Here I have a photo that I took from the Buda side looking through the arches of the Fishermen’s Bastion at dusk, and you can see the Danube and mainly the Parliament building in the Pest side under wonderful lighting.  The Fishermen’s Bastion is a terrace on the Castle hill that surrounds the Matthias Church. From the the terrace you can see and get wonderful panoramic views of the Pest side, and the structure itself is just breathtaking. I’ll post some pictures of the place in later posts as well.

Dusk is becoming more and more my favorite time of the day to shoot, there is a small window of about an hour or so, after the sun is gone where the sky turns to a magnificent glowing blue that really works wonders, at least for me…

For this image I’ve used a wide angle lens, and used the columns and arches to frame the Parliament building and also used the color contrast from within the arches against the sky.

That’s all for now, click on the image to see it large… and I hope you like it, more to come soon, in the meantime get out there and shoot something…

A few blocks ahead I found this phone booth in a corner, I liked the building and the street, still, it was dark, but right there I envisioned this picture, light just from the phone booth, and dark night in the rest of the street, so I pulled the tripod, mounted the wide angle and fired away… it took me 3 or 4 shoots, to get the angle I was looking for, and in the last one I went to the phone booth and opened the door. I was there probably a good 20 minutes making this photo and having fun… specially when tourists were passing by and stopping to see what I was shooting at, they stop, looked… looked again… and I know… they must be thinking there was something there, or this guy just went nuts… shooting an empty and boring phone booth… but they don’t see anything and walked away…

So here it is, my picture of a lonely phone booth in Budapest, shoot in the darkness of the night in a old empty street, I really like the mood of the image and I hope you like it too, as always click on the image to see it bigger.

That’s all for now… more to come soon, in the meantime, get out there and shoot something….

Prague was really great, even do, in my opinion, it is to crowded with tourists, so to get a picture with no people you need to get up really early and try to catch up the sunrise, which by the way gives you great light, specially because as you see in the image the sun rises just behind the tower facing Stare Mesto (Old City).

The Charles Bridge, is one of the most famous places in Prague, the construction started in 1357 and it was finished in the beginning of the 15th century, it was very important also because it was the only way to cross the Vltava river and to connect the Prague Castle and the City (Old Town) to learn more about the bridge click here.

During this time of the day the bridge is a quiet place, I just encountered some other photographers, during the day was really crazy, you get from tourists crossing, to al kind of street artists, kiosks owners and other traders.

I really like the mood of the image and the mist of the morning, it was cold but it was really worth it to be out there shooting.

That’s all for now, more to come soon, in the meantime get out there and shoot something…

Maybe I am in love with this city, maybe its just the fact that was here, about 7 years ago, that my passion for photography was reawaken, I don’t know what it is very well but this place is really magical.

Prague, is the capital of the Czech Republic, and also the most valuable historical city reserve, as the entire core of the city which cover about 866 hectares was named by Unesco as “World Cultural and Natural Register Heritage”.

The only drawback in a place like this, and least for me, is the massive quantity of visitors and tourists, for times, just looks like Disneyland, making difficult to even walk in certain areas.

I have one more day of shooting, today… and then back to home, so this is the last post from the trip, as I won’t be able to post tomorrow, I’ll be in a flight heading Miami. In next few weeks I’ll continue to post pictures, but finished and edited versions, I can’t wait to get my hands to them, I have great material to work with.

My next trip will be to Peru, in June 2011, you can see the details in the website, there are still some spots open, so you can join me and have fun.

So, here are the pictures taken yesterday in beautiful Prague, comments are always appreciated, that’s all for now folks…. more to come soon, in the meantime have a great Sunday and get out there and shoot something……

I didn’t have Vienna in my original plan, but as I saw it was only 50 minutes from Bratislava, I wanted to get at least a glimpse and feel it, and let me tell you I am speechless. I’ve never seen such concentration of amazing architecture, history and culture, everywhere you look there is a new monument, museum, church, palace, or historical building. The population is about 1.6 million people and the city centre was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.

It is really difficult to express in words how magnificent this city is, pictures may help to describe it but they don’t make justice either, it doesn’t matter how good or bad they are, the city is just spectacular. One day is not enough to see it well, you can just take a quick look around. You’ll have to stay a least a week in order to be immersed in the city and culture.

