after three years in Cyprus

Yesterday we went to a restaurant in ... I have no idea what the place is called (some village on top of a hill, relatively north from Limassol).

As such, I found out I didn't know lots of things ... like ... for example that Cyprus coffee CAN taste great (whatever they did to it); or that Greek meze is a completely different dish than Cyprus meze.

Anyway, here are some pictures (and I'll try to find out how the village is called):

little C, sleeping


E., I. and G.


at the table




G.


S.




dead leaves, new leaves


glazed pear


C. with the camera


by the entrance (1)


by the entrance (2)


looking down


on a side alley


rusty door knocker


"I played with these when we were kids"


E. on the edge


on the edge


E. on the edge (2)


towards sunset


and a mirror on the edge

tasting for salt

I made some potatoes stew (brew? food?) this evening, and while tasting it for salt I saw the steam contrasting my reflection in the kitchen window and thought "what the hell?! this might make a half-decent picture"



(except I don't actually think in English)

new toys

past composition guidelines

I remember having a chat a while ago, with a friend.

We were talking about photography as he was looking over some of my photos.


He kept asking me what I had been trying to say with this or that picture, and while I understood what he meant with the question, it was annoying:

I hadn't been trying to say anything as I had taken those shots.

Now, it's different; I guess in a way, my focus started shifting from following composition guidelines to the story in front of the camera.

I'm not trying to say that all of a sudden, I'm "photographing stories" or something like that.

If anything, I'm trying to focus on compositions having something to say: elements coming together or contrasting in some way, pictures of something happening - be it a story, description of a mood or something different.


Back then, when composing my shots (as much as I can say I did), I kept looking for obeying what I considered "the technical rules" (rule of thirds, golden ratio, diagonal lines and all that jazz).

Then I read somewhere that "there's no such things as rules in photography", so I tried seeing them more as guidelines.

I often obeyed them (and tried deliberately breaking them), but my shots still had nothing much to say.


It's not that all of a sudden, my shots are very expressive; More like ... lately this is what I keep looking for.

I'm more interested nowadays in - for example - creating a relationship between subject and it's environment than in following any established composition guidelines.


And my pictures keep getting better ...

... err ... I think.

MS Paint God

This hurts my brain.

Seriously!

yesterday evening

This is yet another random update (since I haven't done one of those in a while).

Yesterday, after office and the Aikido lesson (I managed to get home before that so I thankfully got something to eat), I went to Woodman's again.

I was to meet the gang who made the whole party come together, for a few drinks.

It was a strange experience for me to mind for alcohol (by the way, I started riding through the traffic :D), so I had only alcohol-free stuff to contend with.

... and I took some pictures (surprising, I know).

Eight Things You Should Never Say to Your Bartender

This is hilarious; or insightful; or just common sense ... I'm not sure.

some pictures from the party

On Friday evening we had the "Mioritza Party" and although I had my doubts it came out well (ok, it came out much better than I expected).

I didn't stay long, as I wasn't feeling very well ... but I stayed long enough to take some pictures.

Some highlights:

had me at hello

Yesterday evening I took my new bike for a ride - twenty minutes or so - around the neighborhood, in between office and attending the Aikido class.

I'm hooked (yeah, yeah ... I already was ...).

I went to sleep last night around twelve, and woke up at two (or three?) AM, due to too much enthusiasm; I couldn't sleep after that point.

This morning (7 o'clock) I wanted to go for a ride again, but the battery had died on me.

Damn battery!

.utnapistim

prime vs. zoom lenses

There are two reasons I prefer prime lenses to zoom lenses (this has probably been debated left and right on the net, but I haven't searched for it, so this is just my impression).

The first reason, the technical one, is that having less moving parts, the prime lenses can be made sharper and can support larger apertures; This doesn't mean that all prime lenses are sharper, or that all prime lenses have bigger apertures; just that there is a bigger chance for it.

The second reason is somewhat subjective; When you change the focal distance of your camera, you get the feeling you're framing your shot, and in a way you are.

