wednesdaywalk with @tattoodjay

We brought some street photo from historical center of St.Petersburg today. I say 'we', cause I had another little private steemians meetup: I met in real world my friend @bambuka. We wanted to visit the Cartie Bresson Exhibition, test my 300mm tele lens, discuss WeKu blockchain, and simply to look up at each other (the last, but not the least!). We nailed even more goals than planned, and had a really solid walk across the streets, yards and hidden corners. At last we parted, and I finished this session on my own, focusing on portraying strangers... I turned from my new 16-35mm lens (which is the 1st time Im getting it to do the job) to 70-300mm tele, and backwards, so it came out a really mixed sessions... but lets go thru the story in order.

Right as we started, I discovered this nice inscription. Being translated to English, it means smth like this: "God knows all your secrets. But are you in the know of HIS secrets, any?.." Simply bokehlicious!

Watching results, I have an impression that 16-35mm lens is quite bright, has a good bokeh, fast and accurate focus, beautifully "draws" the picture, and on 35mm end turns into something more or less universal...

...on wide-angle side is capable to take care of the biggest buidings, like Kazanskii Sobor. On this pic: the bus with Chinese tourists have arrived (a lot of Chinese can be seen on the streets here).

I made a few shots, holding the camera at the belly, i.e. not focusing and not looking into viewfinder at all; and got quite satisfying results, like this.

Just a small graffity on the wall I liked. Isnt it a bit Picasso-like?

This temporary decoration was created to match the style of the buildings, I believe.

This design is.... very simple, naked to the bones, I would say. Looks funny. Quite the opposite to the picture above.

A few more designs that attracted me:

This one is funny, only later I understood that we have here a modern 'palimpsest': the wall (dark pink) had some graffity painted over it, which was provided a new graffity, and painter over again with a new rectangles, rather yellow, then pink... anonymous person have added a few details, and converted it into new pictures, direstly wall-based. I enjoy this 'game of random' very much.

An open-air bookshop. It is working from May till September on one of the central streets of the city. Probably, publishing and selling non-digital books still is a profitable business.

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This is a top fashionable and luxurious street of the city (Swedish Consulate is located here). In the soviet 80-es, it was named 'Ulitsa Sofji Perovskoi' and looked very poor and desolated. I wish I could bring you the pic to check, but.... could find only very old image, which dates back to 1910. Intresting!

(Source).

I have found the rear-view mirror, which we used with great benefit.

Some ordinary city streetlife. It looks more impressive in b-w mode...

Different types of greeen decorations: luxurios one...

...and more simple back-door version. Its a smoking spot, people do spend a lot of time here, and no surprise they desided to make this place look less annoying for their eyes...

Beneath my feet I noticed an ad for a cool sort of activity: Roof Walks! The person suggests some guidance -- definitely he is in the know of available observation spots and unlocked exit doors to the roofs -- and this knowledge can be monetized...

I experimented with 16-mm end, trying to come as close to the pigeons, as possible. @Bambuka tried to help and slightly pushed them in my direction. But they did not allow to fool them - under pressure coming from two sides, they simply evaporated into the air.

This shot reminds me the famous picture by Robert Doisneau; I think it is not so easy to create a shot like he did, nowadays: theres so much shit you can not eliminate from the frame! it goes inevitable, and it is not benefiting to the picture in any way... I wish there were less cars on the street, less wies in the air -- early in the morning, you can eliminate people, but not the cars. the cars will always be there, blocking the view on the houses and the streets. the next shot doesnt have a car in the frame... but it is there :/

A typical yard.

Acourtyard string. We waited a minute for any stranger to pass by, to make the capture more picturesque, and - we got this boy, with a kettle! I wonder what he was going to do. He disappeared in 5 seconds, as he noticed us.

A tiny souvenir store. St.Petersburg is a tourist city, so, kitch souvenir shit of all sorts is absolutely irreplaceable.

Street artists. We had a funny discussion with one of them, who didnt allowed us to take the pics. Probably, our smiles and joint efforts made her change her mind, at least temporarily. Obviously, look at these images - theres nothing we can 'steal, print and sell' from what she was selling herself.

Some graffity artists. Unfortunately, I came too late -- could shot only the process of packing the stuff!
More street artists -- musicians...

We spotted some non-street based pigeons... were suggested to have a photosession with them for some silly money, but I declined it. Instead, I just cashed them a bit 'for the feeding purposes' ... and take some pics for free.

Entrance to the biggest, most beautiful and most expensive Book Store on Nevsky Prospect (located in the Zinger building). I enter it from time to time just to please myself with the interior design. The said building is seen on the background in the photo below.

A live and walking theater advertisement...
...and more, more, more. We shoot so much stuff during this 2 hours walk!
We had just a little rest with coffee and donuts in a very nintage old Cafeteria. Believe me or not, it is such an old fashioned cafe, that they dont accept credit cards! A lot of things they still have like it was in a soviet epoch there. A small time-travel machine... Well, a bit. If you dont look too much around.... Unfortunately, the light was pretty poor and unsuitable for the good pics...

But they have kitties there!!! So I couldnt stop myself from taking the pics, hehe. How could I pass by such a noble cat editions?

NB. @brittandjosie, it happened exactly as you predict it: completely when one didnt expect that! :=)

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Perhaps, I should prevent myself from adding more pics to this blog. I did a lot of portraits with my tele lens. Faces, faces, faces... spent about an hour behind the rock band playing, hiding in the shade with my tele, capturing everyone who was passing by.... a lot of different persons came by, leaving me with a few very intresting portraits. Ok, I add just one last picture: a boy and old woman.

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Hope you enjoyed this medium-sized excursion across my city.
It definitely worth visiting, haha. Just choose a right weather option!