Category: close-up

Triumph? not so fast Buster…

2010-02-15
beautifulclose-upflowergardennaturephotospringwildlifewinter
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A few weeks ago (almost one month ago!) I though I blew my last chance to get a good (but cliché) photo with snowdrops and snow but many things happened since then: snow and freezing cold, huge snow and so on. However, last week-end it looked like the spring finally triumphed and I got my snowdrops cliché:

snowdrops /ghiocei

It was warm and sunny and the little resilient managed to find their way out:
snowdrops /ghiocei snowdrops /ghiocei

My joy was premature, this morning the winter was in full swing again, the place of my little snowdrops went from that to that (today’s photo are a bit rushed, I was already late for work):
snowdrops /ghiocei snowdrops /ghiocei

And the little guys are fighting and still holding:
snowdrops /ghiocei

Who will win in the end? Place your bets…

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Brussels

2010-02-09
beerclose-updrinkfoodphototravel
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Trying to document my trip in Brussels at FOSDEM, some photos with food and drinks are in order.

One of the things Brussels is know for is its beer and bars, like Delirium Cafe, a place keeping the world record for having available 2004 types of beer in January 2004:

beer

Very nice to be there with some friends
bar

Of course, the beer is good and strong:
beer

Another Belgian speciality is seafood, but I didn’t had any of this, just looked and shot:
seafood

But I had crêpes, still no gaufres:
crepe

And fries are everywhere:
fries

Still, you can also eat more common, less traditional stuff:
food

I don’t know, profiteroles are traditional or generic?
profiterole

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Snowflake: perfection of the imperfection

2010-01-25
beautifulclose-upmacronaturephotowinter
2 Comments

In what I presume to be this season’s last winter photoshot I noticed how big and beautiful snowflakes were falling on my camera, it was cold enough they didn’t melt. As you can’t take photos of something sitting on the body of your camera, I chased a few, and tried to shot them from my hand.

The photo is not perfect, as I held the snowflake in the left hand, the camera with the lenses extended to the max in the right hand, in freezing cold and snow over the ankles:

snowflake

Do you know the snowflakes are supposed to be unique, not two identical ones? Each one will have its own imperfections and be distinct. You know, just like people, only the snowflakes are so many more and so ephemeral…

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Spring’s announcers

2010-01-18
close-upflowergardennaturephotospringwinter
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A week ago when the weather was warm and nice and I thought the winter is gone for good I noticed in my garden some snowdrops (ghiocei) preparing to blossom and, as cliché as it is, I wanted to take a photo, as the message is strong, they are the first flowers of the year, the triumph of live over death, spring over winter.

With a full time work, at 7:30 in the morning when I leave home is not enough light and at 19-19:30 in the evening when I get back, it it already pitch black for a couple of hours already… yeah, that’s one of the ugliest parts of the winter, so my only chance was to wait for the week-end, hoping also for a ray of light, to make the photos more lively.

Fast forward to Saturday: the sky was cloudy, dark and depressing, not the atmosphere I wanted to illustrate the triumph of spring… so postponed one more day. Sunday morning, no luck either: the same dark, heavy clouds, the same depressing atmosphere. However, the ground was covered with some icy dust, a lame snow attempt, so I got the camera out for some photos, even if the story was different than the plan in my head. It still was a good story, about the winter who does not give-up easily:

snowdrops/ghiocei

Much to my surprise, today (Monday) morning when I opened the door was hit with a huge surprise: everything was white, a full winter is back. Of course my snowdrop flowers were covered fully in snow and of course it was too early in the morning, to dark to take a contrasting photos about how winter has won one more battle.

Now waiting for the next week-end, wondering which surprise will bring, what story will be told, what photos to be taken…

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More bees, more chrysanthemums

2009-11-09
autumnbeautifulclose-upflowerinsectmacronaturephotowildlife
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A year ago I had a beautiful experience in a warm sunny weekend with the opportunity to take some great shots of bees and chrysanthemums in my garden. This year my garden is in a much worse shape (I totally suck as a gardener) but still a nice couple of days, some flowers and a few bees… and this look like the start of a tradition.

[chrysanthemums and bees] [chrysanthemums and bees] [chrysanthemums and bees]

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Autumn is all over us

2009-11-02
autumnbeautifulbucharestclose-upflowergardennaturephoto
4 Comments

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.

chrysanthemums chrysanthemums

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.

park 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):

leaves leaves

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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Wold in eye

2009-10-12
close-upeyesphotophotomanipulation
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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:

world in eye

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The eye

2009-10-12
beautifulclose-upcollageeyesgirlsphotoportfoliowomen
24 Comments

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.

lot of eyes

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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About food: mititei and other goodies

2009-08-19
close-upfoodfunnyphotoRomania
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A regular reader of this blog should be already familiar with mititei, the quintessential Romanian grilled food:

mititei

You eat them with bread, mustard and drink a lot (beer or wine). As said above, they are cooked on a grill. Open air grills are the best, since your neighbours will be crazed by the flavour
mitiei

If you are not "hardcore" enough, then you may cook some non-meaty stuff on that grill. Mushrooms are OK.
grill

A total wuss may get caught with a vegetable-only grill. You don’t want to be one of "these people" 😀
grill

Lacking mititei, a grill with steaks and/or sausages is passable:
grill

No meat? Stay with the canned beans! Mwa ha ha ha ha!
beans

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Butterlies near the forest

2009-08-18
close-upFOSSinsectnaturephototravelwildlife
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Camping in the middle of the nature has a lot of gifts, like parting with the insects. Those may be unpleasant, like the insect bites on your arm and legs, but also beautiful, like a butterfly encounter. You see him first near your tent and if following things may happen. You only need space on the memory card (and the space is plenty).

butterfly butterfly

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In the forest

2009-08-18
close-upFOSSnaturephototravelwildlife
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Going in the middle of the nature, even for a geeky event, I obviously couldn’t stop myself from going a few steps away in the forest and looking around. You will surely find little gems.

mushroom mushroom

mushroom mushroom

… now I am definitely NOT bold enough to tag those as “food” 😀

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Honeysuckle …or someone’s hand :D

2009-07-27
close-upflowergardenmacrophoto
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After an indirect challenge from Alex I just had to take my own photos of this flower (it was helpful there is a bush hanging on the fence of my garden). And while Alex is remembering the very sweet water drops you can find inside this flower, for me the smell is perhaps what I remember the best.

Honeysuckle

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Sitting like a fly on the… fence

2009-07-24
close-upinsectmacronaturephotowildlife
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A warm, sunny summer morning… the fly is a being too, with full rights to enjoy the sun.

Fly under the sun

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….mmmmm, pizza! Hot pizza!

2009-07-24
close-updrinkfoodphoto
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Pizza Diavolla with extra mozzarella and extra pepperoni, hot sauce and a cold beer on the side. Heaven (pun intended).

My lunch today: Pizza Diavolla

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Mmmm… apricots… tasty!

2009-07-17
close-upfoodfruitmacrophoto
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Back when I was a kid there used to be a lot of apricots around, so many my family used to to jam of them, now to get some I had to go to the market place and buy. However, this is their season, they are affordable and tasty.

Delicious apricot

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