Thursday, December 29, 2011

HI-FI EXPO 2011 PHOTOS

This year was the second HI-FI EXPO Sofia, a trade show for high-end audio and video equipment (check out the website for more info www.hifiexpo.bg). Since we barely had any photos from last year's show due to lack of time and well-prepared photographers (seriously, how would you feel if you got a bunch of totally dark and grainy photos?!), this year we decided that we will be taking care of the photos ourselves. My goal was to take photos of all four days of the expo, so that we could post them on the facebook page of the expo and the website. I am not saying that I am the best of photographers either, but I tried to do my best, and I had lots of fun photographing everything! You can see all the photos here, but I have selected a few of my favorite ones to show you here on my blog. Of course some of my favorite photos are of little details in the equipment that I found interesting :) I guess I like shooting little details :)



Thursday, November 24, 2011

COMPANY LOGO: ЕТ ШАНС

In the summer I had the chance to design a logo for a company, ЕТ Шанс (or Chance Ltd.), that is a construction products retailer. The company wanted a logo in one color that they can use on the signs outside of their shop, so I gave them some options that were more abstract and an option with a hand giving a thumbs up (because of the name of the company - "chance").

Here are some of the abstract designs:


And here is the design with the hand giving a thumbs up, which is actually the one they ended up choosing.


I actually really enjoy designing logos. I hope that I have more chances to do that in the future.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

TWO FALL PORTRAITS

I just wanted to share these two lovely portraits that Pavel took of me a few weeks ago in the park - I really love the fall colors. They are so beautiful to photograph.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

FIRST FALL PHOTOS FOR THIS YEAR!

It's fall, an awesome season to photograph! I took some time last weekend (even though it was very cold) to take some photos in the park. I also wanted to try out a Lensbaby Control Freak lens that I borrowed, so my shutter button finger was itching :) Here are some of my photos below; they are my experiments with the Lensbaby and with my own lenses. I love shooting rose hip :)

Friday, October 21, 2011

WATERCOLOR WEDDING GIFT

After more than a year of not painting any watercolors, I made the time two weekends ago to paint a couple of small fall scenes as a wedding gift for a friend. Watercolor is the medium I probably know best when it comes to painting , since I've been working with watercolor since I was a kid, and it was nice to do something familiar. Birches are also very interesting to paint, all white and gold and delicate.


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

DANI & ROSSEN'S WEDDING PHOTOS

After the sneak peak at the beginning of the week, here are some of the photos from Dani & Rossen's wedding last Saturday. I was not the official photographer of the event, but I was invited to photograph Dani while she was getting ready, so I have a bunch of photos from before the actual ceremony and fewer from the rituals. Still, I managed to snap a photo here and there, and I am posting some here for you to see.




Tuesday, October 4, 2011

DANIELA AND ROSSEN'S WEDDING LOGO

Daniela, a colleague and friend of mine, recently announced that she would be getting married to her boyfriend of several years, Rossen. I get so happy and excited whenever there is a wedding, I guess it's a girl thing. Anyway, my colleagues and I set out to design her wedding invitation. I ended up designing several logos for her and her husband-to-be. All of the designs have what I call the "short version" of their initials and a "long version" with their full names as they are spelled in Bulgarian (Даниела и Росен). I was really happy with all designs, and forgive me for not being modest, but I think I love them all. My favorite is probably the first one, but Dani ended up choosing the third logo, so that's what we put on the invitations. Check out the three designs below:

Monday, September 26, 2011

COLLAGE: CURTAIN CLOSING

Here is an abstract collage that I did recently as a birthday gift. I started making collages like this after a project we did in painting class in Colby, and I've loved doing them ever since. The funny thing was that such collages were really hard for me to make at first, but later turned out to be my favorite assignment. Like I told my professor back then, I can see more of myself in these than in some of the other art pieces that I've done.
The collage below is called Curtain Closing, and it's actually a group of three collages.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

OURANOUPOLI AND ATHOS BEACH BREAK PHOTOS

This summer was quite tiring; in between work, moving, and various art projects, I've barely had time to relax properly. I really needed some time off, a week of not going over task lists in my mind all the time or tossing and turning in bed thinking about campaigns, events, or about getting cable TV for my house. That's why I was really looking forward to my second Greek beach break this summer, this time not just for a short weekend, but for a full week. I spent it luxuriously lounging on the beach with my Kindle, taking photos, catching up on my sleep, and clearing my mind of work clutter. I also went on a short cruise along one side of Athos, enjoying the views of the monasteries. The sun, the crystal clear water and the beautiful pink sunsets made me feel like I was in a different world, one where there was no stress and no crazy deadlines. Ah, if only...





