ROMANIAN WORKSHOPS FOR EPSON, EUROPE

Shirl and I agreed that we were not going anywhere this year and that I would stay in Brisbane to get some real work done. That hasn’t happened. Late January and early Feb was spent in Robe SA, Melbourne and then back to Brisbane. March took us to Western Australia for a Workshop in York, about an hour East of Perth. Then back home for a change of socks and off to Romania. This came about when Epson decided to release a new printer onto the market and they needed a presenter who could teach photography as well as show the advantages of the new printer. By this stage I already had a couple of hundred Romanian photographers following me on Facebook, so Epson gave me a call.

To get to Romania it is a total travel time of some thirty+ hours via Dubai and Istanbul in Turkey. The flights are not too bad, but the ten hour wait at the Dubai airport for a connecting flight to Istanbul (and another four hour wait) gets a bit monotonous. Next time I'll arrange to fly via Antarctica. It couldn't be any worse. 

However, when I got to Bucharest, things changed in a hell of a hurry. I was met at the airport by Andrei from Epson and a friend I had been conversing with for many years, Dinu, a very well known and respected Romanian photographer. 

My itinerary from then on had been arranged! Got to bed about midnight and was up at 4:30am for a 5 o’clock start. Dinu had arranged a trip through Romania which took us through the most beautiful small villages and towns for the next seventeen hours. This included castles, snow covered villages and thousand year old towers and towns. The Romanian tourist bureau really needs to let people know about this place! It is THE most beautiful place I have ever been. We arrived back at 10pm after Dinu had driven for seventeen hours and covered almost 1000 kms. THAT is impressive.

This is a small sampling of the many photos taken on that day, beginning with a snow-covered area in the Carpathian mountains west of Bucharest.

 This Tower has existed for hundreds of years and was built to guard the border between Transylvania and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

 This is Sighisoara, and is the to village that Vlad the Impaler was born. Otherwise known as Vlad Tepes Dracule. The legend of Dracula began with him.

 This is spreading fertilizer the hard way. Shovel, wagon and horse.

It seemed that at each turn in the road there was another spectacular vista. Castles, mist-covered mountains and ancient villages. This is the castle at Rasnov.

.... and this is Vlad Dracule's castle.

 Next morning, up at six am to prepare for an hour-long live interview on National television at 8am. 10 am was a meeting at the Epson Building with Romania’s top photographers. After a leisurely lunch, I was collected by another photographer, Daniel and a professional guide, Valentin, to show me around Bucharest. Valentin had an informed answer to my every question and we finished the day at the oldest restaurant in Bucharest; a beautiful place of carved wood and marble.

The next two days were full-on seminar/workshop for about 120+ each day. These are some of the photos taken by the attendees and sent to me, for which I thank them heartily.

As part of the seminar I was fortunate enough to have the lovely Maria as my model to demonstrate some lighting setups.

I had the great fortune also to photograph the director of the Palatul Stirbei (Stirbey Palace) in the palace itself. A lady of great presence and dignity. This was the residence of the ruling family of Romania until the nineteen twenties or so.  If I get permission I will post the final portrait in the future. Don't worry, the water bottle was not in the final portrait!