Quinces are one of the specific fruits of the autumn, even if their taste is not the best, they have a distinct and wonderful flavor. Maybe one of those days I will find the time to illustrate a recipe for preparing boiled (mulled) wine with quince… stay tuned.
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Remember my old friends and models, the squirrels from the Herastrau Park? I meet them again this week-end, when shooting the beautiful autumn
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Last week I was bummed about a lost opportunity for autumn photography, failed due to bad weather, being convinced it was the last opportunity for this year. Well, contrary to the weather forecast, the last week-end was nothing short of amazing: warm and sunny, exceeding my expectations, so I had to get out and do my stuff. Gladly.
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Once upon a time it was spring, with everything coming to life and wonderful cherry tree blossom, a magical time.
Now the very same place is covered by a different type of magic: the bronze and golden tones of the autumn as a prediction of the winter to come.
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Do you remember my frenzy this spring to shot blossoming trees and my sweet spot for quince flowers?
These days, that tree in my garden came to fruition and the beautiful flowers turned into tasty fruits, after all the autumn is not entirely bad:
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I could say I know the Herastrau Park as I know my own pocket (yeah, I don’t know my pockets that well), but only on this autumn day I realised how the trees around this alley are shaped like a Gothic cathedral, with the branches looking like its traditional pointed arches. I was both socked and impressed, finding them majestic.
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Having a full time job, you can dedicate only the week-ends to serious photography stuff, which is many cases is passable, but of course there are unfortunate cases, like the past week-end… With this overwhelming autumn over us, it was natural for me to want to capture some shots with the beautiful red, yellow and brown tones.
OK, the weather forecast is optimistic: Saturday was expected to be a cold day with partly cloudy sky and Sunday an even colder day with less clouds. What is a little cold when hunting for some cool photos?
Saturday in the morning when I woke up, it was as cold as expected but the sky was grey, covered with heavy clouds. Not good, you can’t shot landscapes with such a sky. And without sun, there is no life: no insects, no warmth, nothing. So I postponed the planned trip to the park for the next day, which was expected to be better.
However, around the noon I built enough courage to get around the house and shoot some flowers (chrysanthemums) around the house, but I find the result not that great, lifeless.
Late in the day, a few minutes over 4 PM, the clouds broke a bit, leaving a little blue sky and a couple of sun rays for the eye. It was late in the day, with not enough time to reach for a place worth shooting (at 5 PM is already way too dark) but I was happy, expecting a great day to follow.
Fast-forward Sunday: woke up and is was colder, as expected. But even more cloudy, not as expected, bummer. Not affording to lose the opportunity, after the lunch (still waiting for the cold to weaken and hoping a sun ray will show) I took the gear and went to the park.
The leaves are beautiful, a strong lesson about nature and the cycle of life, showing how everything is born is going do die, but the lesson is not very depressing grace to the marvellous dark colors (the depressing clouds can be avoided as long as you set the White Balance well and avoid showing the sky):
At 4 PM was already too dark for hand-held shooting and without the tripod on me, I had to put the session to a close and go home, feeling the goal was not accomplished.
Damn weather! Today (Monday) is still cold as hell (the temperature raised from 1°C in the morning to 3°C at the noon), but there is sun and blue sky. And I am trapped in the office. And for the next week-end heavy rains are expected.
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Still looking for a storage solution, have not published a large amount of photos lately, but I am still alive, doing a little bit different stuff, like writing, like this weird box of eyes with GIMP tutorial or identity design.
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Guys tell girls phrases like "I can see the world in your eyes", but they have no idea how close are to the reality, look at this photo of an eye (zoom level 1:1) to see how all the world is reflected into it:
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This was a hard working week-end, shooting effectively hundreds of close-up photos of eyes with contact lenses (7 models, about 50 lenses, 3-4 shots for each). Tiresome but rewarding, commercial but without pay, Fun stuff.
During the photo session I developed a theory: interested in cosmetic contact lenses seems to be girls with beautiful brown eyes and girls with less-than-beautiful but non-brown eyes. Probably a try to fit a social norm and a corrective action.
I can understand someone is not happy with her eye color, hell, I am not with mine, I can also understand someone’s curiosity about a new eye color, but I can’t understand why someone with beautiful eyes would prefer a complete fakery (duh! those lenses are so unnatural!) only because she does not have the “perfect” color (I think is obvious I find the natural form of some of the eyes above to be really beautiful).
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One of the concerts I saw at Bucharest Days was “Balade din Carpati” (“Carpathian Ballads”) by K1 and Felicia Filip: not sure what was their target with such an interesting combination of modern, classic and traditional music, maybe they wanted to cash in on the Nightwish success, maybe they were awed by Therion or something else… the point is: it was interesting but to use a well known expression: “close, but no cigar”.
First of all, I should acknowledge the sound system in the street was total crap (it was crap also a night before when Mircea Baniciu performed together with Vladi Cnejevici, and that was folk music, where everyone knew the songs), so the experience was far from optimal.
First of all, the K1 band cannot hide its roots in a boy bad: they sing, move and dace like a boy band and this is ….bleah. They were the lowest point of the show, their dance stuff destroy all the symphonic metal stuff.
Then the “story teller”, Vlad Radescu, he can’t hold a candle to Christopher Lee in Symphony of Enchanted Lands II by Rhapsody of Fire. But, honestly, who can hold a candle to Saruman? He do not even tried: no cavernous voice, no magic, no nothing. I do not care about the joyful voice of a bald guy.
Felicia Filip did her best, she is a great soprano with an amazing voice, no complaint about her.
What I think was the highlight of the show was Cornelia Tihon, she is really great with the Pan flute (and other woodwind instruments, like regular flute or tulnic, she also has some extraordinary legs and is not afraid to show them on stage.
I will hold a final conclusion until I hear a show in better acoustic conditions (YouTube is full of recorded clips from various concerts, do a search and apply your own judgement), but my initial bias is not very positive, I was disappointed.
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I didn’t understand the purpose of Malaysian dances at the Bucharest Days festivities, but just like the rest of the audience I found them hot. And I guess this is all that matter.
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From a visual point of view I know I should have used GIMP to remove the black wire from the background of this photo, but those wires are pretty much the Bucharest’s signature these days, even if the old fashioned clock make you think at long go times.
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I am pretty sure his name is not Larry, since Larry is not a Romanian name, but I thought the title has a nice ring. And he definitely was a potter
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I started with great expectations and blew everything up with my bad mood, but still managed to snap a few shots with traditional costumes.
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