Since some of you haven’t been in Sofia or haven’t quite experienced the details of it – here’s a few typical and special images that we, the locals face almost daily… Well, those that go out at least. 
I hope you’ll enjoy them. Probably more of this will be coming in the future as I plan to take an afternoon or evening photo walks, especially as the weather warms up. Enjoy and I hope to hear from you!
Alright, it’s been a while. A long while, in fact. So long that I found the time to entirely re-design my portfolio site http://petarneychev.com and give the blog a little polishing (within a day, to be precise). Go check the photos out – there’s some content that I never published until now. I hope you like it. (I do.)
If you’re a regular reader of the blog you’ve also noticed a few changes here and there. Most importantly, the top navigation went all the way down – in the Navigate section which used to be called Links in the past. It didn’t get much use anyhow.
I’ve been working hard on producing new images in the past month-month and a half, and that already on top of the crazy schedule. Thus, the lack of updates. The idea is to start again with somewhat regular reflections, articles, updates. Both about myself and Petra, and about photography. At one point however I even considered discontinuing the blog… I haven’t completely made up my mind about it yet. The blog started as a place for keeping in touch and unloading thoughts. So far it has proved to be of little use as a communication tool (at least not a bi-directional one), and I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep the content coming, so that it will be of interest for those of you who are far away. No matter what happens, this which is currently posted will remain online… for a while… unless I change my mind. 
If the photography picks up well, I might launch a blog about that and keep this one for random personal updates and sharing family photos. Time will tell.
Not much has changed in our lives – work is work, sleep (at least for me) is hard to find… We’re both busy witch church things every week. I, at least can’t wait till the summer comes so we can take two weeks off. Like, for real.
Hope things are fine with you. As always, we both would appreciate hearing from you.
So, after a couple of years of dreamin’ and waitin’ I’ve finally laid my hands on a proper macro lens. It’s that particular one from the shot on the left – Canon’s latest 100mm Macro with Image Stabilization and weather sealing. More on it you can read here.
It opens a whole new world before the camera, plus I have always been a fan of details. Additionally, the lens can work as a standard 100mm telephoto and thanks to the wide aperture of 2.8 I should be enjoying more of those as well.
Too bad that it’s a working day today (lens just got delivered ~2hrs ago), but I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of its capabilities as times passes. For now – only two more shots below.
p.s. More updates on how Petra and I are doing, the church’s work in Sofia and life in its other generalities will be coming soon…
Disclaimer: I just couldn’t resist but share how happy I am with a photo-related purchase. So bear with me, you’ll get to learn some new stuff too maybe. 
A 50mm lens (or it’s 35mm equivalent) is the one that best matches the perspective of the human eye. This is why such a lens is also called “normal” or “standard”. I’ve just recently become a happy owner of the mid-range 50mm (non-zoom or “prime”) lens by Canon. As a matter of fact, it’s precisely that lens pictured on the left of the text.
It’s a lens that has a very large aperture opening (f/1.4, the smaller the number, the larger the opening). This means that photographing in low-light conditions has just become even more fun for me.
But so I don’t bore you to death, I’ve attached a few shots of Petra (with her new haircut!), pretty much the first ones I took with the lens. Having a non-zoom 50mm lens is a definite creativity pusher and eye-opener at the same time. The amount of blur on the background (known as depth-of-field) is just mind-blowing. Anyhow, enjoy the photos below and keep reading after them for some more on me and my photography.
It’s a little over two years now since I first started uploading images to Dreamstime.com in hopes of making a few cents. Looking at how things have developed, it turned out I’ve made the better choice by sticking with that as a hobby. I’ve already made far more than I’d expected and the earnings keep increasing with each new month. In 2008 each month has been better than the previous, which is a rather pleasant trend. I can’t complain.
So, in view of the fact that in less than a year we’ll be moving out of our safe temporary habitation to a more independent and demanding life in Sofia I had to give some additional thought to my photo experience. Do I continue on a below-average level and make a few dollars, or do I take a step of faith and continue at a different level? Although exciting, it wasn’t an easy choice to make yet another investment and start working on improving my skills. Read more…
