In our modern days showing yourself on camera seems to be a thing. I have always been the man behind the camera and very, very rarely in front of it. It turns out that I have to adapt to the modern ways and update my mental programs. Or at least, that seems to be the solution and the only way to show myself to the people working at YouTube, that decide who deserves to be their partner and to work with them. I had to prove that I exist and I am the real person, made from flesh and bone, that really goes to all those places to film and record the beauty and peace of pristine nature. Part of this plan was to create a channel trailer, where I show myself filming at different places. One of those places was the little river close to my hometown of Burgas, where I filmed one of my very first videos for my YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/IvjMgVS6kng). I did the awkward for me self filming part and since I was there and it was a beautiful morning and the birds were singing, I decided to film and record it again and make a new video with the soothing a bubbly sound of this river. This time I made it longer, so that people can have a good night sleep to it. Here it is: https://youtu.be/tPGZx_-Ervk
River Kayaking
I’ve been thinking about making a moving video of sailing down a river in spring with all the lush greenery and birdsongs for a long time. Finally it all came together and I figured out how and where to do it. I hired a kayak from a friend and together we traveled to this beautiful river in Strandja Natural Park, Bulgaria. I was a bit nervous as I had very limited experience in paddling in general and I didn’t know what to expect. There were also the questions of how am I going to attach the camera or what if it falls in the river… Fortunately it all came down together pretty well and the camera was attached onto a secured tripod on top of the kayak. Next thing was… paddling. At first it felt a bit unsettling feeling so unstable onto a plastic board in the middle of the river with a camera on top of all. Soon I relaxed into it and was paddling more and more confidently and with less effort, trying to make as less noise as possible, so that the sound is relaxing and the songs of the numerous birds along the way, can be heard clearly. All in all, it was a success and I am very pleased with the result: https://youtu.be/qZ0_aa6RxvQ
Snowy River
After a day of heavy snowing, I decided to go to my favourite nearby Strandja Natural Park and try to film the beauty of the freshly fallen snow. As I didn’t want to drive on the slippery roads, I took the bus, that surprisingly was still running. I got off near this little river and spent most of the day walking along it in knee-deep snow, filming different scenes. I didn’t have snowshoes at the time and at end of the short winter day, I caught the bus back quite tired, but happy that I managed to film this fleeting beauty. You can watch the video with some relaxing piano music here: https://youtu.be/IfFCtzMMGPc
There’s also a video available from this shoot with a single unchanging scene: https://youtu.be/0EY28tdiFlc
Peaceful Autumn
For my first 4K autumn video, I (no surprise here) chose the beautiful old forests of the Central Balkan National Park. Primarily consisting of beech, oak, acer, hornbeam and other broadleaved trees, the forests of this park turn into different shades of warm colours in autumn – from deep red or magenta, through orange to bright yellow. Added to that, the plants that were still green and the evergreen trees, make up for a colorful palette that is a joy to the eye. Hiking up along one of the many crystal clear streams in the mountain, I was able to also include in the video the relaxing sound of the water cascading down the rocky bed. A magnificent place of pristine nature, that always evokes awe in me, soothes my mind, and purifies my soul. A place that I will always be going back to. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/czCHvDY23fc
I also produced two videos of long loops of a single unchanging scene, that are suitable for sleeping and don’t distract the listener with the changing sounds of different scenes. Those videos are available here: https://youtu.be/IadsLclBOS8 and here: https://youtu.be/6uhRxK_EOm4