19/10 - празникът на Свети Иван Рилски

Днес почитаме Свети Иван Рилски - единственият светец, за когото всички са единодушни, че е българин. 

На снимката - вторият етаж на Рилския манастир.

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Историята зад кадър:

Била съм на това място страшно много пъти (вече доста отдавна не ги броя). В повечето случаи на тази дата грее ясно слънце и е пълно с народ. Не и този път :) Валеше дъжд (и беше около 8 градуса по Целзий) и затова почти нямаше хора, иначе на този ден манастирът е претъпкан с хора от къде ли не - включително гърци, руснаци и какви ли не други (при това поклонници, не просто туристи на екскурзия). Като бонус, на този ден беше пълно с монаси и монахини от различни държави, дошли при своите колеги специално за празника.

За мястото:

Рилският манастир е най-големият на Балканския полуостров. Основан е от Св. Иван Рилски някъде в края на 10ти век (поне така се твърди) и днес в него се съхраняват мощите на светеца. Това е много, ама МНОГО популярен туристически обект, част от списъка със световното културно наследство на ЮНЕСКО. В самия манастир може да се преспи, но нямам представа нито какви са условията, нито какви са цените. 

Ако ходите, непременно посетете църквата, разбира се в подходящо облекло (без къси гащи или потници). Вътре в самата църква снимането е АБСОЛЮТНО забранено. 

Фотосъвет:

Най-хубавите снимки стават от втория или третия етаж на манастира (ако успеете да се промъкнете). Възможно е да ви трябва широкоъгълен обектив, защото мястото трудно се обхваща с един кадър. 

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Rila Monastery, at the day of st. Ivan Rila

Or what happens if you get on the third floor of the monastery (because someone forgot to put the restraining rope).

The story behind the shot:

I've visited this place many times. In most cases, on this day there is a lot of sunshine and crowds. Not this time, though :) it was raining (and it was about 8 degrees Celsius) and that's why there were almost no people, otherwise on this day the monastery is crowded with people from everywhere - including Greeks, Russians and many others (pilgrims, mind you, not just tourists on a vacation). As a bonus, this day was full of monks and nuns from different countries who came to visit their colleagues for the holiday.

About the place:

Rila Monastery is the largest monastery on the Balkan Peninsula. It was founded by Sveti Ivan Rilski (Saint John of Rila) somewhere at the end of the 10th century ( or so the legend goes) and today the relics of the saint are kept inside. This is a very, very popular tourist site, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List. You can sleep in the monastery, but I have no idea what the conditions are or what prices are.

If you go, do visit the church, of course in proper attire (no shorts or tops). Inside the church itself, photography or filming is absolutely FORBIDDEN.

Photoadvice:

The best photos can be taken from the second or third floor of the monastery (if you can sneak in since access is denied to visitors, actually). You may need a wide-angle lens because the place is hard to cover with one shot.

Интервю с мен за БНР

Казват, че животът е низ от случайности. Аз срещнах своята, когато бях на двайсет и вече снимах от три години. Не съм я търсила, просто случайността сама ме намери. Просто реших да се регистрирам в сайт за #фотография и да намеря други себеподобни. Едно от първите неща, които публикувах в този сайт, беше молба за съвет и обяснение към един кадър.

Обаче вместо обяснение, там срещнах Идиот (има си име, човекът, но интерес на GDPR-a ще скрием самоличността на този човек под псевдоним). Та, Идиот ми заяви, че съм „тъпа фуста и трябва да бъркам манджи на печката, а понеже нямам нито подходяща техника, нито умения за редактиране на снимки, нито знам кое как се композира, просто да оставя фотографията за големите момчета“. Не беше от най-окуражаващите неща, които искаш да чуеш ако търсиш помощ и съвет, особено ако тъкмо си повярвал, че снимките, които правиш, може би заслужават да видят бял свят извън картата памет на апарата ти.

След тоя случай направих онова, което всяка уважаваща себе си жена прави, когато я нервират - ревнах с глас и прекарах три дни потънала в самосъжаление и станиоли от шоколад. А после реших, че ще докажа на Идиот, че много сериозно е сбъркал адреса.

