This is the last image I'll be posting before I head off to our Venice Carnival Photo Tour on Monday: a pentaptych of this set of promotional cigarette cards. The text reads "2012 delights for the new year" and each card offers you a chance to win an iPod, Zippo lighter, and so on.

What interested me about these is that they're very typical of Bulgarian advertising: i.e. using scantily-clad women to sell ... well, pretty much everything now I think about it. Later in the year, after Venice, GPP, and our Faces and Places Tour to Oman, I'm going to make a systematic attempt to document more of these advertisements.

In the meanwhile though, do let me know what you think of this one.

I was going to post another Istanbul diptych today, but as it was -23.8°C this morning – the coldest weather I've ever experienced – I thought I'd post this one instead: another Hipstamatic shot, taken yesterday morning from our lounge window.

As you can see from the original, this one was edited, mostly to change the colour balance – I wanted the scene to seem colder – but also to modify the border. And I know that these Hipstamatic shots aren't to everyone's taste, but I am pleased with how this one turned out.

This was taken during our recent trip to the Shipka Memorial, about 150 steps down from the monument (see this shot). As you'll see, the processing was quite extensive, particularly in terms of bringing out the detail in the wall, but this was definitely a scene that needed a bit of help given the dull, flat lighting.

On a different matter, our latest Critique Slot Screencast is now live, featuring an image supplied by Doug Stroud. If you're unfamiliar with the screencasts, the basic idea is that one of our subscribers submits an image (as both a layered PSD file and the original RAW) and I offer a critique in the first section, then reprocess it using the original RAW file in the second section.

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3.09pm on 28/12/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 34mm f/8.0 1/60 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 1x1

New Year's resolution #1: blog more frequently than I did in 2011 :)

On which note, here's the first of what I'm sure will be plenty of iPhone shots this year, taken early on the 30th of December on my drive back from Sofia airport.

As always, let me know what you think.

On a totally different matter: I've reverted to using a popup window for comments - there were just too many problems with the slide-out jQuery method - so please let me know if you have any problems with this version.

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7.10am on 30/12/11 iPhone 4 Pro HDR f/2.8 1/1250 80 no Photoshop CS5 none 3x2

This is a shot of the Shipka Memorial which was built in the 1930s to commemorate the Bulgarians who died during the Shipka Pass battle in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.

If you've taken a look at the 'original' you'll see that I used two images for the final version: an HDR, and the darkest exposure from a three shot hand-held sequence. The processing was reasonably straightforward, but a bit time consuming insofar as I blended the sky from the darkest shot from the original exposure sequence. I also switched to Lab Color mode to mute the colours in the final version. I did think about producing a more photorealistic version, but after watching The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with the kids this Christmas I decided that a more Narniaesque version was appropriate. As always though, let me know what you think, especially if you think a more natural result would have worked better.

Finally, if you're a friend of mine of Facebook you can take a look at Libby's album from the trip. She got some great shots of the kids in the snow.

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2.26pm on 28/12/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/8.0 1/320, 1/160, 1/80 manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor

This is the last of the shots I'll be posting from my recent trip to the Buzludzha monument: a closer view of the text on the left side of the building, just visible on the left of this shot. If our research is accurate the text is a verse from either "The International" or "The Worker's March".

I've also used this image as this week's Mini-PSD as the processing was quite interesting. If you've taken a look at the original you'll see that the sky is mostly blown out. To correct this I blended three exposures: the metered exposure (which is the one you can see if you hover your mouse over the 'show the original' link beneath the image), the -2EV exposure (for the sky), and the +1EV exposure to lighten some of the darker areas of the building. From there I used a variety of masked curves and other adjustments to boost both the contrast and saturation.

It's not my favourite shot of the monument (I still think that this one will take some beating), but I am pleased with how it turned out.

In other news, all my one-to-one training days in September are now booked, but there are still places available on both my Blackpool workshops: The Art of Black and White Photography (September 16th) and Creating Dramatic Images (September 17th & 18th). There are plenty of places available for the black and white workshop but not quite so many for Creating Dramatic Images. So, if you think you will be interested in attending, book fairly soon. Oh, and you can get a 10% early-bird discount if you book before the 31st.

