These photos say anything to you?...

...cause they sure as hell say a lot to me. Maybe that's because I took them, go figure.

The best damn investment I made in years! That's all I can say about my Nikon. Now I remember why they are my favourite camera manufacturers. Sorry Canon people, I know that this can stir up quite a fight, but the fact that the main controls are so well placed makes this design as close to perfection as it can get (given today's technology).

^{I had to wait 10 minutes for the dust, that I stirred by passing by with the car on this agricultural road I was roaming on, to settle in order to take this pic}

I got into the old game that I was enjoying in the past with my old camera, the "find perspectives and patterns" games. Taking the camera with me when I'm leaving the apartment became a vice. It's hanging on my neck even when I'm taking the child to the playground. I hit here already like 3 times in the head with the lens, while lifting her up on the swing chair cause the damn thing keeps rocking back and forth when you lean. I now have this new thing of wearing it, like a man purse, when I'm handling the baby. Would be a shame to get her knocked unconscious with the camera.

^{The communist "match boxes" are getting fresh paint after 28 years at least. Still ugly as hell but at least they make for some great patterns sometimes}

Don't expect to see in me a great photographer. I'm taking off where I left this craft more than 7 years ago. And on top of that, I'm weird. I go on looking for things that look interesting in my eye. I like shadows (I think you already noticed that) and obscure landscapes. Being afraid of too much exposure got me checking things from the perspective of the semi-blind man. That one that has cataract and the light doesn't get to the nerve in the same amount it does on a healthy man. There are silhouettes in the shadows and the audience depends a lot on their imagination.

^{There should be 3 cats in the picture but Lady Fortune made them pitch black for me. Using the "onboard" flashlight of the Nikon is not an alternative, trust me.}

Patterns are more easily found at night. That's why smartphones suck for pictures.
Yes, you can lie that you can rely on you trusty "whatever camera phone" you have in your pocket but nothing compares to the old mirror on the sensor capture. In broad daylight, some smartphones can be more "catchy" than a bulky camera. It may be even smarter than you, the guy behind the shutter. The damn things are so well balanced that they can snap a better composition than the one you intended. Moreover, they are not so "threatening" though if you ask me, there is more logical expectation that you will get spied on by somebody with a small camera not the idiot in front of you, wearing 100 kilos of gear and a camera bigger than his head.

^{Spent something like 15 minutes, in front of a building, to take that shot; twerking and getting in all kind of stupid positions in order to try and get this manually made pattern. Few people passed by. They all consider me a loonatic for sure.}

BUT!

You can use a smartphone up to some extent. There's nothing like the mechanics behind a camera. That phisical way it grabs the picture from the air, it's like an expert magician makes something disapear in front of your eyes. I was playing yesterday with an old Zenith camera that @littleone salvaged from a guy selling it (mainly for the lens) and I was astonished by the fact that there are no batteries inside the Zenith. Yeah! Magical. The incredible way of storing energy through springs. HA! One stores it's own power inside the springs (while arming) and releases it through the shutter button in order to CATCH the light for just a tiny amount of time, just enough to make its impression on the special, chemical thing that the film roll is. FASCINATING.

^{Inside the small flea market I use to go just to scan the relics around, some old Romanian movie hero bedside picture pops-up. They were the "Avengers" of today.}

Situations are the other things I like to capture. Sometimes these situations make sense only to me I guess; or in the best case scenario, my fellow Romanians can relate to them.
Oh! How I'd wish we could get each other's culture better. To be able to get deep into the details of each culture, of the everyday situations they discuss and care altogether. Only the Americans, the Brits, the Italians and maybe the French get that privilege of having other know intimately their cultural trickeries. That's how they sell their "content" products better than the others.