Останалата част от интервюто, на линка по-долу :)

https://bnr.bg/post/101511938/bistra-stoimenova-stanah-fotograf-zashtoto-mi-kazaha-che-ne-me-biva

19 мои кадъра в изложбата СТАРИ БЪЛГАРСКИ СТОЛИЦИ И СРЕДНОВЕКОВНИ КРЕПОСТИ

 

Още една изложба с мои кадри в нея ще може да бъде видяна тези дни. При това напълно безплатно, защото е онлайн. Поне за нас, българите :)

Този път фокусът е нещо, което ми е слабост - културните обекти. Който ме познава в реалния живот, е наясно, че дрънкам като латерна за исторически факти и събития. В тази изложба, заедно с колегите Йордан Йорданов, Иван Василев, Лилия Йотова и Димитър Калиновски от Асоциацията на професионалните фотографи, сме събрали красиви кадри на известни и красиви български крепости, както и снимки на всички стари български столици или онова, което е останало от тях. Кадрите бяха събрани в клипче, заедно с малко текст към всяко едно място.

Това клипче ще бъде част от електронната изложба, създадена с партньорството на Българския културен институт – Москва, със заглавие СТАРИ БЪЛГАРСКИ СТОЛИЦИ И СРЕДНОВЕКОВНИ КРЕПОСТИ, която е посветена на годишнината от създаването на българската държава. Годишнината е свързана с датата 09 август 681 г., когато по време на VI Вселенски събор в Константинопол, за първи път е споменато името на държавата България. Ако сте гледали филма "Хан Аспарух", мисля че една от първите сцени в първата част показва точно това. Дори са цитирали дословно историческите извори (о, чудо!) :)

В тази изложба успях да се проявя, защото имам включени не един и два кадъра, а цели 19. С кадъра от статията долу, стават 20. Текстът във видеото, както и в статията долу също е мой, така че и като културолог-писател ме има :) Клипчето ще бъде публикувано в YouTube в понеделник, 09 август и тогава ще споделя както руската, така и българската версия. Руският превод е направен с помощта на хората от БКИ. Същото клипче ще бъде прожектирано в културния ни институт в Москва като част съвместната програма на БКИ и Националното туристическо представителство "Научете повече за България". Не знам за вас, обаче аз съм горда, че мои кадри (някои заснети като част от Culture Crossroads, а други доста по-стари посещения на въпросните исторически места), ще представят българската история :)

А докато излезе клипчето, прочетете увода към изложбата ни в статията по-долу :)

https://bci-russia.ru/news/908/?lang=BG&fbclid=IwAR3cDnqLjRBI0o8Rl1UMxsYRvo3_R8g6PCnDzsms084Uy5CgfKB81CAxvF8

Весел петък!

Color palette

Sighisoara old town, Romania

A walk through the alleys of Sighisoara in a gloomy and rainy afternoon. You must have seen this shot here and there, if not - now's the perfect time to stop and read.

I mentioned a long time ago that Romanians are not afraid of rain at all. Photographers, on the other hand, hate humidity in all it's forms. However, when everyone around stares at you because you carry open an umbrella and you wander around the desolate and gloomy alleys of an unknown town, attracting unwanted attention is not the best idea.

The story behind the shot:

This is the old town of Sighisoara, and by the time I got to that part, it was already raining unpleasantly. The alley was narrow and beautiful, but one has only two hands... What happens in that case? Lean against a door and shoot, run to the next one and so on. It doesn't seem to be raining in the picture, but in truth it was well, not OK.

Photo advice and safety:

There is no camera that loves water. So don't get too wet. Wipes will not go unused, as well as a raincoat (though I hate them).

Watch out for the empty streets too. Sighisoara is a medieval city and this makes a walk through the quiet areas a bit creepy. You don't know who's watching you.

Read more about the place on the Culture Crossroads project page.

Happy Spring

Happy 1 of March everyone! 

Or as Bulgarians say Chestita Baba Marta! Wishing you to be red and white like a Martenitsa! 

The Crossroads point:

Today Bulgarians celebrate the end of winter and the arrival of spring. Unlike Western cultures where Spring is a young and beautiful woman, our Spring is the so called Baba Marta - an old and fiery-tempered granny. She is best-known for her ill temper. When March starts, all want to keep to Baba Marta's good side :) 

The legends:

According to folklore, Baba Marta is the only sister of the 11 month gods and is particularly angry with her two brothers - January and February - because during the winter they drank all her wine  :-D 

So, even though March is technically a spring month, the weather is heavily dependent on Baba Marta's mood swings. One day she's happy and the sun shines, the next day she's furious and blizzard comes around.

