Riga Sunset

Riga Sunset

Here’s an image of the river and one of the bridges in Riga just as the sun has gone down.

Being their Independence weekend it was a really vibrant place while I was there, and one that is quite picturesque also.  Though I spent the majority of my time walking around and complaining about the cloudless sky, I was fortunate to have a little bit of cloud cover at this time which certainly adds a little bit of interest to the image, and prevents the sky from being a single gradient block.

You can see the lovely Vanšu Bridge crossing the river Daugava; I love the suspension cables that hold the structure together.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend ahead of them :)

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Al fresco

Al fresco

A cobbled street with outside seating on a nice sunny day; it’s a typical European scene.

This was down a lovely set of passageways behind the back of St Peter’s Church in Riga, Latvia.  It was pretty busy with tourists so I had to wait for quite some time before I was able to get this image without any people in it.  It’s also amazing just how slow some people can walk.

This day was pretty sunny, with harsh light and a bright blue sky.  One option in these conditions would have been to process the image in black and white; however that’s why I love some of the filters that are available to photographers.   Here I used one of my favourites, and certainly one of my ‘go to’ filters, which is ‘Autumn’ within Perfect Effects by OnOne Software.  This filter works awesomely in harsh sunlight, adding golden tones and a nice soft glow to the scene.

I used the same filter on my Prague image last month…and many others before that.

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The Following

The Following

An underpass with a light at the end and people walking through it in silhouette form – how could I resist to stand and shoot this?

Of course…it was a busy underpass so getting something I wanted without people walking in and out of the frame immediately around me, and having them for some sort of sense without overlapping too much at the end, was pretty darn time consuming.

I was pleased with this though, especially when I saw the family of three holding hands on the right hand side of the frame.

This underpass is quite close to the central train station in Riga, and is one way in which you can get across the busy road (other ways include simply walking, a jetpack, sitting atop a large frog or making use of a really large catapult…perhaps).

For processing I used the Urban Sickness filter within Perfect Effects by OnOne Software to create the green tinge at the edge of the light.

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GoldenEye

GoldenEye

I hadn’t really paid attention to Jubilee Gardens since they opened at the end of October last year.  In my mind, I am still used to the grassy field that was there beforehand, with hard patches of soil poking through and a few hobos sat around drinking cider from a brown paper bag.  As such, I have walked past this place many times since but never really stopped to actually look at it, and determine if I like it or not.

It’s certainly an improvement on what went before it.

I headed to the Southbank for sunset last night and grabbed a few long exposures here while waiting for Jim Nix to rock up.  We didn’t get a great sunset in the end, but the golden light that was coming out just before the sun went down was really quite nice, and the clouds were moving at a steady pace, so it was nice to stick on the black glass and get this shot. It’s probably the first London shot I’ve taken this year that makes me think of warmth and summer.

It was surprisingly quiet down here also, so it was nice to get the image with only a couple of people in it – and these were simply ghosts by the time they had walked through the exposure.

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I’m lovin’ it

I'm lovin' it

There are a lot of old, empty buildings in Riga.  You can easily turn a corner and be faced with somewhere that is boarded up, falling apart and covered in tape as a warning not to cross the threshold.  I imagine if you were a local you would be able to spend some time finding entry points to some amazing places.

I had taken a walk over the Stone Bridge to check out the library which was in a lovely looking modern building, but which is unfortunately in the middle of having some sort of renovation work done so getting images was not really possible from close up. I continued my walk down the river and turned a corner to find myself with a building as mentioned above, boarded up, falling apart, and a line of tape over the doors and windows.  So I started taking a few detail shots and noticed this McDonald’s cup lodged into this space.

I doubt that removal of the cup would result in the structure falling down, but it was the immediate thought that ran through my mind.  It was a very sunny day with pretty harsh light, but I liked the shadows being cast and used a vintage filter from Perfect Effects to take add a softer edge to it.

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Cats Hostel

Cats Hostel

 

One thing that Riga seemed to have a lot of, roaming the streets and looking a bit grubby, is tourists.

They also had a lot of cats, which seemed to be doing the same thing.

What I didn’t notice is how many of the cats were tourist cats; it’s my fault really as I didn’t even make the slightest effort to speak with any of them.  However, I assume there must be some, otherwise there would be no need for this cat hostel which I stumbled upon while wandering around the streets myself.

Now it’s no 5 star accommodation, I can see that. But, if you’re a lonely cat, wandering the streets and looking for a place to sleep for the night, perhaps on top of a flea ridden piece of knitwear, then may I recommend this vibrant yellow box.  It’s close to things like the pavement, and a broken drainpipe, and is relatively undisturbed – apart from the footfall and inevitable photos from the tourists who are passing by this street.

I reckon you could fit 3 cats in there quite easily.

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Belgian Senate

Belgian Senate

For those of you who aren’t paying attention. this is the Belgian Senate building.

I had walked past this place a few times as I was going to and from my hotel, but I always seemed to be on the wrong side of the road so didn’t stop here until I was walking to the train station to catch the Eurostar home; then I made the exception to cross the road and tick this building off my list.

It was a short list to be honest.

Being a Sunday the gates were all locked up, and nobody was in sight, so I was able to get this photo by poking the camera through the fence from the main road. I think it would have been a little nicer had the daffodils been blooming in the circular areas of the garden.

I say daffodils.  They could be tulips. I haven’t got a clue.

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Academy of Sciences

Academy of Sciencse

 

This is the Latvian Academy of Sciences in Riga.  It’s a lovely building, was the first place I headed to after I had checked into my hotel, and was the place I visited the most during my trip there.

That’s not because I’m a scientist. Far from it.

The sign that you can see at the foot of the right door states that you can access this building for Panoramic views of Riga from 8am through to 10pm; what’s more it costs 2.50 Lats to get in there – that’s about £3.  Sure, St Peter’s Church is in the heart of the old town, and is a little higher, but it’s twice the price, hasn’t got such great opening hours, is much busier, and has more barriers in place.   On the 17th floor of this building you could jump off if you so desired.  Please don’t though, as that would result in barriers being put up, which nobody wants.

I visited three times as my initial visit was during a cloudless sky in the middle of the day, my second (where this shot was taken) was in passing simply because there was an hour or so on the Sunday where some great clouds came blustering by the city, and the third was later that day where I went to the top again just to see if there was going to be a nice sunset (there wasn’t).

Here’s the view from the top should you wish to see it from the comfort of your chair: Panoramic view of Riga

 

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Vanšu Bridge

Vanšu Bridge

Vanšu Bridge in Riga is one of four bridges crossing the Daugava river that I walked over this weekend, and I think my favourite.

This was taken on Saturday night, when I should have been walking around taking photos with Ikars, before I screwed up. Everything was going well, I had managed to wake up at 4am to get to the airport, then arrived from London on time, checked in to the hotel, and then spent a few hours wandering the narrow streets of Old Riga. Within 30 minutes of being here I had also gone to the top of the Latvian Academy of Sciences to check out the view…more on that later in the week.

I returned to the hotel for some food and a beer and then made the awesome decision to have a 20 minute power nap to refresh me for the evening ahead. I awoke 2 hours later, late (for both my meeting with Ikars, and the sunset). So sorry again, Ikars, for making you trek around Riga for no good reason :(

That’s not all.

I headed out to this bridge and made my way to the middle of it climbing over a few of those barriers that you see. I received a few funny looks from people passing on bikes and in cars, so something tells me it’s not too regular that people cross the lanes into the middle section. I set up to get a couple of long exposures while the sky was blue, and just as I was about to press the shutter release, the large spotlights went on.

Typical.

The best I could do was to close the aperture and make them into light bursts, but boy were they harsh. This is a single exposure, and the best one I managed to get with trails on both lanes of traffic.

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Forbidden City – Panoramic

Forbidden City - Panoramic

With the Forbidden City sprawled out in front of me, I thought I had to go ahead and take a panoramic of it. I think this image is made of around 15 shots, overlapping by a third or so.

Having a subject that was symmetrical meant I could find the suitable point to stand simply be ensuring my camera was level (thanks to the spirit level within the 3LeggedThing‘s ‘Airhed’ ballhead) and simply rotating it on the horizontal axis. When the central point of my viewfinder lander at the same part of the left and right hand pagodas of the city, shown in small detail at the left and right of this shot, then I knew I was good to go.

Here’s a closer look at the main central part of the image:

Forbidden City - close

This is an automated post, as I’m currently in Riga, Latvia, taking a few photos to share with you soon.

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Mannekin

Manneken

Happy Friday everyone!

I guess you can’t really go for a few days taking photos in Brussels, without stopping by the Manneken Pis statue at least once. It’s a little like the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre; that is you wander around aimlessly for a while and then stumble on a group of people who are crowded around something that is much smaller than you had ever imagined. Still, it’s nice to see it.

I saw this statue on both days I was in Brussels, and he was wearing different outfits on each day. They have many outfits that they dress the statue up in, and they’ve done really well at marketing the concept to visitors.

It seems like so long ago since I was in Brussels, even though it was only two weeks. I’m heading away again this weekend (Latvia) but then I’m going to have a lovely couple of weekends at home catching up with friends, and on sleep.

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Godfrey

Godfrey

This is a statue of Godfrey of Bouillon. It is in Brussels. I’m sorry but I do not know the name of the horse.

I had walked past this statue on the Saturday which was pretty much blue sky and no clouds. Though I took a few shots, I had done so while standing in the shadow of the statue, framing it so that the head was in front of the sun. It’s the only way I could get a shot, and I had hoped for a golden looking halo effect – that really didn’t work out.

I was pleased to return the next day when there were awesome clouds in place.

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Galerie Horta

Galerie Horta

A swift, and delayed, post today as I have been in a meeting all morning.

I found this lovely interior below the central train station in Brussels; or past a giant Smurf if you’re going at it from street level.

It was lovely and quiet on the Sunday I was there, though taking it the symmetry seems slightly off with some parts leaning left, other parts leaning right – it’s all a bit weird and I can’t figure out if it’s distortion on the 14mm lens, or if the building actually looked like that.

Anyhoo, hope everyone is having a lovely day.

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Prague

Prague

I heard of the recent explosion that happened in central Prague. I’m not too sure if anyone one was killed, but understand a few people may still be trapped under rubble.

This incident did not make me rush into my Lightroom archives to try and find an image of this beautiful city to process, however it did make me wonder where it happened. When I see something on the news I have to sometimes find out where that location is, but normally that’s simply narrowing it down to where an actual city is on the map (admittedly, it’s also sometimes establishing where a country itself is). However, when I’ve been to a location I find that I want to know where it is in further detail, down to street level. i.e. when I was in that location, did I walk over the spot where it took place?

Not sure if that’s some sort of morbid curiosity within me, but it does happen.

So yes, here is an image of Prague, taken from the top of the astronomical clock tower on a sunny day last year.

I’m debating on where to go this weekend, but failing in making my mind up. However, with the recent news coming in from the Netherlands about Queen Beatrix handing over power it may be that Amsterdam is a good call.

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Gleaming

Gleaming

Happy Monday, I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend. I’m currently in the sunny seaside town of Skegness on the East coast of England.

This building could be anywhere, but for those who sweat the small stuff and would like to know more details, I can remember that it’s in Brussels…somewhere.

The sky was bright blue on this hot Saturday, so I thought I would do a bit of processing to get rid of what was a very boring sky. I used B&W Effects 2 by Topaz Labs to introduce the green/yellow tone into the image, and then added a bit of a lens flare at the top of the building.

Not sure I’ll have very many images of Skegness when I return, so don’t expect any images whatsoever of donkeys and ice cream.

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Coma White

Struggling to breathe

With limited time in Beijing I had to be quite choosy when it came to locations I wanted to visit, as I could only spend so much time visiting so many locations, and not plan a decent amount of time to spend roaming the streets and different areas to get a feel for each one.

I was very pleased to have met up with Pamhule to find out about the hutongs, and of course with the following day free to do as I desired, he was also able to offer some great suggestions of other places to visit. This did not make my decision any easier.

In the end I was really happy with the one place that was suggested which I opted to go to, and that was the 798 Art District. I really enjoyed walking around here.

I’m not sure if this particular sculpture was meant to be an actual installation or not, it could have just been removed from one of the galleries and cast aside onto the pile of rubble that it sat on. I thought it was pretty cool though.

Does it remind anyone else of Marilyn Manson?

