14-June-2008: Electrical Stairway in the old town --- Vitoria, Basque Country, Spain.

Jul-Aug 1999: Portraits from Syria (Aleppo, Maalola).

The second image is a crop of the first photograph. Both photos are from Aleppo, Syria. Aleppo is one of the most beautiful cities in Syria.

The above two portraits are from the village Maalola which is north of Damascus, at the borders with Lebanon.

6-Apr-2008: Portrait in a coffee shop in Brussels, Belgium.

20-Feb-2005: Wind turbines in Rodope, north Greece, 16-Aug-2006: Wind turbines in Bozcaada / Tenedos island, Turkey.

These photos (having the wind turbines) are from the mountains of Rodope in north Greece (boarder between Greece and Bulgaria).

These wind turbines are from the Turkish island Bozcaada / Tenedos. Photographs from this place we have already seen in a previous post.

4-Jun-2008: Yannis Tzortzis, ‘green project: phase 1′ photographic exposition at Tio Ilar.

More about the Green Project 2008 you will find in the link: http://greenproject2008.com. I made this video in the opening of the photographic exhibition of Yannis Tzortzis at Tio Ilar.

2005: "The Beauty Project" a short film by photographer Steve Gatlin and Cory Pampalone.

"With the darkness of night serving as his studio, an enigmatic photographer uses everyday places and the human form to create his version of beauty in the world around him. For the past few years Steve Gatlin has been shooting photographs of nude people in public places at night. The photographs encompass what he calls The Beauty Project, an exploration of light, motion and the human form." text by sfgatlin.The above short film is aesthetically excellent. Something that I didn't like in the film, is that the photographic work of Steve Gatlin we see it in some short scenes and only at the ending titles we can see some his work. In the web site of Steve Gatlin and the web site http://www.thebeautyproject.com/ you can see his photos: Some biographic details of Steve Gatlin:

"Steve Gatlin was born in 1974 and grew up in South Florida until he moved away from home at the age of 18.

His first experience in photography came when he was nine and won a disk camera at a birthday party for one of his classmates. Steve used that camera regularly and would often have film developed that he had shot around the neighborhood. Ever since then Steve has always had a camera in hand and seen the world through its lens."

25-May-2008: Interview with my friend / photographer Dan Turcu, Satu Mare, Romania.

Oveview of this 14minutes video (it is in English language): Dan Turcu is my friend since 1993. We were colleagues in the technical university of Bucharest. Today Dan Turcu works as a freelance photographer in Satu Mare, Romania (this city is at the boarders between Romania and Hungary/Ukraine). Dan Turcu has his own photographic studio and he makes photographic albums of students that they finished their high school. One of the "secrets" of Dan's work is that he modifies the photographs using a photo-editing software. In his modified photos, even an "ugly" person looks beautiful. The students like these modifications and they buy his photos.

Technical details of the video: We used the high definition camera του Dan, in his home on Sunday 25-May-2008. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time (just 2 hours because I had to rush and catch a train). Dan recently bought an HD-camera and a blue-ray recorder in order to make videos of weddings. We made this video together with Dan in order to explain to Dan how we make a video (shooting, thinking about story-telling etc).

We already saw in a previous post a photo of Dan from 1994:

Dan Turcu 1994 :-).

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.