On this day, Bulgarians greet each other with the wish: Happy Baba Marta! Let you be red and white like a Martenitsa!.

Another legend ties Martenitsa to the dawn of Bulgarian history. Back in 680 AD, when Khan Asparuh (the first Bulgarian ruler and founder of the Bulgarian state in traditional historiography) was fighting Byzantium, his sister was taken captive by the Byzantine emperor. She sent a pigeon with a message to her brother about the Byzantine army coming to the Bulgarian stronghold on the bank of the Danube river and tied the slip of paper to the animal's leg with a white thread. The pigeon flew but was shot crossing the Byzantine lines. Still, it made it to Asparuh's camp. He read the message and saw that the thread had turned half white and half red. He took that as a good omen, tied the thread around his wrist and rode into battle... To win and to establish the Bulgarian state - 1300 years later, the country has not yet changed name (not even once) and still stands in its original place on the map.

What is a Martenitsa?

The symbol of the holiday is called a Martenitsa (from the name for the month March in Bulgarian). It is either a bracelet made of white and red thread or two anthropomorphic figurines - called Pizho (the male one) and Penda (the female one) . You can see them below. Usually Pizho is a red figurine and Penda - a white one. The Martenitsa is worn as an amulet  all March and is taken off only after one sees a stork (the messenger of spring in Bulgarian folklore) or till the month is over. Usually, the martenitsa is then tied to a fruit-bearing tree, so that it would bear more fruit the upcoming year. 

Fun fact is that Martenitsa is worn all over the Balkan peninusula - in Romania, Greece, Macedonia, parts of Serbia. Bulgarian nationalists explain that with the territory occupied by the First Bulgarian kingdom (which covered the territories of the present-day countries above). Truth is that it's a wonderful tradition to keep. 

Fun fact 2 - a joint application of Bulgaria and Romania put Martenitsa on the UNESCO World Heritage list (of intangible heritage) in 2017 :) 

So, happy spring and be healthy!

Sea views - Happy Saint Nicolas day!

The story behind the shot:
This shot is one of my favorite examples of why one shoudl take pictures until the last second available. There are people who have a specific shot of mind, shoot it and then put the camera away. I'm not like that. In my opinion, pictures are taken all the time, until there is virtually no way to do it. Until the last possible moment, because a you never knows what's waiting a few meters away. Now that's a wonderful example.

This shot is the last of a very long series. And captures the last rays of sun of a very long day. We got up early so we can go to Chora Sfakion (the biggest town in a pretty remote area of Crete) and be able to see the Samaria Gorge. The didn't see gorge, unfortunately, but I almost ran out of memory cards. Simply because the views were amazing. So at the end of the long day, with dying batteries and a pretty full memory card, I had already quite tired.

This shot was created shortly after the ferry sailed back to the port and we disembarked. Then I just couldn't help but take a few pics of the sunset. I have a whole series, of course, but this one is maybe one of the most interesting shots I made that day.

So don't put the camera away when you decide you've found the shot you need. You never know what you'll find just round the corner.

And to all who celebrate today - happy name day :)

More information about the place - on the Culture Crossroads project page.

Djavola varos

Silent witnesses

The Devil's city (Djavola varos), Serbia

The story behind the shot:

The Devil's city is one of the popular places for a trip in the country of our western neighbors. The place is about 300 kilometers from Sofia and looks quite like Melnik or the Stob pyramids phenomenons.

The Serbians have taken care of the visitors and you can find almost anything in place - from a toilet (don't laugh, this is something you cannot find at each and every rock formation you visit) to cafes and small chapel. The walk to the place is also quite pleasant. The rock phenomenon itself is not particularly big, but it is worth it. The catch? That it's not quite easy to shoot. For the sole reason that there are not many opportunities to shoot the place from more than one angle. If you don't want to break your neck, that is. Otherwise, people made trails and places to relax, made the place safe for even very young children, basically did their best.

