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FlavMogo blog: • My recent photography in articles • News about the world of photography and the equipment • Current news and events • My take on all of the above

October 14, 2011

EirePhoto!

My first official photography website is up and running! Not 100% final, but it's out there and it's there to send a message: I'm here for your photography needs, and this is my shooting style which you hopefully enjoy.
Please visit and I hope you enjoy your stay there. Like it (facebook) if you dig it.

August 29, 2011

Deviance is good. An idea about education

Prof. Pi Yijun from China University of Political Science and Law is a professor of "Deviance".
He says: Deviance is about breaking rules, but traditional Chinese society emphasizes rules, there is relatively little space for innovation, that's because the Chinese education system is exam orientated and leaves little chance for Chinese students to develop their creativity and innovation. They spend most of their time reciting lessons.[...] if this system doesn't reform than our economy will not break through the next barrier.*

Makes me feel a bit worthless when i think of how many exams i took in my life, but then i feel good again because i almost didn't study at all :) I'm not advocating myself as any kind of pioneer but i am saying rigid systems that don't emphasize each person's creativity is obsolete.


*Source: BBC program called "Our World: China's Green Revolution".

July 14, 2011

BBC: The Planets

Best way to learn a bit about our solar system and beyond is to watch BBC's "The Planets". I am halfway trough it and already i know more than i could have ever learned in school about it.
Moonshot taken yesterday as homage to this show.


July 4, 2011

Vote, help me win plane ticket

I recently took this photo, and have submitted it to a competition to win a plane ticket with Blue Air company. Read more below.


I had high expectations because most of the submissions were just snapshots for recollection of a place or "proof" people took of themselves being there. I had hoped for a high score having a half decent urban landscape photograph, but i forgot to factor in the fact that it's a voting competition, and everyone gets all their friends to vote...or... simply, fake votes. Like a gentleman called Rotea Dan who spewed 500 votes over night but was later disqualified.
As it happens they only offer 2 routes: Cluj-Rome or Cluj-Dublin, the later being exactly the route between my current home and my home-country. I hope i get it, because i could really use them...and also i'm actually striving to take good travel photographs, unlike some of the competitors with hundreds of votes.


If you vote i promise i will take a very nice series of photos in Romania!
Please help me in my cause by clicking Voteaza! (which means vote) under my picture, if it pleases you.

Thank You!

June 28, 2011

More imports from China


The video is not 100% related to my point, but read on.

We came to live in an age where China is no longer the "cheap plastic toys you get when you don't want to cash out on the real thing". The thing is, it's infrastructure has grown so much and when you do so much manufacturing you are bound to get better at it, specially since there's 1.4 billion people working in china and per hour work will always cost very low, if it will grow to a higher price, people will turn to India, there too is an abundance of people without income.
Nowadays most of everything you buy is made in China, except for Ikea furniture, which probably won't end up there soon because they have a very streamlined production and shipping which really keeps costs down.

