Working on a dream

I always felt quite close to films. Somehow, coming to the realization that Anton Corbjin managed to pull both out of the hat, meant i could too. True story.

Now, my first fun assignment had to do with Land Rovers. I couldn't have picked it any better.

We had a 5D Mk2, follow focus rig, dolly and tracks, and a bunch of lenses to go with them. 2 Arri lights, not used that much, and a whole lot of questions i had no answer to. So, armed with all this shit, i proceeded to put on a brave face and go shoot my first presentation film.

These days i'm making real good friends with Final Cut Pro and it's features, trying to get the best of what i shot. Will try to remember all the things i shouldn't do, should do better and so on.

'Till then, here's a couple of film stills.

Alina Manole

Album cover i shot a few weeks ago.

Greenlaning

Sighisoara 2011 Land Rover Meering

It's always surprising when forum members get together. You have somebody pegged down as a certain kind of person from the stuff they write on one forum or another. However, adding a face to the nickname is always a surprising thing to do. 30 LR forum members did just that this weekend ...

Late(st) work

This last week we shot a fashion collection. Basically, all fun. Images to come soon.



For now, the Defender and i are going to the national Land Rover meeting for a few beers and a lot of mud. This is not how it'll look Sunday evening :)

Digital Pentax 645

Last week we went to check out the new Pentax digital camera. The presentation wasn't quite my cup of tea but the camera has a nice feel to it. Although not a full frame 645, the large sensor sure knows how to make the 40 mega pixels be worth their money. With a serious range of functions, some quite fun - like the built in level finder for when your tripod's level is confused - the 10.000 EUR Pentax with the 55 millimeter lens was presented as the ultimate device in landscape photography. Again, not my cup of tea, but hey, to each his own. Basically what i found quite convenient is that it weighed less than the Hasselblad H40 counterpart - 1400 grams vs 2290 grams - makes it rather obvious which of them you'd shove in a backpack.

Now having had a run in with both of them, i can say that my first impression still lasts. They are great. Both of them. All medium format digitals are brilliant pieces of equipment. But they do something to you - like religion, they indoctrinate the photographer. I deeply dislike that and the only company that has successfully pulled this off is Leica, with their elegant scarfs and red dot cameras and sonce their response to the format i have yet to test out - i shall not discuss the matter. I am however a firm believer that anything over 15 mpx is Enough. The rest is down to the person behind the display and God knows I've seen some except images taken with very expensive cameras. The opposite applies just as well...

6 Days of Snowboarding

This morning i woke up feeling like I've had a difference of opinions with a freight train. Obviously, due to life experience and extensive knowledge of the world, he was right. Now, six days of boarding left me with a not-so-painful knee bruise but a really really uncomfortable rib bruise. See, the thing is, while one snowboards, one also learns the intricate workings of the human skeleton and it's amazing abilities to stretch and withstand repeated knocks against large immovable objects.

The important lesson i've learned, while attempting to pull a 360 tailgrab (which as you guessed, failed miserably), was that one can somehow elbow himself in the ribs. Due to lack of air time, my 360 turned into ... well ... about 264.7 degrees. This lack of precision combined with the tailgrab (which between you, me and whoever is reading this, made me look absolutely fabulous on a 3300m empty ski slope), meant my board got stuck nose first into the deep snow. Since we, the board and i, had a pretty decent speed, i successfully managed to front flip and somehow land on my hand, whose elbow met my left lower ribs. So, due to this unfortunate event, today i might post pictures on the blog because i don't quite see how i can even tie my own boots, let alone bind and unbind my board.

So, yeah.

Wien

November

This month, in pictures






From art to elegance to decadence to bruises. We shall have it all.

Interior Design

Here's a few pictures from an Interior Designer and her last project, an exclusive penthouse for rent.

Last Week

Maria

a day of soft off road and baptizing a little girl that our friends adopted

4 more tests before we part

Tomorrow i'm leaving for the mountains. No civilization, no phone signal, no problem. Here's some of the last tests i've done. I've just coated 33 more papers to take along for the ride - we'll see how that goes.

