It all started with one short phone call.
A friend of mine invited me to celebrate her birthday in a rather unusual, I should say, unorthodox way - in a public garden, a lovely small part in the center of Sofia, Bulgaria, very close to the National Theater "Ivan Vazov" and the building of the President of the Republic.
It is a famous garden and locals and tourists love it, as there are plenty of street musicians playing during the day, also the most famous place in the capital to play chess, cards or backgammon, with strangers. If you dare of course to test your gaming, and sometimes betting skills :) Also a place with big open cafeteria, a beautiful fountain that brings some chillness in the hot summers and last but not least, a popular meeting point.
However, the location was not what made that birthday celebration night unusual. As my friend was a member of a fire performers crew, the format of the event was widely open, lots of people invited, absolutely informal and it was a rehearsal to a future show of them.
So once I understood that, I knew it would be a perfect opportunity not only to have some fun time but also to experiment and take some long exposure shots of their performance. Trust me, no matter how many times I am witnessing these fire & poi events, I always end with different, unique photographs. As it was an open event, I asked if I could bring some of my friends, photography fans to practice and have fun together. Her answer was... "Of course, the more, the merrier!" :) So I called few of my photo-friends and we discussed what equipment to bring, along the gifts, of course :)))
It was a very pleasant and warm November night. So once we met at about 8:00 PM, it was already quite dark, despite the full Moon. Some pleasant clouds were shaping the atmosphere around, here is one of the photos I took very close to our point of meeting in that garden. Yes, a long-exposure photo, I had my tripod with me, that's the only way to take proper photos of that kind :)
The birthday celebration with the fire show/performance took about two hours. I took plenty of photos, some of them I like so much. Let me start first with a "fire-blur portrait" of my friend.
I gotta say, she was quite happy that night, with so many friends, all open-minded people. She was listening to her favorite music while playing with the fire here:
Here are few more of the best or I should say, my favorite moments I was able to capture within that couple of hours.
By the way, it was very entertaining to see the surprise and admiration in the eyes of the people who were randomly passing by our small but happy and noisy crowd! :)
As it was becoming late in the night, we have to keep the noise down and the partly smoothly turned into friendly chats and pleasant conversations.
The night wasn't over though!
What I didn't mention in the beginning was that the intention of my photo-friends and myself was to further explore that beautiful central part of the Bulgarian capital at night, as some of the public buildings there are lighted in a scenery and impressive way.
Probably here I should explain the title of this story. :)
"The Triangle of Power" is indeed a triangle that is formed by three very important national buildings. The Presidency of the Republic, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament of Bulgaria (the National Assembly). In terms of politics and social life, this is also one of the most famous places in the capital, as here usually start all the major strikes and protests.
It is also a controversial place. As actually Bulgaria has two Parliament buildings. This one here, that's a part of the Triangle of Power, has a big negative sentiment, as it was the headquarters of the Bulgarian Communist Party prior the "democratic" changes in 1989. Funny, or not, millions of Leva (our national currency, 1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN) have been spent so this building is renovated, then the Assembly used it for few weeks and then they all voted to return back to the other Parliament building. Due to the public discontent. Anyway.
This area is definitely a must-visit if you find yourself in Sofia. I say... plan a visit at daytime and then at nighttime.
Here is a wider view. To the left is the Presidency, and the "old" Assembly to the right. And the fountain in front of the Presidency:
Ah, I almost forgot to show you the square, where was the mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov, the biggest communist leader. That mausoleum was demolished few years ago and the place is empty ever since. Sometimes a place of large public events, concerts, exhibitions, etc.
Back to the fountain. I could easily loose perception of time there as it is actually a water and lights show, and when speaking from my photographer's perspective, a chance to make so many unique photographs too. As far as I recall, we spent here about twenty minutes before moving actually to the center of the Triangle.
Here are some of those long-exposure captures, some of them are "zoom-burst". Did I overdone it, on the second photo? :D
Check out how everything around changes with the light turning to blue:
The Triangle was calling us! :)
We moved inside it and started to make more long exposure photos, thankfully there wasn't any protest at that time.
So here are a couple more photos of the Presidency:
The "old" Assembly at night is like a stargate, or like a portal to another Universe, don't you agree? I hope you see that with my way to alter that place in artistic ways:
If you feel like you're being teleported, then I made it! :)
I guess you cannot see the sparkles in the eyes of my friends, but I assure you, their eyes were full of them stars :)
A night, well spent, a night full of light and friends.
So now, pin that location and put in on your bucket list! :)
Perhaps I should mint some of those abstract perspectives as NFTs? Drop me a comment if you're interested to have 1/1. Or follow me on Twitter, I'll announce those NFTs there once I put them online. Thank you :)
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