August 2011

Another business trip. But this time it´s Russia. For the first time. Saint Petersburg to more precise. Russia is different. You need a Visa to get there. You need an invitation to get the Visa and you have to fill out a paper at the airport. You are not entering a free country. The only trip in recent years were I needed to fill out papers and a form on the internet was for my trip to the USA. Strange isn´t it?

But Russia is really different. And you know it right after you have landed on the airport. The cash machine looks compled and it is complex. The driver that picks you up doesn´t speak any languages which gives the almost 2 hour trip to the hotel in the center a special note. The people in the hotel are friendly but everthing seems to be more complicated and takes longer than somewhere else. But it was summer and early August so the days were long and I went for a walk. I ended up in walking almost 10km in my business shoes talking images of the city. It´s a beautiful town with lot´s of very nice buildings but I like the images of the street life the most. I had my Sony NEX 5 with the 16mm lens with me. This is my most used camera today. It is small enough to fit into the pocket of my coat but the images are great. I will never shot with a compact camera ( small sensor camera ) again. I love images with the sun in the frame. I love shooting against the sun. I love the sun. It took me a while to find a Lada to put it into the frame in the first shot. Today it seems it´s easier to take an image of a Range Rover or Mercedes S Class when in the center of the big cities in Eastern Europe. Saint Petersburg is not different. Lot´s of luxury cars. Lot´s of beautiful and rich people. Lot´s of pomp. I really wished I have seen all those places many years before.

setting all shots: Sony NEX 5, P-Mode