The place itself is known for its poisonous water. I'm not kidding, the concentration of heavy metals in it is so big, that it is not potable, nor fit for washing and kills everything in its path. Even the trees around her are very strange, like enchanted monsters. The place looks like an haunted forest, indeed. 

The Legend of the place invented by the locals is also not to be missed. Followers from Bulgaria can see it in the video (I decided to play the tour guide, so it's better to hear it from me). English-speaking fans can read it on the Culture Crossroads project page. 

Photoadvice:

Wear sturdy shoes (I almost always say it, but there is no way to avoid this now). As for lenses - I always say it again, but the wider, the better. Otherwise, this place can be shot with almost anything. This is one of the few shots from the place that is interesting to me. The other will go at some other time.

More about the place itself, the rock phenomenon and few links and tourist information, on the page of the Culture Crossroads project.

2019 plans

Hello, hello everyone!
I promised an explanation post and here it is:

The beginning of the new year is a perfect moment to share my plans for the next 12 months to come.

2019 seems to be full of emotions and new projects that I will share with you when the time comes. Naturally Culture Crossroads continues to gain momentum and through the new 2019 there will be many new images and more videos. About that, a little later.

The first and biggest of the new projects I am undertaking is my own modification of the 365-Day Photography Challenge. Since I doubt I can take pictures absolutely every single day of the new year, I did something different.

There is another option of the photo challenge where you should take one pic per week, a total of 52. However, this has seen too little, so I created 52-week triple challenge.

The idea is that every week there will be three alternative topics and depending on my shedule there will be between one and three photos per week (concerning that challenge, I mean).

The list of topics can be downloaded from my website, in case anyone wants to join :) (will let you know when the content is live on my site and blog) and at the beginning of every week I will announce the topics here so whoever wishes to can share their images in a comment under the post. Photos will also be published on my blog and Instagram.

Another change is that on the Culture Crossroads project page there will be more photos and videos - both videos from places I visited and behind-the-scenes footage. To keep track of that, however, you will have to follow the project page and my YouTube channel.

This page there will also be loaded with a new series of videos, this time for the fieldwork in travel photography, as this genre takes a huge part of my time hence I claim to have some expertise there. As usual, there videos in both Bulgarian and English :) I hope you'll like it :)

The second project is linked to the subway series of Dmitry Glukhovsky (Metro 2033, Metro 2034 and Metro 2035, in case anyone is interested). But for when it starts. There will be a lot of pictures again and a lot of fieldwork.

Finally, I am currently developing a mini photo project that is directly linked to shooting places from old photos. The Target? Old Sofia. Expect video presentation of the project as soon as possible!

I wish all of you a 2019 filled with much success health and smiles!

When colouring matters

I am primarily a colour-shooting photographer. In plain language, this means that 90% of the images I take are in colour. Even if in the end they appear in sepia or black and white, this is an exception, rather than the rule. I love colours. Really - to me very few pictures look good in Black and white. Even street photography - when I do street - is mostly in colour.

So, naturally, when I went off to the other end of Bulgaria (a total of 8 hours jolting on bumpy roads in buses) to shoot a traditional Bulgarian wedding reenactment - I was dead-set on delivering all images in colour.

The backstory:

Bulgarian photographers don't exactly have a sense of 'togetherness' so as a result we don't exactly have a guild. The Association of Professional Photographers is a new NGO, established only last year. When we gather somewhere, it is because something (or someone) united us. In this case it is the annual gathering of the photographers in Bulgaria, organized by the site www.photo-forum.net (the biggest and most prestigious photo site in Bulgaria - if you have a high rating there, you are deemed good). The event is important since most camera gear manufacturers come with equipment for testing, there is a whole photo studio at our disposal (which is a lot for someone like me, who currently cannot afford setting up a studio) and models to try things out with. The location changes each year so that people can visit more interesting places.

This year it was Zlatograd - a small town near the border with Turkey. The place was chosen for its ethnographic complex (the organizers even arranged us to sleep in the complex which was wonderful for night images). There is always some kind of a programme - with lectures and workshops by other professionals and it is usually very enriching in terms of information.

This year, one of the workshops I really looked forward to was the 'traditional Bulgarian wedding' one organized by an agency that is specialized in this kind of weddings (now gaining popularity in Bulgaria). Since such customs are very rarely seen (most traditions are centuries-old but almost forgotten now) and usually weddings are a private affair - I thought the whole thing will look really good on my project, Culture Crossroads.

