2oo9. a fresh new year

Nikon D80 | 1/125 seconds | f 7.1 | ISO 800 | 50 mm
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loving God. loving each others. loving our planet. this are my wishes for 2oo9.
happy new year all..

any day is a good deed day

Nikon D80 | 1/15 seconds | f 5.6 | ISO 160 | 125 mm
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.. as one friend stated today “the children that weren’t present, didn’t get any present from Santa.. hohoho”, I realized this Christmas [as I realize it every each one, and here I take my blame] that we are forgetting what are the real significations of it. And I remember what I read recently, an affirmation of Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth President of the United States: “Christmas isn’t a period, neither a season, but a state of spirit. The true spirit of Christmas means to value peace and good willing and to offer, fully, compassion”. And remember.. we don’t really need the Christmas to gave presents.. any day is a good day for making good deeds :)

And now.. some kind of post scriptum.. Recently I was asked why I tend to see always the down side of things an accordingly to that to take photos and to manipulate them thru processing or thru the words I say. . So I made an inventory of all the entries in this last few past months since I started this photoblog [is great that I had also the time to do so].. and.. I discovered that it’s a doze of truth in those allegations. Still I refuse to comment upon the matter. Is my way to see things. Everyone else is free to get a camera and relate their own We all are moody human beings, or not?

Note: you can place your wish by clicking on the comments link on the top of the picture

at last... a taste of winter

Nikon D80 | 1/640 seconds | f 3.5 | ISO 800 | 18 mm
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"Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [german playwrither, poet, novelist and dramatist. 1749-1832]

Note: you can place your wish by clicking on the comments link on the top of the picture

resized memories

Nikon D80 | 1/80 seconds | f 5.3 | ISO 160 | 58 mm
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[published December 14th @ 11.00 p.m. ]
sometimes trying to have happy thoughts is like searching for springtime flowers in the middle of winter...

[published December 15th @ 1.25 p.m.]
hmm.. after reading Tudor's comment I wanted to complete the post with the lyrics of one of my favorite songs "bill withers - Ain't no sunshine".. who's "she"? anything or nothing.. anyone or no one.. maybe just sanity sometimes ..

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
It's not warm when she's away.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And she's always gone too long anytime she goes away.

Wonder this time where she's gone,
Wonder if she's gone to stay
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And this house just ain't no home anytime she goes away.

And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know

Hey, I ought to leave the young thing alone,
But ain't no sunshine when she's gone, only darkness everyday.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone,
And this house just ain't no home anytime she goes away.

Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.
Anytime she goes away.

sos swallows

Nikon D80 | 1/80 seconds | f 5.6 | ISO 160 | 135 mm
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i found out recently that the common swallow is about to disappear. the news is at the same time odd and... sad. I, like the person who's article make me think about this little creature, Harris Wallmen, chief editor of roumanian Photo Magazine publication, wondered about the causes.
after a superficial online documentation, i found out that the swallow population of most of the european big cities just vanished. for this phenomenon exists a lot of reasons, like: the industrialization of agriculture in the rural areas, the intensive use of pesticides, the lack of food or the massive tree clearing from the cities that made impossible the finding of a place where to put their nest.
in the end, Wallmen said it beautiful: "the swallow likes to live almost exclusively in the presence of humans. She never abandon her pair once in the short life she has, of four or five years. and, even if she isn't extremly talented, like the nightingale or the blackbird, she is one of the most garrulous singers. the world without swallows seems more deplorable and plaintive".

smile baby, smile!

Nikon D80 | 1/100 seconds | f 9.0 | ISO 160 | 50 mm
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no words for today

Nikon D80 | 1/160 seconds | f 5.6 | ISO 160 | 75 mm
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no more doors to open

Nikon D80 | 1/640 seconds | f 6.3 | ISO 800 | 62 mm
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Today, like the other five days in the last almost twenty years, should have been about change. Or so they stated each four years. I’m talking about the election day. My disappointment isn’t new or unexpected, or as a matter of fact, even important for a large group of people. But it’s mine. Instead of a long expected generation of new politicians, we have the old school boys.. again and one of the most weak voting presence in our short democracy history.

Without any connection, at the first sight, Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism, said, in another age, that “one may know the world without going out of doors”. It’s a pity that the people, in particular politicians, that have this strategy in mind omitted the fact that then the resources weren’t so poor and the power so concentrated in the hands of few nations.

Soon won’t be any other door to open. The moment to think about the consequences of our actions it’s now.

if the gramophone could play

Nikon D80 | 1/500 seconds | f 5.0 | ISO 100 | 50 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/500 seconds | f 3.5 | ISO 100 | 18 mm
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Martin Bormann said that films and gramophone records, music, books and buildings show clearly how vigorously a man's life and work go on after his death, whether we feel it or not, whether we are aware of the individual names or not. There is no such thing as death according to our view. For those who don’t know who he was I’ll just say that he was a notorious Nazi of his time and private secretary to Adolf Hitler. But this isn’t the point. I thought that if he could only see today how wrong it was in his view – politically and artistically. The times when things stayed for ever are long gone. Even the classics – literature, music, painting – are a click away. We are all part of the great cultural industry and popular culture.