You're just not changing your composition or angle in any way. After a time, "changing the focal distance" becomes a synonym to "framing your shot" and you miss out on more than half your framing opportunities (and more than half the shots to take on the same subject) because of this.

When learning photography, zoom lenses may lead to bad form.

portrait of I.

a photography website link I received this morning

here

outing @ Agias Moni

we went yesterday to Agias Moni ... (err ... I think it was called). The place can be found (if it can be found at all - as I'm not exactly sure how we got there) by taking the highway from Limassol to Paphos, then (10 km from Paphos or so), exiting the highway and going for about 8 km. towards the mountains.

Anyway, it was nice.

This is a shack I saw, at our first stop (while looking for the picnic area)


S on a swing, behaving like a mature manager ... err ... sort of.


C (and little C)


cooking mushrooms


S, putting out the fire


C & I in the sunset light


at the table

deer me!

Deer me! (I'm the one in the middle)

some more pictures

bokeh study


I.'s business call

pictures in the office

sign in the basement


fire exit


little I.

MySpace, MyAss

So, in a daunting display of selflessness, I decided to embed myself inside the army of MySpacers in an effort to infiltrate this modern-day Borg ship. It would be terrifying, and I risked being swallowed whole by all the comments, instant messaging and friends list, possibly losing any semblance of real human interaction, but I was willing to take the chance.

If I don't return, IM my mom.

Full article here.

Happy Birthday V!

me, in the taxi this morning

lunchbreak today

" ... spam spam spam spam spaaam ... "(Monty Python)

front of the dojo

portrait

Mr. F. I took this two weeks ago (methinks) as we (M, L&F and me) were having sushi @ the Zen.

in the caffeteria, during lunchbreak

preparing for failure

It's friday morning.

I came to office some time (an hour?) ago and after my first coffee, I stil feel like sleeping.

I told S. today I'd design an invitation/token/ticket for the party we're doing for the end of the month, and I'm about to go into that.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I'm stil skeptic about it.

Some of my friends are enthusiastic about it (well ... ok, I haven't seen anyone else express treir doubts) but for some reason after the plans are gone through, after we go over the last progress and such, there's this persisting idea in my mind:

In the end, it's just another party.

I't not that I don't care about it ... infact I hope it comes out well, people are impressed about it and they will keep talking about it for years to come and all that ... but in the end, it's stil just another party.

Maybe it's just a "subconscious preparation for failure and a way of avoiding dissapointment" - as I've been I do that sometimes (and I tend to agree with this). Maybe it's just my romanian mentality of "nothing good will come out of whatever I do".

Who knows of such things anyway?

I hope for a good party.

photography rant

First let me be the first to say I'm not a photographer; If anything, I'm in the "interested about photography" group. I don't spend all day on photography websites (ok, I do spend some of it), looking at pictures and photography critique.

But anyway, I have a camera ...

... and there are a few small annoyances that come with having a camera.

First, there is the hmmm, so you make good pictures argument; The bigger (and maybe more professional) your camera looks, the more people expect you to make good pictures.

I mean ... photography is an art; right?

That doesn't make me necessarily an artist; this is not what it's all about; At most, maybe an aspiring artist and that would be if I were constant about it; if I were to use - or express - my talent; or inspiration; or vision; or whatever it is; I don't care much to explore what makes photography into an art-form at the moment.


What most people seem perfectly content to ignore is that in all this expressing something above, the camera is not in that "something". It's missing!

I mean ... you don't go to a painter, look at one of his brushes and go

that's a 7mm, blunt tip, horse hair oil-paint brush you're using; you must be a very good painter!

It's ridiculous! It is painfully obvious that it's not the brush, but the one behind it; Why is it then so difficult to understand?

The camera has a very minor effect on the pictures you take. I'm not saying it's not there; It's just minor.

The camera is a specialized tool, and that's that; The differences between cameras are the same as the differences between different hammer types (sometimes you need a bigger one, sometimes a lighter one, sometimes a hammer with a sharper tip or one protected by rubber).

And once you're good enough, even though you get to appreciate the specializations for different purposes, you can make do with whatever you have.



