Member Profile: Vasil Andreev

About me:

Do you consider yourself a Professional/Semi-Pro/Amateur/Beginner photographer?

I consider myself an advanced amateur.

Who are you?

I am living in the amazingly beautiful country of Bulgaria, I am 42 and am working in one of the biggest telecommunication equipment manufacturers. I love nature and being outside admiring it in whatever way possible. I like being close to water, but I also love the mountains, which makes it quite hard when deciding where to go next I feel blessed to live in a place, that has so diverse nature. I was in a band for quite some time, but no longer and music is and has been a big part of my life.

Your Photography Journey

Funnily enough, I kind of hated taking pictures. Almost 4 years ago I started shooting landscapes and macro with my phone and shared some of those with my friends on Facebook. I don't know at which point I started enjoying it and people seemed to like them. which made me think of buying a real camera. I was reading some reviews and watching a lot of YouTube videos and comparisons. Keep in mind I knew nothing of photography let alone cameras.

I recall there was one particular video, comparing Sony's colour science vs Nikon's, and I liked Nikon's better. Looking back, I don't think I made my choice in the best way and later this made me struggle a lot in some scenarios, especially shooting wildlife. Now I think that those limitations made me a better photographer and helped me progress. I am thankful I didn't choose the best possible camera and went with something more midrange and affordable, because it helped me grow, learn, and now appreciate and be able to use my new camera in a better way. The one good thing I did after was to get the good lenses because those are to stay with me.

I will always remember those first days and smile. I was the type of person, who was shooting on a phone, and when switching to the phone's pro mode, I thought that this was insanely complex and carried on shooting in the standard automatic mode. Now I had an amazing camera, and I had no idea how to use it. It was a plunge into the rabbit hole :).
Right away I started looking for someone locally to teach me but didn't find anyone quickly enough. A week or two after the purchase I stumbled upon an ad for a signature, that TSOP was handing over for free. I thought it was really important and cool to have a signature at a point when I didn't even know how to take decent pictures. So, I clicked on the ad and got the signature, but for whatever reason also checked the site, and a few videos of Marc, liked him a lot and how he was explaining things, and decided to take the risk and pay for an entire year of subscription. Best choice I ever made.

I started with the Beginners course, then the Lightroom one, and carried on through all of them, being so excited after the introduction of each new one. I was learning so much, so quickly, and was seeing the results in my pictures. I jumped into using manual mode from day one and still am and this helped me understand how things work. My next course will be to finish Astrophotography.

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from TSOP?

Ah, there is so much. I am the type of person, that likes to know how things work so that I can get the most out of them. TSOP gave me a really good start in that. But I also learned how to compose, how to enjoy my hobby, and expanded my horizons into what more I can do. Last, but not least, the member's page has given me a lot of great and meaningful interactions, a few friends, and the best community.

I have been with TSOP for 3 years now. although I finished all the courses a long time ago (besides the Astro one). I keep on coming back to some of the courses over and over again.

What is your preferred genre?

When I was starting my photography journey, I saw some videos where people were saying how important it is to choose one genre and focus on it to be able to learn the most, and not get distracted. This was not my way.
I am the type of person, that can get quickly bored so I decided to do whatever I liked and made me happy and excited. I am not learning to become a professional, I am trying to become good at my hobby because I want to be able to get the most out of it. Most importantly I must enjoy it.

I started with Landscapes since I only had a 24-70 lens, but I always loved macro and wildlife, so I quickly got macro and telephoto lenses. I can say for sure, that I don't like portrait photography, because I generally avoid people. I am quite an introvert, but I love nature and animals a lot, so my favourite genres are Landscape, Macro, Wildlife, Astro, and Sports (I spend most of my summer weekends on a lake with friends wakeboarding and kayaking so I take a lot of shots of my friends having fun behind the boat).
In the beginning, I was leaning more toward saturated and HDR-looking pictures, but nowadays I have expanded to a moodier and darker style of processing, trying to emphasize specific details or feelings. I like trying new things and my last attempts are at the Adamski effect and super resolution astro. Maybe I will try some deep-sky objects soon :). The other important thing is that now I feel quite comfortable around my camera, the settings, and what I need to do to achieve the result I am looking for. I am more aware of the importance of composition and storytelling. Something I should have focused on much sooner.
My latest passion is drone photography and videography. It is amazing to be able to see the world from that perspective and I am quite excited about it. My camera is still my main tool though.

