Envelope / Develope

  When pictures are more than a frozen moment in time and you can construct your story from just it You build the story from one frame, from many small details captured in the picture. It is rare, because we, as humans, probably more in these days than before, crave for simplicity, for design, for simple forms/shapes/compositions. Maybe that is the reason that we buy industrial canvases that are just simple decorative objects. The pictures I will refer to are not decorative, they convey a story that is your to build it if you have the sensibility to be moved by the elements present there. In general, as humans, we are moved by humans captured in pictures rather than landscapes or still compositions or abstract representations.   I will start with a picture of Cristina Mittermeier , “Last hunters of the North". It shows an Inuit hunter looking at the sky with a resigned face. It tells you the eternal problem of his people , for generations, to survive in the North lands...

  Photo by Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash   I don't remember how I stumbled upon Azopan website but I do know being lost in memories of my childhood and of photographs taken on B&W films and only in late 80s on color films. It is a very interesting project and although I did not browsed the options of posting there, it seems to me that local history and family photos are amalgamated to transport you in pieces of life of a different time and place - Romanian mountains, seaside, Danube river, 1989 events, etc... The subjects and photos have the "family" feeling and rarely you  see an artistic photo. Most of them are about public events, families captured in candor moments, kids staring to the camera in a "I-know-you-take-a-picture" smile and many staged pictures. The surprise factor for me was the humanity and the raw emotions captured in people's look, events you forgot you participated just because their significance escaped you, the freedom to be ...

  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 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...

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 started today with the intention to go to the beach of Saint Fleurent and discovered that all boat taxis were very busy. You cannot book for the same day a taxi boat or even an ATV to reach Salecchia or Lotu beaches.    I made reservations for 21st of August (next day) to be taxied to the Salecchia beach in a 2pm to 7pm slot. Then I decided to go to another beach, on l'ile Rouse - Bodri beach. The drive was less than an hour along the west coast of Corsica with beautiful images along the way. Bodri beach, although public, has two different access points, one is from a private camping site, the other is 200 meters down the road, barely marked at the street level. You descend on a gravel road to get to the beach. There is a paying parking lot which becomes public after 5 pm. The beach is 20-30 meters wide, with a few trees making shade for the unprepared visitors (not having umbrellas or beach tents). Emma loved the water and stayed mostly at the edge of it, sometime...

After a memorable drive to reach Col du Prato, I was looking for a board sign telling me the starting point for one of the nice peaks of Corsica. There are in fact two starting points: one is a parking lot before the small village, on the right side, bordering a sheep ground. There is a path crossing the sheep ground and joining a gravel road. The real path starts across the church, besides a restaurant. It is marked with an orange band. Following the road, pay close attention because it splits at some point and you have to follow the right side. I followed the left side and managed to wander for 3 kilometers before correcting my mistake. The good part of the hike has a slow slope and is mostly through a forest, keeping you a cool temperature and shade. You may encounter cows or pigs or goats or sheep herds. It is not a strenuous hike with the exception of the last 30 minutes. Pay attention to the orange band, the path is well marked. Although we passed close to a few streams (...

Another Corte trip,  having with the intention to combine it with a dip in the waters of Tavignano stream. Searching the internet about the entry point for Tavignano gorges will give you mixed starting points. At the end of the citadel, close to the parking lot, there is begining of the trail. As always, I had a hard time to find it and started very close to the stream, following a path used by the locals to enjoy the pools along the gorge. At some point we were forced to climb up and join the marked path. It was a steep ascent and only seeing other people on the normal path gave me confidence we corrected a wrong starting location. The funny thing is that many tourists like us were doing the same mistake and "suffered" an abrupt ascent at some moment.    One of the problems was that we needed time to be at the starting point and I did not want to wake up Emma very early, still. We always managed to be at the beginning of the trail before 11 am, and all days were in 3...

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...

Photo by Gabriel B, My travels plans are not happening overnight, just because I want to relax or decompress. Most of the time I see places first in documentaries or movies or read about them and then I start to sketch a plan. When a seed is planted I dig information and try to understand if there is more than my impulse of getting to the place: if they have incredible places to photograph or scenery with unique characteristics, the better. Today I will unfold my plan to visit Corsica. I am a big fan of TV5, the French broadcasting channel which over the years introduced me to many amazing places through their documentaries - Thalassa, Des racines et des ailes, Passez moi les jumelles. In one of the documentaries, a young tour guide lady ( Magali Vermeglio ) was filmed while hiking GR20 and the beauty of the landscape and the roughness of the peaks just gotten me started. The only problem is that we are a family of two - dad and daughter (8 years old). Can we manage GR20, to...