My initial idea was to document the wonderful colours of the Bulgarian national costumes (which are unique in terms of styling and even differ tremendously according to region).

When reality strikes again:

All great I ideas I may have BUT things didn't go according to plan. Turned out that I am not the only one planning to do a photo shoot at the event and then use it for portfolio. Besides, how can you create something unique when at least 15 more colleagues are trying to do the same?

Still, I think I did well - experience trying to capture the 'wow' shot in crowded tourist destinations helped a lot - and came back with a few hundred images documenting every possible aspect of the ritual from every angle imaginable.

I will not go into details about the ritual here since it would take a long time and I plan to create a whole detailed post for it on the Culture Crossroads blog.

So I proudly presented a portfolio of around 20 images of the event - all in colour. Imagine my disappointment when everyone (both tutors and peers) said that it looked set-up. Well, it WAS a set up because no one gets married this way nowadays and no one got married that day. Even if a couple decides to follow the traditions, a wedding is usually a private affair so no one outside the immediate family and guests will have access to the pictures.

The veiling of the bride - crucial moment in any wedding. Still - I was told that there is no emotion and looks static. Otherwise I love the bright colours because most things in a wedding are colour coded. Like the red veil that is supposed to protect the bride from evil eyes and bad luck.

The bride says goodbye to her parents. During the wedding she is not allowed to talk and is basically led around as a puppet (that veil is not transparent so unless led, she may fall somewhere). This one the only image that 'worked' for my peers and tutors. To me - this image really has something and is one of my favourites from the whole trip.

During the workshop we made all participants pose for a picture, resembling the old-style images of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. This image looks quite set-up in colour, I admit.

Needless to say, I was disappointed with that result. Honestly, I had hoped to use these images as a coherent portfolio - counting on the fact that they do tell a story and at least to me, they looked OK.

Still, I didn't discard the idea of using the images for my project (after all, I cannot say when I'll have the opportunity to photograph something like this again). So I decided to edit the images right and then see if they are as hopeless as everyone said they are.

When colouring matters:

Editing in black and white is usually the last resort for me in post-processing. The image has to be either hopeless - blown out exposure, messy colours, dull sky - or to somehow scream that it would look good in this. I am saying 'scream' because unlike some colleagues, I am not really good with seeing in black and white.

So, when I started editing the images - all 20 of the selection plus a few more I thought inportant for the narrative on my blog - I did the colour edits first. After all, better to show the colour in things - guess that few people outside the Balkans have an idea how a national costume would look like.

Then, I got to this image and thought that it is worth a try for something different. This, ironically, was the only image deemed worth for something by virtually everyone I showed it to. So I decided that I should try black and white for it.

I was dead-set on using this image for my project because it seemed like the most powerful of all in the series. But to do the blog post I planned, I needed all other images to give context. Traditional Bulgarian wedding customs are not so famous so even native Bulgarians need a little backstory. Problem was that if I chose black and white, all the colour codes and their meaning will be lost and I will have a hard time explaining which is what - as you can see from the image above. On the other hand, that type of editing - antique plate - made the images look like they've been taken a century ago and I loved that air of 'autenticity'. So I went on to see if this kind of edit will work with the rest of the crop.

Then I reconsidered - I actually hate the plain black and white and prefer toned in sepia instead. I even have a favourite preset that makes people look like antique Daguerreotype plates. Converted the image, tweaked a bit with colour channels (to emphasize that at least some colour existed in the original) and gasped.

The magic had worked! Now the image, even though it was not taken 100 years ago, looked ancient and much more authentic. I immediately tried the trick with all other images and was delighted to see that it worked!

Turning it to black and white deprived the images of that air of 'set-up photoshoot' and covered up for some problems - like the modern shoes of some of the participants, for example. Moreover, the whole look reminded me of this website: www.lostbulgaria.com - which catalogizes old images taken in Bulgaria during the past two centuries. They are all take out of someone's archives, scanned and then uploaded to the website.

This one looks a bit less posed in this edit but still reminds me how old-time photographers used to line people up and make them pose as if it is a natural action caught by accident. Love the air of the image but still have problems with the lack of colours somehow, even though the toned images look much more 'photographic' (personal opinion which I will be testing out these days).

