Category: photographer

Blog moved, everything stays the same

In a preemptive move to stay away from any possible censorship, the blog has moved internally (from Blogger.com to a self-hosted WordPress). For its readers, everything should stay the same, except maybe some added functionality.

Blog moved, everything stays the same


Strategy on picking photos

For a photographer, the ability to pick his “right” photos is a very important one, be it when satisfying a customer need, presenting a portfolio, entering a contest and such. Having good photos but making poor picks or having not so good photos but clever picks, this can make a difference.

We often face face this dilemma: which photos to pick? I want to share the inner of my mind on how my personal selection worked when submitting photos for the Dragobete photo contest and exhibition. Any such process is open for improvement, so it worth thinkering.

The rule was simple: submit up to 3 pictures fitting the theme, “Dragobete kisses the girls”, so kisses, nice gestures, love, relationships and such. I have quite a few of those, so in a first step I made a rough selection of over 20 photos vaguely fitting made in the past year (that’s not a contest rule, is may own, submit fresh stuff). Then in a second step I narrowed the selection to 5, which I felt are better. Just for fun, I added one more to this selection, to have 6, two full sets in the case I decide I have split personality and participate twice. Of course I am not split, so had to proceed to final 3 images selection.

I went with images very different in style, theme and technique. One of them is a sunrise, quite cheesy, but such images have usually a big impact with the general audience got decent scores on various photography websites. Another one was street photography in black and white, I knew a majority of the jury are street photographers, they may appreciate that or, by contrary, be more careful when judging it. And the other one was a “rural” one, selected knowing the exhibition take place at the Village Museum and Dragobete is a traditional holiday.

strategy on picking photos

Net result: the “rural” photo in the exhibition. Was my strategy successful? Well, I didn’t expect any prize, is highly unlikely one would win something two years in a row. Also, is highly unlikely one would have more than one picture accepted, considering the large number of participants (no one had this year). So, in a word: average.

On a positive note, I could note the placement. Whoever put the pictures on the walls, it happened for my photo to be front and center, at the entrance. Very hard not to be spotted, no matter what happens around. Also, the museum used it in a poster to advertise the exhibition on Facebook. Again, not a hard guess, since the photo was made inside the same museum.

dragobete

For me, I was somewhat puzzled, I expected the sunrise to have a better score, it scored better in all the places I submitted it, and somewhat disappointed, since it required some advanced editing for which I could write an editing tutorial.

The real disappointment is I have for quite time a few good (I think) photographic ideas in my head for this theme but didn’t got yet to shoot them. Maybe next year. Or the year after. Or who knows…

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Dragobete 2015

A new edition of the “Dragobetele sărută fetele” photo exhibition and one of my pictures makes the selection. According to the organizers, they had to pick 50 images from a total of about 250 received works. I will follow later with some insight on how I selected the works to submit.

dragobete 2015

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Calendar exhibition

Selfie with my image strips at the “Calendar de București” photo exhibition opened at F64.

calendar exhibition

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The “Wow!”

How do you know you did your work well? A spontaneous “Wow!” from the client when seeing the resulting prints is a good indicator of it. And rewarding in itself for you.

the wow

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Event photography website

The 2015 season for event photography is approaching fast, those who are not ready for it, should get soon. As part of my preparations, I updated my event photography website with a new, simpler and more beautiful design and, more important, with current sample photos. Have a look and if you like what you see, we can talk, maybe I can make you an interesting photography offer.

event photography

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Photographer’s present

What Santa can bring to the photographer? A nice photography book, like this one by Helmut Newton, is a worthy option.

photographer's present

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Printed photo books

They always look more impressive when printed on paper

printed photo books


Parade in picture

Everybody likes taking pictures at the national day military parade.

parade in picture

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Prints everywhere

Printed photo book album sample, small format, still pig pictures. A nice and classy budget option.

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Photo book albums

The general wisdom says photos look more impressive when printed, here’s a sample of the photo book albums I can do for an event like a wedding. That’s a service offered on top of the shooting and I am open for reservations. If interested, contact me for an in-depth talk, a quotation or more samples.

photo book albums


Happy birthday metro!

Piata Unirii is probably the biggest in the Bucharest metro and we are celebrating there with a photo exhibition 35 years since the subway system opened in our city.

happy birthday metro

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Hunting

I teamed with Carmen for the photo hunt organized by Banda Foto and we managed to secure the 2-nd place for out team at this edition.

hunting

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Wiki exhibition

This is kind of an unusual post for my photography blog, since the spotlight is not on my photos: yesterday evening, a photo exhibition with top pictures from the Wiki Loves Monuments Romania photography contest opened (I was part of the organizing team). The exhibition will stay open at the National Library in Bucharest for about 3 weeks and then will move at the Universitatea de Vest in Timișoara for a couple more weeks. Come and see the top 10 images from this year and highlights from the previous editions.

wiki exhibition

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Black and white

Is the fourth time I participate in the Bucureștiul in alb și negru(Bucharest in black and white) photo exhibition and this time I managed even to get a prize, the 1st place. This is quite a surprise, considering not even 10% of my pictures are published in BW.

black and white

However, this is a story behind this photo, all photos should have one, but this one is more complex. Back in January there was a big snow, but caught with some things at home I couldn’t get out for photos and was jaded seeing the powerful pictures made by others. Then, a few days later, there was another snowstorm, more powerful and more beautiful. This time I went right out with camera in hand, an opportunity not to miss again.
After half an hour of shooting in the streets of the old city, my camera stopped with a dreaded message “Camera internal temperature is getting too high, can’t take pictures.” I had to take it under the coat and warm it for about another half an hour, shoot again half an hour, get the error again, warm it again, shoot some more and then go home.
Another highlight from this adventure: right after clicking this picture, I know I will sent it to the black an white exhibition.

black and white

Note: the exhibition is open until the end of this month at Café Verona / Cărturești in Bucharest, where all the photos can be seen.

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