Yachts line the marina in Vilamoura, Portugal ... and these are the "smaller" vessels. 1%
Main pools at the Tivoli Victoria Hotel, near Vilamoura, Portugal in the Algarve Moonlight swim
3-exposure "high speed" HDR taken from Old Town Bridge Tower on the Charles Bridge in Praha. Rooftop view of Prague
London Calling
Prague Castle (Pražský hrad) and Charles Bridge at the blue hour The Crown Jewel of Prague
Lamp post along the stairs (Stare Zamecke Schody) leading to Prague Castle (Pražský hrad). Light and Textures
One of the iconic trams in Prague. The 210
When traveling around Prague (indeed, all of the Czech Republic or Slovakia), you will come across vendors selling these cinnamon pastry tube things, called trdelnik. They are often sold hot with a dusting of cinnamon, sugar, and nuts. Sweet and a little flaky, they make for an inexpensive treat and can be found all around the city. This particular cafe is on the castle side of the Charles Bridge. Noms
5 minute exposure (314 seconds) at sunset of the London Eye and County Hall building along the south bank of the River Thames. Taken from the Westminster Bridge. The Eye is currently undergoing some final preparation for the Summer Olympics and therefore idle until work is complete. It's rare for it not to be in a constant state of motion (albeit slow) from sunrise until after sunset, so this was a unique opportunity to capture a super long exposure using the Big Stopper where the wheel is actually tack sharp (versus rotating). Idle ...
This is a 642 second -- nearly 11 minute -- exposure using a Big Stopper. The remote timer was actually set for 20 minutes, but light was fading fast and a police boat stopped in the middle of the Thames, becoming stationary center frame, so I closed the shutter. I've blended in portions of several shorter exposures taken immediately after, ranging from 2.5 sec (clock face) to 10 sec (light stream and activity on bridge) to 30 seconds (bridge arches in foreground and some blending of water to mask noise in the base exposure). 10 minutes of light
Evening begins in the small village of Niederthai, set high in the Otztal Valley above Umhausen in Eastern Austria (roughly 80km from Innsbruck). Dusk over Niederthai
The dome (cupola) inside St Peter's Basilica (Vatican City, Rome) with the Papal Altar & Baldacchinoin below it. This is an HDR image made up of 3 exposures (shot handheld) with tone mapping done using Nik's HDR Efex Pro. The merged image was then manually blended with the baseline exposure along with final processing in PS CS5. Unprocessed (stfc) 0EV version for comparison here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robotography/6332509212/ The Cupola
Fountain of Neptune at the north end of Piazza Navona in Rome at the blue hour. The Octopus Slayer
The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or "Fountain of the Four Rivers" is a fountain in Rome, located in the urban square of the Piazza Navona. It was designed in 1651 by Gianlorenzo Bernini for Pope Innocent X whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced onto the piazza as did the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone of which Innocent was the sponsor. The base of the fountain is a basin from the centre of which travertine rocks rise to support four river gods and above them, an ancient Egyptian obelisk surmounted with the Pamphili family emblem of a dove with an olive twig. Collectively, they represent four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread: the Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Plate representing the Americas. Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi ...
Spiral staircase at the Vatican Museum. I'd claim this a rare occasion, in which there were no people on the stairs at the time of shooting despite eleventy billion tourists being present inside the Vatican ... but that'd be a lie. Instead, the museum simply had the stairway blocked off during our visit. It's funny. So many people who have photographed this in the past mention how they wished there were no people [in their shot], but I'd have preferred a person or two to give some sense of scale while also adding some dynamism through motion blur. Heh. Museo Vaticano
Cliche tourist/postcard shot ... had to be done. :) London Icon
Palazzo Pamphili, also spelled Palazzo Pamphilj, is a palace facing onto the Piazza Navona in Rome. A highly significant example of Baroque Roman architecture, the palace was built between 1644 and 1650 and since 1920 has housed the Brazilian Embassy in Italy (becoming the property of the Federative Republic of Brazil in 1964). Palazzo Pamphili
Coexistence of past and present ... old and new ... dark and light ... coal and electric ... left and right ... Tempe Town Lake (Arizona). The bridge on the right is part of the recent Phoenix Metro Light Rail system and spans over 450m (1500-feet). The bridge on the left is the historic Union Pacific steel truss bridge constructed in 1912 (and still active today). Opposites
This small, unassuming church is inside the fortress at Sagres Point (Portugal) and dates to 1579, although it was heavily damaged by the earthquake of 1755 and restored in the 20th century. I believe the name is Nossa Senhora da Graça. I wish I'd had a slightly higher vantage point, so the Atlantic Ocean and Cabo de São Vicente were more visible in the background. Heavenly
From the window of our apartment in Rome during an Autumn downpour. A Raindrop's Perspective
Tempe Town Lake (Arizona, USA). Once a mostly dry river bed (the Salt River) crossing the desert southwest, the City of Tempe converted this area to a beautiful lake. Anyone who has been to the Phoenix area knows why I label this a "mirage". :) 6-exposure HDR (-2EV to +3EV), processed and tone mapped in dphdr (Human Eye mode) with final processing in CS3. Desert mirage
Fireworks display during the Mayor's Thames Festival, London (Sept) 2010. Single exposure. Palms over London
Starboard side lighthouse at entrance to Vilamoura Marina, Algarve Portugal Lighthouse at Vilamoura
Kure Beach Fishing Pier - Kure Beach, NC USA The pier at dawn
Lighthouse at Leith Pier in Edinburgh, Scotland Beacon
London Eye EyePod
We did a week of castle chasing in southern Wales last Spring, and this place was one of our favorites. Image is an 8x3 (24 image) pano, each frame in horizontal orientation at 17mm FOV, shot handheld. Final image is 58.7 megapixels, or 40" x 25" printed at 240ppi. RAW image files were stitched in PS CS4 using photomerge function (which never ceases to amaze me) then final post done from there. The result distorts actual scale quite a bit -- exaggerating the foreground while miniaturizing the castle, which is near 15m (50-feet) tall -- but I like the results overall ... if only as an exercise. Raglan Castle - 8x3 Pano
From Leith Pier, Edinburgh, Scottland Purple hour
Taken from the Meteor Crater observatory, looking back at the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, AZ (USA). Picture in Picture