Japanese Dance- Abstract
If you want to feel the energy, in various forms, you have to take part in a Japanese street festival. Their dances and shows are so dynamic and full of motion and colors which will influence you in a positive way.
This is an motion blurred abstract image of a traditional Japanese dance in the night during the Yosakoi Matsuri, which is one of the most dynamic Japanese event in various part of the country.
Blizzard
Blizzard on the Alps peaks in Mont Blanc Massif. Always I am very passionate about shooting weather aspects like rain,wind,cold,heat,wet,blizzard,tornado. Sometimes I succeed, like you can see in this beautiful image from Alps.
Story in Gion
A characteristic aspect from Gion,the ward of geisha: Geisha-always in a hurry, a Taxi car,wooden houses, night and lights- a piece of Kyoto, Japan……..
Parisian Towers
Late and cloudy winter sunrise over the Paris. You can see a part of the very famous Eiffel Tower in the first plane. In the distance is the disputed Montparnasse Tower which is the second highest office building in the city.
Koto
Koto is the national musical instrument of Japan. Here, it is in a very specific Japanese room, with paper painted walls and a turkish carpet on the floor. The room is specific for the medieval time in Kyoto, which is the old capital of Japan.
Vintage Tailoring
Image of an old-fashioned tailoring table.
Hairstyle of a Geisha
Close up of an interesting geisha hairdo in the streets of Gion which is the main district of Geishas in Kyoto,Japan.
Rotterdam Skylines
Skyscrapers near the port in Rotterdam. Rotterdam is the second largest city in Netherlands and the largest port in the world.It is called the “Gateway to Europe”. There is a very eye catching combination between modern architecture and water canals.Something similar I saw also in Osaka,Japan. Surely this city will be an important destination for my future photographic explorations.
Japanese Traditional Army
Traditional Japanese army (Takeda clan) during a special festival in Yonezawa City, located in Yamagta Prefecture in The North of Japan, featuring a very famous battle between two of the most important clans in the Japanese history .
2011: The Year of Venice
Each time I turned the page of my notebook of future photographic projects to where I had written down « Venice », I got excited. I wondered what this city was really like, the city that was named Serenissima, La dominante, The Queen of the Adriatic Sea. Yes, Venice, the city that lives on water, the city where, at times, people wear masks and where the personalities are the gondoliers that win one of the numerous regatas that are organized there.
How should I start the project ? I said to myself that probably the most logical and the most tempting moment to feel the fragrance of this town would be the Carnival. So, in the dead of winter, in February, we all drove 1.000 kilometres before reaching the town of Padua, near the lagoon. We established our headquarters there and then we got to Venice by train or car, every day, prompted by curiosity and ready to taste the charm of the lagoon, each of us in their own way. Of course, I carried the rucsack in which I had all my photo gear.
As it usually happens, the first day was filled with spontaneous « first impressions ». The
narrow little streets, the omnipresent water, sometimes appearing even on the terraces where we savoured our coffee, the absence of cars and the presence of unusual means of transportation (Il Vaporetto as a bus, motor boats as luxury taxis, gondolas as cars), happy people whose faces showed admiration, and, first and foremost, the people wearing those charming traditional masks, all of these concurred to transport me into another world, totally different from the normal one I was used to. These are the feelings that one has in places that can be trully called top « TOURISTIC DESTINATIONS ». I felt the same way in Kyoto, Osaka or Prague. In such circumstances, all a photographer needs to do is let himself be carried by the dream and have the camera ready to capture 
everything that appears and is offered around him. All day long, we tried to « decypher » the maze of little streets full of small shops that sold local souvenirs, to understand how transportation worked inside the city. Then we got to the famous St Mark’s Square and got acquainted with the area around Rialto Bridge and the famous gondoliers. I took photos everywhere, trying to capture unique moments that presented themselves or, to the contrary, the specific atmosphere, using in an effective way natural light, funny angles and shadows cast by buildings. These were elements that were more than able to stimulate the photographer’s eye and mind.
