If your saw my other shot of this structure the chances that I can convince you that this is a Soviet flying saucer are probably quite small :)

When I took this I thought I'd probably clone out my shadow or crop the shot to 2x1. When I tried though, neither worked, i.e. the building ended up looking like a model, so I decided to leave my shadow in the shot to add a better sense of scale. When I go back again - I'm hoping to take a trip up there in the snow - I'll try a few alternative angles as I suspect that there's a range of shots that might be a bit more dynamic than this one.

I have three more shots from my trip to Buzludzha with Craig that I'll post over the next few days: this one, another shot of the exterior of the building, an alternative view of the interior, and my favourite that I'll post on Monday. After that I'm not sure what I'll put up. I still have quite a few wedding shots, 13 shots from my recent trip to the UK, and another handful of shots that I took while wandering around Bulgaria with Craig. As I'm heading off to Dubai on Monday though, followed by a trip to Oman, I may post something from there.

I processed another shot of the interior of the Buzludzha monument yesterday, looking out through the lozenge shaped windows you can see in this shot, and think that it will probably turn out to be my favourite of the set. In the meanwhile though, here's a shot of the exterior. As you can see, it's a quite extraordinary building.

Craig has just posted a shot taken from a similar vantage point here:

http://www.id7.co.uk/portfolio/archives/1010281900_clean.php

According to wikipedia ...

"Buzludzha is a historical peak in the Central Stara Planina mountain range in Bulgaria and is 1441 metres high. In 1868 it was the place of the final battle between Bulgarian rebels led by Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha and the Turks. In 1891 the socialists, led by Dimitar Blagoev, assembled secretly in the area to form an organised socialist movement. In honour of this act the Buzludzha Monument was built."

However, despite the fact that the monument was opened in 1981, to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian state, it's now a ruin: the roof is full of holes, the windows are gone, the murals inside the building are crumbling, and the building is covered in graffiti and anti-communist slogans.

So, that's the history ...

Last Friday, Craig and I headed up there and parked in the car park at the bottom of the hill. We then spent the next 25 minutes dragging ourselves up the extremely steep path, and arrived panting, on the verge of a coronary, at the summit. We then discovered the road, which would have been a slightly easier way to get there :)

Anyway, I'm still researching the building, so can't tell you much more about it at this stage – other than that it's definitely one of the most fascinating buildings I've ever come across – but do have another four shots that I'll post at some point soon. If you're interested, Craig has posted a slightly more natural interpretation of the interior here:

http://www.id7.co.uk/portfolio/archives/1010261900_clean.php

As always, let me know what you think.

On a technical note ...

I've categorised this one as an HDR image, but it's not, at least not in a technical sense. I did use multiple exposures (a bracketed sequence of 11 images: 1 EV spacing, 1/250s to 4s), but manually blended them rather than creating a 32 HDR bit image which I then tone mapped. I did try using Photomatix Pro but, on this occasion, couldn't produce a version I was especially happy with. The 'show the original', in this instance, is the .5s exposure from the original sequence.

I've just finished editing the images for the wedding I shot with Craig back in September, so thought I'd post one last image: Daniel and Catherine, the bride and groom.

I still have quite a few shots from my recent trip to the UK, that I'll blog over the coming weeks, but I think that this one may turn out to be my favourite from the trip.

I'll also be posting some more from last week, taken while wandering around Bulgaria with Craig, but in the meanwhile here's one of his:

http://www.id7.co.uk/portfolio/archives/1010241900_clean.php

As I mentioned a few entries ago my good friend Craig has been staying with us in Bulgaria. Sadly though, he's now on his way back to the UK, accompanied by Libby and Tiggy who are heading over to Blackpool for a week. They get back next Saturday, but I'm heading off again on the following Monday: for the Gulf Photo Plus FotoWeekend in Dubai (November 4th-7th), followed by another training event in Abu Dhabi, followed by a trip to Oman with my good friends Bobbi Lane and Jason Kotecha. I'll be back in Bulgaria on the 17th.

All of which brings me to this entry. I'm not sure of the exact translation of the text painted on this tyre – на добър път – but think it roughly translates to something like 'have a good journey'. Given today's events, and those that are coming up, it seemed quite fitting.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, it's pronounced "Na Dobbur Putt".

Craig and I drove up to the Shipka Memorial yesterday, with the intention of shooting some panoramic scenes from the top. It was a bit cloudy when we got there, but as the weather report had promised clear blue skies we set off walking up the 900 steps to the base of the monument. When we finally managed to reach the top it was cloudier than ever, but we decided to head up to the top of the monument on the basis that the clouds might clear at some point. However, after dragging ourselves up the next 166 steps we were greeted with this view:

.../iblog/archives/shipka_view.php

Normally – and by normally I mean when you're not standing in the middle of an especially dense cloud – the view is spectacular. Yesterday though we spent over half an hour staring at a wall of fog that cleared just long enough for me to grab four or five frames. From a photographic point of view I'm not sure that it's sufficient justification for hauling myself up 1066 steps, but I was pleased that I got at least one shot from the top, and we did have a great day :)

Here's the second shot of Craig that I mentioned, which I think works quite a bit better than the one I posted yesterday.

In related news, Craig and I are heading up to the Shipka Pass tomorrow. When we first moved out to Bulgaria Craig helped me drive over. We spent a fair amount of time running around getting things ready for Libby and the kids to arrive, but we also went out on a few photographic trips. The most interesting, or at least potentially most interesting, was a trip to the Shipka Pass. Unfortunately though, by the time we got there I was ill, so while Craig climbed the 816 steps up to the monument I sat in the van feeling sorry for myself. So, 17 months later, we're going again. Watch this space.

