Help Portrait – Cosmin (dec.2009)
I dedicated 12/12/2009 to the Help Portrait movement.
-basically you take your camera and use it to put a smile on someones face. Take their picture, print it and deliver it. No strings attached.
Out of everybody Cosmin moved me the most.
- He`s a single child.
- He thinks he can play basketball.
- He said he played in his high-school`s team as a pivot.
- He said he had an accident and can`t play anymore.
- When the cellphone dropped from his jacket, he almost freaked out. I asked him why and he replayed "This phone was my mom`s and she game it to me as a present for my 18th birthday. I must not break it"
- He doesn`t really understand the concept of guarding an opponent or dribbling. He just likes to shoot hoops.
- His friends call him "Smecheru`" (I`m having a hard time translating this in English) or "Sageata" (as in Arrow).
These ar just quick facts. I played some basketball with him (mostly as his ball retriever). Stayed there on the court for about 1h. after 25min a kid came by with his grand`ma to play football at the other end of the playground. Boy, that kid missed the goal from 3ft away, but when he hit the ball in our direction, he struck Cosmin in the back of the head from more than 20ft. That very moment I wanted to be Kyle and score a home-run with that kid.
When I got there I just wanted to shoot some hoops. When I left, I had a story and a new friend.
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Assignment – Beauty Salon (dec.2009)
One day I get a call from a friend asking me if I was available for a 3h shooting at a beauty salon. I said yes, even though I had no idea of the conditions I was walking in on.
We set up a meeting to find out more about the project and meet the model, but the main thing for me was "what type of light will there be available?". Once there I noticed the tight space I had to work in and the fluorescent tubes overhead (there was enough window light to get some nice shots for some sort of beauty contest but it was not the case here)
- I had to take 1-2 good pictures of every service the salon had to offer.
- To do that I had to rearrange the furniture a bit. (I hope Monica, the owner, wasn`t too upset about that. They offer almost every imaginable service and it`s not their fault the gear takes so much space).
- I had to refrain from using wides or ultra-wides. I managed to get most of the shots using a 50mm lens @ f/1.4-2.8.
- The tricky part was to get the green light of the fluorescent lamps to be white again. That you can do in two ways:
- you either get some really large sheets of green gel and cover all the lights in that particular space, or:
- you gel your lights (in this case 3 x Nikon SB800) with half-cut green gels and switch you camera`s WB to fluorescent.
- The lighting solution for this was 1x SB-800 in a large umbrella on a stand as the main light, and 2x SB-800 left and right nuking the walls and ceiling @ half-power (creating some sort of a product photography tent from the inside). These were fired remotely with one SB-900 on the camera. I wish I had 2 more lights for some accents but for this one, it`s good enough.
The picked 25-30 pictures will go on the salon`s future (face-lifted) website. (the one active right now is @ this address)
Iulia was wonderful to work with, and although it was early in the morning for both of us we managed to be in sync for the whole session. We were out of there in just under 3 hours.
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Lisbon (nov. 2009) – The one with the panoramas…
Yes, I`ve done it! Here they are. Not so impressive now that I got a good look at them but, hey, as long as they`re done I might as well post them.
These are all resizes to fit 1200px on the long side (that means that you can click on them for a slightly bigger version).
![[Group 241]-40K_0203_40K_0214-12 images](http://vladdodan.ro/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Group-241-40K_0203_40K_0214-12-images.jpg)
![[Group 242]-40K_0217_40K_0252-36 images](http://vladdodan.ro/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Group-242-40K_0217_40K_0252-36-images.jpg)
![[Group 243]-40K_0256_40K_0261-6 images](http://vladdodan.ro/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Group-243-40K_0256_40K_0261-6-images.jpg)
![[Group 244]-40K_0262_40K_0263-2 images](http://vladdodan.ro/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Group-244-40K_0262_40K_0263-2-images.jpg)
![[Group 245]-40K_0264_40K_0270-7 images](http://vladdodan.ro/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Group-245-40K_0264_40K_0270-7-images.jpg)
![[Group 254]-40K_0939_40K_0944-6 images](http://vladdodan.ro/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Group-254-40K_0939_40K_0944-6-images.jpg)
![[Group 255]-40K_1061_40K_1065-5 images](http://vladdodan.ro/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Group-255-40K_1061_40K_1065-5-images.jpg)
![[Group 264]-40K_1388_40K_1398-11 images](http://vladdodan.ro/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Group-264-40K_1388_40K_1398-11-images.jpg)
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Lisbon (nov.2009) – Part Two (the outtakes)
As I said a long time ago, this entry`s purpose is to shine some light on some of the lesser photos of my Portugal trip.
Out of ~900 pictures (not counting the panoramas and the HDRs) I chose to show you 25, but there were ~60-70 pictures selected to tell the story.
I can`t post the remaining 40+ pictures but I think you can handle 10 more. (actually 9 decent ones and a dud!)
Enjoy.
(P.S. I`m trying as hard as I can to make room in my schedule to stitch those panoramas I`m blabbering about so "keep your pants on"!)
And this is how we roll ... when we`re outside the country.
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Lisbon (Nov.2009)
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Or Lisboa, as they spell it.
I chose to celebrate my 23 birthday in Lisbon because Jo was there for studies and I thought "why not?". The target was "travel light" so I did! My backpack had my D200 + just 2 lenses (11-16/2.8 and the 50mm/1.4 AF-S), 6 t-shirts, 6 pairs of socks and enough underwear to last me a week. And o course the heavy stuff was on me: a jacket, a pair of pants, a pair of shoes and a long sleeved top. Money and passport in my wallet and I was ready to go.
Yes, no Leica! I had to shoot digital, `cause it`s just like ... if you don`t use it , you lose it.
When I left home for the airport it was freaking cold and raining cats and dogs, and by the time I got there I was soaking wet. I had to go through check in, and the guy there saw me like that, and he said "dude, keep your shoes on, don`t bother, I trust you".
And after 2h in the airport, 4h on the plane, I hopped of @ Lisbon and it was like 30*C...
The next few days flew by very quickly.
Snapped 1300 pictures (most of them are panoramas so don`t freak out. When I got back home I had to keep up with school so I ended up emptying my memory card about 4 days ago and it was then when I had the time to take a look at my photos. So in a way, I bet I would have seen my pictures faster if I would have shot film.
Ok, out of these I have selected around 60+ pictures worth a second look, and out of those I squeezed out 22, but I like "round numbers" and instead of 20 I figured 25 pictures should do the trick.
P.S. Because I don`t want to write long entrys anymore, the one with the panoramas will follow after this one. And maybe I`ll write one with "out-takes" after that.
Leica – 22 (The one with the fashion show…)
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Kodak TRI-X
ASA 400 @ 1600
Processed in Rodinal 1:25 / 12min
Scan: Canon CanoScan 4400f
The one with the fashion show...
The winter ski collection by Stephan Pelger (first picture) for Vuarnet.
And the bus-stop...
This bus-stop is point A in my A-B trip from the University to the warmth of the couch. And yes, that`s everyday Bucharest traffic at his best, right there!
And my friends...
Three of my colleagues and in the next picture you can see that night`s game party.
And the recording studio.
(left to right) Smiley and two of his friends in his recording studio.
