Envelope / Develope

  Photography by Gabi, August 2020, Niagara on the lake, Ontario   If you are interested in photography probably you have been browsing some of the storing/managing/commercializing photo platforms - 500pix, Unsplash, Photo.net, Dpreview, etc.. From time to time, they ask you if you want to send photos encompassing an idea or a concept, like - B&W in the city, Smiles, Dancing, Blazing light, Winter dreams, etc... The concept is not new and even for film-makers they have those spread over time periods when an idea is coming to fruition based on an urge to express something which is dear and close to you. From an idea, to concept, to gathering chapters for the movie, it is a long time and often it might be buried along the way. With photography is like a bookmark in a book, you come back and refresh it or have a new revelation and express it. I was thinking in the same vein when perusing my own photos. I really enjoy photos combining images, reflections and shadows. Very heav...

Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash You probably heard that swimming in rough waters in life will reveal your own character and of all the people with you, caught in that moment. It is always unexpected and, exactly as in movies, it begins with a peaceful background and a monotone sound. Everything is unfolding slowly and without any clues that deep gaps will be revealed in any way. It is like a crack in someone's emotional fabric which becomes a wrecking ball for the characters caught in the event, for a short time span, sufficient to project them on a different life orbit, for good. Some people are calling those events "interventions", others fear them as "dark spots" where secrets are emerging as an iceberg unbalanced by some life event. The repercussions are deep and memorable and entail subsequent turmoils, like a burning lava which will flow down for many days to find a peaceful landscape to cool off. The characters are the same like in normal life ...

Photo by CDC on Unsplash   Detect immunity One of the numbers broadcasted every day is the number of COVID-19 patients who recovered. Instead of being fixed on detecting people with corona virus, we should be fixed on detecting the ones who had a mild version of corona virus or even were asymptomatic. Once we know they can freely move, socially mark them in a certain way (with a special certificate).  They could be the soldiers of opening closed businesses or helping important economic sectors. They are on the other side of the fear, all the COVID-19 restrictions should not apply to them. It is not known for how long is the immunity lasting, but at least, these people should come back and revive the industries and get the jobs and make the economy re-start. It is a small number, but they can propel some ideas for the ones in the isolation (see below). That should be the second most important decision of our governments - detect immunity, instead of just...

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash It probably happened to you, when getting in a place where you have this uncomfortable feeling you don't belong to, all things are not common to your life and people have the easiness which seemed cultivated to you. Joining a group or conversation and, poof (as my daughter says) someone is bludgeoning you with a question which splits the audience in two: - Have you read ... (and put here the title of a book in the top of the lists from a prestigious newspaper)? The polite answer would be to tell the truth, listen to a glorious summary of the book, or to bend the truth and play noob. Many times, although, when I have the feeling that people are just flashing their "cultivated" image, I want to pull them in a "social bloody" embarrassment by luring them in the waters they might not comfortable with. My strategy is to pick on the display of the ideas in the book and then pull together references from  other books and ...

Photo by Braden Jarvis on Unsplash If you read the biography of Freeman Patterson you will be puzzled his first call of what to do with his life was not photography. The man has a Master in Divinity degree and a bachelor in philosophy. He worked as a photographer for some newspapers as a temporary job and then decided to pursue photography full time. It is an interesting life trajectory to veer from seriously thinking in God to dream in banal images! You will find many photographers who will show an interesting image but will not have the inner structure to explain the thought process or whether it represents more than a fantasy. The scaffolding process on reaching a certain image, which reflects an emotion, a thought or just life, is appealing when you read Patterson's books about photography. If you juxtapose the education with his images, some of them have an eerie feeling, something that gives you pause and wonder what is a photo for human psyche. Yes, he is fro...

