Photographing wildlife is the great passion of the financial controller of NSU

Photography is the great passion of the financial controller of the Vasil Levski National Military University Yordan Bachvarov. It is a way to enter a world different from that of numbers.
He shared that the desire to take pictures arose in him already in his teenage years. “That’s when I bought my first camera, a soap dish type. It was always with me. I photographed absolutely everything – nature, interesting places when I went on excursions. 5-6 years ago I decided to buy a professional camera and take photography more seriously. I felt that I wanted to go deeper into the waters of photography.
I caught fire next to my father and another friend. Dad is an amateur photographer. There was a Zenit tape camera from the older ones. He worked at Radiozavoda, he had his own photo lab”, says Dancho Bachvarov, who mostly takes pictures for pleasure, but also accepts engagements as a photographer at balls, weddings, and baptisms.
In photography, his favorite is shooting wild animals, he loves to be among the unspoilt places in nature. For him, this is the best way to take a break from everyday life, from his job, which is very responsible. “I have my 4-5 hours of freedom in nature. I’m not a hunter. There are people who shoot the animals with a rifle, I do it with the camera, it is much more pleasant. The wild animals are far from us. They are not part of our daily life. It happens that we come across them only if we travel in the mountains”, says Bachvarov. He adds that photographing wild animals is extremely difficult. You have to be persistent, patient, be invisible so that the animal doesn’t feel you. When it appears in the clearing, you have moments to raise the camera and take the shot.
When photographing wildlife, Jordan pays close attention to his posture. He is convinced that no two animals are alike. Particularly interesting to him are the roe deer, which in early spring sprout horns that are initially covered with moss. This makes them very beautiful both in person and in a photo. This moss is actually skin that falls off and forms the horns we are used to seeing.
Yordan managed to find the wild animals around the “Jovkovtsi” dam, in the Sevlieva Balkan, where last year at the end of September and the beginning of October he photographed something truly unique – the wedding of the deer. This is their love period. It is possible that the photographer will come across a fight between two deer for a female. “I go early in the morning, at sunrise. It is necessary to act very quietly, although at this moment the deer are not bothered by anything, because they are concentrated and do not hear anything around them. Deaf to the world around them. They devoted themselves to the game of love,” reveals Bachvarov.
In addition to deer, he also photographed foxes, rabbits, bears. “There are bears in Bulgaria as well, but the ones I photographed are in Romania. Two years ago I was lucky enough to photograph a bear with a cub there. I was in the “Transfagarashan” pass, which according to many is one of the most beautiful roads in the world. It is also called the “Passage of the Bears”. This is the moment in photography that I have not felt safe. As we were traveling, a bear with a cub came out to meet us on the road. They were about a hundred meters from the car. We got a message on our phones from the Romanian authorities that there were bears in that area and we shouldn’t get out of the vehicle, but the adrenaline is high and to get the shot you want, you have to get out of the car and shoot,” he recalls with excitement jordan.
He wants to continue touring abroad, but he is convinced that he has not photographed everything in Bulgaria yet. In May, Mesdec wants to photograph the Bulgarian bears. He has a great desire to go to the Rhodope Mountains, where he can capture fallow deer.
He is happy to be recognized for the wildlife shots he takes. In the recently concluded second edition of the National Wildlife Moments photography contest, organized by the National Hunting and Fishing Association, his photo “Jump” won third place.
Wild animals are his favorite, but he is interested in photographing balls, baptisms, weddings, because these are moments filled with a lot of joy and beautiful emotions. “At the military university where I work, I sometimes do reportage photography – I photograph the Representative Block when it participates in various events. I want to show the dignity and inner strength that these men of honor exude,” reveals Yordan Bachvarov.
According to him, not everyone can become a good photographer, you have to carry it in yourself. “There’s an old unwritten rule that you need to take at least 10,000 shots to learn how to shoot. No matter how good technique you have, if you don’t have a sense, things won’t work out”, he is convinced.
He hasn’t done a solo exhibition yet, but would love to curate one with wildlife photos.
Vesela KANCHEVA
dream personal archive