«If you can dream it, you can do it.»
Hello,
My name is Elena Koleva.
I am an economist by education and I’m busy at a big American company in Sofia, Bulgaria.
I am a creative person at heart and travel and photography are my passion. I only feel truly alive when I’m on the road. The movement and the sun give me strength.
I became passionate about traveling as a young child. I was an alert and curious child. Eager to learn more about the world we live in, I taught myself to read at the age of 4. I voraciously devoured books and encyclopedias, but I spent the longest time among the pages of an atlas of the world. I voraciously read the names of distant and unknown places, mentally repeated the outlines of continents and countries, and secretly hoped that one day I would see them live.
A real storm broke out in me when I was 8-9 years old. I read Jules Verne’s book Captain Grant’s Children. I immersed myself so deeply in the story and experienced everything together with the characters that to this day Patagonia is still a dream of mine. But I plan to make it come true very soon :). This book also sparked my interest in South America in general. I am happy that I have already had encounters with this continent, but they are yet to come in time. I dream of traveling around South America alone with a backpack and a camera. And besides Patagonia, I want to do a trip similar to the route in the book. My dreams are far from modest, but I am confident that one by one they will become reality.
At the age of 12 for the first time I went outside the borders of Bulgaria. Communism was in power then and it was forbidden to go outside of Eastern Europe The year was 1988 and the trip was to Italy. I participated in a dance ensemble and we were invited to tour in southern Italy. The place was the area of Calabria on the tip of the boot. The journey in the old rickety Chavdar bus took two days, but what I saw through the window stayed with me for a long time. I encountered a completely different world and realized that THERE IS NO TURNING BACK.
I don’t remember the exact moment when I became passionate about photography, maybe there isn’t one. I’ve been taking pictures for as long as I can remember. With whatever I have on hand. I have photographed with soap boxes, telephones, semi-professional cameras. I already have a professional technique, but it is not the most important. The important thing is to be able to capture the moment and the emotion.
The last year has been extremely exciting for me. I wouldn’t call it the year of overcoming fears and making dreams come true.
I stepped on 5000m. n.v., I’ve been to the foot of a volcano, I’ve visited a cave with Mayan ruins that I had to swim through, I’ve flown the Blue Hole and over Nazca, I’ve visited two deserts, two jungles, 4 continents, I’ve snorkeled the second largest barrier reef in the world, I enjoyed natural and architectural phenomena. I discovered unexpected things about myself.
Travel with me, the adventures are yet to come!
«If you can dream it, you can do it.»