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash I don't know what is worse: the whole pandemic provoked by the corona virus or the consequence of shutting down businesses due to the risk of contaminating their customers? There are industries where people are clustered together, where you have to be close to your client: airlines hospitality (Disney, cruises) entertaining industry restaurants, fast food establishments, wineries, breweries anything related to well being and not health care As I outlined in a different post, year 2020 is essential for US presidential elections. Mr. Trump understands the whole economic factor is so important to get elected a second term. With the forced close down of the major economic sectors (car manufacturing, industrial manufacturing, airlines, entertaining), the crisis in the health sector being overwhelmed by the peak of people admitted in ICU, banks hit by a slowed down economy, there is a perfect storm to bring his chances very down. There...

"That is the reason you should read a book, from time to time. Whenever you are left with nothing, to have something to think about the book in order to not feel alone" This is the conclusion from a post in " From the people who are boasting about their studies but are not reading any books " (Romanian only). Photo by David Iskander on Unsplash The quote stroke a chord with me because resonated with an old idea "there are many educated people but only some are cultivated". Or about people who are in a highly visible social roles but are embarrassing themselves when talking or expressing an idea. You know who you are, social clowns! Their life is more than enough and they preach from their position, lacking the understanding that many more others have been in their shoes and somehow conversed in a more polished or elegant way. Another title of this post could be "you lost a parallel/inner life when you haven't read books". I am...

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash   The Covid-19 virus is here to stay. The isolation will only buy time, the WFH will not get back the industries, the jobs and the permanent fear that another virus can hide somewhere. The only major reverse back to normalcy would be to find a treatment/vaccine which could be easily accessible. In order to get validation for it the only action which will convince population and recover the whole lock-up is to put off the spread in Italy. What is it done to get to that ideal scenario? Maybe we should have a website updating this pursuit and calling for volunteers (big pharma, I am quite sure there are many volunteers waiting in the wings !).

" De aia nu strică să mai citești, din când în când, o carte. Măcar atunci când rămâi fără nimic, să ai la ce te gândi, ca să nu te simți singur." Este un citat din " Despre cei care bravează cu studiile dar nu citesc ". Photo by David Iskander on Unsplash M-a frapat textul pentru ca am avut acceasi impresie despre o multime de oameni care sunt "educati" dar nu sunt "cultivati". Sau despre oamenii care ajung intr-o pozitie vizibila social dar care sunt penibili sa exprime sau sa transmita o idee. Un alt titlu pentru post ar putea fi - "ai pierdut o viata interioara/paralela cind nu ai citit carti". Nu cred ca am vreun motiv sa justific de ce citesc carti, dar se pare ca exista o lipsa de intelegere de ce cartile sunt total diferite de ce citesti pe internet. Si spun asta dupa ce am incercat sa inteleg de ce o multime din oamenii din jurul meu imi spune ca nu are timp sa citeasca. Eu sunt total socat cind aud asta. Nu...

Photo by Rob Schreckhise on Unsplash In times like this I wonder if the people with their hand on the power lever have second thoughts - about handling the major problems instead of wasting our money and their life time in petty quarrels or egocentric show offs. They can be in a hospital fighting for their life or looking at someone close to them separated by a thick glass. If you are a doctor, sick on a hospital bed, will you relinquish a ventilator for a younger bum? Is any doctor going to apply the same rule, the younger have priority over a ventilator? Or, if you are a famous basketball player, are you going to make that gesture? Yes, I know that at this moment nobody wants to think about it, but how about doing more that just staying put within your four walls? Is this crisis going to move a few marbles and change your view on life and what you will do from now on? You probably may understand there are more barriers the wealthy and the powerful are putting betwe...

Photo by Mariah Ashby on Unsplash Last night, 24th of December 2019, we came home from a party with friends. My daughter was excited to see the presents received from Santa and rushed, after she entered our home, to discover the gifts. She paused a little and then stopped looking at a stack of wrapped boxes placed under the Christmas tree. Suddenly she started to cry. "There are just a few presents for me. What did I do wrong, daddy?" She was sobbing and I was a little flabbergasted; my effort to buy some interesting presents for her (some of them failed to be delivered but were still bought but not under the tree, due to unforeseen circumstances) seems to be dashed from a simple glance to a pile of boxes. She was expecting a deluge of boxes under the tree and the five/six wrapped boxes were not enough to fill-up her expectations. I just sat down in a chair and was chewing my kid's ungratefulness. She unwrapped one of the presents and discovered was a piano b...