What inspires you to create photography?

I have always been a creative person and am finding peace and meaning in this. I am out in nature quite a lot with my amazing wife and photography gave me one more good reason to take those walks and get even more from them. It keeps me connected to nature in those days when life catches up and I am stuck in daily things. It helps me detach from the things, that I don't like and go back to what makes my soul sing - nature. The one downside of it is that there are a lot of cases where I am looking at nature's beauty through the viewfinder, so I need to start pushing myself to enjoy it with my own eyes more. There needs to be a balance.

Who are some other photographers you’re inspired by?

I can't say I specifically followed or was inspired by a photographer before I became one myself. Probably the only ones I am kind of following are Josh Adamski, because he is creating quite different and interesting art, and Oliver Wright who I started following on FB after the macro course went out. He is quite an amazing person and I love his macro and aurora shots. There is a Bulgarian photographer, that I like a lot also. He is taking amazing shots of mountains and has a unique style - Vladimir Evrov.

Describe the first photo you took during your learning journey.

My 1st shot or at least one of my 1st was of an old-style town. We went there right after I got the camera, and I was so excited to try it out. I think I shot it in P mode, being totally clueless :)
I tend to look back at my older shots to see what I have made wrong, and what I can improve. The main takeaway for me is that I sucked at composing properly and this is the thing I am focusing on now. Another important thing for me is to take my time, look at the scene, and get the best composition out of it, rather than rushing in and taking a bunch of shots and being super excited. I am failing miserably at that still. The good thing is that that way I know photography is still making me happy 3 years later, which is amazing :).

My favourite photograph:

My favourite photo that I’ve taken ©*Vasil Andreev*

What is your favourite photograph that you’ve taken?

This is a hard one. It feels like answering the question "Which of your children is your favourite one?"
I would say that these days the shots I tend to like the most are two. The 1st one is of a friend of mine with the Adamski effect applied. We were on a vacation and were fooling around at a botanical garden. There was a really nice waterfall with a small bridge in front of it. My friend is a big fan of the Kung Fu Panda cartoon, so he posed for some shots as a kung fu master, wearing a funny hat my wife got the same day. It turned out to be a great picture with the effect, so something more came out of us just having fun.
My second favourite is of a heron being chanced by a seagull. I have been trying to photograph that heron at the seaside for a couple of years, but it has been eluding me all the time, keeping its distance. I was stalking it, following the rules from the Wildlife course and again failing at it since the heron was not willing to come closer. At some point, it got bored of its spot 200 meters away from me, flew up to come to where I was, because I knew it liked this spot, saw me, and started turning away. At the same time, a seagull decided it should help chasing the heron away. I was quick enough to take a burst of shots of them both and got lucky with that one.

What’s next for Vasil?

Next for me is Astro. The only issue is that I have issues with staying up late. I have also started exploring the technical side of photography more, which helps me in choosing the best settings in some scenarios. I have also decided to stop investing in gear. I think I have almost everything I need and decided I should invest in traveling more. I want to see the aurora, see and maybe swim with the whales, visit more places and keep on exploring my country which is so rich in nature.

Conclusion

It has been and still is an amazing journey for me. I came from not liking taking pictures at all to being super hooked on it. I love that it helps me spend more time with nature, enjoy it in a unique way, and explore my creative side. I appreciate people liking my pictures on my FB page and it brings me great joy to hear that I am becoming better in it each year. My only aim is to keep on having fun doing it and learning new things. To be more specific I will focus on storytelling and composition, but probably also videography.

Where can people follow you?

I am maintaining 3 pages and a YouTube Channel:

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