Second, there are all those can I get the shots you didn't show anyone? requests;

... and the answer to this one is a resounding No!


I have heard all the justifications for that request, like

Even if you don't think they're good enough they should be ok.

I mean ... gee ... well ... thanks! It's flattering; But stil No.

I just want to see them.

Well ... Stil no. (And M. wants a Porsche.)

I just want to see how I came out in them.

Well ... I didn't consider them good enough, and it's not for how you came out in them; It might be the light, the framing, composition or bokeh. If I were to take the pictures for somebody else, then they might see all of them; But I'm taking pictures because I like to; It's for me.


Regardless of the answer I were to give to each request, it doesn't matter; They're private! Just part of the process. They're the ones I went over, to get to the successful ones.

You don't go to a woman and say

I like your hair; What color was it before? Can I see that to tell you if you look better?

For example, if you were to go over all my four attempts on the same subject you'd go:

Hmmm ... This one is moved; too bad! It would have been ok;
This is same as before ...
I don't like the light in this one ...
I think this one is "actually ok".

... instead of just looking at the last one picture without it being "the fourh of anything with the same subject" and saying

I like this one; Framing is good, light is good, it's expressive / dynamic / whatever!

The bottom line is that is't not for you to look at and select my attempts; that's for me to do; once I get to where I want, you can look at the end result and decide you like it or not.

I'm finished with ranting for now :o)
utnapistim.

some tennis pictures

Yesterday morning I went to a small tennis tournament, strictly to take some pictures. As usual, I uploaded a small selection here.

so much for stealing my bike

It's been a few eventfull days;

Let me see ... Apparently A. had an informant kid who received ten pounds and free juice for a week (or something symilar).

Yesterday evening A. called me (as I was about to leave for Woodman's pub) and told me his kid had found my bike. I had L drive me to the dojo ( by the way, thanks for the lift, L :) ), and an hour later we were talking to two cypriot policemen.

We all went in front of the thief's house, I described my bike and we (me and A) left; The police went to knock at the door.

Fifteen minutes later I had my bike again, with a mirror broken, and that was that; Thanks A :)

Unfortunately, I never made it to the pub.

There is no old age. There is, as there always was, just you.
Carol Mathau

company wide meeting and the moullinex blender

So ... yesterday, we had a company wide meeting;

It's nothing spectacular - I don't remember if we do them twice a year or quarterly - but anyway ... they're mostly the same:

You get a speech from the local TDs and the visiting TDs, sometimes pieces of news (like "our company has just bought the doghnuth industry in Polinesia, so we'll have doghnut-colored carpets on second floor from now on" or something on that tone anyway).

Yesterday I was checking some fix on a server half accross the world (again) and accidentally heard one of the guys say "Hey, the bus is leaving in 10 minutes".


I missed it.


Instead, i played with my fix some more, then went home.


On my way, I bought a moullinex blender; I'd been wishing for those frozen yoghurts in Agia Napa for a month now, so I figured hey, why not?


I don't get the frozen yoghurts just yet (something in the recipe just doesn't come right), but I've discovered that if you put two bananas, a kiwi, two spoonfulls of yoghurt and a spoon of honey through it (and maybe some milk), you get something resembling a milk-shake.

It looks an ugly shade of gray and it's very tasty.

I'll probably play with my new blender some more during the weekend.

Now I'm off for work.

remember

anyone around here remembering this?

it was nice :D

some more pictures

items on our table sunday, at the Zen restaurant, Limassol


M


F & L


View from our office floor

quick! say something smart!

I started writing this post four times, then deleted it and started over; I think it's because while I didn't have anything definite to say tonight, I stil felt like posting something ...


What am I on about?


It was not a successfull day or anything;

just ... a fulfilling evening I would guess. I gave reiki for a bit, had a chat with a friend and got reminded of Who I Am.

and that's all it takes to brighten a day.

Just like smiling.

(Thanks S)

Here's a message to the person who stole my bike:

Please take care of it; it's a good bike.


Namas'te