Yambol yields up another beauty for Baba Marta and Photo Model Holidays

Yesterday in Bulgaria it was "Baba Marta" day. This day, 1st March every year, is named after Baba Marta, Grandmother March, who, legend has it, is a fiesty little old lady who controls the weather in the run up to spring. Like all women, depending what mood she is in, the weather can change dramatically every which way. On a smiling day she will bring sunshine, but when she is irate, she brings the wind, rain and even snow. Everyone hopes she remains calm and serene until the first day of spring arrives and brings the sunshine with her so we can move on into the beautiful springs and summers we so much enjoy out here in wonderful and exciting Bulgaria. In addition, on Baba Marta's day, all over the country, everyone wears a "martinitsa", which is a little bracelet made of cotton, silk or wool passed among friends and lovers in the two distinctive colours of Red and White which is meant to bring good health, luck and a good harvest to the wearer for the coming year. The martinitsa is worn until the wearer sees the first stork flying in from its winter vacation, or the first sign of spring in new green buds on trees and bushes, etc, at which time they can remove the martinitsa and either tie it onto the nearest budding tree, hide it under a stone or something similar. Whether you believe it or not, it makes no difference, but it is just another of the wonderful traditions that exist throughout the year in this beautiful and colourful area of Eastern Europe.

Another speciality of Bulgaria is its beautiful women. I have been fortunate to travel all over the world and it is very true that in some nations there appears to be an abundance of beauty among the female nationals. Lebanon comes to mind, along with Bombay and some other areas of the Middle East and maybe Singapore, but, as a percentage of the female population, my opinion is that Bulgaria tops the lot. Also in Bulgaria there is not the obesity amongst the female population that seems to be spreading, pun excused, across most of the world today and, as our visiting photographers carry out their street shoots, they invariably comment on the svelte figures and beauties they see all around the high streets. The Bulgarian females take a pride in looking good all the time and it is no wonder the comments I receive on Facebook, and from our visitors, that 'I have the best job in the world' are, without doubt, true.

Last Friday was a typical day in point when my friend and Number 1 talent scout, Dimiter Dimitrov, (Mitko), a fellow photographer, called me to tell me he had a couple of new faces I may be interested in. One was a potential model and the other had recently qualified as a Make-up Artist. Respectively, they were Kami and Stoyka and I arranged to do the test-shoot the following Monday. Being good friends they met up before pick up time and arrived at the collection point on the dot, a good start for someone as paranoid about punctuality as I am.

As it was still a little on the cool side, despite the sun shining and Baba Marta promising to be in a good mood this year, we decided to shoot in the warmth of the studio. So, on arrival in Sedlarevo the two girls immediately headed into the Model’s Room for make-up and preparation. While this was going on, although I had set the studio up the day before, got all the batteries topped up and generally was ready to go, I decided to pull the back drop, white Colorama, out a little further. I untaped the front end from the floor, picked the end up and slowly walked backwards about one metre. Crash!!! The whole lot came down as the paper ripped off the tape securing it to the backing tube. I was surrounded by white paper with creases going every which way. Anyone who has experienced a paper drop will know that this stuff tears like tissue paper, creases where creases shouldn’t belong and is the world’s worst job to get back up onto the support stand, especially when working alone and having the backdrop stand extended to 3.5- 4.0 metres. It didn’t help my nerves knowing that last year while one of the visitors, Ansgar, was here, I was doing a job at the top of the stand, walked backwards down the step ladder and decided to step off four rungs short of the bottom. The studio floor is laminated flooring on top of concrete and I landed on my shoulder but didn’t bounce. If Ansgar had not been there to drag me to my feet and get my head in order, I would probably still be there. None the less, I just about managed to get it back up in time before the girls came into the studio but I was expecting the whole lot to drop again as it was only secured with guttering tape at its top edge and lashed onto the frame of the stand.

A lesson to be learned?

Yes, check how much paper is left on the roll during set-up and use the pulley system to raise and lower the paper.

So, how did the shoot go? Well, the preamble is all about Baba Marta and Beautiful Bulgarian women and Kami, doing her first ever photo-shoot, had the looks I expected but also had a self-confidence I have never seen in a new model after just about ten minutes of the usual initial nervousness. She took instruction well, listened to what I wanted to do, easily slipped into the role and within a short while was really getting animated and making creative suggestions. Her friend Stoyka, was her equal when it came to participation and her first make-up job for a photo-shoot was a great effort. Stoyka also has the looks of Adele so we took a few shots of her singing ‘Hello’ to me and generally hamming it up.

So, the shoot went perfectly?? No, it didn't, not exactly, and it was nothing the girls did or didn't do, it was me. Perhaps I am getting too blasé after spending many years behind the camera. Halfway through the shoot it was really ripping along well and we were getting some nice pics and, as always, I like to let the model see how they are doing by showing them the camera back all the way through the shoot. Bringing up the magnification to check image sharpness, I completely omitted to check the sides of the frame so failed to notice a slight darkening along one edge until I loaded some of the pics onto the pc to have a look while Kami changed clothes. What had I done? Had the lens hood got dislodged, was my finger in the way, etc? No, it was the cardinal sin of not checking everything regularly. In the good run of pics we were into and swapping the format from portrait to landscape and back quickly as Kami moved around, my thumb had nudged the shutter speed selection wheel at the back of the Nikon and moved the shutter speed from 1/160 to 1/250 which was just a touch too fast for the sync speed and the darkening was the leading edge of the shutter closing curtain. I was fortunate in spotting this relatively early and most of the images are rescuable. A good example is in the 'smoking shot' above where the shadowing on the right side is the shutter curtain. In this case it looks deliberate and I am able to get away with it. That, however, is not the point, the lesson is to ‘check, check and check again’ during all shoots. If this had been anything but a test shoot, I would have been fired or had a very unhappy client. You are never too old to learn despite over fifty years behind a camera. Next time I will use electricians plastic tape and tape over the back of the wheel at 1/160 my usual flash sync speed.

Despite the two 'problems', the whole day was a lot of fun and we got the job done. Scattered amongst this blog are shots from the shoot in no particular order.

Will we be working with these two 19 year olds again?

Of course, and, ‘Yes’, I probably do have the best job in the world. So, what's lined up for the next blog?? A test shoot again but this time with Ukrainian blonde Viktoria in a couple of weeks. Viktoria is in Bulgaria studying at university and contacted me after seeing the website. Ukraine is also a hot spot of beauties so watch this space as Marilyn and I head for Veliko Turnovo to meet and shoot the delightful Viktoria. Stay Happy, Peter