Seven Sisters of Stalin

Leave a reply

Across Moscow, there are seven of these buildings that were built during post WWII ‘Stalinist’ style, known as the ‘Seven Sisters of Stalin‘. A mixture of official buildings (including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the Moscow State University, and a collection of residential apartments and hotels, these buildings are littered across Moscow. They were all built between 1947 and the mid-1950’s. They are really striking as they are built in a mix of gothic and Russian Baroque styles.

This particular one, which I think is the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building, is a residential building overlooking the river. It’s quite an overwhelming building as you walk across one of the many bridges across central Moscow.

Sony A7R II | Sony FE 70-200 f/2.8 GM | 144mm | f/13 | 1/640th | ISO400

Kazan Cathedral

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Millaa Millaa Falls

1 Reply

Last January, we took a week and headed up to the northern region of Queensland – affectionately known as ‘the FNQ’, as in Far North Queensland. On one of our days, we did a photography tour through the bush, looking for waterfalls. I wanted to try my new filters for long exposure. We hit 4 different spots that day, with this one being Millaa Millaa Falls. We were relatively lucky that it was midweek, and there weren’t a lot of other people around. Nice to just get shots of nature and not lots of people in the water.

Sony A7R II | FE 24-70mm F4 | 30mm | f/20.0 | 5 sec | ISO100

The streets of Gamla Stan

Leave a reply

We had a pretty big trip this summer. 4-weeks long, 9 countries, and a few World Cup matches. While I had previously visited Stockholm (over 10 years ago!!), that occasion was for a work trip, and I didn’t get nearly enough time exploring the city. While Stockholm is well recognized as being on the more expensive side, I really enjoyed the chance to get back and take in some of the sites.

For each of the cities that we visited, I had a short list of sites to see / places to take photos. For Stockholm, the majority of sites were centered around Gamla Stan, or the old city. In fact, records show that it was first referred to around 1252!!!

We only had a couple of nights in Stockholm, so the first morning, I got up just after breakfast and had a walk around to take in the Old Town. During the summer season, it’s hard not to get lost in the hordes of tourists, but just before lunchtime was a decent time to get *some* alone time.

Sony A7R II | FE 24-70mm F4 | 26 mm | f/22.0 | 1/60th | ISO400

The Grand Mosque

Leave a reply

At the end of our last trip to Europe, we flew back to Sydney via Abu Dhabi. Due to normal flight times, we ended up having a 26-hour layover. Overall not a bad thing as we were able to split up ~20 hours of flights and actually sleep in a proper bed and get a decent rest.

Really the only thing that we did was sleep, go to the spa at the Shangri-La, and spend about an hour at the Grand Mosque. Luckly, our flight out was after sundown, and we accidentally timed it perfect for our visit. The sun was just going down, the call to evening prayers was on, and there were not many visitors or tourists. All of this made for som pretty spectactular perspectives at the Mosque.

I particularly like this photo, I caught a man walking across the tiled floor in traditional dress. It was right in the prime spot of the blue hour, and the blue lights of the mosque helped give a really impressive feel.

Sony A6500 | FE 24-70mm F4 | 24 mm | f/13 | 1/60th | ISO 6400

Deadvlei

Leave a reply

The day that we hiked up the Big Daddy dune and down through Deadvlei still remains among my favorite days from our holiday to southern Africa. Deadvlei is a natural clay pan that sits at the bottom of some very tall dunes. Because it’s in the middle of a few hundred mile wide and long desert, there is literally no humidity at all. At one point, there was enough water to grow trees, but the trees that you can see in the have actually been petrified for some 900 years. As noted in previous posts, we hiked up the dune, which took about 2 hours, then we walked straight down the sand into Deadvlei, which only took about 10 minutes. It was 10 AM by the time we got down the dune, so it was already getting pretty warm on the ground. We walked through for about an hour, and went back to our camp for a late, second breakfast and a nap. Highly recommended.

Sony A7R II | FE 70-200mm F4 | 90mm | f/4.0 | 1/2000 | ISO100

Krabi Hike

Leave a reply

Last year when we stayed in Krabi, we really didn’t get up to a whole lot – the point of that trip was more to relax and connect as this was our forth time to visit Thailand. We did get out and did some diving one day, but we never made it to the town of Krabi proper, and the only other time to leave the grounds of the hotel was to take in this hike. The start to the hike was a short bike ride from the hotel, so it was an easy decision to get out. The hike was up Naga Mountain and it was a decent incline, a relatively tough hike.

Well worth the time and effort, this shot is from near the top of the mountain, looking over the lowlands.

Sony A7R II | Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM | 70 mm | f/22.0 | 1/100th | ISO 400 | 5-shot HDR

Samoan Sunset

Leave a reply

We’re slowly working our way through the assortment of South Pacific islands. This year, we ticked off Samoa from our list. Samoa is interesting in that there are two main islands, which are separate from American Samoa, which is only 220 kms away. The date line splits the two countries as well. We asked a few of the locals, and nearly everyone we asked hadn’t ever been to American Samoa.

We stayed on the south side of Upolu at the Senalei Resort, and basically drove around the eastern side of the island, mostly chasing waterfalls. We intended to take the ferry over to Sava’ii, but the ferry was sold out days in advance. Overall, I would highly recommend Samoa, the people were really lovely and really welcoming. The island was among the cleanest that I have ever been to. And the beaches and water was all just fantastic.

This shot was taken looking down the beach from our resort, just before sunset.

Sony A7R II | FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM | 70mm | f/22.0 | 1/200th | ISO200