lucian stănescu - my photography

this blog

2010-03-10T08:56:00.000+01:00

So I promised to come back and tell you a few more things on this project which started the blog. In the meantime, I decided I would continue the blog, now without a particular project in mind… other than having a blog on photography and trying to become a photographer. And this being a blog, and me being me, we're already way behind schedule with this post…

About the "take and post a picture every day" project…it all started with the recommendation of a tutor: "use your camera every day!". When I started complaining that there weren't so many interesting things happening in my life every day worth picturing, he told me: "if you'd know how many pics I've taken of my toes in bed, in the morning…".

I was later criticized for making a blog out of it, should've remained a silent, personal exercise they said… but me being me, I knew I needed some "external" pressure to keep this project going. So I started posting them here…

And it was a truly great experience. I feel I've evolved on both a technical and an "artistical" level. I don't see myself as an artist, but I've learned a lot of "seeing" in these five months.

When deciding to start this project, I had noticed I was too often shooting in P-mode (program), i.e. automatic settings chosen by the camera. And this ruined several pictures on an important trip, so the technical exercise started being about only shooting in M-mode. It keeps your mind going, it makes you take a different look at the world around, and, most important, it makes (you take) better pictures…

I have a 9 to 5 job where I cannot use the camera. So I often had to rely on the few hours left in the morning and evening to find that daily picture. Sure enough, there have been times when I "cheated", took a picture of my dinner plate and that was it… luckily I have a talented girlfriend who knows how to make dinner plates look wonderful (and gorgeously tasty), so you might have not noticed the cheat :P

But in these few hours I had left, I took the camera with me everywhere, something I had stopped doing years ago. And I learned to look and see, and I think this is the most valuable thing I take with me from this project. It has now become a constant exercise for me. I know these are things from the textbooks for beginners in photography, but I am so glad to have rediscovered them for myself… through this blog.

I now only shoot raw.

I want to shoot more on film, started experimenting with a Liubitel medium format and definitely want to process my own bw films.

In the next days I will try to put together a selections of images I like most from this period of time, as a conclusion to the project, and in the meantime will concentrate (and write here about) new personal projects but also other interesting photography related things found lying around…

world press photo part 3

2010-02-28T18:29:00.000+01:00

Ok, and now for the final part of this review...

Roderik Henderson shows this interesting series. You'd think anyone could take these, spending a few hours in the streets, at some traffic lights. They are haunting images... too bad Roderik doesn't tell us more about how they we're made, it's possibly a longer term project. His site is definitely worth visiting, I especially found his story in the about section amazing...

2nd prize in the portrait series on the other hand... I'm sorry, I can't make anything of this.

Women are heroes is an interesting project, too bad it only gets shown in the singles category.

Francesco Giusti finds a very nice story in Congo Brazzaville. Shows how one can have a good time even when times are rough. Inspiring people.

Joe Petersburger amazed me with his photo of a hunting kingfisher seen from below the water surface. Very well done! Waiting for his website to come back from under construction, the preview of other images by him shows some amazing work.

Another awesome nature series comes from Paul Nicklen. There's hardly more I could say about this... go spend a couple of hours on his website, it's so well worth it!

Now this is another series we could try our hands at. Peter Bialobrzeski finds this rather easily-available idea and shows it in a nice way...well done! Note to self: keep looking.

And now to this, which is one of the series that will stay with me for a while. David Chancellor comes across this amazing story, where villagers in Zimbabwe find the carcass of a fallen elephant and reduce it to bones in just two hours. But it is not only the photos which impressed me, but the story in itself, the people, the meat, the dogs, the traces... speechless.

This was about it, a selection of singles or series I found to be memorable in this years World Press Photos.

2010-02-19T00:26:00.000+01:00

dinner with friends...

world press photo part 2

2010-02-17T23:24:00.004+01:00

so let's continue viewing the winning photos at this year's world press photo.

- very nice series by Craig Golding here about the World Master Games, such amazing pictures and people.

- Elizabeth Kreutz brings in an amazing series about the return of Lance Armstrong. But then again, I'm a sucker for almost everything related to Lance, so you could blame it on that if you don't like the pics. Hmmm, looking through them again, I think it's a great series regardless of it's subject. There, I said it! Now bow to this pic. :P

- and another big favourite, this series by Stepan Rudik (couldn't find a site or a portfolio, unfortunately). The photos bring an interesting subject into discussion: organized street fights. You might have seen videos on youtube about this before, now here is a well done photojournalistic approach. As much as I despise violence (why fights, why not sports?), I like this series and the approach... wish I would have found such a subject myself.
Later edit: I now read that the series has been disqualified from WPP due to a manipulation in one of the photos. Rules are rules I guess...

