I see the Chivers anyway

The French guy was very inspired this year by Eurovision contest :)) Oh, I just adore him!



Update: Actually, looks like this post attracts a big number of visitors from Europe wondering around about the 'Chivers' :) It happened so that I do know where does it come from - it's taken from a French movie "Steak" and is about a group of guys, calling themselves Chivers, and behaving according to a certain funny rules.

Festival de Cannes 2008

Festival in Cannes is going on currently, it's a second week and this Sunday it's going to close. For this reason, lots of people all over the world are gathering in Côte d'Azur. Yesteday I and my colleague have visited it in the evening. The main aim was to watch an old movie filmed by Clint Eastwood in 70ies which was filmed in San Francisco :) All this was organized on the beach in Cannes, in the evening. Before the movie there was a band playing Twin Peaks sound track until it gets dark. The atmosphere was unforgettable... The surprise was to see Clint Eastwood on the same scene just before the movie and to make a nice shot of him.


Scene in Cannes






The band playing Twin Peaks




Clint Eastwood telling a few words

It's already summer time!

After not able to deal with a French strike, another approach was taken - have a lunch and visit beach in Antibes! And it appears that it's already summer, people are swimming and so on. A short photo-report from Antibes :)

Beach in Antibes


My meal, Crêpes avec Saumon


Macro experiment - ice in the glass

Who was feeding us this time..


Yachts getting ready for summer season

The last is special :) Do you see who is inside? That is a really horrible thing... I saw it in action! To start moving, the auto-ecole got about 2 meters back. I can imagine the stress of the car from behind... Does a woman can really teach another woman how to drive?!

Deux femmes à Auto-ecole

Messed up Grand Prix de Monaco

The subject of this day was to get to Grand Prix in Monaco, which starts today, test drives. The tickets are most affordable, up to 70 euro. So today in the morning a took all my equipment with me, all batteries, free memory card and was getting ready to leave the office during the lunch to spend half day in Monaco. As festival in Cannes is still going on and all towns are filled with tourists, you cannot hope too much to find parking slots in Monaco. The fastest way to get there is of course by train from Antibes, Cannes and so on. At 12.30 or so I was buying the tickets for the train in Antibes railway station, pretty expensive ~10 euro round-trip. However, after I bought, a guard came up with some questions about the train I need. And of course with a answer: today no train to Monaco, it's a strike!
... of course the tickets must be refunded, of course there is a huge queue as it's a lunch time (thanks God they were not on the strike). At 13:00 or so the money were back to the credit card. But the problem with going by a car is that it's about 50km and it's about 20-30min to walk. The French people at that moment became enemies. And ok, maybe they have their reasons for a strike, but comm'on, most of the people in France already have unreal possibilities at work. They have lots of vacations, lots of subsidies, and other stuff. I think that they just don't get it at all. They got used to it, you strike and get what you want, just like Lithuanians got used to do not believe in their government and now most do not really care who will be next ruler of the country, they vote for artists or just skip...
And you know what is the funniest thing about French? From my knowledge about them, I bet they think of the strike something like: "C'est la vie..." cause it's their answer to many questions. Now I could say: "C'est la France" :)

P.S. By the way... it's not only France. The same thing has happened about two weeks ago in Italy.

Rainy weekend

The weekend was rainy and with thunders, that was cool :) But no chance to get to the mountains... Spending time at home was also productive, especially when it's raining and the sun is shining! Macro lens is doing it's job pretty well :)

P.S. Some extra shots from US have been uploaded to Zooomr.

Toliau tesiu foto mokslus

Taigi, pagaliau baigiu atsigaut bet esminiu paskutinio menesiu ivykiu (keliones i US, jet lag'o, diplominio). Vakar pasiziurejau, kad per kelione i US sugebejau prischiolkint ~3000 fotkiu. Matomai sunkiai ir daug dirbau vietoj to, kad ilsetis :) O dar turint omeny, kad apie 5-ias dienas is 14-os nedariau jokiu kadru. Beliko sunkus darbas - jas atrinkti ir apdoroti. Cia tas pats kaip rinkti grybus, o poto juos ruosti maistui. Juodas tai darbas yra. Todel pasibaigus visokiausiems ivykiams, kurie sukele tam tikra malonu stresa, dabar prisisiunciau visokiausios mokymosi medziagos kaip gi tas nuotraukos apdorot. Nes dabar tai zinau gal 5 funkcijas, kuriom visalaik apsieidavau.