The taxi boat  for Saleccia beach was a retirees business, a pair which found a new way to stretch their money. If you were a fan of the Netflix movies showing Brits moving down south, that would be a perfect example.    We arrived one hour earlier just to stroll San Florent (San Firenzu) and visit the stores close to central plaza. I ordered an artisan gelato for Emma while I was tasting some Corsican peaches. I don't know why the hype with the beach, maybe because the color of the water and the gentle entry, no rocks and many boats anchored not far from the shore. The boat ride was speedy and bumpy (they wanted to carry as much people to the beach). I was concerned because Emma was the only kid in the group and everyone was grabbing the bars in order to keep their balance. No hats or flying scarfs were allowed and Emma's hair was getting a blow, which she liked it. Reaching the shore we jumped in the water and walked to the beach.Just from the visit to Carrefour, ...

We  were stationed in Lucciana, one hour south of Bastia and all our hikes were around Corte, another 50 minutes south west. Both lakes - Melu and Capitellu - are famous due to the Restonica gorges, people are coming to enjoy the small pools along the stream.  I searched for Restonica gorge and the car's navigation system just had it as POI.  The first shock, off Corte town, was the small road leading to Restonica gorges, were you have to carefully drive and negotiate the curbs with incoming traffic. There is one lane and a half and from place to place spaces where to cars can pass along each other. I haven't yet met obnoxious drivers in Corsica, all of them are trying to accommodate to the road conditions. Once we have reached the paying parking lot, the signs were showing one hour and forty-five minutes for lake Melu. I hiked in many countries, but this trail was busy like a side-walk to supermarket. The last part of the hike to reach the platform of the lake Melu...

unsplash-logo Filip Mroz I used to watch the grand slam tennis matches and to observe the emotion of the players. Body language is a good indicator of what is happening with most of them. Their reaction on tense points or after long rallies is also an important indicator where their mind is. Small triggers based on spectators' reactions or referee's decisions are playing a role on their mind. You can see the maturity or the adolescence in some of their behaviors.  But you don't know how they judge and adjust during the match, what is crossing their mind and when the decisions are taken to employ a different tactic than before. And here is where the interviews with mass-media are shining some light about other side of their personalities, besides that of being a fantastic tennis player (because the majority of them are). We judge a sport based on the TV broadcasts instead of judging it based on the effort they put on to reach that level. If you have ever watched a...

Milan, 15 August 2019, day 2 A full day in Milan was scheduled for visiting Il Duomo, Castello Sforzesco and the Last Supper. I booked the tickets from Toronto and the first visit was scheduled for 8 am. I fumbled with the metro directions and we were there at 8:20 based on my watch. The whole plaza was empty and the cathedral was close. Then I realized I didn't change the time from Romania (one hour in advance) and started to take pictures of the plaza and of the nearby market - Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Emma was sleepy and I promised her that after visiting the dome we will find something to eat.Il Duomo has the cornucopia of the same personages and themes of the church. I was impressed with the large stained glasses, the navel raised on long columns with human sculptures at the top. Were they real personages in life or fictional characters?   Walking the church, in the insets in the wall, a few sculptures impressed me - three black marble characters, one man and two wo...

Photo by Yohann LIBOT on Unsplash Nu stiu cum am ajuns la website ( www.teleleu.eu ), probabil am citit un articol pe unul din site-urile ziarelor din Romania. Este povestea a doi oameni care au avut curajul sa spuna lucrurile asa cum le-au vazut, lucruri pe care le auzim dar nimeni nu prea le aduce in fata, si cum mai toate proiectele lor necesitau multe zile "pe teren" s-au mutat intr-o rulota si au inceput sa colinde Europa (in special). Am citit majoritatea posturilor intr-o singura zi, cu lacomia celui care ar visa sa faca asemenea "nebunii" dar poate nu are destule motive, sau se teme "de gura lumii", sau pur si simplu este prins in angrenajul vietii ca o povara. Ce este interesant despre reportajele lor? Varietatea, tonul care nu judeca ci doar trasnmite mai departe ce personajele lor spun, din cind in cind observind comportamente si gesturi. Nu este nici o interpretare ci simplu documentare pentru un subiect. Majoritatea sunt oameni ca...