All these things were but a preview of what would happen during the first hours of the afternoon. After 4 p.m., the light started to change and the golden hours came near. The
photos gained a fairy tale atmosphere. Then, by degrees, more and more people in disguise appeared in St Mark’s Square, so much so that, at a certain point, you felt you were in a motion picture, centuries ago, in a world that, at the same time, was real all around you. There, behind a corner of the Doge’s Palace, you saw Count Casanova plotting something, then courtiers striding along with fine, beautiful young ladies, and all of a sudden a lively character, full of bells and joy, made somersaults and made his fans laugh. It was the clown. Little by little, the light of the dusk was replaced by the light of pubs and streetlamps or by the darkness of the night. The colorful
characters continued their live show around you. In these circumstances, the flash becomes very important, starting to be the main light source, whereas during the day it has a secondary role, helping in fighting against unwanted, annoying shadows. In the end, the fatigue accumulated in a whole day spent standing or walking along little streets full of charm and history took its toll and, close to midnight, we went to the train station and, filled with joy, returned to our hotel room in Padua. We saved our photos on the computer and quickly reviewed them, to see what and how could be improved over the next day. Then we recharged the batteries, let cameras and lenses rest and fell asleep, making a transition from the realm of real dreams generated by the Carnival to the realm of usual dreams we have while sleeping.
Then there came another day out of fairy tales, captured in a series of photos filled with colours and lagoon charm. During this first visit, the dominant elements that impressed us were people, masks and the stories they suggested. They were complemented timidly by
the charm of the little streets bordered by houses connected by strings which displayed clothes hung out to dry, in a very italian manner, or by the gondoliers’ verve, manifested as they looked for customers wanting a 
romantic ride in a gondola, or by the swarms of tourists that were curious and impressed by the multitude of marvelous things. All these caught your attention, creating a foreground that was backgrounded by impressive buildings that emanated history and changed their colours and charm with the arrival of the light of the sunset. Those buildings shelter and preserve, in original museums, stories of numerous destinies. Also worth mentioning are the buzz of voices in trendy coffee shops, the smell of pizza served promptly by smart waiters on animated terraces, the orange colour of the local drink, the venetian soda wine, and the misterious silence that settled gradually as the night advanced.
This complex experience of the two days of festivities in the lagoon generated new ideas of visual exploration that will be materialized in photographic stories during the following visits I will make there. I invite you to see the photo galleries that resulted from this trip and, if they catch your interest, don’t forget to come back and discover what caught my eye in Venice after the festival was over.
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Night Image of the Mont Saint Michel
Beautiful night reflection of the monastery from Mont Saint Michel in northern France. Located at the mouth of Cuesnon river this is one of the most visited place in France.
Silhouette of a Researcher
Silhouette of a female researcher looking through a microscope against a blue sky.
The Road
Image of a road in a field area with a row of electricity poles at the right side and a wind turbine at the left side.
New technologies and new energy sources are hot topics in stock photography.Some major agencies reported as bestsellers in 2011 images within this topic. In this image I like the association between elements and the perspective.
Dutch Windmills Silhouettes
Silhouettes of traditional Dutch windmills in Zaanse Schans. When I was there I felt the light is not great for the perfect classic image. So I turned back, facing the sun and I shot this image which is full of story.
Best images 2011
Paris- The city of light
In this image you can see why Paris is known as “The City of Light”.I took this image in a night walk in the city at about 1 am.
This
2012- Projects
This year, those who will be accessing my site and my blog regularly will have the opportunity to see the development of the photographic projects mentioned below, which will fall into two large categories : stock photography and travel photography.
Stock photography:
Travel photography:
I will also continue to develop my general and permanent collections, which I started last year : Medieval Characters, The Crowd, Le Tour de France.
Christmas Surprise
A man hiding a gift behind his back in front of a happy young woman near the Christmas Tree.
Business District
Night image of skyscrapers in the famous business district, La Defense,in the western part of Paris.
Japanese garden
Autumn aspect from Rinoji temple garden, one of the main landmark of Sendai City, Japan.
Crowd in Venice
Image of crowd of tourists walking between stands with souvenirs in the evening in Sestiere Castello in Venice. Sestiere Castello (The Castello District) is the largest district in Venice and it has a special Italian atmosphere all the year long.
Night Illumination
Night wet illuminated street in Kyoto, Japan.
This image was shot many years ago. The location is quite near the Gion, the ward of geisha.There are such cobbled streets between wooden tea houses. I enjoyed very much to walk there during the night and to feel the spirit of the old Japan.However some of my most living memories from these streets are not visual. They are related to the sounds and…smell.The atmosphere was saturated with the smell of the burning incenses and discrete music of the strings of the shamisen or koto coming from inside of the houses.Because the streets are quite narrow the air there was very warm.All these elements, the music,the smell, the warm air, and the brown color of the wooden walls of the houses, create a piece of what is amazing in Japan.
Jazz Band
Jazz band performing on Charles Bridge in Prague.
Venetian Story
Close up image of colourful masks during the Canival of Venice.Selective focus on the eyes of the red mask.
