12 myths about photography - part 1 - why I became a photographer

I am back so to say and this is the first video from the 12 myths series. It describes how I became a photographer. Hope you'll like it. 

Enjoy!

12 мита за фотографията (full BG)

140 години от Освобождението на България - 03 03 2018 || Celebrations o...

On the 3rd of March Bulgaria celebrated 140 years of freedom. In 1878, Bulgaria was liberated from 500 years of Ottoman rule. The day when the first treaty was signed - 03 03 - is a national holiday. 



I attended the celebrations at Shipka peak and created this little video to celebrate :) 



More info on the history can be found on my project page - Culture Crossroads:



https://www.facebook.com/culturecrossroads/



Soundtrack: Bulgarian national anthem ''Mila Rodino' by Tsvetan Radoslavov, more info about it here: 

.http://www.nationalanthems.me/bulgaria-mila-rodino/

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 :) 

Photographer ≠ a single profession

When I was at high school, I was hopeless at Physics. Nothing could make me understand the equations or memorize the formulas.

Later on, when I took up photography, I found out that contrary to all logic (and most of my preferences) it is all Physics. Light angles, reflections, lenses, mirrors. What was not logic, was technical staff (I was never a tech-bimbo but I've never been a sys-admin either). So, willy-nilly, I learned about Physics and camera parts, how they work together and so on.

Later still, I discovered that being a photographer mean much more than randomly snapping at things around you.

So, I decided to compile a list of all the things a photographer has to do (that photographer is me, by the way) for all those who think taking a picture is a piece of cake and that sums up being a photographer.

You need to know:

• some information about the thing: ideally the historical, cultural and anthropological background of the place - that includes having MORE THAN BASIC idea of archeology, architecture, warfare, social and cultural history, ethnic groups and the list goes on and on and on.
• some social skills - to talk to people and make them pose for you or even to get some information from them.
• camera equipment handling - this means knowing your gear inside out and being able to work with it with your eyes closed. Plus, you are expected to work and 'be fluent' in more than one brand and its specifics - I've had to use five different brands. You need to know about lenses, tripods, filters and so on and so forth.
• posing 
• event shooting and how to behave at that time
• lighting (studio lighting, I mean)
• your rights and the laws about copyright, private property and photography of the respective country - so that you don't get into trouble.
• some social networking skills (Facebook and Instagram at least) and SEO (search engine optimization) in order to promote your work.
• sales and marketing skills to get yourself some clients.
• html codes - because at some point you'll need a website
• blogging to tell your story to the world.
• graphic design - because of the two above and the demands of your clients
• post-processing (on more than one type software)
• videography and video retouching
• sound editing (because you never know)
• licensing and copyright - so that you know which kind of license you lent whom, why and for how long. I mention it again, but it differs in different countries
• printing, color spaces and different materials - this is separate because it is a whole domain in post-production
• networking - you never know who will be useful for what
• presentation skills - for obvious reasons such as portfolio display
• first aid and basic survival skills - everything can happen on location and you need to keep yourself and the people around you safe
• writing - you'll need to write at least the titles of your images and that is not always easy
• basic self-defense - which includes a lot of common sense and self preservation instinct
• basic meteorology - to know which weather causes what and how to handle that.

This list can go for a long time and I intend to update it. Point is, that unlike most people who get a single profession, specialize for it at university for some time and then go on working in that field without having to learn new things which have nothing to do with their domain, photographers have to do that all the time.

Photography means much more than just clicking a shutter.

What's in a name? Who is a professional photographer?

I didn't call myself photographer when I started out. In fact, it took me years to even think of myself as one. I remember one of the first times when I was impressed by the way 'professionals' behaved: it was on that memorable trip to Crete.

Actually, it was on the Acropolis in Athens - then, I remember, it was crowded with photographers using gear of all kinds. They were all standing at one and the same spot - where the best view is. I went up there and was amazed that all those 'pros' with 'big black professional cameras' made room for me and even showed me the place where I can photograph the best view. That was the first time I noticed something like that.

One of the images I created back then. I have some amazing images from Crete BUT these are not one of the great ones. As you can see the weather was nowhere near spectacular and nothing looks interesting on the pic. Still, I was able to do this only BECAUSE the pros made some room for me and my compact camera.

When I got my DSLR, I still didn't call myself a photographer. To outsiders, seeing the big black thing, it was absolutely obvious that I WAS, in fact, a professional (why else, carry that heavy scary thing around?). When asked, I said 'yes' laughing. It took me 3 years to really start claiming with confidence that, yes, I am a photographer. A professional. And it took me another year to start demanding the respect owed to such.
These days I have to edit some images created by a colleague - I call him a colleague BUT he still calls himself a 'hobby-photographer'. Truth is that the guy does photo-shoots with models and so on BUT he is still reluctant to state (especially to me) that he is a professional photographer.  Still, since we happened to work together for some time - he has an eye for people shots.

That's me - one of the images that colleague of mine created while we worked together.

This made me think - who has, after all, the right to call himself/herself a photographer? So I decided to conduct a bit of research.

The first place I went to is the website of the association of professional photographers in Bulgaria (link to their website can be found at the end of this post), where it is said that a professional photographer is:

A) getting more than half of his/her income from photography

B) studying photography as a degree at some university or college

Still, I think that this is not enough to define the whole process of calling oneself a 'pro' - I've met countless people who have a BA in photography but are terrible at it. This doesn't make them 'professionals'. I've also met wonderful talents that take pictures in their spare time and are better than most 'pros'. There is something mystical in the whole idea of calling oneself a photographer - as if that gives you some kind of mystical, even mythical status of 'the person who creates masterpieces with one click of the camera'.

So I decided to search the net and see what the great minds of the past have to say about photography. I searched through various quotes about photography but couldn't find a single one about 'professional' photography said by the famous photographers of the past. Somehow these people didn't think that you need to earn this and this and that to call oneself a photographer. You need to see the world in a certain way, you need the 'eye for detail'.

Money comes when there is talent. If there is talent or people who are willing to pay. Or both. Being a professional in what you do comes BEFORE getting money for it, that's what I think. Somehow the photographers of the past have seen it, unlike us, who try to divide into groups: pros and amateurs, those having a degree and those who are self-taught, even to landscapers and wedding photographers.

A degree can only hone the skills you already have but it alone will not make you a professional photographer. Talent alone will help you create something no one else has done (or just very few have thought of doing) but without the knowledge it would take a lot of time (trust me, I know that).

Being a professional is a feeling, a state of mind, not a degree. It takes some time (and some bravery) to state it out loud.

References:

https://petapixel.com/2014/03/11/50-photography-quotes-inspire/ 

https://petapixel.com/2014/05/29/70-inspirational-quotes-photographers/