The best photo storyteller is Lyubomir Argirov, EFIAP/b

In addition to the glass plaque that we will present to him at the ceremony on August 16th, he will participate in Travel Tales Award. Two of the finalists which we will select in their edition will take part in the 13th IPS Plovdiv next year. For more details and to participate in the partner platform, visit their website: https://traveltalesaward.com/

In the gallery in the slider below you can view the complete presentation of Lyubomir Argirov at the salon, who also won another important prize · Plaque “Best Plovdiv Author”

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Тhe entire team of travel company was categorically unanimous in choosing!
Here is what they wrote to us after choosing and awarding him:

“This is a photo that shows a lot about the time we live in – the SWIPE and SCROLL generation – even in front of Monet, Van Gogh, Caravaggio, Picasso and each of the great artists, the attention of these young people is in the device. Even placed among art, this generation stands still – not in front of a painting, but in front of their phone screen. This photo shows us exactly a clash between past and present, between the eternal value of art and the fleeting world of digital in which we live today. We only hope that it does not show us the future of tourism.”

Here it is our exchange as partners in one picture visualized like 2 open folio pages in A4 book.

Here it is our exchange as partners in one picture visualized like 2 open folio pages in A4 book

Unfortunately, he was prevented from coming to the ceremony and receiving it. We started a brief but very pleasant conversation with him. After discovering the unique opportunities for interesting tourism in our town, he accepted the voucher and with many smiles was welcomed by us and Dan Travel in Plovdiv. We, as kind hosts and organizers, have created a personal identification card, so via it he be accepted wherever is possible as a special guest of the city.

He accepted it with a smile and with exquisite excitement and pleasure he used his reward for its purpose – Dan Travel had made him a wonderful and rich program for his stay and gave him this unforgettable trip in our beloved Plovdiv.

Here it is his charming story:

In 2017, Plovdiv contest was one of those where I participated since years all around the world. I’m used to get accepted pictures as well as Honorable mentions or even bronze, silver or gold medals but I was far from thinking wining the special prize offered by Dan travel.
I remembered when I received the good news and the invitation to come to Plovdiv for the opening and awarding ceremony I was already engaged to a photo trip in Provence (South of France) for lavender fields pictures. At that time I didn’t know that Bulgaria was the first lavender producer!
With the help of Anton Savov and Plamen Petrov, my DAN Travel correspondent, I was able to define another date for my first trip in Bulgaria. It will be September.
I have been assisted since my arrival in Sofia up to my departure.
I visited the city with a personal guide on Independence Day, very kind guy. I had the opportunity to make not usual pictures. I visited the old city as well as the ancient monuments. I was invited to discover Bulgarian music and dances in a pleasant restaurant show.
I tasted local wine and food and appreciated them.
I didn’t have time to visit the surroundings of Plovdiv as I asked for a stay in Sofia in order to have a few aspect of the Bulgarian capital. It will be for my next stay, as I appreciated the people, the architecture and the history.
Plovdiv will be the European capital in 2019, so why not?
This year 2018, I’ll present new pictures and will be happy to continue the other years.

And in the slider below you will also see some of the footage, that was shooted by Mr. Boulanger during his photo trip in Plovdiv.

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The exhibition of the Fourth IPS Plovdiv 2017 with the official opening and the awarding will be in 17.30 h. on 30th june, 2017 in the gallery in the Society of Plovdiv Artists on 32, Gladstone Str., Plovdiv.

In the six sections competed, mastership and class, 388 professional and amateur photographers from 52 countries from 6 continents with a total of 4979 photographs. A five-member jury of two Bulgarians (+ 1 alternate) and three foreigners, after 3 days the proffesional judging under the rules of FIAP, PSA and APB selected for final selection, 343 participants from 50 countries with 1410 works.

Congratulations to all winners!

The exhibition in the gallery of SPA will be exposed 156 photographs from 30:06 to 15.07.16.
The gallery will work on both Saturdays in the period.
Work hours: Weekdays – 11:00 -18:00; Saturday – 10:00 -17:00.
Free entry!

