At the barley fields

© Photographer: Milen Mladenov | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Before harvest

© Photographer: Milen Mladenov | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Harvest is near and besides all restrictions I've managed to visit my favorite place for some days of shooting. The barley is almost ready to be harvested and on the setting sun the field gets that awesome golden look.

Village with empty soul

The people that inhabited the small mountain village in its past were the soul of Varbovchets. Most of the people in the village were engaged with slack lime producing, others made stones on the quarry. Each house, or at least most of them, have stone foundations and unique look.
I've always wanted to take some interesting architecture shots of those buildings, but unlucky for me most of the interesting buildings are abandoned. You wonder why I didn't take some shots of those - I did, but most of the houses are hidden from the shrubs, trees and bushes that are hiding them pretty well.

Ray of light behind the clouds

And there was light!
I am doing my best to show the beauty of that spare moment of time. The sun was behind some clouds over the mountain called - Smedovets, and that light was lighting some places at the foot of the mountain. At this very moment it was as like god was using a torch to lighten up some small shrubs and forests. It was marvelous feeling. I felt like energized and filled with happiness, filled with optimism and positivism. Hope you can feel the same while looking at my image.

Spectacle of light near Varbovchets

It was a sunny, but windy day. Too hot for the beginning of May, but at least the rain predictions happened to be wrong. However, near sunset I've had some minutes to take a small walk. This was the sky I saw for about 5-6 minutes. I took as many shots and angles as possible, but this one happened to be my favorite.
It is built from 16 vertical shots and processed with Lightroom and Photoshop with use of Nik's Color Efex Pro.

My Autumn

I will begin my post with an apology - I am very sorry for not posting too often in this blog, but I was really busy lately.
So, excuses away, I want to share with you some of my autumn images.

In pursuit of a sunset

This was one of the hottest summer days for this month and I was waiting for the clock to strike 7:00 pm in order to go out and find myself a nice landscape shot. In the afternoon there were magnificent clouds and they gave med fake hope for a nice sunset scene. I prepared myself and went out with a hope in my heart.

Just when I went out I met this old men taking his horse for a walk and graze. I just snaped some shots to make my settings and adjustments. I’ve selected Aperture priority at my Nikon D3200, at f/11 and ISO 100, with daylight white balance.

Welcome to Varbovchets

Добре дошли във село Върбовчец
or in English
Welcome to the village of Varbovchets.

Entrance to Varbovchets from Oreshets

The Century tree

© Photographer: Milenmladenov | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Alone in the filed 2 - story continues

© Photographer: Milenmladenov | Agency: Dreamstime.com

This is the rest of the story that sits behind this image. 

It all started when I decided to buy my DSLR back in November 2015. My idea for this purchase was to be able to make better images of my village - Varbovchets. I wanted to make the perfect image that will describe the village. I was seeing the image in my mind as one that includes the century tree that is in the village. I tried many different angles of photographing it, but the nearby house and road limited me. 

The approaching storm

Approaching storm

© Photographer: Milenmladenov | Agency: Dreamstime.com 

Near the small village of Varbovchets, Bulgaria, there is this magical place, where the mountain ends and becomes valley. Most of the fields are workable and last year (2016), just after they cropped the fields and gathered the production I was able to take a shot. This place is special for me for a simple reason – we used to have a small part of the field and it’s just behind the plumtree. Each time we were coming here I was using the plumtree as a landmark in order to find easier our field.