And here be the photographers, Michel and Ani! (self-shot, manual focus)

(This year, I have shot several (color) rolls of film. It was fun. Very much fun!:-)

(Backstory: Venice, Oct. 10, 2011. Pentax SP1000 и 50mm/F1.8 Pentacon lens. Film Kodak ColorPlus 200/36. Scanned @ 1900×1200, then some sharpen in Photoshop, final edit and export in Adobe Fireworks.)

Photo taken on 2011/Aug/14 @ 19:53

Cherni Vryh peak (2290 m alt), January 16 2011, 14:30, temperatures a bit below zero (C), strong wind. Sofia city is just an hour or two away from there…

(Here’s the same shot in B & W, with a bit stronger contrast.)

A quick sun ray just went through the snowy clouds over Sofia… and allowed me to make this shot. :-)

[UPDATE @ 11:45] Just discovered I never showed in my blog the phases of the solar eclipse in 2006. Then I realized, my blog was started in 2007… So, a quick update (and going back into the past):

It was the year 2006. I was shooting with a Pentax again (but the model was S40). It was a bright sunny day, so I had to use some sort of a filter — I used an old 3.5″/1.44M diskette. :)

Here is the series of shots taken:

1. Place: 42°41′N 23°18′E (Sofia)
2. Date: 2006/March/29 @ 13:00 EET – 14:30 EET
3. Eclipse was with a maximum of 76%, and for background I used clouds that were lit by the sun… (in some parts of Bulgaria the eclipse was then up to 100%, which means, full eclipse, sun is invisible).

I ♥ Autumn… :)

From August 22 till August 24 we showed to some of our best friends all the Seven Rila lakes. It was a great adventure — weather was good, lots of beautiful places to visit, lots of excellent photos to take… :)

(These days I might share some more cool photos from this travel…)

A feeling long forgotten…

The gramophone record starts turning, then you place the needle carefully on it, a slight hissing is heard, a couple of seconds pause follows, and then… the music starts playing. And by the end of the record, you must reverse it, so you can listen to the other side, too.

I like Audio CDs, and the MP3/FLAC music formats, but the feeling of listening to a cassette tape (4.76 cm/sec, Dolby B NR, Fe₂ 0₃/Cr 0₂, 120 µs/70 µs — anyone remembers these strange digits?) or to a 33 1/3 record is… very different.

The date is April 23rd, and the participants are: me, Ani, Nixo, Katya (and Raly).

We used a small bottle and a cup to mark the two boundaries of the frame, and 2 lighters (with blue lights). Here are some of the best shots:

First try! (Btw, I think I dropped the “E” from my name, but well… Flick’r also dropped theirs, so I can live with that!) ;-)

Second try…

And this is “NixoNixo” — or actually, Nixo²! ;-)

An attempt to draw a naked woman… Hmmm… I think it rather resembles a Blue Alien, you know, but with a bit of imagination… :-D

“Katya” in light trails…

“Ani” in light trails… :-)

And this beautiful flower was drawn by Ani, in just a few strokes!

A portrait of a dog (again by Ani)

Fat Cat — by Nixonixo.

A smiley! :-P

A ghost-like figure…

This is a Sumo Fighter, using some “mixed” technique — I was standing in a weird pose, and Nixo was painting the countours! :)

This is the Masterpiece of the Evening — “A Knight and his Dame”, by Ani and Nixo!

“Ping-pong Players” — 4 of us were participating to create this drawing — two of us posing, and two — drawing!

* * *

It was super-fun! I hope that with some better equipment and some more experience, we could create in the dark at least La Joconde or Smaug the Dragon! :-)))