Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan

2015-04-29 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is one of the oldest shopping malls in Europe. It is located in the centre of the city near the famous Duomo di Milano Cathedral. Galleria was designed by the Bolognese architect Giuseppe Mengoni, who had studied in Paris and proposed a large scale, glass covered arcade to connect the Piazza del Duomo with Piazza della Scala. The first stone was laid on March 7, 1865 by king Victor Emmanuel II, after whom the Galleria was named. Although Galleria was officially inaugurated on September 15, 1867, the work continued for almost ten years after to create triumphal entrance. The day before its completion in December 1877, Giuseppe Mengoni fell to death from the top of the almost finished triumphal arch.

With its magnificent interior and intricate glass dome, Galleria provids excellent subject for photographer. I used panoramic head to create spherical panorama from 10 shots in 2 rows (5 shots in each row). To handle huge dynamic range of the interior I captured 5 bracketed shots for each image and manually blended them together in photoshop.

Mosaic Floor and Glass Dome in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy
Panorama from 10 vertical images in 2 rows, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 0.6 seconds, ISO 100, tripod, pano head. Postprocessing using Lightroom 5, PTGui 10, Photoshop CC 2014 and Nik ColorEfex 4.

This photo received following awards:
* The EPSON International Pano Awards 2018 – Silver Award

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Panorama of Piazza dei Mercanti, Milan

2015-04-21 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

Going from Piazza del Duomo along Via dei Mercanti I suddenly found myself on the beautiful Piazza dei Mercanti. The morning blue hour already finished and the rising sun gently illuminated nearby facades and make them glow. It was perfect light and the old water well, decorated with ancient pillars, played a good foreground subject. I wanted to go very close to the well and had to capture double row panorama to fit the whole scene into composition.

Panorama of Palazzo della Ragione and Piazza dei Mercanti in the Morning, Milan, Italy
Panorama from 8 vertical images in 2 rows, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 1.3 seconds, ISO 100, tripod, pano head. Postprocessing using Lightroom 5, PTGui 10, Photoshop CC 2014 and Nik ColorEfex 4.

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Piazza del Duomo and Via dei Mercanti, Milan

2015-04-14 by Anshar Photography | 2 Comments

After capturing couple of panoramas just in front of the Duomo Cathedral I went to the other side of the Piazza del Duomo. My first idea was to compose sweeping view of the entire square with the Duomo di Milano as main focal point. But shortly I discarded this idea because of the visual clutter and half-disassembled christmas tree in the very centre of the square. Then I turned around and found the nice view with Via dei Mercanti entering Piazza del Duomo. The morning light was just fine with the sun rising behind my back and rendering beautiful facades in perfect 3D. I quickly adjusted my tripod and captured this wonderful scene.

Piazza del Duomo and Via dei Mercanti in the Morning, Milan, Italy
Panorama from 3 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 2.5 seconds, ISO 100, tripod, pano head.

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Piazza del Duomo in the Morning, Milan

2015-04-07 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

Located on Piazza del Duomo in the very centre of the city, Duomo Cathedral is the third largest church in Christendom (outdone only by St Peter’s in Rome and Seville’s cathedral). This site had been associated with places of worship since the third century: a Roman temple to the goddess Minerva once stood here. Duomo construction began in 1386 and it was consecrated in 1418, but remained incomplete for centuries. Finally facade was put on the church only in 18-th century by order of Napoleon who was crowned as a king of Italy here in 1805.

Today piazza del Duomo is a very busy and full of people all day around. The only chance to get a decent photograph without crowds is to come before sunrise and use long exposures to remove moving people.

Panorama of Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral) and Piazza del Duomo in the Morning, Milan, Italy
Panorama from 4 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 17mm, aperture f/8, shutter speed 2 seconds, ISO 100, tripod, pano head.

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Angels Flying in front of Barcelona Cathedral

2014-12-25 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

Couple of days ago I reviewed RAW files from my latest photo shoot in Barcelona and suddenly I stumbled upon photo with strange white traces in front of Barcelona Cathedral. It was bracketed sequence with 5 different exposures – 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 seconds long. Only second exposure had these mysterious trails. All other exposures was perfectly clean. I was really amazed because I did’t remember anything like this during the shoot.