Mes projets de voyage ne se font pas du jour au lendemain, simplement parce que je veux me détendre ou décompresser. La plupart du temps, je vois des endroits dans des documentaires ou des films ou je lis à leur sujet, puis je commence à dessiner un plan. Quand une graine est plantée, je récupère des informations et j'essaie de comprendre s'il ne reste plus que mon impulsion à me rendre sur place: si elles ont des endroits incroyables à photographier ou des paysages aux caractéristiques uniques, mieux c'est. Aujourd'hui, je dévoilerai mon plan de visite en Corse. Je suis un grand fan de TV5, la chaîne de télévision française qui au fil des ans m'a présenté de nombreux endroits incroyables à travers leurs documentaires: Thalassa, Des racines et des ailes, Passez moi les jumelles. Dans l'un des documentaires, une jeune guide ( Magali Vermeglio ) a été filmée lors d'une randonnée au GR20 et à la beauté du paysage et à la rugosité des sommets moi a commenc...

Photo by Curtis MacNewton on Unsplash   Dansul hirtiilor in Romania 2019 Am iesit sa-mi eliberez un certificat de nastere, ca sa-mi fac din nou un pasaport Romanesc. Da, sunt inca cetatean roman, desi nu m-ai traiesc acolo de douazeci de ani. Dar nu am uitat, pentru orice fituica, trebuie sa alergi, intrebi, primesti lectii si astepti. Deci eram pregatit moral pentru socul cultural, inca mai imi aminteami de nervii pe care mi-i faceam acum douazeci de ani. Sa incepem cu gasirea cladirii unde se elibereaza certificatele. Pancarta care ar trebui sa anunte pentru oricine care este scopul acelei cladiri publice este facuta varza, poti sa-ti inchipui ca au trecut sute de ani peste ea (poate compania care a furnizat-o a trebuie sa taie din vopsea ca sa dea ciubucul pentru intrat la licitatie). Este o cladire veche, de cel putin 60-70 de ani conceputa pentru cu totul alte scopuri dar modificata pentru lucrul cu publicul. Am intrebat la casierie, ce trebuie sa fac, mi s-a ...

People are loathing complainers. They are everywhere, life was harsh, when they were vulnerable other took advantage of them. The system is against them or simple events were not aligned with their life plans. There are not many who can run around unexpected events and take the blows and turn them around. How do you vent out if not complaining? Ask for advice, present your facts and leave others the judgement. One of the impulses we have is to categorize and jump on analyzing. What if you leave time between event and your reaction, especially an emotional one. Time is dampening the immediate response and emotions are not resisting erosion. It is very simple to pull arguments in favor of your view (bias oriented). You will never build an argument against your status-quo or the comfort of your views. Contradictions, opposite views are not laying good with our psyche. A person you respect and look to advice for might give another weight and perspective to your personal events. A ment...

Photo by Gustavo Lampert on Unsplash   I remember an interview with Li Na (the famous Chinese tennis player) who was asked how can she be so positive with all the attention and burden of carrying the dream of all Chinese people and having all the health problems the majority of professional tennis player have. She was smiling and said, every morning, when you wake up, you have two choices - gloom&doom looking to all the problems in your life or smiling and being grateful for the life you have. Her choice was to look to the bright side of her life. It is not coming easy, to smile and virtually forget the problems you have, but continuing with a positive attitude will make you cruise easier and not be consumed by the life events. Being down is mostly being too much on the dark side of your soul and over-thinking, over-planning, over-ageing. If you are grateful for the life you have, then you can turn around and see the beauty in your life, you can make people feel good, lis...