Cyanotype

I have just returned from the UK, where we attended my graduation. Surprisingly enough, i did graduate with a First Class BA(Hons). Now i am beginning work on my second project, and the first after leaving school. It'll be cyanotype based, but more information will be provided later on in the process. For now, all i can say is that the first tests have been a success (to my own surprise) and that i have built my own exposure frame (there is very little that power tape and a small screw driver cannot conquer or create). So, here are my first tests:




We're leaving Sunday on a long trek in the mountains to work on a common project, Bogdan and I, and i will be taking a fairly large number of cyanotype-coated papers and will try to keep a record of our journey in this particular way. So far, so good ...

TAT 2010

Poland: Part I

It's the relaxing morning after a long and hot day. Yesterday i've traveled from Romania to Germany by plane and from there to Poland, by car. The guys at the gallery knew i like off road cars so they arranged to have me picked up in a Grand Cherokee. That just made my day ...
Arriving there, i met Jerzy and we got to talking. Apparently i am to be showing in two galleries in this time, one of which, as i understood is actually a museum room of sorts. Well, that went well anyway.


As we were sitting down having a chat, we got to talking about accommodation and Jerzy said: "Oh, we got you a room in the castle". I thought he was kidding because he tends to make this kind of jokes. But he wasn't. I actually have a room in the castle. Granted, it's not the master bedroom but it's free, it's mine and it's overlooking a brilliant backyard with red brick and stone walls. Just to make things even better, the Castle is home to the Opera House as well. Something must go horribly wrong right about now because it's unnatural for everything to be so spot on.

Despre Sunete si Lumina

Mai multe informatii puteti gasi aici:

http://www.sunetesilumina.tk/

An Evening of Light and Sound

In addition to the summer exhibitions that will take place, we're adding another one-night-only event hosted by the Bucharest Operetta. Together with Dana and her colleagues we will be having an evening of photography and classical canto. More news as we organize the event. It would probably take place sometime between the 1st and the 8th of June.

This last week

I am sorry i haven't been writing anything this last week. I've been running around shooting for my project, went to the countryside for off road but couldn't, because of worn out steering bushes and spent the whole of last evening chatting with my parents who've just come back from a 2500 km race in Morocco. Will put some pictures of them and us during the weekend sometime this week.

Later edit: we're still stuck in Bucharest due to the volcano (my Icelandic editor went off roading and photographing the whole of the first eruption btw) and there's no sign i will be leaving soon so we're having a concert on the 22nd in Slobozia, in The Barn. See you there.

Exhibitions and other things.

We're flying home. No time for talks but on the short:

1) Might have concerts on the 7th (TBA), 11th (Slobozia) and 15th (Preoteasa) of April somehwere in the city and also out of it. Confirmation of dates and locations TBA (all in Romania, for now)

2) I shall be having solo project, The Ambassadors shown in the Luton Arts Festival sometime at the end of April - date for private view as well as length of exhibition TBA

3) We (Mr. Octavian Balea and myself) will be having a duo show (They Are Us) in Poland from 12th of June to the 31st of August, in the Fotart Gallery in Szczecin. Private view on the 12th of June around 18:00.

4) I shall be showing a solo project, The Ambassadors, in Balder Piha Gallery in Helsinki from 3rd of September all the way to 17th of September. I suspect that the Private View will be on the 3rd around 18:00 also.

5) Work to be featured in an interesting photography magazine - still working on the interview and the images - name and date of show TBA as well

Working oh three different series plus extra magazine and journalism work so not much time left for anything else. We are still working on a few more exhibitions for what has kind of apparently become a European Series of my final year project. Surprises and such coming soon (ha now i can say "The Ambassadors - coming to a city near you" I always wanted to say that because it sounds so global and i heard it in a Toys'R'Us commercial when i was 6 or 7)

I've also looked at starting the Bucharest Arts Festival 2011 but it's still at the initial stage. Project Competition and a blog/site is going to probably come up sometime not very soon but not quite never.

Until then, yeah, not much else. Just wishing the damn plane won't crash and that my work will keep being a project instead of a retrospective of what could've been a good photographer. Maybe. Not.