Tuesday, August 30, 2011

BABY JORO'S BAPTISM PHOTOS

I was so incredibly happy to photograph baby Joro's baptism this Sunday, and I love how the photos turned out. The church "Света Богородица" (St. Mary) in Haskovo, built in 1837, is absolutely beautiful and made an excellent backdrop to the event with its ornate icons and woodcuts, gorgeous chandeliers and lit candles. But most of all, it was the smiling faces of everyone present, including baby Joro's, that made the atmosphere really special and festive. Some of my favorite photos are the one with the grandma holding the baby's hand, as well as the whole series where the priest dips baby Joro in the water!
I am really happy that I got to shoot in a church, too, since it will be great practice for (hopefully) shooting weddings in the future. I love that I had time to shoot some of the details of the place, like the water fountain outside, the side doors, or the candles.






Monday, August 15, 2011

WHITE NECKLACE

I made this necklace about a week ago, but I couldn't post it earlier because I caught some sort of nasty summer flu that seemed to last forever...blah. I wanted a big chunky white necklace, and since I couldn't find anything in the stores that was nice and fit that description, I just made it myself out of polymer clay. It's part of my White Collection, which you can see here.

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Saturday, July 16, 2011

FOOD PHOTOS: OMONIMO RESTAURANT

I completed my first food photography assignment some weeks back, photographing food for the menu of a new restaurant in Sofia called Omonimo. Let me tell you this: I was terrified! I think that food photography is very, very hard, and I was completely daunted by the fact that I had to do such an assignment. The good part was that I wasn't going to be alone but with the other photographer in our agency, which was a definite relief. It was reassuring to know that there would be another person shooting some of the same dishes, just in case. Also, the owners of the restaurant weren't expecting some sort of photographic masterpiece, but just photos that made their food look tasty and recognizable in the menu.

Let me tell you something else, too: the food smelled, looked and tasted amazing! I was salivating the whole time! The photos turned out OK, too. Now I can definitely see some things that could be improved and I'm sure that my photography teacher will find even more such things. Still, I'm pleased with the result, especially given the fact that we didn't have much in the way of lighting equipment. See for yourself below, and be gentle with me :)

P.S. Just as an aside, I love my polarizing filter! I never thought it would be so useful, but now I can't go anywhere without it! If you don't already have one, get one!

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The restaurant has a wood-burning pizza oven, which is what I photographed here on that last photo.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

KERAMOTI, GREECE

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After all the long and grueling work days last week and all the excitement and exhaustion of working on a TV commercial, I just had to take a couple of days off and escape on a relaxing weekend beach break. The destination this time: the picturesque village and gorgeous beaches of Keramoti in Greece and the resort city of Kavala.

With its white sand, light cerulean water, sparkling blue sky with perfectly white cotton clouds, and the blue-green outline of the island of Thassos in the distance, the beach in Keramoti feels exotic and luxurious. I could easily imagine myself staying there for a week or two, the perfect amount of time to decompress while sipping my freshly squeezed orange juice, enjoying mouth-watering seafood meals and reading my book. An added bonus were the dazzling sunsets, pink, violet and gold on a clear day and a glorious mix of oranges, purples and blues when there are clouds in the sky.

Enjoy some of my photos of the place. I've selected those lovely little details and beautiful landscapes that create the atmosphere of Keramoti, Kavala, and the lake monastery near Porto Lagos, and I hope that afterwards you will be able to close your eyes and imagine that you are there. I know I will.

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Monday, June 20, 2011

SOFIA BREATHES: DESIGN

As promised, this post is about Sofia Breathes: Design, the conclusion of Sofia Design Week 2011. A true summer day, sunny and hot, this past Saturday was a perfect day to spend outside on Shishman Str. In fact, I think half of Sofia was there at one point or another, lounging on the sidewalk or in One More Bar, or otherwise strolling around, taking photos (just like I was), drinking a bottle of organic lemonade, playing Foosball, or looking through the stands and the posters with logo design projects for Sofia as an European Capital of Culture.

All electric transformer kiosks (or switchgear kiosks, or whatever these are called in English) were painted with different images and designs, which was probably my favorite part of Sofia Breathers, along with the window frames turned into white sculptures by studio Lumagi. Check out the photos below (I apologize for the deep shadows and bright areas, but it was around 3 in the afternoon when I shot these, and the light was far from optimal).

