John Roshka Photography

Tomorrow, on the 14th of October a sale exhibition will take place in the center of Chisinau, capital of Moldova. The occasion is the Day of Chisinau.

The exhibition will be held in front of Opera and Ballet Theatre and all the money from sale will go to an orphanage. Works of many photographers will be displayed, including 3 of my works.

The works to be displayed and available for purchasing with a signature on them:

Faith

-2 more images->

Chisinau Central Market is the most vivid place in Chisinau. Each day there thousands of people attending it.

In the beginnig of the XX century, the famous “eating place” was formerly situated from the side of Armyanskaya Street, from where the market starts today. You can always find fresh vegetables and all kind of fruits during summer here. Peasants are coming with their own products from villages with hope of selling it at the central market.

Eating Place: http://kishinev.info/center_photos_en/111114

All the photos were done with the camera from the hip. It is a new technique for me, but I started to love it. It gives a moment of reality and honesty. People become interesting and real, the way the are.

So, here are some tips I found useful during this session:

1. Front focus. A lot of photographers are using back focus (using AE-lock button for focusing). I would do that for hip shooting, it’s not confortable.

2. Using a wide lens. I was using Tamron 17-55mm, 2.8. It worked.

3.Use of perspective. One should his/her camera very well. To know the field of view, how much and what the camera is able to cover. This is important because all the situations appear suddenly and chose the point of view is essential.

4. Be lucky…or prepared.

Images are also available as slideshow HERE

Images are available for sale from RedBubble. I’m in the process of adding them. If someone’s interested in buying the digital file, please contact me.

Enjoy:

1.

-More Photos->

Chisinau has several big malls: Megapolis, Jumbo, SunCity…

And there is another one, MallDova. It situated near a bridge that connects the center of Chisinau with Botanica region. It is an amazing, modern architectural construction and it provides a wide range of services: from beauty salons to fast food, restaurants and leisure.

-Enter MallDova->

Five Minutes.

After work I was going to the park…as usual. Sometimes there are great subjects to take photographs of, sometimes is just great to walk. That day was a religious, national holiday, Boboteaza (.rom. Next post will about that) and I was heading to the cathedral. On my way I noticed a lonely guy on a bench. I liked the way he was dressed and his face. He also like to look at everybody and had a great silluette. After passing near him, I started to plan a point of view and to shoot some pictures. I went behind a tree, got my Tamron 70-300 mm, 4-5.6 and pressed the shutter. It was during 5 minutes, but at home looking at those images I realised that I captured more than usual 5 minutes. I see personality, interest and mistery in his behaviour.

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Grigore Vieru – “One of the major writers in contemporary Romanian literature”

It’s too bad that all I could do in relation to this great man was reading few of his books while I was a kid and taking some photos at his funeral.

“His poetry is characterized by vivid natural scenery, patriotism, as well as a venerated image of the sacred mother”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigore_Vieru

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxgf46Gjck0

http://www.azi.md/en/story/983

When the news about his death was announced, the country fell into a deep sorrow and compasion. Everyone know him, big and small, young and old. Hid poems were full of love, all kind of love, and for everyone…love for mother, country, home, traditions, roots, place you were born…

-The Images->

I got a new wide lens.

Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical [IF]

I recieved it yesterday and made some testing shots. The only one I managed to process by now is the Dancing Trees image.

The lens met my expectations. It’s an everyday to use lens, good for landscapes, street, urban and other stuff. I like wide angles for the perspective they give.

Dancing Trees

I used PerfectRAW for converting. Black and White in Photoshop and masking the green. Added vignette.

Enjoy.

A mini serie of 3 photos representing an old lady passing the street in Chisinau, Moldova.

A small project that includes this images you can find here: http://www.behance.net/johnroshka/Frame

I represented differences and the mood the images show after processing in comparison to the original state.

On the big car on the right it says: Piine, which mean Bread in Romanian.

Preparing

I found the answer to this question by looking at this image for couple of minutes. I liked the immensity of what people believe and the immensity of the power with which they are holding their believes. I took this several years ago on Kodak ProFoto 100 with a Pentax SFXn camera.

I just like it.

Enjoy.

I’ve been watching for the right moment of capturing this cityscape for a pretty long time. Everytime was saying to myself that will be the perfect day and light and I’ll make this panorama. So here it came.

I took two shots with my Pentax K100D, 18 mm, f. 8.0 and stiched them in hugin, the best sticher so far, though I’m not a pro at mastering it.

The images were converted to 16 bit TIFF using PerfectRAW as usual. Didn’t apply noise reduction because the images were quite OK concerning noise. 

In Photoshop thought for a og time how to process it and in the end made it cross processing. Acutallu I was looking for that “Hancock” movie look, high contrast, mixed yellow with green and so on, but couldn’t find any tutorial about that on the net. So decided to do it on my own. 

It will not be put on sites for prints, just an exercise for my own pleasure…

Was working today at two images…actually one image but with two different outputs, color and black and white. First I was working a lot on the colored version until accidentaly tried the Black and White version….and it rocked, I liked them both and made 2 variations: color and black and white.

Check it out.

This is the color variant:

-Click here->

I got an email about this event and was very curious about it. Decided to get my cameras, the Pentax K100D with its 18-55 mm and the Canon EOS D60 with it’s 80- 200 mm EF lens. Found the place pretty easily because the University where the competition took place wasn’t far from the Chisinau Circus, inside the Sports University. When I got there the play already had started. There were not a lot of fans, I was greeted by a person who gave me a small flag. It was saying about the “Motivatie” NGO which is organizing all kind of events for people with disabilities. I was very amazed and pleased that these kind of organizations exist. Found a place for shooting and guess what…my 80-200 mm lens is not working…when I mounted it to the Canon it was giving a kind of noise from the motor and the camera showed the Error 99. Well, what the hell, started to shoot with the 18-55 mm which wasn’t very amuzing and professional..

Here is what I ended up with:

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Pentax K100D, PerfectRAW, CS3

This was taken in the main square in Chisinau. The columns belong to a bell tower which is in front of the main Cathedral.

The concert took place on 9th of May, 2008, Fantom Club, Ismail Street, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova