Photo of the Day
Before dawn at Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque in the Kadirga neighbourhood of the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey.
Click to see a larger image:
Tag: cityscape
Categories
Istanbul Sunrise
Photo of the Day
I woke early one morning in Istanbul to check out the view from one of the city’s many terraces and I couldn’t have been greeted by a better sunrise. This particular panorama frames the sun with the Hagia Sophia on the left and the Blue Mosque on the right.
Click to see a larger image:
Categories
Blue Mosque, Yellow Light
Photo of the Day
Yesterday, I arrived home from a week in Istanbul, Turkey. This was my second trip to this magical city and I was happy to have more than a couple days to see some of its history and culture.
I’m currently enjoying the comforts of home, but only for a few days. I soon head out to Jordan for two weeks where more spectacular sights await. After that, I should have plenty of photo processing to keep me busy.
In this photo, evening sun breaks through the clouds over the Blue Mosque, one of the city’s architectural wonders.
Click to see a larger image:
Photo of the Day
To supplement my photos of Venice, I’ve now also added a gallery of photos of Burano, Italy, an island north of Venice in the Venetian Lagoon. Bright, airy and bursting with colour, Burano has a wholly different character from the moody chiaroscuro that dominates much of Venice. The rainbow colours make the whole town feel like a playground.
Please visit the gallery to see more.
Click to see the image on a dark background:
Categories
A Walk in Venice
Photo of the Day
I love this couple. I don’t know them, but for the short time that they appeared on the top of this, one of Venice’s many bridges, they blew me away just with how much character they radiated.
As I wandered this particular Venetian street, I was first struck by the quality of the light glowing from the backs of every person that climbed this bridge. That was my cue to set up shop and wait for the right person or people to enter the frame to fill out the scene and make the most of the brilliant rim light.
A while later, my patience was rewarded by this couple.
Click to see the image on a black background:
Categories
Grand Canal Sunset
Photo of the Day
Today’s photo of the day is another one from magical Venice. My full gallery of photos of Venice is now available for your viewing pleasure.
For this image below, I snuck through one of the narrow back alleys that seem to lead nowhere in an effort to find this view of the Grand Canal with the sun setting over it. After the alley widened nearer to the canal, I found a small restaurant/bar lived at the end of this tiny side street and its patrons were happily watching the skys colours reflect in the canal while sipping on a drink and dangling their feet off the jetty. What seemed like a secret to me was, of course, not so hidden for the locals.
Click to see a larger image:
Categories
Grand Canal Panorama
Photo of the Day
This classic view from the Rialto bridge is a favourite among visitors and locals alike. You can’t blame them – it’s one of the best places to witness Venice’s magic.
This has to be one of the most photographed spots in Venice, so it’s a challenge to come up with something different from every other photo that has been repeated in the same location. By making this a panorama, I know I haven’t exactly broken new ground, but it’s a least a little bit different from the norm.
The wider format allows for a greater sense of place. It includes more of the surrounding buildings and the paths teeming with pedestrians along both sides of the canal. Gondoliers moving across the waters add to the interest of the evening scene.
Click to see a larger image:
Categories
Running through Venice
Photo of the Day
Of course, Venice has its share of picturesque scenes apart from canals. In today’s photo of the day, a young boy sprints through Venice’s narrow alleys while the sun creates dramatic light and shadow in the background.
Click to see the image on a dark background:
Categories
Ethereal Venice
Photo of the Day
Walking in Venice sometimes feels like a dream. It’s such an otherworldly place it often doesn’t quite feel real. Today’s photo of the day was an experiment to try to capture some of that dreamy mood.
The strange blurring in this photo is the result of doing a long exposure in the middle of the day with the gondolas moving slightly in the foreground. Thanks to a brand new 10-stop neutral density filter
If you don’t know how a neutral density filter works, here’s the idea: essentially, you’re just putting some dark glass in front of your lens. That means that less light is reaching the sensor, so in order to get a properly-exposed image, more light will somehow have to be let into the camera. Usually, with an ND filter in place, that is achieved by lengthening the exposure time. So, with a 10-stop filter, you have to let in a lot more light and you get get exposures of one minute or more like this one.
What I like about this result is the mix of sharp subjects with the blurred. The long exposures turns the gondolas into ghost ships on top of a silky-smooth sea with clouds appearing to dart past in the sky, but the poles and buildings all remain completely sharp and solid.
Click to see a larger image:
Photo of the Day
With my well-located B&B, there was only four bridges in between leaving the door and reaching St. Mark’s Square, one of the central landmarks in Venice. That made it easy for me to roll out of bed before sunrise to try to capture the square in the blue pre-dawn light. Well, as easy as it ever is to wake before dawn.
The advantage of being awake at this hour is, of course, there’s no one else around. A shot like this would be pretty tricky to get in the evening with throngs of tourists crowding every available space in the marvellous square. Instead, the only other people around seem to be photographers with the same goal of catching that elusive tourist-free shot.
In this shot, you get The Doge’s Palace on the left side of the image with the distant campanille of San Giorgio Maggiore across the water. I shot this with a long lens that has compressed the perspective considerably making the tower appear much closer than the 500 metres away that it actually is.
Click to see a larger image:
