Month: June 2010

Vote for Carmen

Carmen is a beautiful model and I was fortunate to work with her a couple of times in the past, now she needs a vote. Below are a few of my photos with her, but on the vote page there are some you will probably like more (they are more revealing 😀 – I bet you’ll like those!)

Let me try to encourage my readers: if you vote for her and if she wins, I promise to post more photos from the sets below, so what are you waiting for? Go now and vote for Carmen.

carmen carmen
carmen

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Dead man’s switch activated

No worry, I am not deat yet, just testing my Dead man’s switch which I just created.

note: the post above was posted by one early implementation of the software, for more development details about it you can read on my other blog.


Have a cold one!

I know this brans is not that great but is affordable, cold and plenty of it. Just what you need in the summer.

beer

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I miss my lens

Yesterday I arrived home near the midnight, I was tired, with some beers in my system and not very optimistic, it was too much for a pretentious shoot: night, flashes, rain, water drops, improper lens so I postponed it until the morning.

The morning was not much better: it was still raining so the light was bad, the flowers in my garden still faded after a couple of torrid weeks, and most important, my preferred (zoom/macro) lens still missing – the lens is broken and I sent it to the repair shop, will miss it probably for a couple of weeks.

The first scenario I tried was the (prime) 50mm lens with a macro extension ring, the smallest ring in my set – I had to go a little closer than wanted:

rose

The second scenario was the wide lens, 19-35, at the maximum zoom and widest aperture and then a crop around the subject – the DOF was too large, the flower not separated enough from its leaves.
rose

As a conclusion, I was not happy with either, still selected the macro. I miss my lens!

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Flyers

I know this is a stupid thing to to, but when previewing the series on the LCD of my camera I noticed the continuity, so I had to assemble it in an animated GIF:

flyers

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Another summer in the city

I like to catch the summer impact on the city and Piața Unirii in the center of Bucharest is just good for that, with its huge but horrible (communist heritage) fountains. This year I had a bit of help, so the result is a bit more direct and personal:

summer

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Sunglasses vote

Is summer out there, the sun is hot and bright, we search for protection by wearing sunglasses. This is why I propose today a fun exercise, look at those photos featuring sunglasses I took recently and try to vote which one you like the best. The sunglasses, not the models :D, in fact that’s I find interesting, the people’s ability to disconnect the models (and their cleavages!) from the things they wear.

sunglasses sunglasses sunglasses sunglasses

For now, I will abstain myself from the vote, don’t want to influence my readers and their vote in any way.

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Jeep

Yet another photo from Menfest, but this time is not about the hostesses but about the cars (cars are also supposed to me ‘manly’ things):

menfest

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Turning Blind

Looking at this photo from the Miss contest I feel like turning blind… no, not because of that, you dirty minds, but because of the strong sunlight. Do you? (yep, that’s a test for mind dirtiness… or it should be).

blind

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Miss Menfest 2010

The second topic I was owing my readers was the Sunday shooting, at Menfest, for which I will try a backwards approach. Because I am odd.

So the show ended with what probably was its most interesting part: a Miss contest, where the winner received a shooting session at the FHM magazine (here the winners are one step in front of the group):

miss menfest

A last trial before the jury selected the winner was a talent competition… al the contestants were too shy (???) to do something, except two (from eleven), who both danced:
miss menfest miss menfest

Prior to that, all the bunch was aligned for inspection (and our eyes were inspecting, as deeply as they could):
miss menfest

But of course, our eyes started doing this from before they climbed the stage ans were (probably) still friends with each other:
miss menfest

And, finally, to go backwards all the way, here’s the winner back when winning was just a hope in her heart:
miss menfest

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Help Mihaita fulfill his dream

This call for donations is made on behalf of my beautiful model Irina, she is the sister of this unfortunate boy in need of help. Here is an excerpt from the donations website:

Letter from Mihai

My name is Mihai Popescu, I am 15 years old and I am from Ramnicu-Valcea, Romania. I am diagnosed with cerebral palsy with brain trauma, a disease that has affected my walking since my first years of life. Although I had 8 surgical operations along with 13 anesthesia and physical recovery at different medical centers across the country (Oradea, Targoviste, Sibiu, Bucuresti, Techirghiol, Ramnicu-Valcea) throughout 14 years of my life, I have never been able to walk unsustained. However, I am a student in 8th grade at ‘Anton Pann’ School in Ramnicu-Valcea in a NORMAL class. I have always wanted to be like my classmates, to be able to run, to play together, not to depend on my mother nor on anybody else. I’ve fought so far even though the surgeries have been painful, as well as the recovery and I don’t want to give up now when I have another chance to hope that I will become a normal boy at last. Please help me fulfill my dream now that I have a chance!

So, it this was convincing enough, spare a couple of minutes and help with a donation, it will be appreciated.

Thank you.


4tuning “All Stars” Drift Show

I promised details, so I really should move from my lazy ass, get some blogging about the 4tuning drift show I attended this Saturday and which was, to be honest, not as good as I hoped

4tuning

Like any self-respecting car event, it obviously had lots of cars, in this case self-modified or even self-made, usually by their enthusiastic drivers:
4tuning

Which drivers are a bunch of funny, bold, crazy men
4tuning

The show also has a lot of smoke, mostly from burned tires (I was practically black when I returned home)
4tuning

And plenty of damaged tyres – it was a drift show after all, and that’s the purpose of a drift show, damage as many tyres as you can
4tuning

To entertain the audience, there were also some bike acrobatics (those are considered by some more spectacular than car chasing)
4tuning

Anf if there is something which can’t be missing from a car event, is the final touch making all the males in the audience drool
4tuning

…of course I am talking about women posing as car ornaments… like or not (I know some that like this and some that hate it), is a vital ingredient of the recipe
4tuning

I considered attending the event also on Sunday, but something appeared on the horizon so I tried that too… watch this photography blog for the story :p

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Me = tractor driver

This weekend I was on the field, shooting: Saturday at the “4tuning All Stars” drift show and Sunday at Menfest, “men only” fair, two excessively sunny summer days so now I have “tractor driver tan” (don’t try to understand the expression if you aren’t Romanian).

At this moment I am too tired, too sunburned and too depressed by happenings in my personal life so I don’t have the energy for proper blog posts, consider this as a teaser for the photos which should arrive in the following days (quite a few pretty girls included :p)

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Pink Elephant

Having a bad day in a row of bad days from a row of bad weeks from a row of bad months, hoping this little fuzzy guy (the pink elephant is the mascot of what probably is the best pub in the world) will help a bit. No workee…

delirium pink elephant

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Sexy Fedora no-shirt

After in the first session I persuaded Andreea to do a good thing for the community and pose with a Fedora T-shirt (first dry and then wet) – and she rightfully was proclaimed a Geek Goddess for that, here is the continuation, where she takes her shirt off (warning: potentially NSFW!) and replaces it with some temporary Fedora tattoos:

sexy fedora

Sexy, right? If before that she was a goddess, now what? what title can top that? (or those 😀 – no, we don’t want those topped, we like them as they are)
sexy fedora

And, of course, we had a lot of fun in the process, everyone was happy, not only the viewer, Linux is not a boring server thing, it can be playful too:
sexy fedora

I hope you liked this photo session (see the full gallery) just as much I did, now time for thanks: thanks to Andreea for being a beautiful and cooperative model, thanks to Alex for helping with the shooting and thanks to Tatica for being supportive and helping with the editing, it was the teamwork of 4 people from 3 cities and 2 continents.