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12.29pm on 15/5/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 16mm f/8.0 1/15, 1/60, & 1/125 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail none

As I mentioned when I posted my last entry, the interior of the Buzludzha monument houses a 500 sq.m. fresco which includes portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Todor Zhivkov (the leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1954 to 1989). This fresco is visible in this shot.

Additionally, there are mosaics all around the outer ring of the structure too: on the wall you can see on the far-left of this shot (my favourite from this location). These are made from stone rather than marble, and seem to be mostly celebrations of war, conflict and military power.

Of all the ones that are still visible, this was one of the most striking: a knife-wielding soldier carrying a smiling child on his shoulders. The two just don't seem to go together, ... at all. That said, I'm sure that if I'd been born in Bulgaria, and lived through the Soviet occupation, it wouldn't seem anywhere near so strange or alien.

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2.51pm on 15/5/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 25mm f/4.5 1/50 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail transformed (skew)

As I mentioned the other day we've been working on some new developments for our training site, particularly in terms of providing more information about the various photography and post-production workshops we run throughout the year. If you'd be interested in taking a look, the main page is here:

http://www.chromasia.com/training/events.php

It includes details of two workshops we'll be running in September in Blackpool: The Art of Black and White Photography (on the 16th) and Creating Dramatic Images (on the 17th and 18th). You'll also find some further information on our UK one-to-one training dates for 2011, a photo tour to Istanbul in November that I'll be running with Bobbi Lane, and the Gulf Photo Plus Fotoweekend, also taking place in November.

If you have any questions about any of the new content, just drop me a line.

Anyway, back to today's image ...

Since I posted my first set of images of the Buzludzha monument, back in October 2010, we've managed to find out a bit more about it, though we're not 100% confident about the accuracy of some of what follows.

It's the largest monument in Bulgaria, located on mount Buzludzha (1441m) in the Balkan Mountains, and was built to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Buzludzha congress – where the Bulgarian Social-Democratic Workers' Party was founded (the predecessor to the Bulgarian Communist Party).

16 million leva were collected, as both voluntary and obligatory donations, of which 14,186,000 were spent on the monument. The rest was spent on the construction of three kindergartens. It took military construction units almost seven years to complete, and more than 6000 workers and experts took part in the construction. Over 20 leading Bulgarian artists worked for 18 months in order to complete the interior decoration, and verses of "The International" and "The Worker's March" were inscribed on the entrance of of the memorial.

The interior was partially clad in marble and the staircases were decorated with red cathedral glass. In the 15 meter-high main hall a 500 sq.m. fresco was constructed, which included portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Todor Zhivkov (the leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1954 to 1989). The dome of the structure was covered with thirty tonnes of copper and two 12m stars of ruby glass were built into the top of the 70m high tower. These were made in the Soviet Union, and were three times bigger than those in the Kremlin. You can see one of the stars at the top of the tower in this shot.

The monument was inaugurated by Todor Zhivkov in 1981.

On 10th of November 1989 Zhivkov stepped down after 35 years in power, the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Immediately afterwards the Politburo ordered the removal of his portrait from the memorial (you can see the gap in the mural in this shot). In 1991 the monument was ceded to the state, abandoned, looted and left to rot.

As for the post-production ...

If you take a look at the original you'll see the tone-mapped image (produced using Photomatix Pro) and small thumbnails of the seven original exposures. In this instance the tone mapping was reasonably conservative, as I wanted to avoid producing something that looked overly HDR-like, but I did want to create an image that captured the surreal nature of this building. As to whether it's entirely successful – I'm not sure. I do like it, but may revisit it again as I'm not 100% convinced that I made the best of this one. Let me know what you think.

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2.41pm on 15/5/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 16mm f/8.0 7 exposures (1/8 to 1/500) manual n/a evaluative 100 no RAW Photomatix Pro Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail minor

This is a shot of our friend Neil who has been staying with us in Bulgaria for the last couple of weeks ( you may remember him from this shot) . Libby and I first met him in 2005, when he was working as the Creative Industries Development Officer for Creative Lancashire. Since then, in addition to being a good friend, he's also been a source of inspiration and encouragement, a sounding board, a critical eye, a mediator, and a general all-round good guy.

