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 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 26 - Negative Space

I am not a fan of the 'negative space' syntagma, but I loved the reference to the Japanese "ma" from our assignment email. I am far from that ma, however, since my first idea of a moody figure against the sea was spoiled: I could not find a good vantage point and the seaside was just too crowded to get my minimalistic composition.

So I went for a different approach: reducing clutter through a clear sea-sky background, all shades of blue and white. I was lucky that my subject is also wearing white, so his face stands out even more in the photo, and I used the low angle and wide frame for added drama. I like the shot because it tells a different beach story, the one of the food vendor working while others are relaxing, but I want to revisit my first idea as soon as possible.

Oh, I almost forgot! This week is the halfway mark through the one-year project! Happy to have reached it, I hope to last the whole year!

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 20 - Single Light Source

It's about time I started catching up on these posts, I have about 15 to go before I'm back on track...

Just my luck to have no sunshine on the one day I had free to shoot something this week, but I managed to come up with something nonetheless. The photo below is from an art fair taking place in a somewhat unconventional space with big industrial looking windows. I spotted this woman looking out the window and decided that the light coming from outside could be considered a 'single light source'. I especially liked that her posture looks relaxed, but her face is very tense / sad in the reflection, and this created a bit of tension for me. Anyway, here is the photo in question, let me know what you think:

Early Morning

Another of the shots from my day experimenting with the 'toy camera' filter:

Week 18 - Behind the Scenes

I took this shot in an unused exhibition space of the National Library. I liked how the empty exhibition panels let some of the light from the doors through and created long shadows on the floor, as well as coloured glimpses of the world outside. A mom and her baby wandered off from the main exhibition into this empty space and peered from behind the panels, and I took the chance to use them as a back-lit subject. I also tried a cross-processing technique which worked better than I expected in such a high contrasting scene.

PS. My photo got featured on the group page, with the following caption: This image was carefully planned and executed by Irina Dodea, for this week's "Behind the scene" challenge for our framers. Take a moment to read the story behind this shot, or alternatively, admire with us the multiple lines, pleasing symmetry, and excellent use of contrast in this scene (underline by me for bragging)

Week 7 - Rule of Odds

I'm glad I waited to post this shot, because now I can gloat a little and tell you it got featured in the screencast critique. I can't tell you how happy I was to get my one minute of fame, which you can watch too (do it right now!):

Be sure to check out the whole video, because it is interesting and educational (and there's also a part one, here).

This week I have no alternate shots because the one I chose is really the one that spoke to me the most. So here's the photo in question, without further ado... Hope you like it!

In Sibiu, houses have eyes

You have been warned!

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?

Week 2 - Silhouette

I put considerably more work into this week's theme - the weather was nicer and I had more time - but it's really thanks to my husband that I got the shot I finally submitted. I had some photos with my first idea, I kind of liked some of them and was almost content to choose one and just be done with it. He sent me out shooting a second time and so I got this photo that I really love:

First of all, I like the background - it's really what made me stop and take photos there; I like the half coloured wall and the fact that the white part still retains some texture, and I like the cobbled stone and the snow.

I like that I was able to capture two characters, one on each side, and I like the relationship between them. When I look at the photo, for a moment I feel like I'm seeing a man and his shadow walking away from each other and it confuses me for a little while and I like that.

I also like how the silhouette on the left seems a bit two dimensional (like painted on the white wall), while the background gives a real feel of perspective so the two impressions contradict themselves.

I like the half profile of the silhouette man: the outline of his nose and hair, and the small eyelash detail. I would have loved a better silhouette of the rest of his body, but everybody was wearing thick winter clothes so it wasn't really doable. The guy on the right helps a bit with this lack of detail because we can picture what the silhouette man is wearing by looking at him.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my photo. What do you think of it?

Fun fact: I took 103 photos in this passageway, most of them with the same or similar angle as this shot, and in the end I had a shortlist of about 5 photos to choose from. I will make another post with my three ideas for the silhouette shot and all the photos I found acceptable.

Duios Anastasia trecea

Deși sunt aproape sigură că n-o chema Anastasia...

Așteptând mușterii

Pe stradă sau în bazar, vânzătorii turci sunt în permanentă așteptare de mușterii. În aparenta lor plictiseală, sunt gata în două secunde să îți ofere cel mai bun "deal".

Tot cu roșu

Se pare că îl găsesc peste tot...