5 a.m.

I finally managed to get all of the photos from the 52 frames project up on this blog, so to celebrate this is one of the photos that I took for the 'night' week: a blue city scene captured from my balcony at 5 a.m. Hope you like it!

Week 36 - Dreams and Fantasies

Getting out of the subway, on the escalator, I am suddenly painfully aware of my breathing. It has become fast and I cannot slow it down, closing my eyes doesn't help, I'm only making it worse, what happened, did I see something weird on the way here? am I having a heart attack? I feel sweaty and my heart is racing. Think! I can't do it, my heart is pounding in my chest, in my head, in my mind, where am I, I cannot concentrate on anything but this empty escalator! Was it always empty, I feel like there were other people around, where are they, something horrible is going to happen, I can feel it in every fiber of my body, and it's just me and this hazy world and the escalator... help!

Week 31 - Magic Hour

This picturesque scene is 1 minute away from Bucharest's most crowded square. I cross the bridge in the background every day on my way to work, but I can't say I really noticed the boat and the strange structure in the middle of the river until yesterday. After spotting the scene, I walked around to get a different angle and I found some plants growing by the river. I decided to take the photo through them, for an added dose of mystery.

Week 29 - Street Photography

This is more of a consistency shot, as I barely had time to take 20 photos on my way to and from work this week. I tried shooting from the hip but my results were horrible, so I chose this one taken in one of the most interesting subway stations in Bucharest. I had a slow shutter speed so I am not sure about the sharpness, but I otherwise like the lonely commuter in a big industrial 'landscape'.

Week 24 - Transportation

As luck would have it, I was preparing to go back to work after maternity leave when transportation week came along, so I had to run around town with various errands. I snapped this in the afternoon when people were starting to go home from work, but there was still enough light to produce all the interesting reflections.

I thought a lot about whether to crop the upper part up or not. Cropping would have brought the people more into the spotlight, but would have required a "panoramic" format. On the other hand, I liked the reflections in the top window, and the alternation of window space and open space, even if it "distracts" from the subjects.

Week 21 - Architecture

The newest bookstore in town resides in a beautiful building, dating from 1860 and renovated last year. It used to be a bank before it was confiscated by the communists and turned into a department store. It was abandoned after the Romanian Revolution and the owner has been trying to get it back from the state for the last 20 years. Now it is bustling with life again as the new 'hipster' spot in town, a meeting place for artists, designers, book lovers and tourists.

On this particular morning it was almost empty (10 am on a Sunday) so I was able to get a good shot of the beautiful spiraling staircases and banisters with the perfect number of people to complement the place without making it feel crowded. If you remember, I had taken a previous photo of this scene for 'black and white' week - you can see it here. For black and white, I decided not to use the shot because it felt very crowded and with no apparent subject. I have to say I am much happier about the retake!

Week 3 - Lines

This week was kind of an adjustment for me, as we are back from the holidays and my husband has a ton of work to do and me and my darling daughter are pretty much on our own all day (no more visiting friends or grandmothers who can't wait to take the baby off my "tired" hands). It's also become pretty clear that the park where we go for our daily walk is pretty much horrible for photography purposes, so I had no idea what to do about the theme, or where to go for shooting.

Lucky for me, I woke up early on Wednesday morning. The sun was just rising and it was freezing outside, but as I looked out my bedroom window, people were already going about their business. Some city employees were shoveling snow right in front of my apartment building, and I found them interesting enough to photograph, so I went out on the balcony - in my pajamas! - and got to shooting.

I know it's not a very original idea, shooting the street from above, but it was the most originality I could come up with for this week. In the end, I got a couple of photos I was somewhat happy with, out of which I chose this one:

I think the road makes for a good leading lines example, and the fact that all the people are positioned alongside it really brings them into focus. I also like the lines of the fence and poles in the background, and the different activities of the people. While at first I thought that the car added some interest to the middle of the shot, in hindsight I think it maybe takes attention away from the human subject and creates confusion for the viewer.

I was actually deciding between two photos, one with a car on the road and one with the road just serving as negative space. This is the other shot:

What do you think? Should I have gone for the second one?

Good Morning, Bucharest!

View from my balcony at 8 am - that's what I like about living on the 7th floor :)

Suprapuneri

Dacă tot am ceva cu tramvaiele (vezi aici exemplu din București), am zis să nu trec prin Istanbul fără măcar o poză de gen.

De fapt, am făcut ceva mai multe poze cu acest tramvai, deci să nu vă mirați dacă mai apar pe-aici.

Fast fashion

Îmi place și nu-mi place poza asta în același timp. Parcă e totul prea mișcat și e totuși doar o femeie care merge pe stradă. Pe de altă parte, îmi place pasul ei hotărât în contrast cu faldurile diafane ale hainelor, și-mi place apariția ei colorată în peisajul mai degrabă industrial.

Și, până la urmă, nu-i așa groaznică pentru o poză făcută în mare grabă, în timp ce pur și simplu treci pe lângă cineva...

Sighișoara, ziua

În timpul unui festival cvasi-inexistent, într-o Sighișoară adormită și plictisită, parcă nici poze nu-ți vine să faci... Deci dacă vi se par cam adormite fotografiile de mai jos, sa fie clar: nu-i vina mea!

Bună dimineaţa!

Să începem în forţă, cu un simplu, clar, atât de minunat şi atât de banal, atât de unic şi totuşi repetabil... răsărit de soare! Dacă ar fi să-i dau un titlu, cred că i-aş spune răsărit de soare la fereastra mea, căci chiar asta este, nimic mai mult.

Şi cred că aşteptam răsăritul ăsta, pentru că pe cuvântul meu că nu ştiam cu ce să încep aici...