (buh bye dear friend) and some of the Nikon lenses we hardly used.
• I got a Nikon 17-35/2.8 that I love. It just blew me away from day one.
• I bought my first polarizer filter and I can barely wait to see it in action … outside!
• we posted a new CityHall Ceremony over @ the Wedding part of this site.
• we posted Fritz`s Wedding also over @ the Wedding site. You have to check this one out, we had a blast.
• we got to spend two days with Oana, Alexunu and Serban in Vama Veche, and as CS always says “pictures or it didn`t happed” … here are some.

• and who said you can`t do macro work with a wide-angle lens? (in my defence… it`s a heavy crop)

I`ll try to update everyday for the next 120 days but I might have days without internet access so if I skip some … oh well, you`ll live.

And the last “thanks!” goes to George for the Kruder & Dorfmeister song.

So, the photography workshop weekend is over.

We had a great time and met some very interesting new people. Besides the little problems we had with the tethering cable and one lousy chair that thought “Saturday 29th of may it`s a good time to die”, we managed to teach about studio lighting, how to work with the model and how to post-process the RAWs to an end-result.

Saturday:

Alexandra did great on her presentation managing to explain how to build your lighting set-up from the ground up and why we shouldn`t learn more than 3 setups by heart.

Vlad covered almost all the bases about the photographer-model interaction. And I say almost because I`m sure he could have talked 3h more if we had let him.

And I did my best at showing them what It can be done to fix a portrait photo. I kinda rushed it a bit at the beginning trying to make up for the lost time and that was frowned upon but then I slowed down and we managed to go only 1 hour past the 19:30 mark.

Sunday:

We divided into two groups: Alexandra played the role of the assistant setting up the lights and light modifiers for each participant and when their time was up I was the one to review the photographs, pick the best ones and play the graphic artist part for them answering every question the best I could. I have to admit there were some request I found easier to answer with a plug-in for PS … but those situations rarely occurred.

At 8PM we wrapped things up and went for some beers.

And because it`s not a photography workshop without pictures I`m going to post some just for fun, and in the end you`ll see some before / after shots…

Yes, you guessed it! We`re the ones behind all this! And we couldn`t have done it without the help of our beautiful models, the support of F64 via Kiko and our studio “assistant for the day” Arnold.

Random snaps…

And Alexandra, our model for Saturday`s presentation…

Sunday was the “shoot it / retouch it” day and i`m going to show you a picture “before / after” of each participant:

P.S. You can use the arrow keys to browse the photos once enlarged.

1. Cosmin Ene

2. Florin Novac

3. Dorin Anghel

4. Claudiu Pana

5. Elena Ioana

6. Radu Pencea

7. Daniel Vrabioiu

8. Mihai Balan

9. Mihai Nica

I hope all of you enjoyed the workshop as much as I did.

P.S. If you have the time, do write a few words about it over at F64`s page.

Hi folks,

Every year (for the past 7-8 years now) the 1st of May (work holiday – without actual work) would find us on the beach in Vama Veche. But not this year. Too many people go there now so we tried to avoid traffic, staying in line for food, crowds etc… and we gathered in Herastrau park in Bucharest for a “Balloons and Kites Fest”.

Everyone had “balloon making devices”; some rudimentary … some even had “balloon guns”.

And as you can see at the beginning of this entry, to capture such moments you need the best vantage point. Up there, yours truly and  Alexunu. (And if you want to see it through her eyes, just follow the jump to her blog).

I had only my Leica and the Supersampler so my “deviations” will take a while until they see the daylight. Pictures here were taken with Jo`s D90 and the 50mm f/1.4 AF-S. The boke looks funky. (not the best in the word, if you ask me…)

Afterward we went to Musi`s new (unfurnished) home for the Rainbow Party. (you had to wear just one color) and as you can see most of them succeeded in doing so. (Caution! Big picture ahead! 2400px @ ~500kb)

Hi folks,

Trying to keep up with the university`s never-ending projects I spend less and less time taking photos. Post-processing is just a beautiful dream. I`ve had 2 weeks of vacation for the Easter holidays and, frankly, I have no clue when they got by.

I spent them in my hometown eating, sleeping and playing Modern Warfare 2 (`cause my laptop has become sluggish and my formed desktop is still keeping up with technology). Doing all these things without leaving the comfy chair (yep … I fell asleep @ the computer), I didn`t have much time for photos. But I`ll show you 1-2 pictures just to keep you posted.

So, your`s truly, my beautiful Jo, CS and Partagas Presidentes.

This man came at the Church @12:00 to listen to the ceremony, but he was the only one without the candle. He caught my eye.

And to top things off, I`m going to post a picture of a good old friend (with whom I get together 2 times/year). She will hate me for that, but she will get over it, hopefully. In case you`re wondering, her boyfriend is giving her a hard time.

I have some pictures from an assignment for the “gypsies should get to college too” movement and some from a wedding that took place last weekend but I can`t find the time sort them… so it might take a while.

Take care everybody.

Hi guys and gals! Long time no see.

I was thinking of kicking Spring off with some nuttier pictures.

About a week ago, Ioana and myself threw a party and to spice things up a little bit I told everybody I was going to take some pictures `cause I had a funky background idea spinning outta control between my ears. To make things more interesting Ioana came up with the idea of a theme party. One thing led to another and we got ourselves a Alice in Wonderland Party (mostly because it was the movie premiere).

The people in charge, your`s truly and my lovely Jo.

And few of the brave ones that stood before my camera:

I wish ALL the people invited could have made it to the party, but unfortunately 3 of them had important stuff to get done before the week-end. I stored the background so I can use it again when we all gather for the Easter Holidays so some of you, close friends, that wish / need to have such kind of pictures of yourself … i`ll just say: it can be done!

I hope I`ll find the time to keep the blog updated.

Until the next time,

Take care everybody!

No sooner had I finished Cuba`s session, when my friends started to ring the doorbell. Every year we meet at my nomad studio in my hometown, 2-3 days before the New Year`s Eve, we have some drinks (mostly that year`s crops, `cause we like wine), tell some stories, play guitar and … most of all … take allot of pictures.

This year was hardly any different, except some of the people couldn`t make it. And the nominees are: Anutza, Zoz, Radu, Gogo and Chircu.

For the rest of you I have a surprise. The people in the following photographs only took a glimpse at the LCD after the pictures were taken so I bet they have no recollection of the things you`re about to see. :hihi:

Behind door number 1: Pinky & Srj (Bonnie and Clyde) – or should I say – The Cepinschis

Behind door number 2: Marius

Behind door number 3: Jo

(Notice how Srj jumps from one door to another …)

Next off I really wanted to show you my “studio” but to better understand the proportions I had to give it human scale.

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And the last of the individual winter sessions was reserved for my lovely Jo. She insisted on being photographed while wearing the New Year`s Eve clothes. I must say … she had a very good idea; mostly because she never got to wear that outfit `cause everybody else had everyday clothes on … so she did the same thing.

Many of you will say that I used to much flash. I beg to differ. I`d say two more lights would have been a blessing…

Addendum:
As a side-note, in case you didn`t notice I gave a shot to a popular plug-in for the WordPress platform: the one with the star ratings and the thumbs-up/down. Three days have passed and already I have some hilariously not so witty people thumbing down recent posts and 1 starring everything in their path. “Not so witty” (not to be too harsh) because as long as you`re not using a proxy or **** (classified info geeks like me happen to know), I can track you down and send 30 pizzas to your doorstep every day for the rest of your life or until you move to another country. They will write about you in the local paper and the Guinness Book of FAIL!

Don`t hate the player, hate the game! Don`t abuse the rating system.

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