First Steps

Here are the first steps of my Photo Journey.

Starting off, here is the very first photo of the journey, taken in the evening of the 1st of February. My first Macro photo actually.

It was dark in the room and I used the camera flash. Resulted in a crisp image and its quality surprised me.

The focus is really good. Also the light.

This is one of my tiny headphones, that I use when I listen to music on my phone.

Seeing this I was really encouraged and my confidence grew a little, knowing that even with that modest camera, I can take good shots.

The next pictures were taken on the 2nd of February, 2020 and resized for blog use on the 6th of March (that is why it shows that date as a date created in the metadata, ugh, will see to fix that with the next photos, actually the EXIF data shows the correct date).

The day started calmly. After the morning routine, breakfast and lunch had passed, I went out with my brother and a friend. We went to a local playground (inter-block space) and sat on a bench. We had a chilled conversation and as we talked, we noticed some stray cats roaming about. One of them approached cautiously and looked.

The cat had sad eyes. Not sure if male or female. It looked and hoped for some food probably, sadly we didn't have any at this time. It stood there quietly, examining us, curiously looking at the camera.

I describe this meeting in detail, because there was something more about it. The level of empathy - the way I could feel the animal's sadness and worry, it was noticeable. We shared some love, a moment, and we shared a melancholic feeling - a sadness probably built up during the days of  hardship each one has had (in a different way but still). This cat was friendly, even if it was keeping distance and being careful. 

The overall colors of the scene were grey and white. Early February, Winter time. Even the grass was grey. This also contributed to the melancholy at the time. 

Then I said goodbye to my brother and the friend, and went on to take some photos at one of the city local hills - Aliosha Hill, or as it is commonly named - Bunardjika. I love to go there. It is like a park. 

And after last year, when a good friend of mine came to visit, it become a long standing tradition to visit this place and enjoy the flora and fauna, the elevated views, the feeling of freedom and calmness that is there all the time.

I will share some of the nice views, but first I want to show you a little detail, that I noticed and liked.

 I love it when I see small and simple details like these. The tiny plant, that had made its way through the stone stairs, actually makes the stairs look gorgeous. It adds to the feeling of Nature, when you visit this place.

On many stairs across the hill, there are plants like these. 

I was really inspired and I placed the camera down, looking sideways at the stair. 

Thus the second image was produced, a little perspective and showing the crude stones that the stairs are made of, the leaves of the tiny plants contrasting with the stone.

At the time this was a good experiment, a little exciting even.

I was very pleased with the idea and decided to take more shots like this in the future.

Moving on, here are some views from atop the hill.

In view above, it is the other large hill, the highest of all Plovdiv hills - Youth Hill. It looks pretty gray during winter, but still majestic.


Below you can see my affinity to taking landscape photos that focus on the skies. I love it when there are some nice clouds, they always make a photo gorgeous.

I know the horizon line is not always straight, bear with me. I decided not to edit the photos at this time. When taking these photos I played with the camera settings, tried different filters, to see what produces the best image during that time of day (afternoon, pretty cloudy day).

And here are some photos showing the things on Aliosha hill. I haven't focused on the monuments, liked the plants there instead. Particularly this group of pine trees. Here you can see me playing with the settings, trying different color settings and filters, as well as trying different shot compositions.

And finally there are some shots of a forest path. There are numerous forest path on this hill, some are pretty gorgeous. Here I also made multiple photos with different settings.

And that concludes the image showcase for these days, the very first steps of this journey.

I will show you many more photos of the Aliosha Hill in the future, it is a large place, has many sights and gorgeous views, flowers, birds, insects, lizards.

Feel free to comment, criticize or give advice. I know the photos are modest, this is pretty much part of the journey.

Thanks for reading and viewing the photos. See you!