Early march we had a few clear nights and me, Aleks and Boris decided to try our had at some star circles at an old plane in Kalimantsi, a small village close to Varna.
We set up our cameras, made sure we had the framing right, and starting shooting. And, because it was bloody cold, we tried to wait as much as we could in our car.
After about an hour and a half, we were rudely interrupted by some teens who had selected this location for some nighttime drinking. Luckily we had enough frames to be able to make our images, and I was even lucky enough to capture a shot where their headlights illuminated the airplane from about a 1000m away. After they came closer they completely overexposed the rest of our images.
In the end the image is made up of 162 30-second shots stacked on top of each other,
This particular plane is an Antonov An-2, a mass-produced single-engine Soviet aircraft designed for agricultural work. They were produced from 1947 all the way up to 2002.
This one seems to have been produced in 1973, and is now permanently grounded next to where the Varna Aero Club used to be. The club has moved, but the plane has not.
Although quite damaged and sprayed with graffiti, you can actually enter the plane and the inside is relatively safe. People have tried to take parts out of the cockpit and it does have a few sharp pieces of metal sticking out, so please be careful.
And please, please do not destroy the aircraft any further, even in its present state it is still a beautiful piece of history.
Which one do you like more, the one where the plane is dark, or the one where the plane is illuminated?
I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I do. If you do, why not follow me on Instagram: @jackoleenders. It will help me out greatly!
Camera: Olympus PEN E-PL7
Lens: 7artisans 7.5MM F2.8 Fisheye
Shot at: 7.5mm | F/2.8 | ISO3200 | ~80 min (stack)