Still at Domeniul Greaca

What can I do? The good photos from Domeniul Greaca are too many to ignore. But today I combine a nice place with an awesome person. Some photos of Dana, who worked extremely much in order for this congress to be successful, and she deserves her own post. Not only because she worked a lot but because she's awesome anyway. There we go.

The light is very important in night photos. The lights there were just great. They were giving beautiful colours, something that we saw on the previous posts.

The editing adds a bit to the lighting without exaggerating. I know you can't see it now, but if you click on the photos, the difference will be obvious.

Here is Dana and behind her is the pool. And the hotel.

And here with more intense colours, as I like to edit my photos in general.

I think that I prefer this photo over the previous one. The lighting is better and the details clearer.

Yeah. You can even see the details on the bottom of the pool. I love night photos. Perix, brace yourself! In two weeks I'm coming!

Back to Domeniul Greaca (poolside)

I told you already, I have a couple of thousands of pictures. And many of them are very interesting. Let's go back to Domeniul Greaca and see some interesting shots.

I know that I don't post a lot lately, but I have some other projects as well, for which we will talk when the time comes. Also, I'm lazy.

Peace, truth, hope. You can find these stones while going to the swimming pool of the hotel.

The great lighting helped me get some beautiful detail here. You can click on the photos to see them better.

Talking about the swimming pool. Check this. It's like we're back in Tunisia, not Romania! This photo is like made for a card! But wait, there's more!

OK, I'm not experienced in taking photos, but a good photo for me is one that keeps you staring at it because you like it (not because of its ugliness), even if there are some flaws. This is one of those photos. The blue is beautiful here.

The young lady on my left is Marina. After some group photos next to the pool in the evening, we stayed a few more minutes to try and see what we can do with long exposures.

I like very much the colours of the night photos. Especially the green of the grass and the details of the motionless parts are great. Click on the photos! See them in all their glory!

Also, I wrote on a previous post that the Peleş was something like Ceauşescu's house. I was mistaken. He didn't like it and he had closed it from 1975 until his execution. Shortly after that, it opened again.

Half here, half there (Bucharest-Paris edition)

The long trip to Romania ended. What I got was a great time with great people, some terrifying snow that I will never get over, and about 2000 photos plus some videos. You have already seen some of the photos, and you will see some more.

What we have today are two photos from the Otopeni airport in Bucharest and two photos from the entrance of our building. Yes, after all the flight and the train and the carrying of those enormous bags, the first thing I did when I came back home was go back down and take photos. Not because "photography is my life" and all those big words, but because it was freaking worth it! Bear with me, you'll see!

To the photos, my friends!

So, there is a place, after the security check, with restaurants and such things, with a common area with tables. And two little swallows were taking advantage of it.

Click on it if you want to see the photo a bit bigger. It was funny to see two little birds in an area where you don't normally expect to see them!

So, if your ticket says that you board from the gates 20 to 23 and you're not flying to Hogwarts, what are you supposed to do?

No, really, this is a wall. You move towards the wall and you just pass through it? For now we don't know. Maybe we will, some day... (always put three dots at the end when you want to add suspense)

And then, we returned to Paris. We took the RER, we took the bus from La Defense, we arrived home. What do we have here?

All right, this time our pet spider has brought a friend. And, just in case the friend feels cold, the caring host offered a blanket. A hand-made one, to be precise.

You see this? You'll never be as good a friend as this cute spider. You'll never take so much care of someone. How does that make you feel, huh?

Look how comfortable it looks. Everyone would be lucky to have friends like that. The spider is too good a friend to not be guarding over the sleeping guest. If it wasn't so noble, it would almost be creepy.

Friendship in all its glory. Noble spider, I salute you. I hope I will become just like you one day. Really, click on the photo, you will like it.

Just to show you how much I care for you, I have two videos of spider hospitality! For your pleasure!

A tireless little fellow

Today, for the first time in the long, almost 4-month, history of the blog, we will have only one person as a subject. And this person is my friend, Luca, from Bucharest. The photo shoot took place on Sunday morning and it was not scheduled. It was more like "Hey, why don't you take some photos of Luca?" and so I did.

The only little problem was that Luca doesn't speak english yet and I had to give him directions with my poor romanian. Of course, it was a chance for me to practice it since almost all the adults speak english and I always get tempted to use what is easier for me instead of pushing myself to improve my other languages. Same thing happens with french as well. Where were we?

Ah, yes. So, Luca was a professional some times, staying perfectly still when needed, which led to some very nice photos. Of course, when he got bored, he would prefer to use me as a trampoline. Yes, this is the word he used when he was jumping on me. Hey, don't get me wrong! Children who run around and play are healthy! You cannot expect them to stay down and read all the time or else they will end up like, well, me.

Off to Luca's photos now!

After bouncing around, Luca would stay still suddenly and I would have to be aware so that I could capture the moment! Here, the daylight was behind him, which didn't help very much.

Technically, this is not a very good photo, but his face says something like "Yes, yes, I'm calm and nice but turn your eyes away for a second and you'll see then!" A very nice one, among many nice photos!

And then we turn around. Against the daylight now. The difference is so obvious that no further comments are needed.

And with some necessary editing, even better.

I don't know what he was looking at. But he helped me get a very nice shot.

And here we see the same photo with some editing, of course. Notice how the light comes from the right side.

With the daylight against him once more, another nice photo. We took more than 100 photos many of them were quite worthwhile.

And with the edited photo, we are done for with today's post. Luca is a fun little guy and the whole photo shoot had lots of laughs. Remember to click on the photos to see them bigger as a slideshow.

