To Greece and back

It's been a very long time since I wrote here. That's because I went to Greece for a bit less than two weeks and I was kind of too busy for posting. But I took some very interesting photos which I will present you here soon. Also, we did another movie, all from scratch. You will find out more in the next weeks, hopefully.

Today's photos were taken in November 3rd, somewhere near a lake at the Nestos area. It was near sunset, so the lighting was beautiful. And I was with Perix, whose page you should check if you want to see some photos of extreme quality, so I had some expert guidance too. Let's check the material now.

The temperatures were beautiful while I was there. Even if the trees weren't fooled and lost their leaves on time.

With the editing and the enhanced colours, as usual, the photo looks much more interesting.

Here I'm trying Perix's 10X magnifying glass on the 18-55mm lens, on the fungi on a tree.

And here I'm using some editing. The depth of field is extremely narrow, as you can see, which meant that I had to be very still if I didn't want to lose the focused part.

But, as it happens usually, soon the sun went pretty low. Still, it made for some great shots. This is just one of them.

Click on it, so that you can see better the flock of birds at the center of the photo. Click on it and you'll see all of the photos better.

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!

Executive board EFUCA, Greaca, September 2013

So, From 18 to 22 of September, we were in the exceptional Domeniul Greaca hotel, in the deep south or Romania (5 km from the borders with Bulgaria) for the executive board of the European Federation of UNESCO Clubs and Associations. Important decisions were taken and the next meeting will take place in March 2014 in New York.

I had the chance to take more than 1200 photos in these days, some of them I will present you right here, right now. It was a great experience with some great people and I'm looking forward to the next meeting. To the photos now!

The weather was nice and we had the chance to capture many nice moments. Here, you can see myself as well, right after I used the remote controller. Good that I had it with me, otherwise I wouldn't be in any photos!

I think that this is my absolute favourite. Everyone is smiling or laughing after my request to say "cheese"in their respective native languages. So, you could hear "queso", "brânză", "τυρί", "formaggio", etc. I was a fun moment.

This was from the last evening, after all the thanks were given to everyone who helped for this event to take place.

The evening of a tiring day is finding us all smiling.

Remember to click on the photos in order to see them larger!

In the countryside in Romania

These days we are in Greaca, around 65km far from Bucharest, Romania, for a UNESCO action. I've had the chance to take a few hundred photos and I'm glad to present you three of them here, tonight (it's almost midnight in Romania at the time I started writing this).

Impressive colours, even with absolutely no editing. Many photos on the hill of the hotel Domeniul Greaca where we are guests, have this kind of beauty, thanks to the sun's contribution.

And this is what happens after a bit of editing. My little struggling netbook did very well and didn't get stuck in the process! Go ahead, click on the photo to see the slideshow. Come on, do I have to remind you every time?

I did pat myself on the back for this one. "Nice job, dude", I told me before stretching a bit, because patting yourself on the back is a bit hard. It needs flexibility.

What happened here? Just some editing happened. Editing takes a great photo and makes it even better. Check the intensity of the colours. I like this one very much, in case it wasn't undestood.

This is at the entrance of Lumina university, in Bucharest. These tiny boxes with the balconies that are closed and have become another room, are something very common in Bucharest.

Say what you want, but I prefer to live in these boxes in the city than in the countryside.