22nd March 2010 - Sardinia - See you next time

Took Ferry from Olbia to Livorno. Car parked in garage at the level 5 green.
Moby Boats are transformed into Disney World. Everywhere you go you can see cartoons heroes.
Strange filling...
6 a.m. - people still sleeping. Sweet voice coming from the speakers wakes up those who are still deep in their world.
Than level after level is filled with the drivers and passengers and ... dogs....
It happened that there were dogs contest in Sardinia. Time to go home ... Till next time ...

18th March 2010 - Nuraghi

Is is nice to be surprised. Stayed in a small place called Lunamatrona. Did not know that just 10 km from one of the oldest Nuraghis. What is that?
Let's follow the dictionary definition:

The nuraghe (IPA [nu'rage]) (plural Italian nuraghi, Sardinian nuraghes) is the main type of megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, dating back before 1000 BC. Today it has come to be the symbol of Sardinia and its distinctive culture. The typical nuraghe is situated in a panoramic spot and has the shape of a truncated conical tower resembling a beehive. The structure has no foundations and stands only by virtue of the weight of its stones, which may weigh as much as several tons. Some nuraghes are more than 20 metres in height.

And - before work ... I had to see one of them....

San Margharita - last Sunday at the seaside?

Palm Sunday, Elections, First Weekend of Spring, SUNNY DAY!!!!!!!

Any reason is good to spend it outside.
All families, couples, singles, in all age ... got out into to sun.
Me too...

Watching yachts competition,
Having sun bath on a stone beach,
Walking
Talking to people,
Just enjoying the day
Perfect day ...

Niedziela Palmowa, Wybory, Pierwszy weeked wiosny, po prostu sloneczny dzien....!!!!!

Kazda okazja jest dobra aby spedzic dzien na dworze.
Rodziny, pary, single, w kazdym wieku ... wszyscy wylegli na slonce ...

Oglanie zawodow zeglarskich
Wylegiwanie sie na sloncu na kamienistej plazy
Spacer
Pogaduszki z ludzmi,
Po prostu delektowanie sie dniem
wspanialym dniem...

Photographer's life _3

When you live in one place certain activities are not visible.
I mean things like for example laundry. You have washing machine at home and do you laundry as the side thing.
Well, when you travel laundry becomes kind of the issue.
The are the following steps to find the laundry:
1. decide if you want to do it in the hotel. I do not recommend - for the price of two jackets you can wash you all staff in self service coin place.
2. The decision is made to go to the self service place. In Italy "self service laundry" does not mean that it is coin one - it differs from region to region. In Genova - it is regular laundry where you carry you staff by yourself. In Rome - you load the machine and the staff is just drying for you. In Toscany - it is coin.
3. Find the place - which means in this case - to find if the area has got such. For example - there is no such a service in Sicilia. People from there are laughing at themselves that the washing machines would disappear very next night they were installed.
I Liguria - I found one (in Savona).
In Toscany - Arrezzo.
rome - just around the corner of my friends flat.

4. A... there is also one thing - one place gives detergents another one - you need to carry and another one - you can buy (do not recommend - expensive).

Laundry - it is a separate project. Big project.

I am so glad today - it is raining dogs and cats today - for me- it is laundry day :-)

Photographer's life _2

The schedule of the day is very simple:
6.00 wake up
editing photos from day before
breakfast - it depends on the hotel - usually 8.00.
Checking out - almost every day different hotel
Making the plan. My goal is to visit 6 places per day. Trip is planned that the locations are on the way to the next hotel. So I carry all my staff with me in the car.
The work should be completed by 4.pm. - There is like 30 minutes break - just to have some food on the way. I can not efford loosing light.
4.30 - 5.00 p.m. arrival - short break to refresh and unpack the staff (computer....).
6.00 uploading the photos, cleaning equipment, charging batteries.....

It looks great on paper. Reality is:
- in 60% I have to go around and ask for the building - as the address are not always correct or the street's name was changed.
- the GPS could not find the street.
- the address was just wrong.
- the distances are longer that should be.
I learned where to find the information about the assets. I could be called Sherlock Holmes now :-)

As the result - the schedule stays in the paper.
I do book hotels being on my way. Thanks God for Internet sticks :-)

It is adventure. Adventure under control - as you have to deliver what you promised.
But I love it.
Sometimes I am so tired that do not have strength to carry the equipment. But enjoy it. Truly.

This kind of project changes you not pnly as the professional but also as a person.

Sardinia surprises_4 Lunamatrona

Che - yes, this Che.
Is he becoming more than just a hero or a legend?
But whom?

Sardinia surprises_3 Lunamatrona

What a day...
I though nothing interesting would happen to me today. And.... surprise, surprise.
Arrived to early to Lunamatrona. Had an hour to spend. Started to drive around and noticed a sign to a Terra Museum. Usually I do not go to such places - but today, why not.
And.... two things - the building itself and the exhibition it contained.
The museum was built in the middle of nowhere. There are just hills and the sky lift.
So the building is very visible. Very unusual. Have a look at the pictures.
Iolao Farci is the architect who designed this place. Tried to find him on Internet - 0 success. :-(

Sardinia surprises_2

I try to figure out what do I think about this place. I have strange filling that I am not in Italy.
It is clean;
People speak English - if not from the first minute than later;
Good roads;
They keep rules;
No beeping in towns.

Am I still in Italy? Yes ...

Sardinia surprises

First days - I did not fill alive. Air Conditioning and this cold wind made me sick. Could not move my head up and down without this pain all over the head without this filling of breaking my head into small pieces. How to work with such a thing? The end of story - pain killers, aspirin and the light version of my winter hat. With the temperature +16C in sun.