Instead we can keep the memories, the afterglow – the feelings after reading, listening, watching. The only memories I still have with the gramophone is when I listened to records in my childhood. Oh, what happiness when listening the favorite stories.

Like it or not, the so called consumerism drives our life. Shall not drive our passions too.

Note:

Gramophone, originally known as the phonograph, electromechanical instrument for reproducing sound from a record. A record is a vinyl disc that has a spiral groove with tiny bumps on the walls of the groove; the bumps encode a musical or other type of recording. The gramophone has four principal components: the turntable, the tonearm, the stylus, and the amplifier, although an amplifier was not always incorporated into the instrument. More modern examples came to be called record players.

framed reality

Nikon D80 | 1/500 seconds | f 4.5 | ISO 1o0 | 40 mm
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just trying some Jan-Oliver Wenzel stunt. not really the same results, but at least i have tried. just a day or two ago i put my hands on his book, "Fotofix", a great collection of photographic art, with amazing photographic puzzles. some interesting things to see and learn. for those of you who are kean to see some great black and white shoots you should check also his website. it's a must :)

worlds apart

Nikon D80 | 1/250 seconds | f 5.0 | ISO 160 | 50 mm
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I like people that are open to pose for me. Me, a complete stranger. I’m not so willing to do so in return, but this is another story. Resuming… I remember the character in this shoot very well. He was standing on the gravel in the old tower square in Sighisoara. Where else if not in Sighisoara, the place most surprising in all Romania, could you find such interesting face? I’ve noticed him, the pipe and… the neatly interior of his wide-opened backpack. He was a photographer. I smiled and he smiled right back at me and what I recall most of that moment is that, even if we didn’t have a real conversation, we understood each other perfectly because we were talking the… nikon language. Worlds apart, just a detail, same passion. Isn’t it strange how just a few seconds can create such great memories?

life in seclusion

Nikon D80 | 1/4000 seconds | f 4.5 | ISO 1100 | 40 mm
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de curand, unul dintre cei mai noi prieteni, pentru ca recunosc ca imi place sa "colectionez" prieteni, urmasi ai acestei veri nebune in evenimente personale, isi publica cateva dintre gandurile, lineare si in versuri, pentru un grup la fel de intim de oameni, asa cum el insusi s-a exprimat...
motto timidului, dar cuceritorului volum, dezvaluie mai mult decat graieste "Yet Freedom! Yet thy banner, torn, but flying, streams like thunderstorm agains the wind"
mi-am propus sa redau, in masura in care voi gasi compatibilitate printre fotografiile mele, cateva dintre paginile mele preferate. multumesc lui bogdan munteanu pentru gratuitatea subinteleasa in ceea ce priveste drepturile de autor :)

provocare

si oare daca bulgari din soare in dar ti-as aduce
patrunde-va lumina ochii tai goi,
ori cu indiferenta-i vei lasa sa se stinga
in lada de gunoi...

iar dac-un fir de iarba din palmele-mi va creste
topi-va el gheata din sufletul tau rece
ori cu convingere-mi vei spune
iarna ca-ti place...

si oare daca aripi pe spatele-ti inconvoiat as prinde
zbora-vei liber intr-o zi de mai,
ori cu parere de rau te vei scuza
rau de inaltime ca ai...

si daca satul de timide-ncercari moartea-ti voi prezenta
putea-vei cu voiosie sa-i zambesti,
ori cu spaima-mi vei sopti
ca pregatit nu esti?

Bogdan Munteanu, Pur si simplu, Editura Mirton, Timisoara 2008

ponte di magdalena

Nikon D80 | 1/1250 seconds | f 3.5 | ISO 720 | 18 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/2000 seconds | f 3.5 | ISO 1100 | 50 mm
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charlie chaplin's little tramp

Nikon D80 | 1/800 seconds | f 5.3 | ISO 1600 | 62 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/800 seconds | f 5.6 | ISO 1600 | 90 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/800 seconds | f 4.5 | ISO 1400 | 40 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/800 seconds | f 5.0 | ISO 1100 | 50 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/800 seconds | f 5.0 | ISO 1600 | 50 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/800 seconds | f 5.0 | ISO 1600 | 52 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/800 seconds | f 5.6 | ISO 1600 | 135 mm
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for the real movie lovers that will know what about I'm talking...

venice, boulevard of sinking dreams

Nikon D80 | 1/1250 seconds | f 5.0 | ISO 500 | 52 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/640 seconds | f 5.6 | ISO 1000 | 95 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/400 seconds | f 5.6 | ISO 360 | 135 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/640 seconds | f 5.6 | ISO 320 | 135 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/640 seconds | f 5.3 | ISO 720 | 66 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/1250 seconds | f 4.8 | ISO 1600 | 48 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/1250 seconds | f 3.5 | ISO 500 | 18 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/2000 seconds | f 5.0 | ISO 900 | 50 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/4000 seconds | f 4.8 | ISO 1600 | 48 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/4000 seconds | f 4.8 | ISO 1100 | 44 mm
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Nikon D80 | 1/1400 seconds | f 5.3 | ISO 720 | 66 mm
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