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Urban Gothic

Urban Gothic

Back to Brussels today, and this image of the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula.

It’s rare, but sometimes when I’m taking an image I will think of a potential title to use for the shot. St. Michael was playing on my mind, as we share a name (I too am a Saint…ahem), but when reading about the cathedral I was more inclined to use the fact St. Michael was a archangel and St. Gudula was a martyr. Thus ‘The archangel and the martyr’ was a title that sprang to mind.

Then I processed the shot. A little sharpening and contrast boosting, and then I opened it up in Perfect Effects and went straight for the Urban Sickness filter. I liked it, and so the title of ‘Urban Gothic’ quickly screamed out at me.

I did pass this Cathedral on the Saturday but didn’t take any images due to the number of people sat on the steps outside, and the bright blue sky that was behind it. I was much luckier on the Sunday with great cloud cover, and surprisingly few people in the way. In the end I opted for this angled version rather than a straight on from the front however, so it turns out the people didn’t really matter anyway.

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Great Wall

Great Wall

In China there is a wall, and it is long. I spent some of my time in China walking it.

All of it.

Okay, when I say ‘all’ I mean ‘all I would care to do’. I spent about 3 hours up there, with a bit of sun, and a large backpack. It was pretty tiring to be honest.

Now, I know it must have taken a long time, and it is a stunning piece of work when you think about just how long it is. However I have to wonder why there isn’t consistency in the way it’s built. Part of it features ramp, part of it feature small steps, part of it features really big steps. I don’t know why they just couldn’t use small steps the whole way.

Still, I’m really pleased that I decided to make the trip out there to see it, and would certainly advise that if you’re opting to go for the easy to get to touristy spots, then you go on a weekday and do so very early in the morning.

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Square

Square

Before my rececnt trip, the last time I was in Brussels was a few years ago and it is at the location you see in today’s image that I spent all of my time. I remember it was during a football event, so think it was probably in June of 2010. I think I was stood on an exhibit stand for most of the day, and that it was only a day trip.

It sure wasn’t enough to get a feel for the city, which is what my latest trip was great for. I was pleased to return to this spot though, so I could at least put this building in context with the surrounding area and establish how it fits into the landscape.

I sure was pleased not to have to go in there again though.

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Atomium

Atomium

On Wednesday last week I decided that I was going to go to Brussels for the weekend. Thursday morning I booked the Eurostar, Friday the hotel, and by Saturday I was heading across there with a bag full of camera gear. It was a short, but tiring weekend.

Saturday the weather wasn’t great…as in it was too cloudless and contrasty for photography. I slowly walked to my hotel to check in, and then walked around to get my bearings. There was no real sunset that was likely to happen, and as I didn’t have a clue where to go anyway I opted to walk up to the Atomium to check that out. Boy, that’s a long walk from the city center! (I took the train back)

It’s a pretty cool structure, though it had closed by the time I got there so I didn’t venture up inside it. I wandered around shooting from various angles and checking out the park beside it, and I stuck around for blue hour. There were quite a few people around, and a lot of cars parked too. The people I could pretty much get rid of by using a long exposure, but that of course didn’t work for the parked cars. Luckily I was able to get a few light trails of the passing cars in which hide the other cars a little bit. It’s because of the people and cars that you’re seeing a blue hour shot instead of a pink sky shot.

Sunday’s weather was much better for photography, with a blanket of grey cloud. I think that’s better…it’s probably just that it’s what I’m used to in London. All in all a good weekend; I hope the same can be said for yours?

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Red and Gold

Red and Gold

The very last photo I took in Beijing was this one. I was walking around Tiananmen Square with no way to get up close to the Monument of the People’s Heroes due to some of the underpasses being closed for a flag raising ceremony of some sort. Being so far away and without a decent zoom lens meant I had to come up with some other way to capture it and attempt, in some way, to add interest.

I admit I was tired by this stage, so the best I came up with was to try and capture one of the buses going past it as a light trail. That’s what you see here.

I’m not sure I like it that much…but it’s the best I have from this location, and something I wanted to make sure I had a post of.

In other news, I’ve decided to book a trip to Brussels for the weekend so I can walk around and see the few sights it has to offer. I’ve been there a few times before, once while passing through to Ghent and once for a few days work, so I’ve never really had the chance to walk around and get a feel for the city. Nor have I been there with a camera. It’s only an overnight trip, but I’m looking forward to it.

