Not so blue mosque

I finally did the trip to the old town. Surprisingly, it was not as crowded as Pera. Or maybe there were as many people, but the streets were less narrow?

Anyway, it was a white sky day - hence the black-and-white processing.

Nikon D7100, 105mm, 1/50s @ f/5.6, iso 100

Bretagne

For sure one of the top 5 pictures taken this year. Maybe even the best of them. Practically off-camera, (almost) without any global corrections and only local dust removal. White balance, contrast, unchanged. Very proud of this one.

We took a car for the weekend to visit few nice places around Nantes. The weather was better than the last time, even though it rained quite a bit during Sunday. Anyway, the sun was there when it mattered - towards the sunset. This shot was taken 1.5 hour before. But we also had a pleasure to watch the actual sunset on the beach of La Baule - no pictures there, eyes were enough. Really, an enchanting evening...

Nikon D7100, 270mm, 1/1000s @ f/5.6, iso 100

Fishing

Recently I experiment a bit with Affinity Photo software, which - at least for me and for now - is an "easier-to-grasp" version of Photoshop CC. Though not as powerful as PS, Affinity Photo has many interesting features and - being a new player on the market - it is easier to find tutorials that are actually relevant from beginner's and photographer's point of view.

Anyways, the picture was taken in the wonderful spot in Montreal - Parc des Rapides. Situated on the bank of St-Laurent River, it has multitude subject to photograph: from birds to far-away river landscapes to water cascades.

Usually, I don't take many bird pictures. This one, a heron I believe (?), was still pretty far, so this is the result of a small crop. And - as the contrast with the green grass wasn't particularly great, I decided to develop this picture in monochrome, using Lightroom for RAW development and then Affinity Photo for black-and-white conversion and this silver effect.

Nikon 7100, 450mm, 1/125s @ f/6.3, iso 200

Stairway to sky(train)

To complete the series of monochrome images I'd like to include this one, from Bangkok, that I always wanted to publish, but never was in a mood too. Thailand is a land of many colours and to make a black&white frame felt almost like a sacrilege...

I am not 100% sure, but I believe this is the view from the entrance to Terminal 21 on one of the exits from the sky train (BTS) at the Asok station. What I liked about this frame was how the stairs compose with the rest of surrounding architectural elements.

Of course, it being Thailand, I could not resist to add some warmth to the monochrome image. Though - give the recent Mad Max hype - maybe it would have looked better in chrome?

Sony RX100M3, 34mm, 1/13s @ f/11, iso 80

Classic postcard from Charleston

Another mansion from Charleston, SC. This time I shot at the gate to capture the "inviting" character of the alley.

The original RAW was a bit too green for me, so I switched to monochrome. And then I decided to give it that classic postcard look with white vignette and a bit of sepia, courtesy of Silver Efex.

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 1/50s @ f/5.6, iso 320