4am in Astana

Is it Nur-Sultan or Astana again? I’m not even sure, as I read somewhere that they are changing the name of the capital of Kazakhstan back to Astana. I do prefer Astana, as it’s a simpler name.

This is a vertorama I took while taking a walk at 4 am, near my hotel while I was there. I could not fall asleep due to the time difference. So instead I decided to just go out and wait for the sunrise.

This is a two-shot vertorama, each shot blended from three exposures. Taken with the 17mm tilt-shift lens. Makes vertormas just so easy.

Standing in the rain

It’s really nice to have a weather-sealed camera. If it rains, you can still take photos without really have to worry about it. You just can’t change lenses of course. Too bad that some of my favorite lenses are not weather sealed, especially the tilt shit ones. But I don’t know how that could have been done, without making the lens much bigger. It has to move it’s parts freely, which creates gaps. I actually really like to use the 24-70mm lens from Canon when it rains. The lens hood is so big, that it very nicely covers the front of the lens. I don’t really bother with rain covers at all. Maybe if I would shoot in the rain all the time, it would be worth it.

I used the 24-70 also here, to create a panorama. This is a 2 shot panorama, each shot blended from 4 exposures in Photoshop. This photo was taken in the midle of Nur-Sultan (Astana) in Kazakhstan.

Early morning at the Ramstore Bridge in Nur-Sultan

I still find it strange that Astana is now called Nur-Sultan. Not really a usual thing to see a whole city being renamed. But it was. This is one of the photos I took there last year around this time, at the Ramstore Bridge. It was very early in the morning, around 4 AM. But as I did not go to bed during the night, it was easy to go out to take photos. And this one was at a walking distance from the hotel.

As you can see, this was after quite a strong rain, that create all the puddles that I like to use for reflection. But you may have noticed, that often if you take photos after a rain, they are not as sharp. This is due to the huge amount of moisture in the atmosphere. We do not notice it that much, but it creates a bit of haze, and that prevents one from getting a sharp image of faraway objects. Here I did not have that problem, as I was shooting with the 12mm lens, so I was quite close to the bridge.

This is a blend of three exposures, done in Photoshop.

Sphere in Nursultan

Still raining today, so let’s continue with another photo from a rainy evening. Even if again you will not see the rain in the photo.

This one is from the Expo Sphere building in Astana, or better said Nur-sultan. This is because the name of the Kazakhstan capital city Astana was changed about 3 weeks ago. So now it’s Nur-sultan (I seen it being written as Nursultan and Nur-sultan, so not sure which one is right). Probably the first time I ever been in a city which changed it’s name. Does not happen that often.

This is a three shot blend, all done in Photoshop.

Light tunnel in the morning

I still don’t know if this was a permanent light installation, or there was an event that this light tunnel was in Astana, Kazakhstan. But I noticed it while passing by, as my hotel was close by. And it was on the whole night. So one morning I decided to go to it to take few photos. I went there around 5 in the morning. I edited photos through the night, so I was up anyway :) As you can see, it rained beforehand, so I had some nice puddle to work with there. I put my tripod as low as it could go, and too this photo.

This is a two shot vertorama, edited in Lightroom, finished in Photoshop.