24-25 March 2008: Yiannis + Mirto, Tzia-Kea island, Greece.

Probably the first 2 photographs (of the 4) are the best in this post. The full set of photos that have been shot are in the following image:

18-Mar-2008: Lena Platonos, Photos from the release of the new CD "Diaries" at IANOS bookshop, Athens, Greece.

"Lena Platonos (http://www.myspace.com/lenaplatonos) has contributed much to the Greek electronic music scene with records such as Maskes Iliou, Gallup, Lepidoptera, at a time (mid 80s) when this kind of electronic narration of the Greek - and often of her personal-reality did not have the impact one would expect. "

This photos are from the release of the new CD "Diaries" at the bookshop IANOS in Athens on 18-March-2008. All the photos that I have shot are in the following "contact sheet":

15-Feb-2008: Shop window in Stuttgart, Germany.

2-Apr-2007: Woman with child in the train from Xanthi -> Komotini, Rodope, Greece.

I wanted to publish this photo but always I was postponing it. Actually I didn't like the closed eyes of the woman. Every time I see this photograph I feel strange..

27-May-2007: Portraits - Zeytinli, Gökçeada / Imroz, Turkey.

In the above two photographs we see 2 Greeks (minority) from the village "Άγιοι Θεόδωροι" / Zeytinli of Gökçeada / Imroz island (27 May 2007). The above two pictures have been selected from the following set:

In the following photograph we see the Turkish coffee-shop of the village "Άγιοι Θεόδωροι" of Gökçeada / Imroz island (27-May-2007). It is a tradition to stick notes or photos on the wall of the shop.. and in the photo you see the wall full of notes!The above photo has been selected from the following set of photographs:

29-May-1995: Rom at the metro station Grozavesti, Bucharest, Romania.

Searching my old negatives from 1995 I found this photograph. It is shot in the region of Grozavesti metro station. Many things have changed in that area since 1995. Nowadays there are some huge malls has been built.

The full set of photographs that I have shot are in the following contact sheet. Interesting photograph is also 6 and 7. The quality of the photo is bad (high contrast) because that time I was using Romanian Azomures films at 100 ASA. Observe the high grain of the photo, even the film is low speed!

10-Mar-2008: Couple in Mani Penisula, Greece.

The above photo from Mani is selected from the following set of photographs:

23-Dec-2007: Theodoros + Mio, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

In front of the portraits there is a net which can be seen easier in the next cropped images. You can also mention the hard grain of the photograph.

The set of photographs that I took and I selected the above photograph are in the following image:

19/4/2008 .. 4/5/2008: My participation to the photographic exposition "Photograma" at Zakynthos, Greece.

Between 19-Apr-2008 till 4-May-2008 will take place the photographic exposition "phograma" in Zakinthos island, Greece. This exposition has photographs from photographers that their albums has been selected in the past as "album of the week" in the Greek photographic portal www.dpgr.gr. My album where the above photo belongs in www.dpgr.gr is "Photographs from Thrace". The above photograph is shot on 19-Apr-2005 at the Muslim minority school of Komotini.

In the pictures above you can see all the procedure that you have to follow in order to make the frame for the photograph.

Where can I buy a Leica camera? Useful information.

The German firm Leica is considered one of the best (and one of the most expensive) of film cameras. They say that Leica lenses and cameras (film cameras) are the best in the world. I can say, from my personal experience (I own 2 SLR Leica R4 bodies and three lenses), that Leica camera/lenses are very expensive comparing quality/value with other firms (ie Nikon, Canon etc). For example a camera body of Leica R probably is a a little better from a much cheaper one of ie. Nikon FM2 or F3. Also an expensive lens of Leica 50mm/1.4 it can be a little better that a much cheaper lens with the same characteristics from Nikon/Minolta.

By the way, Leica has solid, metallic and beautiful cameras/lenses. Nowadays, many photographers buy digital cameras and they sell their old cameras in very low prices. A paradise of buying a used Leica camera/lens is the Leica shop in Berlin. All the cameras that you see in the above two photographs (shot by my mobile phone) are from that shop.

15-Oct-2004: Juveniles at Kimi village, Rodopi mountains, West Thrace, Greece.

This photograph is from the pomak village Kimi (at the Greek-Bulgarian borders) 15-Oct-2004. All the photos that I shot and I choose the above one are in the next image:

9-Dec-2007: Musicians from Bulgaria at the central train station of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

In these two photographs we see two Bulgarian musicians at the central train station of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (9-Dec-2007). The first photograph is shot using a tele-lens 100mm and the second one using a 28mm lens. Here we can see the difference between the aesthetics of a tele-lens and an wine-angle lens. The photograph from the tele-lens is more "flat/compressed" in comparison with wide-angle. The whole set of photos that I shoot from these musicians (and I choose the above two) are in the next image:

20-Dec-2007: Teius Train station, Transylvania, Romania.

These two photographs are shot using black & white film Kodak T-MAX 3200ASA in Teius train station in Transylvania (20-Dec-2007). Kodak T-MAX 3200 is a very sensitive film, ideal for night shots and the situations with low light conditions. If you use this film in daily light has a lot of disadvantages: has a high contrast, dark tones in the photo are black and light parts of the image are white. Another characteristic of this film is the hard grain. This hard grain some photographers are using it creatively but some others they hate it (since the photo has low resolution and a lot of noise / grain). An example of this high grain of this film we can see in the next image which is cropped from the second photograph:

The above two photographs has been selected from the following set of photographs which I shot in that train station:

face2faceproject.com

As we already seen in a previous post March 2007: face2faceproject.com the work of photographers JR + marco in Israel, the face2face project (the site don't work with firefox, needs explorer ;-(). Their idea was to make funny portraits of Jews and Palestinians using wide-angle 28mm lens and expose them on the Palestinian wall and the in Israel.

JR + marco's 28 millimeter project: Using a wide-angle lens (ie. 28mm) you have both barrel and perspective distortion. So JR + marco are using 28mm lens in order their portraits to look funny but also like caricatures. The above photograph is from Paris where they recently exposed their portraits from Israel. More photos from this exposition you can see at the post: JR + marco from the blog BEE-ZEE.

The next video is about a previous work of photographers: JR + marco. Using 28mm lenses they shot funny portraits of immigrants living in ghetto areas in France. Note: When you shoot portraits using a 28mm lens you have to be very close to the face as you can see in the video.

The following video is from the project face2face project at the wall of Palestine.

The following video is from their exposition in Paris.

8-Dec-2007: Demonstration against the modification of the abortion law, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

This photograph is from the demonstration (8-Dec-2007) against the modification of the law about abortions in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This photograph has been shot with wide-angle 28mm lens and the whole set of photographs (from where I selected it as the best) is in the following image:

16-Dec-2007: Graffiti "Imbros" (Gökçeada) at Berlin Wall, Germany.

Walking around the Berlin Wall I had the idea to modify a little bit one of the graffities ;-). About Imbros-Ίμβρος/Gökçeada you can find information also to previous posts.

16-Dec-2007: Graffiti at Berlin Wall, Germany.

The above graffiti is shot with black & white film TMAX 100ASA at the Berlin Wall, December 2007. A color version of the graffiti is the next image (shot with a simple digital camera):

Most of the graffities at the wall are colored (this one is an exception) but I shot them with black & white film. The black & white photograph of a color graffiti sometimes gives the impression of painting drawn with pencil / carbon.

27-Apr-2005: Budapest, Hungary.

In the "contact sheet" below we see the full set of the photographs taken from the above subject. The image is the 3rd in the row.

20-Apr-2007: Park in Prague / Czech Republic.