Blue Hour at the Red Square, Moscow February 2012 ( X100 )

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FUJIFILM FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO500)

I have visited Moscow a couple of times but thanks to global warming it took till last February to have some really cold weather. Finally I would get the chance to see the Red Square covered with snow. Not on the first evening though. The day my plan arrived it was -33 degrees Celsius in the morning. It was close to the end of a cold wave coming from Siberia. The massive drop in temperature covered almost all of Europe. There were people dying in Poland and Ukraine.FUJIFILM FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO800)
FUJIFILM FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO640)

The images here were taken at the second night. At the first night my colleague refused to go there because of the weather. I have to admit that he was right. The second night it was still around -20 degrees Celsius and windy which makes it even colder and harder to bear. But the Red Square is such a beautiful sight. I think it is maybe one of the most beautiful man made places on earth. It’s impressive, it’s exotic because of all the special buildings but most of all it is simply beautiful especially in the wintertime at night.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO800)
FUJIFILM FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO320)

Of course the Kremlin is a truly impressive building but I think I love St. Basil´s cathedral and the GUM ( the big shopping center with it’s thousands of light bulbs ) even more. But the main attraction is the square, it’s size and the way these completely different buildings fit together. Photographs can not do it justice. You need to go there to see it yourself. I recommend to go there in winter. Less tourists and the place feels different.

But here is an advise: Bring warm clothes and don’t forget to put some fat creme on your face. I didn’t and what you can see in my self portrait is that my face got frozen. It looked like that for a couple of hours. When I came back to the hotel late night I was still looking as if I had a massive sunburn.

It took me a couple of shots to get the framing right in my self portrait. The X100 has no flip screen so I needed to shoot blind. This is my favorite because of the dark dressed man in the background.

FUJIFILM FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO2000)
FUJIFILM FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO640)