Siaip tai turiu net nuoroda i labai gera medziaga is lynda.com uzmest. Ja perziuret tereikia 3,5val rodos ir ji tinka tiek naujokams su muilinem, ties siek tiek labiau patyrusiems tipo manes. Dalis yra internete, o kita dali galima torrentuose rasti. Kas labiausiai patiko, tai super praktiniai patarimai is gyvenimo kaip tarkim paslepti fotika nuo vandens lashu - o gi naudot vienkartines kepuraites dushui! Awesome simple idea :)

O dar, o dar, siuo metu namie pas save turiu 3 skirtingus fotkus (ne mobiliakuose aisku):

• Pentax K10D
• Canon G9
• Canon SX100 IS

As viliuosi, kad prisiruosiu pasidaryt testus su jais. G9 tai ispudingas, kokybe stulbinanti is jo pareina :) Bei kaina viliojanti jo... Na bet jis nera mano :) Laikinai ji turiu, kol saugiau nugabensiu i LT.

Ir dar viena minti turejau, poto supratau kad kvailoka. Cia vis nugirstu kaip zmones nueina i foto kursus. Aisku pasidaviau bandos instinktui, bet nusprendziau pragooglint. Ir aciu Dievui supratau, kad as nesu ju potenciali kliente apart gal sito vaikino, Remigijaus Zolubo. As nenoriu pareiksti, kad pasidariau extremely skilled, bet tarkim per pastaraji menesi daug kas susideliojo i savo vietas foto pritaikymo prasme mano galvoj. Matomai tu 9-iu darbo dienu su fotiku darbo vaisiai :))

Adventurous travel back home

So, at last I got home from L.A., but not without any adventures :)) While flying from L.A. to Francfurt just right next to me an american guy was sitting. I found him interesting because he was drinking vodka and water, and also reading a book about fascism. Strange enough, hmm? Later we started to chat like where are you going - to Lithuania. I thought he was joking but then I read from his face: does she know this country? :D Yeah, that was trully fluctuation, cause he must have flew an hour later, but it happened so that he was flying with the same plane and sitting next to me and speaking perfect english and as it appeared good lithuanian. Kestas was born in USA, but after Lithuania has gained an independence, started visiting Lithuania. We chated all the flight about Lithuania, Europe, USA... he explained many things going on in America from the point of view of american citizen, problems they are going through like about 3 millions of mexicans are living in L.A. right now, like poor american people actually are living quite well... They just look horrible. As for the end of the trip that was really Wow! I'm looking forward to meet him sometime :)

Then I had a connecting flight in Francfurt and met a girl from L.A., Emely, also going to Nice, festival in Cannes, which starts next week. We met in a strange place - toilets :) She works as a designer in some newspaper (magazin) and was travelling alone from L.A. to N.Y., then to Brussels, then she missed her plane and got to Francfurt instead of Nice. She has spent about 24 hours in planes... and had nobody to talk to! That's horrible, sometimes there are days like that. But also I found it very intersting to chat with a young girl from L.A., who actually works in that star-business. Now I found out why do people stay in queues to get to the club in USA :)) The reality
is ridiculous, but it's a different story...

And in order to end the adventurous story of mine... I met a german woman traveling to Nice who is building a house on the border of France and Italy somewhere in the mountains. I think I convinced her to go to Grasse for perfume :))

West American national parks

I know, I know... I kinda promised some stuff about American food, but there's just too much stuff at the moment to write about. So, during the weekend we had unbelievable trip through western national parks of USA like Death Valley, Mohave desert, Sequoia, Joshua tree. And it's easier to show some pictures then to describe anything :) And this time I had somebody to take pictures of me :) Big thanks!

Also, after some time of hesitation I have purchased a new instrument for macro - Tamron 90mm macro. It suites well for pictures from the car as it has F2.8 and also is perfect for portraits. However, I was unlucky to find any suitable infrared filters, which is strange. Will try next time :)


Bad water, Death Valley, CA ("Below sea level")


Blooming cactus, Death valley, CA


Exploring off-roads, Death Valley, CA


Testing new macro lens, Mohave desert, CA


Object for testing :)


"Working" down the Grand Canyon, AR


Old corvette on Route 66, AR


Until the sunset

Maitinimasis "uz balos"

As noriu padaryt mini apklausa ir paklausti sio blogo skaitytoju stai ko:

1. Koks yra "nacionalinis" amerikieciu patiekalas?
2. Kokia yra klasikine amerikieciu maitinimosi istaiga?
3. Ar visada (dazniausiai, 99%) amerikieciai palieka arbatpinigius?
   

As manau nebuciau anksciau atsakius :)