Panning and getting dizzy

While we are at Poiana Brașov for the workshop Metamorphoses V of UNESCO and I'm dearly defeated all day because of the snow that hasn't stopped since morning and has covered the whole place, I will give you some photos from previous week, when I had experimented with panning while in the train and returning to Bucharest.

Seriously, it's October 1st. I know that we are in the mountains, but snow?! And so much? At least in Paris it snows in January and February, when it's still sad but at least it's expected! Anyway. To the photos.

So, trying to have one part of the image clear while the others look like they are in motion, I tried to follow one spot with the movement of the train. This is one of my successful tries.

And this is the same try, with more intense colours, clearer and with your beloved watermark.

A small, lonely little tree seems to be motionless while the world around it is running. I like a lot this one.

As you expected, I like the edited one more. Imagine if only I had edited the photo only to like more the unedited one. This would be the definition of fail, actually. But it's not. No, not today.

Come on, get dizzy with me! Wheeeeeeeee!

I like this effect. Enough with it for now though. Next post will have more normal photos! For now, remember to click on the photos to see them bigger.

On a side note, I cannot hide my joy for the fact that the neo-nazi criminal organization is being dissolved and its members incarcerated with lots of heavy charges, but I cannot hide my worries for the timing. Many people have known them and their sick nature for many years now. But the government found out only after the murder of Killah-P? And now suddenly many politicians and opinion manipulators (who work as journalists) became antifascists? Would I be too strict to say that Greece is a bit messed up?

Sinaia reloaded: Vertigo and the lost Milka

I know that it took me too long to post new photos and that September in general has been a bit lazy, but the last days I was working heavily on creating two videos about the events in Domeniul Greaca (see previous posts).

The second day in Sinaia we decided to go high on the mountain and take the telegondola to take us even higher and see the world from 1400 meters. The telegondola (or teleferic) is that little box which travels upwards or downwards on a line. It's like those creepy chairs that the skiers use to go to the top, only that it's closed and it feels safer. Although still scary! But it was a huge relief to find it and finally sit after all this walking upwards. From around 500 meters that is the altitude of Sinaia, we walked to 1000 meters, following the road which is made for the cars. Long story short, it was quite tiring.

So, this is the line, this is the little pink box and I admit that it feels a bit creepy at first. Until you get down. Then you feel great again.

Of course, if you want to go back down, the fastest way is the little pink box again. By the way, do you see the tiny houses? That is Sinaia. We walked from there until the beginning of the line. Upwards. I assure you, it's a lot. And we are in bad shape. This counts too.

After we returned down and while we were waiting for the mini bus to return to town, I saw this. They have various tools for bicycles there and apparently many bikers use the telegondolas to go to 1400 meters and explore the mountain with their bikes.

But my inexcusable eyes, slaves to my stomach which has most of my brain cells, fell on these delicious 535 calories. Someone had left them there. To tempt me? To confuse me? To tease me? Maybe they just forgot it there. Anyway, I did my duty. Click on it, so that you can see it better. Go ahead, click on the photo of the purple beauty. You will see it bigger. Probably you will feel the need to go and buy one. It will be my fault. I have no regrets for that.

So, we took the mini bus. But we went to the Peleș museum. It was a house of Nicolae Ceaușescu who, as every dictator who respects (only) himself, thought that it was fair for him to have many nice things but the rest of the people not.

Of course, like many dictators, he didn't have a very nice end. Even though I was very little in 1989 when the revolution took place and the dictator with his wife were executed via a firing squad in live broadcast, I still remember intensely the feelings of these days.

Now Peleș is a museum and there were many visitors, even from the USA. The old days are a bad memory (shown in black and white) and the sky around the place is blue.

A little trip to Sinaia

Today we took the train and after about 120 km, we arrived at Sinaia, on the mountains of Romania. It's a beautiful small touristic town and, even it it's quite colder than Bucharest, it's still very nice. Let's see what the first day had to offer us.

Mountains everywhere, yes. An interesting view of the boulevard Carol I.

As usual, editing helps the photo look even better.

This looks more like something from a temple, but I think it is a house. In any case, I wanted to take a photo of it!

Look at this. Very nice image. Lots of green everywhere. And interesting houses, built with their roofs inclining in order to not keep lots of snow, I think. It snows a lot around here and a flat roof could be damaged under the weight of too much snow.

Nice landscapes, but this is my favourite photo for today. These four siblings were receiving the travellers outside the train station, on the stairs that lead to the boulevard Carol I. So squeezable that it hurts! Look at these faces!

Look how they are posing! I give you my word, I didn't touch them! They sat like this by themselves! I wanted to stay there and play with them for the rest of the day!

You know how there are dog persons and cat persons, based on which animal they like more? I think I'm both. But for today, with those faces, I am a dog person!

More from EFUCA executive board

I took more than 1200 photos these four days. About one out of six or seven is quite good, which means that we have more than 100 good photos to show! Another four of them are presented here, today.

The mornings had a lot of presentations and discussions by individuals who are active members of a world community, trying hard to improve the lives of people everywhere.

This is from the first evening, the arrival.

In front of the entrance of Domeniul Greaca. A nice view behind us. In front of me, actually, since I was behind the camera, but you get my point.

The night photos gave me the opportunity to capture beautiful colours and very interesting light effects. Behind there is a fire and the lines are little sparks and the movement as it was captured in the 2 second exposure. I tortured many people forcing them to stay still for 2 seconds. It's much harder than it sounds. Personally, I didn't manage to stay still in my photos!