A short walk

             First on the list for my walk this morning was the building of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Build in the 1920's and designed by prominent Bulgarian architect Nikola Lazarov.

1/250s  f/16 at ISO250

                It was build on the site of the former Christian and Jewish cemetery, which was moved to the Orlandovtzi cemetery before the construction began. In the beginning of the 20th century the building was playing host to the District Court and later tо the Court of Auditors. After 1944, the Ministry of Agriculture was moved there. It's one of my favourite buildings in Sofia, sadly it is mostly obscured by trees and you cannot see the whole building.

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              An old booth that used to sell magazines and newspapers more than 20 years ago.

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             Continuing on Alabin street you can see the contrast between this gorgeous building from the early 20th century and the dull apartment building next to it with an advertisement for a company that probably disappeared long ago, but nobody bothered to remove it.

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One of the lions in front of the Palace of Justice standing guard and looking towards the Saint Sunday church.

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      The Palace of Justice itself, a very imposing building that you cannot miss in the center of Sofia. The first design that was chosen was again of architect Nikola Lazarov, but after the Balkan War, it was decided that the priorities for the nation have changed, and the current project was not to be realized. Instead they chose architect Pencho Koychev, who was later fired and retired.

1/125s  f/4 at ISO500

I met this nice lady on the other side of the street in front of the Palace of Justice. She was surrounded by more than 20 pigeons who were eating seeds of her lap. In a way she reminded me of the old lady in Central Park from Home Alone 2.  

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The hands of a statue in front of the City Art Gallery, I thought that a forced perspective will be more interesting than just a picture of the statue itself. You can see that the color  of the tip of her finger is different because of the many kids, and probably adults that have expressed the desire to hold on to it.

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         I am not sure if this statue represents a historical figure or just the author's vision, but I think it's supposed to be somebody important since it's holding the globus-cruciger (symbolises Christ's (the cross) dominion over the world (the orb), literally held in the dominion of an earthly ruler). Most emperors, tzars and kings had one.

1/500s  f/8 at ISO200

        This one I remember from my childhood, growing up near the City Garden where those statues are. My grandma used to tell me that those statues represent peasants in the early 20th century and their reaction when they first saw an airplane. 

1/250s  f/11 at ISO200

1/1000s  f/2 at ISO 200 with a 3 stop ND filter

   Next time I will visit the small backstreets of Sofia in search of forgotten architectural treasures...

48 Hours with the x100s - Part 2

              Next on the list was a nice 6pm walk in the center of Sofia, and believe it or not my first try at actually taking some pictures of the city I live in. For me Sofia is a very beautiful city, it has all kinds of combinations of architecture, ranging from 4th century churches to classic early 20th century houses to the communist style apartment buildings and monstrosities. The thought of carrying a bunch of lenses and a honking 5kg tripod was a bit offputting, but that is going to change now...

1/125s  f/16 at ISO200

The building of the National Theatre is one of the most beautiful in Sofia, and a trip around the center of the city is never complete without a visit to the City Garden and the Theatre as its centerpiece.

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         A roman tablet embeded into the wall of the Archeological Museum.

"Attention Garage!" 1/125s  f/2.8 at ISO200

Most of Sofia's center is covered with layers of graffiti, and it has become the natural background of many streets. This for example is the entrance of an appartment building in one of the most central areas of the city, not a back alley toilet.

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Solunska str. has a lot of second hand book sellers and this one thought he can advertise the qualities of a  "special" mineral water that you can buy only from him. It's a street that connects a lot of big boulevards in Sofia, and it has it's hidden gems. When people are walking in a hurry from point A to B, they never think to look up at the buildings. Many of them have very different third floors, with special ornaments and designs, which I will explore and share with you in the future.

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I finished my walk by catching the sunset at "Independence" square and a look from the Saint "Petka" chapel  towards the National Assembly.

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48 Hours with the x100s - Part 1

            On my way to the farewell party of a friend of mine I stopped by an antique bookshop, where they have piles and piles of books, but its dead quiet, and incredibly tight. I didn't want for the owner of the shop to know that I am taking a picture, and the x100s was there to help me. I would never have taken my DSLR there, and the loud "CLICK" in that bookshop would have sounded like an explosion.

1/100s  f/2.8 at ISO400

It was already 8pm outside so there were a lot of people going through the underpass, and that was another opportunity to try out some low speed handheld shots of the crowds.

1/4s  f/8 at ISO800

There was another "guy" who was looking at the passing people with interest, but he was probably hoping for some food or a good scratch behind the ears.

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At the party I heard that there going to be fireworks, and I started thinking about the tripod that was sitting at home. But hey, maybe the Fuji is going to surprise me again and deliver some decent shots, after all...why not? It's handheld capabilities have been something that I was quite impressed with so far...

1/15s  f/2.8 at ISO1000

The next day I met with some friends at the Mall. They had their little daughter with them, and as all other kids she loves going to the rides, and since we were there anyway I decided to take some shots (handheld again). This one was my favourite.

1.3s  f/16 at ISO250

to be continued....