After 4 weeks of constant whining I`m pretty sure everyone wants to hear good stuff about China and about what I`m doing here.

I have two topics that I will address in this week`s rant.

1. Perks of working in a big company.
2. Perks of traveling to “slim fit” country

So let`s start with the first one:

Sports and other activities:

On my first day at the office my boss gave me some sort of a tour around the complex. (we`ll call it an orientation but it wasn`t as elaborate). So at 12:00 he said … “let`s go to lunch!”. OK, I got up from my computer, checked to see if I have the wallet on me and followed everybody out of the office to the next building.

While walking up the stairs to the red building (next to our green building) he said “We get free lunch and dinner at 12:00 and 17:30, but it`s not the best food in the world”. “Right ON!” After lunch he showed me the chill-out area. One floor with a pool table, two ping-pong tables, a darts board and 4-6 tables for mahjong or poker. We can only use this area during our lunch break or after work hours. Fine by me, I said.

That first day I went to the ping-pong tables, and everyone was over-friendly wanting to play against me (at first), just to see if I can play or not.

I can play! And, just like everyone else, I have my good days and my bad days; it just happened to be a “good day” at that time and I caught them by surprise.

Here everyone plays ping-pong. I think it`s something that you have to do to prove your family that you deserve college money or something! (I`m joking, of course, but I haven`t seen anyone not knowing how to do it)

I kept going there almost daily for 30 minutes to stretch my arms and legs. At first I was wining, then they called-in reinforcements and the new guys got medieval on my ass. I have never seen anyone play like that in my entire life. Curved balls that feel like they have a mind of their own; the backhand is deadly most of the times (I guess they practice that way more than regular stance) and not to mention alternating top-spin and back-spin with ease. Disturbing, to say the least!

The good thing about playing against better players is that I hone my skills at a rapid pace, and I`m loving it! (McDonald`s)

The 3rd week a package got to our office front desk; my boss opened it and threw me a bag from inside. It was my new basketball equipment.

“You`re playing tomorrow!”
“What? How come!?”
“Don`t worry, they have girls playing in the other team; you`ll be fine!”

I haven`t played in 6 years but hey … I guess I can remember the basics overnight.

And that`s the only thing that I remembered. ) Because I was kinda lame, and after 20 minutes they ACTUALLY assigned me to defend a girl for the rest of the match. OK, no hard feelings … I`ll get better!

And if I`ll have time I`ll be able to join the swimming team on Fridays or attend dancing classes on Fridays and Saturdays.

I love the fact that we have so many possibilities; Too bad everyone is working extra hours almost everyday.

That reminds me about an article I read on Lifehacker

Why “We need to work extra hours” is almost always a bad idea

And on this bombshell I`m moving to the next chapter!

“Slim Fit” Sunrise:

I do love this city because everyone is slim and they all look healthy. Everywhere I look, people try to express themselves through fashion and most of the times they actually nail the outfits.

I`m not saying that everyone should be on the cover of Vogue. No. But they do try to follow the trends and the good part is that all the clothes JUST FIT! Rarely I`ve seen someone burst out of what they are wearing.

But the best feature – LEGS

If you`ve got a pair … show them! I think they teach this in school or something. Because everyone is rather short here, women tend to wear high-heels or platforms. Both acceptable in my opinion unless they are designed by Willy Wonka or Pikachu. In which case … we have a problem! But most of them stick by what is known to be “sexy as hell” – the stilettos.

Can`t go wrong with that!

And they pair the stilettos with (usually) a short skirt or very short pants. I do love the combination and it works best if you have beautiful long legs. (skinny legs are not beautiful, and we have seen plenty of those too)

This “long legs” craving is solved by putting on a shorter skirt or even shorter pants. Works all the time.

In between these two articles (pants and stilettos) there`s usually an area (leggings or stockings) where they can go wild!

I`ve never thought about all the design possibilities and the Shanghai experience was an eye-opener for me. Striped, wrinkled, cut, teared, dark, light, gradient and all of the above combined … they attract attention, and if that`s what they want, then it works flawlessly.

And the switch from heavy thick clothes to the mini-skirt and stilettos happened in a weekend.

That`s when we figured out that spring / summer is knocking on the door.

And for every picture I took, there were 15 other gorgeous women that I missed. So, I`m sorry I “couln`t catch`em all”.

Make sure to check the Picasa Album for more pictures from this series and other street shots. You can also leave individual comments there in case the Facebook comment system frightens you.

See you next week!

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

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 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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Still posting stuff from last year…

Just a few more pictures to show and I can fully be in the present. Today I`m going to show off two pictures of Diana, a good friend of mine who was supposed to shake off the camera shyness by now … but that hasn`t happened yet. I`ll blame that on the cold. I have some pictures of her skin that will make a chicken look photoshoped.

I can barely wait for the summer… No I`m not talking about her in lingerie, I`m taking about my ass in the States!

Le`see, the next entry`s pictures are either Jo`s or Tode`s. Decisions … decisions.

Pink, Srj … hold on just a little longer. They`r coming! Slow … but dangerously hilarious.

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I`m writing this entry hoping that it will cheer everybody up including yours truly. The past two weeks have been like Purgatory and Hell. The worst part is that “it ain`t over yet”. The good part is: “only two more weeks to go”.

I`ve been shooting to much with my Leica in the past 5 months. And by shooting I mean: “not using my digital counterpart that often”. It was about time to use it again `cause the camera hardly got any use in the past two months.

So, Dec 17th, school, drawing exam. Everybody was tired and no one wanted to be there, especially for an exam. I guess they were all dreaming about snowboards and show-ball fights, Christmas and presents, food and sleep. Never forget food and sleep!

But I took their pictures anyway:

I won`t write their name, `cause it`s not that important for you.

Click the pictures for the slightly larger version.

Most of all, enjoy, and share with your family and friends. I`ll take some more on the next occasion.

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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)

1. I had to take 1-2 good pictures of every service the salon had to offer.
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 website.

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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