And I’m back from my short stay in Vienna. I took quite a lot of photos, and I hope at leas some of them are good :) But for today, I will show you one of the more crazier shots. This is the St. Charles Church in Vienna. This is a great photo spot, as the pond in front of it, is usually quite calm, and so creates a very nice reflection.

The church is usually lit by very strong lights in the evening, but right around midnight they are turned off. So this photo was taken from midnight until around 2:30 in the morning. Overall I took 200 photos for the star trails (I used 190 in the end, as few were side-lit by the moon) plus additional 2 shots with shorter exposure from which I darkened few spots on the buildings. I used a fisheye lens for this, as I wanted more of the sky in the shot, while still keeping the reflection. With the 16mm lens, I could get the whole reflection, but nothing more. I corrected the fisheye distortion partially in Lightroom and partially in Photoshop.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 190+2, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones Adapter ver. IV, Lens: Canon 8-15mm F4, Focal length: 13mm, Aperture: 6.3, Middle exposure time: 30s, ISO: 250, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.19907, 16.37126

A quick edit of another shot of the Empire bridge in Vienna. I think I will have to do more photography in Vienna this year. I usually just go there during the day, and that’s just not enough. Especially when the sunset is so late in the day.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 5, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 28mm, Aperture: 11, Middle exposure time: 10s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.228242,16.411141

For today, one more shot of the same bridge in Vienna as yesterday. For those curious it’s the Reichsbrücke (Empire Bridge) in Vienna. I actually walked around, trying to get photos of other things not just the bridge that evening, but this walkway, the one close to the water, was the only place where I was protected from the wind enough to get anything usable. The weather recently has really been against nice photos :) It’s either raining, windy, or just completely ugly. I can’t wait for some better weather finally, to be able to do more photos.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 6, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 22mm, Aperture: 11, Middle exposure time: 10s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.228242,16.411141

I spend the evening in Vienna yesterday, and while the weather was quite bad, I spend a hour taking some quite long exposure photos. And here is one of them. I’m actually quite pleased how it came out, taking into account the strong wind, rainy weather and the late hour. I hope nobody will notice where I had to remove ugly flares from the water drops that landed on the lens :).

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 5, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 18mm, Aperture: 11, Middle exposure time: 10s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.228242,16.411141

I’m still so tired after yesterday. I have been taking photos at the Vienna Latin Gala, and as that was until late at night, and my first train to Bratislava was in the early morning, I decided to go to the city to catch the morning blue hour. For a moment I thought also of waiting for the sunrise, but after the disappointment the sunset was, I rather went home. And without any clouds, the sunset was boring anyway :)

But as I went to bed at 7.30am, I’m still quite tired, even if I slept already twice today. I’m probably no longer so young that I an be up the whole night. Somehow I remember this was never a problem when I went to the university :)

I also had the pleasure meeting and doing a little sunset shooting with Cosmin Stoleac, who is a photographer in Vienna, an you can check out his photos on his Facebook profile here.

So this is one of the photos I took in the morning. It’s of the St. Stephens Cathedral there. I wanted a photo of it for a longer time, but during the day and in the evening the area is just always full of people. It was much better in the morning, but still few people passed through the shot. I can’t really say I understand the lights they have there. I don’t think they add anything interesting what a beautiful architecture without them.

This is a HDR created from 5 exposures, in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.