A vintage inspired senior session

A beautiful senior session in Bucharest

Movie set photography – The Pill

Movie-set photography was not something I gave too much thought but recently I had the opportunity to do double-duty as assistant camera and on-set photographer for a feature film called the Pill, directed by JC Khoury. This was an amazing experience that took me to a whole new level of photography. The lovely actors in the photos above are Rachel Boston and Noah Bean. See more stills from the movie.

Life’s Colors

Today I felt compelled to share one of my poems with you. I don’t write poems too often, but sometimes I like to express myself in rhymes. There is a certain clarity in a verse, a condensed form of an emotion.

Life’s colors

I want to carry life’s colors within me,
A balanced dose of pensive moods and joyous feel.

I want to take road trips alone
And carry friends within my soul.

I want to be happy and care-free
But also think of those around me.

I want to cross oceans of life experiences
As well as feel like I am no more than three.

Could all of these possible be?
Inside of you, inside of me…
I guess in time we’ll live and see.

Under the shade of a fallen tree

“I think that I shall never see, a billboard as lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.”
Ogden Nash

For me, forests are magical places… full of mystery and life. The forest is never truly quiet, yet immersed in it I finally hear the sound of silence. A silence that allows me to hear my own voice, the one that’s helping me make wise decisions about my life and my dreams. Deep within every soul there is a wise sage, the source of wisdom. Hidden like a treasure within each and one of us, its voice is soft and kind, which makes it hard to be heard when we find ourselves assaulted daily by the aggressive sounds of modern society.

That’s why every now and again, I feel the need to immerse myself in the silence of  nature, to hear my own voice and make sure I am on the right path.

Have you visited a forest lately?

For the love of flowers

Perhaps because I’m named after a flower or perhaps because I used to look after a rose garden at my grandparent’s house,  I am absolutely in love with flowers and I love taking lots of pictures of them.

Today I came across some amazing roses but also made a rookie mistake: I left my camera at home.  Luckily, they invented phones that come with cameras so I used my Iphone to capture these beautiful roses. Enjoy!

The best camera in the world

When I first started learning about photography, I searched book after book and magazine after magazine for the best camera and photographing techniques. I didn’t want to spend my hard-earned money on a camera that would not guarantee me photos on par with Annie Leibovitz to say the least. The curious thing was that every time I was coming across the same words of wisdom: “The best camera in the world is the one that you have with you.“

For 3 years I used several point-and-shoot cameras (all Canons) because I wanted to learn about composition and conveying emotion rather than worry about fancy equipment. I learned a lot by doing that because limitations can open you up to possibilities. I have upgraded my equipment since  and now I am using a Canon 5D-MarkII but lately I have been taking lots of photos with my Iphone.

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter that you have an expensive and capable camera that sits at home but rather that you have a convenient camera that you can capture the beauty of the moment with. Here are couple of photos taken with my Iphone and edited with the Instagram free Iphone application.

Home, sweet home

Even though I have been picky with where I live my whole life, I never thought that an apartment can have such a huge positive influence on my creative side.  Sometimes a home is just a roof over your head and four walls to keep you safe a night, but there are times when a home becomes more than just a physical ground.

My apartment did not start as anything else than a place to rest my head at night and it probably would have stayed just that had I not discovered the wonderful world of home design blogs,and especially Decor8 blog, which inspired me to explore my interior design creativity.

They say that constraints, instead of limiting, sometimes open you up to more possibilities. It definitely worked in my case. I did not have much room to start with: just a straight-angled studio, with a wonderful view of the NYC East River, and the feature which initially made me choose this apartment: a see-through kitchen.

It took me over three years, starting from scratch, to make a home out of my apartment, and something interesting happened along the way: the more inviting and welcoming my apartment was becoming, the more my creative side was developing.

It is in this very apartment that I read my first book on photography. It was here that I came up with the idea for my first short film. And it is within the warmth and security of the home I made within these four walls, that I started dreaming of becoming a photographer one day.

You don’t even have to spend a lot of money! Most of my furniture was a combination of budget Ikea items and things that I bought of Craigslist. My bedpost was made from the frame of a $100 Ikea couch and the top of a coffee table which someone discarded even though it looked brand new. One thing I can tell you for sure: that the more love you put in your home, the more you are going to get it back.  Your home shelters your dreams and I am writing this post to thank my little apartment for allowing me to dream so many beautiful things