In December I have received 2 Bronze bars and 1 precious Silver bar in
The Guilds Image of The Month. I am over the moon as one of the images
is of my little son, so I am even prouder mum. :)
Here is a reminder what each bar represents:
Platinum Bar – World Class / Awesome (one has yet to be awarded!)
Gold Bar – Truly Exceptional (so very rare)
Silver Bar – Very High Standard (very difficult to achieve)
Bronze Bar – High Standard (above the norm)
Commended – Good Professional Standard (a competent image)
Unclassified – Images that are not of national competition standards
Ana running to her mum. Loved photographing these beauties!
My sweet little model Nina at her important milestone. See you soon darling!
My baby: if you think he was scared of this clown, you should have seen him when Santa came :))))
It is amazing how the weather changes location. This pictures were shot
within 8 days from the first one to the last one at about 9am. This is a 'dog park'
just under the steps of our house, it is quite neglected but I love it
because of that. There is something about it. I looked for nice
locations miles away and then I realized what a beauty is hidden just
outside our door. Sometimes we search far away but don't see what we
have got under one's nose...
Looking back at year 2012 I must admit that it was more eventful year than expected.
In February I joined British national photographic society The Guild of Photographers, I qualified as their member, which mean that my work is of professional standard and each month I sent image to their monthly competition.Receiving a bar after bar means a lot to me because I love learning and experimenting, to me getting an award is like passing a difficult exam!
I photographed in different locations in England, Wales, Scotland, Slovakia and Bulgaria, met people from different cultures including Bulgarian, Polish, Italian, Hungarian, Chinese, English and Slovak, captured stories showing relationship, friendship, commitment, happiness, emotions and those ever changing tiny baby features. I am very glad that I could be the one who froze the time and made ethereal image of these memories.
Also my son celebrated his first birthday, started to walk (I was amazed to
see how he fell and stood up again and tried even harder and after each
unsteady step clapped his hands in excitement), his first word wasn't
mama but 'car' and by watching him I learned that I cannot give up after
first failed attempt and should not be afraid to be different.
My big thank you goes to all involved!
Please watch this slideshow on full screen so you can look back at 2012 together with me. :)
Most of the evenings when it comes to bed time we watch nursery songs on our PC. Hugo loves Twinkle Twinkle and Snowflake but the song Wheels on the bus goes round and round in all versions you can find on youtube. While he enjoyed his songs I shot some photos of him using the only light coming from the PC monitor. Do you have a song from your childhood you still remember?
As I wrote couple of posts earlier, we spent this year's Christmas in Bulgaria. It has been my second holiday in Bulgaria, but this time it was not on the beach but in the Rila mountains. Yes, you read it right, not beach holiday for which is Bulgaria know quite well now.
Unfortunately we spent most of the time in resort, where you don't see the real life and you don't have the chance to know the culture. On one side you have beautiful resort and couple of miles away everyday life. At first we wanted to hire a car so we could have some freedom to explore, but having our 2 year old toddler with us, not knowing condition of the rode and thought that we could get stuck somewhere in -10 degrees made me decide against it.
Saying that we still had a great time, we went by gondola lift, took a horse ride on sledges, went for a walk to nearby Tsarska Bistritsa, took a bus to Samokov.
We met interesting people; Georgian shop owner explaining how rakia is made (gave us a shot of his home made one), smiley man pointing us to Evelina's restaurant (beautiful cakes), Evelina with her cheerful son...
Rila Mountains: Yastrebets (2,369 m; 7,710 ft)
Small Church on the grounds of Tsarska Bistritsa Palace
Nearby woodland in Borovets resort
Samokov: 4 men pushing a broken car
Samokov street
Samokov: shop keeper having break
After all we came to a conclusion, that if we were ever going back, we will definitely rent a car!
With New Year new resolutions come as well. I love photographing my Hugo, but it gets harder and harder to get what I want and even though I shot quite a lot, looking back at his folder I realized that there is not enough images from our everyday life. So here comes my New Years resolution: shot more of life-style images, so one day when he grows up, he can revisit his childhood :).