Anyway, we finally managed to convince him to come out and visit us, and during the last few weeks he's been helping us work out where we want to go with our business, and what we should do to get from here to there. It's been a tiring process, but we've made some great progress (which I'll tell you about soon) and we'll be sorry to see him go when he heads back to the UK on Tuesday.

It hasn't all been hard work though – we've managed to find time for a beer or three – and we took the day off today and headed up to the Buzludzha monument with Libby and the kids. We had a good look round the building, a great picnic, and I think I probably got a few shots that I'll be blogging over the next day or so.

I also got this shot.

As we were leaving we passed the two torches you can see behind Neil's head and he asked if we could stop and take a few photographs, including one that would make him look like a communist hero. This shot is the result, and as Neil tells me that this is his favourite portrait of him "ever", I consider it a definite success.

Oh, and for those of you who can't read the Cyrillic alphabet, the title is a reference to this guy ;-)

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4.22pm on 15/5/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 55mm f/5.6 1/800 aperture priority +1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor(ish)

This is the last of the shots I took in October with my good friend Craig: a shot of a goat-herder wandering the shore of our local lake. Right now I'd be happy to trade places, at least for a while – the idea of living a simple life seems quite appealing today :-)

Oh, and if you're interested, Craig posted a shot of the same guy here:

http://www.id7.co.uk/iblog/?p=526

In other news, I'm running a new class with PPSOP: The Art of Black and White Photography. If you click the previous link you'll see that the course covers: black and white conversion techniques; working with portraits; combining conversion techniques and selectively altering tonal range and contrast; and toning and colorizing your black and white images. It's going to be a great course :-)

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2.23pm on 20/10/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM 200mm f/4.0 1/200 aperture priority +1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor

This is another shot that I took during Craig's recent trip to Bulgaria: a stop sign outside a seemingly abandoned factory on the way back from our cloud-ridden trip to the Shipka Monument. We did try and explore the factory, but after passing through this gate and rounding the corner of the next building we stumbled into a pack of stray dogs. As they didn't seem to be keen to share their territory we decided to leave ... quietly, and walking backwards :)

On another matter, don't forget that today's the last day to get a 25% discount on our Photoshop tutorials. If you're interested, there's some further info here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/

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1.35pm on 20/10/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 16mm f/3.2 1/160 aperture priority +1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail minor transformation

Of all the images that I took at Buzludzha, this is my favourite, but I almost didn't process it. Well, I did take a quick look at the images in Photomatix Pro, but couldn't come up with anything that I thought would work all that well so decided to leave this view for another time. When Craig posted his version though I decided that it was definitely worth making more of an effort. Initially, I thought I'd aim for a fairly natural interpretation, much as Craig did, but the more I worked on it the more it seemed that an OTT interpretation would work better.

Anyway, it's still a flawed image (there are some tone mapping issues here and there), but as I've already spent at least four hours working on this one I'm not inclined to do too much more to it at this stage.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and the 'show the original' image is the tone mapped image exported from Photomatix Pro, not one of the original exposure sequence.

If your saw my other shot of this structure the chances that I can convince you that this is a Soviet flying saucer are probably quite small :)

When I took this I thought I'd probably clone out my shadow or crop the shot to 2x1. When I tried though, neither worked, i.e. the building ended up looking like a model, so I decided to leave my shadow in the shot to add a better sense of scale. When I go back again - I'm hoping to take a trip up there in the snow - I'll try a few alternative angles as I suspect that there's a range of shots that might be a bit more dynamic than this one.

I have three more shots from my trip to Buzludzha with Craig that I'll post over the next few days: this one, another shot of the exterior of the building, an alternative view of the interior, and my favourite that I'll post on Monday. After that I'm not sure what I'll put up. I still have quite a few wedding shots, 13 shots from my recent trip to the UK, and another handful of shots that I took while wandering around Bulgaria with Craig. As I'm heading off to Dubai on Monday though, followed by a trip to Oman, I may post something from there.

