NotYetHere
Headed out for a short walk with a friend. I’ve been looking at this barn for a while now, wanting to take some pictures. Finally did it. I like the Black and White edit, although I may post some colour for comparison later. Hope you’re all ok out there, let me know how things are going in your world. The UK is extra sucky right now.
Mecha Glava, a prominence on the North side of the Rila Mountains, at the foot of Musala. A trail through the woods with fleeting glimpses of the plains below and the mountains of Romania in the distance.
At the edge of town there is a paddock, where some wilder looking groups sell horse and pony treks to the tourist families. This walk to Mecha Glava I got from them, whether it was the “Butch” I spoke with or not, they were friendly and helpful and welcomed me back as I returned on the footpath through their camp. Another good day in the hills and among the trees around Borovets.
One of my targets for this trip to Borovets was to climb Mount Musala, the highest peak in the country. I did as much research as I could from the UK over the internet, and it seemed achievable even for an amateur like myself. I’ve been on trips in winter before so I am not completely unskilled, I just don’t get to use those skills often enough. The forecast for the week was better early, so I headed out on Tuesday, which proved to be the best day of the week, windy but bright and with high broken cloud. In the end, it proved a challenge but with a bit of perseverance I made it to the top. I got the Gondola to the Yastrebets station and walked from there, a round trip of 6 hours, the return slower by the heat causing the snow to become soft and making the going slow as I sank deeply every few steps. All worth it in the end, with the experience and the pictures being for me great things.
Hard work but well worth the trip. I’d like to go back in summer and do a longer trek through and around the Rila range. A friendly place, with fantastic views.
After a night’s rest, and a look around Borovets to get my bearings I headed out on a family trail to Black Rock. The walk served a couple of purposes for me, a leg stretch and some needed fresh air after the travelling. It also showed me the quality of the map I had of the area (or the idiosyncrasies of the map) it was a little loose on detail and spot accuracy. It did give names and rough directions so it helped, and along with the summer graphic map from the tourist office meant I didn’t get entirely lost. On the whole it is worth the trip and the views from the rock are good. It’s a forest walk, zigzagging around the foothills and valleys of the Rila Mountains.
A walk around the back streets of any town can be moody and atmospheric, some places though seem to have it in spades. Torquay here and now, from the South of the USA in Miami last time, to the South coast of England this time. Just a few images, hand-held at night but the High ISO works the effect well I think.
When you see these places, slanted by my vision to match some style I am trying to create, you might wonder about the place. The reality is we create the mood as we explore, the editing, the crops and pulling the image into some sort of notion. That’s us, me as the photographer, just because it’s digital now doesn’t mean it is different to how it was in some halcyon day of film and darkroom. The image has always been manipulated by the creator or designer to fit some idea we have in our minds eye.
A Fragment of How It Is
That physical skin to skin touch of a hand,
only the ghost of it in a call.
An empty chair in a restaurant,
willing itself to be someone.Space, amid the noise, silence.
Tomorrow I will be home,
Tonight I am…
All you travelling people, be safe, and look around you. Enjoy the visit.
A walk through the world between places 