This image though, looks much better this way than in colour - the air of 'set-up photoshoot' is still there since it's not 1893, for example BUT somehow it's not that explicit here.

These images look totally different in colour, at least to me. They cease to be snapshots and start 'talking'. Even though this type of post-processing may look fake to some, to me it adds meaning to the images.

This whole image editing journey left me in two minds. I love my coloured versions (as I mentioned above, I always keep the coloured version) and I will have to use them for Culture Crossroads because without the rich colours of the national costumes I wouldn't be able to make my point with what colours matter and how things work. For example, I have to point out that the national costumes come out of different regions - for example - the dress of the mother of the bride is from one end of Bulgaria and the one of the mother of the groom is from the other end. These ethnographic differences are hard to spot in a B&W shot, even if you know what to look for. So, for the sake of my blog post, explaining the symbolism of the Bulgarian wedding and going step by step through the ritual - I will be using the coloured versions.

For posting in photo sites though I will use the toned versions - because they look more 'artsy' and somehow get the render of the scene better without the clutter of colours.

Recreating old shots and why weather matters in travel photography

In travel photography, what matters is the moment - but not just any moment as it is in sports. You need that WOW moment to make people want to visit the place. You need an amazing image that would make the others crave to see the place, to be there or.. to be you.

As it is most of my stories, it all starts with an image - in my case - this one: 

Rethimno port in 2009 - I really love the clouds and colours. This image, despite the technical deficiencies - being taken with a compact camera in JPEG - remains one of my favourites.  

At that time, I had no idea what I was doing. Really. I was 17 and I've just gotten my first digital camera. To me Crete, because the image above is from there, was a land of wonders full of strange and amazing things. So there I was, wandering around and frantically taking pictures of anything I laid my eyes on. The port, the fortress and the streets - anything that I found extraordinary. I didn't bother about composition or fuss with settings - the only thing I knew how to use at the time was the scene selection option (later on, I discovered the manual mode of the camera but back in 2009, that was terra incognita).

Here are some of the other images I took in 2009: 

The port of Rethimno with the famous lighthouse. Picture was taken in 2009.

The entrance of the Venetian fort at Rethimno - image from that time in 2009

These images were taken, loved and cherished as an amazing memory from a great adventure. But that was when the story ended. Soon after the return to Bulgaria, these images were totally forgotten. Two years later, when I had to apply for university, photography was nowhere near my choice of profession. It didn't even cross my mind that I could be a photographer. Instead, I chose to be a linguist and to study English - to have a 'decent profession'. Then, all of a sudden, in 2011, I had an idea of starting to share my work online. I found a website and started uploading my work. 

I keep saying this but if the users of the website hadn't told me that I was no good, that I lacked the skills and the equipment to be decent photographer, I wouldn't have become one. It was by sheer stubbornness that I started saving money to buy a camera, and taught myself composition and post-processing. It was all by trial and error. 

Somewhere during that process though, I decided that maybe what matters is skills and equipment. The more I progressed, the better images I took so I thought it was all skills. After the initial bullying I discarded anything taken before 2012 and concentrated on new content.

But as I progressed and learned new post-processing skills, I started re-editing old images, digging in the archives to see if I can 'save' an old image with a new and better edit. That's how one cloudy October day last year, I came across the images from 2009. I was doing a travelogue for a Bulgarian website and wanted to show some images (travelogues always go well with images and since I am a photographer, I am famous in this site for submitting articles with a lot of images). This time, however, instead of just exporting the file out of Lightroom, I created a PSD file and went to Photoshop. The result was stunning - to me at least. Colleagues though told me it was too colourful, too HDR-like and so on.

It was NOT and HDR so I can't say I was pleased with the feedback but I decided that the next time I go to Crete, I will revisit Rethimno and try to retake the image. Now that I'm good and skillful photographer, have all the equipment and so on it's just bound to be a stunning one. 

The irony is, that since 2009 I have been to Crete two more times BUT I didn't go to Rethimno then. There were so many other places I wanted to visit that I couldn't. This time I was dead-set on going again.

As I decided to work on the Culture Crossroads project I was sure that I want to add Crete in it. You can visit the project's page and blog for more information. 