All connoisseurs and lovers of photographic art are welcome on June 30, 2017 at the opening ceremony – onset 17:30h.

WELCOME!

The results you can find HERE

It was a Voucher for travel services on amount of 500€.
The same voucher is announced for the second time in the fourth edition of photo salon in the same section and again will delight some of the participants. In 2016 this award was won by Petar Shipchanov from Plovdiv, which was handed to him personaly on the opening ceremony! With lots of smiles and high spirits, he accepted it, and later with excitement and pleasure it use by purpose – do yourself a memorable trip to the Czech capital of Prague.

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The first 3 frames (in the slider above) are from the opening and awarding ceremony on June 6, 2016 in SPA. The remaining 18 photographs (to the end of the slider) were shooted by Mr. Peter Shipchanov during his photo adventure in Prague.

Here are his impressions of this trip in a charming story:

In 2016 Photographic Fellowship (Fotografska Zadruga) – Plovdiv, a group of amateur photographers, where I am a member, took participation in the Third International Photo Salon Plovdiv.

I participated in the competition with several photos. It was great and very pleasant surprise to me that one of them (“Night of valkyries”, section “My City”) has passed the selection and even received the prize of tourist company “Dan Travel” – a voucher with the worth of € 500 for travel services. I was extremely proud and happy with that news. At the official opening of the exhibition III IFS – Plovdiv, which opened on 06/06/2016 at the Gallery of the Society of Plovdiv Artists, my voucher was presented by Angel Draganov, the manager of Dan Travel. There were many guests, photos, speeches… in general a festive atmosphere – as it should be.

When I took the voucher almost immediately I forgot about it, because this period is the busiest one in a professional plan. Mentioning the word “professional“, maybe it is appropriate here to mention that my rewarded picture is related to my profession – a violinist in the orchestra of The State Opera – Plovdiv. Shot in the break of the show “The flight of the valkyrites” on The Ancient Theatre in Plovdiv in 2014. I was lucky that in this short period of time they did technical maintenance / tests with the stage lighting – and that was exactly the moment I could catch. It turned out that this shot is successful and impressive not only for me but for the jury of the Salon and Company Dan Travel.

At the end of the season, at the moment I went on holiday with my wife, we decided fairly quickly how and where to use properly the award – Prague. We visited the office of Dan Travel to declare our intentions. Exactly on the next day we had a call from a very kind and helpful lady who introduced us to several offers that meet our criteria. We stopped on the individual package time 1 – 4 September, 2016 – flight and four-star hotel.

I had some minor concerns related to our trip because although I have traveled a lot (mostly by bus) it has always been organized and now for the first time we had to travel alone. But my fears were in vain. Dan Travel had done a perfect job. At the airport in Prague we were welcomed by an individual transfer – a private car to the hotel.

About an hour later after leaving our suitcases, changing our clothes and a quick meal on leg, we were ready for a meeting with the city. From the reception we bought tickets and got the necessary information required for our transport, which it turned out to be non-stop. The railway was about a hundred meters and the trams on every 5 minutes and moved with such a precision which allowed you to set your clock – a fact that made us a very strong impression. The journey to the center of Prague is 15-25 minutes, depending on how far you are going. Even with the passage of Vltava when you catch a glimpse you could immerse in another world. We went on Václavské náměstí and headed for The Powder Tower and Old Town Square to the Charles Bridge, where we caught the sunset. Already tired of getting up early and all the traveling and emotions, we decided to go back to the hotel.