In my personal classifications of the best places to visit in the world, after Kyoto, Venice is on the second place.I will continue to explore this unique city during the next year.So stay closely to my collections of images to discover hidden treasures of its streets.
Chinese hamburgers recipients
Chinese hamburgers boiling in specific wooden recipients.
Piazza San Marco
Low angle view of people in various situation in St. Marco Square in Venice. Piazza San Marco is the main public square in Venice, and is one of the most visited site of Europe.It is one of the few urban spaces in Europe where human voices prevail over the sounds of motorized traffic.
Hazardous Japan
Some dice and shadows on a tatami floor create a good combination to suggest the idea of “hazardous Japan”.
These last days I met a friend from Japan and we remembered about our days in a small room with tatami which inspired us to generate interesting ideas about how we felt this special country and culture. It was painfully amazing.
Badminton
Perspective in a sports hall with shuttlecocks and badminton racket.
I photographed a series of images in a sports hall in a break of a badminton match, using the available light and the inspiration of the respite moment.
Venetian Story
A girl sitting on the edge of the Grand Canal in Venice,taking a picture of a gondolier using a smart phone.
Dusk in the mountains
Dusk image in Pyrenees mountains on the Ossau Valley in the South of France.
The Ossau Valley is a preserved green valley, attached to its ancestral traditions: the moving of livestock called “transhumance”, traditional songs and dances. Intact agriculture characterizes the valley and many delights await the mountain hiker.
Here the nature is respected and offers a large diversity in flora and in fauna, with the majesty of the Ossau Peak in the background.
The shepherds still practice the moving of livestock to high elevation pastures in summer to work on an authentic cheese, rich in taste.
The herd and flocks here still bear their usual bells so that the shepherd can hear them. Bells are still made in Bearn and can be bought as a “souvenir”.
Herd of cattle at sunset
Herd of cattle grazing at high altitude in The Central Massif in Auvergne region of France.
Japanese drummer
Dynamic image of a traditional Japanese drummer performing in the street during Aoba Matsuri.This is one of the most important festival in Sendai ,Japan.
The priest
Shinto priest praying in Shimogama Temple,Kyoto,Japan.
Chartres illumination
Image of the South side of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres during the “Festival of Lights”. This festival lasts yearly from April to September. During this period many important old buildings from the city are colourfully illuminated and discrete acompanied by music.It is an amazing way to harmonize the heritage site that represent the middle age culture and the new day technology.
Metropolis
Aerial image of extremely crowded buildings in a big European city (Barcelona,Spain).
It is impressive how packed we,The Human Beings,leave. Probably The Ants can watch in a packed hill an interesting documentary, on theirs “Discovery Channel”, about the lifestyle of those strange beings called Humans.
This images is a component of my preliminary collection “The Crowd”. You can browse it here
The Central Massif
Beautiful image of the Central Massif,located in the south-central France.Here is the the largest concentration of extinct volcanoes in the world with approximately 450 volcanoes.
Outdoors Abstract
Image of a pair of hiking boots lying in the grass in front of a beautiful mountainous landscape in Pyrenees Mountains, in the vicinity of Lake D’Anglais, 2100 m.
Effort
Beost,France,July 15th 2011:Close-up image of the cyclist Bookwalter Brent (BMC Racing Team) climbing the category H mountain pass Abisque,from Pyrenees mountains in the 13th stage of the 2011 edition of “Le Tour de France”, the biggest cycling race in the world.The winner of this edition was his teammate Cadel Evans.
I remember you that in 2012 I will shoot more stages of the TDF and I will complete my gallery about this important cycling race of the world.You can view the first part of this collection here
Yellow jersey
Col d’Abisque,France,July 15th 2011:Image of a group of cyclists including The Yellow Jersey (Thomas Voeckler-Team Europecar) climbing the category H mountain pass Abisque in the 13th stage of the 2011 edition of “Le Tour de France”, the biggest cycling race in the world.
This year I had the opportunity to shoot for the first time this important sport event. It was a fantastic experience. I will describe in details how I prepared this shooting in some of the following posts on this blog.During the next years I will shoot at every edition of TDF in various stages.I start to build a collections of images which will present my vision about this race.This is a complex collection containing images from the race and out of the race with places,spectators,the advertising caravan,and everything related to the TDF show.You can view the first part of this collection here
Avenue des Champs-Élysées
Crowded terrace on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees during a cloudy afternoon.The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world located in Paris,France.The avenue runs for 2 kilometers and contains many cinemas, cafés and luxury specialty shops.
