Romania through the lens of a camera

Professional photographer, Mihai Moiceanu, offers tourists the opportunity of taking back memories from the places visited

Daniel Bilț, 07.08.2025, 14:00

Tourists who may want to learn more about Romania by means of guided tours with a professional photographer are offered the opportunity of taking with them lots of photos with the most beautiful places visited. These places could be less accessible to tourists if they go on their own. Photo tours have been designed not only for photo enthusiasts but also for those passionate by nature, the wildlife, traditions and people. Tourists can be either beginners or advanced in the art of photography. Today we are going to find out how a photo tour is being held and we will be exploring two Romanian regions by means of this new perspective.

Photographer and independent film creator, Mihai Moiceanu, will be our guide in the following minutes. Mihai lives in Brasov, central Romania and his main activity domain is nature and travel photography. According to him, Romania is still an untapped territory in terms of photo opportunities. Photographers, in particular, are looking for amazing places and Romania has such interesting spots. However, as many of these places are still unknown, tourists may have a difficult time to spot them.

Mihai Moiceanu: “Maramureș is an extremely rich area in terms of photo opportunities, so to say. We are offering various topics, cultural, travel, portraits, meetings with special people, access to extraordinary places. One tour I have been guided for the past 20 years, is a trip on the Vaser Valley by means of that famous narrow-gauge train known to Romanians as Mocaniţa. However, this is not a simple trip to that area; we hire the train for the entire day and we stop to all the places with breath-taking views to take photos. We are also taking pictures of the activity the vehicle was built for as a narrow-gauge forest railway.”

The main characteristic of this forest railway is that it’s still operational; here is our guide again at the microphone.

Mihai Moiceanu:” Logging activities are still going on here in the Maramureş Mountains. One or two trains are operating on a daily basis and we are taking pictures with the people operating it, workers doing their job, preparing the train every day. They fill its tanks with water and coal, revise and grease its parts. These moments for us are extraordinarily spectacular, offering numerous opportunities to a photographer. After the Mocanita we are taking photos of the famous villages in the area with their special people, we are visiting artisans and of course, a series of places with ancient traditions. This place has a lot of extraordinary photo opportunities. All the visitors here are delighted by this marvelous region, which offers an excellent photo Safari with lots of opportunities ranging from breath-taking views, the railway, traditions, culture etc.”     

Tours are of two types. Some kick off precisely at a set hour, and Mihai Moiceanu stages them according to the market demand, but there are also tours organized by request and they include groups ranging from one person to 15 people at the most.

Generally speaking, there are tours with a limited number of people since the access to some areas is restricted to some extent.

Mihai Moiceanu:” There are two types of nature tours. Some are focusing on landscapes as we are crossing an area with breathtaking views, and there are also others focusing on the region’s wildlife and things, more like a photo Safari, you know. These mostly involve trips to the Danube Delta, for bird-watchers and people interested in that type of landscape, or into the mountains, where one may find bears, aurochs or mountain goats. I can only take four-five photographers to those areas because we must observe a certain protocol; there are rules, you know, and we aren’t allowed to disturb the animals. So, there are all sorts of tours tailored for all those interested in taking pictures with the wildlife and everywhere in these tours we are accompanied by the rangers of those parks.”

 The Carpathian Mountains are home to the largest population of brown bears in Europe. Nevertheless, the brown bear is very difficult to photograph and contrary to popular belief, it is a shy animal, as photographer Mihai Moiceanu explains. To take pictures of the bears roaming is no easy thing and not for everyone but the photo experience seems to be extremely rewarding and safe at the same time.

Mihai Moiceanu:” I have all sorts of tourists, you know; some are interested in landscapes, others in cultural aspects, in wildlife. And they are always delighted as they didn’t know what was to come next, what they should expect next, and they end up fascinated by the experience. A biologist from England told me, for instance, that he wanted to visit Romania for a long time. He didn’t have much information, but what he found here exceeded all his expectations by far. He was an expert in plants and found a lot of wild plants and trees here that he actually fell in love with Romania’s forests. England doesn’t have such big forests you know. This would be one example and there are also photographers from all over the world and also many photographers from Romania are interested in such tours.”

Romania offers a lot of perfect photo Safari destinations, which abound not only in breathtaking landscapes but also in stories, which deserve being preserved. So, these photo Safari trips are another way of exploring Romania and at the end of the day, every picture, every photo has its own story to tell.

(bill)