My first thought was about some unique natural phenomena like Aurora Borealis. The one which cannot be seen by human eyes, but can be captured by camera sensor. Then I start thinking about unreal paranormal events – such as lost souls flying in front of the Cathedral. But the real answer was easy and it came to me when I found the car lights traces on fourth exposure from the bracketed sequence. Instantly I remembered the car passed near Cathedral during the photo shoot. It scared away a huge flock of birds and these flying bird, illuminated by car lights, were rendered as long white trails you can see on this photo.

Today is a Christmas Day and it is boring to name this photograph like “Birds Flying in front of the Cathedral”. Lets make it “Angels Flying in front of Barcelona Cathedral”!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Angels Flying in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Single image, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/8, shutter speed 2 seconds, ISO 200, tripod, birds starring as angels.

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Placa del Rei and Palau Reial Major in Barcelona

2014-12-17 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

Placa del Rei in Barri Gotic quarter is one of the oldest squares in Barcelona. It is formed and surrounded by medieval king’s palace – Palau Reial Major. The big stair in the centre is still remember Christopher Columbus footsteps.

I went to this square after blue hour photo shoot in front of Barcelona Cathedral and I was lucky to find a big puddle here left from the yesterday’s rain. I chose panoramic composition to show more of the square and carefully included Palau Reial Major reflection in the puddle.

Placa del Rei and Palau Reial Major in Barcelona, Catalynia, Spain
Panorama from 2 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 1/13, ISO 100, tripod, pano head.

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Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, Barcelona

2014-12-09 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia is located in Barri Gotic quarter of Barcelona. It was constructed from the 13th to 15th centuries, though the actual facade was completely redone in 19th century. The cathedral is dedicated to Eulalia of Barcelona, a young virgin who suffered martyrdom during Roman times in the city.

I used panoramic technique to photograph Barcelona Cathedral and I tried couple of different compositions. First of all I shot obvious symmetric composition, but it did’t worked well. After that used left stair as centre of panorama and resulted image became my favourite. Enjoy!

Panorama of Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia in the Morning, Barri Gothic Quarter, Barcelona, Catalonia
Panorama from 4 vertical images, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 3.2 seconds, ISO 100, tripod, pano head.

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Berezhkovskaya Embankment and Frunzenskaya Power Station in Moscow

2014-10-15 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

Frunzenskaya Power Station is one of the most photogenic Moscow industrial buildings. It is not that famous as Battersea Power Station in London, but it is still very interesting subject for any photographer. Frunzenskaya Power Station is located on Berezhkovskaya Embankment about 5 minutes walk from Kievskaya metro station and not far from my house. On the right from the station you can see the house where Arkady and Boris Strugatsky lived and created most of their famous science fiction novels.

I decided to capture Frunzenskaya Power Station with a very long exposure to create ethereal and magic look with smoothed steam from the chimneys, clouds and water. I used Singh-Ray 10-stop ND filter and achieved 89 seconds long exposure.


Single exposure, focal length 16mm, aperture f/11, ND 10-stop filter, shutter speed 89 seconds, ISO 50, tripod.

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Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building, One of Seven Sisters in Moscow

2014-10-09 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

Skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment is one of the famous Seven Sisters buildings in Moscow. It is located at the confluence of Moskva River and Yauza River within 5 minutes walk from the Kremlin. In this photograph I tried composite technique to bring together dramatic sky sunset, building illumination and street lights and lighting trails from moving cars.

Skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment and Traffic Trails at Dusk, Moscow, Russia
Panorama from 4 horizontal photos, additional exposures for highlights, focal length 16mm, aperture f/8, shutter speed 5 seconds, ISO 100, tripod.

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Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia

2014-10-02 by Anshar Photography | Comments Off

Bolshoi Theatre is one of the most recognised and well known landmarks in Moscow. It is located on Teatralnaya Square in the very center of the city near Teatralnaya metro station. The square in front of Bolshoi Theatre is charming and relaxing and big round fountain in the centre beautifully illuminated in the evening. Usually there are a lot of people around this fountain – both tourists and locals.

One spring evening I went here to shoot a timelapse video of Bolshoi Theatre with many people bustling in front of it. When timelapse shoot was over and it became rather dark I suddenly realised that illuminated fountain in foreground and Bolshoi Theatre in background make a very good composition. So I quickly assembled my tripod again and used the last blue hour minutes to compose and capture this photo!

Fountain and Bolshoi Theater Illuminated in the Night, Moscow, Russia
Single exposure, focal length 22mm, aperture f/11, shutter speed 3.2 second, ISO 100, tripod.

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