Anyway. Today everything is gone and bright blue sky above made the day just perfect. Additionally, +20C and short sleeves helped to forgot about last two days.

Pirewsze dni - praktycznie czulam sie jakby nie na tym swiecie. Klima i zimny wiatr doprawily mnie - zachorowalam. Nie moglam ruszyc glowa ani w gore ani w dol bez rozsadzajacego bolu. Jak tu pracwac z czyms takim? Historie zakonczyly tabletki przecibolowe, aspiryna i letnia wersja mojej zimowej czapki.

Dzisiaj jak reka odjal - niebieskie niebo ucznilo dzien idealnym. A temperatura +20 i krotki rekawek pomogly zapomniec o ostatnich dwoch dniach.

15.03.2010 - Sardinia, Cagliari - be first in taking from life

10 -ish - coffee time and I am standing the middle of the street adjusting horizontal and vertical lines ...

Almost finished.

Filled the smell of coffee ... and than a truck parked in the front of me.

Two guys jumped out looked at me with the panic in their eyes.

They asked me if they can park for one minute and without communication back run away from the car ... to the coffee shop !!!!!

I could not believe in it. It looks that coffee is the matter of life and death here.

I could not stay in the middle of the crossroad waiting until they come back.

Went for a cup of coffee as well ...

Back to Italy - still remembering the first trip in November 2009

Sitting in Rome and filing kind of unreal.
This is the last part of the project. In the big business I would call it - third phase.

Still keep the fresh filling when I was going to Milano in November for the start up of the project.
How it is going to be?
What is going to look the job there?
What about communication - I do not speak Italian !!!!!
And the most important question -will I be able to fulfill the expectations of my clients?
Curiosity...

The first weeks were kind of the fire test for me. Had to shoot 17 big complex buildings in the first row. The rest of the time left had to fill with the Telecom assets.

Most of the time spent driving and eating on the highways.
But - strange filling - I loved that period very much.

Photographing big companies requires interaction with people - I was always assisted with someone who took care of the project from the company side.

RAI, Prada, Enel, Prada, ,,, and all again.. through half of Italy in three weeks. :-) Fun time.

What do I still remember? Hospitality ..
Shoe factory at Prada?

In fact those 6 weeks were my first time I have ever spent so alone.
The hunger for being with people came to me later - when arrived back home for Christmas.

L'Aquila - Red Zone on ....

How to write about tragedy?

I do not know why but I had to go there - to confront what I heard with reality.

Saw and still think how to write about this place.

I have never been in the town where the heart of it is still surrounded by a fence. Which is (at least was when I was there) protected by the army and police.
Where people who used to live there are not allowed to visit their houses.
The old town looks like noting is done apart from protecting the building against falling apart.

This day the ex citizens came to express their fillings...
... Dissatisfaction and frustration. Hanged their home keys on the fence...

Walked alone in the streets and could hear just my own steps.

Strange filling - no other sound but my own steps.
No birds, no dogs, cats....
No people...

Complete silence in the middle of the day ....

The energy meters switched off...

Break - two weeks in Warsaw

Back home - just for two weeks. Time which is used to finish editing photographs, planning and organizing my next and last phase of the project which will take 8 weeks this time.

More and more time I think what will be after the project.
I love photographing and a day without camera in my hands seems to be not the full one. I have never expected that working as professional photographer will give me so much pleasure. I love this pressure of giving the best possible every time when I stand in the front of the building. And I have photographed already 150 of them.
I am not able to predict weather or if I will be able to enter the site. What I can be sure is that I will give max from me to achieve the best result.

And it does not matter if it is PRADA or just a small telephone center. From both you can make a villa. :-).

(W domu - tylko na dwa tygodnie. Czas wykorzystuje na dokonczenie obrobki zdjec, planowanie i organizacje nastepnego etapu projektu, ktroy tym razem bedzie trwac 8 tygodni.

Coraz czesciej mysle o tym co bedzie po projekcie.
Kocham fotografowac i kazdy dzien bez aparatu w rece wydaje sie jakis niepelny. Nigdy nie spodziewalam sie, ze praca zawdowego fotografa bedzie przynosila mi tyle przyjenosci. Swietnie czuje sie pracujac pod presja dostarczenia najwyzszej jakosci zarowno technicznej jak i estetyczniej. Pojawia sie ona za kazdym razem kiedy staje przed obietktem. A sfotografowalam ich juz 150.

Nie jestem w stanie przewidziec pogody ani tego czy bede mogla wejsc na teren obiektu. Jednego czego moge byc pewna to za kazdym razem dam z siebie wszytko aby osiagnac jak najlepsze resultaty.

I nie ma to znaczenia czy jest to PRADA czy centrala telefoniczna. Z obu mozna uczynic wille.

Relations (Zależności)

I keep thinking about one thing - why Italians are so much in the lotteries?
It has something to do with amount of dogs excrement in the streets. I do not count how many I walked in.
Dogs and cats ...
Dogs look like homeless. Live in herds, sleep wherever but most of them are clean and well fed.

Stale myśle o jednej rzeczy - Dlaczego Włosi kupuja losy.
To musi mieć coś wspólnego z ilościa psich kup na ulicach. Sama przestałam liczyć ile razy w nie weszłam.
Psy i koty ...
Psy wygladają na bezdomne. Żyja w stadach, śpia gdzie popadnie ale wiekszość z nich wygląda na czyste i dobrze odżywione.