A stroll in the woods

         I really wanted to take some Autumn pictures before the snow falls. Every year it's different, and you never know how long the season is going to be, it could be 2 months, it could be 2 weeks. I guess I should thank global warming for that! The weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to get out of the city and enjoy nature.

1/1.3  f/16 at ISO200

           One place that I really enjoy and still haven't fully explored is the forest under the Dragalevski Monastery. There is a nice little river that allowed me to take some long water exposures for the first time with the Fuji x100s and it came out with flying colors.

10 sec.  f/11 at ISO400

6.5 sec.  f/8 at ISO200

I have been really impressed with the "T" function of the camera. It's like a smart "bulb" mode and it comes in when you want to have exposure longer than 1 second, since the knob on the camera only goes to 1/4. The 3stop ND filter gave me the opportunity to keep my ISO low where I needed it. Can't wait to go out again and find more stuff about the x100s!

1/30s  f/4 at ISO500

My girlfriend came with me and endured the cold and windy weather for the sake of the pictures! So, I want to thank her for that :)

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.

1/60s  f/4 at ISO320

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

1/250s  f/11 at ISO320

             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.

1/250s  f/16 at ISO320

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

1/500s  f/16 at ISO200

      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.  

1/125s  f/8 at ISO500

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.

1/160s  f/8 at ISO200

         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...

A Lovely Morning

       I had to drop some documents in the center one morning and I jumped at the opportunity to take some more pictures and continue with my exploration of Sofia. After you get out of the metro on Serdika Station you end up before the Saint Sunday church.

1/250s  f/11 at ISO400

It used to be called Saint King, but after it was blown up by the communists before WWII and its reconstruction was finished it was renamed to Saint Sunday.

1/125s  f/5.6 at ISO400

Passing through one of the side streets behind the Saint Sunday church, I found a dragon on a column! Guess where? On the entrance of another church!

1/500s  f/8 at ISO400

 Sofia's center is a mix of all kinds of architecture and I particularly like the statues carrying the weight of huge decorated balconies on their shoulders. This building has been renovated a few years ago so it's in pretty good condition. Sadly there are many others that are falling apart because the owners of the apartments in the buildings don't have the funds to maintain them, or because they are waiting for it to fall apart so they can demolish it later.

1/125s  f/16 at ISO200

The building of my old middle school, the 127th school. One of the oldest if not the oldest school in Sofia.

1/250s  f/11 at ISO200

The right light can make even the most greyish and neglected buildings look pretty. I am not sure where this kind of design originates but Sofia's center is full of apartment blocks like these.

1/160s  f/11 at ISO200

The colors on the back of this building were a nice refreshment to the greyish monotone of that part of the city, and I don't think that there is another one like it in Sofia.

1/250s  f/11 at ISO200

                    Memories from the socialist years. Smiling and looking towards a bright future.

1/320s  f/11 at ISO200

I loved the light so much this morning but sadly I had to cut it short because it was time for work...

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.

   1/60s  f/4 at ISO200

         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.

1/30s  f/2.8 at ISO500

1/125s  f/2.8 at ISO800

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.

1/250s  f/5.6 at ISO800

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

1/125s  f/16 at ISO400

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.

1/15s  f/2.8 at ISO800

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....

First Impressions

I haven't had a lot of time to take pictures since I got the camera a week ago, because I am pretty busy at work, but here the x100s has given me the ability to take pictures of things that I usually walk by since my huge backpack was always at home during the week.

1/30s  f/2.8 at ISO200

I took this one on the way out of the Mall. 1/250s  f/11 at ISO400

One of the many great things about this camera is that I can shoot handheld with it at speeds that before when I was using my DSLR I would have considered impossible. I am still going to use a tripod on occasion but its great to know that you have the ability to lower the shutter speed if you need to.

On my way to the metro station. 1/15s  f/2  at ISO400

More to come soon...

The seeds of doubt

       You dont go from using your favourite full frame DSLR with all of your nice lenses to something completely different out of the blue, so this is how it happened for me...

Picture: NikonRumours.com

       Through the years I've done a lot of wedding, fashion, commercial photography, but my true love has always been travel photography (landscapes & architecture). And this is where I've been feeling the strain of carrying a 12 kg backpack and a 4 kg tripod on long trips around Europe and the rest of the World.
       This year my travels took me to Switzerland and after the first few days I found myself in the strange situation of having a Nikon D700 with my trusty Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 VR; 24-70mm f/2.8; 80-200mm f/2.8 lenses in my backpack and actually reaching for my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 smartphone when i saw something interesting that caught my eye. I always thought of it as the neccessary evil, if you want nice zoom lenses and a good camera you have to carry the weight, thats it..end of story! And for the last two years I never went to a camera store or looked for the newest gear online, why would I? I thought I had all the gear that I will ever need. Something was not quite right though, for the mere thought of taking pictures with my smartphone instead of my camera to occur, and after the next day of long walks in the heat with all my gear I decided to look online and see what's going on with the camera world....

Picture: by the Author