I processed another shot of the interior of the Buzludzha monument yesterday, looking out through the lozenge shaped windows you can see in this shot, and think that it will probably turn out to be my favourite of the set. In the meanwhile though, here's a shot of the exterior. As you can see, it's a quite extraordinary building.

Craig has just posted a shot taken from a similar vantage point here:

http://www.id7.co.uk/portfolio/archives/1010281900_clean.php

According to wikipedia ...

"Buzludzha is a historical peak in the Central Stara Planina mountain range in Bulgaria and is 1441 metres high. In 1868 it was the place of the final battle between Bulgarian rebels led by Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha and the Turks. In 1891 the socialists, led by Dimitar Blagoev, assembled secretly in the area to form an organised socialist movement. In honour of this act the Buzludzha Monument was built."

However, despite the fact that the monument was opened in 1981, to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian state, it's now a ruin: the roof is full of holes, the windows are gone, the murals inside the building are crumbling, and the building is covered in graffiti and anti-communist slogans.

So, that's the history ...

Last Friday, Craig and I headed up there and parked in the car park at the bottom of the hill. We then spent the next 25 minutes dragging ourselves up the extremely steep path, and arrived panting, on the verge of a coronary, at the summit. We then discovered the road, which would have been a slightly easier way to get there :)

Anyway, I'm still researching the building, so can't tell you much more about it at this stage – other than that it's definitely one of the most fascinating buildings I've ever come across – but do have another four shots that I'll post at some point soon. If you're interested, Craig has posted a slightly more natural interpretation of the interior here:

http://www.id7.co.uk/portfolio/archives/1010261900_clean.php

As always, let me know what you think.

On a technical note ...

I've categorised this one as an HDR image, but it's not, at least not in a technical sense. I did use multiple exposures (a bracketed sequence of 11 images: 1 EV spacing, 1/250s to 4s), but manually blended them rather than creating a 32 HDR bit image which I then tone mapped. I did try using Photomatix Pro but, on this occasion, couldn't produce a version I was especially happy with. The 'show the original', in this instance, is the .5s exposure from the original sequence.

As I mentioned a few entries ago my good friend Craig has been staying with us in Bulgaria. Sadly though, he's now on his way back to the UK, accompanied by Libby and Tiggy who are heading over to Blackpool for a week. They get back next Saturday, but I'm heading off again on the following Monday: for the Gulf Photo Plus FotoWeekend in Dubai (November 4th-7th), followed by another training event in Abu Dhabi, followed by a trip to Oman with my good friends Bobbi Lane and Jason Kotecha. I'll be back in Bulgaria on the 17th.

All of which brings me to this entry. I'm not sure of the exact translation of the text painted on this tyre – на добър път – but think it roughly translates to something like 'have a good journey'. Given today's events, and those that are coming up, it seemed quite fitting.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, it's pronounced "Na Dobbur Putt".

Craig and I drove up to the Shipka Memorial yesterday, with the intention of shooting some panoramic scenes from the top. It was a bit cloudy when we got there, but as the weather report had promised clear blue skies we set off walking up the 900 steps to the base of the monument. When we finally managed to reach the top it was cloudier than ever, but we decided to head up to the top of the monument on the basis that the clouds might clear at some point. However, after dragging ourselves up the next 166 steps we were greeted with this view:

.../iblog/archives/shipka_view.php

Normally – and by normally I mean when you're not standing in the middle of an especially dense cloud – the view is spectacular. Yesterday though we spent over half an hour staring at a wall of fog that cleared just long enough for me to grab four or five frames. From a photographic point of view I'm not sure that it's sufficient justification for hauling myself up 1066 steps, but I was pleased that I got at least one shot from the top, and we did have a great day :)

This is another shot of the same young boy, taken about 15 minutes before the previous one and, as you can see, he's not quite as confident in this one. By the end of the evening he was running up to me and grinning from ear to ear, but at this point his approaches were a bit more cautious :)

If you're interested, the somewhat less than inspiring original is here:

.../archives/an_infectious_smile_2.php