A Coffee with…No. 2 – Kiril Miloshev

Today I have special guest here, It’s Kiril Miloshev from Sophia, Bulgary. He is a very nice chap and a group administrator of the caffenol Facebook group. He uses a good mixture of a Leica Rangefinder, a Nikon DSLR and a Nikon J1 Mirrorless camera. And I guess his office has the lovely smell of that caffenol developer floating around.

Can we start? Sure we can!

Caffenol: Hi Kiril, nice to have you here on the site. Please introduce yourself.

Kiril: Hi, my name Is Kiril Miloshev and photography is my favorite hobby.
I mostly shoot musical performances, but also like to shoot kids portraits, some weddings and all other stuff I come across.

Caffenol: Anything else you want to add about you as a person?

Kiril: I have lots of hobbies, but photography is the one that I always go back to. My latest hobby is HAM Radio and now when I go to take pictures I have to carry radio equipment also. That’s why I enjoy the Nikon J1

Caffenol: What do like about photography in general?

Kiril: I like the moment when I feel the emotion of the scene that I shoot. That’s the moment when the real photography happens for me.

Caffenol: How did you get into caffenol?

Kiril: I was looking around internet for film developer info and got to caffenol.org. I liked the look of the samples in the site and decided to try it by myself.
One day I was mixing Caffenol integridients in a 500ml bucket at my office desk and one of my colleagues passed by and exclaimed – “Wow and you will be drinking all that coffee” 😀

Caffenol: What kind of gear do you use? (You can include a picture of your gear if you like) Do you have digital stuff as well?

Kiril: For film I use a Leica M5 with some nice lenses.
For digital I use a Nikon D300 and a Nikon J1 (most of the time these days)

Caffenol: Which is your favorite camera/lens combination at the moment? Why?

Kiril: My favorite Camera/Lens combo is my Nikon J1 -> J to M adapter -> Voigtlander 50/1.1.
With this combination I get 135/1.1 lens with dof like 4, so it is perfect for shooting Blues concerts in dim light.

Caffenol: Which caffenol recipe do you use? Why?

Kiril: I mostly use the C-M recipe as I don’t have Kbr around. Maybe the next time I will buy some to test it

Caffenol: Where do you buy your ingredients for caffenol?

Kiril: I have found a Chemistry wholesaler near my office, so its easy to get the chemicals. The only issue is that most of them are sold in 1 kilo jars 🙂

Caffenol: Among the gadgets that you own, is there something that you wish you hadn’t bought? Why?

Kiril: The only gadget that I regret buying is an RC Nitro Truck. It turned out to be a huge disappointment.
I like all my photo gadgets and in latest time I mostly enjoy my new Voigtlander 50mm/1.1 M-mount lens, which Dirk was so kind to sell me 🙂

Caffenol: Do you shoot Auto-Mode, A-Mode, S-Mode, P-Mode, M-Mode? Autofocus or manual?

Kiril: With my Nikon D300 I shoot A-mode autofocus, with my Nikon J1 I shoot S with the kit lens or M with M-mount MF lenses.
With my Leica M5 I shoot M & MF (no other options there)

Caffenol: How do you scan your Pictures? What kind of tools do you use for post processing? Explain your workflow. Do you have a darkroom?

Kiril: I Scan all of my film pictures with Reflecta CrystalScan 7200 and I am quite happy with it. My workflow consists of  direct RAW scan and then process all files in Lightroom.
No dedicated darkroom for now. I develop all my negatives at my office.

Caffenol: How do you educate yourself to take better pictures?

Kiril: I do a lot of reading. This summer I have found http://www.lenswork.com/ site, which belongs to  photographer Brooks Jensen and it is my source of inspiration these days.
There are several good books about photography there and “Letting go of the camera” is a must read for every photographer.

Caffenol: Among your works, which one is your favorite? Why?

Kiril: This is a tough question. From the pictures I take there are several which I like a lot, but I can’t quite tell that I have a favorite one

Caffenol: Any other shots you want to show?

Kiril: Here are some of my favorite shots:

Caffenol: Whose work has influenced you most?

Kiril: Ansel Adams, Cole Thompson and many other.

Caffenol: What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?

Kiril: That camera equipment is the less important thing in picture-taking process. I have lost lots of time reading equipment reviews and tech-geek forums.

Caffenol: Where can we find your work?

Kiril: Most of my work worth showing is on my facebook photography page: facebook.com/TheMusicPhotography

Caffenol: Kiril, thank you very much for this very interesting Interview! And I would like to thank you for all the efforts you do in accepting members in the group and giving them a warm welcome. I hope the next time we will have a proper coffe (and maybe a couple of beers) together.

Kiril: Thank you too, always a pleasure to talk with you 🙂

You know, that you can be featured on caffenol.org, do you? Just mail me. Message me or DM me and we get your stuff on the site!