bacsa

alzen/altana/alcina, even with alarms installed the church got

robbed. A small saxon community from the villagte and the

neighbouring region still gahters here on every sunday. Comments are

welcome.

grosschenk/cincu/nagysink, the keeper of the key is in this case not

the oldest but the youngest member of the family. She was more than

hurried to help us out. Critique welcome!thanks.

grosschenk/cincu/nagysink, the keeper of the key again - the door is

several times bigger than herself. Once open, a very cold, chilling

breath came out from the centuries old building, into the hot summer

afternoon, giving us a very uncomfortable feeling. Your comments are

welcome.

BW version...hmm,not bad

Of course i don't mind; thanks for your interest! The problem is, my version has already a bit of too much magenta tint; yours is enhancing this by increased saturation and contrast.

 

That gives me an idea: i still did not try this in black and white!

schoenberg/dealu frumos/lesses, while waiting for the keykeeper of

the church, a number of old people walked by.

schonberg/dealu frumos/lesses, nothing special but it looks quite

good between the green trees. Comments welcome.

pretai/brataia/barathely, comments are welcome. And you are welcome

to check the rest of the folder.

part of a brief presentation; be sure to check it out. It's

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?

presentation_id=305039">here

. Thanks for the comments!

Yes I know it's a small image but it's heavily cropped. This is the

first image in a short presentation. Please check the whole thing

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?

presentation_id=305039">HERE

. Comments most welcome. Thanks!

pretai/bratei/barathely, dusty yellow road, large rich orange

houses. Most of them were abandoned by the saxons, inhabited now by

all kind of people who needed a house above their head.. Comments

welcome!

pretai/bratei/barathely 14th century gothic basilic fortified later.

Lots of windows but still dark, since most are covered with an extra

wall inside. Comments welcome.

grosskopisch/copsa mare/nagykapus, 14th century fortified church,

very difficult to reach on the bad roads between the hills, but easy

to see due to the bright orange houses around. Roof is quite

damaged; otherwise it's in a so-so shape, still safe to walk around

inside. Comments are welcome.

These images would also work in black and white, so no prob with the colour shifts. But it's great as it is! Except the little bright spot on the far right, i wonder why you've left that in. I also like the one with the cracked skull but this one is more impressive.

And the blue light comes from the sunrays directly reflected from the carpet and the fabric covering the chairs, that is blue (the stuff you see in the bottom of the frame).

Thanks, Mark. You are right, for a strict portrait of her it would be better without the details on the top. The fact it's framed like this and not from closer, is that i wanted to show some context to it, the main subject of the whole series being the buildings, and only here-and-there the "gatekeeper" shows up to give an idea about the people that still live there. Also, the composition of this is a bit awkward, she being looking out of the frame - i have to admit that it's because i had to crop it on the right side, there was a blurred shape of a person. My friend walked in the frame in the moment of sh release. By the way these inside shots are often close to or above 1s shutter time.

grosscheuern/sura mare/nagycsur, the church was built in

roman+gothic style but it is full of baroque paintings and wooden

decorations. Critique is welcome.

grosscheuern/sura mare/nagycsur, the decoration continues all along

the edges of the arches, and lots of painted wooden items inside,

from the 17th and 18th century. The light was magic inside. Comments

and observations are welcome.

Kleinschelken/seica mica/kisselyk, double walls protecting the

church. When we arrived, the peasant just finished loading his cart

with grass from the court of the church. Passed comfortably through

the giant gates. Comemnts welcome!

through a tiny door one can get in the inner courtyard of this

church and admire the strange construction - the wooden covered

corridor is in fact a covered staircase that is still functional;

the three towers can be seen from the inside. Not on this image,

though. Comments are welcome.

Beautiful. God I miss the mountains, I really do!!

Thomas:) that was a surprise. Where did you learn hungarian? I see you live(d) in many distant corners of the world...

The image is of an old lady opening the half-rotten wooden gate of an even older building in an old half empty village. It was not intended to be flattering, Gerald:) but thanks for your observation, anyway!

Hi Jim.

 

Maybe i didn't explain myself properly. The books themselves are from the biginning of the century. They are not abandoned so long ago - only in the 1980's and 90's. There were two waves of emigration of the saxon (german) people from the region. One was more or less artifficial, in the 1980s, when Ceausescu practically "sold" them to Germany, for cars and such - meaning, they were allowed to leave Romania in change for goods from the german state. The second wave was in the nineties, after the fall of the iron curtain, when they were officially able to leave if they preferred; many left in that time. Some villages got completely abandoned, the number of inhabitants went from a few thousands to a few tens. Only very old people stayed, especially in the more remote places. An old guy told us "ot", that is, five, in hungarian (he heard we are hungarians), that's the number of saxons that still live in the village. He can be seen in another image, closing the gate of a church (i will upload it soon).

Thanks Thomas, i agree it can be improved by getting rid of / toning down some highlights.