peaceful tokyo

Couple of weeks ago I've posted few shots from Tokyo - full of architectural curves and lines...
The very same day and in the same Shinjuku district I've walked into a quiet oasis in the middle of hyper busy center of Tokyo - Shinjuku Gyoen Park.

You are required to pay (reasonable) entry fee to enter and chill out from the outside world - but it's definitely worth it. Then you can walk few miles, lay down on your own blanket or amazingly green grass, have a family picnic or - take a few shots. Landscape photography - here I come! ;)

frozen in motion

Wouldn't be great to have in one shot frozen action and motion at the same time? Well, I've tried that few weeks ago when I was around a photo session, where my dear Monika was shooting two cool boys, Dominik and Lukas. Session happened nearby local train station and despite natural teenager's hesitation to be photographed - she got amazing shots! (some pictures are here or inside the article). However, when I heard PA announcing train arrival, I've grabbed the camera and tripod and gave them instructions: Stay! and don't move!!

And with a simple 1/4 second at f/16 exposure I've got two super cool, unique and I dare to say quite unusual shots! Picture above was shot with a cargo train in the background - those beauty colorful smudges are just plain red and blue containers on a yellow platform (can you ask for a better color combination?!?)

high connections

As they say, good connections can get you really high. In my case, my very good connections (thanks Gene!) got me to a very unique place, through a very secret room and password protected access to the roof of 15th story high building in a downtown of St. Louis. What a panorama!

If you would expect a plain roof with a view everywhere, you would be surprised as myself. You can see at the bottom of this article, there is actually another 2 story high wall, and you really have to make an effort (and stay in a very uncomfortable position for more than an hour!) to get THE view. But as usual in such situations, it was worth it, would you agree?

s(e)oul

Don't get fooled by the man standing next to the rising sun. No, this is not a country of the rising sun, even though Japan is pretty nearby. This is South Korea, where everybody is pretty convinced, that a merge with North brothers is just a matter of timing, there's not doubt about the merge itself. And it's also a country of a FANTASTIC kitchen, and I'm becoming more and more fan of Korean food (kimchi or bibimpa? anyone?)

Anyway, I got again a exciting afternoon opportunity to see Seoul through my camera lenses.

BTW, did you knew, that Seoul is the second biggest metropolitan area in the world !?! Population wise. Number one is Tokyo, third one is New York.