The next day we visited the palace (Hradcany). The huge queue of tourists that winded over the whole square, made us change our route. We looked at the church Loretta, The Strahov Monastery (rather the famous library for the monastery itself was under construction and we could not enter). Passing back along the palace we saw that the queue was considerably reduced and this time we took our place on it. It took less time and what was interesting to me that the access into the palace was so secured like that on the airport – luggage control and metal detectors. It was almost the end of the working day and the gallery was to be closed and we considered to make a thorough view of the Cathedral “St. Vit ” for the next day. We began to realize that these four days, actually full three shouldl be insufficient to look at what we had planned. From there through the streets of the old town we climbed the Metronome – a facility with a height of 24 meters situated near the monument of Stalin. Then we went back to the hotel for a quick rest and to get my tripod and went back for dinner and night shots. Night Prague was lovely lit and had a special charm, till 1:00 a.m. After that hour the lights were off and the places of interest as well.

The third day started with the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Chamber of Commerce. Besides the permanent exhibition, we found a visiting exhibition – cycle “Slav Epic” of Alphonse Mucha. In the National Gallery of Czech Republic were offered different types of tickets. The main one – valid for all permanent exhibitions and sites in theNG; limited – valid for visiting exhibitions; and combined one- valid for absolutely all exposures and all items in the NG of Prague. So in order to have the possibility to see the permanent exhibition and the visiting one, we had to take the combined ticket, which gave also the permission to take pictures (without flash and tripod) and could be used within six days. Unfortunately we were leaving the next day afternoon…

To see all exhibitions at the gallery took us about 5 hours and at the end we were almost in a hurry for time was running out. Due to lack of time the planned visit to the Cathedral “St. Vitus’ and the palace were out and we decided to go to Vyšehrad. There it was waiting for us- the reconstructive presentation of the coronation of Charles IV. Quite a lavish ceremony and service in the basilica “St. St. Peter and Paul. Unfortunately that time my photography luck betrayed me – thinking that Carl was about to enter the church I stayed inside, but it turned out that he was already there and would come out, but I couldn’t find it out at that commotion… Definitely impressive ceremony and a wonderful experience… that day we decided to have nocturnal images of Vyšehrad and were back to the hotel for an easel and back.

Last day. After breakfast we fixed our luggage and left it in the room to the reception and again headed for Old Prague. We were able to look the Convent “St. Agnes” where it was exposed medieval and early Renaissance church art exhibition, also an Asian art at the Palace Kinski and finally we were able to taste the so called “tradelnik “- a local specialty tapes bakery dough rolled in sugar, coiled flat on thick wooden skewer / cylinder and baked on coals. We also tried the natural one and that filled with ice cream and chocolate. Unique!

We must go for departure. Again we were offered the transfer by car to the airport, last beer and…

Goodbye, Prague!

The team of IPS Plovdiv thanked to the winner for this wonderful sharing!
But now, let us remember the picture that win him this award – “Night of valkyurite” from ever, the magnificent ancient theater in Old Town of Plovdiv.

The exhibition of the Third IPS Plovdiv 2016 with the official opening and the awarding will be in 18.00 h. on 6th june, 2016 in the gallery in the Society of Plovdiv Artists on 32, Gladstone Str., Plovdiv.

In the six sections competed, mastership and class, 398 professional and amateur photographers from 59 countries from 5 continents with a total of 4877 photographs. A five-member jury of two Bulgarians and three foreigners, after the proffesional judging under the rules of FIAP, PSA and APB selected for final selection, 333 participants from 54 countries with 1593 works, the best of which won a total of 134 prizes rated the work of 93 photographers from 35 countries.

Congratulations to all winners!

The exhibition in the gallery of SPA will be exposed over 150 photographs from 06:06 to 24.06.16. The gallery will work on both Saturdays in the period. Work hours: Weekdays – 11:00 -18:00; Saturday – 10:00 -17:00. Free entry!
All connoisseurs and lovers of photographic art are welcome on June 6, 2016 at the opening ceremony – onset 18:00h.

WELCOME!

The results you can find HERE

It was a Voucher for tourist services (on amount of 500€).
The same voucher is announced for the second time in the photo salon in the same section and again will delight some of the participants in the third edition.
Last year this award was won by Claudia Dietl from Germany, who come at the opening to get it personaly! With many smiles and mood, they spent several wonderful days with our hosts and our partners from Dan Travel, and the voucher was happily utilized. She and her husband were so impressed by Bulgaria, so they repeated visit in the summer with the whole family.

