Tag Archive for: bucharest

Family portrait

Family portrait. Bucharest, Romania, 2016.

Family portrait. Bucharest, Romania, 2016. Get a print.

It’s not always easy for street photographers to find a good background for their subjects… or a good subject for their backgrounds! But sometimes, everything is just as it’s meant to be.

Ads are often seen as visual pollution, an argument that is very understandable, and that I may say myself. But used in a right way, with an artistic purpose, it may gain some sense beyond the “they make me want to buy items I don’t want” thing. It’s the case o this photo: the ad gives this grandpa a virtual family, a few grandkids to look after while he sips his coffee. Of course, that’s just for a moment, just in my mind, but maybe that’s a vision he has, or he had, who knows… A whole new story 🙂

I really enjoy these kinds of sweet juxtapositions. You can take two opposed entities – an ad campaign for a worldwide clothing brand and an old man with his bike and his dog – and mix them to give a new idea, a new purpose.

Do you like this photo? Click here and get an original, signed print in limited edition!

EXIFs:

  • Camera:Fujifilm X100T
  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Focale: 23mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/125s
  • ISO: 100
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2016, all rights reserved
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Electric stairs

Electric stairs. Bucharest, Romania, 2016.

Electric stairs. Bucharest, Romania, 2016. Get an original, limited edition signed print.

Continuing my very own “Bucharest Festival of Lines 2016”, in a similar environment. This time I’ve installed myself at the bottom of an underground metro station entrance, and waited for my subject. It was already late in the afternoon, the sun had already started to set for a few tens of minutes. This way, I could capture the difference of light between the dark inside and the shinier outside, but without a too large difference in light quantity. Unlike in a previous photo of mine, Stairway to…, I didn’t want to have a high contrast between the inside and the outside, so I needed to wait for the right time to get the right amount of light. As I’ve already said, preparing and owning the scene are very important!

Next to that, I had 3 goals for this photo. First of all, I wanted to get lines. Recurrent readers know that I love lines 🙂 Look at all those diagonals! It’s a heaven for me, it makes the photo so graphical and so dynamic in the same time. Second, it’s a scene with a lot of textures. There is this stone wall, the battled metal of the electric stairs, the steps, all of them have their own texture that I wanted to be very visible. That is why lightning was important for me, avoiding to have a too strong contrast. Lastly, I wanted to anonymise my subject. People are often only an element of the urban landscape, and she definitively is only an accessory to the real subject here, the stairs. All of that gives a punchy photo that I really like. And I hope you like it too, don’t hesitate to give me your feeling in the comments below!

Do you like this photo? Click here and get an original, signed print in limited edition!

EXIFs:

  • Camera:Fujifilm X100T
  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Focale: 23mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/250s
  • ISO: 800
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2016, all rights reserved
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Stairway to…

Stairway to... Bucharest, Romania, 2016.

Stairway to… Bucharest, Romania, 2016.

My regular readers have now understood that I’m a very big fan of lines and graphical elements in my photos. It’s even something I really try to include in my photography, as my eyes are so attracted by geometrical shapes. During a recent trip to Bucharest I’ve found one of my new heavens… in a shape of a stairway.

It’s funny how in urban and street photography some great things happen when you don’t expect it. I don’t refer to the others’ behaviour, which is unexpected anyhow. I’m thinking about this kind of 6th sense that photographers tend to develop, like sniffing in the air that something is happening, that some place may be an interesting spot. It’s what happened when I was looking to buy a bottle of water close to Piata Unirii (Union Square). From all the shops around me, I’ve instinctively chosen the only one which was underground, with the entrance on one side, and the exit on the other side. And when reaching the exit… voilà.

I’ve found this metal stairway with walls made of undulated metal, such a great amount of lines! The sun was shining just in front of the exit, making the old man just a silhouette and the undulated metal shine in such an incredible way. I’ve just waited for the woman to reach the top of the stairs, and the photo was done. I wished I’ve shot more at this very spot, but the security guard was not in a good mood and asked me to leave. No problem, I know the place now, I’ll be back!

Do you like this photo? Click here and get an original, signed print in limited edition!

EXIFs:

  • Camera:Fujifilm X100T
  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Focale: 23mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/125s
  • ISO: 400
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2016, all rights reserved

 

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Bucharest Underground

Bucharest Underground. Bucharest, Romania, 2016.

Bucharest Underground. Bucharest, Romania, 2016.

It’s been a while I haven’t spent a little bit of time in Bucharest. I’ve lived there for almost a year, but since I’ve left 9 years ago I’ve concentrated my visits to the concert halls, the French Embassy or the airport. Mot much of a visit! But this time, as I was invited as special guest by the On Spot street photography group, I managed to take a little more time to wander in Bucharest’s older quarter, and much more, in its metro.

As for Airports, I love shooting in the metro. For the same reasons I think: lines, contrast, movement… There is something else that airports don’t have: the proximity. No large spaces here, you are close to the people. You are next to them, no matter what. Which is not necessary a bad thing. Isn’t it Robert Capa who said: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” ? So you get the graphical environment of the airports at a smaller, closer scale. Not bad 🙂

This particular photo isn’t a close shot, it’s true. I was first attracted by the floor and its contrasty lines and shapes, which continue on the metro’s wagon. I got my fair amount of line with the vertical pillars and the other metro on the other side of the station. But what makes this photo is the look of the man. In my first shots, which were framed a bit better I must say, he wasn’t looking at me. But when he looked at my side with his bored face, I know it would be the keeper shot, even if I’ve just changed my position. Bored people are the best!

Do you like this photo? Click here and get an original, signed print in limited edition!

EXIFs:

  • Camera:Fujifilm X100T
  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Focale: 23mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/250s
  • ISO: 6400
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2016, all rights reserved
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