Aurel Manea Photography

Exactly 4 years ago was my first post on the blog.
Cheers.

These are more like vacation photos, but came out ok enogh. I’m surprized my camera made it without a problem in all that snow and freezing temperatures.

After this, back to landscapes

Cheers to the guys in the photos and the ones that did’t make it on the site . Happy new year. And stop looking at the camera

Berlin new year. What can I say, I was expecting something completely different than this.
First of all the city is incredibly dangerous on new year . Every skinhead getting drunk and aggressive for no reason. The good thing is that police is everywhere and that saved me a couple of times not getting beaten or robbed.
Not to mention the fact that 20 minutes before 0:00 the Brandenburg Gate area got so crowded that we literally almost got killed in a stampede . Judging by the number of ambulances afterwards some people really got hurt, and we had to celebrate new year separated in the chaos. From what I have read on the internet, this was supposed to be the biggest open air party in the whole world, with more than a million people gathering at the gate. To me it was just chaos, cold (more cold than I have ever experienced anywhere) and a lot of firecrackers thrown everywhere with no  judgment. All in all it was very interesting to see such thing, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you don’t care too much for your safety .
The new year in Amsterdam, even if the sheer amount of firewarks and crackers was 10 times as big, it was fun, everyone was high (compared to drunk here) and there was a sense of safety that made me enjoy it very much. I will probably go there again.

The next days the city was once again quiet and safe, and sort of boring. But that in some other posts.

Happy new year.

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This is my first time using a prime lens, since I was very reticent about them, being used to framing using the zoom.

However since I needed low light filming potential and also being Christmas and all I treated myself with a Canon 50mm 1.4

I had 3 choices : the Canon 100mm f2 , the Canon 85 mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.4.

The first ones had a big advantage of being much sharper. However both of them had smaller apertures and that means less light. Also because of the big focal lenght the lack of IS is a big issue, I know that because I had the 100mm f 2.8 macro, and most photos came out blurry unless in perfect light conditions. And last but not least, the same kind of bokeh and framing was easy to obtain with the zoom lenses I had (24-105 f4 l IS and 7-200 f4 L IS ). However the 50mm gave me a very nice bokeh at angles closer to the ones of the human eye, making it a very casual lens, framing exactly what I see.

Very very good choice. After I mounted it on the camera, in 5 days in Barcelona I could not take it off. Instead of finding it difficult and restraining to use, I found it perfect. Too perfect, since it made making good photos a piece of cake, the bokeh separating perfectly any subject from any noise in the background, turning the background into e very nice light painting. It’s not the sharpest of lenses, not the best build, not the best regarding ghosting or purple fringing, but the final result makes me forget about these details.

And some of the photos made with it.

While in London I had the opportunity to see a real live anti-war protest. It was kind of interesting, the protesters marched throughout the city and stopped in Trafalgar Square where they held their event. It was like the scene from Forrest Gump, somehow every speech ended up having some sort of relationship with Vietnam. There were Vietnam songs and poetry, replacing the word Vietnam with Afghanistan or Iraq. There was  some criticism aimed at Bush, Cheney, Rice, etc. Overall I found it to be very low level, not at all what I expected. And from all these people I bet most were there for the excitement, the idea of protesting and fighting something . The kind that would back off instantly if there were some kind of consequences for their actions. And the rest probably don’t realize the futileness of their protest. Always was, is, always will be. I wanted for a few seconds to get on that stage and tell them to forget it , to go home to their real problems they can actually fight. But then I figured everyone who’s anyone fights for something impossible or near it, and If they feel is worth it, I wish them all the luck.

The guy in the first and last photos is Brian How. Since the war in Iraq started in 2001 he’s been in Parliament Square protesting against it. Gave up everything, moved into a tent and never moved from there in 7 years. Sometimes at night , people say, fascist kids came and beat him, without the police being able to do anything. The government repeatedly tried to remove him form there, without success . He soon became a symbol of the fight against war.  Very very impressive thing he’s doing , but I think even he is starting to doubt. On the brink of new wars, he was now tired, could no longer walk. He just kept smoking his cigarettes for hours, without saying anything. I tried talking to him, telling him that a lot of people including myself are grateful for what he’s doing. He kept smoking without saying anything. I asked him if I could take some photos. Without looking at me for one second he knotted affirmatively . He didn’t   look at anyone, as if to show his disappointment in the human race.
The image kind of got stuck in me.
You cand read more about Brian on his page or wikipedia.

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Literally .For 2 months now I have no spoon in the whole house. I either forget or I’m to lazy to buy and it makes things rather difficult for me., especially regarding eating.

Now what was I saying ?  Oh yeah, pigeons in Istanbul . Lots of them.

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