Trip to the Russian federation

Kremlin star
Canon 5D mark III, Canon 24-105 F4 L

Warning, picture-heavy post.

Early in March, I took a weekend-trip to Moscow, to see a city I've only heard about since I was a kid.

I don't know many people who've actually been there, strange really, as it is a beautiful city, even in cold winter-weather.

I stayed at the Golden Apple hotel, a fair hotel, in terms of standard and price, but it had a pretty awesome location.

It only took about 15 minutes to walk down to the red square from there.









I brought with me my 5D Mark III and my Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 (from around 1954).
I wanted to shoot some Kodak Ektar 100, but also brought some Provia 400 and Fuji Neopan 400 for low-light situations.

I never got to use my 400's, as I brought with my my 5D Mark III the day I really had use for some low-light excellence and the 5DMark III sure did a fine job indeed.

During my short stay, I mostly hovered around the parts of the city surrounding the Kremlin and the Red Square.

I got to shoot with my Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 the first day, it was bitter-cold and windy, but I had no issues with the camera, results were good too, look:

St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow
Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 with Kodak Ektar 100

The only subway-station I shot with my Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 with Kodak Ektar 100
Camera placed on floor and fingers crossed

The Kremlin with tower and walls
Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 with Kodak Ektar 100

 

Flower-girl in Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin (GUM) department store next to the Red Square
Party successful handheld indoor shot.
Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 with Kodak Ektar 100

 

Ressurection gate
Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 with Kodak Ektar 100

Cathedral of Christ the saviour
Viewed across the Moscow river
Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 with Kodak Ektar 100

Small church I passed while walking about
Rolleiflex Automat 3.5 with Kodak Ektar 100

Amazing what you can get when you couple a modern emulsion like the Kodak Ektar 100 with proven German tech from the mid-fifties isn't it?
The outdoor exposure was calculated using the sunny-16 rule, (1/ISO @f16) and lo and behold, it worked, this film rules, good latitude also!

I processed the film at home in C-41 developer and scanned, any issues with color-shifts is due to my lack of skill concerning scanning. :)

And I (finally) got to test my Canon 5D Mark III for real; Cold conditions, darkness, harsh light conditions etc.

It held up very very well! So glad I bought it, it's lighter and a real upgrade to my trusty old 1ds mk II, both in ISO preformance, autofocus and sheer image-quality.

Basically, it rules as well. ^^

St. Basil's with the red square clock-tower
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS

The Kremlin with water reflection.
Taken from across the Moscow river.
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS and SR Polarizer

A central subway platform (can't really remember the name)
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS @ ISO 6400

  

Revolution square station
Very famous statues decorate the station and it's said it's good luck to touch the statues.
The nose of this dog is polished to a high-shine because of this.
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS @ ISO 5000

There's one subway-commuter touching it, cool! :)
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS @ ISO 6400

 

Serving tea(?). Outside a large shopping-mall in the Kremlin area
(they sold fur-coats there that cost $50 000!)
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS

 

And here's a HDR shot using the built-in HDR function (3 shots +-2 stops), the edit has been done in PS, as I personally didn't find the in-camera processed HDR's to my liking.

Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin (GUM) department store HDR-shot
Canon 5D Mark III with Canon 24-105 F4 L

 

Church of Christ the savior as twilight appears
Compression-shot at 104mm
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS @ ISO 1600

 

Frozen Moscow river, twilight looking East from the Kremlin.
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS @ ISO 1600

Compression-shot of the Kremlin wall towers as the sunset gave some nice color
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS @ ISO 1600

 

Panorama from the Church of Christ the savior, Moscow-river and the Kremlin
Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 F4 L IS @ ISO 1600

 I need to go back, missed a lot of those really-really nice metro-stations.....
- And I need to buy another bottle of Black Vodka anyway!


=)