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Message # 78933.1.1.1.1.2

Subject: ...or Croatia?

Date: Mon 04/11/19 17:46:12 GMT

Name: WetCasual

Email: wetcasual@yahoo.com

Website: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8131233@N08 / http://www.flickr.com/photos/8131233@N08

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Zadar in Croatia has the "Ludijada" event every year around May 15-20th. Seems to be pretty well covered by local photographers (linked to several times here in the past, most local Croatian news websites have huge galleries for each year). Croatia is also a country where tourists are generally welcomed, at least from Europe.

In reply to Message (78933.1.1.1.1)

Re:Kiev... idea - due to new LCC connections

By MK - wamtec@comcast.net Sun 03/11/19 23:04:34 GMT

Website:

These are nice ideas in theory, but the reality is but it is not feasible for a tourist to travel to Moscow or Kiev to see wetlook events, and here are the reasons why:

TOURIST vs a LOCAL CAMERMAN: The Songkran festival in Thailand is very easy for a tourist attend, and myself and Ytsen travel there ourselves and it is easy to see wetlook because all the wetlook happens in a 10 day period every April. All you have to do is take a vacation to Thailand in April and in 10 days you can easily shoot 20 hours of wetlook events during those 10 days. Moscow is a totally different ballgame, because in order to collect the wetlook fountains events you need to be there for 100 days (from mid May until end of August). Over the last 10 years since I have hired Sergey and his friends they have managed to gather an average of 30 hours of wetlook scenes per season, so that is 30 hours gathered in 100 days etc, which is approx 18 mins of scenes per day. If you go to Thailand for 2 weeks you can easily get 20 hours of scenes while on a cheap airticket and hotel, so it makes sense to go to Thailand for a 2 week vacation. If you went on a 2 week vacation to Moscow, you will have to pay considerably higher airfares from the USA and much higher hotel cost -- the visa application to Moscow was $300 the last time I checked. After 2 weeks in Moscow you are not likely to get more than 4hrs of footage, and that is if you are lucky and it does not rain. Often it is bad weather in Moscow and the weather is lousy for long periods. So the bottom line is ....for a $2000 vacation to Thailand you will have a great time and gather more then 20 hours of footage. I priced what it would cost for a trip for me to visit Moscow, including $300 for a Visa...and the total costs would exceed $5000 and then if I am lucky with the weather I will only get 4 hours of wetlook events, and if the weather is not good....I may get nothing at all. It is MUCH much better to hire a local cameraman who lives in Moscow and can travel there during the entire 100 day shooting season, and then I get 30+ hrs of footage from Sergey and his friends. I already get some complaints from people who say that the price of the clips is too high, which is because I have to factor the labor costs for hiring Sergey and his friends for 100 days etc. If I were to travel there myself or fly in tourists from other countries, then the clip prices would double or triple to add in all these extra travel costs.

I have repeatedly tried to hire wetlook fans to visit Moscow, and offered to pay for their travel expenses and also I purchased several camcorders for past people....and this has not worked out well at all (after sending money to some people to buy a camera and travel expenses, 2 of these persons just took the money and disappeared and I never heard from again, so I was scammed). These days I will only send travel funds and cameras to trusted people I have known for several years.

I have placed many ads on my website and on the Russian Wetlook Forum, to try and find new cameraman, but so far I do not get any responses. The reality is....candid wetlook fans prefer to be armchair quarterbacks and to enjoy the media without having to endure the risks associated...e.g. irate boyfriends attacking the cameraman and smashing their cameras (which has happened a few times), security police hassling you...which is mostly a shakedown because all they want is for their palms to be greased, and then they will leave you alone. Which leads me to the next topic you raised below....i.e. it has nothing to do "shyness"....but has everything to do with "safety"....read ,my answer below....

In reply to Message (78933.1.1.1)

Kiev... idea - due to new LCC connections

By MiguelWarsaw - Sun 03/11/19 19:45:33 GMT

Website:

MK, as for Kiev, I think possibilities are growing. Just due to the occupation this can't be done by your Russian photographers. You have to look west, to the European Union. A few years ago low cost carriers from the EU have finally entered Ukraine. And prices are rock bottom cheap. True, most such flights are to Poland, as a million or two (depending on data) Ukrainians now work there, but Poland has LCC (low cost carrier) flights to virtually everywhere. European LCC flights are quite seasonal and there are much much less in the winter season (like now) than in the summer one, but for fountains you need summer and in the summer it's possible to fly London - Warsaw - Kiev for 29 Euro for each segment if you are lucky or plan ahead.

So while local photographers are the best, for events (like last bell) you can use foreign ones, and I guess you did, as it seems your Russian guys covered it. Just now use guys from the European Union. Might be more pricey, as salaries are higher, but the rock bottom LCC plane tickets could even that out - tickets from Moscow to Kiev were never that cheap actually. The problem might be westerners not speaking Russian. Russian knowledge is rare in the Western EU and rare among anyone younger than 50 in the Eastern EU, but not knowing Russian (or Ukrainian) may actually work in the photographers favor. Some ex USSR cops will not hassle foreigners from the west, especially those who do not know the language, as well, the cops themselves don't know English, so it's hard to hassle ;)

In reply to Message (78933.1.1)

Re:22 more videos added

By MK - wamtec@comcast.net Sun 03/11/19 15:16:24 GMT

Website:

In the last 2 years it has become more and more difficult to use the fountains at the old locations, mainly due to harassment by the security police. The fountain with the horses sculpture is only oermissable to use on certain days, e.g. when they have designated water gun fight events. Those water gun events are not the best wetlook because most people wear T shirts and shorts and you get attacked if you have a camera, so our camera guy moved to other fountains where it it more feasible.

Thankfully Moscow has plenty of other fountains. Moscow and Paris have more fountains than any other cities in the world.

We will re-assess the situation in 2020 and change some of the locations again next year, as well as visit other cities in Russia as well.

Sadly, the best city for wetlook fountains, remains off limits...i.e. Kiev in the Ukraine is a no go zone with travel restrictions for Russians since it was annexed in 2014.

In reply to Message (78933.1)

Re:22 more videos added

By Kerry Tiller - Sun 03/11/19 14:46:43 GMT

Website:

I have been meaning to ask for a while. I haven't seen any new videos of some of my favorite Moscow locations, like the fountain with the horses sculpture in the middle or the near to that large pool that includes the fisherman statue. Have the Russian authorities banned playing and swimming in those places?

In reply to Message (78933)

22 more videos added

By MK - wamtec@comcast.net Sun 03/11/19 01:04:08 GMT

Website:

More Russian Fountains girls, Water Festival Girls and Wam Model updates added today.

Also, a new wetlook competition added, that does not require wetlook knowledge, merely observation skills.

Sample pics and competition @ https://twitter.com/WamtecTV

Full galleries @ http://megastore.wamtec.com

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