Tag Archive for: romania

A cold winter morning in Harghita. Nagykadacs, Harghita, Romania, 2016.

A cold winter morning in Harghita. Cadaciu Mare, Romania, 2016. Get a print.

While I am definitively an urban guy, I enjoy taking trips to the countryside. It’s the occasion for me to try something else, give a shot (pun intended) to other techniques, target different subjects. I really think that a photographer must get out of his comfort zone once in a while and try different approaches. For me, it’s shooting the nature, searching for landscapes, leaving the fast and noisy urban life for a more relax and peaceful environment. I can take things slow.

My parents in law live in the middle of Transylvania, in Harghita. This region is filled with hills, mountain, forest and wildlife… the exact opposite of my day-to-day life! We spent a few days there for Christmas, and I decided to honour the beautiful, snowy landscapes with a few shots. I am very found of this high key, snow white look for winter landscapes. Making a huge effort to get up early in the morning (yeah, lazy guy in vacation…) I was lucky enough to get a bit of winter morning fog that gives this haze, this particular feeling that something is happening there, behind, but you can’t really see it.

I spotted this field a while ago, woke up early in the winter morning for grabbing a few shots. While unloading my gear, which took forever because I the gloves I had to wear because of the -14 degrees Celsius (!), my immaculate landscape was photobombed… by a dear! It was more than I could wish for 🙂 I really felt like a child on the Christmas morning. 3 days before Christmas.

Do you like this photo? Why not getting an original, signed fine art print in limited edition?

EXIFs:

  • Camera: Canon 6D
  • Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM
  • Aperture: ƒ/8.0
  • Focale: 200mm
  • Shutter speed: 1/800s
  • ISO: 100
  • Copyright: Pierre Pichot 2016, all rights reserved

In Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Saturday morning means flea market. Come with me for a tour of the Oser flea market, and discover an anachronism in a modern city!

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 🙂

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

 

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

Tag Archive for: romania