Monthly Archives: November 2018

Kazan Cathedral

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First time to Russia, and of course it was for the World Cup this year. While the tournament was spread over 11 cities, we ended up only going to two – which of course would be St Petersburg and Moscow. We got tickets for four games, doing a loop of the two cities twice. For our first round in St Petersburg, we stayed at what I would kindly call a super-dodgy hotel. Older, not updated, quite uncomfortable – but it was a block away from the main road – Nevsky Avenue. We made up for the quality of the hotel by being very, very central, which worked out very, very well.

St Petersburg is north, and when I mean north, I mean far north. It clocks in at 59ºN, and I have only been to Helsinki (60ºN) and Rejkyavik (64ºN) that were further north than St Petersburg. As a result, being in St Petersburg at the end of June (right after summer solstice) meant that it stayed light very late, and got light again very early. This particular shot was taken at 11:30 PM, and while it was a little dark, you didn’t really need any lights on to see properly.

Also highly recommended, there was a super cool wine bar across the road at 3 Kazanskaya Ulitsa, can’t remember the name of the wine bar, but it’s on the ground floor with some outdoor seating. Pop in and pick out a Russian wine – I know what you’re thinking, but it was my first time having Russian wine as well!!!

iPhone X | 4.2mm | f/2.4 | 6mm | 1/2400th sec | ISO2400 | ISO50

Church of the Holy Ghost – Copenhagen

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Sometimes jet lag can be a good thing. When you fly from Australia to Europe, inevitably your body is 9 or 10 hours ahead of the local time. This last June, we flew from Sydney to Copenhagen (via Beijing), we woke up decently early. We really struggled to stay awake the evening before, but a soccer game on the TV at the bar and a few glasses of wine – we made at least into the late evening.

The next morning, we woke up at our hotel, got a brief breakfast and took the train into the city. We stayed at the Crown Plaza in Copenhagen, which was on the less expensive side, but it was a bit out of town. We rode the train into Nørreport Station and began walking. Now, the reason I bring up jet lag is that we were up around 6 AM, had breaky around 6:30 AM, and we were in the city before 9 AM. The benefit was that we happened upon the Church of the Holy Ghost sometime around 9:30 AM, which meant there weren’t any tourists (or for that matter locals) out and about just yet. Nice clean view, with the trees framing up the tower. Absolutely great day in Copenhagen!!

Sony A7R II | FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM | 24mm | f/14.0 | 1/200th | ISO400