I'm loving the bird theme here (what a surprise..hehe)
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This one is also a favorite of mine. It's so summery!
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The one with the painting of the square in front of the National Theater is just plain awesome! That's also my favorite place in Sofia.
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Stands for clothes by independent designers:
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One of the Lumagi "windows" and a real window of The Gourmet House, which is still quite cool:
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The handmade paper workshop was a nice touch. It's good for kids to know how things are made!
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Sunday, June 12, 2011

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SOFIA DESIGN WEEK 2011 - SEMINAR DAY 2

Since I started yesterday's post about the first seminar day of Sofia Design Week with a small fashion review, I thought I'd continue the pattern and do this again today. Day 2 was the day of scarves and iPhones. You're bound to wonder why I'm referring to the iPhone as part of my so-called "fashion review," and my answer is that at this point I believe that for many people the iPhone is more of a fashion statement than anything else, or at least a kind of statement that doesn't have that much to do with functionality. Of course, from a design standpoint, the iPhone is a great choice, so I guess what I want to say is that I'm not judging but merely observing a trend. I loved all the scarves, of course, since I am a scarf person myself, and also the handmade earrings, again for the obvious reasons.

The seminar day started with a lecture by Michael Marriott, who talked about objects, what they mean, and the stories they tell. He talked about the idea that the way people put together objects tells an even more complex and rich story, which I found to be something that I can agree with. He talked about the poetry of the "misuse" of objects, or the beauty and humor that can be seen in the way people use objects outside of their original purpose - rubber boots as door stops, bottles as chairs, and so on.

The second lecture was focused on creating visual identities for companies and institutions and was presented by Walter Bohatsch and Julia Krauth from Bohatsch und Partner. The projects that they presented were great illustrations of excellent design that employs the grid system, careful selection of type, and very successful use of patterns that are especially created for their clients with the specific project in mind. Even the logos that they design are usually formed in such a way that they can be used and stacked to produce a pattern, which I thought was very interesting. I especially enjoyed their work on Schulzentrum Krems and Bad Radkersburg.

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It's a pity that the website of Bohatsch und Partners doesn't work at the moment, but hopefully in the future you would be able to browse through and see all the work they did for the school center - from wallpaper through pictograms and maps to outdoor signage - as well as their work of other clients, such as the mountain resort Arlberg.

Krassen Krestev's lecture on the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet was definitely one of the high points of the day. Krassen is an excellent presenter, and his lecture was exciting both visually and intellectually. He presented some very interesting characteristics of the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet in comparison with the Russian Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets that I had never thought about before. It turns out that the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet is more readable and dynamic than its Russian counterpart, even if it is not as efficient in terms of the space it uses. A curious tidbit to learn was that the letter t, or "m" in the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet as compared to the "т" in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, is the one that makes the text take up more space. The conclusion was that the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet has a strong identity that has to be protected by all of us; it is the kind of legacy that should not be left in the past.

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Here is one of Krassen Krestev's fonts called DTL Paradox BG, which is an example of Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet.

Nelly Ben Hayoun
's lecture about interactions design was so much fun, not only because of the projects themselves, but also because of the amazing enthusiasm of the artist. Nelly focuses on recreating thrilling experiences - seeing a volcano erupt in your living room, living through a liftoff into space by sitting on a special chair, experiencing a sonic boom in a balloon tunnel that mimics the Kamioka neutrino observatory.

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"The Other Volcano"
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"Super K Sonic BOOOOum"
Photos: www.nellyben.com

Dessislava Vardjieva-Eckhardt took us through some design projects that her students at the School of Visual Arts in Leipzig are working on, followed by the guys from Rich Brilliant Willing, who talked about some of their designs using ready-made components. They use off-the-shelf and ready-made parts to design their furniture and just tweak these components to create design objects. It was DIY turned into a design business, which I thought was a very nice idea.

The seminar concluded with a lecture by Konstantin Grcic that contained lots of images of chairs:). It was a nice overview of the evolution, or rather the life and variety, of chairs throughout the years, followed by some of his designs of chairs.

All in all, this was definitely a great, informative, and fun day of design lectures. Still, Sofia Design Week is just beginning, so there's lots more to see in the coming week. I am also looking forward to its conclusion next Saturday with a "Sofia Breathes" day of design workshops on Shishman Street, which will be closed for traffic. See you all then!

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