Venue: Abandoned hotel, Simeonovo, Sofia

Lens: Nikkor 50 mm f/1.4

Music: Duke Dumont – Ocean Drive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDxJlW6cxRk) – her favorite song

A few weeks after our first photoshoot with Lily (https://kirilson.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/lily/), she wrote me that she found the perfect spot for photos near Sofia. It is actually in the neighborhood (former village) of Simeonovo, close to the Vitosha mountain. On a road going up in the forest there is an abandoned hotel, which provides a variety of backgrounds for photos as you’ll see.

I was of course curious to check out the new place, so we drove up there the next day, and it was indeed the perfect place for photos and a refreshing escape from the busy city. The combination of wild nature and a spooky crumbling building makes up a very interesting atmosphere, and so we started exploring the different sites around the hotel and trying different photos.

We then moved to the back of the hotel and the side entrances that are also crumbling down. There’s also plenty of shattered glasses from the windows of the hotel, so we tried some more artsy style photos by making her hold the glass at the angle to reflect the sun and look more bright on the picture. This way I could also play with Photoshop afterwards and get an interesting effect by artificially darkening the photo.

We also made some photos in the areas closer to the forest and on the little abandoned children playground nearby. By the time we explored all places we had spent more than three hours on the site and decided to head back to the city as the sun was already hiding behind the mountain.