Long exposure sun in Astana

And here is one of those great looking buildings. As I understand, this is the complex of administrative buildings of JSC KazMunaiGas, an oil company. It’s build as a circle with many fountains in side of it. And there is also a raised road crossing it, so you have just so many view you can get here. All around :)

For this I went close to one of the waterfall fountains and used the Laowa 12mm lens to get as much of the fountain and the building in the shot. And to get a bit of movement in the sky and blur into the water, I used a Formatt Hitech 10stop ND filter to push the exposure up to 30 seconds. I took 5 exposures, but in the end I blended only 2. Edited in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.

Expo 2017 Sphere building in Astana

So let’s start with probably the coolest building in Astana. This is the sphere building that was build for the Expo 2017 exhibition that was in Astana last year. It just looks stunning. There are lights on the outside. There are lights on the inside. And there is a huge light pointing up (which you will see in one of the upcoming photos). All animates, all changes, all shows messages on the sphere. It all just looks great once the sun goes down and it gets a bit darker.

I spend few hours in the area and while it was raining most of the time, I did get some nice photos. Here is the first one for you.

This is a single exposure, with a second exposure used to remove the lens flare from the strong light on the right (you can learn how to do that here). Normally I would do few more exposures to get rid of the very strong light reflection on the right, but it was not possible here. I used the Laowa 12mm lens to take this shot, and while it’s a great lens, it’s not weather sealed. And it stopped raining only for minutes. In that condition, I just wanted to take as many photos I could before it rained again, which it did very quickly afterwards.

New ultrawide wallpapers

And here are the new wallpapers:

Budapest center

Here goes another one of my huge panoramas. This one is of the Budapest center, as seen with a long lens from the top of the Citadel hill.

The Danube in Budapest is quite busy in the evening, as all the visitors want to see the parliament light from the river. Normally I don’t like them in my photos, but here, I think they add more to the life of the photo. What do you think?

I used three shots for the panorama, with each one being from three exposures. I used PTgui to create the blend planes and then created a HDR in Oloneo Photoengine. Then I put all together in Photoshop.

And here are few details:

Vernazza – over the city spot 1

This is probably the most popular spot in Vernazza. It gives nice view of the town and you will see some photographers here almost always. It takes a bit of waking up the stairs from the town, but it’s not that bad. If you wan’t to do sunset from here, I would go a bit earlier, as it get’s full quickly.

Vernazza – over the city spot 2

This spot gives a quite similar view to the previous one. But there is one big difference. If you look at the tower in the city, it does not reach through the horizon in the back here. I find the way it breaks the horizon line very annoying, so I prefer this spot. This is only about 5 minutes walk up the stairs from the previous one.

Vernazza – on the path spot 1

This is the first spot that’s on the hiking path. But if you go here for the sunrise or sunset, the path is open and you don’t have to pay. The view from the side of the city is great and most photographers go to the bit further spot so it’s not so full here.

Vernazza – on the path spot 2

This is the more popular spot. You will see a railing with a lot of photographer here. In front of the railing there is a spot with quite better view, but one should not go there as it is dangerous. But everyone is responsible for their own actions, so do what you think is best.

Vernazza – down by the rocks

If you don’t just want views from above the city, I would suggest going down to the rocks. Makes for a great long exposure spot. The view of the city is also nice, I just got noghting as it was crazy sunny the day I was there, and that made for horrible photos.

Manarola – opposite the town

Let’s move from Vernazza to Manarola. The best view here is from the walkway opposite the town. You can either stay lower on the walkway, or go a bit higher, to the top of it, where is a small park. Again, if you want to go there, go a bit earlier, as it’s quite a popular spot with photographers. There photos are from the higher spot.

Some also go down onto the rocks, but that’s a more dangerous location. Again, use caution if you want to go there, and you are there at your own risk.

Riomaggiore- down by the rocks

Another very popular spot. Not just for photographers. There will be many people here around sunset and you will be lucky when you get a spot at all. Don’t forget to take good shoes, as the rocks are a bit slippery. It get’s better later, as most of the people leave once the sun goes down.

Monterosso – view of the beach

Monterosso is a bit stretched out, but my favorite view was from the side, seeing the beach together with the ship and mountains in the background. This location is easy to access, just walk along the sea. Here you can even go completely down to the rock, and have a nice foreground. I don’t have one as the area was occupied with people, but you maybe have more luck :)

Monterosso – behind the tower

There is a little platform here with quite a nice view. If you look right, you will see a similar view as the one in the spot before. But if you look straight, you get this nice view of this tower surrounded by the sea.

Corniglia – side view

The last but not least, Corniglia. This town is on top of a hill, so be ready to walk up many, many and even more steps, or take the bus :) My favorite view here is from the side of the town, but since you don’t see the sea as much, it’s not as spectacular as the other ones.