Tag Archive for: romania

Photo Essay – Oser Flea Market

Oser flea market. Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2016.

Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2016.

A new photo essay from yours truly, about the Oser Flea Market, an anachronism in Cluj-Napoca:

In Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Saturday morning means flea market. Be it summer or winter, hot or cold, sun or snow, thousands of people roam every Saturday morning to the Oser flea market. During the communist era, Oser was the place to buy imported goods from Turkey or the former Yougoslavia. Blue jeans, snickers, perfumes could be found there, as well as other black market goods from here and there. It became the flea market in the form we know today a few years after the collapse of the communist regime.

Check out the rest of the photo essay with 14 new photos and more info about the flea market.

—

This post is also the occasion to introduce photo essays in my portfolio. I want to go a step further in the photo reporter and storyteller domain by getting deeper into a subject. It is sometimes just not possible with only a few shots. I hope you’ll like it! Don’t hesitate to leave a feedback about this new way to present my work. It is always appreciated 🙂

/0 Comments/by

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

 

/0 Comments/by

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
/0 Comments/by

Mother & Daughter

Mother & Daughter. Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2016.

Mother & Daughter. Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2016.

I was talking in a previous post about the importance of being always prepared for a street photographer, and I still stick to it. However, this time, I managed to take this shot because I was NOT prepared 🙂

I go by this nice, graphic place during almost all my photowalks in Cluj-Napoca (Romania). Unfortunately, it is situated in a small street that is almost all the time empty. And when I manage to find someone there, they always go on the other sidewalk, not under these particular arcades. This day, the shadows where very interesting, and I wanted to take a test shot, just for the sake of it. For some reason, my Fujifilm X100T didn’t want to do anything, impossible to focus, impossible to shoot. Until I found out I forgot to take the protective hood out of the lens. Lame, right?

But not that much as on the very same moment this mother and her daughter pass by me continue their way, not minding at all my presence! One or two seconds to frame in a nice, symmetrical way and the photo is on the SD card. Have I not fiddle with my camera because of the forgotten hood, I would have just taken my test shot and continued my way, missing a pretty nice shot! Yes, sometimes, street photographers need luck. I’ve had a good share here.

I really like this photo because it contains a lot of what I try to pack in my photography: symmetry, shadows, graphic elements, and anonymous people. Usually street photography is about showing the human in its context. I always tend to prefer presenting the context with its humans within 🙂

Do you like this photo? Contact me for obtaining an original, signed print!

EXIFs:

  • Camera:Fujifilm X100T
  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Focale: 23mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/500s
  • ISO: 800
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2016, all rights reserved
/0 Comments/by

Dutch angle

Dutch angle. Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

I called this photo “Dutch angle” as a reference to the famous camera tilt technique of “[setting the camera] at an angle on its roll axis so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame, or so that the horizon line of the shot is not parallel with the bottom of the camera frame”. This is typically the kind of composition I enjoy. I love to play with lines and stripes and tilting the camera in a way that the cross walk stripes are now going diagonal make this photo so dynamic! This combination of now diagonal lines, in two directions, makes a perfect graphical background for street photography.

I shot this dutch angle photo during a street photography workshop part of the Photo Romania Festival 2016 in Cluj-Napoca. It’s was the very first shot of the day, taken just before another picture that I’ve already blogged about. We were in a zone were road works has just been finished and those freshly painted stripes were just… tempting me, inviting me to do something graphical with them. How to refuse this invite? I’m happy this girl with her flowery coat just stepped in the frame, waiting for the green light to pop in. She was a perfect subject for this photo. The only challenge were the cars passing just in front of us, finding the exact timing was not easy but in the end, we did it!

The processing was fairly straightforward using Adobe Lightroom to turn the photo in black and white with Fujifilm‘s camera profiles. I just needed to raise the contrast between the asphalt and the white painted stripes, and voila!

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: 1/500s
  • ISO: 320
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2016, all rights reserved
/0 Comments/by

Tag Archive for: romania