Captured at the imposing Shipka Pass Memorial, right in the heart of Bulgaria. While the title of this shot might hint at something spiritual, it actually holds no religious meaning at all—it was simply inspired by the sheer, overwhelming stream of people tackling the monumental climb up the mountain.

Though there are officially around 890 steps to the summit, the punishing incline creates this dizzying illusion of a strictly vertical ascent. It’s an absolute leg-burner, to say the least.

At the top stands a powerful testament to the Battles of Shipka Pass, the pivotal, blood-soaked clashes that signaled the collapse of 500 years of Ottoman rule. In a fierce, year-long struggle between 1877 and 1878, Russian forces and Bulgarian volunteers fought side-by-side to finally reclaim this rugged territory. The history up there feels just as heavy as the stone used to build the monument itself.

Technically, the Canon EOS 5D did a great job capturing the scale of the scene. Racking the 17-40mm lens all the way out to 17mm really helped emphasize that vertigo-inducing perspective of the stairs. Shooting in aperture priority at f/9.5, the shutter speed naturally dropped to 1/32—which was just slow enough to capture a tiny bit of movement in the ascending crowd.

Thanks for stopping by… CSJ

capture date | 02.05.2009
camera | Canon EOS 5D
lens | 17-40mm f/4 L Series
focal length | 17mm
aperture | f/11
shutter speed | 1/32
shooting mode | aperture priority
exposure bias  | +0.0
metering mode | pattern
ISO | 100
flash | no
image quality | RAW
RAW converter | CS3
cropped? | no