Vienna, is also really expensive, very expensive… a latte cost about 7 euros, a dinner for two in a standard local restaurant about 60 euros, with no wine, no dessert… but I think it’s worth every penny.

I started in the morning walking around a local street market, it was really colorful and awesome to see how the locals buy their groceries, I think just for the day… then get back and buy some more the next day, after that I headed to the city centre.

We’ll here are some of the pictures I made yesterday, really quick edits to post in the blog, it is time now go and take a 30 min. sauna and get ready to go out and explore Budapest.

I hope you like the pictures, more to come tomorrow from Budapest, in the meantime, get out there and shoot something….

Bratislava is capital of Slovakia, and with a population of 430.000 its also the largest city of the country, the city banks on both sides of the Danube River. The city is characterized by medieval towers, but also by modern buildings, however most of the historical buildings are concentrated in the Old Town, which is were I walked around most of the time.

Besides the historical places in town one of the most prominent buildings in the city is the Bratislava Castle, it seats on a hill above the Danube, and it can be seen from almost anywhere in the city, the views from the Castle are also really good.

So, here are the pictures for the day, as always quick edits, and some HDR, I hope you like them.

I am going to catch some sleep, big long day again tomorrow, and I’ll post some more, in the meantime… yes go out there and shoot something…

…and, oh, ejem… it was freezing cold yesterday so after all that walk, I thought I deserved one of these..

Looking in all directions always help to discover different angles and point of views, in this case you can’t stop looking up as this particular modern building has a wonderful structure on top. One the of the things that most I like about this photo is how much stuff is going on, the vertical and diagonal lines makes me keep looking all over the image in every direction, the photo is kinda busy, but that’s the reason why I like it and works.

This photo is taken with the Nikon D300, and the Sigma 10-20mm in vertical position, the HDR was combined from 7 exposures 1 stop apart and combined in HDR Efex Pro, from Nik Software. Then post finished in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Well, that’s all for now… more to come soon, in the meantime get out there and shoot something…

This particular image is taken over Biscayne Blvd. just across Bayfront Park, one of the nicest playgrounds we have here in Miami, so this is one of the entrances to the MetroMover that moves around downtown Miami.

This photo was taken during a weekday, so there is no people running around, and what I like is the particular atmosphere and mood.

Of course, this is an HDR photo that I’ve made with 7 exposures and finished up processing in Lightroom and Photoshop. You can click in the image to see it full screen.

Well, that’s all for now, more to come soon… in the meantime go out there and shoot something…

Changing the subject, I am really excited on my upcoming trip to Europe, in this photo trip I’ll be visiting, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and I am planning to make daily posts from there, with pics and stories, so stay tuned for that. Speaking about travel, don’t forget the photo adventure I am leading to Peru this coming summer, you can join me… and travel with me, all the details are here.

Now, let’s get to the picture, this one was taken this past summer in a closed post over close to Williams in Arizona. This HDR photo was made with 5 exposures and combined in HDR Efex Pro, final Post Processing in Lightroom and CS5, hope you like it, ahh you can click on the photo to see it full screen, and comments are always appreciated.

That’s all for now folks, more to come soon, in the meantime get out there and shoot something…

I have great expectations for 2011 and I am very excited with the photo tours I am planning to be leading, the first one scheduled for June, to Peru, is going to be wonderful and I can’t wait to be there, I really hope that some of you will join me to this amazing trip.  I am also planning, to shoot more, blog more and keep learning, yes… with photography you always have to keep learning, and there is always room from improvement.

Now, down to the picture, I photographed this picture a couple of days ago in Bayfront Park, here in Downtown Miami, and I really like the way the sky rendered agains the Christmas tree and cityscape, twilight skies are always spectacular and one of my favorites. This HDR photo is composed of 9 bracketed shots 1 stop apart, tonemapped in NIK HDR Efex Pro, and post processed with Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CS5. The camera is my Nikon D300 and I used the Sigma 10-20 wide angle.

I hope you like it, comments are always appreciated, now get out there and shoot something, and have a great 2011 everyone!!!