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 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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One of the events taking place at the Bucharest Days was the high school students march, with thousands of kids from Bucharest. I searched for my colleagues but no luck… I guess they were smart enough to take place in what effectively was the launch of Oprescu’s campaign launch for presidency. Good things guys!
But the thing which clearly stood out in the march was the high concentration of lolita’s on sqare meter, which was…. uhm… unhealthy
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After the big pop star Madonna was booed at a concert in Bucharest for giving an uniformed lecture about gipsies. Of course that created a cascade of equally uninformed reactions in the media all over the world and a storm of comments. But like any storms, it came and went away, people forgot about it.
Well, last week-end at ONGFest, the national festival for non-governmental organizations was a good opportunity for me to remember the Madonna incident: the most acclaimed artistic moment at the event (at least from what I have seen) was created by a gypsy organization, they danced, sang and people loved them. Yes, the same people who would have booed Madonna.
What’s the trick? They were bathed, wearing clean clothes, smelled good, had jobs, acted like people who attended school and their music was authentic, not manele. Is that too demanding?
Anyway, I enjoyed the moment and took a lot of photos.
At the end of their show, they started a “penguin dance” and everybody joined them. Is that racism? discrimination?
With this being said, I will reiterate: I have no sympathy for the smelly and dirty ones who refuse to get a job and instead send their children to beg and steal for them, milk the social security and use the school only as a source of food (the “corn cu lapte” program).
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I am a big sucker for swords and fantasy, no from my point of view, the swords tournament offered by the knights from Țara Bârsei was the highlight of the ONGFest. Too bad I didn’t know about it, I did’n plan shooting it, didn’t expect to say so late in the night so I didn’t have an external flash unit on me, didn’t have a secondary battery for the camera on me and as a result the photos were not the best and not as many as I would have liked. And I missed their following fireworks.
Beyond the scenario, the fight was spectacular, they were putting passion into it: sparks on clashing swords, real kick throwing the opponent 2-3 meters away and making it roll in the dirt, all the audience enjoyed it.
And where are knights and sword fight, there must be also princesses, balancing the male violence with their grace and providing the guys with a reason to fight. And maybe a prize, what I know?
So the old city of Bucharest, knights, swordplay, princesses… what do you want more? Oh, yeah, some drinks… they had that too 😀
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I found this guy figure interesting enough for a portrait and he was cooperative, giving me (I think) an portrait-worthy look.
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No, I didn’t became (yet) an ambulance chaser, it is just a demo for the rescue team (“crucea rosie”) intervention, simulating the intervention after the explosion of a gas pipe.
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So, as promised, a series of photos from ONGFest and Bucharest Days, what is the best start for it? How about some free hugs by the “Bucegi Mountains fairies”? Pretty neat, no matter how you stretch the definition of a “fairy” and to whom you apply it. And you must be content with what you get, right?
note: “îmbrățișări gratuite” = “free hugs” but it can also stand for “gratuitous hugs”
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In fact there is no part one… Part one was about a year ago when I posted on my main blog a photo made with my phone while going home, back from work, in the public transportation system in Bucharest. It was nothing special, made with the phone hels in the normal position for use wile texting for example and showing nothing more than could be recorded by the surveillance camera.
Still, it generated the most heated debate ever on my blog (I still receive now comments on it), with people attacking or defending me. Some even tried to Google bomb me, trying to make me to take down the page. This simply won’t happen! But in a funny(ironic?) twist, those guys are still one of the main traffic sources on the blog 😀 (and indirectly ads click, which probably made me something in the range of 20$).
This controversy was one of my main reasons to start a separate blog dedicated to photography, where I published a lot of stuff, even more revealing, and the reactions were completely different (maybe because here the audience has less pompous *******?)
But Wow! what a long introduction! And for what? A couple of days ago, returning from work to home, the same public transportation system and having with me the same crappy camera phone I got the opportunity for a similar shot. Going full-circle.
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I am trying an experiment together with Ceata: a series of photography workshop which just started yesterday with a small session held in the Politehnica University of Bucharest campus.
![[photography workshop]](https://nicubunu.ro/pictures/atelier/ceata/20090804-foto/132-img_5605.jpg.medium.jpeg)
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Lifting a quote straight from Wikipedia:
"In photography, the golden hour (sometimes known as magic hour, especially in cinematography) is the first and last hour of sunlight during the day, when a specific photographic effect is achieved with the quality of the light."
As I stumbled around the city center around the golden hour a couple of days ago, I just had to take a few shots in that magic light:
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I always hated the megalomaniacal constructions in the center of the city at Piața Unirii, I think they are an ugly remaining of the dreaded communist era and are making Bucharest uglier.
But passing there is a torrid summer day the large number of fountains in the middle of the crammed traffic is somewhat refreshing.
And I find even more refreshing the life around those fountains, both beasts and people are enjoying the water.
I think the dog puts in perspective the "dog day" expression and also I envy his his freedom.
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A loot of my candid shots are taken on a certain bridge in the Herastrau Park (a favorite spot), just like the one below: either with people passing by or looking down at the boats below. But there is also an ugly side: last Sunday, don’t know how, I had my lens hood falling in the water… I don’t know to swim and even so, I would not swim in that water, so it lost… time to buy another one!
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A reader of my photography blog may already know I am trying to master the wind, with a various degree of success. Last week-end I was so close… but still no cigar.
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Morning after morning I pass near that shaded chicory flower and wonder about taking a better shot, but today it was a little different: a firebug (Romanian: Vaca Domnului) was walking around, offering me the opportunity for a different take (yeah, in the backgrounds are blue chicory flowers and the fence is making difficult for me to shot them).
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