Couple of weeks ago I’ve posted few shots from Tokyo – full of architectural curves and lines…The very same day and in the same Shinjuku district I’ve walked into a quiet oasis in the middle of hyper busy center of Tokyo – Shinjuku Gyoen Park. You are required to pay (reasonable) entry fee to enter and chill out from the outside world – but it’s definitely worth it. Then you can walk few miles, lay down on your own blanket or amazingly green grass, have a family picnic or – take a few shots. Landscape photography – here I come! 😉 Oh, BTW – all pictures in this post have been processed with HDR enhancement, so if HDR is not your cup of tea… well, wait for something else (yes Branok, I mean you! 😉 Picture below has been taken with my mobile phone camera in the other hand – and is meant as an example to my “how-to” collection. Just to illustrate how can you take steady shots even without a tripod. This tree and the bottom-up view fascinated me, but in a given strong contrast difference of the dark tree and too bright sky, it become clear I would need to take at least three pictures to create HDR shot. While I had my tripod with me, even after few minutes of the manipulation I wasn’t able to set up an angle I envisioned to have – so my super wide 11-16mm lens would be “laying” on the tree and all the details and texture of its beautiful “skin” would be leading into an image. Handholding wasn’t option either: overcast, late sunset time and “story-telling aperture of f/16” to get the details of the foremost skin and the branches in the background itself required shutter speed between half to two […]

As they say, good connections can get you really high. In my case, my very good connections (thanks Gene!) got me to a very unique place, through a very secret room and password protected access to the roof of 15th story high building in a downtown of St. Louis. What a panorama! If you would expect a plain roof with a view everywhere, you would be surprised as myself. You can see at the bottom of this article, there is actually another 2 story high wall, and you really have to make an effort (and stay in a very uncomfortable position for more than an hour!) to get THE view. But as usual in such situations, it was worth it, would you agree? This panorama I would recommend to click through and enjoy in a full view. And are you also one of those out of St. Louis asking, what is so beautiful about bunch of skyscrapers, ugly industrial zone and a highway going through? Well, I would agree, not really “the most inspiring downtown”, as I always say. But all those FROM St. Louis would tell you that two major landmarks at the picture above make the difference. The Arch and home of the recent World champions (world? really?! ;), Cardinal’s Busch stadium. _________________________________________________________________________________ And few others, meant more for a documentation purpose and enriching my “high connection” story.    At the first picture this “red something” on the right side is actually an iconic checkerboard logo – as seen on the second picture with a building itself in its full beauty, surrounded by the lakes and parks. Looks like a pretty neat place to work, huh? Opened, but not so opened roof itself, with a photographer in a very complicated position being able to take pictures. Credit goes […]

Don’t get fooled by the man standing next to the rising sun. No, this is not a country of the rising sun, even though Japan is pretty nearby. This is South Korea, where everybody is pretty convinced, that a merge with North brothers is just a matter of timing, there’s not doubt about the merge itself. And it’s also a country of a FANTASTIC kitchen, and I’m becoming more and more fan of Korean food (kimchi or bibimpa? anyone?) Anyway, I got again a exciting afternoon opportunity to see Seoul through my camera lenses. BTW, did you knew, that Seoul is the second biggest metropolitan area in the world !?! Population wise. Number one is Tokyo, third one is New York. Unfortunately, Gyeongbok Royal Palace was just closing when I’ve arrived, so I don’t have a lot of shots from the inside. But this has been well balanced with the outdoor ones, where I’ve spent next two hours, just playing. And a photo below is my favorite one from that evening, as I really love the combination of several different sources of the light here. Blueish sunset sky, already lit front gate, street lamp, few traffic lights, strikes of the passing cars and my remotely fired flash hidden in the flowers at the bottom. And at the top of it – so peaceful and empty street, which is a nonsense, as this is one of the busiest roads in the north part of the city… This is quite a mystification, as Seoul is not such a colorful at all. Orange car is actually a taxi, in a very, very rare color. About 95% cars in Seoul are black, grey or white (and I bet 4% of the remaining 5% are foreigners living there 😉