g_firkser's photostream

- Sapa, Vietnam
Up in the hills of Sapa, locals can be seen working away collecting rice, tending animals, or maybe just carrying around bamboo baskets and wearing pointy hats for kicks. hmm, bad joke.

Well anyways, I was real excited to have had met a group of girls from the local H'mong tribe here in Sapa, Vietnam. They were real anxious to show me and my friends around the hills. 4 hours into our venture, I saw a couple working in the distance. This sort of seemed like the perfect epitome of Sapa. Massive rolling hills with rice paddies covering them, a few people here and there working about their daily routine, and... nothing else.

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- Hanoi, Vietnam

This is the calmest scene I could photograph in Hanoi. Actually. It's such a hustle and bustle city filled with scooters, noise, and people, that to find an empty street with nothing but a solitary salesman is a rarity.
Imagine the effort he's got to go through just to turn around and try sell you a hat. And then you say, "Oh, sorry you don't have my size". I'd probably pay him just for the effort of dodging 50 scooters.

This was my first real attempt and using dodging and burning on my photos instead of overlays and curves (mainly). I might've gone a bit beyond what I needed too, but I think this looks pretty cool.

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- Wanaka, New Zealand

Here I am, Wanaka, New Zealand. Work's done for the day, had a few beers with the homies, and casually biking home under the epic stars. I couldn't hold off getting out the dusty camera and stickin' er on the tripod for about half an hour. I took this picture while in the middle of the road and the only thing stopping me from taking a longer exposure photo was my buddy Colin speeding home and nearly running me over before I could pull the camera off the street.

Looking to take a photo like this? First, get a better camera than mine so you don't get horrible grain. Then grab a tripod and a shutter release cable. For testing the composition and shot, set a high iso on your camera, and open the aperture real wide. Take the photo using the cable release held down and count to ten. Let go and check it out!
Once you're happy with the composition, lower that iso (the lower the better) and bump up the aperture for a sharper photo. Remember to increase the amount of time the shutter is open at this point. Test until you're happy!

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- Georgetown, Malaysia

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- Saint Petersburg (SPb), Russia

Taking a bit of a step back in time, I was able to spend a few wonderful nights in Russia's alternative and funky city, Saint Petersburg.

Not sure what it was about this place, but I got a pretty sweet vibe. Maybe it was the people I met and the pancakes I made, or the bars I went to and the Banana Beer called "Emo" that I tried.

At night from just the right apartment window, the city lights come on, and their colourful glory seen through the eyes of one very tired or drunk individual would probably look like this.

{Bokeh, originating from the Japanese word "Boke", is the aesthetically pleasing quality of the blur in an image}

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