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Dead End Alley

Dead End Alley

One of my free mornings in Beijing was spent wandering around the 798 Art Zone. Having to take the subway from my apartment I then jumped on a bus for a 20 minute ride to get to where I needed to be, and once again I must thank the fact my phone has GPS so I can navigate without knowing local languages.

It was an interesting area, and I will have a few photos to process to give a glimpse of the type of work seen there, but at one point I took a turn that resulted in a dead end, and thought this alley I was in looked pretty photogenic.

I guess this scene could be anywhere, really, but the great thing about photography is that I can look at an image I have taken in the past and evoke the memory of being there. When I look at this I will remember exactly where it is, the statue that stands at the entrance to the alley, the fact there was a couple having wedding photos taken nearby and where the assistant was more interested in reading her text messages that holding the off-camera flash, and the fact it was closely followed by my eating an omelette – and realising there is a big difference between what I think an omelette is and what the Chinese think it is.

Chinese omelette

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Night at the Opera

Night at the Opera

There weren’t many locations I had in mind to visit during my trip to Beijing. I knew I should visit the Great Wall as I was so close. I thought I should also visit the Forbidden City as it seemed like ‘the thing to do’. One of the other items I did have on my agenda was the Opera House as I had seen many images of it previously.

So here it is.

After a couple of minutes of taking images I turned around to find the security guard standing right behind me. He had been looking at the preview on my camera display after I had taken each shot, and then he simply smiled and gave me the thumbs up. A promising sign, I motioned that I would like to step in front of the chain barrier to get a different angle.

My Chinese isn’t great, but I’m confident his response to that request was a ‘no’.

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Tricycle

Tricycle

While in Beijing, ‘pamhule‘ was kind enough to take a few hours out of his day to meet up with me for a photowalk. It was great to meet someone with local knowledge, and so we checked out some of the hutongs in the Dongcheng District. I had seen the entrance to a hutong near the Forbidden City a few days previous without realising that’s what it was, and though the scene was interesting and almost begging me to go into it, I opted not to due to a lack of knowledge on what it was and if it was private property. I’m all for stepping over a line in the UK, but not so in China (at this part of the trip anyway; I did check out an empty building later on in my trip).

Hutongs, as well as being a fun word to say, are little neighbourhoods that center round a courtyard and feature a few residencies and several twisting alleyways. Opening a door onto one of these and stepping inside provides you a fleeting glance into the lives of those who live there, and all seemed to offer something very photogenic. I think all hutongs must contain clothes hanging up randomly, some sort of vegetable either growing or simply sitting there, and of course a bicycle covered in dust.

It was while working our way from one hutong to another that I found this bike sitting in front of this simple wall. I processed it using B&W Effects 2 by Topaz Labs, and bushed in elements of the Low Key filter from Nik Software.

Thanks again to Jens for taking the time out to meet up and show me a few sights, be sure to check out his awesome work over at blog.pamhule.com.

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Jingshan Park

Jingshan Park

Well, I’m back from Beijing and I had a lovely time of it.

Sure, for the most part I was working, so seeing only the main strip of land where the hotels are, and spending most of my time eating and drinking a the Grand Hyatt hotel. A 5 star hotel is nice, of course, but doesn’t really give you a feel for the city, especially when the nicest food within the complex was an Italian restaurant.

After work I managed to grab a couple of days to wander around by myself…though feeling very tired and having so many locations to choose from meant I had to pick wisely and randomly, so not sure if I made the best use of my time there.

I’m starting with the final day of my trip where I went to Jingshan Park behind the forbidden city for sunset. Wikipedia tells me the park is basically is an artificial hill made from the earth which was taken from the moat area that surrounds the Forbidden City. I found that a spot on this hill is also the very centre of Beijing, so it’s a great spot to take in the 360 views of the city.

There were a lot of photographers up here, and as was common on my trip not the best of sunsets. Luckily my having a 14mm with me meant that I could stand beside this pagoda and have all of the other photographers standing behind me resulting in a shot without people.

I quickly processed this one after I got home yesterday, so am looking forward to going through the rest of my images from the trip over the next few days.

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