As I mentioned recently my good mate Craig is currently staying with us in Bulgaria and we have a variety of plans for what we're going to shoot during the rest of this week. Yesterday, however, we struggled a bit as the weather deteriorated as the day went on and by mid-afternoon we'd ended up in one of the many abandoned factories you can find in Bulgaria, watching the rain pour down. I did try to shoot some shots of the interior, which didn't work out, but did end up with two shots of Craig, one of a leaf, and another of my tripod head. I'll post the second shot of Craig tomorrow, but will probably intersperse the other two with some of the ones I shot while back in the UK last week.

Craig's first shot from our trip is here:

http://www.id7.co.uk/portfolio/archives/1010191900_clean.php

As most of you will know I've been posting the original image with virtually all of my recent entries. In this case though, as the transformation was slightly unusual, I've decided to hold off adding the original until you've had an opportunity to tell me a) what this is, and b) what additional post-production was done to the shot. What I will tell you is that it was shot during my journey from the UK to Bulgaria :)

Update: As Marcel has managed to identify the shot – it's one of the travelators at Manchester airport, warped in post – I've added the 'show the original' link. As you can see, the original is blue, but the perspective is slightly different in this version (courtesy of the warp tool) ;-)

One of the things I thought I'd miss most when we moved from the UK to Bulgaria was the sea. I don't, but I do appreciate it all the more when I have the opportunity to stroll along the shore, even on cold grey days like this one.

In other news ...

I've had a great time it UK – one wedding and four one-to-one training sessions – but I'll be heading back to Bulgaria early tomorrow morning in the company of my good friend Craig. He's coming over for a week, then heading back to the UK with Libby, and we're going to be heading out to a variety of locations to shoot. Hopefully we'll both get some great shots.

There isn't much I can tell you about this one, other than that this wonderfully photogenic guy was one of the guests at the wedding I shot on Friday. Some people were born to be photographed :)

If you've followed my blog for a while you'll know that every once in a while someone comes along and says something like "your photographs are crap, you just Photoshop them to make them look good". Now, I don't really want to initiate yet another discussion about that particular can of worms (there was a great discussion on the topic when I posted this entry) but I do want to mention one aspect of that debate …

As I mentioned when I posted my last entry, I'm running quite a few one-to-one training sessions while back in the UK. The three I'm running later this week are centred around post-production, but the two day session I ran over the weekend combined shooting and post-production: specifically, how to relate one to the other. Or, put another way, how an understanding of post-production can be used to inform the shooting process; in terms of things like what to shoot, how to optimise the initial exposure, how to visualise the final image, and so on.

So, on Saturday morning we headed down to Blackpool beach looking for things to shoot. We photographed the North Pier, an abandoned shopping trolley, a plastic cup, the clouds, and a whole range of other scenes. We also took a range of images that were quite similar to this one, i.e. 'nothing' shots: with mostly dull and dark foregrounds, a grey flat sky, a bit of sand and water, but not much else. In short, scenes with little apparent merit. At this point, if you haven't already done so, take a look at the original and you'll see what I mean.

What I wanted to get across, and what I hope the final image demonstrates, is that the scene was interesting, at least potentially. There was detail in the sky (once the contrast was increased), the natural colours could be enhanced (and/or changed), the detail in the foreground sand and water was interesting, … and so the list goes on.

In other words, the initial capture is just a step along the way, not an end point in its own right, and sometimes even the dullest of original scenes can provide the raw material out of which you can craft something a lot more compelling. Whether you think I was successful on this occasion is an entirely different question, but I'm pleased with the end result.

On some of my recent trips back to the UK I've had a couple of things to do, but have spent quite a lot of my time twiddling my thumbs or just wandering about taking photographs. This trip, however, is quite a lot busier: I got back on Wednesday, went clothes shopping on Thursday (which was hellish), photographed a wedding with Sheila Morris yesterday, and spent today delivering the first of two days 1-2-1 training. I've got Monday off, but have three morning training sessions next week, after which I fly back to BG with my good mate Craig.

As I'm sure you will have already worked out, this is the first of a number shots that I'll be posting from the wedding: the youngest of three flowergirls. She was definitely a cutey :)

I also have a couple more portraits that I'll be posting, and at least four shots from this morning's training session. I'll post the first of those on Monday.

Having spent most of my life in the UK I still find it rather odd to see people carrying firearms in public: in this case, two 'forest rangers' (?) patrolling the lake I photographed last winter.

In other news: I'm photographing another wedding this weekend, so I'll have some wedding shots/portraits to post next week :)

If you've been following our games of Photoshop Tennis on Facebook you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is a version of this week's image. It's not, but it is very similar. The image we're using for this week's game is one of Jason's, taken while we were both shooting the pier back in April of this year. I did post four shots that were taken at approximately the same time (here, here, here, and here), but overlooked this one. Anyway, after working on this week's Photoshop Tennis image I decided to look back through my archives and see if I'd shot something similar, hence today's post. As always, let me know what you think.

On a related note, if you've been following Photoshop Tennis you might also be interested in HDR Tennis. I'm taking part, as are Jacob Lucas, Bob Lussier, Brian Matiash, Dave Wilson, Pete Talke and Scott Wyden. Our first game is here, based on an image supplied by Dave Wilson, and you can also take part by downloading the original sequence of images and posting your version to the wall.

On a different matter entirely …

If you've been thinking about signing up for our Photoshop tutorials now's a good time as we're currently giving away a signed copy of either Practical HDR or Extreme Exposure when you sign up for a lifetime membership. If you're interested, there's some further info linked at the top of our main tutorials page:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/

I took this back in July, at much the same time as this one, and would have posted it sooner but wanted to show it to Andy first (the guy on the left). He lives reasonably close to us but, for one reason and another, we didn't bump into each other until earlier this week. Anyway, he liked the shot, so here it is.