The best present for my birthday. Simona today is 8 months old, 2 days (and counting). ;-)

The following shots were made around Myrchaevo village (Vitosha mountain) and Plana village, with Pentax SP1000 and Kodak ColorPlus 200/36 film.

And here be the photographers, Michel and Ani! (self-shot, manual focus)

(This year, I have shot several (color) rolls of film. It was fun. Very much fun!:-)

(Backstory: Venice, Oct. 10, 2011. Pentax SP1000 и 50mm/F1.8 Pentacon lens. Film Kodak ColorPlus 200/36. Scanned @ 1900×1200, then some sharpen in Photoshop, final edit and export in Adobe Fireworks.)

Photo taken on 2011/Aug/14 @ 19:53

…is not far away from us, we just don’t notice it most of the time.

Cherni Vryh peak (2290 m alt), January 16 2011, 14:30, temperatures a bit below zero (C), strong wind. Sofia city is just an hour or two away from there…

(Here’s the same shot in B & W, with a bit stronger contrast.)

[Shot made with Pentax S50; click image for larger size.]

A quick sun ray just went through the snowy clouds over Sofia… and allowed me to make this shot. :-)

[UPDATE @ 11:45] Just discovered I never showed in my blog the phases of the solar eclipse in 2006. Then I realized, my blog was started in 2007… So, a quick update (and going back into the past):

It was the year 2006. I was shooting with a Pentax again (but the model was S40). It was a bright sunny day, so I had to use some sort of a filter — I used an old 3.5″/1.44M diskette. :)

Here is the series of shots taken:

1. Place: 42°41’N 23°18’E (Sofia)
2. Date: 2006/March/29 @ 13:00 EET – 14:30 EET
3. Eclipse was with a maximum of 76%, and for background I used clouds that were lit by the sun… (in some parts of Bulgaria the eclipse was then up to 100%, which means, full eclipse, sun is invisible).

I ♥ Autumn… :)