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If you want to learn more about their impressions, here’s the whole story, personal by the winner:

“In 2015 I was the lucky one, who won the voucher for tourist services (on amount of 500 €) – by DAN Travel EOOD with my picture “Krupp Quartier” in the section “my town”. In the same section my picture “Essener Rathaus” won the FIAP Silver medal. After receiving the results, my husband and I followed the invitation from DAN Travel and the salon chairman to come to the opening of the exhibition and awarding ceremony of the 2-nd IPS Plovdiv 2015. The suggestion was to use the travel voucher for this trip, which included also a very nice touristic program. We were picked up at Sofia Airport by a personal transfer service. In the evening of the first day we took place at the awarding ceremony. We were overwhelmed by the huge and light-flooded exhibition room, the very friendly people welcoming us as special guests and the organisation of the ceremony was perfect. The presentation of the pictures was professional and on very high level: Excellent print-quality, valuable frames, enough space for every picture and a very good light situation. Seeing my Rathaus-picture on the entrance poster and also on the cover of photo salon catalogue made me feel excited, but also indescribably proud! After the awarding ceremony my tension slowly decreased and I started to enjoy the delicious food and Bulgarian wine, which was served for the guests. Also the “IPS Plovdiv 2015” cake was an artificial masterpiece and very delicious! That whole evening was an experience, which I never will forget! The next morning we were picked up by two employees of DAN travel for a tour through the nearby mountains. First we visited Bachkovo Monastery, an old and very impressing cloister and afterwards we went to Assen’s Fortress, an old castle with an amazing view over the Plovdiv plateau. There we had our personal guide, who told us everything about the history and the former importance of the castle. Our last destination this day was the winery Villa Yustina, where we first went to the wine hills and afterwards had a guided tour through the very modern manufacturing facilities. In the end we had a private wine tasting with very delicious Tracian wines. We ordered four cases with different wines afterwards. On the third day we had our personal city guide, a very enthusiastic young man, who spent the whole day showing us the very interesting historical places, buildings and excavations of the ancient city of Plovdiv. It really was a pleasure to learn all these stories and we had lots of fun together. On the fourth day we were free to discover Plovdiv on our own, so we climbed up the six hills, enjoyed the different overviews from their tops, visited some markets and spent one more very nice summer day. We were lucky, that exactly on our weekend in Plovdiv the decision was made that Plovdiv will be the Cultural Capitol 2019. So there was a huge party all over the city with lots of musicians playing in the streets and big fireworks in the park on Saturday evening. Full of good memories of the interesting old city, the beautiful landscape, the hospitable and friendly people, the delicious food we became curious to learn more about Bulgaria and also wanted to share our experiences with our children. So we decided to spend our summer holidays in Bulgaria, too. We spent four days in the mountains in Borovets for some amazing mountain hikes like the Rila lakes and the top of the Mussala. Afterwards we went back to Plovdiv and also our children were impressed by that wonderful interesting city! One of the highlights here was the dinner with Lyubkа and Anton (the oragnizers of photo salon) in an old typical Bulgarian restaurant. We really enjoyed the meal and the atmosphere and want to thank them once again for that wonderful evening! It was a pleasure to stay there with you! Our next destination was Sozopol at the black sea coast. We stayed in a nice hotel close to the beach and had a relaxing time there. We discovered the coast and the nature in the surrounding and were stoked by the diversity and beauty of the landscape one more time. Our last stop was in Sofia. Here we only had one evening to look around, but what we saw, convinced us, that Sofia also is a nice city, that we would like to discover once again. So we are looking back to two very nice trips to Bulgaria now with good memories and more than 1500 pictures! We are sure, that we will come back again!
Thanks to everybody, who had a share to these wonderful experiences!

Best regards,
Claudia Dietl“