- on another note, I don't see much in this single photo by Pierre-Olivier Deschamps. Only after finding the whole series (and it wasn't easy!) did I get the meaning. Maybe it's just me, but that photo alone... just doesn't do it. But before we get all gritty here, click on to the next photo.

- wow... Stefano de Luigi really hits you with this one. I'm muted and still think I want a print of it...

- this series by Eugene Richards has already amazed me back in Perpignan, in summer. His books are on the top of my wishlist...

- another series on the hardcore side comes from Tommaso Ausili. Don't click if you're just about to go out for lunch. Or, actually, do click! Especially if you were in for a steak...

- the daily life category would merit a post on its own. I'll leave you with the links for now: Gihan Tubbeh about Adrian, 13-year old autist, Matt McClain about Pandu (make sure you see the whole story on Matt's website, with captions and more photos), and, why not, Pieter Ten Hoopen with a story on the town of Hungry Horse, Montana.

- and i'll stop here for now, there will be a part 3 post as well...

world press photo

2010-02-12T19:41:00.003+01:00

so, the world press photos 2010 just came in...

interesting, as every time. moving. shocking. too shocking? the blogs and forums will surely have things to chew on the next days.

there are things i like, and things i don't (doh!). a very first reaction would be to say there's too much blood and violence. would not showing it be an option? i can't say... i know these things happen for real, and people tend to forget about them. or rather tend not to care about them anymore, being bombarded with such news every day.

i'll stop here and show you a few things that caught my eye at a first glance.

- the winner photo? hmmm, i'm not so sure yet. the whole series i like, but that one photo alone, as the overall winner? not sure...

- i liked this series, by Olivier Laban-Mattei much more than the winning one.

- i liked the simplicity in this one, by Kent Klich. Only now do I realise he is the author of "Children of Ceausescu" as well.

- i could have done without this, this and this ones.

- i liked this series by Charles Ommanney a lot. i like it's sense of humour and the general feeling. bush's feet look weird in at least two shots :) too much obama for you this last year? maybe, i liked this series by Callie Shell a lot too, back in perpignan when i saw it.

- this of course made me think of andrei pungovschi's photo, too bad i can't give you the direct link (first in wanderings). from the same series, i liked this one a lot.

i'll leave the rest for an up-coming post, there's too much image in my head right now...

PS: i was glad to see stephan vanfleteren as a jury member, his photos are truly impressive!

day 154

2009-12-31T18:27:00.000+01:00

today's...lines.

and what better day to bring a project to end? the take-and-post-a-picture-every-day project ends hereby... it was not only great fun, but full of insights and findings and learnings, and i can only recommend it if you happen to be at that level I felt I was five months ago...

I'll let things settle and write a more thorough conclusion later in january. 'till then, have a nice fresh start and stay positive!

regards,
lucian

day 153

2009-12-31T18:14:00.000+01:00

yesterday's 20L of krautsuppn + hot home made plum brandy...

day 152

2009-12-31T18:09:00.000+01:00

tuesday's crunchy crib...

day 151

2009-12-31T18:04:00.000+01:00

monday's sisters...

day 150

2009-12-31T17:58:00.000+01:00

sunday's portraits...

day 149

2009-12-27T23:10:00.000+01:00

yesterday's pirouette...

day 148

2009-12-27T23:06:00.000+01:00

friday's profile...

day 147

2009-12-27T22:56:00.000+01:00

thursday's party people...

day 146

2009-12-27T22:41:00.000+01:00

wednesday's bat...

day 145

2009-12-27T22:38:00.000+01:00

tuesday's father and son...

day 14x

2009-12-27T22:29:00.000+01:00

monday no pic...shame

day 14x

2009-12-27T22:26:00.003+01:00

sunday no pic...shame

day 144

2009-12-27T22:25:00.003+01:00

saturday's coming home pic...

day 143

2009-12-18T10:33:00.001+01:00

not a sight too common 'round here...

day 142

2009-12-16T22:15:00.000+01:00

today's signs of christmas... things start hanging around :P

day 141

2009-12-16T22:02:00.002+01:00

yesterday's try at a product-shot... for a new belgian flower-delivery: fleurslivraison.be

day 140

2009-12-16T21:55:00.000+01:00

monday's businessman...

day 139

2009-12-16T21:41:00.000+01:00

sunday's what-do-you-call-it?

day 138

2009-12-16T21:33:00.000+01:00

saturday's tiny fingers...

day 137

2009-12-16T21:27:00.000+01:00

friday's square and not-so-centered aura...