When skills clash with weather...

Crete welcomed me with cold weather for the end of September - I didn't expect to be with a jacket on the beach - but otherwise amazing weather for images - dramatic clouds all over the sky, dynamic weather shifting in an hour from bright sun to torrential rain. I was delighted to finally nail some of the images I've been imagining ever since 2014 (the previous time I managed to visit Crete). 

Rethimno, of course was at the top of my list but given the distances on the island - and the so many locations I wanted to visit - it was left for the very last day - because at that time we would have a whole day before boarding the night ferry to Athens. So I waited (I'll skip though several other locations since they deserve a post of their own) for that day to come. 

Weather decided to play a trick on me though and show me that skills and equipment are worth nothing if you are unlucky enough to get dull weather conditions. Rethimno welcomed me with 30 degrees Celsius, heat, sun just shining in my lens and not a single cloud in the sky. The very moment I saw the light was harsh and in the wrong direction and the sky was dull I was absolutely disappointed.

The before and after of one of the images from that day. As you can see, the original is not much to talk about.

After all, I counted so much on this location - Rethimno is famous for its Venetian style small houses that reflect in the crystal-clear waters of the port. But what reflections when the sun is shining directly in my lens (despite the hood) and all I see is a big black nothing where the houses should be. This time, I thought, even RAW files and Photoshop cannot save the day. Still, since "I ain't not quitter" as the song line goes, I started wandering around the port to find the exact same location of the image from 2009. 

I have good photographic memory so I found it - guess what - that boat from the picture was still there! Parked at the same place. I was delighted to find it but disappointed that the sky isn't more interesting. Still, I thought, that would serve for a good blog post illustration of how skills alone cannot help much.

The recreated shot - as you can see, it is nowhere near the splendour of the original of 2009.

I didn't stop there and decided that since I am here for the first time in 8 years, I should try to do my best and create something usable. After all, professional photographers say that there's no such thing as bad lighting.

This image, taken just two steps to the side (this is the very same boat from 2009) proved to be much better than the recreated shot. Plus, it proved one of my theories that skills do matter and make a difference. Back in 2009, I just snapped a shot of the boat and moved on. Last month, I spent half an hour photographing it from all possible angles.

The image above proves that equipment does matter too - it was originally taken in RAW so I had much more freedom and opportunities to 'save it' so I did my best (I guess a Photoshop master would do much better but currently, this is as far as I can go). Apart from post-processing skills though, this image is not much to talk about. I like how it looks now but if I was using the same camera from 2009, an image like that (look at the print screen above) would just be lost to post-processing - after all, you cannot get that many details from a JPEG.

Here is another image - from the Venetian fort at Rethimno - that shows how many nasty tricks bad weather can play on you.

I love the architectural details in this image, love the lines, the windows, door and stairs BUT something is missing in this image. To me, that is the dramatic sky. I would have turned this into black and white but for the purpose of this blog decided to leave it in its original coloured version so that you see what I mean.

Don't get me wrong, it IS a good shot BUT it could have been way better. Same goes for all other images.

A bit discouraged by the blazing sun, I decided to turn my back to on it and go for something that is illuminated. And then saw the lighthouse - the famous lighthouse of Rethimno, one of the most beautiful ones in whole Greece.

I love reflections. I'm addicted to them and these almost mirror-like reflections in the still water of the harbour made me gasp. I really like this shot but again, still think there is room for improvement. 

Conclusion

I left Rethimno with quite a few images worth editing but very few WOW images in my opinion. This had nothing to do with equipment or skill - these will have a role in post-processing - as you can see, I did my best to present something good.

Problem is that sometimes equipment and skills are not enough to create the amazing picture-postcard shot you aim at. That happens not because you're not good enough but simply because you didn't go to the place at the right time. This is one of the reasons why I will have to go to Rethimno again to get the dramatic shots I want (it would be a pleasure to be there again :) ).

The story also has a moral - no matter how bad the conditions look like, you should NEVER EVER give up on taking pictures, If I had done so when I saw that the retaken photo sucks and returned to the table by the water, I wouldn't have created anything worth seeing (or editing, for that matter).

Images are always there and even if sometimes they don't look the way we want them to, they too tell a story :)