It's not all bad though, Nikon corporation is outsourcing many lenses to their factory in China, that doesn't mean they're of worse quality, it's just cheaper to train Chinese employees and have them make lenses than keep Japanese workers on under 1000 euro lenses. Researching opinions, i see no change in quality, the transition from China to Japan made products was seamless, no warnings, no panic, nothing to worry about. The differences are very small, according to camera hobby website there might be a small difference in image sharpness, but who peaks at a picture of a banknote?
A strings shop here in Dublin (called Crehans) is selling instruments of decent quality up to renowned luthiers crafted maestro instruments. For the price of 135 euros (aproximate) you can buy a violin made in China. Anyone's first instinct would be to say: that's ridiculous, i can walk into XMusic, Waltons or other music instruments and gear mega store and buy one for 70, 80 euro. As the old saying goes: God is in the details. The cheaper instruments are proper chinese fully working instruments... well, I say fully working, but i bruise my fingertips trying to fine-tune it, and the pegs always turn as if they are stuck. I'm not a violinist but i can still tell you the alignment on the strings feels way off, distance between string and fingerboard being variable. And beyond that, they sound bad, really bad, either blown-out and irritating, either in the case of wood that is too thick: muffled and even inaudible. The fingerboard and pegs and fine tuners can be changed, but that would cost you as much as a proper violin from Crehans, the respectable choice, and this would as well be a compromise, because the resonance box is not as well crafted as the better imports. The shop owner, who has been in business for decades, told me it is just not viable to buy from any location in Europe since production costs - labour specially, is way too high. So this is what happens: Wood is brought to China from Canada, strings are ordered from the U.S., ebony (the black core wood that fingerboard and pegs are made out of, cheaper instruments use different types of harder wood which bends, deforms from changes in atmospheric conditions) is brought in from Brazil; everything is assembled in a factory in China where workers have been trained more and better than other factories by a professional brought in, either from europe, or some other place, most probable by a company that has very big orders. The instruments arrive in Crehan's shop, they adjust peg holes, and other knick-knacks and then sell them for a considerably low price.
It's not a bad business model, sure, professional instruments are not made in China, but by very skilled luthiers around the world, specially Italy, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and most parts of Europe will have a luthier, but if you want to start out on the violin, you definitely will not afford a good instrument, and even for a child prodigy it wouldn't be wise to spend too much, considering he'll grow out of his size anyway in some cases changing size every 1.5-2 years.

Photo and music instruments... these are just 2 fields i am involved in, but i think there's a reason we get most of our stuff from china, it's just good to research before making any purchase.

June 13, 2011

Photography is art because

Design in art, is a recognition of the relation between various things, various elements in the creative flux. You can't invent a design. You recognize it, in the fourth dimension. That is, with your blood and your bones, as well as with your eyes.


So i submit that photography is in fact art once the consciousness of it's value exists. When it serves a strictly practical purpose, then it's just a means of it's intentions.

May 26, 2011

Cutest animals ever on Chive

The Chive website featured a heart-melting level of cuteness in their recurring article that presents animals. It's usually called "not all animals suck" but this time, they made an exception to make an ultra-kawai (extremely cute) post.

May 10, 2011

Stephen's Green Park

A shot taken while passing through Stephen's Green park in Dublin 2.


CameraCanon EOS-1Ds Mark II
Exposure0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperturef/6.3
Focal Length28 mm
ISO Speed200
Date Created2011:05:07
Time Created20:17:23
CreatorFlaviu Gh Mogosan
Lens28.0-105.0 mm

Liking the "new" camera. Even with my cheap lenses it focuses very accurately and fast. Image quality is also totally different league than 5D. I got used to the colors of the 5D, i sometimes wish it had the same process.

April 26, 2011

Killiney Hill

Panoramas taken from Killeney Hill. Overview over Dun Laoghaire.








Will be returning there soon, for sure!

April 21, 2011

Howth; Dublin

Dublin so far. Will update on the theme of Dublin more in the following articles.















































































Thank you for looking!

Dublin, Ireland (Baile Átha Cliath, Éire)

So i left the cold harsh winter in Romania to catch spring in Ireland. I've moved here for a job and to further my studies. Since i came i didn't have much time to photowalk around the city, specially since i live in the 'burbs, yo. So i've tried capturing the beauty of suburban Dublin, as well as some parts of the city center. Critique is always welcome, so feel free to comment!






































































































P.S.: This thread is also a "goodbye" to my trusty Canon EOS 5D which i've sold over the past weeks.
I know.. sad...right?
Not really, i bought the 1Ds mark II in it's place :)
Why? Better AF, better definition (not just megapixels, there's loads more than go into image quality like a better AA filter, better processing of colors, higher image bitrate), better build (since i did drop my 5D did have a small crack in it's shell which always bothered me), weather sealing, better metering. Well, i'll stop with the list beacuse anyone can guess a camera which had the r.r.p. of 8000 euros is going to be better than one that had 2500, launched in the same time-period. I'm enjoying my 1Ds so far, it works wonders even with the cheapo 50mm f/1.8, it actually focuses 3 times faster and more accurately than the 5D. Imagine what it will do when i present it the 50/1.4 or 17-40 next month. I can barely wait.