Visions of Spring

Obviously, my photography has been slow lately.  Too much going on, and too little time for art.  I shoot mostly with my phone these days, but I am looking forward to our next trip for some DSLR action.  Until then, here are a few random images I took with my telephoto lens in the span of the past month.

Portraits From Half Moon Bay

My Dad is here and we have been touring our immediate surroundings as best as we can in the past few days.  The State beach at Half Moon Bay was on our list today.  We had a good time - my Dad hasn't seen the sea in over 20 years, so he really enjoyed the salty air and the sound of the crashing waves.  The lighting conditions were really weird; it was blinding and dark all at the same time! 

I am nine months pregnant now, and it really shows in my work - I can't bend, lean, kneel, or duck easily to take a shot, or keep the horizon line straight, which is rather funny.  I used to literally lie in the middle of a busy city intersection for a good PoV.  Ah, well.

This time we didn't see any whales, but I am once again super huge, just like I was about a week before Johnny was born. The Instagrams from that day were considerably sunnier, though....

Here are some of the Nikon images, the ones from my iPhone will of course go on my personal blog soon.  

Postcards from Coyote Point Marina

This morning we drove over to the park and walked along the bay to look at descending airplanes, docked (pirate) boats, and sunbathed succulents.  The air smelled of salt water and freedom - something Johnny isn't quite old enough to appreciate, unfortunately.  We got there early but not early enough for the good light, and everything was washed out and overexposed, so I resorted to post processing most of the photos I took in black and white.  

Enjoy!

Seeing Double

This week was quite busy with domestic chores, so I took a short break from my writing and I spent more time with my family.  I also had the time to notice that fall is here - the early mornings in Belmont are misty and cool, and when the sun finally shines over the trees and the houses in the afternoon, they glow in their warm Autumn attire like little golden fires.  Also, people have started to decorate for Halloween, and the usually quiet and fairly uninteresting suburbia now looks festive and fun.  

I am still testing my skills in medium format and I hope to be able to post a few 120 mm images from my Mamiya here as soon as I develop the last film, but meanwhile I decided to take my camera for a walk in the hood and experiment a bit with double exposure.  

Here are some random shots for your viewing pleasure, and remember - there is a 20% discount on all Halloween shoots till the end of October!!!

A Room With a View

And here are the last images I took in Bulgaria.  This is pretty much the view from my apartment balcony in Sofia, a view I grew up with.  It is very different kind of suburbia than the American one, and not only because it's high up and overlooks hundreds of others little windows of box-like homes, but also because you can see someone freely pouring stuff out of bottles through said windows, oblivious about who could be splashed on the ground.

I don't dislike this reality, probably because I don't live there anymore...yet I still find some sort of strange coziness in the urban plight that reigns, especially when the light is just right, and the air is clean enough to see the mountain.  Besides, this was home.  You can't dislike home, even when its raw and gritty, you can just keep it in a special place and cherish it the way you can.

The sunset images are taken with my iPhone, and the rest are with my 300mm zoom lens.

In summer, the song sings itself.

~William Carlos Williams

A few days back, at sunset, my Brother-in-law and I climbed up the cliffs that overlook our house.  Sometimes young people go there and build bonfires we can see burning at night.  The view was splendid, and somehow pacifying, probably because we were so high up, and everything down there looked very small.  I brought my 300mm lens and I even captured my parents and Johnny waving at us!

I admit I'm craving to photograph something more urban lately, yet I'm still not tired of being in the country. 10 more days and I'm back in suburban California... Gosh, how time flies when you're having fun!

A Daytrip to Krushuna Falls

Yesterday morning we drove to Krushuna Falls, a wonderful natural retreat near the village of Krushuna, at about 30 km of Lovech.  The road there was scenic, with sunflower fields sprawling along, fluffy clouds above, stork nests, free roaming donkeys and horses, and other small villages, sleepy in the sun, sparsely populated by working country people riding in carriages and sitting on benches in front of their small traditional houses.  This part of Lovech province is an amazing combination of flat land, cliffs and hills, valleys and forests, creeks and plateaus, and while the landscape is hardly dramatic, it's full of life and color and  air saturated with the fragrant of hay, grass, wildflowers and freedom.  Living is tough there, raw, but simple and closely connected to the land, and so very quiet, that only after an hour out in the open you can hear your thoughts and heart much better.

Here are a few snapshots, and if you even happen to visit Bulgaria, make sure you come over to Lovech and the surrounding lands.  Next week we'll drive up to the historical village of Kakrina, and the one after - to Saeva Dupka cave.

Enjoy!