Weekend in St Petersburg
We arrived into St Petersburg Pulkovo 1 airport from Moscow to be greeted by the damp cold that you just don’t get in Moscow, we took a cab we booked at the airport right into the historic Centre by St Isaac’s Cathedral where our hotel was for a reasonable 700 rubles.
Breaking the Ice on the Moskva
Whilst Lou and did a boat cruise on the River Moskva in the summer (on Moscow day) on a small boat with about 20 other people, in the winter this isn’t possible, however there is a longer cruise on an icebreaker.
Moscow by night…….And Day
Last week we tried to have a wander around Moscow at night time to take some photos, but the temperature dropped rapidly as we approached the river, but luckily by this time we had already gone through Red Square to take a few photos, and so we made our way home via Ulitsa Varvarka.
Walking in a winter wonderland – Serebryanyy Bor
The weekend after we returned to Moscow we went to visit a colleague of Lou’s and his Family who live in a reidential area of a park in Moscow – Serebryanyy Bor. By the time we were walking around the sun was dropping so there were some fantastic colours in the sky.
The park itself is on an island on the River Moscow to the west of the city, has a number of private residences, and a large number of small paths crossing through the forest. It seems like a popular location with cross-country skiers, we even saw an older lady being pulled along on her skis by a huge Mastiff dog, which had our friends’ rideback puppy cowering when it pulled its master over to greet the pup.
The Finca Project – Part 1
My brother and his wife already have one great house in Fortuna, Murcia, Spain, but they have been on the look out for new possibilities for a while, and in the summer they bought a new place. It is an old wrecked Finca (Spanish Farm) with one other wrecked building on the grounds, and 9 acres of land, mostly with Olive and Almond trees.
Where have I been? – Part 1 – Last Few days in Moscow
Well it has been a while mainly because I have been with family a lot for the last 6 weeks or so, and I had unpredictable internet access and laptop availabilty wasn’t always great.
So, when I came back from Spain in Novemeber I was only coming back for a couple of weeks or so before heading off again to see my parents again in Spain. After a week or so of being back in Moscow the miserable grey, rainy weather was getting me down – there was only 10hrs of sun in the whole of November 2009 in Moscow, and I am pretty sure that all came on a day I was out of the country.
Kuwait – Family Portraits
Whilst I was in Kuwait last week I got the opportunity on one of the days to get some portraits of my Niece and Nephew. My Nephew as ever whilst in the apartment wasn’t too co-operative so I had to get some candid shots whilst he was playing with toys.
Moscow – Autumn in Sokolniki Park
Sokolniki Park is in the North East of Moscow and gets its name from the area of the city that the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich’s Falconers used to live as Sokol means Falcon in Russian and he was a keen hunter.
Moscow – Autumn Weekend
Here in Moscow the Autumn days of falling leaves in parks seem to be all too short but this last weekend was one such weekend, nice ‘crisp’ (cold-ish, but no rain) weather, and still had to catch up that the failed attempt at a walk in the park last weekend.
Moscow – A Walk in the Park
When we got back the temperature change was very noticeable, we left and it was 20C, when we returned it was at most 11C but has since dropped to 5C in parts of the daytime. Anyway this last weekend we decided to go for a walk around Moscow to one of the many parks, we decided to go to Victory Park.
Corporate Photography – Traditional Headshots
A couple of weeks ago I did a corporate photography shoot with the senior management of the Russian offices of a large multinational company. The brief was to produce a single usable portrait shot for each of the team for a large conference they were hosting for their largest clients, all household names throughout the world.
Moscow City Day 2009
Over the first weekend of each September Moscow celebrates the birth of the city with parades, open air concerts, even a waiter race. The city is usually crowded, lots of security, especially when entering key areas (Lubyanka Square, Red Square, etc) where there were bag checks and metal detectors, and there was also a lot [...]
Moscow – the first month or so
It has been about 6 weeks since we moved here to Moscow and it feels like we have done so much, and so little, from multiple trips to Ikea (a necessary evil!), to being overawed in Red Square, once again multiple times.
So the apartment we settled on is in the area of Kitai Gorod (China [...]
Travel Photography – Egypt – Aswan
Aswan is probably best known to former Geography students of a certain age due to the Aswan dams, and more specifically the Aswan High dam. The building of the High Dam formed Lake Nasser, this vast reservoir stretches from Aswan down to into the Sudan where it is refered to as Lake Nubia. When the [...]
Travel Photography – Egypt – Kom Ombo
The Templeof Kom Ombo is actually a double temple dedicated to two gods, the falcon god Horus and the crocodile god Sobek. The temple was built and added to by the Ptolemys, but like a lot of ancient Egyptian temples it was also used by Coptic Christians as a church, and hence some of the [...]
Travel Photography – Egypt – Temple of Horus
The Temple of Horus is known to be the best preserved acient temple in Egypt and second in size only to Karnak temple in Luxor. The strange thing you will find as a photographer is that you can get up close and personal with the ruins and the hieroglyphics and large inscribed pictures. This strikes [...]
Travel Photography – Egypt – Valley of the Queens and The Colossi of Memnon
The Valley of the Queens is close the Valley of the Kings and is another large necropolis where many Egyptian Queens and princes were buried, the most famous of which is the tomb of Nefertari, the principle consort to the Pharaoh Rameses II although this is closed to the Public. In much the same way [...]
Travel Photography – Egypt – Valley of the Kings
Having chosen to go on a Nile Cruise from Luxor to Aswan and back it seemed a good opportunity to put the Canon 5D MKII through its paces.
After the delayed flight and late arrival and the first night on the MS Da Vinci we went on a tour of the Valley of the Kings with [...]
Photography – Last game of Rugby Season 08/09
This last weekend I went to watch London Wasps play, and since we didn’t make the play-offs this year (which is unheard of in recent years) and several key players were either leaving or retiring after the game I took my Camera down, It was hard work taking the shots as the lens I have [...]
Photography – Trying to make money from it
I have been thinking about ways I can make a bit of cash from my hobby of photography, it looks like I have two options, building a portfolio website or selling via stock photography website.
Portfolio Website
I could use this option to display my best work and hopefully sell some work directly and get offered work [...]
Enter the Snarks!
I was going to write this when I knew for sure what was going on with the move to Moscow but I figured I would wait until I was a little calmer and had considered the situation better.
In anticipation of our visas coming through my wife had been talking to head of HR Europe, and [...]
First Moscow Visit – Part 2: Falling for the City
We arrived at our hotel early in the morning at about 5.30am on Thursday and pretty much went straight to sleep. After having a lot of sleep we spent the afternoon looking at three different temporary apartments in Aparthotels with Elena (from my Wife’s company), they were all tiny and really designed as an alternative [...]