Among other things, for me, Paris represents an extraordinary location to complete an interesting collection in my portfolio which will feature a very specific urban character: The Crowd. Please follow my evolution and discover this interesting idea. You can view a preliminary collection of such images here
Water splash
I consider that photographing water splashes is a very challenging subject which can generate very eye catching images.These images are extremely useful to illustrate concepts related to nature and environment conservation which is a very important trend today.
I am setting up a studio for producing such images using high end technology related to high speed photography. The results will start to appear in the beginning of the next year.
Trifaccia
“Trifaccia” is a specific type of Venetian mask representing three faces with different expressions. This kind of mask is often used as a decoration and rarely the people wear it during the Carnival days.
Venetian mask
Venice,Italy,February 26th 2011:Portrait of a person wearing a characteristic mask during the Carnival of Venice nights.
This year I discovered Venice.I consider this image a link between my old passion, Kyoto, and my new passion, Venice. This woman wears a traditional Venetian mask and a Japanese style parasol. The mask is white with contrasting red lips, which is a characteristic feature of the geisha’s face. This plus the red color of the costume and the parasol shift the viewer’s thoughts to the Japanese geisha.
Old Japanese couple
Quotes about photography-Daniel Laflor
Today the quote is:
Stock photography means to capture concepts that others later accept as a visualization of their idea. It’s a mind game.-Daniel Laflor
I think this is a very clever definition of stock photography.
Westface of the Petit Dru
Image of the westface of the Petit Dru summit (3733m) in Mont Blanc Massif. This summit together with the Grand Dru (3754m) form the Aiguille du Dru which is an iconic summit in this massif.
Market trade
When I am in a place I like very much to find a small and undiscovered detail which can characterize that place. This is an example: a woman paying in a Japanese food market.
Wooden church from Maramures, Romania
Rinnoji Temple-Sendai,Japan
Autumn image of the garden and Pagoda from Rinnoji Temple,Sendai,Japan. This temple is located the north of Sendai’s downtown.
The temple was founded in 1441 by Date Mochimune, a member of the Date clan that later controlled large parts of northern Japan in the Edo Period. Rinnoji is the family temple of the Date clan, and although it was not always located at its present spot in Sendai, it moved there together with the Date family in the early 1600s. All of the buildings have been recently restored to their original appearances.
Italian street
Traditional Italian street with clothes hanging out to dry between old houses, somewhere in Venice.
Venetian celebration
A group of people wearing traditional medieval Venetian costumes celebrating on a street terrace in Venice during the Carnival days.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres,France
This is an image of the back side of The Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres which is one of the finest example in all France of the Gothic style of architecture.You can see the contrasting two spires of the cathedral,the taller one was built about 500 years later then the other.
Spring sunrise
Sunrise in a yard with trees in spring.
To create this image I shot four sequences of three bracketed images at various exposure compensations between +/- 1/3 and +/- 2. Then I chosen four images and I combined them using two softwares (Photomatix and DxO Optics). In the end I adjusted everything in Photoshop and I obtained this image which was very well appreciated by people. I used Canon 5D Mk II with 24-105 mm L IS USM lens, a stable tripod, a wireless remote control and I woke up in the morning at the favorable time. Few days before the day of shooting, at the same time in the morning, I simply watch the scene.
Acrobatic soccer player
Venetian silhouettes
Silhouette of a gondolier and his gondola on a canal in Venice at the dusk during the Carnival days. This is an example of how can be creatively used the unpleasant shadows which appear on a location sometimes.
Man with the stick
Image of a man wearing a medieval costume with a stick in an agressive position during the Carnival of Venice nights.
This is a very special capture. This character walks through the crowd in the dark evening. I intended to shoot him and I took the position with my camera to my eye. It all seemed to be an environmental profile shoot. But he realized that I wanted to shoot him and suddenly turned to me with his stick pointing at me. He stayed in this position for just a few seconds and then suddenly disappeared in the crowd. So I had just 2-3 seconds to calm down due to his quick movement and to shoot him and capture this wonderful environmental portrait which can be a poster for a medieval historical movie. Considering the poor lighting conditions I am very proud of the results…. And of course I thank him for his unexpected and fast initiative.
Venetian sunset
Sunset in Venice on the San Giorgio Island.In the distance can be seen The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, designed by Andreea Palladio and a Benedictine monastery.
Leprous man
An actor wearing a specific costume and make-up for a leprous man in the medieval ages, during the “Week-end de L’ascension-Grand Fête médiévale” in Nogent de Rotrou, France. This was a historical reenactment festival around the Saint Jean Castle.
Shopping cart
Image of an empty shopping cart and its shadows against a black background.
